Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Leon though he would have to deal with some headaches while convincing humans and Tyrselle's soldiers to work together. However, only a couple of individuals protested for more than a few minutes. The vast majority of the humans didn't dare to oppose their leaders. Gisela was a symbol of discipline; Yuki has been the empress for nine hundred years. Meanwhile, Hector has been working hard to protect his followers for the same amount of time. As for Tyrselle's soldiers, no one protested after she made her choice. It wasn't because she was powerful or an authoritarian leader, it was because they had faith in her.

Another fact that shut up the protesters was the feeling of awe those who became part of the Reverse Mana Link showed. They obtained access to an almost seemingly infinite mana pool, after all. That alone was enough to convince even the most stubborn of the protestors.

"While I can understand your reasoning since this can convince most to cooperate, wouldn't be better to just use Mana Link?" Ilyana asked.

"It won't be efficient, I know." Leon nodded. "It would be better if you, me and Tyrselle only could use all this mana. However, we don't exactly know what will happen once we obtain access to all the mana in the universe. Besides, even if they are weaker that us, we have millions of humans on our side. Status wise, I doubt that any of our status are equivalent to more than a few thousands of survivors."

Ilyana could only nod at that. As long as they could use mana, the humans were bound to cause a lot to damage even on the most fearsome enemies given their numbers. Ilyana felt that she had fought alone for far too long and those experiences were clouding her judgement. However, she shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. Ilyana didn't have to endure everything alone once again. Besides, they were betting the fate of all the life in the universe. So, it was only natural that many if not all those who could use mana should participate in the battle.

While most of Leon's replicas were putting planets that have mana under his control, others were teaching humans and Tyrselle's soldiers how to use summoning magic and Mana Link. There was a limit at how many monsters they would be able to summon and increase their mana pool further, but Leon didn't want to take any chances. Even a small growth could be helpful.

Meanwhile, Leon himself, Ilyana and Tyrselle were traveling through many planets and talking with all the people who survived the assimilation system until now. Ilyana and Tyrselle's diplomatic skills could use some work, but just a quick and harmless demonstration of power was enough to make everyone they met join their side.

"We can't travel to all planets and I can feel that most of the planets that have mana are just on the first or on the second stages of the assimilation," Leon said via Telepathy. "Should we send a past replica of us to those planets? I'm not sure the people with that level of mana will be able to help us all that much."

"I agree. Besides, it is too dangerous." Ilyana said. "If we force people on the early stages to fight alongside us, we will possibly be leading them to an early death given that their statuses are just too small."

In the end, there was only so much a near infinite mana pool could do against a god-like being. Mana was really only useful in the hands of those who were powerful enough or have a stupidly high intelligence to maximize the damage output. So, Leon decided to contact only the species that were on the fourth stage of the assimilation and above. In that area, Tyrselle and Ilyana more or less knew the location of many species, so they helped a lot. Meanwhile, the only race that Leon knew that had a vast number of soldiers were the mithril people. After a long while, Leon met Crik again.

"Hey, it has been a long time," Leon said after suddenly appearing before Leon.

The planet Ilyana gave to Crik and his people changed quite a lot while he was away. Leon could see a massive light-blue city in the distance… a city made of mithril or something very similar. However, Crik was living very far away from the civilization. He wasn't the leader of his species anymore. He was just a retired soldier living in a hut that he had built himself.

"You are… what are you doing here?" Crik asked while he was resting his back against a tree.

Leon explained to Crik what he was planning and why he suddenly appeared without any warning. Several decades had passed in that planet without Ilyana or Leon doing anything with them, so it was only obvious that Crik needed an explanation.

"What do you think?" Leon asked. "Do you want to join us in the last battle? I won't force you and your people to fight alongside us, but whether you like it or not, I will need your mana."

Crik studied Leon for a while. He wasn't as old as Ilyana and Tyrselle, but he was old enough to know that what he was trying wasn't anything but madness. Although that was the case, Crik had already decided that he would join the fight.

"I would refuse your offer if you said that you wanted to undo everything while erasing our memories," Crik said and then got up. "However, given that we won't lose our memories and will recover everything we lost during all those years, I don't have any reason to refuse."