Chapter 179 (1/2)

Chapter 179: The Looming Crisis

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At the Azura Tower of the East Cove Magic Academy.

The squat, white tower was like a silent old man, standing there soberly on the hillside overlooking the entire East Cove Magic Academy.

It was a place where those that were wicked and evil were cast away from the outside world since time immemorial. Over the course of centuries, countless secrets were buried in the tower where even the dean of the East Cove Magic Academy couldn’t possibly unearth.

What went on inside the white tower? What did the prisoners inside think, plan and do? No one knew.

Bale sat cross-legged inside his cage in the white tower. Outwardly it would seem that he sat there motionless, doing nothing. The guards in the tower who were responsible for maintaining the prisoners’ elemental balance walked past him without batting an eye.

Yet they didn’t realize that Bale was very much active on the spiritual level. He was communicating with some of the prisoners kept in the tower’s dungeons deep underground.

“Did you expect me to believe a sock puppet like you?” a gloomy voice rang in Bale’s head. “Did you really think that I’d believe you could help us escape?” The owner of this voice had been imprisoned in the dungeons for 300 years, so the 70-year-old Bale was, in his eyes, a little boy still playing house.

“I guarantee it with my soul,” Bale vowed. “I will find a way for us to escape.”

“Ha! To hell with your soul! It’s probably worth a few coppers!” sneered another voice. “Still, your plan doesn’t sound half bad. If Tarviss was released, then the whole East Cove would surely be brought to ashes.”

“So what if the East Cove was brought to ashes? That’s got nothing to do with me,” this voice was exceptionally brutish, as its owner was a magical beast with a high level of intelligence. “That pathetic group of people who call themselves Magicians locked me down here for two hundred years! I can’t wait to go out and eat them all!”

“Of course the academy has nothing to do with you, you’re just a wild beast!” replied another voice. “But I’m a member of the academy, those who’d locked me up are all gone, so I have no more reason to hate the academy.”

“That’s right,” rang out a chorus of voices, “I won’t trust a plan with a wild beast in it!”

“Who are you calling a wild beast!” the magical creature’s voice boomed. “When I get out I’ll bite off all of your heads!”

“You motherf*cking animal!” another voice responded immediately.

For a time, the group of monsters who had been locked up in the tower for decades or even centuries began a war of words with each other in Bale’s mind. They’d all forgotten the reason why they were having a discussion in the first place.

Bale’s head was about to explode at the chaos that erupted. It wasn’t the first time he’d used the Spiritual Nexus to communicate with the prisoners of the Azura Tower. Yet, every time these monsters got together they always ended up in dispute, so they never really came to any kind of agreement.

He then ended the Spiritual Nexus spell, and all the voices in his head disappeared immediately. The world was coldly silent again.

What should I do? thought Bale while he massaged his temple. He had recovered the Mana in his body up to 70% of his former strength and even his eyes had restored its function. This was undoubtedly good progress.

With this level of strength, he could probably cause a bit of ruckus in the Azura Tower, but nowhere near collapsing and destroying it. Right now, he probably couldn’t even defeat the tower guards who walked past his cell every day. Their attack strategy was very simple, all they did was continuously shoot an Elemental Arrow, which moved at an incredible speed and contained the power equivalent to a Level-6 spell.

Once you were surrounded by a large group of guards attacking you with various types of Elemental Arrows, it didn’t matter how high your level was or how powerful you had been. In fact, even the dean Anthony himself wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed under these circumstances.

There was only one way to destroy the Azura Tower and escape from here, and that was to release the demon Tarviss. And the only way to do that was to unite the powers of all the prisoners in this tower, but these prisoners…well, they all came from different places and different backgrounds, so it was tricky to keep them on the same page, to say the least.

Just as Bale was brooding hard on the matter, he felt a shake in his consciousness. Immediately afterwards, he thought he saw a burst of white light in the depths of his mind, and the burst was so intense that all he could see was the bright white light.

He then completely lost consciousness.

After a while, Bale opened his eyes again. These were the eyes of a Lich which looked like a pair of faintly burning green flames. This light was different from before, though, because the body was now inhibited by someone else.

Not bad, thought the new Bale. The old geezer has been working hard. His strength has recovered so much in just a matter of months.

Bale didn’t understand what happened before he was knocked out, but it was actually related to the communication runes earlier.

The Dark Elf Silver Moon Council leader Manrod, a Level-8 Magician with unparalleled skills, was so far the strongest of all Magicians, second only to the Queen of High Elves.

With communication runes, Manrod could send voices into Bale’s mind. He could also naturally transmit other things into his mind as well, including, when the situation warranted it, a direct telepathic control of Bale’s body.

But this kind of control over Bale’s body came with great limitations as well, the most important one of which was time. It wasn’t that Bale’s body couldn’t withstand this method, instead, it was Manrod’s own soul that wouldn’t be able to tolerate the enormous load that this method would exert on him. If he ever exceeded his limits, his soul would immediately collapse.

I can only stay here for three days, thought Manrod. But the success of the Black Moon Conspiracy hinges on this plan, so I mustn’t waste it.

There was originally no need for him to undertake such a high-risk mission, but the plans had changed since the Norton Kingdom’s army had turned out to be so strong. The Dark Elves had suffered several consecutive defeats and lost many strategic advantages. If the war dragged on this way, it was possible that the Pralync Kingdom could never be saved even with the activation of the divine gear.

And so, here he was.

He combed through Bale’s memories and quickly grasped the situation in this prison tower.

It’s full of a bunch of idiots, Manrod thought with a bitter smile.

There was no use in talking reason with such idiots. What would’ve worked best was a show of superiority, power and confidence. They would quickly trust you if they’re convinced that you possessed these things, then they’d start to believe that you really could get them out of here.

Unfortunately, Bale lacked the strength to do this, so he was stuck with using reason to convince these idiots, which naturally would always result in bickering.

Manrod then checked the power that Bale’s body possessed, then he chose to once again cast the secret spell—Spiritual Nexus.