Chapter 599: The Era of Magic
“To think we’re lagging behind this much! It seems I was right to beg Father God to let me come here. Those so-called Bloodline Heroes have absolutely no future, and Warlocks’ paths have long been restricted. Removing my bloodline was indeed the right choice!”
Even with his mouth covered by Luna, the boy still shouted loudly, seemingly extremely excited.
Luna, however, rubbed her forehead again, her expression exceptionally helpless.
She was exactly the girl to whom Ace had gifted a drop of Blood Qi Essence back then. She had also adventured with the Goddess of Hope, Athena, and later returned to Byrne City, the City of the God of Sleep.
What happened afterwards changed more bizarrely than a play. The gods descended from heaven, and the forces of the wizards shrank across the board. Because Byrne City was the earthly kingdom of the Lady of the Night, Wizard Towers and related forces were preserved.
Luna also gradually heard some rumors: it seemed the Dream Domains of the God of Sleep’s three sons had been stolen by the Ancestor of Wizards, His Excellency Ace the Firelinker, and His Holiness the God of Sleep was extremely furious.
After living in fear and trepidation for a period of time, they suddenly heard that His Excellency Ace the Firelinker had already become a Main God and easily defeated three deities. The subsequent developments were simply like a dream.
That lord Luna had once met actually became an enemy of the gods, seemingly because of the Magic Net or something. Just as Luna and the others were feeling anxious and uneasy, even more shocking rumors arrived.
His Excellency Ace the Firelinker actually fought a thousand single-handedly, annihilating thousands of Elven Outer Gods! According to the rumors, True Gods do not die, they only fall into a long slumber. They didn’t understand the specifics of what happened, but the rumor that Ace defeated a thousand gods alone made these warriors, wizards, and others unable to believe it.
However, reality is even more exaggerated than a play. The youngest of the Three Dream Sons, Alsop, who mastered the human-form dream, announced that this rumor was true, and emphasized that He Himself was also a Divine Attendant of His Holiness Ace, the Sovereign of Dreams and Lord of the Magic Net.
In the ensuing years, over nearly a century of changes, the spread of the Magic Net triggered a series of chain reactions. The power of the wizards swelled to the extreme, and that lord even integrated the deities, establishing the loose Magic Net Alliance.
In this alliance, the deities all had to respect Ace as the leader. Within the deities, they could freely engage in vertical and horizontal alliances. As long as they did not rebel against Ace, and as long as they did not ban magic, everything was the same as before. The vow of this alliance was not long; when the Titan Main Gods and Level 6 Outer Gods from the outer side of the world descended, it would automatically dissolve.
Even Elven Outer Gods, devils, and even demons joined this alliance one after another. Magic flourished from then on.
Alsop was Ace’s Dream Divine Attendant, mastering the human-form dream. After Ace became the Sovereign of Dreams, the Three Dream Sons had sought an audience with Ace once. And when Ace suppressed over a thousand deities using the Magic Net and an invincible, mysterious Tenth Ring spell, the God of Sleep brought His three sons to proactively seek Ace out and “voluntarily” submitted.
In a century’s time, the Three Dream Sons had successively become True Gods, and the number of Ace’s subordinate gods had also reached five.
And this boy Luna brought with her was Daru, the son of the God of Human Dreams, Alsop.
His true name should be Daru Alsop, but to hide his identity, Luna always called him Daru Byrne.
Daru was born thirteen years ago. He was of the generation born bathing in the radiance of magic. From a young age, he envied wizards with magical aptitude, and especially admired the three Immortal Legendary Wizards of the Prime Material Plane: His Excellency Ace, His Excellency Bayen, and Her Excellency Betty.
Ace was a Tenth Ring Wizard, standing at the pinnacle of the paths of both magic and deities. The other two only cultivated magic; although they were only Ninth Ring Wizards, they could rival deities.
When he was ten years old, Daru witnessed the magic of the Ninth Ring Immortal Legendary Wizard, His Excellency Bayen: “Time Stop” and “Bayen’s Miniature Sunset Embers.”
Easily annihilating dozens of deities—even though it only plunged the deities into a long slumber—the terrifying might of that spell deeply shocked Daru.
Daru still remembered the scene from that time.
The way Bayen appeared was very “wizard.” A ring-shaped teleportation door opened, and out walked a Grand Wizard wearing a gray robe, with a Ninth Ring Hexagram Badge and a Ninth Ring Book Badge pinned to his chest—that is, a Magic Rank Badge and a Scholar Badge.
His eyes flashed with the light of wisdom. Without any hesitation, he froze those eleven deities in place, slowly saying something in a bizarre language with a strange aria.
