Earth's Greatest Magus

"Headmaster, we have lost contact with the enforcer team"

8 hours prior to the Royal Centipede's attack, within the special room of the Magus Academy, Headmaster Delbrand finally lost his cool when he received the news that set off the alarm in his head.

A specially formed team of 5 magus enforcers, led by a peak Full Moon magus wouldn't just lose contact for random reasons. Something happened on the Andora planet, and it was definitely not a good thing.

As the Magus Academy's headmaster and staff only had access to their acolytes, all the screens and data they received would not show what actually happened in the fight between the enforcer team and the stage 7 Abyss creature. Simply put, they had no idea nor reference as to what could have happened, and as such, could currently only assume the worst.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the replacement team that the caretaker of the planet, the Iliad Faction, sent would need 36 hours to arrive at the location. As for the Magus Academy, their people would need a longer time which was 48 hours.

Knowing that the situation would only get worse from this point on, Headmaster Delbrand understood that he had to involve the other factions in the matter.

"Find me all the factions that are located closest to the Andora planet."

Hearing those words, the staff quickly took up the task. In just a matter of minutes, they had submitted their findings to him.

"Headmaster, within the arrival window of under 24 hours, there are only 3 factions that could meet the critera."

Looking at the data handed to him, Delbrand quickly scratched off the lower grade faction that only had a few magus in its ranks. 

This left him with the only remaining faction in the list. It was a Grade 3 faction, Fremen Faction. Immediately, he contacted and asked for the latter's help, hoping that they would send a Grand Magus.

While waiting for the result, Delbrand again checked the compilation of data about the Andora planet.

The detected increase in energy clearly indicated a surge of power, an evolution of some kind that occurred in all the creatures on the planet. As if to confirm his conclusion, two hours later the academy started seeing similar images from the acolytes, who were suddenly surrounded by a horde of Abyss creatures.

"They really have evolved." Delbrand rubbed his furrowed brows with a sigh, his gaze fixed on the screen showing the Abyss creatures that looked different from their normal counterpart.

Another group of acolytes was eliminated and teleported to the station that floated above the Andora planet. Seeing that, Delbrand could only hope that those acolytes would be able to be saved in time.

While still irritated by this sudden situation, one of his staff came bearing news that the Fremen faction would be willing to offer help, if they were to be given a share of the loot.

"Those greedy bastards!"

BAM!!

Delbrand hit the table in front of him in frustration. The condition the Fremen proposed was something that he had no authority over. To calm himself, he took out an item from his pocket, a cigar, and started smoking. As he smoked the cigar, he could feel a relaxing sensation enveloping him.

Before long, the screens in the room started showing more pictures showing what was happening on the Andora planet. Hordes of Abyss creatures swarmed the horizon, which was followed by more and more of the acolytes being teleported in a gruesome state, or worse, they died before the emergency protocol could activate.

Seeing all this, Delbrand was close to deciding to abort the mission for the sake of the acolytes.

However, just as he was about to do that, the door to the special room opened and someone stepped in. This naturally grabbed his attention, as no one should be able to enter without his permission.

Three figures entered the room and walked towards where he was.

Leading the group was a middle-aged man in uniform. The symbol that was seen on his uniform showed that the other party was a Supreme Commander of the Magus Alliance. As for the other two people, they were a man and a woman wearing luxurious noble clothes. 

With just a brief glance, Delbrand could tell that the two of them must have come from a prestigious faction, most likely one of the Grade 4, or even Grade 5. After all, only someone with such status could enter this room without his consent.

The three of them, even though their arrival could be considered as barging in, still showed proper respect to Delbrand who was the Headmaster of the Magus Academy. As such, Delbrand couldn't kick them out without a good reason.

The three arrived in front of him, and apparently, the Supreme Commander was the spokesperson of the three.

"Headmaster, I have heard about the problem in Andora. Even though you are in charge of this, I need to remind you that this project is not just about tests for your acolytes." 

The three give him quite an earful about the situation before he had to 'politely' send them away.

It was a short visit, but the message the other party wanted to convey was clear, he could not just do as he wished, as there was another stake at hand.

At this, Delbrand clenched his fists tightly. He was conflicted.

The new real-life project that he proposed was permitted as a combined project with the military. From the high tech combat armor to the new prototype vessels the acolytes used to go to the planet, everything were provided by the military. It was part of a trial test for a project codenamed Doomsday Pillar.

Therefore, even though he kept seeing images of the massive horde of Abyss creatures and the increasing number of casualties, Delbrand in the end restrained himself. 

It was the thought that this was what a real-life test was really about that helped him endure this.

Another reason was a particular interest in how the young wolf has been dealing with the situation. At least that was his intention until he saw the existence of a stage 7 Abyss creature followed by the destruction of one of the vessels. That anomaly quickly changed his mind.

"These have gone too far!"

It took the team a few minutes to adjust the combat armor's emergency protocol that teleported its wearer. After that, a message was sent to all the acolyte's devices.

A determined expression appeared on Delbrand's face.

"Get them all off that planet!"