Ch.170Conquest of the White Light (1)

After deep contemplation, Lampades accepted Ortes’s proposal. He had once heard Knemon’s seemingly delusional story—that if Ortes were to obtain the Ten Relics, it would truly be the moment of world destruction.

The prediction was that Ortes, after seizing all Ten Relics through the succession wars, would form a world-scale magic formation using the Ten Towers and Ten Relics, destroying the world with the limitless magical power contained within the Relics.

Already, parts of Knemon’s prophecy—the chain of succession wars and the seizure of the Ten Relics through them—had become reality.

With the first half of his prophecy coming true, there was no guarantee that the second half wouldn’t follow.

…Of course, Lampades believed Ortes when he spoke of having to fight “something that comes after the Ten Towers.”

However, he couldn’t be certain that Ortes and Carisia wouldn’t use the Ten Relics to obliterate the earth after defeating that entity.

Therefore, Lampades decided to join their plan instead. The axis of the large-scale magic formation created through all Ten Towers would naturally be the Ten Relics.

If Lampades gained control of the Yellow Thunder, even if Ortes were to press the world destruction button, he could collapse the magic formation structure assigned to the Yellow Thunder.

The intricately calculated magic formation would automatically collapse, and the explosive power would fade before reaching its peak.

Thus, the magical civilization where the members of Lampades Tower lived would partially survive. This was Lampades’ fear of the future and his countermeasure.

Ortes happily reported Lampades’ cooperation. Upon hearing the report, Carisia collapsed into her chair.

Because now she had truly done everything possible.

“The succession war still remains,” Ortes whispered beside Carisia. She nodded. As soon as the Ten Towers’ expedition was officially approved, they would declare the succession war.

And bring down the White Light.

Carisia tried to adjust her posture, but somehow her body felt powerless. As the moment she had longed for approached, a mixture of tension and joy destroyed her sense of balance.

Closing her eyes briefly, Carisia removed her gauntlet. Click, the sound of metal friction echoed. Carisia extended the hand that had been hidden inside the black gauntlet toward Ortes.

“Will you hold it?”

Ortes silently shrugged once. He took Carisia’s right hand in both of his. Carisia wiggled her fingers to feel his warmth more deeply. As Carisia’s left hand approached to cover Ortes’s hand, he spoke.

“Well. It seems our long contractual relationship is finally coming to an end, boss.”

“…Indeed. It was a journey that began with a dislike for the White Light.”

Carisia traced letters on the back of Ortes’s hand with his fingers. It was a playful question about whether he would resign after the fight with the White Light was settled.

Ortes shook his head.

“After that, I’ll have to beg you to let me stay with the company. The Demon King still remains.”

Carisia chuckled.

***

The Ten Towers’ expeditionary force had broken through the dimensional wall. The news spread throughout the magical society, accompanied by expectations that the insufferable public enemy Arguirion would finally be eradicated.

However, beneath the surface, a more secretive expectation spread like ripples.

A harbinger that a battle to end the era of the Ten Towers and open a new age was approaching.

The eyes of those who touched even the tip of the iceberg of truth all turned toward the city of Etna. They were there.

The magical beasts born to topple the giants of the era known as the Ten Towers.

***

13 minutes and 25 seconds after the Ten Towers’ official expedition. The fact of the expeditionary force’s departure was cross-verified from Lampades Tower’s observations.

Hydra Company immediately declared a succession war.

The target was the White Light.

The oldest and strongest of the Ten Towers.

***

Due to the physical distance between Etna City and the White Light, it was estimated that the succession war would take at least ten days to complete, even at its fastest.

The time it would take for the White Light to intercept and completely neutralize Hydra Company’s forces wasn’t counted. It was because they would be neutralized so quickly that measuring it would be meaningless.

The ten-day timeframe was the estimated time for Hydra Company’s forces to reach the White Light on foot. Since infrastructure like magical trains were all property of the Ten Towers, they naturally became unavailable.

