Ch. 811..820
Chapter 811 811 – Emperors
The Mana vanished.
The power of the Abominations consumed the world.
There was no obvious wave of destruction or anything traveling out from this location.
No, the world in front of the attack just vanished.
Gregorio's body had shriveled quite a bit, but after summoning a small object and crushing it, his body recovered fully.
Gregorio looked at what destruction he had just caused.
Just 200,000 kilometers away from this place, Gregorio could see frozen mountains as well as burning mountains.
Gregorio knew this place.
This place was the Fire and Ice Range, one of the best places to comprehend the Ice and Fire Concepts in the world.
And, most shocking of all, the Fire and Ice Range was in the middle of the Tower of Climate's Empire.
Yet, Gregorio was in the middle of the Judgment Palace's Empire.
Yes, the entire world between the Judgment Palace and the Tower of Climate's center had vanished.
In fact, the actual Tower of Climate was only a million kilometers away from the Judgment Palace now.
This meant that Gregorio had deleted over six million kilometers of distance.
How many had died?
Uncountable.
This single attack had changed the shape of the entire continent Aterium.
Aterium had been somewhat round before all of this.
Now, the eastern coast had moved six million kilometers inward, which was a bit less than a third of Aterium's width.
It was like someone had taken a huge bite out of a pizza.
And yet...
The Judgment Palace was still there.
For all intents and purposes, it should have been destroyed like everything else.
But it was still there.
And Gregorio could see why.
The huge Abomination had vanished, revealing the uninjured Kali.
Yet, the reason she was uninjured had nothing to do with her own power.
In front of her, a couple of blonde hairs floated towards the ground.
These hairs were the only part of Adam's body that had survived.
Everything else had been sacrificed to protect Kali.
Yet, Kali didn't look at the hairs or at Gregorio.
Instead, she looked at the small shining sphere in her hand.
These spheres were called Inheritor Spheres.
Whenever a Mage King died, all their Mana would be absorbed by these Spheres so that a new Mage King could be born.
But this sphere didn't have the Mana of a Mage King, but the Mana of a Mage Emperor.
Adam had used his powers to divert the attack.
Originally, the attack wouldn't have destroyed nearly as much of the world since most of it would have been focused on consuming Kali.
Yet, somehow, Adam had managed to divert it, which meant that all the power had consumed the world after consuming him.
Due to the nature of his death, he couldn't put all of his Mana in the Inheritor Sphere, but there was enough in there to create an Initial Mage Emperor.
If Adam had sacrificed all his Mana, the blast might have only destroyed one million kilometers of the world, but Adam hadn't been willing.
He wanted to leave a present behind, even if countless others had to perish for it.
He protected Kali's life, and he also left behind something that would allow his son to become a Mage Emperor, even if he would only become an Initial Mage Emperor.
When Gregorio had seen all that, he could only take a deep breath.
He had been willing to sacrifice a part of the world, but he had never wanted to destroy so much of it.
He only wanted to kill Kali for what she had done to Vana.
But now, Kali was still alive, and a huge chunk of the world had vanished.
He had completely failed.
This was not how things were supposed to go.
WHOOOOOOOM!
WHOOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, one apocalyptic Spirit Sense after the other stretched across the battlefield.
The other Mage Emperors had noticed what had happened.
And now, they were all here.
The first person that appeared was obviously the Emperor of the Tower of Climate to the east of Aterium. After all, they were now essentially directly in front of her door.
She was a beautiful young woman with orange hair that slowly turned into icy blue hair the further down it went.
She also wore the uniform of the Climate Empire, blue and orange robes.
This was Jenny Greenhouse, the Empress of the Tower of Climate.
At this moment, Jenny only looked with a mix of shock and rage at Kali and Gregorio.
Where had her western Empire gone?!
What had these two idiots done this time?!
Couldn't these two just stop antagonizing each other?!
A tiny instant later, another person arrived.
It was a middle-aged man with blonde hair and black eyes. He wore the typical white and black robes of the Twilight Dusk Family.
This was Amon Gus, the Emperor of the Twilight Dusk Family.
He could only sigh when he saw Kali and Gregorio.
At the same time, another person appeared.
From the south appeared a middle-aged lady wearing greyish silver robes, and her mere presence warped the space around her.
This was Isis Neweston, the Empress of the Event Horizon Empire.
She only closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The next person that appeared came from the northeast.
It was a woman with dark blue eyes and dark blue hair. Her robes were just as dark blue as her hair and eyes.
Similar to Isis Neweston, the world around her seemed to warp, but in a different way.
This was Bina Ching, the Empress of the Darkcold Fortress.
She simply looked with narrowed eyes at Gregorio.
An instant later, another person appeared from the southeast.
It was a fiery and aggressive woman with orange hair and red lips. In comparison to the others, she only wore a short formfitting red dress.
This was Linastra Boomwitch, the Empress of the Sungod Mountain Empire.
As she looked at Gregorio and Kali, the air around her began to warp with insane heat, and she nearly exploded with rage.
The last two Emperors appeared a second later.
From the west came a tall and muscular man with green hair and brown eyes. He wore earthen brown robes with green accessories.
This was Brutus Cesar, the Emperor of the Land and Sky Empire.
He saw the sphere in Kali's hands and furrowed his brows.
The last person came from the southwest.
It was an older woman with greyish-blue hair and greyish-blue robes.
This was Nivera Preston, the Empress of the Deepsteel Empire.
She didn't show much of a reaction when she appeared, but the people that knew her could tell that she was annoyed.
Everyone was here.
Every living Emperor had gathered in this place.
Chapter 812 812 – Inspection
All the Mage Emperors looked at Kali and Gregorio.
Kali only looked at the sphere in her hand with emotionless eyes.
It was like she didn't know what she should be feeling or thinking right now.
Brutus Cesar slowly took in a breath, ready to speak up.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?!"
Yet, Brutus didn't get the opportunity to say anything as Linastra exploded with rage.
"I've just been having the greatest fucking time looking at the sun, and suddenly half the fucking world is gone!" Linastra shouted, the world around her shaking under her might.
"So, again, what the fuck happened?!"
"You owe us an explanation, Gregorio," Emperor Amon said. "I think it would be best if you explained to us what happened. We don't want to jump to conclusions here."
"Explain," Empress Nivera said with a cold and commanding voice.
Kali didn't seem like her usual self, which was why everyone was asking Gregorio about what had transpired.
Gregorio closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He didn't want to kill that many people.
He only wanted to kill Kali.
Yet, Adam, the person that should value life the most, sacrificed his own and several trillion other lives for the personification of death.
Gregorio didn't want to kill Adam.
Yet, things couldn't be changed now.
What had been done couldn't be undone.
"Some minutes ago," Gregorio started, "I found one of my strongest Mage Kings assassinated in her room with her Mana stolen."
Silence.
If the Emperors hadn't already seen what had happened here, they wouldn't have believed Gregorio so easily.
After all, who could possibly kill a powerful Mage King inside their room right beside an Emperor?
Several of the Emperors glanced at Kali.
Death had very mysterious powers and was extremely difficult to sense.
Additionally, Adam and Kali had a clear motive for wanting to kill a Mage King.
If they gathered around 40 to 50 Mage Kings' worth of Mana, they could make their son a Mage Emperor.
