Mystical Journey

The construction of the Cold Winter Tower also signified that Garen could now officially increase his own Arcane Art abilities. It took him quite some time to reach that stage.

It did not matter how many other eyes he had caught with this move.

A Level Twelve being building a Wizard Tower was not really that big a deal, but the only thing that caught their attention was the scale of this Wizard Tower. It was just slightly too big.

But considering Garen’s position, all the observers decided to put it aside.

Upon completion, the Wizard Tower was surrounded by a circle of white electricity, and the white sphere of ice floating above the tower slowly shone with a colorful light. That was the aurora-like effect of the Elemental Ponds absorbing a great amount of elemental power from the Void dimension.

Garen asked the Wizard in charge of the design to step up and burn all the design blueprints for the entire Wizard Tower in front of the crowd, while also transferring the key and password that allowed entry.

Only then Garen did walk up to the entrance of the tower alone, slowly.

As everyone watched attentively, he spoke the password.

“True knowing is everything.”

Whoosh.

The door to the Wizard Tower opened slowly.

Garen walked inside, and the door closed again behind him.

Everything went back to the same calm silence it started with, all of the onlookers and builders carefully watching every movement within the Wizard Tower as they held their breaths.

About half an hour later.

Vroom!!

The entire Tower instantly lit up, and a silver veil of flowing light slowly began to envelop the statues of Garen’s dragon body, placed around the tower.

“We did it!” The Advanced Wizard in charge heaved a vicious sigh of relief.

All the Wizards and Demons who had participated in the construction process also heaved a sigh of relief. This proved that Garen had taken complete control of the tower, and it also showed that there was nothing unusual at all with the operations of the tower.

The Cold Winter Tower officially marked its presence in the Fortress, on the ground of the Ten Thousand Abyss Plains.

Although it was still a very small tower right now and could not be compared to those peak-level Wizard Tower that had stood for several thousand, or even ten thousand years, Garen still believed that one day it would truly grow into a symbol of incomparably immense power.

**********************

The formation of the Cold Winter Tower meant that Garen’s Arcane Art Level could finally have a chance of breaking through.

He dived head-first into the Wizard Tower’s Elemental Pond and simply decided not to come out. The six Main Elements — earth, water, wind, fire, light, and dark — would naturally form a force field that was elementally-balanced in the middle of the Elemental Pond, so Garen stayed right here, sensing the different flows and principles of the different, almost material elements.

His Wizard Level instantly increased.

In a few short days, he had broken through his initial Level Five and reached Level Six.

After he successfully entered Level Six, Garen began to simultaneously construct the Biochemical Pool and experimental platform, while also performing his research experiments in order to escape the Weave spell. The Willpower Neuroprocessor’s computing power was extremely immense, and while he controlled the operation of the Wizard Tower, he could also simultaneously perform two other high-difficulty missions. And because he had the energy provided by the Elemental Pond, these analysis quests of that level only required several months now, as opposed to the several years at least that Garen would have needed to take initially.

This level of efficiency was not something that could have been emulated normally.

As for regular Wizards, they would need at least several dozen years if they wanted to escape the Weave.

But the importance of all this would only come into play after the upcoming important event.

The Deception Demon Lord who originated from the Void, that terrifying being at the True Soul Level, was finally about to descend here.

***************

The blood-red moon shone with viscous red light, and as a result, the Ten Thousand Abyss Plains did not look that different from how they did in the daytime. Here, the only difference between night and day was the level of brightness.

Garen kept the two Ancient Dragons occupied with the best food, drink, and activities until they were so engrossed in the enjoyment that they had nearly forgotten their initial motives. Over the past few days, their space equipment had been stuffed to the brim with all sorts of resources and treasures. At first, they had come here specifically to have Garen return to the Main Clan, but now they would rather Garen delay his return to the clan however long he could, so that they could play here for longer, earning more things in the process.

Garen did not know what Kratos was doing here, however, since all he did was accompany the two geezers with their feasting and festivities. Of course, he had to pay his own way through this, since Garen naturally would not foot the bill for him.

