Volume 10, Chapter 49 – The Curtain Rises on the Conflict

“The magic airships are airborne, and the coastal defense cannons are charged and ready to fire at any moment. Your Majesty, all preparations are complete. We await only your command.”

Atop the Tower of Wilfred, Schumann, the city lord, dressed in splendid noble attire, reported with a solemn expression.

Adonis, her back to Schumann, gave a slight nod.

“I understand. When I activate the Tower of Wilfred, demons could appear in the city and at sea at any moment. I will not be able to spare the tower’s power to provide support. Carl, Bayldes, you may proceed to the port and the city center to supervise. If demons appear, annihilate them, no matter the cost.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. We obey your command.”

Dropping to one knee, Carl and Bayldes each used [Flight] magic to head toward the port and the city below.

Letting out a soft breath, Adonis turned to face the sea. Now, only Schumann, Yisi, and herself remained on the Tower of Alexia. With Schumann here, there were certain things she couldn’t say.

“Schumann, you may go as well.”

“But Your Majesty, your safety…”

Schumann glanced instinctively at Yisi, who was standing beside Adonis. Although he had seen Yisi at the commendation ceremony, seeing was not the same as trusting. As a representative of the Ymir Church, Yisi had no right to be on the Tower of Wilfred. Her presence alone was enough to astonish Schumann, to say nothing of the fact that once he left, the Emperor of the Norta Empire and the Cardinal of the Ymir Church would be alone. If this Cardinal harbored ill intentions, no one would be able to rescue Adonis in time.

Adonis, reading his expression, frowned slightly.

“With Cardinal Yisi here, who can slay a five-headed Hydra with ease, no one can threaten my safety. The only reason I am standing here now is because she rescued me from a Hydra’s mouth. I will not permit anyone to doubt her. Furthermore, Schumann, as the city lord—no, although you no longer hold that post, you must still assist Bradley below in coordinating the garrison. After this battle, the empire will completely sever its past cooperation with the demons, and we will face an unprecedented crisis. We must commit every resource we have, with no reservations.”

Yisi chimed in with a wry smile.

“Lord Schumann, please rest assured. Exterminating demons is the duty of the Ymir Church. On this matter, the Church and the empire’s interests are one and the same.”

Though still not entirely at ease, Schumann had to nod, as Adonis had spoken so definitively.

“…Yes.”

A white light enveloped Schumann, and he instantly vanished from the Tower of Wilfred.

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Yisi, witnessing this, clicked her tongue softly. Adonis raised an eyebrow.

“Is this your first time seeing the power of a Tower of Alexia?”

“No… not the first time. It’s just… every time I see it, I find it incredible.”

From her own observations, the Towers of Alexia differed not only in their magic storage capacity but also in height. For example, the Tower of Alvier on the plains was about two hundred meters taller than the Tower of Hermion in the snowy mountains. But even the shortest, the Tower of Niru, was at least a thousand meters tall. Furthermore, the towers were hollow, with no stairs or [Float Board]-like magic inside. Under these conditions, even using [Flight], only someone over level 40 could ascend to this height.

Therefore, the tower’s owner could only use its teleportation function to ascend. Although this ability was nothing surprising to her, at level 427, one had to remember that the Towers of Alexia were constructs of this world. Given the average level of this world’s people, creating such a structure was a miracle among miracles.

“Not your first time? Right, as a Cardinal, you must have been to the Tower of Ymir. What do you think? My Wilfred is more beautiful than the Ymir Territory, isn’t it? This view, as if the entire world is laid out before you… one never tires of it.”

“The premise being that you install railings around the tower.”

None of the Towers of Alexia had railings. When the wind picked up, you felt like you could be blown off. For someone with a fear of heights, even standing in the very center of the tower would make their legs go weak.

“Hehe, a strange thought. The reason there are no railings is that only those with courage are qualified to stand here. This isn’t just my opinion; this saying has been passed down ever since humanity discovered the secrets of the towers. I agree with it.”