Naturally, Abaddon's possible ascension to the Realm of Mage Emperor had been a topic of discussion for quite a while now.
Kali and Adam had suggested killing the Beast Kings to gather the required Mana, but the Emperors declined that.
The Beast Kings were the world's Mana storage. If the Abominations eradicated more Mana, they could simply kill one of them to return the density of Mana in the world to its usual level without having to sacrifice a Mage King.
If they killed all Beast Kings, they would soon have to reduce the number of Mage Kings, which would be bad since the Mages would notice that something was wrong.
Naturally, after a lot more talking, Kali suggested allowing the Mage Kings to fight each other for superiority and Mana.
Like this, it would be fair for everyone, and everyone would get an opportunity to become a Mage Emperor.
Initially, the Emperors agreed but then came to irreconcilable differences with Kali when it came to establishing the rules.
The Emperors wanted to implement a two-party-consent system when it came to the fight.
Kali wanted a one-party-consent system.
Essentially, the Emperors said that Mage Kings were only allowed to fight when both of them agreed to the battle.
Kali said that only one party needed to consent since this was also how the world worked.
The Emperors countered that if Kali wanted it to be like how the world works, everyone else was also allowed to intervene, including Mage Emperors.
That was essentially where the discussions stopped for now.
Naturally, the discussions hadn't been finished yet, and many Emperors were interested in having King Sanctified Death become a Mage Emperor, but they still needed to iron out the details.
And that could take a long time.
Maybe Kali wanted to test the waters by killing one of Gregorio's Mage Kings first?
After all, Kali obviously thought Gregorio to be incredibly weak-willed and to be a pushover.
So what if Gregorio knew what happened?
What would that weak-willed wimp do?
Attack her?
Pfft, he didn't have the guts!
This was how things could have gone down in the Emperors' minds.
"And you attacked Kali because of that?" Amon asked. "Without any proof?"
"I don't care about proof," Gregorio said. "I am one of ten Mage Emperors. I know what happened. She knows what happened. I don't need the consent of a third party when someone kills someone of my Empire!"
Isis, Amon, and Jenny took deep breaths, Linastra gnashed her teeth, and the remainder looked on coldly.
"Continue," Empress Bina said from the side.
Gregorio threw a glance at the gathered Emperors.
He didn't believe that they would suddenly attack him, but he wasn't one that took chances.
"Naturally, I suspected that it was Kali," Gregorio said.
The Emperors threw some glances at Kali.
Kali didn't react.
It was like the Emperors weren't even there.
"I grabbed two of her Mage Kings and took them with me to the Judgment Palace," Gregorio continued.
"Where are these Mage Kings now?" Isis asked.
"Dead," Gregorio said.
The Mage Emperors narrowed their eyes.
"What happened to them?" Emperor Amon asked.
"If you stopped interrupting me, you would already know," Gregorio said with a slightly aggressive tone.
Amon closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm down.
"Continue," he said.
"When I reached the Judgment Palace, I demanded Adam and Kali come out," Gregorio said.
"But they didn't."
"Why not?" Empress Jenny asked.
"Ask her. I don't know," Gregorio said.
The Emperors focused on Kali.
Kali didn't react.
"Kali," Bina said with a neutral voice.
Kali didn't react.
"Kali," Nivera also said with a cold voice.
Slowly, Kali's eyes regained focus, and she looked at Nivera. "What?"
"Why didn't you come out when Gregorio asked for you to come out," Emperor Amon asked.
Kali threw a glance at Gregorio.
She wasn't sure what she was feeling right now.
She wasn't really angry that Gregorio had killed Adam.
After all, she also wanted Adam to die, in a way.
But she also didn't like that Adam was dead.
She just didn't know.
"I didn't want to dignify the little tantrum he was throwing," Kali said evenly.
Gregorio wasn't surprised by Kali's lack of anger.
Kali had always been very unnatural.
In a way, it was almost like she didn't have any emotions.
"And then?" Emperor Amon asked Gregorio.
"I killed the two Mage Kings," Gregorio said. "She killed one of mine. I killed two of hers."
The reactions among the Emperors were very mixed.
Some of them thought that Gregorio's actions had been incorrect and that he should have gained proof before doing anything.
Some of them thought that no Mage King should have been killed under any circumstance. The world was already unstable enough.
Some thought that Gregorio should have focused his wrath on Kali, not her inferiors.
Yet, some of them also thought that Gregorio had done the right thing.
"That got Kali's attention," Gregorio said. "She came out of her palace, I confronted her, and she answered with, 'so what if I did?'"
The gathered Emperors looked at Kali. "Did you say that?"
"I did," Kali answered.
"So, you killed Gregorio's Mage King?" Nivera asked.
"No," Kali said.
Silence.
"But you said you did," Emperor Amon said with furrowed brows.
"Yes, to anger Gregorio," Kali answered. "I didn't know why he was here. I still don't know why he did what he did."
Obviously, Kali hadn't listened to the discussion at all.
This made the Emperors think.
Kali had sufficient motive to kill Gregorio's Mage King.
However, she also wasn't someone that lied a lot.
Did she do it?
Chapter 813 813 – Judgment
"What happened after that?" Emperor Amon asked.
"We fought," Gregorio said. "I used some of my Spells, and she used her Abominable State."
The Emperors listened attentively.
The next part should be what caused all of this damage.
"Naturally, I couldn't win against Kali with my normal Spells," Gregorio said. "Which was why I was using something else."
SHING!
The black booklet from earlier appeared in front of Gregorio, and he took hold of it.
The Emperors noticed that the booklet was quite strange.
It was like the booklet didn't belong to this world.
"What is this?" Emperor Brutus asked.
"The reason why Lucius kept saying that I am the strongest among us."
Emperor Amon furrowed his brows.
"A couple of you guys used Abominations as references to further your own power," Gregorio said.
"I'm not like that."
"Instead of using Abominations as references, I used Lucius."
"I was Lucius' second-in-command because I learned part of his Anti Magic."
The eyes of the Emperors widened in shock.
Gregorio managed to partially learn Anti Magic?!
Anti Magic had been the very reason why Lucius had been so powerful!
Somehow, Lucius had managed to partially comprehend the power of the Abominations and transform it into a kind of Magic.
This kind of Magic could exhibit the power of the Abominations, but there was one key difference.
Using Anti Magic didn't destroy the Mana of the world.
Lucius could partially use the Abominations' power without having to destroy the world!
Yet, no one else could comprehend it.
The way the Magic worked was too alien and strange.
It didn't follow any sort of concept, and there was seemingly no logic behind it.
Because of that, Lucius was seen as special.
Some people believed that Lucius was the chosen one.
He would be the one that would finally rid the world of the Abominations!
Yet, even more people believed that Lucius had accessed forbidden powers and that he represented the end of the world.
No one was allowed to know how the Abominations worked!
The Abominations were the enemy, and their powers were forbidden!
No one other than Lucius managed to use Anti Magic.
Until today.
"Since when?" Jenny asked in shock.
"I managed to comprehend a bit of it in the True Mage Realm," Gregorio said. "Lucius saw that I could cast and learn Anti Magic, and when he did, he grew very worried for me."
"He saw how many people wanted to kill him for his Anti Magic, and he didn't want me to share his fate. That's why he wanted me to promise to never tell anyone and to keep this a secret."