Daru only learned later that it was the unique language of wizards, a magical language created by His Excellency Ace the Firelinker, whose honorable titles were Lord of the Magic Net and Dreams, and the Incarnation of Magic.
After that, a point of light with an extremely strong magical reaction appeared above the heads of the immobilized deities. Daru saw Bayen throw something towards that point of light, which merged into it.
“Bayen’s Miniature Sunset Embers!”
With an angry roar, Bayen’s figure dissipated like foam. The ordinary people watching were also locked onto by a strange spatial force field. Thousands of people, including Daru, were transferred together. From an extremely distant location, they saw a massive explosion.
“A hundred times brighter than the midday sun; my eyes were almost blinded. The cloud of fog soaring into the sky looked like an oversized mushroom.”
This was Daru’s first impression. Later, he heard that the divine bodies of all those deities were vaporized. Only the divine souls of a very few deities escaped; the rest all fell into slumber.
As a Son of God, Daru was very intelligent from a young age. After experiencing this shocking scene, Daru believed that deities were nothing more than that. The truly powerful in the world were the wizards who mastered powerful spells.
He went to great lengths to inquire, and finally learned that this kind of magic was called Nuclear Magic, and it was the very forefront of the supernatural path of magic. From that moment on, he made up his mind to study Nuclear Magic.
“This is just an ordinary nuclear fission spell. If one can master large-scale nuclear fission or even multiple nuclear fission spells, it’s possible to be like His Excellency Ace, annihilating a thousand gods single-handedly! Legend has it there are also nuclear fusion spells, which are even more inconceivable.”
After hearing an old wizard tell him this mysteriously, Daru became obsessed with magic as if possessed.
But he quickly and sadly discovered that he couldn’t learn magic like an ordinary wizard. Even the path of a Warlock was very difficult for him to walk because his bloodline power was too strong.
Moreover, the path of a Warlock was extremely limited. His bloodline came from his Father God, and his upper limit was practically preordained.
Unwilling to accept this, after inquiring many times, he finally pleaded with his Father God, Alsop, asking Him to take back the bloodline.
After Daru pestered Him relentlessly many times, Alsop finally agreed and took away all of Daru’s supernatural bloodline, turning him into an ordinary person.
Because he lacked magical aptitude, Daru could only start as a Mage Apprentice.
Luna, on the other hand, had accepted the commission of the True God Alsop to take Daru to see a Mythical Wizard: His Excellency Caruso, a Mythical Wizard proficient in human body modification.
Looking at Daru, who was looking around, Luna whispered again: “Your Highness Daru, please, you must put away that surging curiosity and maintain the necessary etiquette. We are about to head to the Wizard Tower of His Excellency the Mythical Wizard Caruso.”
Daru nodded earnestly, but still couldn’t help but observe with wandering eyes. Everything here made him feel a sense of novelty. Whether it was the mechanized architecture full of cyberpunk style, the super-dynamic flow of people, the clothing, the transportation, the omnipresent holographic projections, or the extremely dense mana—all of it made his heart surge.
“I heard a floating city is just a super-large alternate dimension. There’s even a floating city that is an artificial demi-plane, like a miniature starry sky inside. Is this floating city we are in like that?”
Unable to suppress his excitement, Daru asked in a low voice.
Luna pulled Daru along and flagged down a streamlined magical flying car. The flying car had a “Taxi” mark on it.
The two sat in the back seat. A male wizard apprentice, looking about forty years old, was driving the flying car.
“Is it the first time for the two of you to visit our Lindgard Floating City?”
The male apprentice turned his head and said with a smile.
Daru nodded and replied: “It’s my first time. It’s not hers.”
The male wizard apprentice suddenly became interested and said loudly: “Welcome to Lindgard Floating City! As you said, this place is a super-large alternate dimension. A great mechanical metropolis planet capable of accommodating a population of over a hundred million is the core of this alternate dimension!
“Of course, there isn’t a population of over a hundred million here. In fact, there is only a population of four million here. The entire metropolis planet has only utilized about three percent of its land resources.
“Where are you preparing to go?”
Luna pursed her lips, abandoning the idea of making Daru shut up, and said in a low voice: “We are going to Number Thirteen, Mowgli Street, Elden District.”
“Okay! The Elden District is the most luxurious and extravagant place in our Lindgard Floating City. It seems you guys also want to have a crazy experience. A personal suggestion, especially for you, handsome little guy: don’t empty your wallet on the witches from Hell, you’ll regret it.”
After speaking, this uncle-looking wizard apprentice pressed his right hand, flashing with the brilliance of mana, heavily onto the light screen in front of him. A synthesized voice sounded in the flying car.
