Silas stood in front of the hallway leading back to the hidden door where he met Pheobe.
It had been a quarter of an hour since Lady Rin dropped him off.
He did not leave immediately and told her he wanted to make preparations first. When she asked if he needed anything, he kindly refused.
Lady Rin might have felt he wanted to be alone because she did not insist and bid him farewell with a faint smile.
Her intuition was correct.
Because the secret of the Spirits Silas learned from her did leave him in shock.
Lady Rin already warned him that the secret she would tell him might answer some of his doubts about what happened to his family. It never occurred to him that the conspiracy that led to his family’s downfall was just the tip of a bigger one that involved the Hero Families mentioned in history.
During the Chaos Reign era, the Dark Sage ruled the whole land and instilled fear in every creature’s heart, not only because of his almost god-like void magic but also because of his army. The Legion of Demons.
These demons invaded the whole land from another plane even before the Dark Sage had risen in power. During that age, three Hero Families appeared and fought back. After years of bloodshed, the Hero families finally suppressed the demons and banished them to the outer southern land, and peace slowly returned to the mainland.
Because of the contribution of the Hero Families, the people of the land had turned to them and even revered them as the new Lords.
There were still skirmishes at the borders of the southern land as demons tried to invade again, but the Hero Families drove them back every time.
However, after two years, the Dark Sage appeared and ventured to the land of the demons. There he singlehandedly enslaved all of them and once again brought chaos to the whole land.
The Dark Sage ruled for almost thirty years before finally, the Hero Families made a last stand. As a result, one of the leading heroes sacrificed herself to let another hero mortally wound the Dark Sage and successfully seal him.
The hero who made a sacrifice was an ancestor of the Royal Family. And thus, her Family became the land leader and eventually built the Ylfaen Empire after hundreds of years.
Of course, this was a known fact by all because it was written in history books.
However, Lady Rin had told Silas a fact that was never revealed to the world.
The hero who wounded and sealed the Dark Sage was actually the ancestor of the Regis Family.
As to why it was never revealed, it was all because of a conspiracy that the Hero Families had kept hidden. Whether the Regis ancestor was also involved was unknown even to his predecessors.
After hundreds of years, this conspiracy was kept hidden.
Until the Fae spirits learned of it.
Since the spirits lived in another plane and could enter the human plane as they please without being seen, they learned about the conspiracy of the Royal Family. And they were not happy.
Then the incident happened.
A member of the Royal Army who was also a spirit mage went to the Royal Palace to receive a commendation. During the ceremony, her spirit suddenly appeared and angrily attacked the Queen and the Royal Princess. The spirit mage was detained, and her spirit was locked up. Up to this day, the fate of the mage and her spirit was unknown.
After the incident, the Royal Army investigated all known spirit mages and their families. When one family could not answer the army’s interrogation, they were immediately branded as traitors who were building an army of spirits to overthrow the Royal Family as well as practicing forbidden magic.
The army executed the family representatives on the spot. And their territory was raided and razed to the ground overnight.
This was the Svell Family of the North, Silas’s Family.
Silas gritted his teeth as he reigned in his anger. Just because his family could not answer, the army wiped out his whole family?
‘Unreasonable,’ he thought in anger.
“Your family probably refused to tell why a spirit would attack the Royal Family. They were brave and loyal spirit masters. I know some would think it foolish to choose to save the spirits over their own lives. But because of what your family did, we had a chance to expose the truth.”
Lady Rin’s words flashed through Silas’s mind.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
After a short pause, he opened his eyes and took out a round magic item.
He urged his magic inside the magic item, and soon it glowed in light blue.
Finally, he entered the dark hallway.
While walking, Silas remembered the rest of his conversation with Lady Rin.
“Just what truth would the Royal Family be afraid of being exposed?” he had asked.
“The truth, that the one the Royal Army branded as the most villainous mage in history, the Dark Sage, was revered by the spirits as their savior.”
It was only then that Silas realized how Lumi called the Dark Sage as Void Master. As if calling him the Dark Sage was taboo to her. Even Lady Rin. Of course, she might have refrained from referring to him as such because her own son had the same magic.
‘And even if the ‘Void Master’ was the spirit’s savior, why would the spirits want to meet the new one. It’s not like he is the reincarnation of the previous Void Master, right?’ Silas wondered.
He also realized that the battle that led to the Dark Sage’s downfall might have a deeper story behind it. The fact that the spirits revered him as a savior was a hint. It was also why the Royal Family did not want this truth to be exposed.
If the truth that not all creatures were afraid of the Dark Sage, then those fanatics who believed he was a God would do everything to find out the truth of what happened years ago and expose the Royal Family.
But what about the Regis ancestor? Why did he not expose the truth?