"Whenever we have split apart and had to battle different enemies, I always took the most threatening target and acted like I've won due to sheer luck."
"In truth, I simply used Anti Magic," Gregorio said.
Then, Gregorio looked at the booklet. "Naturally, I'm not nearly as gifted in Anti Magic as Lucius. Because of that, I have to sacrifice Mana in order to use it."
"Like an Abomination," Gregorio added with a cold voice.
The other Emperors were silent.
Gregorio looked back at them. "That's why I only used it when absolutely necessary. Every time I use it, a part of Aterium gets destroyed."
"Like today."
"I used the Mana of the two dead Mage Kings as fuel for my Anti Magic to kill Kali."
The Emperors looked at Kali.
And then, they looked at the sphere in her hands.
They knew what this sphere represented.
"I had my powers under control," Gregorio said. "At most, the Judgment Palace and about 100,000 kilometers would have been destroyed by my attack."
Gregorio took a deep breath and sighed.
"But Adam intervened," he said, looking at the sphere. Gregorio didn't truly consider Adam his friend anymore after he had cut off basically all contact with him, but seeing Adam dead still made Gregorio feel sad and regretful.
Especially since Gregorio had killed him.
"Adam sacrificed part of his Mana to divert the attack and put the remainder of his Mana into the Inheritor Sphere. He knew that the Anti Magic would severely damage his soul, which would rob him of his power and his mind."
"Instead, he decided to sacrifice himself and countless beings to save his wife and give his son a chance to become a Mage Emperor."
"Kali was supposed to die, but instead, Adam and a big part of Aterium were destroyed."
"That's what happened," Gregorio said.
The Emperors had different reactions.
Yes, Gregorio had deleted several Mage Kings' worth of Mana from Aterium.
However, Gregorio originally only intended to kill Kali.
And Kali had most likely been the original aggressor since she had killed Gregorio's Mage King.
Adam was the reason why such a huge part of the world had been destroyed.
Kali was at fault for killing a Mage King.
Gregorio was at fault for killing two Mage Kings and using Anti Magic.
Adam was at fault for diverting the power to Aterium.
Everyone was at fault.
However, there were also degrees of severity.
Who was more at fault?
What should be done to stop something like this from happening again in the future?
In the end, the Emperors all looked at Gregorio.
Even though Kali might have killed a Mage King, Gregorio had killed two, had deleted their Mana, killed Adam, and had deleted even more Mana from Aterium.
By using Anti Magic, he had caused more damage than an Abomination King.
His guilt was the heaviest.
The death of a Mage Emperor hadn't happened since Lucius had still been in the world.
This was the worst thing that had happened in the last 300,000 years.
The different Emperors communicated with each other about how to handle the situation.
They decided to forgive Kali. Two of her Mage Kings and Adam had died.
That was punishment enough.
And then, they decided on what to do with Gregorio.
"Gregorio," Emperor Brutus Cesar said with an authoritative voice.
"We have come to a consensus on what will happen now."
Gregorio didn't react.
"One Emperor already died today, and we don't want there to be two."
"Kali will be forgiven since she has already paid enough for her misdeeds."
"Due to your actions of destroying a big part of Aterium permanently, you will be stripped of your tomes. You will be put in an isolated cell, but you will still be allowed to communicate with the outside and run your Empire."
"We don't want the public to fall into a panic or a war to break out. Everything will appear like nothing had happened."
"But for the remainder of your natural life, you are not allowed to antagonize others or leave your cell."
"One day, we might forgive you and lift the punishment."
"But for now, this is how it will be."
"Please hand over your tomes and your Focus if you have one. We don't want more of the world to be destroyed," Emperor Brutus Cesar spoke authoritatively.
Gregorio glanced at the other Emperors, who had subtly summoned their weapons.
Gregorio might be powerful, but he couldn't fight seven Emperors at the same time.
Surprisingly, Gregorio didn't seem to show any strong reactions.
He only spoke one word.
"No."
Chapter 814 814 – Demands
The Emperors narrowed their eyes.
"You don't have a choice," Empress Nivera said.
At this moment, several pictures shot through Gregorio's mind.
All of these were pictures of his adventure with Lucius.
All the fun they had together.
All the wonders they had discovered.
All the mysteries they had uncovered.
It was such a great life.
A moment later, Gregorio looked at the sky.
And for just a moment, it seemed like Gregorio could look past the sky.
A new picture appeared in his mind.
It was an image of him and Shang traveling across the stars.
They were finding huge beasts as big as planets and fighting Gods that could turn Aterium to dust with a mere step.
And maybe…
A distant silhouette grew closer and eventually turned into Lucius.
Maybe, he could revive Lucius.
There was more to uncover.
There were more adventures waiting for him.
And he wouldn't allow anyone to stop him!
SHING!
Something appeared above Gregorio's hands, and the Emperors readied for battle.
Yet, Gregorio hadn't summoned a weapon.
He had summoned a bracelet.
The Emperors looked at the bracelet with furrowed brows.
"No!" Jenny suddenly shouted in shock. "How?! You wouldn't!"
"Why wouldn't I?" Gregorio asked with narrowed eyes. "You essentially want me to live a life worse than death. What do I have to lose?"
"You recognize that bracelet?" Empress Bina asked Jenny.
Empress Jenny nodded solemnly. "You have all seen it before, a long time ago."
"This bracelet looks just like the one that Lucius gave the Archivist," Jenny said.
The eyes of the Emperors widened in shock, and they looked at the bracelet.
They could feel it.
After such a long time, they finally feel it again.
It was Lucius' Magic!
This bracelet exhibited the aura of Lucius' Magic!
For just a moment, the eyes of Jenny, Bina, Nivera, Isis, and Linastra turned heartbroken and misty.
They were reminded of the death of the one person they had loved with all their heart.
But then, their eyes narrowed as they glared at Gregorio.
"Yes," Gregorio said. "This does exactly what you think it does."
"When Lucius suppressed the Archivist with the bracelet, he gave me a sister bracelet in case the world is ever in danger."
"If I break this bracelet, the bracelet on the Archivist's arm will also break."
"I wonder what he will do when he is free."
"I wonder what you can do against a Peak Mage Emperor that is millions of years old."
"Will he do nothing?"
"Or will he kill all of us?"
"But the real question is…"
"Are you willing to take that risk?"
The Emperors gritted their teeth.
The Archivist was the only Emperor that Lucius hadn't killed back then.
The main reason was that the Archivist was a Mage.
Another reason was that the Archivist was beyond ancient.
In fact, the Archivist had lived through several eras of unstoppable hegemons.
Over the eras, he had been subject to one suppressing Spell after the other.
The hegemon of said era always allowed the Archivist to survive, but only under the premise that he would be suppressed by a Spell that would stop him from hurting the hegemon's friends.
The new hegemon always got rid of the old hegemon's Spell and replaced it with their own.
The most recent hegemon had been Lucius, and Lucius' Magic still suppressed the Archivist to this day.
The Archivist hadn't been truly free in millions of years since one suppressive Spell immediately followed another.
If Gregorio broke that bracelet, the Archivist would be truly free.
No one knew what the Archivist would do, and no one knew how powerful the Archivist actually was.
