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Twilight Zone, year 5782. Lancy led the human army to crush the army of the dark elves along with their empress. Magus Anya, along with rank 1 and rank 2 matriarchs, were not spared. Together with the rest of the army, they collapsed at the scene and countless lives were lost.
After Lancy’s progression to rank 3, she could feel herself being overcome with a wrecked mentality and severe side effects. She would often show radical emotions and her thinking was becoming a little impaired, This was the price for her recklessness in absorbing Sacred Flames energy.
Fortunately she has already made arrangements and had some countermeasures for her outbreak and her three helpers took care of every action which didn’t require her personal attention. After the defeat of the dark elves, all the dissent and secret plots in the central region quieted down as if they had never existed.
As a newly promoted rank 3 Magus full of vitality, one who wasn’t struggling to even protect the realm, Lancy could easily find the time to destroy those guilds that did not subject themselves to her rule. Although her behavior were a bit strange but it wasn’t something very unusual for a High Rank Magus.
Faced with the pressure from such great power, no matter how unwilling the Magi in the central region were, they dared not offend him.
All the Rank 2 Magus she caught joined together to testify that Lancy was the savior of human race and also swear allegiance to her.
Twilight Zone year 5783. Aided by her rank 3 power and the glory of defeating the dark elves, Lancy was pronounced the new Guardian of the Realm under the witness of many Magi in the central region.
From then, Lancy became the sole power controlling Twilight Zone’s Magi, and the sacrifices and darkness behind her radiant glory were often ignored by the masses.
After succeeding the title of the Guardian of the Realm, the first order passed was aimed at making Nature’s Alliance the core strength of Twilight Zone. She gathered large masses of Magi to construct the Nature’s Alliance Academy at the heart of the central region.
At first she wanted to form a kingdom but the Twilight Zone is still not ready for that, and the pros of Academy is also very significant. Lancy with her prophetic abilities could easily extract various necessary resources well hidden in some isolated part, and she had the ability to easily trim those with higher ability, prospect, trustworthy nature and greater value from the bottom feeders.
Following their model, many large guilds started to relinquish their narrow-minded restriction of meditation techniques to combine forces, as it would definitely be much stronger than the strength of individual guilds.
This was the success of the system! It was also the improvement of an era, once it became a trend, it could not be stopped!
The guilds that were left behind, in order to not be overshadowed by the academies, also had to establish institutes and enroll many acolytes to survive.
This allowed talented commoners to have a very good chance.
Academies that were more free and open could also accept roaming Magi. Without the meditation technique restriction, it became much simpler for roaming Magi who wanted to join academies.
Lancy didn’t care. What she prioritised was still the meditation techniques of the guilds and their valued research.
Indeed! Under the advocation of fair, just, transparent and free communication by the academy’s rules, guilds that joined the academy had to contribute their unique meditation techniques and some precious research.
Under her leadership, this large amount of precious information was stored in the academy’s library for all Magi to peruse, and this trend developed ardently.
It must be said that after relinquishing the narrow-minded notion of a guild, such open communication and probing indeed benefitted the Magi a lot, causing the Magi of Twilight Zone to improve their abilities.
As for these meditation techniques and research, all of it was naturally kindly accepted by Lancy, greatly increasing the A.I chip’s database.
It can be said that at this point in time, a large portion of Twilight Zone’s meditation techniques and high-level research was pocketed by Lancy, including all precious resources.
Time passed.
Finally, Lancy was able to recapture lost lands and drive away the other race forces. She combined all of the zones lastly under her reign and become the true ruler of the Twilight Zone.
She also made elven race bow their heads and accept her as their ruler in place of sparing them.
In return she got the symbol of their power—the dark elven crown, as well as the complete volume of the high-grade meditation technique, ‘Life Absorption.’
The dark elves willingly withdraw from north Twilight Zone, even pulling back till the north of the river. They also promised to supply top-grade exclusive slaves and many precious resources.
Lancy accepted. She could seer that in the future they would still have some design against the human lands but she didn’t care, because if the humans established absolute reign it would cause infighting amongst humans and political agenda would only cause a faster downfall.
The Magic equipment— Dark Elven Crown! was a piece of valuable equipment although the crown’s surface was dim, and it seemed unremarkable, It still wasn’t something to take lightly.
In the world of the Magi, magic equipment ranked far above magic artifacts. They held a mysterious power within, and usually, only Magi at rank 3 and higher would have the opportunity to come into contact with one.
Life Absorption! — This was a high-grade meditation technique passed down by the dark elves. Only dark elves who were as powerful as matriarchs were qualified to train in it.