“I think it’s because the people who made the towers never actually came up here, so they didn’t notice the safety hazard.”

If they really wanted to test people’s courage, they shouldn’t have installed convenient teleportation magic. They should have made people climb up and down with their bare hands. That would be a far greater test than a lack of railings.

“The people who made it?” Yisi’s words made Adonis turn her head, her beautiful red eyes filled with astonishment. “The Towers of Alexia are a gift from nature, a miracle that sprouted from the ley lines during the war between the Blood Clan and humans a thousand years ago. How could any being have created them? Besides, hasn’t the Church always said the towers are a gift from the gods?”

“If they were a gift from the gods, then the Towers of Alexia shouldn’t have appeared on the Blood Clan’s side.”

No matter how one looked at it, the towers reeked of being artificial. But Yisi didn’t argue the point with Adonis. This was another world, one with magic. Things that seemed incredible to her might be commonplace to its people. Besides, she still didn’t know the exact origin of the towers. Arguing without any evidence was just being difficult.

I can ask Tina when I get back.

“Well then, time to get to business. I am about to cut off the magic supply from Wilfred City to the southwestern sea region. It will take about fifteen minutes. During that time, I cannot leave the Tower of Wilfred. Although only those I permit can enter the tower, one never knows if a powerful demon or a Fallen with strange abilities might find a way in. If that happens, I’ll be counting on you, Cardinal Yisi.”

“Mm, leave it to me.”

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As she spoke, Yisi took the Blade of Fatality from her storage and quietly activated [Omniscient Map].

Seeing this, Adonis nodded.

“Let’s begin.”

She stepped forward solemnly, placing her right hand on the crystal core at the very center of the tower’s peak. As if confirming her identity, the floating crystal first emitted a white light. After confirming it was Adonis, the light quickly turned blue. Immediately, numerous profound magic circles appeared within the crystal. Even Yisi could only understand the meaning of a small fraction of them.

Things I don’t understand will still be things I don’t understand, no matter how long I stare at them. I might as well focus on observing the ley lines.

Although Adonis said “cut off” the magic supply, it was more accurate to say she was reversing the flow of ley line magic, from “land to sea” to “sea to land.” Magic in the ley lines doesn’t just disappear. Like water flowing from high to low, it flows from places with abundant magic to places with less. What the Towers of Alexia could do was change this trend, artificially controlling the direction of the magic flow to a desired location.

“Magic in the ley lines… I hear it mentioned often, but it doesn’t feel real.”

To her, it was just something invisible and intangible, yet it truly existed. For example, in places rich with ley line magic, plants and animals would be stronger, and people born and living there would have a higher affinity for the elements.

Wait. If ley line magic can affect the creatures on the surface, and Adonis is redirecting its flow right now, could I observe the flow by watching the changes in the plants and animals? Perhaps sensitive animals might run along with the flow, like a migration.

Realizing this, Yisi activated [Wings of Hermes] and hurried to the edge of the tower to look down.

The result was that, aside from the houses below looking tiny, she didn’t see the animal migration she’d imagined. Everything was calm.

She sighed in disappointment.

“…Right.”

If changing the ley line flow caused changes in the surface creatures, Adonis would have already sent people to prepare.

“By the way, I remember [Third Form Awakening] allows me to see the flow of elements in the air. Maybe it’ll be useful now?”

Yisi glanced back at Adonis, who was completely focused on changing the magic flow and had no time to pay attention to her.

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No time to waste.

[Third Form Awakening].

Cat ears and a fox tail appeared simultaneously. Yisi flapped her wings gently, flying right off the Tower of Wilfred. After concentrating slightly, the colorful, ribbon-like elements in the air appeared before her eyes. Just as before, when her third form appeared, the elements swarmed to her like pets seeing their master. Visually, the elements in the air were like an ocean of colorful pigments, and she was the vortex in that ocean, endlessly drawing the water in.