The only proof of his power had been Lucius' words.
Back then, Lucius had said that he would only be sure of his victory after becoming a Peak Mage Emperor himself.
This had been beyond crazy since Lucius had killed the Weapon Grandmaster when he had only been an Early Mage Emperor, and the fight hadn't even really been that difficult except for that one attack.
This meant that the Archivist was several times stronger than the Weapon Grandmaster, who was stronger than half the Mage Emperors living today.
Kali and Gregorio would probably win against the Weapon Grandmaster today, but they wouldn't win against the Archivist.
"You kill one of our friends, and now you threaten us with the Archivist?!" Linastra shouted in outrage. "Are you insane, Gregorio?!"
"This isn't like you," Isis said as she looked at Gregorio. "You didn't use to be like this."
The other Emperors shook their heads in disappointment.
What happened to the cheerful Gregorio?
When had he turned so sinister?
"What do you want?" Emperor Brutus asked. "You must have something in mind."
"Two things," Gregorio said.
"First, I think the world has been a bit too peaceful ever since we became Emperors. Whenever anyone joins an Empire, they are essentially perfectly safe forever."
"Peaceful times don't make for powerful Mages."
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ "I want the peace laws to be severely cut down except for the Kings and Emperors."
The Emperors looked at each other in surprise.
That was a weird demand.
"And one more thing," he said.
Gregorio pointed at the Inheritor Sphere in Kali's hands.
The Emperors gritted their teeth.
"Don't get angry just yet," Gregorio said. "I'm not demanding the Inheritor Sphere."
The Emperors waited for an elaboration.
"I want to solve this conflict once and for all," he said.
"You probably want to give this Inheritor Sphere to Abaddon, but I have different plans."
"I know that I can't force you guys too much, which is why I'm willing to make some concessions."
"Abaddon should be about 40,000 years old today."
"Since a Mage King can live for roughly 100,000 years, I think we have some time left."
"In 50,000 years, I want there to be a tournament."
"Every King in the world will take part in this tournament."
"And the strongest King gets to take the Inheritor Sphere and absorb it to become an Emperor."
Chapter 815 815 – More Kings
Inside the Lightning Manor, the Custodian, the Starlight Queen, the Myriad King, and Shang were waiting for further orders.
Naturally, Shang wasn't actually really waiting for orders. He kind of was just here because he happened to be the one that "found out" that Queen Primordium had died.
Shang wasn't sure if he should just leave or wait here.
In the end, he decided to wait like everyone else, even though he didn't really fit in with the three Mage Kings.
None of them knew what was going on.
They had been waiting for several minutes with nothing happening, which could mean anything.
Whoom!
Suddenly, a portal opened up beside them.
BANG!
The air in the hallway blew to the side as a person arrived there at insane speeds.
The person stumbled and nearly fell before they turned around and smiled awkwardly into the portal.
"Let's catch up later, okay?" they said.
"Stop-"
And the portal closed before the person on the other side could say anything.
The person that had arrived in the middle of the hallway cleaned the sweat off their forehead with a nervous chuckle and looked at the people gathered around them.
The three Mage Kings looked at the new person with intense eyes.
The newest person was a man with blonde hair, wearing the typical purple robes of the Lightning Manor.
Shang had seen an image of that person before.
It was Amarius, the Dawnlight King, the leader of the Diplomacy Department.
Amarius looked at the others and just laughed bitterly. "Well, either I have to go to the Judgment Palace all the time from now on or not at all. Depends on the outcome."
The Custodian looked at Amarius. "I presume the Ancestor is near the Judgment Palace right now?"
"He sure is," Amarius said with a cough. "He just killed two of their Mage Kings."
The Myriad King took a deep breath, the Starlight Queen's eyes widened, and the Custodian's expression turned solemn.
"So," Amarius slowly said as he looked at the serious Wester. "Are we sounding the alarm and preparing for war?"
Wester fell into thought, and the other Mage Kings looked at him.
With the Lightning Emperor not present, Wester was the highest authority.
Shang also wanted to hear Wester's call.
"Who's that guy?" Amarius suddenly asked as he looked at Shang.
Sarah and Jonathan looked at Shang for a second.
"He's the one that informed us regarding Vana's death."
"Wait, what?!" Amarius suddenly shouted in complete shock. "Vana is dead?!"
Jonathan nodded. "That's why the Ancestor is so furious."
Amarius' expression fell.
One of his closest friends…
Dead…
However, that also explained the Lightning Emperor's actions.
"Speaking of," the Myriad King said as he looked at Shang. "I don't think you need to be present."
"He stays."
The Mage Kings looked at the Custodian, who had just spoken up.
He should stay?
The others waited for elaboration, but Wester didn't say anything as he continued thinking about how to proceed.
In the end, the Mage Kings just looked at each other.
Suddenly, all four Mage Kings looked upward with shocked eyes.
"Did you feel that?" Amarius asked.
A moment later, several Mage Lords shot out of their offices and inspected the hallway with their Spirit Senses to see if something had happened.
"Never mind, I got my answer," Amarius said.
Shang hadn't felt anything.
"What happened?" Shang asked the Myriad King.
"The Space Mana has changed," Jonathan answered. "That usually only happens when Abominations explode."
Jonathan sighed. "I only hope this isn't related to the Ancestor."
"How could it?" Sarah asked. "The Ancestor isn't an Abomination."
"I know," Jonathan answered, "but the timing is too coincidental."
"I made my decision," Wester suddenly said, eliciting looks from the other Mage Kings.
"We are not sounding the alarm," he said. "The Ancestor is potentially in life-threatening danger right now."
"All of us are not powerful enough to help."
"Most likely, the Ancestor will return, and he will tell us what to do. This is something that he has decided to do, and he left without telling me anything."
"This means that he didn't feel the need to tell me, which means that he is confident that he will return alive. We should trust the Ancestor and await his return," Wester said.
The other Mage Kings looked at each other.
It was so strange to hear Wester talk about the Ancestor's survival. After all, talking about survival implied that there could also have been death.
The Ancestor?
Dead?
It was such a foreign concept.
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ But now that they had already thought about the Ancestor's potential death, they couldn't ignore it anymore.
"What if he dies?"
Everyone looked at Sarah, who had just asked the question.
Silence.
"Then, nothing we can do will change anything," Jonathan said with a sigh. "We might be Mage Kings, but in front of Mage Emperors, we are still helpless."
"I agree with Wester," Amarius said from the side. "Sounding the alarm would make it very difficult to present the new circumstances to the masses in a palatable light, and it also wouldn't help in case of a war."
Whoom!
Another portal opened beside them, and they looked over.
"Do I need to be here? Is this a mandatory meeting?"
No one stepped through the portal, but the Mage Kings could see a woman sitting on a luxurious couch through it.
It was Emilia, the Heartdevil Queen.
"No, it's not necessary," Wester told her through the portal.
The other Mage Kings threw a glance at Wester.
"Oh, okay," Emilia said with a chipper in her tone before closing the portal.
Sarah gritted her teeth, Amarius smiled hopelessly, and Jonathan acted like he hadn't seen anything.
Wester tried his best to hide it, but Shang could feel annoyance, rage, and disgust coming from him.
Emilia really wasn't popular amongst the Mage Kings.
