Chapter 124
The army’s supreme commander took a deep breath before shouting, “SILENCE!”
Commander Ragnar Devis was a 1.84 meter tall black man with shaved hair and black eyes. He was wearing his army uniform, with more stars and decorations than buttons.
His loud, husky voice drowned out all the nobles, who immediately fell silent and listened to what he had to say. It was amazing how loud the Supreme Commander’s voice could sound without the mana enhancement, as using any kind of skill or enchantment was forbidden inside the royal palace.
Any attempt to extract the mana from within the core would be detected and the large-scale spells would activate, immobilizing the person immediately.
“Arguing like this won’t get us anywhere. While you guys are barking at each other, the soldiers in the fortress may still be alive and fighting for their lives. We must send reinforcements immediately!” The commander’s voice spread like thunder and many nobles flinched.
“And for what? Give more soldiers to the enemy? Why not gift-wrap them at once?” A sarcastic voice answered him and the entire room gasped. Commander Ragnar turned angrily in the direction of the voice, only to see the master of magic staring straight at him, not at all intimidated.
The order of magic had a narrow hierarchy starting with apprentices<mages<archmages<masters of magic<elders. Apprentices were those who still attended magic academies and weren\'t even considered true mages, while elders were the apex any mage could reach.
As a master of magic, the envoy of the order was in a high position where even the king would have to choose his words when addressing him. The church and order were intercontinental organizations headquartered in two great empires on the adula continent.
.....
Whether in technology or power, they surpassed the realm of Mirkor. Even portal technology was unique to the order, something the realm was unable to replicate. No court mage was able to alter the teleportation crystals, but the order was able to somehow.
The kingdom was in the midst of negotiations to buy portals and install them in major cities to facilitate movement, so everyone was walking on eggshells around the envoy, trying their hardest not to get into his bad books.
"It\'s the soldiers of our kingdom dying! Do you expect me to stand still knowing they are dying?" Commander Hot Head seemed to have forgotten that fact and pointed at him rudely.
"So what\'s your plan to rescue them? Use your unnecessarily loud voice as a sonic attack to kill the undead? And how do you plan to deal with the plant monster afterward?" the master of magic asked sarcastically.
"We can order the court mages to prepare large-scale spells before sending them through the portals, destroying that plant in one fell swoop!! After that, our soldiers will have an easy time with the leaderless undead." Commander Ragnar shouted, but the master of magic only sighed.
"Did we really watch the same battle? The speed of that plant monster was something surreal, to the point where a seventh tier warrior like that general would barely be able to react to your movements. If you intend to cast an offensive spell, I have my doubts if you will be able to hit him." The master of magic said.
"We can use a large-scale holy field to lessen its power-" The commander tried to argue, but the master of magic cut him off again.
"Even if you successfully create a holy field, which I personally doubt, we\'ve all seen the monster teleport into a sphere of darkness and bypass anti-teleportation spells. What guarantees it won\'t do the same again?" The master of magic silenced the commander at that moment.
No one in the throne room knew how the plant monster had managed to appear in the midst of the mages\' formation, but they understood the implications this would have. Even if they destroyed all the undead and successfully used a holy field, the monster could flee at any moment and all their efforts would be wasted.
The safest idea would be to go with the general\'s first idea and cast a large-scale spell to kill the monster in one shot, but that would be nearly impossible to do in practice. As long as the enchantment that forces teleport outside the wall is active, it would be impossible to take the plant monster by surprise.
The purple portals weren\'t as convenient as the order made them out to be. No order mage had set foot in the strongholds as the realm had insisted that maintaining the borders was their duty, so it would be impossible to teleport there normally.
What no one knew except the order was that the teleportation crystals resonated with each other, but at a frequency that no creature in this world could feel. An archmage studying the crystals noticed this by accident and reported his discovery to the order, who invested nearly unlimited resources to investigate.
By studying this unique resonance, they were able to create magic items capable of detecting other crystals, thus facilitating the discovery of new crystals and allowing the order to create portals in the coordinates of previously discovered crystals.
It was one of Ricley\'s duties while he was in Faltra, to record the frequency of the crystal in the platinum fist stronghold so the order could move into the stronghold when they needed to.
The throne room was silent as everyone thought deeply about what to do. The one who broke the silence was the envoy of the church of Eishin, Cardinal Nicholas. He was an elderly man with a long white beard, but the cassock he wore did little to hide the bulging muscles all over his body.
"Unfortunately, the soldiers currently in the fortress are alone and it is impossible to rescue them. Does everyone have that in mind?" Cardinal Nicholas asked and everyone nodded, even the commander was forced to agree.
Unlike most clergy, he began his career as a crusader and then a paladin, leaving the front lines at age 110 when his body stopped developing. He decided to continue serving the church as a priest and continued his career up to his current position.
"So let\'s consider the fortress currently enemy territory and plan a crusade to reconquer it. The church lost good men today and let\'s not rest knowing that these brave servants of God are slaves to a monster. We pledge our full support in a future expedition. " Cardinal Nicholas declared firmly, causing sighs among the nobles.
The master of magic narrowed his eyes at the expected but still irritating attitude of the cardinal. He was one of the dark elder\'s apprentices and had been dispatched to this meeting when the order was informed that an undead army was attacking the fortress and that possibly they were responsible for the attack on Faltra.
The elder found it strange that Emilia\'s team did not show up in the city of Clastro after two weeks had passed and tried to contact them, but there was no response. He sent a team to investigate, but they still hadn\'t arrived at the scene.
A late awakening mana body from the darkness, the mysterious disappearance of a unit of mage slayers, and an undead army suddenly appearing in a nearby stronghold. The elder put two plus two together and realized the identity of the enemy leader and was incredibly excited.
The corpse had become an undead on its own, something strong enough to wipe out an entire unit of mage slayers and destroy a city, turning the entire local population into skeletons. How he managed to break into the fortress was still a mystery, but it only served to increase the elder\'s greed.
He sent the subordinate himself to ensure he could get the leader\'s corpse or at least samples of his body, but the plan backfired. This plant monster was not foreseen and the master of magic didn\'t know what to do now.
The master of magic wanted to close the meeting open and inform the dark elder to receive further instructions, but it would be difficult at the pace the meeting was taking. He racked his brains for a solution and said the only thing that could delay the inevitable.
"There is one thing we need to consider before we make a decision. The kingdom had informed the order that a necromancer had attacked a fortress and possibly a city as well and that is why the order decided to get involved, but we saw clearly that a monster unknown was responsible for it."
"There are many discrepancies in the information we have so far and it is extremely important to obtain concrete information about the enemy before making a decision, to avoid a massacre like we have just witnessed." The master of magic tried to appeal to the nobles\' natural laziness when it came to solving problems that don\'t directly affect them, but Commander Ragnar snorted at him.
"The order has already made clear its disinterest in this matter, so why bring this matter up now? I agree that the origin of this monster must be investigated, but its elimination takes precedence. We cannot allow such a monster to remain alive and threaten other cities or fortress!" The commander spoke and the cardinal expressed strong agreement with him.
\'You damn muscle brains, stop getting in the way,\' The master of magic thought, but a voice of help came from an unexpected direction.