Life Absorption was obviously rated as high-grade and was in the top class even in Twilight Zone. If not, dark elves themselves had many high-grade meditation techniques. Why would they make it a rule that it was a meditation technique to be passed down?
The characteristic of Life Absorption was that it could increase the spiritual force by robbing life force from other creatures, thus helping with breakthroughs.
The higher the level, the easier it was to gain the life force of various creatures. At the end, it could even cause a deathly vortex that was similar to a calamity, and all creatures in range would be attacked regardless of what they were.
However, this meditation technique did have its disadvantages.
As it relied on robbing life force to improve, its foundations were not stable. There had not even been a single matriarch who could break through from the rank 3 level into the Morning Star realm.
Besides, when one reached the more profound parts of the meditation technique, the Magus himself or herself would find their life force disappearing. This could not be compensated with any method other than the life force of other creatures.
The moment the life energy gained was too immense, or if the Magus’ rank was too high, the Magi who trained in Life Absorption would lose their life force at a faster rate.
This meant that every time Magi who trained in Life Absorption used it, it meant they were one step closer to the abyss of death. However, with the growth of strength and the later loss of life force, it was like a drug that influenced many Magi to use it and eventually destroy themselves.
To cultivate in this sort of meditation technique, it’s best to find an ancient creature with enough life force and drain all its life force, succeeding in training in this meditation technique all at one go.
Lancy was very pleased with the items and decided to present this to her Master.
Suddenly Lancy eyes turned white and a bit crazy expression appeared on her face, ” Master! When you come here, I would have already descended into madness. I just hope I could gaze upon your magnificence once again.”
A few days later, a shocking rumour spread.
Lady Lancy, Guardian of the Realm in Twilight Zone, charged into the dwarves’ stronghold, the Taline Caves, alone.
They said that the lord relied on her own power and barged in head on, and went all the way into the dwarves’ royal court.
Berserk lightning and the terrifying aura of death constantly shrouded the area. The battle continued for numerous days before it stopped.
From then on, however, the royal dwarven court sent out an announcement, saying that their respected ruler, King Greybeard, and various other important ministers had died from illness. The young dwarven price inherited the throne and immediately withdrew his troops…
The same thing happened in the gnome kingdom.
This time, the explosions could be seen with the naked eye. Their machinery was ruined, and the three godly weapons which represented the peak of their alchemic skills were turned into trash. Many of their outstanding artisans were also kidnapped, and thus they lost many essential resources and research material about advanced alchemy.
From then on, Lancys fame spread throughout Twilight Zone. Besides humans, even when dark elves and gnomes mentioned her name, they did so with respect. She had been titled the Sapphire Queen.
Of course, Lancy had not considered all these important, she wanted to gather benefit and she did just that. Currently, she was now in a prison like chamber in Potti City and instructing Dexter, Ivy and Freed.
“Divide the resources in the newly-recovered northern region, and prioritise the guilds who’ve sided or displayed their goodwill towards us. As for the rest of the harvest, confiscate it all.”
“..Also, for those stubborn guilds unwilling to submit to us, arrest them on the grounds of treason and colluding with the enemy. As for the evidence? Just look for Elven matriarch. I’m sure she’ll be willing to supply it.” Lancy spoke but there was trace of happiness or excitement on her face as if it didn’t matter at all. The saints knights observed her unusual behavior.
“Don’t worry about me. In order to reap the greatest benefits and gift this land upon our Masters arrival, This was a risk I was willing to take and also my own decision for the future. I wasn’t really successful as I underestimated the side effects, and even the potions have a limit to how much I can keep myself sane.” Lancy spoke as she used some sort of spell which started to freeze her body. “I am putting myself in comatose state, this was the end result of our experiment with icy cave creatures. Freed and Dexter after all the necessary arrangements is made, take a team and return to the teleportation array, Master would be coming. He has become so strong that I wasn’t even able to predict his arrival, it was only after I saw some changes in all of us, his loyal subjects that I concluded his arrival. I don’t know when he may return but you shouldn’t be tardy with your arrangements.” Lancy spoke in a loving voice as she talked to them.
“Yes, Lady Lancy.” All three bowed as they show their outmost respect for her. They also desire to fight to death for their Master cause, and reach greater heights to be of use to him, unfortunately their path is already over but when they hear about the upcoming ‘changes’, they couldn’t withheld their excitement.
A few months later, a large branch academy of Nature’s Alliance was established there. Besides being a branch in name, the facilities and allocation of staff were based on the highest standards and even bested the headquarters in the central region.
With the completion of the branch academy, Lancy gained complete control of Twilight Zone. The western and southern regions that had only been pledging their allegiance on the surface could no longer hold on and announced their agreement to support Nature’s Alliance academy in the central region. They received guidance from the great Guardian of the Realm and built a joint academy.
