Chapter 789: Final Battle Part 14
Although the Mage Country Arlodant was a mega empire, it didn't have much territory. Most of its population was concentrated in Arlo, its capital of magic.
The Cloud Tower had existed in Arlo's sky for all these past millenniums. At first, it had only been a residence and experimental laboratory for high-level mages where they could avoid having explosions affect other residential districts.
But as magic education became more commonplace, the mages in Arlodant became older on average as more and more people achieved an undying power level. This meant that the Cloud Tower gained more and more permanent residents.
The Cloud Tower was no longer just a simple experimental laboratory for high-level mages after all the constant expansion over the years. Mages consisted of 10% of the population in Arlodant, and most of them resided in the Cloud Tower. More than 50% of archmages had their own permanent residences and experimental laboratories in the Cloud Tower. All academic organizations had their own mage towers in the Cloud Tower.
Despite all this, the Mage Country had always referred to this place as the "Cloud Tower", even though the Cloud Tower had actually become a city several centuries ago. This was simply because everyone had gotten accustomed to addressing this place as the Cloud Tower.
The Cloud Tower was no longer a simple research laboratory or mage tower. Every single resident of Arlodant would see this city in the clouds every day. The Cloud Tower's existence represented the entire Mage Country's glory and stability.
"Never challenge an archmage in their own mage tower."
This was already known as common sense throughout all the dimensions. The extension of this would then be…
"Never directly challenge the Mage Country and the Cloud Tower, unless you're willing to simultaneously fight against thousands of top-level mage towers and tens of thousands of archmages."
The Cloud Tower had never accomplished any outstanding combat achievements. Perhaps people had already forgotten that the Cloud Tower was actually mobile. Still, no existence who had even a modicum of intelligence would even possibly consider directly challenging the Cloud Tower due to how powerful it was.
"Attack Arlo, the capital of the Mage Country? The Cloud Tower is there, together with tens of thousands of archmages, an endless mana reserve, tremendous amounts of war puppets and magical creations, countless Dimension Doors and prepared curses. The Cloud Tower is more than half of the entire Mage Country's combat strength."
Even the most reckless king would still never consider attacking the capital of the Mage Country. The Cloud Tower was known as the mages' home, as well as the symbol of the entire country's stability.
The only rogue king who dared to challenge the Cloud Tower was "Foolish King" Orloss. But now, his wild challenge that embroiled the Mage Country in this conflict seemed like the wisest decision a ruler had ever made in this world.
"10 years ago, the members of the inner circle made a secret agreement with former Emperor Orloss that we would activate the Cloud Tower and fly across the sea for support when it was necessary. The Bardi Empire would pay for all of our necessary expenditures. Not only that, Bardi would even open up its national treasury and give us at minimum 100 kilograms of adamantite, tens of millions of gold coins' worth of magical resources, one God Equipment, and 10 SemiGod Equipment as payment for our assistance."
In the Truth conference hall of the Cloud Tower, Archmage Lain explained to the other mages about this secret agreement which guaranteed the legality of the Cloud Tower entering the Bardi Empire.
Only Truth Symposium members would know that the Truth Symposium was actually split up into the inner circle and outer circle members. The outer circle members were more numerous and often changed, while the inner circle members were hidden. Only inner circle members would know the identity of other inner circle members.
The inner circle members didn't have any special extra authority. They simply were viewed as more trustworthy and would receive more information.
Amala of Star Revelation and "Miracle Prayer" Lain were two of the very few inner circle members whose identities were publicly known as inner circle members.
"When I heard of Orloss's death, I thought that our agreement would naturally become scrap paper. But, when Roland brought the contract and Emperor Halent's writ of authority to us, I really didn't dare to believe it… They must have been secretly working together long ago."
The Truth conference hall which was typically empty was currently more than half full. Some people whose names had been forgotten for centuries and more, who had been famous names millenniums ago, now returned in front of everyone while wearing masks and hats to conceal their identities.
Even though archmage Lain appeared to be calm, his back was actually covered in cold sweat. These senior archmages who had retreated into hermitage and retired long ago were all Truth Symposium members from generations long past. Some of them were the most respected authorities in their specialty. Normally, it wouldn't be known where they were most of the time, but they suddenly all arrived the moment that the Cloud Tower was activated.
Legally, Lain didn't need to answer the retired senior archmages' questions, but this was similar to how a young junior would have a hard time standing up to elders in the company who helped to establish it. The younger Lain felt rather panicky to be surrounded by these senior archmages. He really had to give them a reasonable explanation for activating the Cloud Tower.
"…So, Little Lain, you discussed things with the other inner circle members and activated the Cloud Tower. You sold the Cloud Tower for just some minor benefits? Do you know that the Cloud Tower has never been moved even once since the Mage Country was established? The Cloud Tower's stability is the foundation of stability in the heart of every citizen of Arlodant. Panic is now beginning to spread in the commoners' hearts."
The black-haired gentleman who said this wore a one-eyed mask and appeared to be quite young. Dangerous starlight shone in his eyes. He was Lain's teacher's senior brother, 'All-capable Hand' Noah, a past leader of the inner circle.
Lain suddenly realized what was going on. All of these senior archmages in retirement had suddenly appeared because they probably hid themselves amongst the commoners of the Mage Country. No wonder they were no longer able to remain quiet when they saw the Cloud Tower being activated.
"Heh, that Roland probably expected this as well. Young people are so scary these days, truly. Still, you made the Cloud Tower which has never moved even once to enter another country just for these little things…"
Noah didn't finish his sentence, but it was obvious to everyone that he was quite dissatisfied.
Even Lain felt slightly frustrated to see this. He now understood why Roland had strongly emphasized to him that the Cloud Tower's activation and movement had to be kept top secret. The senior archmages' reaction was probably something that Roland had expected. Additionally, moving the Cloud Tower would naturally drag the senior archmages into the battle as well.
Scheming against one's own allies wasn't something that could see the light of day. Still, scheming against one's own allies would still increase the human alliance's overall combat strength… Lain felt rather complex inside, yet he still had to answer the senior archmages' questions.
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