Legacy of the Dark Sage - Chapter 954: Decision (3)
News of the Flos’s and Obstruction’s death continued to spread in the Lower Realm, alerting every Sovereign. Whether these Sovereigns were part of a big faction that would participate in the War of the Sovereigns or not, they all eyed the planes that belonged to the former two.
However, Flos and Obstruction’s faction would not allow other Sovereigns to claim their planes. Thus, they dispatched their members and had them claim those planes as soon as possible.
After the hampered mission in Somuli, Sovereign of Chains and the others with him contacted the others and planned their next move. Ultimately, they decided to prioritize the claiming of Flos and Obstruction’s planes.
A plane that belonged to Obstruction was fairly close to Somuli. This plane was called Atim and was rich in rare stones that were used for crafting magic weapons. Because of this, many Sovereigns coveted this plane. Upon hearing of Obstruction’s death, they immediately went to that plane, wanting to claim it for themselves.
Flos and Obstruction’s faction expected a grueling battle to unfold in that plane. Thus, they decided to let Chains go there.
Three days later, Chains arrived near Atim’s premises. Contrary to their expectations, however, there was no battle happening outside the plane.
Chains frowned upon realizing this. There were only two reasons for this. One, because he was pretty close to Atim, he arrived before any of the other Sovereigns. Two, the plane had already been claimed by another.
Fearing the latter possibility, Chains decided to enter the plane and see for himself. However, he soon realized something was amiss.
From afar, it was not obvious. But as he neared, he noticed a faint dark purple glow surrounding the plane.
“You should stop before you get too close.”
A voice reverberated in the surroundings, forcing Chains to stop in his tracks. He looked around and found a silhouette emerging from a distortion a few meters to his left.
The silhouette took form, revealing a man with long braided bluish hair in silver armor. His face was half hidden in a silver mask that resembled a head of a falcon.
Chains’s eyes narrowed as he saw the man. The man before him was unfamiliar, but he knew about a group that possessed powerful retainers in silver armor and falcon masks— The Coven.
“What is the Coven doing here?”
The Coven did not meddle in planes that belonged to a Sovereign participating in the War. Why would they send one to Atim after it lost its Sovereign?
Although Chains did not elaborate on his question, the man seemed to have understood it and replied, “We have come to check what would become of a plane if its owner was killed before its time.”
Chains knitted his brows in confusion. He did not understand what the man meant.
Seeing Chains’ expression, the man only shook his head and continued, “It is no use fretting over my words. Just know that a plane that lost its owner to someone who could severe the Fates’ influence cannot be claimed by others.”
“What?” Chains growled. Though he could barely understand most of what the man had said, he at least understood the last part. Naturally, he did not believe it, but only because he failed to understand the first part of the man’s words.
The man looked at the plane before them, seemingly uninterested in elaborating on his words. After a short pause, the space around him distorted as he turned around and left. Before he completely disappeared, he said, “You can try to enter if you want. But remember that you have been warned.”
Chains was silent for a few minutes after the man had left. He pondered on what the latter had said and finally decided to test the waters. He created an essence and had it enter the plane.
But.
“Ngh…!” Chains felt his insides churn as his essence experienced a scorching sense of pain enveloping its body the moment it neared the faint dark purple glow.
Chains immediately had his essence retreat to safety. He then realized that the faint dark purple glow worked like a defensive shield that prevented others like him from entering the plane.
Before Chains could come up with another way to enter the plane, he received a message from the other remaining leader of their faction. Not bothering to take out the communication device, he scanned his magic sense in his storage pouch and checked the message.
Soon, his face distorted as his eyes narrowed further while looking at the plane before him.
“Does this mean every plane under Obstruction cannot be claimed anymore?” Chains muttered, both in annoyance and wonder.
Apparently, a few other members of their faction who managed to arrive in Flos or Obstruction’s planes before the others also experienced the same thing. There was also news of other enemy Sovereigns that did not even use an essence to enter the plane, ending up fatally injured after getting too close to the faint dark purple glow.
Chains clenched his fists as he glared at the faint dark purple glow covering the plane before him. He summoned his magic, taking out several golden chains, and tried to envelop the whole plane. However, similar to what happened to his essence, the chains appeared to have been scorched as they disintegrated before they could even touch the faint dark purple glow.
Chains tried other moves and spells, wanting to bypass the effect of the dark purple glow. However, no matter what he did, nothing seemed to get past it.
In the end, Chains clenched his fists in frustration and left, returning to their main headquarters to meet with the rest of the members.
Their faction would definitely experience a huge decrease in resources and manpower now that the number of planes under them has been reduced. They had to come up with another way to cover that up.
The moment Chains left, another silhouette appeared, who had been watching the former since the beginning.
The silhouette wore a grayish-white hooded robe with a symbol of a shield and spear on its back. From the hooded silhouette’s frame, it was suggested he was a man. He took out a communication device and spoke through it using his magic sense to ensure no sound came would leak out.
“Sovereign of Chains failed to claim the Atim plane. Apparently, the plane cannot be claimed by others because of some sort of barrier surrounding it.”
After saying his piece, the man left as well.
Similar messages came from other members of the Guardians, and Axil received them all. After learning what the barrier looked like, she could not help but frown in both amazement and confusion.
“Does this mean all those planes are now protected by Kyran?” she wondered aloud.
Besides Axil, Loar also had a strange look. He could still remember the first time he met Kyran, and even after meeting him again and knowing how much he had improved in his overall strength, it never occurred to him that a day would come when he, Kyran, would become a protector of some sort of those planes that belonged to Sovereigns he killed.
“Is that even possible?” Loar asked. “When he killed Flos and Obstruction, he could not have connected with all their planes, right? How could he use his magic and protect them? Not to mention, how could he protect all those planes without draining himself?”
“I know,” Axil agreed. “But the color of that barrier-like surrounding those planes, as well as what it does to anyone or anything that comes close to it, is similar to the Void’s nature.”
She looked at Loar meaningfully and added, “You should know this better since you have witnessed what he can do personally.”
Loar did not refute. He did witness Kyran use his magic whenever they were out on a mission together. Still, he could not fully understand the logic behind it.
Seeing Loar’s unconvinced expression, Axil heaved a sigh and shook her head, “Let us not dwell on it for now. Since we’ve gleaned this much information about those planes. At least one of our concerns has been averted.”
“True,” Loar agreed.
They had been worried about what would become of those planes if the other Sovereigns would fight each other to claim them.
As much as possible, they did not want unnecessary destruction to fall on the other planes, especially when their mission was to protect all planes from the upcoming War of the Sovereigns.
“Once Kyran finishes studying those tablets, we need to decide what to do with those planes. Right now, they are no longer part of any faction, but what does Kyran plan to do with them?”
“Will they become part of the Human plane?” Loar wondered.
“Kyran is not the Sovereign of the Human plane…” Axil started to remind him. But then her voice trailed off as she realized what this implied.
Loar seemed to have realized this as well, as they both looked at each other and saw the doubt reflected in their eyes.
Kyran is not a Sovereign.