Twilight Zone was unified, and the prestige of the Guardian of the Realm, was deep in the hearts of the masses. Human society also began to develop at a quick rate.
It was a new page of history. The end of the former era, as well as the ascension of the new one, proceeded so quickly that many Magi found it hard to react to.
…..After Twelve Years…..
In the dark cave, spots of dark red light fluttered in the air like fireflies, as a formation light up with activity. The spell formation here was the same as that in the Ancient Spirit Slayer Sect’s secret plane.
*Bo!* As if penetrating a shapeless water membrane, Leylin and Lita arrived in a physical world, and the immense pressure from space vanished. Although the pressure while teleporting was humongous, Leylin had no trouble withstanding and he even had extra strength to shelter Lita with him. If not for his surety about their security then he wouldn’t have taken her with him.
Both Leylin and Lita observed the cave. Lita was beyond fascinated looking at every small details while Leylin was just observing casually.
‘As expected the dark elemental particles here are very dense, it would be at least 1.5 or even up to 2 here!’ Leylin used a acolyte level darkness spell and observed the difference.
“Let’s go, There are people waiting for us! ” Leylin said and took a few large steps forwards, entering the long and narrow stone passage.
This passage was quite long, and only after ten or so minutes of strolling did they reach the end.
At the end of the passage was a large stone door but currently it was opened with two of his old subordinates waiting on him. Although they brought a team with them to wait for the Lord’s arrival. It was only these two who would wait here as they wouldn’t allow anyone to know about this teleportation formation here.
As soon as they saw his figure, they immediately kneeled down and touch the floor with their heads, “Master! ”
“Freed, Dexter. You both have worked hard, You deserve to be awarded for your service but currently there is other matters to take care off.” Leylin nodded as he walked past them, Lita didn’t say anything as she was bewildered by this place.
Soon, they were standing on a little hill formed from large rocks, and surrounding them was a vast plain. There were also a large number of shrubs.
A gloomy darkness encompassed the whole area, making it so that there was no light at all. The sky was dim and looked as if it would collapse at any moment.
Vastness, gloominess, a deathly stillness! This was Leylin’s first impression about the place. Lita looked uncomfortable in this environment.
“We don’t have time for sightseeing, Lita. Stay calm, I am about to rush to our destination.” Leylin squinted his eyes as he looked in the North zone direction. Since the moment he entered the Twilight Zone the previous connection with other A. I. Chip server which was unable to send or receive information, booted and large amount of information was being delivered to him.
Lita didn’t even got to respond as suddenly her, Dexter and Freed body were levitated into the air with Leylin, and he used ‘Eidolon’ to quickly move towards the Nature Alliance’s headquarters.
After going through the A.I.Chip, Leylin quickly understand Lancy situation and the severity of the matter, to say he wasn’t pleased and a bit expectant would be a lie. Who wouldn’t like a prophetic subordinates in their corner but there is a reason why he didn’t create Coin of destiny back in Beast World. In fact their are various reasons, First and foremost the destiny of that World wasn’t as concentrated as he would like. The situation in Twilight Zone was extremely rare and unexpected same couldn’t be said for all other places.
This could be seen as how Leylin bypassed any struggle, fate could brought upon him, since he knew the prophecy. Blair’s destiny was to become a ruler and Leylin never tried to snatched that away from her, he used her destiny to actually profit him. This enable him to flow with the river.
The second reason is that he didn’t necessarily need a coin of destiny. Even if it was made it could only be helpful till peak Rank 3 but since Leylin path is already clear he doesn’t need a reminder.
The last reason is his understanding of the Sacred Flame itself as well as the river of destiny, The greatest use it could have for him is in Astral Experiment as it could provide him with greater chance to come in contact with newer coordinates. This is a great deal but he had A. I. Chip which could also stimulate and increase his chances. In fact, he could find some other more dependable means too.
But that, didn’t mean he didn’t desire the Coin of destiny at all. He would welcome it definitely but he knew that Lancy would definitely have some other ideas to increase productivity. Still, her risk in breaking through with that aide of uncontrollable Sacred flame energy could only be called as either bold or plain stupid.
‘Hmmm I actually have a method from the various experiment data I got from Beasts world to neutralize her side effects somewhat. Is that also a calculation in the mediation techniques? or maybe it’s just her blind trust in my ability.’ Leylin thought as he flied through the air in an unbelievable speed, people even including Magi wouldn’t be able to see him because of his speed. Leylin put emphasis in this matter and choose to concern it first because from the data he could figure out that their is about 2-3 years left till the arrival of his ‘travel guide’ to central continent. There is still some arrangements to be made which he would prefer to be done with while here.