Shang could also tell that the other Mage Kings didn't trust her with sensitive information.
In fact, they probably trusted Shang more with keeping sensitive information than Emilia.
"Should we inform Kiran?" Jonathan asked Wester.
Wester could only sigh. "For now, no. We should just wait for the Ancestor's return."
The other Mage Kings weren't sure if that was the correct call.
Nevertheless, they followed Wester's decision and waited.
And a couple of minutes later, the Lightning Emperor finally returned!
Chapter 816 816 – Public
A new portal opened in front of the gathered Mage Kings, and the Lightning Emperor walked through.
All the people in the hallway of the Lightning Manor stopped walking and looked with awe at the Lightning Emperor.
Everyone knew what he looked like, but very few people had actually seen him.
When the other Mage Kings saw him, a huge part of their worry disappeared.
The Ancestor was still alive.
The portal behind the Lightning Emperor closed again, and he let out a sigh.
"Well, that was an adventure," he commented.
"Welcome back," Wester said politely.
The Lightning Emperor smiled a bit and nodded toward Wester.
Whoom!
A second later, another portal opened, and Emilia walked through it.
Based on her unsurprised attitude about seeing the Lightning Emperor, it was probably him that had called her over.
Whooom!
Then, another portal opened, and a man with black hair and a serious gaze walked through it.
It was Kiran, the Catastrophe King.
Now, all the living Mage Kings of the Lightning Manor had gathered in front of the Lightning Emperor.
The Lightning Emperor nodded with a smile. "Let's all talk in my study."
The Mage Kings nodded.
"Shang," the Lightning Emperor said, looking at Shang. "Please wait here. I need you for a moment later."
Shang just nodded.
The Mage Kings, except for Wester, were shocked that the Lightning Emperor not only knew of Shang but even wanted to talk to him in such a situation.
In an instant, Shang's importance shot through the roof in their minds.
The Lightning Emperor led the Mage Kings through the door to his study, and Shang just waited in front of the door.
Shang didn't look like it, but he was still worried about how things would proceed.
Had the Lightning Emperor suspected that it had been the God?
What had actually happened over at the Judgment Palace after Amarius left?
According to Amarius, three Mage Kings had died today, and Shang doubted that such an extraordinary situation would just pass by as if nothing had happened.
Changes had to be coming.
Shang only hoped that no one suspected him.
After all, two of the four people that knew about the power of his Spirit Sense had died, and both of them had been connected to the Contender Department, which was where Shang was.
Also, why did the Custodian want him to stay earlier?
Sadly, Shang had to wait for his answers.
In the end, several hours passed before the door opened again.
The Mage Kings walked out of the door with furrowed brows.
Without saying anything, they created their own portals and left.
Except for the Custodian.
The Custodian just glanced at Shang. "The Ancestor wants to see you."
Shang nodded and walked through the door.
After walking for a bit, he arrived at the Lightning Emperor's study.
The door opened automatically, and Shang entered.
"Please, sit," the Lightning Emperor said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.
Shang sat down without saying anything.
The Lightning Emperor looked troubled as he released a sigh.
For a couple of seconds, he just looked at the desk.
And then, he suddenly smirked.
"I solved one of our biggest problems," he said with self-satisfied confidence.
'Our?' Shang thought.
"Yes?" he asked.
The Lightning Emperor chuckled. "I got a way for you to become an Emperor."
Shang's mind stopped working.
What?!
Become an Emperor?!
How?!
"What happened?" Shang asked.
The Lightning Emperor chuckled and began to tell Shang everything that had happened.
When he had talked to his Mage Kings earlier, he hadn't mentioned a couple of things.
For example, he hadn't mentioned that he had threatened the other Mage Emperors with the Archivist.
Yet, he told absolutely everything to Shang.
Shang didn't know the Lightning Emperor very well, which was why the Lightning Emperor's conduct confused him.
Shang knew very well that not many people would trust him or treat him as a friend.
However, the Lightning Emperor just talked to Shang about everything that had happened in a very casual tone.
It was almost like the Lightning Emperor was talking to a friend.
Sadly, Shang didn't know that the Lightning Emperor's greatest desire was to go on another adventure again. Sure, he had said that he was interested in leaving the world, but Shang had severely underestimated how much the Lightning Emperor actually wanted to leave the world.
In the Lightning Emperor's mind, Shang had become a key figure.
Many years ago, Lucius had been the key to opening the door to adventure.
And now, Shang was this key.
Shang represented a future of excitement and happiness for the Lightning Emperor.
Because of that, he was doing his best to help Shang in becoming an Emperor.
After listening to everything, Shang felt hope, light, and ambition.
"I demanded that tournament only for you," the Lightning Emperor said with a laugh.
"Of course, the others agreed relatively quickly. They know that I probably have someone very talented inside the Lightning Manor since they are not dumb, but they don't know how powerful they are."
"They probably imagine a very talented Mage Lord that is currently training in secret."
"But they are still very confident in that kid. After all, even if I produce someone with a sixfold Spirit Sense, they would still be helpless in front of someone with a Dual Affinity for Life and Death."
The Lightning Emperor chuckled again.
"Luckily, they don't know that I already have someone with a sixfold Spirit Sense."
"And even more, that person is only in the Sixth Realm."
"Maybe, you can even reach a sevenfold Spirit Sense, and even if you don't, I'm still quite confident in your power."
Shang nodded. "Thank you for your help. I will repay you in the future."
The Lightning Emperor just smiled. "Just do what you promised me in our first meeting."
Shang nodded again.
"Anyway," the Lightning Emperor said. "I need your power to be secret."
"And for that, I need you to be public and known by everyone."
Shang wasn't quite sure what the Lightning Emperor meant.
Chapter 817 817 – Contract
"The Emperors have come to an agreement about the war."
A powerful Peak Mage Lord hovered in front of over 100,000 people.
Surprisingly, these 100,000 people were not Mages but warriors!
There were about 90,000 True Path Stage warriors, 9,000 Impose Stage warriors, and about 1,000 World Connection Stage warriors.
It had been over 400 years since Shang had arrived in the Lightning Manor originally. With the Lightning Manor's wealth and experience, it wasn't very difficult to cultivate an army of powerful warriors.
The person standing in front of the warriors was one of the Thunders of the Research Department, and he was responsible for all the warriors.
When the warriors heard that the Emperors had finally come to an agreement, excitement and ambition appeared in their eyes.
They had been waiting nearly 50 years for this!
Around 50 years ago, the world had been shaken.
The Empress of Death had assassinated Queen Primordium, and the Lightning Emperor had invaded the Judgment Palace Empire because of that.
Two additional Mage Kings and even the Emperor of Life had died, making this the most significant event in the last 300,000 years.
All the Emperors had gathered and had come to a decision on how to handle this situation.
In the end, they decided that peaceful coexistence was no longer easy to maintain.
People were angry at the Empress of Death, but they were even angrier at the Lightning Emperor.
So, the Emperors had decided that war was back on the menu.
However, since Mage Emperors and Mage Kings were too powerful, they were forbidden from getting involved in the war.
50 years ago, a huge chunk of the world had been eradicated by a battle between two Emperors.
This had been a catastrophe and tragedy, and the world shouldn't go through something like that again.
Because of that, the Emperors sat together for nearly 50 years, ironing out all the details of how the war would be fought.