He remembered how almost two hundred years ago, the Regis Patriarch of that time suddenly decided to close the door of the Regis Clan’s Estate.
Did he discover the truth?
Silas also felt it was ironic how the Regis ancestor killed the Dark Sage, yet one of his descendants was born with void magic.
‘Did the Void Master cursed him before he died? Like ‘I will have my revenge! And it will be through your descendant!’ kind of curse?’ Silas wondered.
He shook his head and sighed. It felt as if his brain cells had been exhausted just trying to digest all this information.
‘Let’s focus on getting out first. Lady Rin also said the army had tightened security outside and that they are up to something,’ Silas told himself.
He felt a little disheartened that Lady Rin rejected the notion when he offered to stay and help. She only told him to focus on getting out of the estate safely.
Clearly, she did not want to drag him into the Regis business.
‘She’s right, though. I have my own business to deal with,’ he thought.
After a few minutes, he finally reached the hidden door. He put the magic item back into his storage space and slowly opened the door.
Once again, he felt that invisible veil wrapped his body as he passed through the door.
He closed the door immediately after getting out and expanded his magic sense.
Contrary to his expectation, it seemed there were no army officers nearby. Not that he was complaining. As soon as he was sure the coast was clear, he made a sprint toward the woods.
It didn’t take long when suddenly the ground quaked, and an explosion occurred above the Regis inner wall.
“What?” Silas stopped in his tracks and turned toward the direction of the inner wall.
From where he stood, he saw a violet tint veil spread around the inner walls from above.
The Regis’s defensive array activated, and a light golden barrier appeared, forming a half-sphere around the Regis Inner Wall.
“No! The array!” Silas exclaimed as he saw cracks appearing on the surface of the Regis’s defensive array where the violet veil made contact.
His body impulsively made a move back toward the walls, but before he could progress further, a ball of snowflakes formed in front of him, and with a small puff, Lumi appeared.
“Stupid little Silas! Where do you think you’re going?” She reprimanded.
“Lady Lumi,” Silas exclaimed in surprise. Then his expression turned solemn, and he said, “I need to go back, the Regis are-.”
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” Lumi berated and threw several snowballs at his face. “Let’s say you went back, what can you do? I already told you not to get tangled with the Regis’s affairs any further!”
“But-!”
“No buts! The Regis’s has their own system. Just because they are under attack doesn’t mean they’re already in danger. Besides do you think you can enter their walls after getting out? The Regis’s defensive array will not fall easily just because it looks as if that veil was effective.”
Just as Lumi said this, a deafening crack resounded all over the Regis’s defensive array as soon as the veil reached the middle portion of the half-sphere.
A vein appeared on Lumi’s forehead as she turned and glared at the barrier that looked like it would be destroyed any second.
She formed her small fists into a tight ball and raised it angrily towards the Regis Inner Wall.
“Don’t make me look like an idiot!” She berated at no one in particular.
Black lines appeared on Silas’s head. He was about to say something when he sensed army officers running toward his location.
Lumi also felt them and her eyes narrowed. She turned to Silas and said, “Go now. Remember your own mission and focus!”
“Tsk.” Silas gritted his teeth. He tightened his grip on his fists and finally turned back to the woods. He left before the army officers could see him, with Lumi flying right behind him.
====================
Cade stood outside the Inner Wall Defense Headquarters, watching as the Regis’s defensive array above started to crumble.
Behind him, two squads of ten Regis combat mages stood awaiting his orders.
All of them were wearing black leather armor and half-face masks. They were also equipped with metal gauntlets where several small spirit stones of different colors were attached around the wrists.
Lowering his gaze, Cade closed his eyes, and a three-meter radius silver array appeared under his feet.
The moment his array appeared, the crumbling array stabilized, and the violet veil’s progress slowed.
“Raya, head southwest, around 8:00 o’clock from this position.” He said without looking behind him.
The man in front of the squad to his bowed, “Yes. Lord Cade.”
Green arrays circled Raya and his squad’s lower legs before they moved toward the direction Cade told them.
“Myst, head north, 3:00 o’clock.”
“Right away, Lord Cade.” Myst replied.
Similarly, green arrays circled him and his squad’s lower legs before they left toward the north part of the Inner Walls.
As soon as they were out of sight, Cade opened his eyes which glowed in silver light.
From where he stood, he could see the sixty-meter tall gates of the Regis Inner Walls. He lifted his hand and aimed at the gates.
In an instant, several huge octagonal-shaped silver arrays appeared starting from the gates then all around the walls.
When these silver arrays filled every wall of the Regis Inner Walls, Cade finally lowered his arm. He then took out a scroll from his space storage ring and burned it using his magic.
The silver array under his feet disappeared and was replaced by a light-golden array.
It lit up, and Cade disappeared soon after.
