Chapter 950 The Dark Sage (2)
Chapter 950 The Dark Sage (2)
Instead of sending his essence to the Lower Realm, Deus sent one of his clones. This was to prevent a similar thing from happening to him, like Midnight when she suffered a huge backlash after her essence was destroyed.
Although there was little difference between a clone and an essence, the former’s connection to the original body had less influence compared to the latter. Thus, the damage dealt to the original body was minimal when a clone was destroyed.
But to Deus’s utter shock, his clone’s destruction caused cracks to appear on his magic core. This was actually far more dangerous than suffering a backlash after your essence was destroyed— at least it would not leave cracks on one’s magic core.
Because of this, Deus had to stay low for the meantime while his magic core recuperated. To avoid confrontation with the other Overlords, which could aggravate his magic core, he decided to send his report to The Emperor using a private channel.
Deus expected The Emperor to summon him once he received his report; instead, The Emperor chose to visit him in his laboratory.
Deus’s Laboratory is a floating fortress made of steel and brass. At the center of the fortress stood a massive steel round castle with one tower that served as the command center. The main entrance was a huge black steel twin door with golden ancient runes that appeared randomly on its surface from time to time. Facing this door was a walkway that led to an open field that served as a landing area for visitors.
This fortress appeared vulnerable. However, several automatons of different sizes and specializations could be seen around the castle. There were also a few human-shaped automatons in silver armor lined up in an orderly fashion on each side of the walkway that led to the open field.
Apart from these automatons, there were two rings, light blue and silver, made from runes that circled the floating fortress. These rings served as their defensive and offensive arrays, respectively. In case of an emergency, depending on what was required, the light blue array or the silver one would stay mobile vertically and activate all its formation.
At present, no one has seen these rings in full swing. But that is only because all those who had had been killed mercilessly.
For this reason, no one dared venture into Deus’s laboratory for fear of dying without knowing how it had happened.
A hundred kilometers away from the area of effect of the circulating rings around Deus’s laboratory, the space distorted, followed by a floating golden throne that emitted a blinding light emerging from within.
After the light from the throne dimmed, it revealed a blazing sun engraved above its headrest, and seated upon it was none other than The Emperor.
Deus was inside his chamber when The Emperor appeared outside his laboratory. Nevertheless, he sensed the latter’s overwhelming aura and immediately granted his access.
The Emperor ignored the circulating rings around the floating fortress and operated the throne toward the open field.
With Deus granting The Emperor access, the two rings did not react. They even appeared to ignore the latter as he entered and landed on the open field.
The human-shaped automatons that were lined up along the walkway greeted The Emperor by kneeling on one knee. They also lowered their heads in respect as well as to avoid making eye contact with The Emperor.
Deus also left his chamber and appeared right outside the castle’s entrance to greet The Emperor.
The Emperor remained seated on his throne as he maneuvered it toward Deus.
“Your Majesty,” Deus lowered his head in respect the moment The Emperor was within earshot.
Instead of answering, The Emperor asked, “How is your body?”
“I am recuperating well,” Deus responded. “Thank you for your concern.”
“Hm,” The Emperor replied before gesturing toward the castle, “Let’s go inside and talk,”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Deus waved his hand and activated the transportation array on the fortress to send them to the receiving area.
Deus’s silver throne was usually stationed in the receiving area when he was not using it. It was placed on top of an elevated platform at the far end of the room.
However, the silver throne could not be seen at that moment, and The Emperor immediately willed his throne to go over the platform.
Deus did not seem to mind. To be more precise, he could not openly show his displeasure if he ever felt that way because no one could defy The Emperor in the Higher Realm.
“I read your report,” The Emperor did not bother with idle talks and immediately went down to business. “Although you sent it through the private channel, the possibility of it being intercepted by others is there. Thus, I understand you left out other important details.”
“Yes,” Deus did not deny it. At most, he reported how he failed to capture the target. After this, his clone suffered defeat against someone, and he had to retreat. Nonetheless, The Emperor could glean clues from Deus’s report and surmised that the one who hurt the latter was none other than their target.
Of course, The Emperor knew it was impossible for a low-ranked mage to hurt an Overlord like Deus. Thus, he also gleaned that their target had help from the outside.
Who else could hurt Deus to that extent but a member of the Dragon Clan?
With this in mind, The Emperor was enraged. To him, the Dragon Clan’s blatant move to defy his orders to capture their target was an obvious defiance. The fact that the Dragon Clan was responsible for the Heart of the Cosmos going missing several years ago, and their target was seemingly one of their descendants, made it almost impossible for one not to suspect the Dragon Clan of planning to usurp The Emperor.
“I am all ears.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Deus did not answer at once. Instead, he sorted through all the information in his head first before voicing his thoughts.
If there was one thing Deus wanted to avoid, it was making false assumptions, especially when there was another person or family involved. Besides, a clone’s memories could not be transferred to the original body automatically, like how they were for essences.
Thus, Deus’s information was also limited. All his information was based on what his clone had sent the last.
A short feed about their target, whom his clone confronted.
It was only a short one because Deus’s clone failed to send a new one for some time before finally getting destroyed.
Once Dues was done sorting through the information in his head, he looked The Emperor straight in the eye and said, “The target’s abilities far exceeded what we initially believed.”
He continued, “Though my clone lacks in strength, not to mention being restrained by the Lower Realm’s rules. It would have been impossible for a low-ranked mage to win against it. In the end, he won against my clone, using an ability he had not shown previously.”
“Have you seen what he could do?”
Deus shook his head, “Unfortunately, I did not receive any information from my clone about the target’s abilities.”
“So all these are only your assumptions?” The Emperor asked.
“I managed to glean more clues from the feed coming from my automatons. From there, I compiled them and came up with a comparison. That is how I arrived at this conclusion.”
“Not even one of your automatons survived?”
Deus stiffly shook his head. To be honest, losing one of them should not really cause him any grievances, so long as his prized automaton survived. But as if to mock him, the latter was among those who were destroyed. Apart from that, Deus had completely lost contact with all his automatons.
Obviously, this meant all his automatons had been destroyed.
“Their feeds were among the first ones destroyed before the confrontation between my clone and the target even happened. Background noises helped me visualize what was happening, but in the end, their connection was also lost.”
“Do you think the ones who destroyed them are people from the Dragon Clan?”
“There is a possibility,” Deus agreed. “However, the fact that the magic aura, signature, and even a mage’s presence did not appear on my readings meant the only one within their range was the target. No one from the Dragon Clan was there.”
“But you did say that one of the Dragon Clan’s people was there.”
“My automatons sensed a powerful presence,” Deus refrained from speaking about Midnight. It was not because The Emperor and Midnight did not see eye to eye, but it was more because Deus did not want The Emperor to think he was incompetent to want and employ the assistance of another Over Lord.
“However, I cannot confirm that presence’s identity.”
The Emperor studied Deus’s expression. Seeing the latter’s calm yet pale complexion, he no longer insisted on finding fault with the Dragon Clan and instead asked, “What are the chances that it was that man?”
Deus’s eyes narrowed as a man in a flowing black robe flashed through his mind.
“You mean… the Dark Sage?”