Legacy of the Dark Sage

The magic fluctuations caused by the confrontations between Auto-one and the Ancients against the automatons and Ladon and Thorn's attempt to break the Dimension created by one of the Ancients' treasures drew the attention of those other groups that were also sent to the seventh floor.

Contrary to their initial belief, the Solis group they encountered was not the last to be transported to the tower's seventh level. In a twist of events, four more groups were unexpectedly transported, two of which came from the Solis Clan as well. This added to the complexity of the situation.

Because communication was impossible inside the tower, groups from the same clan could not inform the ones before them who were transported first to the same floor that they were there. Only the last group knew that two more groups had arrived before them, and the group before them knew of the first.

All four groups also encountered challenges that involved dealing with puppets or automatons. There was also a group that got trapped inside an area loaded with Array Formation that they had to decipher. At the moment, that group had yet to leave the area successfully.

This was not to say they did not have anyone who was familiar with Array because, as mentioned previously, almost everyone in the Higher Realm was knowledgeable about it. The reason they were still in that place was simply because they were one of those clans who seriously wanted to receive enlightenment and improve themselves.

One of the other two groups from the Solis Clan just left an area filled with traps and giant puppets. As soon as they left the room, they immediately sensed the magic fluctuations from the two locations.

"You think there is a group clashing at this moment?"

One of the members asked their acting leader.

The mage, whose face was hidden under a spacious hood, looked toward the direction of the magic fluctuations. From the mage's figure, it was not wrong to say she was a female.

"We can't rule that out," the female mage replied to the mage who had just spoken to her right.

"There is a possibility that a group encountered a treasure and is trying to subdue it," the other male mage standing to the acting leader's left side suggested.

"Yes," the acting leader agreed. "The magic fluctuation in that direction is too d*mn high that if not a clash between two groups, which included the Dragon Clan representatives, can only be produced by an Ancient treasure."

"Do you think the first group encountered the Dragon Clan group then?"

The acting leader shook her head, "I can't say for sure. At the moment, there are two locations emitting those frightening magic fluctuations. There is only one Dragon Clan group, so if anything, they are only present in one location."

"But didn't one of their member join hands with that new clan, Lacus? That group may be the one producing that magic fluctuation."

"No. The Lacus Clan is weak. Even if the rumors that the Dragon Clan gifted them with valuable knowledge are true, they could not have improved in such a short time..."

The acting leader's voice faded as she fell into contemplation.

It was a little annoying that they could only contact members of the same group and not the same clan, even if their tablets were connected, while inside the tower. One could say that the network inside the tower was different. Thus, the connection between the tablets of mages in the same clan was rendered useless.

On the other hand, a group was granted a bond of some sort that allowed them to use the tower's connection, making it possible for them to send out short-distance telepathy messages.

"Since we can't rendezvous with the others, we'll have to be extra careful. We'll check what is happening on the left side," the acting leader decided after a short pause.

"Okay."

The two members of her group agreed.

Without wasting any more time, they went on their way.

On the other hand, another group of three wearing a loose cloak over dark leather armor and a white mask with a rune letter painted on its surface right at the middle were gazing at the location to their left.

No one spoke any words and only went in the direction of the magic fluctuations. Whether they planned to observe the situation on the right or the left from the intersection, only they were in the know.

Meanwhile, Ladon and Thorn continued to bombard the active dimension's surface using different Draconic-based spells that their dragon tribe specializes.

For example, Ladon used Draconic magic that called upon Water elements, while Thorn called upon Gold elements.

Transparent silhouettes of water and gold dragons roared and crashed their heads to the dimension's surface.

Boom! Boom!

Crack! Crack!

With every head butt the dragons did, cracks would appear on the surface of the dimension. Still, no matter how many times they did this or how fast they crashed their heads on the surface, the crack would mend by themselves.

Thorn jumped back and landed beside Ladon, who was a few meters away from the dimension's periphery.

The two dragons, one light blue and the other gold, continued to crash their heads on the dimension's surface, sending bits and pieces of it flying out.

"This is getting nowhere, Ladon," Thorn grumbled. "Even if we do not have any problem in magic energy consumption because we can just absorb more naturally, eventually we'll be too exhausted to move."

"I know," Ladon replied with furrowed brows. "I want to end this soon, too, because the magic fluctuation being produced around us worries me."

"That too," Thorn agreed. "I don't sense anyone nearby, but if other groups are sent here and sense the crazy amount of magic energy activity in this area, they will be drawn here. I really don't want us to get interrupted."

"Hm," Ladon replied with a nod. "We can only attempt to destroy the Dimension from the inside."

"But going in is the problem. Without knowing the rules of that dimension, we could end up becoming powerless inside," Thorn reminded with a sigh.

Ladon also sighed. To be honest, he had yet to fully understand what Kyran wanted them to accomplish by going there. He did explain to them that the treasure inside the Dimension could help them.

But how?

Ladon did not know when, but suddenly, he seemed to view Kyran as their leader. The thought took him by surprise to the point it scared him.

They barely knew Kyran, and although they more or less guessed what happened that made him end up in the Higher Realm, that did not really mean he was more powerful than them.

Ladon's gaze fell to the floor, and immediately, an idea flashed in his mind. He looked at Thorn, who was about to return to punching the dimension's surface and stopped him.

"I have an idea."

Thorn stopped short and turned to look at Ladon. He had an ugly scowl on his face as he replied, "This has better be good."

On the left side of the intersection, Kyran and Cyneah remained in the rear and continued to observe Auto-one and the others.

By then, Diara and the rest of the Ancients were aware of Kyran's presence. Thus, they did not slack even a second when dealing with the automatons. Still, rather than destroying them completely, they made full use of their special body constitution to pass through the automaton's bodies and trigger their shutdown code.

After that, they swept the automaton that had fallen unconscious and brought them to the side so they would not get caught up with the Auto-one and Aki's attacks.

Auto-one would stun or shock the automaton's systems to cause a system failure, which would forcefully shut them down. On the other hand, Aki would disable the automaton's movements by destroying a joint or bashing their heads together—this was only if he confirmed the automaton's system was not located there.

"Their numbers don't seem to be decreasing," Cyneah noticed when the number of lights before her remained the same.

"It's not increasing either," Kyran assured her. "In fact, the reason there is no decrease in lights has more to do with our side not destroying the automatons."

Cyneah's face darkened as she remarked, "Are you not worried that an accident may happen because you want to keep these automatons intact?"

"Not really," Kyran answered cheekily. "But well... if something did happen, I'll just strike them with my magic."

"You seemed to have grown fond of striking your opponents."

Kyran chuckled. Before he could tell her why he had only recently used lightning-like attacks on his opponents, he sensed an approaching danger and looked behind them.

Cyneah sensed a sudden change in Kyran's attitude and asked worriedly, "What is it?"

"We have incoming."

"More Ancients or Automatons?"

"No," Kyran replied with furrowed brows as he recognized the presence coming from the approaching group.

Before he could say it aloud, Shaiha had already spoken within his sea of consciousness.

[...They are from the Blade Dancer Clan.]