Most of the magical society intuited that this battle would end tediously. They were preoccupied with figuring out who and for what reason had manipulated a frontier tower to attack the Ten Towers.

At that moment, Carisia declared:

“The White Light succession war must be concluded within one hour.”

***

One hour was the time it would take for the White Light to dismantle the lighthouse formula and concentrate all the Ten Relics’ capabilities on attack. If they couldn’t topple the White Light within this time, Hydra Company would face the White Light’s full power.

At that moment, all plans would go awry. Therefore, Carisia added instructions:

“If the succession war is not concluded after one hour has elapsed, we will overload the artificial Ten Relics. For this plan to work smoothly, all directors must defend Etna City.”

It was a declaration to take the place of the Ten Towers by forcibly eliminating the White Light’s tower master. At least, that’s how the directors interpreted it.

Only Ortes knew that “overload” actually meant “explosion.”

Even Kaicle only understood it superficially, thinking it meant using the artificial Ten Relics to cut off the White Light’s magical power supply. Only Ortes knew that Carisia had built the artificial Ten Relics to destroy the White Light itself.

“If even this fails to be properly executed, all plans are scrapped. The chain succession war and Ten Relics seizure will have completely failed at that point, so seek your own survival.”

Most directors were perplexed by this brief declaration. There wasn’t a single word about proper tactics—how to advance the troops or how to counter expected attacks.

Kriton raised his hand.

“Boss… How exactly are we supposed to attack the Ten Towers…”

“Haven’t I assigned your mission? Defend Etna City.”

Divius scratched his helmeted head. The doctor, once a member of Blasphemia, couldn’t understand this strategy at all.

“Do you two plan to attack alone? That’s nothing but suicide. The magical power around the Ten Towers is completely dominated by the Ten Relics. Using magic there is nearly impossible. Even ancient wisdom says siege requires three times the defending force. Against a Ten Tower, even ten times might be dangerous.”

As expected. Carisia gave a signal.

Those who had been privy to part of Carisia’s blueprint for attacking the White Light turned and left the conference room. To fulfill their duties.

Bertrand, Kaicle, Arabelle.

“We won’t be conducting a siege.”

Ignoring the directors who were confused by the sudden departures, Carisia continued.

“The White Light will be the one conducting the siege.”

And the remaining directors finally realized what had felt off.

Ortes, who had always stood behind Carisia, was missing.

***

“Miss Kine. Is this the right line?”

“Yes. Just a moment…”

Ortes and Kine were now at Elysion. The sacred ground of magic, Elysion. The intermediate point where all mana emitted from the Ten Relics gathered. Thus, a place where mana attributes neutralized each other and were sublimated into the purest mana.

Ortes was there for sabotage.

Normally, only those who had passed extremely rigorous ideological verification in the Argos dimension could be selected as Elysion guards.

However, Argos was now diminished, and the vanguard of the faction that had risen in its place was Ortes’s comrade.

It was this simple for Ortes to infiltrate Elysion with an official identity.

“Well then, let’s start the city magical power utility work!”

Ortes manipulated the control panel of the magical conduit. Ten main magical conduits connected to Elysion’s core magical pathway.

Among them, the conduit connected to the White Light closed.

As the magical power flowing into Elysion was blocked, the magical density around the White Light began to gradually increase.

Simultaneously, Ortes sent an email to a randomized address.

Niobe.

Blasphemia, which should have been the Ten Towers’ appendage, began to move to strike the Ten Towers.

The beginning of the rebellion wasn’t grandiose. Earlier, Audit Director Salmosia had been summoned by the Ten Towers because of an Arguirion that appeared in Elysion. He had entered the Ether Space while maintaining his physical body.

Outside the Ten Towers, very complex conditions were needed to achieve such an Eleusian phenomenon.

However, within the Ten Towers’ domain, it was simple to arbitrarily form a virtual space that could be entered with a physical body through the overflowing magical power of the Ten Relics.

Niobe merely activated the device that concentrated magical power for the formation of that Ether Space.

Of course, the location where the Ether Space would form was inside the White Light’s domain.