And now, they had finally come to an agreement.
All the Emperors had agreed to the rules they had created, making it impossible to back out.
If someone decided to break the rules, the other Emperors would either hand out unreasonably heavy sanctions or even unite against that Emperor.
Naturally, the agreement had been enforced by the most powerful magical contract ever created.
Maybe, there was a way for some Emperors to somehow dispel the magical contract in their mind, but that was to be expected. After all, the Emperors were extremely experienced.
But the contract wasn't supposed to be eternal anyway.
All the Emperors expected that every other Emperor would immediately start searching for a way to dispel the effects of the contract from their minds, but the public didn't know that.
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ To the public, the Emperors had agreed to the contract and would keep their word.
So, what were the effects of the contract?
If an Emperor gave any order that could be considered skirting or warping the rules, that Emperor would fall into a coma for 5,000 years.
This restriction meant that the Emperors had to fully commit to the rules. They couldn't even think about ordering anything that could even slightly be considered against the rules.
But if one of the Emperors managed to get rid of the contract, they could warp the rules.
They could give some orders that might not be perfectly in line with the rules but also didn't break them.
That was a huge advantage.
The first Emperor that would manage to break the contract in their mind would get the ability to give dirty orders, grabbing a huge chunk of territory and wealth before the others followed.
Due to this, the power of the Emperors was also relevant to the conflict.
However, the contract was still very powerful, and it would take a long time until the first Emperor managed to get rid of it.
One rule in the contract was that the war should mainly focus on people below the Seventh Realm. People of the Seventh Realm were allowed to participate, but it should be a rarity.
Obviously, this was very open to interpretation.
With the contract, over 95% of the war had to be fought by troops below the Seventh Realm.
But without the restriction, an Emperor could argue that 51% would be considered the majority.
This was the power of breaking the contract first.
Naturally, there were many more rules, but for now, these weren't important.
What was important was one thing.
In front of the warriors stood one figure in white robes.
It was Shang.
The war was about to start, and according to the Lightning Emperor's plan, Shang would take a very public and noticeable role in the war.
The way the rules had been formulated favored the Empire with warriors in them.
The exact way how would be revealed later.
"Here are the official rules for the war," the Thunder told the warriors as he summoned several small booklets.
The warriors read through the booklets, and their eyes began to shine.
They could have such a huge impact?!
Some of the smarter warriors also realized that these rules favored an Empire with non-Mages.
Did the Emperors not realize this?
Or did they simply not care?
Well, the truth was both, actually.
Even if there were many non-Mages in the Sixth Realm, how powerful could they be?
They had no foundation, and the Mages would just trample all over them.
And even if they had a comparable power, how many of them could there possibly be?
There were millions of Ancestral Mages and hundreds of millions of Archmages.
Also, as soon as the contracts were broken, everyone below the Mage Lord Realm would stop mattering anyway.
At that point, only the Mage Lords would be important.
During the designing of the Spell that enforced the contract, all the Mage Emperors added small things that would allow them to break it faster and make it more difficult for others to break it.
All of them were confident in breaking the contract first.
"The war will start tomorrow," the Thunder spoke to everyone. "I'm going to assign you to different areas based on the distribution of the Zones."
Zones?
Well, if one looked at the map of the Lightning Manor and its surrounding Empires now, one would notice that the Lightning Empire had been split into many small and big Zones.
For example, the northeastern corner of the Lightning Empire, right at the coast and at the border of the Twilight Dusk Empire, had a square-shaped Zone about 500,000 kilometers long and wide.
That Zone was marked with a big six.
That meant that only people inside the Sixth Realm could fight in there to conquer or defend territory.
Every Emperor had split their Empire into different Zones before the war started, and every Empire knew about the Zones of every other Empire.
Naturally, the Empires were forced to declare Zones based on the focus of the war.
This meant that the Empires couldn't just fill all their Zones with Mage Lords or unimportant High Mages.
There had to be a certain ratio of different levels.
About 50% of the area bordering other Empires was declared to be for people in the Sixth Realm.
About 30% were for people in the Fifth Realm.
About 15% were for people in the Fourth Realm.
And 5% were for people in the Seventh Realm.
Every century, the Emperors could redistribute their Zones, but they had to adhere to this ratio of Zones.
That was until they broke the contract in their mind.
A moment later, the Thunder assigned all the warriors to their relevant Zones based on the plans of the Lightning Manor.
Including Shang.
Chapter 818 818 – Flag
Shang sat on top of a mountain.
Soon, the war would officially start.
At this moment, Shang was already inside the Zone he had been assigned to.
Shang had seen a couple of other Ancestral Mages in his Zone but not even a single other warrior.
On top of that, the number of Ancestral Mages in this Zone was not nearly as high as in other Zones.
How come?
Was this Zone unimportant?
No, the opposite, actually.
This was probably the most important Zone of the entire Lightning Manor.
This was the southeastern corner of the Lightning Manor, the only Zone that bordered three other Empires instead of one.
The Zone wasn't very big, only 100,000 kilometers wide and long, but it was extremely important.
Empires were only allowed to attack a territory that shared a border with their own territories.
At this moment, only a small part of the Zone bordered the Judgment Palace's territory, but if that small part got conquered by the Judgment Palace, they would gain access to more territories.
It was like infecting a corner square of a chessboard with a disease that could only affect bordering squares.
The disease could infect one square, then two at once, three at once, four at once, and so on.
Because of that, the Lightning Manor couldn't allow the Judgment Palace to even gain a single piece of territory.
That was why Shang and the strongest Ancestral Mages of every level were in this place.
This place alone had 20 Ancestral Mage Clouds, which was insane.
But due to that, there were also not many normal Ancestral Mages.
One had to remember that the number of normal Ancestral Mages is many times greater than the number of Cloud Ancestral Mages.
And since the war favored quality over quantity the higher the Realm was, there also was no need for many other Ancestral Mages in this place.
Shang had noticed that the levels of the Cloud Ancestral Mages around him were split evenly.
There were five Peak Ancestral Mages, five Late Ancestral Mages, five Mid Ancestral Mages, and five Early Ancestral Mages.
All of this had been brought here to defend from the Judgment Palace.
Naturally, based on the composition of the defensive forces, it was apparent that this would not be a normal war where two armies just clashed with each other.
Something like that was too chaotic and would allow for too much interference of irrelevant powers.
Additionally, the current and future powers of the Empire were supposed to be tested in this war.
The way this war would be fought was much more orderly.
Shang and the Ancestral Mages kept waiting in their Zones.
The Ancestral Mages were not quite confident in Shang's power or the Lightning Manor's plan, but they still followed orders.
"Two more hours," a Bolt supervising this territory told everyone.
eαglesnovel`c,om Then, he looked at Shang. "I think you should plant your flag now, just to be sure."
Shang slowly stood up and flew towards the southeast.
He stopped above a thick and thriving forest filled with weaker beasts.
The area around Shang actually didn't have any valuable beasts or resources, making it economically unimportant, but that didn't matter.
What was important was the political value of an area.
And the political value of this area was extremely important.
In fact, it was the most important.
The length of the border the two Empires were sharing was only about 5,000 kilometers.
These 5,000 kilometers blocked an entire Empire from invading the Lightning Manor.
