Chapter 611: Wizards’ base
Michael and the group set off and continued onwards, with Alaric leading the way.
And much to their surprise, he showed that he was more than able to keep up with their speeds.
As long as it was just pure velocity, he could always use his magic. At least in that regard, he was definitely much better than them.
Of course, following them behind were his two drones. He made sure to be extra careful and leave a lot of distance between them and the group.
And while he was running with this group, Michael saw that their bodies were glowing with Aubility Power even though they didn’t seem like they were using their Aubility.
It permeated their bodies, with small threads coming out of their GodForge pieces and acting as a kind of new vein system that supplied not blood but Aubility Power.
If he wanted to, he could even charge his batteries with the passive AP that they were giving off. With their 9th stage cultivation, even just a tiny dip into their powers would give him at least 5% charge.
Of course, that would be way too risky.
[Not bad, these guys. They are starting to understand how to truly use the powers of their Diva. But that’s to be expected since they’re already in the 9th stage.]
Do you think I’ll be able to learn it like them?
[Kukuku, with me, it’ll be a piece of cake.]
Maybe I could ask them how to do it instead, he said half joking and half serious.
[You’ll learn nothing from them. Their Divas are mere empty shells.]
For a second, he thought he heard a sympathetic tone coming from Harbinger.
You keep talking about that and saying that their Divas are empty shells. What does that mean? Is it just because they can’t talk unlike you?
[...]
After this question, Harbinger just stayed silent, refusing to answer any more questions.
He would have wanted to pry more, but Alaric’s voice caught his attention.
"We’re getting near," he said, signalling to everyone to slow down and lay low.
"Where are we going?" he asked them, completely clueless.
Aerith moved closer towards his ear and whispered, "We’re tracking down the base of those wizards."
As it turned out, their first order of business was to steal the flag of the Magic Tower.
And judging from their speedy work and voiceless communication, it seemed like they had been planning this from the start.
"There’s six of us," Alaric stated, not including Michael for obvious reasons. "And since we defeated one of their mages, there’s only going to be four of them left protecting their flag."
Basically, they were using their numerical advantage over the other teams. All six of them would work together to dismantle the other three teams one by one, getting their flags in the process.
It was a divide and conquer type of strategy, which seemed to be the very best option given the circumstances.
"It’s even more likely that there’s only three of them protecting the flag," Bobby added. "I’ve heard that that prodigy doesn’t play well with others."
"Prodigy?"
"Braxton Higgs. The genius of the Guild of Arcana. He’s hailed to be one of the next Mystic Masters in the future," Bobby answered.
"He was one of the very few people that we have to worry about," warned Alaric. "From what I’ve gathered, he’s also in the 9th stage of Body Formation.
Because of his talent in both Diva Cultivation as well as the Mystic Arts, he has freedom to do whatever he wants. He probably won’t be staying at their base protecting the flag. That wouldn’t be fun for someone like him, which is good for us."
He was quite interested to see this Braxton fellow. There were a lot of things he could learn from the guy. Specifically, he wanted to know how he could combine magic spells and Aubilities together.
"So if all goes well, we can find the flag in their base easily," Aerith assured.
They continued onwards, with Alaric raising his right hand and letting out the chain from underneath his sleeve.
It weaved through the fabric and out in the open, pointing straight into a specific direction. Alaric would then follow this path, knowing that it would lead him to where he wanted.
Eventually, they reached a seemingly normal place in the forest, no mountain, no river, and with no stand-out features whatsoever—just plain trees.
"That’s their base," Alaric declared.
Everyone looked around, but saw no sign of those wizards anywhere. However, they knew that Alaric’s chain would never lead them wrong.
Alaric confidently walked through to the forest, and suddenly, his entire body disappeared as if he stepped into another dimension.
The others followed suit, with Michael not far behind.
It’s a nice illusion, he remarked.
And using his Drone Vision, he saw that there was a huge rectangular wall of magic and mana right in front of him.
Now normally, he would have spotted this enormous use of magic immediately. He would have seen it from a mile away.
However, he noticed that there was an Aubility imbued within the very magic spell itself! It allowed mana to be hidden from view. Of course, if he had peered a little closer, he would have seen them immediately.
He stepped inside the illusion and suddenly saw a completely different scenery.
There were skyscrapers made out of stacked books all around this region of the Pocket Dimension. Even the skies had been freed from any clouds, letting them see through the starry night in the skies.
But however much interesting this ’base’ that the wizards made for themselves, none of it compared to the small item right in the very middle of this book ’city’.
A glowing blue flag stood valiantly in an empty clearing.
This was none other than the Magic Tower’s very own flag! This was what they were here for in the first place.
But of course, Alaric and the others reigned in their excitement.
Even though the flag was right in front of their grasp, they didn’t believe for a second that there wasn’t any kind of defense mechanism around to protect it.
"Is that the real flag?" Aeirth asked, suspicious.
"That’s the real thing. You can’t fake that," declared Alaric.
"But where are the mages that were supposed to protect the flag? They wouldn’t have left them alone like this," Bobby said, echoing Aerith’s suspicion.
Everyone stayed where they were, wary of a trap that they might set off.
"This is for sure a trap, but we need that flag. We’ll just deal with them when they come. Michael, you stay there with your flag and the other three will protect you," Alaric said, nodding at the three 8th stage Maugnetics beside Michael.
They nodded back to Alaric and turned away from Michael, making sure that no one could ambush him.
Alaric, Aerith, and Bobby walked towards the blue flag carefully.
But even as they got extremely close to the blue flag, there still weren’t any traps that sprung up from anywhere. It truly looked like they abandoned the blue flag thinking no one would find their base.
Meanwhile, Michael used this chance to survey his surroundings with his drones.
Just then, he saw three bright orange glows hiding behind the book skyscrapers.