Legacy of the Dark Sage

Looking at the point of view of a Somulian, whatever situation the Royal Family members were in could be dealt with easily compared to what was happening in the Military District. For one thing, lost technology was involved in the latter's situation, and in Somuli, it was something that no one could decipher or destroy.

Aran would know this, and so would his aides. Thus, if he wanted to seek reinforcements as soon as possible, the only people he could go to were the Royal Family members.

Yes, Aran ordered them to round up their forces and attack the fort Achim and his forces occupied. But he knew the elders of his family would always hold back their manpower and might even hide their powerful members. If, for argument's sake, the elders had truly listened to him and dispatched all their forces, were they— the elders, themselves— not considered reinforcements?

The answer was simple: they are considered reinforcements.

Their levels and combat experience could not be underestimated just because they were from the 'older' generation. Instead, it was precisely because of these reasons that they could be considered better reinforcements in the current predicament the Armakea was facing.

To clarify things, Kyran did not know about the Elders that Malek was engaged in a fight. However, he knew at least that the Royal Family of Armakea had an older generation.

Achim and Kesiah had also confirmed it.

Since the older generation was not in the castle with Aran, the only other place they could be found was among the Royal Family members.

In any case, Kyran was worried that Aran sent all his aides to where Malek and the others were. Worst-case scenario, they would be forced to engage Aran's aides, and whatever reinforcements the Royal Family members possessed by themselves.

Kyran's relationship with Malek was a little complicated. Honestly, the latter did not hold a grudge from when the former destroyed the Tower of Conclave's defensive array and hurt their people during his tantrum.

Malek was not that petty. Besides, Kyran took responsibility for what he did and properly provided compensation— courtesy of the reward from the bounty Gael posted at the Mercenary Hall— for the damages he incurred and even repaired— or, to be accurate— enhanced, the Tower of Conclave's defensive array.

What caused Malek and Kyran's complicated relationship was Stella's affection for the latter.

Because Stella lost her father at such a young age, Malek, Malia, and Hugh considered themselves as her guardians. Malek, in particular, even considered himself to be Stella's right-hand man, father, uncle, and older brother— a four-in-one package.

Thus, knowing Stella's affection for Kyran, which muddled her ability to make correct judgments, infuriated Malek.

Moreover, Malek discovered that Kyran actually rejected Stella when she confessed her feelings! That infuriated him further.

Malek disapproved of Stella being infatuated with Kyran, but he also detested Kyran for rejecting Stella.

Yes. The two men truly had a complicated relationship.

Ultimately, regardless of their complicated relationship, Kyran had full confidence in Malek's capabilities and strength. Nevertheless, that did not stop the former from being worried. Especially when the probability that Malek and his group would face five of the remaining aides of Aran, at the same time.

Kyran shook his head inwardly and contacted Malek and Nahir at once. Unfortunately, he failed to establish a connection. He then tried contacting his Servants, Eikin and Jita. But similar to the former two, he could not establish a connection.

Clenching his fist, Kyran tried to contact Cyneah but failed as well.

The uneasiness he felt grew by the second.

Finally, as a last resort, Kyran withdrew his Draconic magic energy and fully circulated his Void magic energy. When he did this, his silver with dark purple armor retracted, revealing his black clothes once more. His eyes also turned reddish-purple before darkening a bit. After that, he tried to use his connection with Eikin and Jita to form a telepathic link.

The distance between them was too far. Thus, establishing a telepathic link was practically impossible.

But who was Kyran? He was the Void Master. Before, he would not even consider it possible to contact his Servants at such a long distance, but after learning Void theories from Caelan, he now had a better understanding of what he was capable of.

Void was different from Space, where the latter required two to four points before one could utilize it. Void did not require those points because it came from nothingness.

"Nothingness is the beginning of everything."

This was the first theory Caelan taught Kyran. Though the latter already had an idea about this theory, it was only after the former elaborated on it that the latter grasped the logic behind it completely.

Using this theory, Kyran could create anything from nothing, including links. But there was still a limitation to everything.

Having limitations was not surprising. One good example of this Void theory's limitation was when Kyran created things out of nothing; his creation was limited to the amount of magic energy in the surroundings and the availability of that item in the plane he was currently at.

In the case of creating a telepathic link, Kyran could only create one if his target had enough Void energy. This was not a problem since Eikin and Jita were both his Servants— beings that had been reborn from the Void. Their innate magic was now embued with Void energy, resulting in their innate magic's mutation.

Kyran closed his eyes and concentrated. He condensed his Void energy at one point and formed a link similar to a thin thread that was invisible to the naked eye. That thread extended into two directions, targeting Eikin's and Jita's locations. However, before the threads could even go past the open doors, it stopped, unable to proceed.

Kyran frowned as he opened his eyes. He tried once more, but for unknown reasons, the threads would not go past the doors.

