Legacy of the Dark Sage

The truth was that Kyran did not mine the spirit stones. Instead, he assigned several puppets he acquired to do it.

As for the Armakeans guarding the mines, they were either knights or high-ranked officers who were all bound to Aran by the pact. After being released, they were similarly confused and lost at what to do. But because of the knights' discipline and the officers' dignity, they still diligently guarded the mines.

When Kyran arrived, they were initially wary.

Not wanting to start an unnecessary fight, Kyran called Filren and had him speak with the knights. He also summoned Breira and asked to take them back to their temporary base.

He then ordered the puppets to mine while assigning two automatons to supervise them. After that, he returned to the Magical Beast Community to check on the three magical beasts, who were busy dealing with the situation.

Actually, the three magical beasts were flexing their strength rather than going on a massacre. Because of this, several feral and magical beats surrendered and willingly accepted Kyran's mark.

Kyran had no intentions of turning the beasts into Sigils. Instead, he wanted Max to tame them once he summoned the latter in Somuli in the near future. So, leaving a mark and having others monitor them was enough.

As for the leaders and remaining magical beats, they fought bitterly against the three and were fatally injured. Kyran initially planned to kill them because of what they did to Chrysanthemum and her people. However, he changed his mind after learning that those responsible for torturing them were only a few magical beasts and upper-ranked leaders.

Once he learned the names responsible for their torture, Kyran disintegrated them, not leaving even a trace of their existence behind. His action made the remaining leaders and magical beasts tremble in fear.

Like the others, they accepted Kyran's mark without raising a fuss.

By the time the Magical Beast Community's incident was resolved, it was already in the wee hours. If this had happened in the Human plane, it would have taken a couple of days to fix everything, including mining the spirit stones. But because of Somuli's longer time cycles, everything was resolved in a day.

Having limited knowledge of the Magical Beast Community, Kyran allowed the leaders who surrendered to take care of the aftermath. To ensure they would not think of anything funny, he left three automatons, each commanding a group of ten puppets, to oversee them.

With nothing else left to do, Kyran prepared to return. However, before he could warp back to the temporary base in Larkring's northern forest, he was stopped by Ruin.

Kyran knew Ruin had been following him since leaving the underground shelter. He did not know how the latter managed to track him because he would sometimes warp at long distances, but he did. Then again, the latter might have used his gift to track him down. But Nolan had previously sealed it, and Kyran also enhanced it using his own means. How could Ruin still use it to track him?

This was one of the things Kyran hated about Ruin. The latter had so many cards and hands to play, making it hard for the former to grasp the latter's abilities and innate magic completely.

To avoid a constant headache trying to figure Ruin out, Kyran decided not to take everything Ruin did to heart.

With a rather mischievous grin, Ruin appeared before Kyran and said, "You sure look after your people well. I almost wish to be part of it. But I must say, I am surprised you found some of White Lily's kind here."

"What do you want?" Kyran replied, not bothering to indulge in idle talk with the latter.

Ruin's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression changing to one who appeared offended.

"Are you sure you want to use that tone when talking to me? Are you not afraid I'd do something about your precious people?"

"If you touch even one strand of their hair, I'll kill you. I'm not afraid of you."

Ruin burst out laughing, "Ahahaha! Good, good! I like you even more~ I think I like you more than your predecessor!"

Kyran ignored him and was about to leave when Ruin stopped him again.

"Don't go yet, Dark Sage. I have something to say."

"If this is about your proposal—."

"No~ it is not. Let me finish speaking."

Kyran did not reply and tilted his head as if to tell him to go on.

Ruin raised his brows at the latter's disregard and said, "You sure are lax. Don't you even feel a sense of danger after what you did?"

Kyran raised his brows questioningly.

Not one bit displeased by Kyran's lack of response, Ruin continued, "You just killed Flos and Obstruction, or did you forget?"

Kyran's expression remained indifferent, but his eyes turned cold as he guessed what Ruin wanted to say.

