8 hours later. The All-black Metagen which is named Black Mist by Leianne reached the vicinity of the current territory of the Human Race.
According to Hikari, the current territory of the Human Race has been reduced to only one big city. The City of Serenia.
The only reason that they can keep it is because of the only Zenith Magus still surviving, Zenith Magus Arland.
He single-handedly defended it against the Two Transcendents and the numerous Mortal Ranks of the Dark World with the help of his own Mage Tower which stood in the middle of the city where the last Magical Academy is located. The Plaumerra Magus Academy.
In this world, instead of countries and kingdoms, each city is being managed by a Magical Academy. With the Headmaster of every academy equivalent to City Mayor, each citizen will have compulsory education about the Elemental Pathway for 5 years once they awakened their Main Elemental Core. After 5 years, they can graduate or continue studying in the Academy or work as a Professor. Of course, it's not easy to become a Professor so most average citizens continue to study before setting off on their own.
Unfortunately, out of the numerous academies of days old, it's now reduced to just one. Every City has either been destroyed or occupied.
Being the founder and the headmaster of the academy, this is Arland's territory. And 3 years since the start of the Dark World's invasion, the City of Serenia has already expanded to 3 times its size to accommodate every refugee from destroyed cities.
According to Hikari, when the two enemy Transcendents attacked, the whole city became Arland's magical fortress due to the setup he built through the years of his existence. Apparently, it's an Elemental Formation which encompasses the whole city.
However, due to the expansion, only the original size of the city was covered by his Magus Tower's protection which led to the citizens living in the uncovered parts to take arms and defend themselves against the troops brought by the enemy Transcendents. Those at the inner region also helped them which minimized the damage.
Zenith Magus Arland sounded like an amazing person but will he be welcoming of me? There's still a lot that I don't know about this world. Learning about the history and anything about this world has already been put at the top of my to-do list.
I still wanted to hear more but Hikari fell asleep 10 minutes after the Black Mist annihilated the Dark World denizens pursuing them and started flying towards the last bastion of the Human Race.
Not only her but also the other 5 with her. They're all exhausted, not just physically but also mentally. Days of constant running and staying conscious to notice if the enemies were already at their back drained a lot on them.
When I checked their current expression, each one of them looked like they're having nightmares. Hikari was also scrunched up on one side with sweat coming off her forehead.
If I remember correctly, her ability which she awakened upon being exposed to Psyche Energy from the Pocket Dimension isn't as overpowered as Yuko's Foresight, Raiden's Temporal Acceleration or Yumiko's Spirit Channeling. It's at the same level or even lower than the Kinesis the 3 Heroes from the World of Meta have.
Well, it also depends on how one uses it. Maybe she can properly utilize it and become as overpowered as Yuko's Foresight and Raiden's Temporal Acceleration.
When I asked her about her ability, she gave more info about what it can do. Her ability is called Skillmaster. It allowed her to borrow, steal or disable someone's skill or ability; Elemental Spells of this world are obviously included in it as well as any other type of skill that was being activated by Energy.
She already upgraded the ability 2 times. When she first awakened it, she could only use Borrow. Every skill or ability she borrowed will be adjusted to her use. It can only be weaker or stronger depending on her Psyche Energy and surely, her Intelligence stat. And yes, no matter what skill, once she uses her ability, it will need Psyche Energy to use.
For example, if she borrowed my Phantasmic Doppelganger, it will be adjusted for her use and to create a clone, Psyche Energy will be spent.
Also, the original owner can take the borrowed skill away from her anytime or if the owner died, the borrowed skill will be deleted as well. Plus there's a limit on how many she can borrow.
Steal is forcefully copying her target's skill or ability. This one, she can only completely copy the original skill but it has a time limit depending on how special the skill is and she needs to have the necessary Psyche Energy to use it. Maybe the cost will be adjusted due to Psyche Energy being higher than a Level 2 Source Energy. That's something I didn't ask her.