Shang stopped around 10,000 kilometers away from the border of the Judgment Palace.
He summoned a huge purple flag and rammed it into the ground.
The huge flag had a big six on it and a two stars above the six.
The six represented the Realm, and the stars represented the level inside that Realm.
This flag was something very important, and there were not many of them available in each Empire.
This was a Defender Flag, and there was only one flag per level, which came to five per Realm.
As soon as Shang put the flag into the ground, a barrier with a diameter of 5,000 kilometers appeared around him.
The barrier was transparent and didn't block anything yet.
But as soon as someone in the Early Sixth Realm entered, it would close.
This single barrier covered the entire border to the Judgment Palace.
If anyone from the Judgment Palace wanted to enter the Lightning Manor, they would need to pass through it.
And then, Shang just waited.
Right now, everything was calm, but in two hours, things would turn chaotic.
The other Ancestral Mages in the Zone were waiting in the center of the Zone.
Due to how the war was fought, they didn't need to wait near the borders.
Everyone waited for the start.
At this moment, all the Empires held their breath.
What would happen?
Would every Empire suddenly attack every other Empire?
Would no one attack immediately and just watch how things progressed?
Would there be a couple of skirmishes?
The next two hours for the longest two hours of everyone's life.
And when they were up…
Nothing happened.
The Empires just silently waited for anything to happen.
Well, that was for the southeastern half of Aterium.
While five of the Empires felt nothing, the four Empires in the center and northwest of Aterium certainly felt the start.
The Emperors were all angry with the Lightning Emperor, which was why they wanted to attack his Empire the most right now.
So, every other Empire saw nothing happen to their borders.
But the Lightning Manor…
DING! DING! DING! DING!
As soon as the two hours were up, one person after the other shot into the Lightning Empire across all their borders.
There was always only one person charging forward alone.
When the people of the Lightning Manor saw these people, they didn't attack immediately.
They had to wait.
One High Mage from the Twilight Dusk Empire stopped 500 kilometers into a Zone for High Mages of the Lightning Empire.
Then, that Mage took out a big flag in the shape of a cross and rammed it into the ground.
WHOOOM!
A barrier appeared with a diameter of 1,000 kilometers.
Just like Shang's barrier, this barrier was transparent and didn't block anyone yet.
The fluctuations of the barrier told everyone who saw it that the person in the middle of the barrier was a Mid High Mage.
DING! DING! DING!
Many other flags and barriers were planted into the ground along the Lightning Manor's borders.
All barriers showed the power of the person controlling the flag.
And they showed one more thing.
A timer.
It was a timer counting down from 60 minutes.
If the person controlling the flag was not in a fight and still alive when the timer reached zero, everything inside the barrier would be claimed by the attacking Empire.
A Bolt looked at the barriers that had been created in her Zone and looked at the warriors and Mages waiting behind her.
Then, she assigned fitting people for every barrier.
A Mid High Mage passed through the barrier the other Mid High Mage had created.
WHOOOM!
Immediately, the barrier closed and changed color.
These barriers and flags were designed by the Emperors, and as soon as they closed, it was impossible for any Spirit Sense to enter them.
That included Mage Kings and Mage Emperors.
Only Mana could pass through in order not to starve the people inside it.
The barrier would only turn transparent again when one of the two people died.
This was to keep the powers of the winning soldier secret from the other Empire.
Naturally, only people of the same level were allowed to attack a person inside a barrier.
And that was where Shang's flag differed from all the other flags.
Shang's flag was Defender Flag, which meant that he had the initiative.
Instead of having to wait for someone to create a barrier, he could set his own barrier.
If the Judgment Palace sent an extremely powerful Peak Ancestral Mage, Shang couldn't possibly kill them.
But as long as they only sent Early Ancestral Mages…
This was Shang's job.
He alone would block the forces of the Judgment Palace.
This was the most important position.
And naturally, the other Empires would take note of the defender.
Soon, everyone would know who Shang was.
Chapter 819 819 – Contribution Points
More and more of the barriers became clouded and impenetrable as more and more Mages started to fight.
The barriers continued being clouded for a very long time. After all, battles between roughly equal Mages took a long time to resolve.
However, there were still a few barriers that became transparent rather quickly.
And surprisingly, nearly all of these barriers had had at least one warrior fight in them.
About 50% of the warriors survived, but naturally, there were also many deaths among the warriors.
One of the Mages that had barely won took a deep breath and looked at the flag he had planted.
Over 59 minutes remained on the timer.
eαglesnovel`c,om That was when the Mage realized something, and his eyes widened in shock and horror.
When everyone had prepared for the war, they had assumed that they would only need to fight one battle. After all, duels between Mages took hours, and the timer was only one hour.
This meant that, as long as they didn't fight someone extremely weak, they would only need to fight once to conquer the territory.
None of them had even thought about the warriors.
They knew that there were other Paths, but the other Paths were not even relevant in the Third Realm.
The different additions, evolutions, and resources the Mages had access to elevated their Battle-Strength far beyond the reach of anyone else in the Third Realm.
Sure, they had heard about a couple of warriors, but they were a fancy collectible at most.
Warriors didn't really reach the power of Mages, and if there were some that did, there would be so few that no one cared.
Yet, these warriors had appeared in the war.
And the Mage realized that he would most likely die today.
The power of the attackers was hard to discern since there were many ways of hiding someone's aura and their intensity.
But when one of the Mages won, the enemy would be able to tell quite a bit more about their power.
How long did the battle take?
What was the condition of the winner's health?
Naturally, this entire war wasn't only being fought by the forces of the Empires themselves.
Sure, when it came to Ancestral Mages and Mage Lords, there probably weren't many unaffiliated people, but for Archmages and High Mages, the majority of the forces were comprised of people living in the Empires but not actively working for them.
Naturally, that only counted for the attacking force since there was no limit on how many flags one could plant in the same spot consecutively.
The defenders still had to be very powerful since losing a territory was very bad for the Empire.
Essentially, one had infinite chances at attacking but only one chance at defending.
Unless one had warriors.
The Mage floating beside the flag nervously looked at the edge of the transparent barrier.
He wanted to leave.
But he couldn't!
Once an Attack Flag had been planted, one couldn't leave until the timer was up.
The Bolts took note of the barriers that became transparent again very quickly and sent stronger people.
The warriors that managed to win quickly ran to a group of Mages.
The Mages distributed Contribution Points based on their performance, which the warriors quickly exchanged for resources.
Surprisingly, most of the resources were powerful weapons and armor.
That was because they had to defend more territories.
The strongest warriors had all signed contracts that gave them bountiful resources in exchange for having to defend the Lightning Manor if there ever were a war.
Naturally, since there had never truly been a war, everyone signed it.
It was free resources.
And here they were now…
Fighting a war…
Of course, most warriors were mad that they had to go to war, but there was no way out.
They had signed the contract.
However, not everything was bad.
Each battle they won gave them a boatload of Contribution Points, and these Contribution Points could be exchanged for essentially everything.
The plan of most of the warriors was the same.
First, get the best weapons and armor. That would help in winning more battles.
About 99% of warriors did that first.
Second, get enough Contribution Points to choose one's opponent instead of being assigned one.
That would take about three additional battles on average.
About 50% of warriors chose that next.