Seeing the change in Kyran's eyes, Ruin grinned once more. He truly loved seeing Kyran's expressive eyes. Though Ruin believed it was better to see them when he was not wearing a mask. After all, the murderous glint in Kyran's silver-gray eyes could send chills down one's spine more than the dark brown shade he was disguised in.

"Good, I like that look in your eyes, Dark Sage."

"Stop talking nonsense, and just say what you know."

"Don't tell me Axil never told you how many planes Flos and Obstruction possessed," Ruin looked at him in surprise. "And what will happen to those planes when they die."

Kyran did not respond. He obviously knew what would happen to planes that lost their Sovereigns because he once caused Ruin to lose one of his planes. He remembered hearing from Loar that another organization that called itself the Coven took over Lignum Plane and protected it against other Sovereigns.

The Coven did not take the plane for themselves but waited for it to birth its own Sovereign before lifting the protection they placed upon it.

Kyran assumed that also happened to the planes under Savagery when he killed her. But he did not hear anything about it. Apart from True Void, no one knew he was the one who killed her, and he wanted that to stay that way. Thus, he never spoke anything about it to anyone.

Come to think of it, Kyran never confirmed if Savagery was part of Flos's faction. If she was, the latter would have gotten wind of her death and already secured her planes. At least, Kyran believed this to be the case.

"Nah-uh," Ruin said while slightly wriggling his pointing finger at Kyran.

"Don't treat the planes under Flos and Obstruction like the Lignum Plane," Ruin added as if reading Kyran's thoughts. "The Coven took over that plane because I don't plan on participating in the War of the Sovereigns. Flos and Obstruction were different. They could even be considered one of the leading participants of the war. Yet you killed them even before the war started."

"What?" Kyran raised his brows. "Are you going to tell me that I violated some kind of pre-rules of the war because I killed a Sovereign before the official war even started?"

Ruin chuckled, "Of course not. You're not even a Sovereign. However, it was precisely because you are not a Sovereign that your actions resulted in dire consequences."

"What do you mean?" Kyran asked with a slight frown.

Ruin smiled, which did not meet his eyes, "Countless planes are now up for grabs because of their death. But Flos's faction will not allow the other Sovereign factions to claim them. Thus, they will move and wage an early war.

"The other Sovereign factions steered clear from Flos's faction because they feared him and Obstruction's strength. But with them out of the picture, those factions had nothing to fear."

Ruin squinted his eyes, still wearing an amused smile, "You understand what that means, right?"

Kyran did not respond, nor did he allow his emotions to appear on his face. However, deep down, he felt a slight ache as he realized his actions inadvertently subjected all inhabitants of those planes to the flames of war.

"Seems like you will give Death another reason to be displeased."

A pained look fleeted over Kyran's face as he recalled the tragedy that befell the Vates plane, which he caused. Back then, Death appeared and warned Kyran of the danger he posed because of the power he possessed.

Kyran wanted to refute Ruin's words by reasoning that the Sovereigns would not wage war inside the planes because they did not want to damage the resources they could gather there. However, he knew better.

Even if the Sovereigns fought outside the planes, the planes would still suffer from the magic fluctuations and collisions of magic attacks from the confrontation between Sovereigns, especially when there was no Sovereign's Cradle or any form of protection that would shield the plane from them.

In the end, Kyran tried to reason, "If Sovereign killed by another, the planes under them will be transferred to the one that bested them in battle. When a plane is transferred, there is no obvious sign that its sovereignty has changed."

"I know what you want to say~," Ruin replied with a slight snort. "You think Flos's faction will not make a move because they are convinced another Sovereign kills Flos and Obstruction. Thus, it will be futile to claim Flos and Obstruction's planes because the Sovereign's Cradle will still be in effect, albeit its impact will depend on the level of its new Sovereign.

"Tsk, tsk," Ruin wriggled his finger in front of Kyran again. "Unfortunately for you, you let Deception escape."

