Legacy of the Dark Sage

After confirming Aillos's intention to ascend, the meeting continued with him giving tasks to every tribe leader. Ducal and the other aides would oversee the clan and the tribe leaders' tasks while Aillos prepared for his ascension. In the meantime, Kyran would help Anahita complete her technique so they could teach the representatives each dragon tribe would send.

These representatives, in turn, would teach the technique to their respective tribes during the large-scale training camp.

Kyran only had a week at most to help Anahita and teach the tribe representatives because by then, Aillos would have completed his preparation and would need to assist in his ascension.

Despite the tight schedule, everyone confident in their strategy. They aimed to complete everything within two months, ensuring they had the upper hand when they moved against The Emperor. They were keenly aware of The Emperor's distraction with the search for the Void Master, a fact they intended to exploit to their advantage.

The tribe leaders were told that True Void was creating fake trails of the Void Master to throw The Emperor off Kyran's trail. Knowing there was no guarantee that True Void could deceive the Emperor for long, they had to complete their preparation as soon as possible.

*

Several days back...

Having no means of confirming what the Dragon was up to, Midnight resorted to getting information from the most extensive information network in the Higher Realm. Unfortunately, the head of the organization, a female mage known for her profound Alchemy Knowledge, Estrid, personally refused Midnight's request.

Estrid did not refuse Midnight's request out of goodwill for the Dragon Clan. In fact, she would love to receive the commission since Midnight offered quite a hefty amount of high-quality spirit stones and rare Alchemy ingredients. However, no matter how tempted Estrid was to receive the remuneration, she could only accept a request if she got intel to share.

Apparently, their informants had had trouble entering the Dragon Plane for over a month. Even their agents, close to some Dragon Clan members, failed to contact them. From this, it was not wrong to say that fresh intel on the Dragon Clan had been scarce since the Solis Clan attacked them.

With the deadline of a day, Midnight had no choice but to give an acceptable report to The Emperor.

The result was obvious. The Emperor was furious and destroyed Midnight's essence, which came to give her a report. His action resulted in the latter receiving a fatal injury to her core and rendering her immobile.

To be honest, The Emperor would have eradicated Midnight if not for the fact that her magic and specialty were needed to search for the Void Master's trail. In consideration of this, he chose to render temporarily cripple her but not to the point that she could no longer support the Elites that were still scattered all over the Higher Realm searching for the Void Master.

With Midnight out of the picture for some time, Deus's responsibility was doubled, if not tripled. Because of Midnight's condition, he had to deploy about 70% of his automatons to cover her other tasks.

Apart from that, Deus also conducted a personal investigation of Raelia's disappearance. It was pretty unfortunate that he could not find any trace, like Midnight, at the last known location Raelia was. He even wondered if the distress call was actually a means to throw them off her trail.

In the end, half a month had passed, and they had yet to show any results, and The Emperor's patience was running thin.

It was then that they received some news, which threw them off.

The news came from one of their agents in the Lower Realm. The report stated that the human with the Draconic core had appeared and caused some disturbances on some of the planes under The Coven's protection.

Not only that, the human with the Draconic core also picked a fight with some of the members of the faction that The Emperor supposedly took under his wing.

Because of this news, The Emperor's impatience was alleviated slightly. He gathered his Elites once more and divided their ranks into two. One would go down to the Lower Realm and capture the human with the Draconic core, while the other stayed behind and continued following the Void Master's trail.

As for The Emperor, he decided to prepare for the Annual Banquet, which all leaders of the clans under his jurisdiction had to attend. In this year's banquet, he planned to give two more slots to every clan. This way, they could bring two more members to represent their clans.

Initially, The Emperor wanted to organize another meeting with all clan leaders under his jurisdiction. However, he changed his mind, especially since he still had to deal with the matter of the Blade Dancer Clan's eradication.

As the Blade Dancer Clan crossed his mind, Lucian's expression turned fleeting as he thought, "Right... how shall I deal with Raelia?"

*

A lone patch of land fleeted in and out of existence in one of the deepest corners of the Higher Realm. One second, it was there; the next, it seemed to have been swallowed by darkness. In reality, that patch of land was indeed swallowed by darkness. Or, to be precise, swallowed by a black mist.

A dense black mist gathered at the center of the patch of land. Two red lights would sometimes appear, coinciding with the pulsation that racked the black mist. But often, there was only a dense swirling of black mist.

Foooom!

Suddenly, an invisible shockwave exploded from within the mist, destroying the bits and pieces of floating soil or debris around the patch of land. Surprisingly, the patch of land itself remained intact after the unexpected explosion.

"Hm...."

Two red orbs akin to eyes appeared within the dense black mist.

It went without saying, but the mist was The One Who Caused The Fall.

"The quality of the magic energy here is truly higher than below... It is unfortunate that it is still not enough to allow me full recovery..."

He remembered the being he fought a while back and heaved a sigh. "It would have been good if I had absorbed her completely. Unfortunately, I only managed to get her shell..."

The One Who Caused The Fall fleeted toward the edge of the land as his body slowly changed into something similar to a sword. Soon, the sword took on another, more human-like form, but his features were too abstract that he looked more like a wandering soul.

Standing at the edge of the patch of land, The One Who Caused The Fall surveyed the surroundings. Invisible threads seemed to seep out of his body and spread in every direction.

'The closest plane with vitality is still quite a distance away... However, it is better than this place.'

With that in mind, The One Who Caused The Fall turned into dense black mist and drifted along the vast expanse of darkness.

*

Kyran looked out the window from Aillos's study while deep in thought. The closed-door meeting might have ended, but he still had a few things to discuss with the latter.

"Did you manage to achieve your objective in today's meeting?" Aillos asked as soon as he entered the room.

Distracted, Kyran turned to look at Aillos with a wry smile, "I can't say for sure. I won't know until something unexpected happens."

"Aren't you just asking for it by saying that aloud?"

"..."

Aillos chuckled at Kyran's deadpan look. He had started to develop a knack for making this young descendant show that face. Kyran was very different from Zane, but Aillos was reminded of the latter whenever he showed that face.

"I never really understood how Fates work," Aillos started, walking over to his desk. "Even the concept behind why they cannot influence the fates of the vessels baffles me."

"I don't know either," Kyran admitted. "I was told we are immune to the Fates Code, but recently, someone told me I can also share this immunity to a certain extent with people around me."

"Which is why you wanted to expose yourself around the dragons and gain their trust," Aillos supplied, nodding in understanding. "I already get that."

"From what I understand, the dragons are not entirely immune to the Fates Code," Kyran said. "If that's the case, the Fates will likely do something to intervene with our plans."

"That's what Fates do. Mess with us as they see fit," Aillos agreed, a glint of annoyance reflected in his eyes.

"But if what that person said is true... that I can influence the fates of the people around me, we can somehow prevent any major interference from the Fates."

Aillos sat on his chair and looked at Kyran, who was still standing by the window,

"Do you trust that person's words?"

"...I don't know. We... have a very complicated history. However, I get how desperate he is to escape the Fates' radar."

"You said his name is Ruin?"

"Yes."

"...I don't remember any mage with that name."

"He might have been an unknown mage. Or... he went by a different name."

"And he is helping you right now."

"He managed to get a merchant clan under his control. I haven't heard from him yet, but he said he will expand the merchant clan's network and provide better intel for my 'lending' him a body connected with me."

"I still find the logic of borrowing something you're connected with will help obscure the Fates' all-seeing eyes inconceivable. However, some things can't be explained logically, which is why laws and concepts of magic exist."

"In any case, I can't just wait for Ruin to do his thing. We need intel on The Emperor's movement as soon as possible."

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