Once again, Yisi looked down.

Unlike before, the flowing ley lines now appeared before her eyes.

“Oooh… This is truly magnificent.”

Although the elemental ribbons obscured her vision, the magic flowing in the earth was so conspicuous that it was hard not to see it.

“So these are the ley lines.”

When she first came to the continent of Alexia, she had thought ley lines were pipes buried deep underground. But now, it seemed the so-called ley lines were just magic-rich zones formed by the convergence of vast amounts of magic. Under [Third Form Awakening], the magic in the earth appeared as white particles. Individually, these particles were as inconspicuous as a firefly’s glow next to an incandescent light. But when tens of millions of them gathered, the river they formed was dazzling. In her vision, it was like the Milky Way in a summer night sky.

Under the control of the Tower of Wilfred, these white particles were gradually slowing their flow from land to sea, and even showing a tendency to reverse. It was worth noting that while all the ley lines within Wilfred City obeyed the tower’s command, the magic near Cornelia’s Mansion remained completely still.

Cornelia’s Mansion really is like a miniature Tower of Alexia.

In addition, Yisi noticed a few other interesting things. For example, the ley lines didn’t completely cover the whole of Wilfred City, but merely passed through it. On either side of the flowing lines were two magic-poor zones with very few white particles. These two zones happened to be the city’s slums and remote villages. The Luring Fruit plantation near Cornelia’s Mansion had only two or three scattered particles.

No wonder the eggs those villagers gave me were so small, and the bacon didn’t taste good. It seems it’s due to the lack of ley line magic. I should use Cornelia’s Mansion to change the magic flow later.

Soon, Yisi noticed an abnormality.

“What are those things that look like dark clouds…”

If the flowing ley lines were a river, then at the river’s end were numerous narrow, branching tributaries. At the junctions where the tributaries met the main river, there were many ominous, cloud-like fog banks. Yisi was certain this wasn’t a trick of her eyes; they had to be man-made. These “clouds” at the junctions were obstructing the flow. When the ley line magic began to reverse, from sea to land, the clouds acted like sluice gates, trapping the magic in the tributaries and preventing it from flowing into the main channel. Yisi roughly estimated there were over a hundred of these “clouds.”

“This is bad…”

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Deactivating [Third Form Awakening], Yisi went straight to Adonis. Although she didn’t know the consequences of too much magic gathering in one place, she was certain that as long as those “clouds” were there, Adonis would have a hard time reversing the flow. They only permitted magic to flow from land to sea, not in the direction Adonis planned.

“Adonis, I suggest you stop today’s operation—”

The moment her voice fell, a tremor ran through the earth. It was faint, but absolutely undeniable. Yisi instinctively looked back at the ground.

Her blue pupils shrank.

A piece of the land was missing.

Just as the words described, the land near the sea had suddenly sunk. An area the size of five or six soccer fields had become part of the sea. If she remembered correctly, that was the exact spot where the ley line magic had been congesting. Fortunately, no one lived on that cliff, or the consequences would have been unthinkable.

I can’t wait any longer.

Yisi grabbed Adonis’s shoulder.

“Adonis, you can’t continue.”

No response.

Is she too focused?

Clicking her tongue, Yisi frowned. Even if this was a critical moment, she couldn’t let Adonis go on. There were over a hundred of those “clouds.” If she let this continue, half of Wilfred would disappear, not to mention the tsunami that would follow the land’s collapse.

However, Yisi soon realized Adonis was in an abnormal state. Her back had been to her before, so she hadn’t noticed. But now, moving to Adonis’s side, she saw her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, her face a bloodless pale, and her expression contorted in pain.

This is terrible.

Without another moment of hesitation, Yisi forcibly pulled Adonis away from the crystal. Like a kite with its string cut, Adonis fell backward, unconscious.

She was set up by the demons.