Legacy of the Dark Sage

Seemingly forgetting what he came there for, Dusk continued to observe Kyran while he worked on the Array Formation. He did not know what the latter was doing, to be honest. Nevertheless, he knew the latter's Array Knowledge did not pale in comparison with Loar.

With Dusk's silence, Kyran could finally focus all his attention on what he was doing.

It took Kyran a good half an hour to decipher the whole formation. Others might find his deciphering speed heaven-defying already, but not him. His speed was slower compared to the other times he deciphered an array formation.

Kyran had not gotten slow. Instead, the array formation before him was a very complex one. Initially, he had guessed that the Armakea castle was filled with array formations upon array formations, resulting in a very complicated design to ensure they would not severely affect one another.

It should be noted that an Array Master had to properly design his array formations if he wanted to create an array formation that had another array formation inside. If not, the magic energies required by both array formations would clash, resulting in formulas on each formation not activating properly.

It was this logic that Array Masters would not carelessly create a new formation within an active array formation.

Kyran might be the only one who had dared to do that.

In any case, Kyran's guess was not far off. By now, he more or less guessed that the reason the castle's many array formations were not affecting each other was because of the spirit stones embedded in the formations themselves.

Two examples of these formations were the one at the King's Throne Room and the one before Kyran. Both formations had spirit stones embedded in the formation itself.

However, after Kyran deciphered the array formation before him, he realized it was but a part of a massive array formation. Moreover, he sensed that the array formation was located way below the castle's underground section.

After learning of this, Kyran could only isolate the array formation before him if he wanted to use the spirit stones in it. If not, he had to decipher the main array formation. Unfortunately, even with his Array Knowledge and capabilities, he was not confident in accomplishing that in a short while. He even estimated that deciphering the main array formation would take him five days or a week at most— and that was using Somuli's time, not the Human plane.

Obviously, Kyran would not do that since he was in a hurry. Frankly, a half-hour delay in creating Chrysanthemum and her people's route was already testing his self-restraint. The longer it took to confirm the situation on Malek's side, the more he felt he was standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss.

To be honest, Kyran had considered warping to Malek and the others' location. However, because of the castle's array formation, he could not do so. It reminded him of how he could not warp inside the Throne Room.

It was only after Kyran discovered how the array formations in the castle were connected to a main array formation that he understood why he could not warp.

The main array formation of the castle only allowed a certain array formula with its corresponding calculation when doing transmission. If one tried to use another means of transmission, he or she would fail.

Kyran had a choice of using that formula and calculation. But to do that, he had to decipher the whole array formation first.

This was the same reason he could not establish a telepathic link with his Servants.

The main array formation only allowed a certain array formula with its corresponding calculations and items— such as communication devices— when trying to communicate with others. At least, the main array formation allowed the use of communication devices. Apparently, the array formula and calculation in such devices were the same.

This discovery, gave Kyran a huge headache. It also proved what he always told others about himself, and his magic— it or he was not omnipotent.

At the moment, his capabilities and magic were easily restrained by the castle's main array formation.

While Kyran was annoyed at this, his interest in knowing who created and left all these Array Knowledge in Somuli grew by leaps and bounds.

Putting all these thoughts aside, Kyran used his magic sense to remove the spirit stones on one side of the wall. After that, he took out a few materials, such as the internal organs and blood of a beast, flowers or leaves from rare plants, and the bark of a tree. He then waved his hands, willing these materials and the spirit stones to circle one another.

Three minutes later, Kyran took out a hammer that he had not used for a long time. As a matter of fact, he only used it once when he imbued the Void property in his two black swords.

It was one of the rewards Kyran received from his first training in the Tower of Tribulations: the Void Hammer.

Dusk's eyes narrowed as he saw the Void Hammer. He obviously sensed a different kind of energy circulating within it. It was the same kind of energy he sensed from Kyran whenever he used his magic.

'This item...' Dusk could not help but frown while looking at the hammer.

From what they knew, relics with Void magic properties were unavailable because it was impossible for someone to 'create' one.

While others might reason that maybe Kyran crafted the hammer himself, Dusk knew better.

The hammer was not crafted recently. Dusk would not consider it a relic if it was.

'Could it be that the hammer came from the Tower of Tribulations?'

This was the conclusion Dusk came up with after contemplating for a moment. Since he learned from Loar that he met Kyran in the Tower of Tribulations, it was not hard to come up with that notion. While there was a possibility that Kyran found the hammer in one of his training sessions on another plane, the chances of that happening were close to zero compared to him receiving it as a reward after completing his training.

Besides, Dusk was someone who knew perfectly well how the Tower rewards its 'trainees.' It would grant them rare items, such as scrolls, magic weapons, armor, and more. But more importantly, all rewards were items that could help them with the path they had chosen, meaning the items were something they could use and possess a similar property to their magic.

Considering all this, Dusk was suddenly feeling incredulous.

Just what is the Tower of Tribulations? It is one thing for it to produce items possessing properties of several types of magic, but what about Ancient Magic?

A memory flashed through Dusk's mind from when Axil and the other leaders of the Guardians told him about some of the contents of a tablet they discovered then.

After hearing the contents from Axil and the others, Dusk remembered wondering if the Tower of Tribulations was related to that. Because of this, he almost told them about the Tower. In the end, he managed to stop himself in time because he did not want to have first-hand experience of the punishment one would receive when revealing information about the Tower.

While Dusk was lost in his thoughts, Kyran successfully mixed the materials he needed and integrated them into the Void Hammer. This was the first step he needed in creating the route. Next, he had to create a tear on the Somuli's plane.

Kyran's reddish-purple eyes flashed as his magic sense turned denser, turning into Void magic energy and filling the area that he isolated from the castle's main array formation. The air crackled with dark purple lightning as magic energy fluctuated around him.

Dusk's pupils contracted at the amount of magic energy Kyran emitted. The amount of magic energy circulating in the room would be enough to kill a Legendary mage if it were released as a concentrated magic attack.

Kyran released such a frightening amount without even batting an eye.

But what shocked Dusk the most was that he was not affected by the magic energy. It was as if a veil of some sort protected him from its influence.

Dusk's thoughts were not far off. Kyran did take into consideration Dusk's presence when he released his magic energy. It was not because he was worried the latter would suffer, rather, he did not want Dusk's presence to contaminate his space.

If Dusk knew the real reason behind the veil protecting him, he might have flipped on the spot. Fortunately, he did not have the ability to read minds.

A few meters before Kyran, a tear slowly appeared in midair. The tear looked similar to when he summoned fissures, except within that tear was not an abyss but simply an empty space.

Every second that passed, the tear above grew in size. When its size grew to three meters, Kyran finally waved his hand and willed the Void Hammer to it.