Ch.186Arguilion (1)

Haltos’s expression twisted at the words of the ancient elders, victims of a terrible truth, insulting the true cause.

However, Haltos quickly regained his confident demeanor.

“Then you should be afraid. The Hydra Company has headed toward the White Light, standing on the same side as our Arguilion. They will be the prelude to the end of magical society.”

It was mere bluster to disperse the hostility of the old elders—an extension of the earlier propaganda campaign.

“How amusing.”

“You seem quite confident. Do you believe in White Light’s victory? But what if the leader of the Hydra Company is White Light’s bastard child? Even White Light himself couldn’t guarantee victory.”

White Light’s bastard child. Based solely on Nastion’s report that the president of Hydra Company had “white hair,” Arguilion was convinced of their identity as White Light’s monster.

This wasn’t logical reasoning. It was an empirical conclusion that only another Great Enemy could stand beside the Great Enemy Ortes.

“That’s precisely why I find it amusing.”

The elders’ voices filled the space shrouded in silver shadows.

“If White Light’s bastard is truly White Light’s child, it will never abandon its desire for magic. Your agreement was quite surprising, but even if Hydra Company obtains White Light, they will not offer it to the dead king.”

Haltos, feigning expressionlessness, glared at the ancient elders. He had failed to make those unknown beings hostile toward Karisia.

“To White Light’s child, you are merely discards to be used for approaching higher magic. We would not interfere regardless of who possesses the Ten Realms as long as magic continues, but the dead king you serve is different.”

The ancient elders seemed to have some understanding of the “White Great Enemy’s” identity. Old resentment boiled up within Haltos.

How many casualties had there been because the Ten Towers hadn’t revealed the true identity of White Light’s bastard, or because they’d failed to assess the capabilities of the swindler by its side?

“Right. In the end, everything except magic is meaningless to you.”

“Isn’t that obvious? All magicians study magic to pursue ascension. What meaning should we place in anything other than magic?”

“The truth! The ugly truth you’ve been hiding—! Under your deception, magical society is rotting away! It’s time for the righteous cause to be reestablished!”

Behind him, Arguilion’s executives gathered. There were two reasons Haltos had engaged in debate with the ancient elders.

First, to find clues about their identity. He could be fairly certain of who they were, given how easily they spoke of White Light and knew the identity of White Light’s bastard.

Second…

“Truth and—”

Following Haltos’s lead, a thunderous response came in unison.

“The Cause!”

It was a tactic to buy time for Arguilion’s executives to gather. Clearly, the magical capacity of individual Arguilion executives couldn’t match that of the Ten Towers’ elders. In a one-on-one, direct magical confrontation, only those with skills like Haltos or Nastion could defeat an elder.

However, with the blessing of silver added to their power, the story changed. The ability to convert magical power into mana was a counter to magic.

Arguilion stood in opposition to magicians. The more Arguilion members gathered, the more exponentially the conversion efficiency increased. Haltos sensed that now was the time to wage the decisive battle for Arguilion’s fate.

“Let’s go! It’s time to put an end to the ugly history that has deceived everyone with lies!”

***

When Karisia and White Light finally faced each other, White Light muttered incomprehensible words.

‘They aren’t moving. They must have their sights set elsewhere.’

The “they” White Light referred to meant the ancient ones, the ancient elders. It was a statement recognizing that the ancient elders perceived Karisia as a “legitimate” challenger—one seeking to obtain White Light within the framework of magical society.

The “elsewhere” where the ancient elders had set their sights was the battleground with Arguilion, which moved only to destroy magical society and magic itself.

In some sense, the ancient elders were even closer to the Ten Realms than the Tower Masters.

Beings who had long ago discarded anything like a human body, existing only as components for exploring magical paths. Beings who could abandon anything if it meant absorbing even one more piece of knowledge from the Ten Realms, or getting one step closer to ascension.

They resided in the Ether Space built into the Ten Realms network.

