Chapter 890: Act 66 – The Message Given to Xi VI
Like a dream, the blue filled the sky.
Behind Charles, one shimmering summoning circle after another materialized, from which emerged beings that seemed to belong only in legends; these were life forms composed entirely of energy, existing between the physical and non-physical realms. They existed in the material world while simultaneously being absent from it, constantly altering their attributes and shapes every moment. These visitors from beyond their boundaries were the Aether Dragons.
They had the shape of dragons, yet possessed wings like manta rays, their bodies entirely transparent, resembling soft glass or jellyfish suspended in the air. However, such forms were unstable, constantly changing, like a rainbow with a cerulean base.
The Crusian wizards ceased their spells one after another as they realized their magic had no effect on these bizarre beings. These creatures were a part of the very energy itself, appearing as if they did not exist in this world. Sharp lines of magical laws and volatile elemental forces tore through these dreamlike beings but could not harm them in the slightest, as if striking an illusion, passing right through their transparent bodies.
One by one, everyone recognized this fact—their attacks could not harm these ‘Dragons’ at all. The entire battlefield gradually sank into a strange standstill, wizards and Imperial soldiers alike paused in confusion, some quietly observing, taking in the breathtaking scenery.
But ultimately, someone came to understand what these were.
“Those are…”
“Aether Dragons…”
“I didn’t think they really existed; the records of the Phanul were not merely ridiculous legends.”
The wizards whispered among themselves, sharing the secret knowledge only they knew. Meanwhile, the Imperial commander atop the Black Sword Bastion was fuming. He was not interested in these so-called knowledge and legends at all, but the wizards abandoning their posts had significantly reduced the firepower density in the battlefield. What had taken much effort to gain the upper hand was now being pushed back by the gargoyles. He found the wizards’ captain and pointed at the strange beings, shouting, “I don’t care what they are, but your task now is to drive them all away. I don’t want to see any of these chaotic things on my walls!”
He vented his anger but found the wizards looking at him oddly. “What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong?”
“Those are the spirits from the Aether, Commander. They are the embodiment of pure energy. Our spells cannot harm them at all. Have you ever seen a drop of water drown in the ocean? They are indeed the true ocean for us,” the wizard captain replied politely.
The knight commander scratched his head. “I don’t care who is the drop and who is the ocean, but you must tell me how to deal with these things, right? I don’t want my soldiers dying for no reason.”
“Commander, you actually don’t need to worry. If the Phanul are not lying, the Aether Dragons’ greatest characteristic is that they exist in both worlds simultaneously—they maintain a connection between the Aether and the material world through their constantly changing energy forms. If you cannot confront them in both domains at the same time, your attacks will not harm them in the slightest,” the wizard captain said, regarding the beautiful beings outside the walls with appreciation. However, the knight commander was clearly displeased with his gaze, believing it was inappropriate to look at enemies like that.
He certainly didn’t understand that the Aether Dragons symbolized magical power. Their color of blue became the shade of the Bud banner. Although Bud claimed to be a silver alliance, their emblem was an eye on the cerulean sea, symbolizing the two poles of the wizarding world—knowledge and magic.
“Then doesn’t that mean I can do nothing against them? Shall we just surrender?” the knight commander replied irritably.
“Why say that, Commander?” the wizard captain feigned surprise while secretly holding disdain for this unfortunate soul who knew nothing of the nature of the world.
“They can attack me, but we can’t attack them. Can this war continue?”
“Commander, I think you needn’t worry about that,” the wizard captain smiled slightly. “The Aether Dragons are fragile and beautiful beings. They are not as powerful as you imagine. Though they appear colossal, it is merely because energy naturally disperses in our world. Their actual strength is quite weak; while they represent energy itself, they cannot grasp the laws governing it, just as humanity represents a type of life but cannot manipulate the law of life. You and your soldiers cannot attack them because they also cannot attack you.”
The commander did not understand entirely, but he at least grasped the last part, furrowing his brow, asking, “Are you saying these things have no attack power? Then why would our opponent summon them? Is it just for show?”
“Perhaps not entirely. What I mean is that they are not incapable of attacking you, but the domains of the Aether and the material world are parallel; the two worlds do not affect each other. If they wish to affect our world, they must transit into our realm—”
“Wait, I understand now.” The commander interrupted the self-important fellow, stating loudly, “You mean when they shift into our world, I can attack them, right?”
The wizard captain looked somewhat surprised at the knight commander.
The knight commander could not help but let out a cold snort, thinking that if he could, he would rather not deal with such mystical people. However, he had one final question and asked before leaving, “Wizard, since these things are so fragile, then the one summoning them must not be that powerful, right? I think you should be able to deal with him and prevent him from conjuring anything else.”