Under the glow of the moonlight, the Vengeance Fortress was colored with a faint hue of peacefulness.

The pillar of red rune smoke rising into the sky from the top of the Fortress also seemed to have dimmed somewhat. Lady Vengeance had gone to another Fortress, and aside during from the Blood Wars, she was not here most of the remaining time. Everything within the Fortress was completely managed by Garen and the other Deputy Commander.

“Something seems to be wrong with the energy forces,” said Kratos, frowning, as he hugged a beautiful lizardwoman. He was used to being cautious, and now he was in his rival, Garen’s territory. He had no choice but to be careful and cautious.

“Wrong? What could be wrong? We’re inside the Fortress now, and even if some Demons or Ghosts attack the city, can’t you see all those Demons patrolling outside? Garen’s patrol guards and checkpoint Wizards aren’t there for decoration purposes only. If anything happens, they will also raise the alarm immediately.”

One of the old Dragons was examining a treasure before him with a magical tool that resembled a magnifying glass, his face filled with intense excitement.

“To think we’d find something as good as this here as well, hahaha, we were so right to come out on this trip!”

Beside him, the other Ancient Dragon was slowly sipping away at a cup of thick, pale-green wine, his expression completely intoxicated.

At first, the two of them had been slightly wary, but by now, they were completely engrossed in enjoying the material pleasures.

A few sexily-dressed beautiful ladies from different races performed a provocative and seductive dance routine in the middle of the Hall. The music permeated through the hall, and there were even little Demons who were specifically there to unleash fantasy-like smoke and light effects for decoration purposes.

“Speaking of which, we’ve been here for so many days now, why hasn’t Garen indicated anything? He just keeps telling us that he’s busy, and refuses to follow the two of you back to the Main Clan to report. The way I see it, it’s highly likely that he has some other plans in mind,” said Kratos in a low voice.

“Other plans? Hehe, with the two of us here, what other plans would he dare have? In the Abyss, aside from the Abyssal Demon Dragons, the White Dragon Mountain is the strongest dragon clan around. As a White Dragon, no matter how you look at it, he wouldn’t possibly dare to completely offend the Main Clan,” said the Ancient Dragon with the magnifying glass nonchalantly.

“But you can’t not be wary,” advised Kratos.

“We don’t need you to remind us of that,” said the Ancient Dragon with the wine in displeasure.

“Sigh…” Kratos kept getting the feeling that something might happen.

Vroom!

A wave of imperceptible energy suddenly reached them from afar.

It was very much like the calm before an energy storm, and the three of them paid it no heed.

But what they had not noticed at all was that a faint red fog was gradually seeping in with the air from outside. It entered their nostrils, soundless and traceless, odorless and tasteless.

Slowly, several black figures gradually appeared within the shadows in the corners of the hall, walking toward the three of them. The strange thing was that the two Ancient Dragons, Kratos, and all the Demons and creatures around them were all oblivious to the approach of these shadows. They were right in front of them, but it was as though the dragons and the rest could not see them at all.

The black shadows grew closer and closer, closer and closer.

“These two are the sacrifices, Master Garen has indeed chosen us a decent gift…”

One of the black shadows spoke in a low and deep voice.

He reached out his hand and abruptly grabbed the neck of the Ancient Dragon before him.

Bam!!

There was an instant, enormous explosion between his hand and the Ancient Dragon, the surge of chill and ice bursting and splattering everywhere.

The two old dragons instantly jolted awake, countless layers of defensive spells lighting up with various colors all over their bodies, covering every inch of skin. It was the automatically-triggered defense from the many spells and items they carried and wore on their bodies.

But the defensive layers, at least a hundred in all, did nothing to make them feel safe.

The large black hand pierced through the wall of defensive spells as easily as one would poke through paper, grabbing straight for the old dragon’s neck.

“Descend, Thunder!!!” The eyes of the dragon who was caught shone with terror, but pinnacle powerhouses were naturally incomparable to regular creatures. All of his power instantly gathered at his brow, and a rune there immediately began to emit an unbelievably blinding blue light.