“Hello, Master. The Rumsteadman Super Magical Flying Car is at your service. Please plan your route.”
Daru watched the wizard apprentice driving the magical flying car press a few times on the light screen, and then a spherical object popped out.
“Fasten your seatbelts! If you’re not in a hurry, I can take you to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lindgard with the flying car. It only costs an extra thirty Level 1 Magic Stones.”
Luna seemed very impatient and was just about to refuse, but seeing Daru’s excited yet pitiful eyes, she couldn’t help but say: “Then we’ll trouble you.”
“This will be a wonderful one-day tour, I assure you. My name is Wilde, a gold-medal taxi flying car driver here. Don’t look down on me just being an ordinary Senior Wizard Apprentice. I am absolutely the best tour guide among flying car drivers, and the best flying car driver among tour guides.”
This flying car driver named Wilde seemed to be a bit of a chatterbox. Luna had already closed her eyes to rest, while Daru excitedly started chatting with the chatterbox driver Wilde.
“There are hundreds of floating cities here. How many people must that be in total? Where is the largest floating city, and what is it called?”
Wilde snapped his fingers, made a sharp turn with a cheerful tone, and said loudly: “Boy, you’ve asked the right person. Whether it’s an ordinary driver or a tour guide, they really might not be able to answer this.
“We have a total of 312 floating cities, with a total population of 253,420,000. Among them, the largest floating city is located at the center of the cluster, named the City of Academia.
“That is a magnificently beautiful floating city. As you said, a great artificial demi-plane, an unimaginable magical miracle.
“Many people who don’t understand magic often misunderstand floating cities, thinking a floating city is just a city floating in the sky. That’s too low-level.
“Our floating cities are the artificial Divine Kingdoms of magic! The City of Academia is the ultimate culmination of wisdom and technology among them. An artificial demi-plane, a miniature starry sky, composed of three independent, giant suns. Lord Ace calls it a stellar system.
“In other words, the City of Academia is not a city, but three great stellar systems. The stellar system right in the center is the most majestic, called the Ring System. A solitary sun, surrounded by a ring-shaped mega-structure built from magical metal. Wizards call it the Ringworld, also known as the Ring of Academia.
“Legend has it that besides fertile fields producing grain, vegetables, fruits, and magic potions, all other buildings and facilities there were built for academia.
“The so-called City of Academia actually refers to the Ringworld System.
“The other two systems are standard resource systems. Stars, rocky planets, asteroid belts, and gas giants—they have everything, and possess an extremely large amount of magical mineral resources.
“The way people survive and live in these two systems is also extremely unique. They do not live on the planets, but have constructed giant habitats in orbit above the planets, integrating complete artificial ecosystems, and taking into account resource extraction and nuclear energy-to-mana conversion. The three systems form a complete, low-entropy, semi-closed-loop system.”
Daru’s eyes lit up, and he said excitedly: “You even know the Second Law of Thermodynamics?”
Wilde laughed heartily: “Although I’m driving a flying car and am just a Senior Wizard Apprentice, I have never given up on magic. I am still self-studying. One day, I might also ascend to the halls of magic. Thermodynamics is a mandatory subject for the entrance exam of higher magic schools, how could I miss it?”
The two chatted even more joyfully, actually feeling a sense of mutual appreciation. In the end, when Wilde delivered Luna and Daru to Number Thirteen, Mowgli Street, Elden District, he didn’t charge a single penny and left directly.
Luna looked at the wall between Number Thirteen and Number Fourteen and slowly let out a sigh of relief. She had finally delivered this Son of God safely.
Daru was no ordinary Son of God. He was the only offspring of Ace’s subordinate god, Alsop, and he was completely dedicated to becoming a wizard. No matter from what angle you looked at it, the political significance of this matter was extremely momentous.
Luna looked left and right, took out a small booklet from her bosom, and chanted in obscure magical language. A faint light enveloped the two, and the scene before them changed drastically.
The villas of Number Thirteen and Number Fourteen no longer shared a wall. In the middle, there was actually nearly a hundred acres of space, housing a giant Wizard Tower about five hundred meters tall.
The Wizard Tower occupied an area of about fifty acres, and the remaining fifty acres of land enclosed a small courtyard. Daru and Luna saw shadows moving about. The main gate of the courtyard was made of wood, looking very heavy. With a creak, creak, it slowly opened a crack, and a short humanoid creature walked out.
This humanoid creature was overall human-shaped, but happened to have a tiger’s head, looking somewhat terrifying. Looking closely, they found his skin was also a standard tiger pelt.
This tiger-headed person was dressed like a warrior, and slowly approached the two.
(Chapter finished)
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