But this time, he did not receive the expected answer.
The wizards present looked nervously at Charles in the sky.
“Commander, you are wrong. The significance represented by the Aether Dragons exceeds your imagination. While the Aether Dragons cannot control the laws, he can. We do not yet know who this master is, but we are certain he controls a deeper law. Everyone here can attest; just a moment ago, we all felt the tremors coming from the sea of magic.”
The wizard captain shook his head gravely. “Talking to you about this may be unclear, Commander, but I have a suggestion: you’d better send your soldiers to create some trouble for him, or we may not be his match.”
“What?” The commander jumped in shock. “But he looks much younger than you!”
“The world of wizards is governed by the power of knowledge, not age,” the wizard captain replied.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not sure,” the wizard captain shook his head, “This is just a guess, but you can bet I’m wrong, Commander.”
The commander looked at the robed wizards, hoping they were wrong.
He did not know that everyone present shared the same thought.
…
Fanaw looked up to see such a scene.
She observed the Imperial soldiers launching a desperate counterattack. The azure ocean appeared so dazzling but incredibly fragile; the attack of the Aether Dragons was nowhere near as spectacular as their entrance. She could clearly analyze that the strength of these strange beings did not exceed the peak of silver, akin to most of the Imperial knights atop the walls. Moreover, it was reassuring to note that once the Aether Dragons began their assault, they quickly began to suffer casualties. The attacks that couldn’t harm them before caused damage for the first time as they shifted into the material world, bringing them crashing down from the sky. However, the Aether beings that plummeted often ended their lives in a peculiar manner.
It appeared to be a dazzling self-detonation; their transparent forms collided with the walls and then exploded into a shallow blue ripple. Under the ripple’s oscillation, the Imperial soldiers remained unharmed, and the walls sustained no damage. The only change was that the spells of the Imperial wizards began to become sparse; this lady vaguely understood what had transpired, but it puzzled her that the number of Aether Dragons was decreasing at an incredible rate, far exceeding their rate of death. They had seemed to fill the sky, but in an instant, only a few remained.
Where had those Aether Dragons gone?
She felt something was off, but she could not quite understand where the problem lay. However, what truly baffled Lady Fanaw was whether Brendel had shown her this? Was it just to let her witness his failure? But she evidently didn’t see any frustration on the face of this descendant of Darus, as Brendel continued to smile, watching the sky, his confidence never wavered.
One by one, the Aether Dragons finally vanished from the sky.
But this was not good news for the Imperial wizards.
They were rendered speechless; they had never truly seen these legendary beings and hadn’t anticipated that upon their death, they would ignite magical power. This resulted in one outcome: all the wizards caught off guard were emptied of their magic first, and while a few of the more experienced old wizards fared slightly better, their apprentices were almost all pale and staggering.
The Aether Dragons upgraded from windsprite whelp to spider, and this characteristic was also inherited.
But soon, someone discovered a new problem:
“They’re disappearing too fast.”
“No, that’s not disappearance; they are shifting to the Aether realm, Captain!”
The wizards were much more knowledgeable than a mere swordsman like Fanaw and immediately realized the problem.
Yet at that moment, Charles was turning over the card faces, the rules of the traveling mage like a spark, burning fiercely within him, lighting up his eyes with a silver glow. He looked down at the Crusian fortress, mentally splitting himself into two distinct consciousnesses: one contemplated the battle, while the other meticulously counted—after the Imperial wizards became silent, the gargoyles began to regain the upper hand, facing the troublesome Imperial longbowmen, but at least they no longer had to risk being torn apart by terrible spells.
Moreover, the magical defenses atop the Black Sword Bastion were gradually weakening, and the wizards fueling them had just been emptied of magic.
Within Charles, the magic that had been completely consumed to summon the Aether Dragons began to recover slowly, with the recovery speed seeming to accelerate in tandem with the disappearance of the Aether Dragons.
This rising magic was then reinjected into the card faces of the Aether Dragons.
Then, a new batch of Aether Dragons appeared in the sky once more.
The Crusians gazed upward, some even gaping.
“Look over there, there are more!”
“More are appearing here!”
“Take them down!”
“They disappeared again!”
“New monsters are emerging!”
There was chaos atop the walls, the Imperial soldiers and wizards too stunned to comprehend the appearing and disappearing Aether Dragons, which multiplied geometrically with each disappearance. No one understood what was happening, but it felt as though the Aether Dragons had truly amalgamated into an ocean, and when they unleashed their final assault, the terrifying tsunami-like scene finally arrived. Faced with countless uncountable enemies, even the proudest of Crusians could not help but weakly drop their weapons.
