Chapter 757: Complex Situation
Lorianne arrived at the northern icefield on the third day after Sein’s arrival.
At that time, Sein was still getting used to his new magic tower.
The summons from his mentor sent Sein flying straight to the center of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s fortress base.
At the same time, a large metal fortress appeared in the sky, casting a vast shadow over the ground.
Lorianne was not in her space fortress; she received Sein in a lofty magic tower within the base.
By now, with over a hundred thousand legions under his command, Sein was qualified to attend the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s high-level meetings.
When Sein arrived at his mentor’s magic tower, he was accompanied by seven Rank Three grand mages, all holding important positions in the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s command center for this war.
Lorianne sort of knew how her precious apprentice had earned the favor of the Verdant Wilderness World’s guardian.
She could not help but look at her apprentice with pride, particularly impressed by his ability to summon tens of thousands of undead creatures, including a demigod-level skeletal dragon.
Every capable mentor wished for their apprentice to surpass them, rather than just coasting on the legacies of their predecessors.
So far, Lorianne was very pleased by Sein’s growth.
Inside the magic tower, Lorianne briefed Sein and the others on the next phase of the war.
“The Rank Four battle that will take place on the northern icefield won’t last long. I will be heading north to support my mentor after a few days of rest,” she began.
“But before that, there are things I need to inform all of you,” she said, addressing the group in the conference room.
“While the war in the north may be brief, breaking through the space-time rift and invading the other plane is not going to be easy for our Magus Civilization. Barring unforeseen circumstances, more combat legions and Rank Four or higher powerhouses from the Magus World will continue to arrive in this world.”
She then turned to her apprentice and said, “Sein, you will need to manage the relations between them and the native creatures of this plane.”
Sein was not entirely sure where these “combat legions and Rank Four or higher powerhouses” his mentor spoke of would come from.
Nevertheless, he nodded in agreement. After all, he had already built rapport with White Spirit, Green Spikefur King, and the demigod-level Kingfisher.
After addressing Sein, Lorianne moved on to discuss legion mobilization with the other Rank Three grand mages.
It was clear that the upcoming period would be extremely busy, and even Lorianne’s pace of speech reflected the urgency.
For the very first time, Sein realized that his mentor could be swift and decisive when necessary.
***
While another war was on the brink of erupting in the Verdant Wilderness World, a heated debate was also taking place back in the distant Magus World.
There were differing opinions on whether to fully invade the medium-sized world civilization known as the Wild Gorilla World.
While the ignorant inhabitants of Wild Gorilla World knew nothing of Magus Civilization, the mages of Magus World had already gathered a deeper understanding of their opponents after obtaining key information about their world.
Astrologers of the Magus Civilization had even deduced the approximate coordinates of Wild Gorilla World’s star domain.
It was indeed a medium-sized world civilization, occupying as many as hundreds of complete planes.
The wild gorilla clan certainly had reason to be arrogant; they were the strongest civilization in their star domain.
However, compared to the mighty Magus Civilization, the strength of the Wild Gorilla Clan was insignificant.
More importantly, the Wild Gorilla World was not the only medium-sized plane in that star domain.
According to the information gathered, at least two other medium-sized world civilizations, comparable to Wild Gorilla World, also existed in that region.
Furthermore, the star domain was home to numerous independent smaller worlds and microplanes. Some of them, sandwiched between larger and more powerful civilizations, had even formed alliances.
Unlike the Magus World, which had the power to dominate and destroy most neighboring civilizations, many of these planes maintained a fragile balance with the forces surrounding them after long periods of development.
This was the case in the star domain where the Wild Gorilla World was located.
Divine Tower of Verdant Spring and Divine Tower of Verdant Flame were not the first to discover this star domain.
In fact, as early as three thousand years ago, the Magus Alliance had established contact with several low-level planes in that region, as well as the medium-sized world behind them, known as the Blue Violet Star.
The Magus Civilization’s approach to foreign expansion was not limited to war.
They would also often send envoys and trade delegations to world civilizations that were extremely distant or located in strategic areas to forge alliances and exchange benefits.
This had been the case with Blue Violet Star and its neighboring planes.
After thousands of years of effort from the Magus Alliance, Blue Violet Star and its neighboring planes gradually came to understand the power of Magus Civilization and expressed interest in joining the Magus Alliance.
However, the star domain was located far from Magus World’s central influence, and its astrographical position was highly unique.
As a result, the Magus Civilization’s interactions had been limited to solely the Blue Violet Star, without any knowledge of the other small and medium-sized world civilizations that lay beyond it, including the Wild Gorilla World.
It was never wise to underestimate the seemingly weaker world civilizations in the Astral Realm.
Blue Violet Star had been in contact with the Magus Alliance for thousands of years, though the relationship had always been tentative.
The plane had only decided to join the Magus Alliance recently, but even then, it did not reveal much about the situation surrounding its star domain.
This caution was enough to prove that Blue Violet Star still held a degree of wariness toward the Magus Civilization.
Blue Violet Star was a prosperous, multi-racial, medium-sized world civilization. Despite the vast diversity of races and creatures inhabiting the plane, its dominant species were a relatively rare group of draconic creatures.