At first, Kyran thought his failure to establish the link might have something to do with the several layers of both active and inactive array formations within and under the castle. Because array formations were created from different materials possessing internal magic energy, there was a possibility that Kyran could not properly establish the link because of the influence of all those magic energies. There were also those exquisite spirit stones he had yet to recover from the other room's ceiling and walls.

However, Kyran soon rejected this notion. In the first place, no specific type of magic energy could influence Void magic energy. As a matter of fact, Void magic energy could be formed using any type of magic energy. It was for this reason that his natural magic energy-replenishing ability nearly broke his fragile body when he was still a child. While the main culprit of that event was True Void, the fact that the latter was absorbing magic energies without care was proof that Void magic energy could be formed even without specifically filtering the magic energies in the surroundings.

Before Kyran could come up with a plan on how to contact Malek's side, he sensed a familiar presence from the other room. His eyes narrowed and instantly warped there to stop that new presence from stepping onto the array formation.

It should be noted that Kyran only changed the target formula of the array formation in the other room. If that new presence triggered the array formation, he would suffer a great deal.

While Kyran did not care what happened to that new presence, he did not want to give Aran an idea of how far they had gone to under the castle.

"Stop right there."

"Ack! Sh*t, Dark Sage! Can't you show up like a normal person?"

The new presence was none other than Dusk.

Kyran noiselessly appeared right behind Dusk that the latter's heart almost jumped out of his mouth.

Dusk was not normally a jumpy person, but after visiting the Armakea castle's underground section a lot of times and suffering from several array formations, it became second nature.

Turning around to face Kyran, Dusk scrutinized him slowly before saying, "You are not an illusion, right? I did not trigger any array formation, did I?"

"If you had taken another step forward, you would have triggered one," Kyran replied with a deadpan expression.

"Tsk," Dusk clicked his tongue, seeing Kyran's unfamiliar yet familiar face.

Unfamiliar because Kyran was using Nar's face, yet familiar because it was his signature deadpan expression.

"What are you doing here? Were you not thrashed to death a few weeks ago?"

Kyran raised his brows, "How did you know that?"

"I am the Sovereign of Dusk," Dusk replied matter-of-factly as if his answer explained everything.

Kyran gave him a hard stare that prompted Dusk to say, "Seems you're not really badly hurt. Seeing that you recovered so fast..." just to change the topic.

"How- did- you-know?" Kyran repeated, emphasizing each word.

"Tsk," Dusk could not help but click his tongue once more. In the end, he replied, "I heard it from one of my subjects."

When Kyran heard that, he recalled Wings' explanation of how they gathered intel from different planes, using subjects— local creatures of a particular plane— that revered them as their patron.

"She witnessed a being from that realm arriving and imprisoning you inside its Dimension. She did not know what happened to you inside, but apparently, Ruin came and saved you. After that, she confirmed your escape, albeit in a bloody mess."

Kyran ignored the rest of Dusk's explanation and was only interested in something he said, "You know about Dimension?"

"I am a Sovereign."

Kyran's brow twitched at the matter-of-factly tone Dusk used to answer his question again. Nevertheless, he more or less understood the latter's answer.

Just like when a Sage of a plane was about to become a Sovereign, the gates of knowledge would open, filling that Sage with information about the Lower Realm that mages with lower levels were not privy to. That was how they would know about the existence of other planes and Sovereigns.

Kyran's old habit of asking questions was about to kick in, but then he forcefully suppressed it because contacting Malek's side and knowing their situation was far more important to him at that moment.

"I know you're here on a mission under Axil's order," Kyran diverted the subject. "But I have people here after Aran. If you go about your business now, you might disrupt our plan."

"I thought as much," Dusk replied with a shrug. "I sensed the commotion happening outside. But since I can't leave this place, I have not confirmed it."

"You've been stuck here all this time?" Kyran looked at him incredulously.

"This place is full of Arrays! What else could I do?" Dusk replied exasperatedly.

For someone who was not well-versed with Array, arriving at a place with lots of them would be a nightmare.

"Where were you hiding all this time?"

"I wasn't..." Dusk sighed as he recalled how he got there. He then told Kyran that he had been running around in circles underground and that the map he had showing the underground section of the castle was meaningless because of those Array formations.

For short, the castle's underground section was actually a huge maze filled with Arrays.

Kyran did not say anything. He belatedly realized they did not meet the same fate because Armak and Breira were familiar with the underground section. If not for them, Kyran would have gotten lost... or maybe not— but he would definitely have encountered those array formations that Dusk mentioned.

"If you've got things to settle down here, I have no choice but to wait until you're done," Dusk decisively declared. "I don't want to be caught in the middle of fire."

Kyran remained silent. After a short pause, he said, "You're looking for the Automatons."

Dusk's expression remained passive. But his eyes contracted slightly, and Kyran saw it even if it only happened in a split second.

"We need them."

"For the War of the Sovereigns."

"Yes."

"If I say I have found a way to stop the war from happening, will you still need those Automatons?"