Chapter 525 |
By this point, Colin had no room left to retreat. The mysterious man threatened him that if he failed to act, all his schemes and intentions would be exposed. Even if he hadn’t yet carried anything out, the mere thought of such an act would be enough for Nicholas V to crush him like an insect.
No one could protect him then—and certainly no Mage would. After all, not a single Mage would ever stoop so low as to join House Nicholas.
Fully armed, Colin followed the map given by the mysterious man and positioned himself along the unavoidable route Nicholas V would take.
A day later, the earth began to tremble—signaling the approach of a massive cavalry regiment. High in the sky, dark specks appeared one after another—the Mage apprentices of House Nicholas.
Colin took a deep breath, gripping all the scrolls and magical items he had prepared, switching them into activation mode. Then, he bit through the pendant the mysterious man had given him—said to have a concealing effect—and vanished from the hilltop in a wave of hidden energy.
An hour later, the knightly procession approached the hill, surrounding the ancient carriage at its center. At that instant, Colin struck. All his prepared magitech items detonated at once, and light from multiple elemental magics flared in every direction. The knight regiment was instantly devastated.
The Mage apprentices of House Nicholas rushed to respond and quickly quelled the magical turbulence, soon discovering Colin’s presence.
Colin tore open the scroll the mysterious man had given him. In an instant, a devastating spell from the school of Mystery slaughtered most of the defenders. Then, a creature from another plane appeared, launching a brutal assault on the remaining survivors.
The battle itself was primitive and short-lived. When it ended, House Nicholas had suffered tremendous losses—Nicholas V’s wife was dead—and Colin was captured alive.
“Filthy old nobles.”
The assassination became the spark that ignited the war. House Nicholas immediately began a purge of ordinary graduates within Golden Palm City and publicly declared war on a secret mortal organization within the city. In just seven days, the flames of battle consumed the entire region.
Except for several academy zones that remained strangely calm, the rest of the city drowned in blood and chaos.
One spark set the whole forest ablaze. All three mortal factions within Golden Palm City were soon dragged into the mire. Across other cities of the Academy Continent, various mortal forces saw this as the perfect chance to rebel. Within days, starting from Golden Palm City, fires of war spread across the continent like wildfire.
The First Mortal War had officially begun.
At first, the Mages of the Academy Department paid it no mind.
Before the creation of the Academy Continent, wars erupted constantly across every island. Mages neither cared nor had the capacity to intervene. So long as power and politics reached equilibrium, the wars would eventually burn out.
But this war was different.
Because of the rapid development of magic and magitech, modern mortal warfare had evolved far beyond blades and swords—it now resembled “hot-weapon” conflicts, causing massive casualties. Even so, Mages remained indifferent; the number of mortals on the continent was immense, and since living conditions had improved, their population had multiplied several times over. Who lived and who died was of no consequence.
However, as the war dragged into its middle stages, hatred among the three mortal factions deepened. Their tactics grew increasingly brutal, and eventually—unbelievably—they concluded that the war’s true cause was the inaction of the Mages.
They gathered mobs to besiege academies, demanding explanations.
The Mages found this absurd and responded with bloody suppression. Yet, the unrest only grew worse. A fourth faction soon emerged—one that openly incited mortals to rise against Mages—and shockingly, it gained widespread traction.
With no other options, the Academy Department reported the crisis to the Council.
The Council’s decision was simple: Adam would handle the matter.
———
The Void Dragons were not a vast species, but they were immensely powerful. Among them existed ten Ninth-Rank Void Dragons and thousands of Super Dimensional ones.
Though formidable, the process of bringing them into the Mage World posed no serious obstacles for Adam and Nehem. The Void Dragons lacked a strong collective will, and under the simple persuasion of Nehem—himself a peak Ninth-Rank “Void Dragon”—they readily agreed to relocate to the Mage World.
Negotiations were underway, focused on promises and rights.
At that moment, Adam received an unexpected transmission from the Academy Department:
“Lord Adam, there has been a change on the Academy Continent.”
Adam paused. Before departing, he had left a clone in his office at the Academy Department, intended for emergencies. He had assumed it would never be needed—but now, it had been activated.
After notifying Nehem, Adam uploaded his consciousness into that clone.
———
The Academy Department wasn’t truly lacking in decisiveness—they simply sensed hidden schemes at play. They needed someone capable of making absolute decisions when the time came.
Thanks to big data, intelligence collection across the Mage World was nearly omniscient. Every detail of the mortal war lay before them. A complete set of categorized reports was soon placed before Adam.
“Mortals couldn’t possibly be this bold,” Adam said calmly while reviewing the files. “At least not those who first attacked the academies.”
A senior Mage of the department nodded gravely.
“Yes, my lord. Even after three hundred years out of sight, they could not have forgotten who truly rules this world.”
Adam asked,
“And what were the Free Faction doing—before and during all this?”
The senior’s expression tightened. That was the question he feared most. If the Holy Tower Faction and the Free Faction clashed, it would be catastrophic—far beyond any mortal conflict.
He replied cautiously:
“That’s what puzzles us. Small movements are inevitable, tolerated by both sides. But beyond those, the Free Faction has shown no abnormal behavior—before or during the war.”
Adam nodded. The academies’ greatest interest lay in their apprentices; mortal struggles were beneath concern. If the Free Faction had truly sunk so low as to compete with mortals for resources, that would almost be… convenient.
Then something in the data caught his eye.
“What are these things?” he asked.
The senior Mage immediately produced another dossier.
“We don’t know, my lord,” he said grimly. “We couldn’t capture a single living specimen.”