The difficulty of reproduction among draconic species wasn’t limited to just the Magus World but the entire Astral Realm.
Their immense innate power came at the cost of limited reproductive abilities.
The Astral Realm was fair.
If Blue Violet Star had not been so far from the Magus Civilization, and if it were not located in a buffer zone between the Magus Civilization and another top-tier civilization known as the Gallant Federation, the Magus World would have likely sent troops to forcibly annex it long ago rather than spending thousands of years to bring it under their influence.
The mages of Magus World were not known for their patience or benevolence.
The small number of draconic creatures on Blue Violet Star would not have been enough to halt the advance of Magus Civilization either.
At present, the heated debate within the Magus World centered on whether to conquer the Wild Gorilla World by force.
If war were to break out, a larger conflict between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation might be ignited due to the strategic location of this medium-sized star domain.
A war that devastated Wild Gorilla World might also unravel the diplomatic work the Magus Alliance had been cultivating with Blue Violet Star over the last three thousand years.
It was highly probable that the intelligent creatures of Blue Violet Star, under the same star domain as Wild Gorilla World, would reject Magus Civilization’s overtures under the pressure of survival, potentially aligning with Wild Gorilla World against the Magus Alliance.
Of course, the Magus World did not particularly care about losing those two or three medium-sized world civilizations.
The real concern among Magus World’s higher-ups was that these civilizations might eventually align with the Gallant Federation due to the war.
Such a scenario was not unprecedented in the Magus Civilization’s history.
Currently, the two opposing main forces within Magus World were the Pyro Secret Society and the Dragon Warlock Clan.
The Pyro Secret Society was strongly pro-war, and it was Rank Six mage Feylis who had led the charge when the war in Verdant Wilderness World broke out.
By the time the war fully broke out, the Pyro Secret Society would undoubtedly stand to gain the most.
With such obvious benefits at hand, how could Zenasus, the peak Rank Seven soul overmage, resist?
In the meantime, Feylis had been rallying allies, primarily calling upon mages and knights of Rank Four and above from the Pyro Secret Society and its affiliated organizations.
Many mages and knights had mobilized their legions, eager to invade the star domain.
At this point, there was no turning back.
On the opposing side, the Dragon Warlock Clan had its own reasons for opposing the war, primarily due to its previous involvement in leading the Magus Alliance’s negotiations with Blue Violet Star.
Although the Dragon Warlock Clan claimed its primary concern was the overall interest of Magus World, aiming to prevent civilizations like Wild Gorilla World from falling into the hands of the Gallant Federation, the situation was far more complex.
These top-tier forces within Magus World had their own interests to protect.
The entire Astral Realm was driven by profits, and the Magus Civilization was no exception.
The Dragon Warlock Clan was one of the oldest and most powerful forces in the Magus Civilization.
During the primordial era, when the Dragon Warlock Clan held sway over the Magus Plane, Zenasus, the founder of the Pyro Secret Society, had likely not even been born yet.
Yet today, Zenasus, a peak Rank Seven mage and one of the most influential figures in the Magus Civilization, held the highest authority in the Magus World in the absence of the elder Rank Eight powerhouses.
Fresh off a successful conquest of the Neisse Civilization, Zenasus’s reputation and prestige were on the rise throughout the Magus World.
He was also closely allied with Lady Bev, a fellow peak Rank Seven soul overmage and the leader of Steel City and the Marmett Union Alliance.
Although the Pyro Secret Society’s overall strength was somewhat weaker than that of the Dragon Warlock Clan, Zenasus held his own against Bhaal, the head of the Dragon Warlock Clan, who was also a peak Rank Seven Warlock.
In reality, most of the top powerhouses of Magus World maintained good relations with one another privately.
Bhaal and Zenasus were overlords and overmages that emerged in the same era. They had also fought side by side on more than one occasion.
However, interests were a separate matter.
The two represented not only themselves but also the forces behind them, including many knights and mages of Rank Four and above.
This debate between the Pyro Secret Society and the Dragon Warlock Clan had raged on for half a year without reaching a resolution.
The two Rank Six Gorilla Gods would never have imagined that as their clan and world faced imminent extinction, two peak Rank Seven soul overmages from Magus World were locked in a power struggle.
If the Wild Gorilla Clan were to be destroyed, they should feel proud that their downfall had drawn the attention of such powerful beings in the Astral Realm.
After all, only a few creatures, including those at peak Rank Six, would ever have the chance to encounter an overlord or overmage in their lifetime.
Rank Seven or higher beings were rare. Even in Magus World, there were only a few dozen of them at most.
In the end, the arbitration of this conflict was handed over to Sky City.
Since this was a sensitive issue that could affect the delicate balance with the Gallant Federation, the heads of all the major powers within Magus World needed to convene and deliberate.
This also marked the initial clash between Magus World and the Gallant Federation.
Astrologers and top powerhouses in the Magus World had long predicted that an all-out war between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation would erupt in roughly ten thousand years.
In this light, the war that was unfolding around the Wild Gorilla Star Domain could be seen as a prelude—a warm-up for the inevitable conflict between these two top-tier civilizations.