Initially, when Lin Gui told her that the most suitable allies were half-demons,
Elvia hadn't paid it any mind.
Half-demons were scarce in number, and their plight—being even lower than the bottom tier of society—meant this group had always been weak.
To put it bluntly, Elvia felt that for Lin Gui's revenge and revolution, half-demons were less valuable than the old men, old ladies, and smelly beggars coming and going at the post office entrance.
At least the vast refugee population could provide them with intelligence value.
Just as she had done in the Carter Royal Capital, relying on commoners, adventurers, and people at the bottom, the intelligence network she built had forcibly elevated her—someone with zero background or backing—to the point of competing for the throne.
But half-demons... what the hell good were they?
Half-demons at the bottom of society lacked both resources and connections.
Theia, whom they had met in Caran City, was already the strongest half-demon Elvia had ever seen.
And that was only thanks to Caran not being connected to the Alliance's transport network, meaning discrimination against half-demons hadn't polluted that region.
A half-demon becoming an adventurer?
That was completely unimaginable in the Carter Royal Capital.
And now Lin Gui was telling her
that there was a Mid-tier Legendary half-demon.
And freakin' hell, a mage at that—the most resource-draining class, where a single High-tier Legendary could drain a royal family dry?
Elvia's first thought was that Lin Gui was pulling her leg.
This was far more ridiculous than the outrageous story he had made up before.
Commoners and refugees might be able to carve their way through blood and slaughter to produce a few physical class Legendaries, but it was absolutely impossible for them to produce a Legendary mage.
Even back in the Golden Age, magic had been a luxury—something only high nobles and prominent families could afford to dabble in.
Elvia stared blankly at Lin Gui.
Meanwhile, Lin Gui spoke calmly.
“Do you really think the half-demons who could set up a sanctuary in the Withered Wood Wasteland would be weak?”
“Around almost any corner here, you might run into a Legendary.”
“Forget building a sanctuary—just surviving here for a month requires an exceptionally formidable powerhouse.”
Lin Gui had guessed from the start that the half-demons here were no ordinary group.
Making a home in a Forbidden Zone?
It reminded him of Avalon.
And Avalon's top-tier combat power was not a bit inferior to Shield City's.
What surprised him was that the half-demons' leader was a Legendary mage; that was somewhat beyond his expectations.
Elvia rubbed the space between her eyebrows.
She whipped her head around, grabbed Guy's shoulders, and asked him earnestly,
“How strong are the half-demons in your sanctuary?”
“How many people do you have? How many Transcendents? How many Legendaries?”
Guy was startled by her sudden movement.
His body reflexively tensed as he looked at her warily.
However, that wariness lasted only a moment before he honestly revealed the sanctuary's details.
This seemed to be an extremely sensitive topic, but by now it held little meaning.
The mages hunting them likely understood the half-demons' strength even better than Guy did.
Guy simply didn't understand why Elvia wanted to know all this.
He paused, then spoke slowly.
“Big Brother Morgan, a Mid-tier Legendary mage.”
“Two Low-tier Legendary assassins.”
“One Low-tier Legendary knight.”
“Twelve High-tier Transcendents, twenty-nine Mid-tier Transcendents, seventy-nine Low-tier Transcendents...”
Elvia's eyelids twitched wildly as she listened.
Freakin' hell... this was almost catching up to the Carter Royal Capital.
Are these really half-demons?
Irene, who had been silent on the side, chimed in,
“Back when the first vote passed with over half the council members in favor, Lord Morgan from the City of a Thousand Towers began gathering all the half-demons across the Central City-States to head there.”
“However, most half-demons were spread out too far. So the ones he gathered were those capable of crossing the wilderness—the elites among half-demons.”
“In terms of strength, they aren't weaker than an ordinary city-state.”
And that was precisely why she had intended to come seek refuge with them.
Yet remembering Leby and the sanctuary's current plight, her heart darkened.
Meanwhile, Elvia's eyes lit up upon learning the sanctuary's actual strength.
It wasn't ordinary curiosity, but the instinctive excitement of a power-holder discovering power.
As a former top-ranking royal princess with real authority in the Carter Royal Capital, she had an almost morbid sensitivity to the word "strength."
What did it mean for half-demons to possess such strength?
It meant they weren't a liability, but a force that could be utilized.
Furthermore, it was a powerful force that was highly trustworthy and very likely to be recruited into their camp.
Her fingers unconsciously gripped her knees tightly, her mind already racing.
How to approach them, how to win them over, and how to turn these people abandoned by the world into a blade in her hands.
She looked at Guy and asked,
“What about information on the sanctuary's enemies? How strong are the mages hunting you? Do you know?”
Guy smiled bitterly.
“After Sister Leby and the others were captured, Lord Morgan had us disperse and evacuate from the sanctuary.”
“My companions were captured a day ago, so I don't know exactly how strong the enemies are.”
Elvia frowned.
She turned her head to look at Irene.
This member of the Ross family who had taken part in the hunt.
Irene fell silent for a moment before speaking.
“A total of twenty-four magic families are participating in the hunt.”
“Aside from those just making up the numbers, there are eight core major families, all of which are highly prestigious entities in the Magic City.”
She paused, seemingly recalling the information she had heard.
“As for the remaining sixteen families... ignore them. Their strength isn't much different from ours. They're just cannon fodder sent by their families to clean house, and they've probably all died on the way here.”
She looked forward at Lin Gui, who was controlling the raft to fly at high speed.
