Hearing Magna ask whether he could do anything in this difficult situation, Brian immediately replied to him.
"Of course I can."
As he finished speaking, Brian immediately channeled his mana into the ground; he began to use Seismic Sense to perceive what was happening inside the thick mist without having to step inside it.
While sensing, Brian continuously expanded the range of his Seismic Sense even further.
The scene inside the mist gradually manifested in Brian's mind, and he learned what was happening in Sosshi Village while the village was shrouded.
Based on what he had just discovered, Brian calculated that he currently had several choices when deciding on the next move for himself and the group.
The situation in the village was not yet too dire, unlike what happened in the original story when the mage using Ice Magic was about to kill everyone. Brian had arrived a bit earlier, so the villagers had only just been captured by him and his accomplices.
Since there was still time to choose, Brian wanted to act in the way most beneficial to him. With his strength, he was confident he could handle the entire group of mages present in the village without allowing any villager to be harmed.
"Alright, the situation inside the village is quite bad."
Brian turned to Magna and Noelle; he told them half the truth. And just as he expected, their expressions immediately became tense.
"What exactly is happening in the village?!"
Magna reacted immediately to Brian's words; he also thought of the worst-case scenario and asked him, "Is the village being attacked by someone?"
"Yeah, exactly as you said."
Brian confirmed Magna's suspicion, his voice clearly serious. "The village is currently being attacked by a group of mages. They have captured all the villagers, and they might even be planning to kill them all."
"What…?"
Magna looked at Brian in disbelief, and even Noelle standing nearby did not expect things to be so grave.
"Hey! We have to do something!"
Magna became urgent upon learning that the lives of the Sosshi villagers were being threatened. "Brian, do you have a way for us to enter the village? Either dissipate this mist or let us charge through it while staying safe."
Although he knew his words were a bit much, Magna could not help but become flustered while requesting Brian's help in this situation. The villagers' lives were in danger, and he could not think of any way for the group to overcome that damn mist.
Not only Magna, but Noelle also looked at Brian with worried eyes; she was clearly anxious for the people of Sosshi Village as well.
"Don't worry, I can get the whole group into the village without any problems."
Brian spoke to reassure Magna; he then told Magna and Noelle about his plan.
"I will take the whole group into the village by digging a tunnel through the earth. As soon as we reach the place where those mages are holding the villagers, Magna and I will handle taking them down, while Noelle protects the captured villagers. Got it?"
Brian's plan was extremely simple and easy to understand; Magna and Noelle had no objections to raise or additions to make. They nodded in agreement with the plan just proposed, and the group immediately took action following Brian.
"Earth Magic: Hidden Burrowing!"
Brian's Grimoire flipped quickly to the page recording the spell he was using. Immediately, the ground beneath the feet of Brian and the other two moved, emitting light vibrations from underground as if someone were digging right beneath them.
Hidden Burrowing was a spell that allowed Brian to create tunnels at will, in any direction or shape he desired, as long as he could perceive the location where he was digging.
When casting this spell while combining it with his excellent environmental perception using Seismic Sense, Brian could create a tunnel over an extremely long distance; he could even rely on this spell to create an entire complex tunnel system if he wanted.
"It's done, let's go into the village."
In an incredibly short amount of time, Brian had finished digging a tunnel connecting their current position to where the villagers were being held by the mages. Brian's tunnel was not detected by the mages in the village at all; they could not sense his spell.
"Just jump straight down into the tunnel. This spell of mine will automatically take us to the other side of the tunnel."
Brian said as a hole appeared right next to the group; he also explained to Magna and Noelle about their method of movement when entering the tunnel.
"Right, if everything is ready, let's go!"
Magna shouted once before jumping into the tunnel Brian created; he simply trusted him, relaxing his body and letting the tunnel automatically pull him forward without needing to worry about anything else.
The only thing he cared about was how to reach the villagers as fast as possible, so he didn't care much whether Brian's tunnel had any flaws. He trusted Brian completely.
"Let's go."
"Y-Yeah…"
Following Magna, Brian also jumped into the tunnel, and right after him, Noelle followed. Noelle herself was wearing a skirt, but both Brian and Noelle temporarily forgot this minor detail as they were about to face the mages in the village.
Although there was no light inside the tunnel, Brian could still sense everything inside and outside the tunnel; he was prepared to deal with the group of mages the moment the group exited the tunnel in a split second.
While Brian's group was moving into the village through the tunnel, the situation in Sosshi Village also began to turn for the worse.
The mage using Ice Magic along with his accomplices had searched the entire village and interrogated all the villagers about what they wanted, but there were no favorable results; because of this, they had lost their patience with the villagers.
"Time is running out."
The mage using Ice Magic glanced briefly at the watch he was holding in his hand, then looked at the villagers who were being held by him and his accomplices in the middle of the village.
"Kill them."
This man spoke a cold and inhumane sentence naturally, as if it were something ordinary. To him, killing the villagers in front of him was no big deal. What he was about to do was no different from him accidentally stepping on an ant by the roadside.
His Grimoire flipped quickly, and immediately above the heads of the people being held by him and his accomplices, a series of sharp ice shards appeared, looking exactly like crude spearheads that could pierce through their bodies.
The villagers looked up at the sharp ice shards above their heads and immediately fell into despair. They would certainly die if those shards pierced them.
"H-Hey! We've already told you everything we know! How can you be so cruel?!"
At that exact moment, a man among the villagers unexpectedly stood up to challenge the group of mages for their heartless actions against everyone.
"Cruel?"
The mage using Ice Magic whispered to himself as if he had just heard something hilarious. "Weaklings like you don't have the right to choose how you die. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for being born with that weakness."
With that, he raised his hand, and an ice blade immediately appeared in his palm. Without a word, he hurled the blade straight at the man who had bravely stood up.
His cold-blooded action terrified everyone. In the split second the ice blade was launched, everyone witnessing the scene thought the man would surely lose his life, but then, something unexpected happened.
As soon as the ice blade had traveled halfway, a fireball flew out of nowhere straight toward it, causing both to explode instantly and neutralizing the attack aimed at the man by the mage using Ice Magic.
"Hmm…?"
Seeing his attack blocked, the mage using Ice Magic suddenly felt that something was wrong. He also quickly realized that someone had bypassed the mist outside the village and intruded upon this place.
He glanced over and immediately saw a group of three people walking toward the villagers. These three stood in front of the villagers, and based on the robes they were wearing, they were undoubtedly Magic Knights.
"Are they from the Black Bulls…"
The mage using Ice Magic muttered to himself with contempt; clearly, he did not feel threatened at all by the three Magic Knights from the Black Bull Squad.
"Whatever. Since you've come here to interfere with me, then just die along with those useless people!"
The Grimoire of the mage using Ice Magic flipped rapidly again as he cast an attack spell, creating an enormous block of ice and launching it straight at the group of three standing before the villagers.
The spell he had just used was something an ordinary Magic Knight would never be able to defend against; they could only dodge. However, if they dodged, the villagers behind them would certainly be unable to avoid the spell.
A single attack forced the three intruders to make a choice: either stay to defend and fall while protecting the villagers, or run away and leave the people to die. Neither option was favorable.
His calculation should have been perfect, except for the fact that he had encountered someone far too powerful among those three intruders.