Legacy of the Dark Sage

Dusk frowned at what Kyran said. He did not understand what prompted the latter to say such a thing. In a way, Dusk never considered Kyran as their faction's consultant— as Axil insisted on the latter's delegation in their faction— but an unrelated party to their cause. Dusk's view was elicited by how Kyran declared his stance of not involving the Human plane in the war.

Kyran was not even the Sovereign of the Human plane. However, it was apparent that the Human plane's Sovereign and the rest of the powerful mages of that plane who knew about the war fully supported Kyran's decision.

In a sense, Dusk could understand why they would put such great trust in Kyran. The latter was the new Dark Sage, after all. Nevertheless, Kyran's identity as the new Dark Sage was precisely the reason Dusk felt a slight resentment toward him. Because the truth about the faction the Dark Sage supported in the previous wars always won was hard facts.

If Kyran supported the Guardians, then the chances of them fulfilling their faction's objectives were higher.

Axil emphasized that the Guardians' objective was not to win the war but to prevent it. She believed that the War of the Sovereigns would not happen if there were not enough participants in it.

Frankly, Axil's way of thinking was too shallow. Because the number of participants joining the war did not matter. As long as there would be Sovereigns willing to wage war on others, the war would happen.

But Axil was not entirely hopeless because she was still aware that preventing the war from happening was a tall order. Because of this, she and the rest of the Guardians decided to make preparations of their own.

On one of the tablets they managed to decipher, there was a mention of a place where all the automatons created by the Ancients were kept. Unfortunately, the only known plane that was said to be part of the Land of the Ancients was the Human plane.

There was no way for the Guardians to locate that place because even its existence was considered a fable. The only known Sovereign alive, who claimed to have been there before and no one dared argue with, was Ruin.

But then Loar mentioned a human he befriended in the Tower of Tribulations, who was very different from those in other planes. That human was also very proficient in Array.

Loar did not really mention the Tower of Tribulations because he was not allowed to. He only said he met Kyran by chance on some plane.

After that, there was a commotion that happened in the Lignum plane where Ruin was rumored to have encountered a powerful mage from the Human plane. When Kyran succeeded in overthrowing Ruin's authority over Lignum, more rumors that were exaggerated than the first circulated.

Finally, a rumor stating that Kyran was actually the new Dark Sage surfaced, resulting in every Sovereign in the Lower Realm keeping an eye on his activities.

In any case, with all these things, the Guardians placed a lot of importance on watching Ruin's activities. When they lost track of the latter and discovered traces of his activities that coincided with Deception, they managed to put two and two together and changed their strategy.

That was when Axil recalled Loar's mention of befriending a human mage. After careful deliberation, she confirmed the clues about that human being as the same person as the one who overthrew Ruin in Lignum.

When Axil asked for more information from Loar about the human, the latter refused to provide anything else. Dusk, who happened to be present at that time, sensed something amiss from the latter's refusal to share further information.

Ultimately, Dusk guessed Loar's refusal had to do with the Tower of Tribulations. As someone who visited and even partook in the tower's training regime, Dusk could relate and decided to speak with Loar alone.

After their talk, Dusk requested Axil to meet Loar's friend and also confirm if the plane he belonged to was truly the Human plane.

Axil was perplexed by Dusk's request. She wanted him to clarify, but similar to Loar, Dusk refused to elaborate on his reasons.

Since Dusk was among the pioneers of the Guardians and his contribution to the faction could not be denied, Axil agreed to his request.

Dusk entered the Human plane from the Tower of Tribulations. He was able to do this because he once received a reward, which was a very rare relic that allowed him to enter his desired plane once. Dusk never used the relic believing that the requirement of 'his desired plane' was limited to any plane he visited before. But after rechecking and recalling the relic's information, he discovered there was no mention of such limitation.

Of course, the relic's limitation might be hidden, but Dusk still took a gamble, tried it, and, lo and behold, he truly succeeded.

Fortunately, Dusk met Kyran without any problems, fulfilling his first task. Unfortunately, he discovered how backwater the humans' Magic knowledge was, which greatly affected his second task.

If the Human plane was truly a part of the Land of the Ancients, why did they only have a few mages above a Magus? Apart from that, their Sovereign was slumbering! Nevertheless, the Human plane's magic law that did not restrict Dusk's own, not to mention the abundant magic energies in the surroundings, were known attributes of the Land of the Ancients. Because of this, Dusk could not completely disregard the Human plane as a part of it.

After meeting Kyran, Dusk stayed in the Human plane and searched the place mentioned in the tablet, where the Ancients stored their automatons. Alas, he failed to find it. He also confirmed that the Human plane's Array Knowledge was too obsolete, that even he, who was not proficient in it, felt he knew more about it than the majority of them. Note that he only felt that way because he had not met Cade or Nolan.

During his search, Dusk discovered another tablet. Unfortunately, the tablet was already cracked, and most of its contents were unreadable. After examining the crack, he realized how deformed it looked. He also saw a symbol on its content that triggered something in his memories. Dusk soon realized the symbol seemed to be the missing half of another tablet their member discovered in one of the planes they had recently found: Somuli.

At that time, they had yet to understand anything about that plane. They did send a few Sovereigns to scout the place first. In the end, because of the lack of magic energy in that place, they retreated after recovering that tablet.

When Dusk remembered that, he requested a copy from Axil and managed to confirm that the two tablets were part of a piece. This realization prompted the two to believe that maybe the Human plane and Somuli were connected in the past. If that were true, maybe the Somuli plane would also have clues as to where the Ancients kept their automatons.

A lot happened after that, and finally, after years of research— at least, based on Somuli's time— they confirmed that the automatons of the Ancients were indeed in Somuli and that the Armakean King knew where they were.

At the moment, Dusk only needed to persevere until he could finally locate all the automatons.

But then, Kyran showed up here and told him he had a way to stop the war from happening.

What the hell was this?

Kyran patiently waited until Dusk absorbed what he said. But when the latter still remained silent after about two minutes, the former could no longer wait and said, "I know of a way. At least... someone gave me an idea on how to stop it."

That someone was actually Layla. The things she wanted to discuss with Kyran were related to stopping the War of the Sovereigns. Although the two had not yet come to an agreement, both had a tacit understanding of each other's goal.

Kyran might not be interested in the War of the Sovereigns. But because it was such a big event in the Lower Realm, and there was no guarantee that the Human plane would be safe even if they did not join, he had to make preparations for the worst-case scenario. Currently, he knew that the only way to keep the Human plane safe was to stop the war from happening.

Layla knew how to stop the war but needed Kyran's help to accomplish it. She would also need an army, and since he disliked her method of amassing one, she agreed to stop as long as he could provide one she could use.

"I..." Dusk finally spoke after another pause. But his brows were still furrowed, showing his hesitation, "I will have to speak with the others first."

"That won't be a problem."

"You will have to tell us the details too."

"That... I can't promise," Kyran admitted.

"Why?"

"I need to do my own investigation first. I don't want to rely solely on everything someone has said."

Dusk fell silent. He more or less understood what he meant, so he silently accepted his reason.

"If that's the case, I will continue with my mission and take those automatons first," he said. "They will be our insurance."

Kyran did not respond. He only smiled wryly, wondering how Dusk would take those automatons given his lack of Array proficiency. As for how to activate them, there was still Loar, so Kyran knew it was possible.

"I understand," he replied after a short pause. "But don't blame me for making a move on them if the need arises."