That was his very own unique Core Spell that he had condensed and formed ever since he entered Level Ten, an instant-activation rune that he had been working on all this time. In it, he stored the terrifying energy he had been accumulating for several hundred years.

The rune emitted a crisp ‘ka-chak’ and exploded directly, turning into a cloud of blue mist that shot toward the black shadow.

At the very instant that this tremendous explosive power was about to burst, destroying everything around it in the process, the black shadow figure actually grabbed it with one hand and condensed all of the power into becoming an even smaller blue pearl.

“Meaningless struggle,” said the black shadow calmly, reaching for the old dragon’s head with a whoosh.

But to his surprise, the old dragon’s body instantly flashed once. Somehow, it was an Instant Teleportation Spell. The teleportation power of this spell was very impressive, and it activated at lightning-speed as well. That also meant that it took a lot of time to prepare, so the old dragon had clearly used a single-use magical item to keep it on him beforehand.

The flashing returned to normal in a moment, and the old dragon returned to his original position, his expression slightly panicked.

“A Demigod!!?? Who are you… I’m the White Dragon Mountain’s…” Poof!

The large hand squeezed his head until it burst, and the impenetrable dragon scales put up no resistance whatsoever. A faint wisp of a translucent soul was pulled out by that large hand and stuffed into the black shadow’s mouth.

“If it weren’t for the Confusion Dew that Garen provided, these two guys might really have eluded us,” said the black shadow thoughtfully.

The black shadows around him exploded apart instantly, and all the remaining creatures that were still alive nearby abruptly died and melted like wax. In the large hall, the other old dragon was also finished off by two more shadows working together.

After the shadows dissipated from the three of them, they raised their hands and saw that a large portion of their palms had completely shriveled up. The initially healthy skin and flesh had instantly become as thin and dry as sticks.

“Cough cough… one Kratos got away.” One of the black shadows seemed to have taken a final blow from the Ancient Dragon before he died and was grievously injured as a result.

“He didn’t get away, that guy was just an illusion, a projection to start with. His true body was never here to start with,” said another black shadow in a deep voice.

The Demigod black shadow wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth. His forceful suppression of the Ancient Dragon’s explosion just before he died had also cost the Demigod a high price.

“It doesn’t matter, what can a Level Nine brat like that do, even if he does have a protector? Prepare to receive the Demon Master’s arrival immediately.”

Although the three of them noticed that one had escaped, they had no intention whatsoever of chasing after him, with the clear intention of causing trouble for Garen. Otherwise, there was no way a Level Nine could have escaped this easily from the clutches of two Level Fifteen Peaks and a Demigod, no matter how strong that Level Nine was.

More shadows began to slowly appear behind the three of them, and then all of the shadows began to set up a great many red candles and white human bones, while also using a black oil-like liquid to paint complicated matrices on the ground.

*******************

Far away, Garen stood on the middle level of the Cold Winter Tower, looking into the distance through the crystal glass.

The radiation surveillance area of the Cold Winter Tower spanned half the Fortress, so he knew every detail about everything within this half of the Fortress. Naturally, he was also very clear about the assassination over there. The powerhouses from Proof of Deception’s attack on the White Dragon Mountain emissaries took place directly under his watch.

He could even clearly see that Kratos was escaping from the Fortress desperately under the protection of a mysterious person.

“A Level Fourteen guardian…” Through the senses enhanced by the Wizard Tower, Garen could easily tell just how strong the powerhouse protecting Kratos was. “Too bad, if they were surrounded by many matrices, we should be able to keep them from leaving. Looks like those people from Proof of Deception sincerely intend to cause me some trouble… They want me to take a share of the burden.”

Naturally, Garen understood their intention. But that was fine, he was already a member of the Dragons of Disaster, after all, and he was also a Void Demon Lord to boot. It was not quite possible for him to mix with the White Dragon Mountain. Might as well make his stand clear as soon as possible.

He raised his head and looked at the sky, where the blood-colored moon was growing an even more vicious shade of red.