Chapter 20: Wizard Alliance
Date: 2016-01-03
Author: Floating Tower
Northern Witch Council.
Arendelle’s Ice Snow Witch Group.
The two originally had little intersection. Although the Princess had immense power, she was quite aloof in interpersonal relations, as can be felt by her attitude towards Soren. If it weren’t for Soren’s close relationship with the Northern Witch Council, and the fact that the council had sent a delegation to Arendelle, the Princess would likely not have willingly interacted with them.
There was no other choice.
The Princess had always been like this.
The Northern Witch Council was a relatively formal wizard organization, with an internal structure comparable to that of the Wizard Alliance. In contrast, Arendelle’s Ice Snow Witch Group was slightly inferior, as there were quite a few female sorcerers in Arendelle due to special bloodline reasons. Many of them were from royal cadet branches or were members who inherited the bloodline of sorcerer families. The Ice Snow Witch Group had one-third of its members as sorcerers, many of whom had innate abilities to control ice and snow.
This must be hereditary.
Possibly overshadowed by the Princess’s brilliance, the outside world had little understanding of the Ice Snow Witch Group and merely knew that Arendelle had a very powerful royal witch group.
Regarding the arrival of the Northern Witch delegation, the Princess could roughly guess their purpose.
Compared to the closed environment of the Frozen Kingdom, the territory controlled by the Northern Witches was much more complex, which meant that after the outbreak of the Saint’s Cataclysm, they faced many more problems.
First was the rebellion of the Lizardmen.
Last year’s flood still affected the present; Lizardmen attacks on humans could not be eradicated, and the Witch Council was temporarily powerless to wipe them out because the false god the Lizardmen served seemed to be making moves.
Then there was the Church of the Poison Lady.
In an effort to expand her influence in the mortal realm, the plague spread by the Poison Lady had already ceased. However, the traces of the Witherers frequently appeared in the northern continent, dealing with an evil deity’s church. Even the Northern Witch Council did not dare to act rashly.
Besides that.
With resources increasingly scarce after the outbreak of the Saint’s Cataclysm, a rebellion also occurred near Deepwater City, and the unrest among the lower-class civilians persisted, while the external evil forces lurked menacingly. If it weren’t for the financial assistance from Modo City, the Northern Witch Council would have probably descended into chaos. The massive orders from Modo City significantly eased the financial crisis of the Northern Witch Council and provided opportunities for lower-class civilians to work and support themselves. Moreover, the close relationship with Modo City deterred many enemies from acting rashly. But Modo City was still far overseas; if a major incident occurred, even if Soren wanted to provide assistance, he wouldn’t be able to respond quickly.
Therefore, the Northern Witch Council needed a strong ally nearby.
At this point, the choices for potential candidates in the Northern Witches’ sight were limited. First, their chosen ally could not have overly complicated relationships; overly complicated relationships implied many potential enemies, and gaining a powerful ally might also bring new and more dangerous enemies.
At this time, the relatively closed Arendelle was prioritized for consideration.
Arendelle’s situation was quite special.
Firstly, it was a relatively closed nation, with not much contact with the outside world and not many visible enemies, and it was not far from the Northern Witch Council. Additionally, Arendelle had a close relationship with Modo City, at least according to external rumors. Princess Anna of Arendelle was said to be Lord Soren’s lover, and there were even recent rumors suggesting that the Princess had a close and ambiguous relationship with Lord Soren as well. Regardless of whether these gossip-like rumors were true or not, there was no doubt that Arendelle had close interactions with Modo City.
Arendelle—Modo City—Northern Witch Council.
Realizing their need for more powerful allies, the Northern Witch Council finally decided to send a delegation to Arendelle, led by a legendary witch who wielded power within the Witch Council.
Modo City was still too far.
Soren chose the Overseas Islands as the location, likely to avoid the direct impact of the cataclysm storm. In this increasingly chaotic environment, the Northern Witch Council had to form a mutually protective alliance with a powerful force nearby.
………………
Overseas Islands, Modo City.
In just a few days, Modo City underwent earth-shattering changes. The city’s outskirts were filled with large construction sites, where strong men who had worked by the sea for years carried tools shirtless, and rallying cries sounded from the sites, with many women joining in on the labor. The mysterious wizards didn’t seem so rare anymore; at least many of them could be seen in the construction sites. Compared to the poorly educated common people, the knowledge that spellcasters possessed far exceeded their imagination.
This knowledge manifested not only in spells but also in architecture, culture, nature, religion, and more.