If Ether Space proved that the virtual world could sometimes become reality, the ancient elders proved that real existences could sometimes be incorporated into virtual, non-physical worlds.

And when it was time to emerge into reality, they either reconstructed bodies with magical power or downloaded their consciousness into enchantware vessels designed for manifestation.

Most of the ancient elders gathered here had molded bodies using the magical power of the Ten Realms. In fact, they had been connected to the Ten Realms for so long that the distinction between their magical power and that of the Ten Realms had become meaningless.

Bodies made of magical power should, in theory, be vulnerable to Arguilion’s magical power-to-mana conversion ability.

And the more ancient the magician, the more they could demonstrate how meaningless terms like “in theory” or “in reality” were in the face of magical arts.

Haltos realized that the ancient elders’ bodies followed their own principles, incompatible with conventional magical laws.

It was similar to how an Ether Space administrator could freely set the rules within the Ether Space. The elders had turned their own bodies into separate dimensions.

Beings detached one step from this world, following only the rules they themselves had established.

Each ancient elder’s body was composed of the magical formulas they had memorized and acquired. Everything from the concentration of magical power to the use of formulas to the projection of will was completed from within the body. Without overwhelming skill like Karisia’s or White Light’s, one couldn’t counter their magic with magical interference.

As soon as Haltos understood this, he tried a different approach. Magical interference works by seizing magical power at the precise moment before a spell is completed, preventing its completion. It cannot interfere with completed magic.

However, the power of the silver blessing could devour magical power even from completed spells. While it couldn’t nullify the magic itself, extracting the magical power that drove the magical phenomenon could extremely reduce its potency.

Yet even extracting magical power from completed spells wasn’t working as intended.

The principle of independence from world rules applied to the magic cast by the ancient elders. The effectiveness of this independence gradually diminished once the magic left their bodies and materialized as an independent phenomenon.

Even so, it was clear that the silver blessing’s power was working at greatly reduced efficiency. Thus, Haltos threw himself into the storm of magic before any other Arguilion executive.

Haltos was the one who had mastered the blessing to the most profound level among Arguilion. The dimensional gate that summoned silver parasites—Haltos could open and close such gates at will, albeit on a small scale.

He continuously summoned silver parasites to erode the magical conduits of the Green Eye Tower while simultaneously weakening the ancient elders’ magic. Haltos was also the only member who could respond to overwhelmingly powerful magic.

Even the most powerful magic would be meaningless if he opened a dimensional gate and transferred it to another dimension.

Haltos clicked his tongue. Originally, this ability to open dimensional gates was his trump card against the Green Eye Tower Master. If he could somehow push them into the gate, Arguilion would immediately win the succession battle.

Even if they fell into the dimensional gate, the Green Eye Tower Master wouldn’t simply accept the other dimension. They would forcibly use spatial magic to escape, but would end up drifting to a space far from the Green Eye Main Tower. During that time, Arguilion could seize the Ten Realms.

His winning card had been exposed too early. It would be good if he could take even one ancient elder with him, but their “independence” would likely allow them to counter the forced dimensional transfer.

Haltos felt a sense of déjà vu from the ancient elders’ abilities.

All members of Arguilion, followers of truth and the cause, were basically granted the magical power-to-mana conversion ability and the power of erosion, which would be a fatal move in the Ten Towers succession battle. This was a counter against the Ten Towers.

However, conversely, the ancient elders had prepared countermeasures against mana conversion and forced dimensional transfer. It was as if they had anticipated the blessing of the cause.

A counter to the counter. Haltos gritted his teeth. It wasn’t strange that they had the ability to counter Arguilion.

Hadn’t they said it themselves? That they were those who denied the great cause. But the problem was that they were clashing with Arguilion at this particular time and place.

An ominous thought crossed Haltos’s mind. Could Ortes possibly have known about them, the Ten Towers’ secret final guardians?

If so…!