She told me that she once stole a Zenith Magus' Ultimate Spell and it expired 3 seconds after she stole it. She also almost fainted due to the drain in her Psyche Energy.
Disable is just silencing her target's skill or ability. It is useful against a strong opponent but it also has a time limit as well as the expenditure of her energy will also depend on how strong the skill or ability she wants to disable.
There are a lot of restrictions to her ability but she told me that some of those will ease up as long as she keeps upgrading them. Also, she was thankful that when I added her to the Support List, it improved her ability significantly.
During this mission of theirs, she also borrowed the long-distance teleportation as well as the disguise but when the two owners died, their deaths took away those key spells that could let them get out of their situation.
About her Elemental Pathway. Her Main Elemental Core is Light and she's a student of the last Zenith Magus of the Human Race, Arland.
He's the one who sent them to the mission after careful planning but in the end, an accident still happened.
Well, there might be a traitor but I was not there to see it and none of them really suspected a foul play.
Maybe I can investigate it but I'll try not to be too snoopy or that last Transcendent will become too wary of me.
-
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Wooong!
The Magus Tower in the middle of the city issued a loud sound when I reached a certain distance from the city. And from on top of it, a brown ray of light traveled from the top of the Magus Tower and stopped in front of the Black Mist.
A few seconds later, a silhouette of a middle-aged man formed from it which eventually transformed to a light projection of whoever activated the Magus Tower.
Well, there's only one who can do that, the Zenith Magus Arland.
The light projection scanned the Metagen from top to bottom. Surely, I alerted him by approaching the city when I'm clearly not affiliated to them. Also, with my Flux Energy running through the Metagen, my Transcendent Aura was exuding out even if it was restricted.
Since there are only a handful of Transcendents in this world, he didn't recognize me which led him to be vigilant by sending this light projection out.
"Greetings. Zenith Magus Arland."
I created a clone of myself and let it fly out of the cockpit to meet his light projection face to face. And by syncing my voice and vision to it, I greeted him first.
"An Energy Clone. I see. It's you."
Did he recognize me?
Ah. No. It's probably the World's Will informing him.
"It seems I was already ratted out by the World's Will."
"Indeed. Apart from the two traitors at their side and the woman from that forest, there's no one else at our level."
Traitors? Woman? I see. So the Transcendents at the Dark World's side were like Lucas and the others, however, here they're fully associated with the Dark World.
Are they those two races who vanished or traitors from both of Human and Elementals?
And that woman was surely the Transcendent from the Elemental's side.
"I see. I don't know how to introduce myself but let's say I came from the same world as your student Hikari."
I opened the cockpit to show the still slumbering group inside and let the Black Mist hover in the air.
However, Hikari and the other 5 woke up due to the noise and the sudden burst of wind inside when I opened the cockpit.
"Eh? Teacher! We have returned. Finally..."
Hikari exclaimed while restraining her cracked voice when she saw the light projection in front of my clone.
Arland looked at her and the other 5 who's now standing behind her. Since they changed from the long loose robes they're wearing into the clothes I brought from the World of Meta which consisted of a coat, shirt and pants, it probably intrigued him since his eyes stared at them longer than I expected.
"14 Elemental Imprints has been extinguished... Go inside and we'll talk later."
Though his voice sounded cold, there's also a trace of relief as well as self-blame in it which he immediately covered up.
Hikari and the other 5 nodded their heads and started flying out of the Metagen and into the city.
Before going, the 5 thanked me and Hikari spoke to her teacher again.
"I can vouch for what he said, teacher. Also, he's the one who saved us."
"I am aware."
He nodded and waved his hand, telling her to move and go inside the city.
Hikari looked back with an apologetic face. She was about to apologize for leaving me here but I stopped her from doing that. It's clear to me that Arland was just taking precaution.
And there are probably some things that he didn't want them to hear.
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