Kyran almost let out an aggravated groan upon realizing this. Still, his expression remained indifferent.

Enjoying the look of nonchalance on Kyran's face but knowing deep down he was rattled to his core, Ruin added, "Because you let her escape, she can report to the other two leaders of Flos's faction that it was you who killed him and Obstruction. If she also tells them that you are still in Somuli, they will likely send a group to deal with you to ensure that the sovereignty of Flos's and Obstruction's planes has not been transferred to you. Otherwise, they will be waging a fruitless war against the other Sovereign factions if you did gain sovereignty over Flos's and Obstruction's planes."

It went without saying, but if Flos's faction did decide to send people to deal with Kyran, another war would happen in Somuli. But at that time, the scale would be more extensive.

Somuli's Sovereign would not be able to protect the plane by then because his Sovereign's Cradle was fragile since he was a fake.

Ruin waited to see a look of despair fleet through Kyran's eyes. Unfortunately, the latter remained indifferent, albeit his eyes were still cold.

A little annoyed and confused at Kyran's lack of reaction, Ruin said, "You're pretty calm. Did the beating you received from one of Deus's creations destroy your sense of danger?"

"You know Deus?"

Ruin raised his brows and repeated his question, albeit emphasizing each word, "Youknow Deus?"

Kyran frowned at him but did not respond.

But then Ruin's eyes widened as he thought of something, "Don't tell me he already appeared before you? No. If he did, you should not have been able to stay in one piece... but then... where is he now?"

"I killed him," Kyran replied with a deadpan tone. "Or at least, his... clone? He did not feel like an essence to me, at least."

Ruin's eyes narrowed as he repeated, "'Feel?'"

Kyran thought Ruin would react to his claim about killing Deus. Unexpectedly, Ruin was more interested in how Kyran thought Deus was a clone, not an essence.

Ignoring Ruin's question, Kyran asked, "Is that all you want to tell me? About the possibility of Sovereigns coming over to take my head and Flos's faction waging war on others who wanted to claim his and Obstruction's planes?"

"More or less," Ruin replied. However, he was still looking at Kyran with narrowed eyes as if he was still hung up on what he told him about Deus.

"Thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to deal with the consequences."

After saying his piece, Kyran left.

At that time, Ruin did not stop him anymore. It was not because he had nothing more to say because he had plenty more. However, he was slightly distracted by what Kyran meant about feeling Deus.

Fortunately, Kyran had no idea what twisted thoughts were running through Ruin's head then. If he did, he would feel a different type of fear of Ruin.

Once Kyran returned to the temporary base, Cyneah, along with Nahir and the rest of the Eidums, treated all the wounded, including Chrysanthemum and her people. At that moment, they were all resting in an area in the infirmary reserved for them.

After seeing her fast asleep, Kyran checked on them, and he let Cyneah be. Of course, that was after he created a division that separated her from the rest of the Eidums. Kyran was okay with her sleeping with the other Eidums in one big room since they all had their beds. However, Nahir's bed was close to Cyneah's, which irked Kyran.

He was not a jealous man. At least, he believed him not to be one. But there was something in how the two slept, albeit in separate beds, yet facing each other, that did not sit well with him. It took a lot of self-control not to warp Nahir back to the Land of the Eidums.

After creating the division, Kyran left to check on his Servants. Actually, he only wanted to check on Jita and Eikin because after retrieving them from Obstruction's Abyss of Despair, the two seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.

Kyran did not know this happened to them, but the two had been unresponsive to his call ever since.

Entering the Void World, Kyran went directly to the room where he sent the two. There, he checked their vital signs to see if anything was amiss.

Surprisingly, all their vital signs were typical, and they appeared to be sleeping only.

With a sigh, Kyran tried to sense every inch of their body using his magic sense.

That was when he finally sensed what was wrong.

Within their magic core, a different type of energy circulated, disrupting the flow of their innate magic.