It was a battle without meaning.
Charles seemed to ride this sea of powerful magical energy. The azure spell energy gathered beneath his feet; the Imperial commanders had thought of launching an attack against him, but to no avail. Every time they were about to fulfill their goal, a pure silver holy shield would appear before Charles. That was the protective holy song. Himelam wielded the mountain-bound intent, consistently supported by unlimited magical power from the Aether Dragons to choose this spell repeatedly.
The last scene Fanaw witnessed was the blue ocean fully obscuring the walls of the Black Sword Bastion. Such a magnificent sight was not unfamiliar to her, having seen it during the holy war against the most powerful wizards of Saint Ausoor.
It seemed she finally recognized that young wizard.
“So it’s him!”
The lady murmured in disbelief: “He didn’t die. The genius among the Black Tower wizards rarely seen in a hundred years. I should have known, he has always been so unexpected.”
Brendel was slightly stunned, having heard similar remarks for the second time; he could not help but glance at Charles in the sky.
But by this point, Fanaw had already withdrawn her gaze. The Crusians had completely failed, the reinforcements from the fortress had yet to arrive, and she could already imagine what was happening. “You’ve won,” she replied calmly, “I just didn’t expect that, forty years later, he would truly become a Grand Wizard… The Black Tower finally has a wizard leader again after a thousand years. Those who made decisions back then must never have anticipated this day. But what has the grandson of Darus gained? Aside from the hatred of the Empire, nothing else.”
Brendel knew this lady, dubbed the White Shadow Swordswoman, had surely misunderstood something; she seemed to believe Charles had crossed the extreme plains to become a Grand Wizard, but he did not correct this misconception. In fact, such a misunderstanding was precisely what he needed at this moment.
As for what he had gained—
He looked at the cerulean reflection in the sky and gently shook his head. What he had gained would forever be incomprehensible to the people of the Empire.
…
The Earl of Toniger had gone mad.
Whether at the Song Fortress or Gray Wind Harbor, from the kingdom’s north to the Southlands south of Ampere Seale, and from Rendener to the dense forests of Golan-Elsen, everywhere people resided—nobles, commoners, even those with unclear identities and ulterior motives—were all discussing the news that had arrived from Baltar since the northern weather had turned cold and there had been a snow or two.
The royal faction had almost gone mad too.
Except for Makarolo and Sir Overwell, everyone moved as if they were sharks catching the scent of blood, having long been dissatisfied with the Earl who had always pointed the finger at them. Their dissatisfaction was now clearly vented through some means. Letters filled with warnings, insults, accusations, questions, and even slanders were being relayed from these individuals to the actual decision-makers of the royal faction—Makarolo and others, and every word on the paper would send the most daring radicals into a panic.
Makarolo could only bitterly smile at Overwell over this, finding the obviousness of these matters hard to bear, and doubting his colleagues’ intelligence. But what puzzled him even more was a different pile of letters that had accumulated on his desk. These letters were not slanders; they came from further north, conveying some kind of information.
The words written in bright red ink on those letters were enough to make anyone reading them feel as if they were witnessing some absurd story—
On the twenty-fifth day of Frostdrop, the Earl of Toniger captured the Black Sword Bastion. Except for the gargoyles lost by the Earl himself, there were hardly any casualties in the battle. Following this, the Earl forced (or rather, escorted) the entire Imperial military to host a grand welcoming ceremony for the Erluin delegation, after which he released all the Imperial soldiers captured and compensated for the repair costs of the Knight’s Gate out of courtesy.
On the twenty-seventh day of Frostdrop, the Earl of Toniger and his delegation passed through the Trowar Gorge, defeating a number of Crusian local nobles who had come to provoke them.
On the thirtieth day of Frostdrop, the Earl of Toniger and his delegation captured the Torwar territory. After extorting a large sum he referred to as ‘reputation loss fees’ and ‘mental compensation fees,’ he released all the nobles.
On the seventh day of Winterharp, the Earl of Toniger defeated the Crusian Solstice Knights.
On the fifteenth day of Winterharp, the Earl of Toniger and his delegation defeated the Anzeruta local army.
On the nineteenth day of Winterharp, the Earl of Toniger…
…
Makarolo and Overwell silently read the last line of the letter, then gently placed it in front of Princess Grifian, unable to help but ask wearily, “Alright, Your Highness, can you please tell me what the Earl of Toniger wants to do?”
Princess Grifian also glanced at the letter somewhat uneasily, then forced a smile at her two close attendants: “I think… the Earl should know what he’s doing.”
“Should know, right?” Makarolo looked quietly at the princess.