Wizards, of course, were unlikely to do the work themselves; they mostly served as project supervisors. Recently, the higher-ups in Modo City hoped they could study and create something similar to cement. This was a bit troublesome for wizards, who were used to relying on the “turn earth into stone” spell, but spells simply couldn’t be applied to such large-scale construction, so finally, Saruman was made to lead a team to give it a try. The building level of this world was roughly equivalent to the medieval period, but producing cement had to take into account the different world rules.
Creating it wasn’t the key; wizards had many alchemical creations that could substitute for cement, but those could only be applied in the construction of expensive buildings like wizard towers.
The most important thing was that this alchemical creation could be mass-produced and popularized; this was the result that the higher-ups in Modo City wished to see.
From the sky, overlooking Modo City.
One could see a massive circular shape composed of Modo City, Modo Harbor, and twelve towns under construction. Each location had a signature building, which was the temple of the Half-Elf Church.
The Grand Temple in the central square was the core.
This was actually a very large magic circle, using Soren’s divine faith network as the core, relying on the Grand Temple of Modo City as a carrier, with twelve temples in the other towns as branches, forming a super-giant magic circle with the Divine Power of Faith drawn from Modo Island’s residents, which was also an independent small network connecting to the Half-Elf Church.
This was the Maze.
The wizards’ profound interpretation of the magic network eventually gave birth to the Maze, a magic circle with enormous power.
The Maze was like an independent local area network; within certain powerful Mazes, the controller could even seal off other individuals’ spellcasting abilities.
Isn’t this similar to the magic network?
If the Goddess of Magic deprived a wizard of their spellcasting ability, the effect would be the same.
The Maze originally emerged in the Silver Era; from the very beginning, it was the result of Grand Archmages analyzing the structure of the magic network. If it weren’t for those few Grand Archmages who sought death by attempting to meddle with the Goddess of Magic, the Goddess of Magic wouldn’t have been so eager to close off the inner magic network, restricting access to the core applications of the magic network only to other deities.
The Maze was one of the core constructs of the Floating City.
The Wizard Tower in the Shadow Plane was enveloped by a small Maze, suggesting that its previous owner also wanted to expand to the level of the Floating City.
This was essentially a local area network.
The deeper the understanding of the magic network and the stronger the individual’s power, the more astonishing the capabilities of the Maze!
During the Arcane Empire period, the most famous Floating Cities could even directly block the spellcasting abilities of all wizards below the legendary rank. Once they entered a Floating City with a Maze, they would behave almost like ordinary people. Only after obtaining a spellcasting permit issued by the Arcane Council of that Floating City could these individuals regain their spellcasting abilities within the Floating City. (Note: This is also why it is called the Maze. It is a lock.)
Isn’t that incredible?
This is actually the Maze mentioned multiple times in wizard books—the Anti-Magic Field!
However.
Currently, there is no Maze of this level in the Material Plane; they have long been lost.
When Soren initially designed the distribution of towns, he followed a specific pattern for location selection; the positions of all the temples within the towns were carefully calculated. Once these temples were all established, they would connect with the Grand Temple in the central square of Modo City.
12 is a very special number.
These twelve temples form the core part of the incomplete Maze that envelops Modo City. Currently, it is almost impossible to detect any anomalies; the functions of the temples and magic circle merely adjust the climate of Modo Island. Leveraging Soren’s command of the divine professions, faith, and divine power, this massive magic circle has created an invisible protective barrier, allowing the climate of Modo City to become more temperate. However, when it truly takes shape, this magic circle will possess incredibly terrifying power.
The Northern Witch Council has a Maze.
This Maze was retrieved from the ruins of Silver Moon City, taking over a hundred years; the Northern Witch Council pooled their efforts to repair the Maze and then, relying on the power of the Wizard Tower, reestablished the Maze.
The same thing exists above Modo City.
The entire magic circle is overseen by the leader of the Half-Elf Church, the High Priest appointed by Soren, and the roles of the twelve temples effectively replace the Wizard Tower, with each temple personally supervised by her during construction.
This is a Maze constructed based on the temples, replacing the Wizard Tower!
The third phase of construction in Modo City similarly serves this immense Maze; Soren’s third phase of expansion is a plan for the entire island, and this planning is precisely to facilitate the upcoming arrangements that will allow the Maze to be completed more easily. What he is doing now is like flattening the island as if it were paper, and then painting according to his wishes on this smooth paper, while the twelve temples merely outline the framework; the next step is to fill in the other blank areas.
Earth, water, wind, fire.
The entire island exists in a grand blueprint, and right now, only the layout has just been completed.
………………(To be continued ~^~)