About 30% decided to skip that step and immediately go for step three.
Step three was to be freed from having to fight in the war.
After purchasing weapons and armor, this would take about five battles on average.
People that decided to buy the privilege to choose one's opponent would need to survive for a total of nine battles from the start of the war, while people that skipped purchasing that privilege only needed to fight six battles.
However, these people would need to fight two additional battles where their opponents were assigned, making this extremely risky.
The remaining 20% decided to purchase the privilege of choosing their opponent but wouldn't immediately want to exit the war.
Instead, they bought resources that would increase their level and would help them in becoming more powerful in the future.
For example, a True Path Stage warrior could commission the creation of a fitting technique for them from a Spark working for the Research Department in the warrior division!
A Spark was an insanely powerful Ancestral Mage, and these specific Sparks had been working on researching warriors for centuries!
The techniques these Sparks could create were insanely powerful and useful.
On top of that, there were even ways to purchase a sort-of ritual that would increase the power of one's Mana Pathways, allowing a warrior to create a Beast Core when they broke through to the Impose Stage.
There were even weapons that could move on their own and absorb ore to become more powerful!
These weapons weren't nearly as good as Shang's swords, but they were vastly better than all the other weapons the warriors had access to.
This war could transform a normal warrior into a genius!
One could even purchase a spot in the Lightning Manor!
About 80% of warriors wanted to leave the war as quickly as possible.
The remaining 20% wanted to take this opportunity to reach for the sky.
Yet, how many warriors would actually survive?
That was still unknown, but one thing was certain.
There wouldn't be many survivors.
The war raged on.
And on the southeastern corner of the Empire, Shang was also fighting his battles.
Chapter 820 820 – Protecting The Territory
A little bit earlier, a huge army of Mages waited near the border of the Lightning Manor.
There were thousands upon thousands.
When the war started, everyone looked with excitement toward the northwest.
There, they saw a humongous barrier with a big six and two stars on it.
Early Ancestral Mage Realm.
"What a peculiar choice," a woman with black hair and black robes muttered with a grin.
Everyone else respectfully stood behind her.
She was the general of this entire war for the Judgment Palace.
She was one of the Mage Kings belonging to Kali.
Since there was only a single attacking point for the Judgment Palace currently, the Mage King didn't have a lot to overlook and plan.
Her entire job was to take this Zone and then maybe a couple more. After that, the actual strategists could take over since it would turn into more of a normal war instead of a singular duel.
"An Early Ancestral Mage," she said with a chuckle as she looked at the distant Shang.
Right now, she could see with her Spirit Sense since the barrier was still transparent.
Shang exhibited quite an impressive aura. Under normal circumstances, she would think that Shang was someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
eαglesnᴏνel However, since there were plenty of ways to disguise and change one's aura, she didn't really trust it.
Maybe this was actually a sacrificial lamb to gain information?
Just winning the battle in the Defender Flag wasn't enough. One also had to place an Attack Flag after that.
It was also possible that the Lightning Manor actually readied all their Defender Flags for this position, ramming down one of them after the other.
Everyone knew that this territory would be the biggest hotspot.
Sending someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense into battle anywhere else would almost certainly guarantee a victory, but sending one of those into this Zone was extremely dangerous.
Was someone like that defending this spot?
Maybe.
"Any volunteers?" the Mage King asked.
The group consisting of Early Ancestral Mages looked at each other.
The less powerful Ancestral Mages looked at the more powerful ones.
"I'll go," one of them, standing near the back, said.
The Mage King inspected the person that had spoken up and snickered. "Sure," she said with a snicker. "Go ahead."
"Thank you," the volunteer said before shooting into the sky and flying into the barrier.
The barrier quickly closed up, hiding the inside from any onlookers.
The Mage King just slowly shook her head with a smile.
"Idiot," she said.
The person that had entered was someone that didn't directly belong to the Judgment Palace.
He was a volunteer.
He definitely wasn't weak. If he tried to, he could enter the Judgment Palace.
But he wasn't someone that could possibly win such a battle.
However, the Mage King didn't care.
Her army was bursting with people wanting to charge into the Lightning Manor.
She could throw Mages at this Defender Flag, and it wouldn't matter.
But in a way, she also understood why these people were so keen on volunteering.
After all, anyone that won a battle in this territory would receive one Grade Eight Mana Crystal.
It was a ridiculously high bounty.
Inside the barrier, Shang noticed that the barrier had clouded over, which meant that his opponent had entered.
Sadly, due to the size of the territory, Shang didn't see his opponent yet.
The barrier had a radius of 5,000 kilometers, and Shang's Spirit Sense had a radius of 3,000 kilometers.
It would take a bit for the opponent to enter his Spirit Sense.
Surprisingly, it took over two minutes for Shang's opponent to enter his Spirit Sense.
Shang could see why.
His opponent was moving slowly while trying to hide with a Spell that made him look like a cloud of sand.
Shang could see that his opponent had a twofold Spirit Sense and that he was most likely in the upper half of people with twofold Spirit Senses.
But just like the Mage King, Shang didn't trust his senses.
What if this was a Cloud from the Judgment Palace in disguise?
Shang slowly stood up and readied his Subsis.
He very slowly moved it backward.
For just a second, Shang stood still as he fully concentrated.
SHING!
The Subsis thrust forward three times in rapid succession!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Inside the cloud of sand, the shards of a broken Mana Shield scattered, and a black shadow appeared for just a tiny instant.
The next moment, the cloud of dust dispersed, revealing a person with brown hair and brown robes.
The person's eyes were opened wide in confusion.
It was like nothing made sense to them.
What was this?
Where were they?
Who were they?
Some seconds later, they just moved their head around in confusion, looking at their surroundings.
This was a forest.
Why were they in a forest?
Oh, there was a bird.
What a cute bird.
Wait, what were they doing?
They didn't remember.
Oh, a bird!
That was nice.
Shang watched the confused man looking back and forth.
'Seems like he didn't disguise his aura,' Shang thought.
Just now, Shang had unleashed a pinpoint burst of Death Mana with the Concept of Purgatory on that Mage's head, focusing everything on his mind.
This essentially turned the man into someone with late-stage Alzheimer's disease and severe dementia.
This guy was gone.
He was alive, but his mind had been reduced to nearly nothing.
Shang calmly refilled his Death Mana as the confused man just looked at all the interesting things in his surroundings.
Some time later, Shang sat down again and entered his inner world.
He summoned a beast and fought against it.
Why was Shang doing this?
Well, Shang's job was to keep this territory safe, and he was doing just that.
As long as a fight was going on, nobody was allowed to enter or exit this territory.
Naturally, there was an upper limit to how long a fight could go.
The limit was one week.
If both combatants still lived after one week, they would both be killed by the barrier.
This long limit had been implemented so that even the closest fights would find a victor.
Naturally, Shang would wait for nearly the full week before killing his opponent.
Until then, the confused man could wander around the wilderness all he wanted.
The sheer pressure of his Mana stopped all the slightly dangerous beasts from getting close to him.
For this week, Shang would just train in his inner world.
A couple of hours later, the Mage King of the Judgment Palace realized what was going on and sighed.
"I knew this was going to happen."
"Well, prepare for a long wait, everyone," she said as she leaned back in the air like she was sitting in a chair.