“If you hadn't been secretly protecting us, the Ross family would have been devoured by demons long ago.”
“I don't know exactly how many people came from the eight core families, nor what their strength is.”
“However, among them, taking the Eli family, who specialize in ice magic, as an example...”
She fell silent briefly.
“We ran into them once in Withered Wood Town, over at the Mage Guild.”
She raised her head and looked at Elvia.
“A total of ten people came from the Eli family: three mages, four guard knights, and three assassins... all of them High-tier Transcendents.”
The atmosphere instantly froze.
One family, ten High-tier Transcendents.
Eight core families meant eighty High-tier Transcendents.
In both numbers and rank, this was an absolute crushing advantage over the sanctuary's Transcendent strength.
Irene quietly stared at Elvia, trying to catch a reaction on the face of this person who intended to meddle in the hunt.
In the end, Elvia didn't react at all.
Her expression was so calm it was as if she had heard a minor, trivial detail.
She merely knitted her brows and pressed further,
“What about their top-tier combat power?”
Irene continued to stare at her, seemingly wanting to spot a flaw in her expression.
Failing to see the flaw she was looking for, she breathed a subtle sigh of relief in her heart, her eyes imperceptibly darting around her surroundings.
She continued,
“I only know of one.”
“And that is the newly appointed Master of the Concealment Tower in the City of a Thousand Towers, Edwin Mores.”
“A High-tier Legendary mage, just one step away from Epic.”
“He's one of the core figures behind this hunt.”
Edwin Mores...
Up front, Lin Gui raised an eyebrow.
He recalled the four people he had encountered back in Coppergate City on the way to the magic tower with Freya.
That old man dressed in dark purple mage robes.
With snow-white hair and beard, and a lean face.
Pinned to his chest was a badge with three gold borders.
High-tier Legendary.
So that was Edwin Mores.
And the intended recipient of the fake Sivir's letter back at Serpent-Spine Ridge was also this Edwin Mores.
While controlling the raft to maintain high-speed tracking, Lin Gui asked,
“The Concealment Tower... As I recall, the City of a Thousand Towers didn't have such a magic tower.”
Although Lin Gui had only stayed in the Magic City for a short time, he still had some understanding of the magic towers in the City of a Thousand Towers.
The politics and power structure of the City of a Thousand Towers were built around towers.
Aside from regular communication magic towers, the most core were the twelve main towers within the Star Ring that symbolized the mage system.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—the five lower elemental magic towers composed the Lower Five-Circle Towers.
Ice, Lightning, and Wind composed the Mid-tier Three-Circle Towers.
Light and Dark composed the High-tier Two Auxiliary Towers.
And the highest of all was the Celestial Tower, representing a mage's ultimate achievement—symbolizing a mage's pinnacle, the High-tier Epic rank.
In all of Akara's recorded history to date, only three High-tier Epic mages had ever appeared.
Only one currently existed.
That was the Master of the Celestial Tower, one of the Five Apexes—the Great Sage Merlin Ambrosius.
Besides these twelve magic towers, there were two special magic towers: the Soul Tower and the Astrology Tower.
As for the Concealment Tower, however...
Lin Gui had never heard of the name.
Irene remained silent for a short while before explaining,
“Three years ago, after a certain incident, the Dark Tower was stripped of its name and renamed the Concealment Tower.”
“Its position was also replaced by the Soul Tower, demoting it to a lower tower.”
Elvia chimed in,
“Is it... that Wave of Undead incident?”
“I read about that in the Alliance Daily back then. Because of that incident, it was said the City of a Thousand Towers nearly fell.”
“Moreover, it created Akara's very first man-made Forbidden Zone: the Bone Highlands.”
Elvia remembered that this incident had occurred before she left for Caran City.
She recalled it was some powerful mage who had practiced forbidden magic, awakening the forbidden spirits sleeping underground, subsequently triggering a disaster of the dead.
Irene said calmly,
“Yes.”
She didn't elaborate further, seemingly reluctant to dwell on the matter.
She simply glossed over it, steering the topic back to the Master of the Concealment Tower.
“Although the Concealment Tower's status in the City of a Thousand Towers isn't what it used to be compared to the other towers, in terms of strength, Edwin is exceptionally formidable among the lower magic towers.”
“Especially his concealment magic.”
“He once successfully hid from a High-tier Legendary demon.”
She looked at Lin Gui and Elvia.
“I don't know how strong that unrevealed Legendary mage Lord of yours is.”
“But when it comes to concealment capabilities, no mage can surpass Edwin.”
Her initial nervousness and escape had prevented her from perceiving Lin Gui and Elvia's true strength.
And now...
Two High-tier High Ranks?
Two High-tier High Ranks planning to pull out the magic pillars maintaining that vast perception veil?
Yet facing magic families where everyone started at Transcendent, she didn't see a single trace of retreat in their eyes.
Remembering how the Ross family had been unharmed all along the way,
and how powerful Legendary demons had passed by multiple times without incident,
Irene was convinced that there must be a Legendary mage specializing in concealment magic backing them.
She simply couldn't comprehend why that person hadn't shown themselves.
Suppressing the doubts in her eyes, she looked at Elvia and continued,
“Edwin's concealment ability is so powerful that it even allows him to move about freely in this Forbidden Zone alongside other powerful beings.”
“And that's what I consider to be the thorniest problem.”
Irene's misunderstanding was well within Lin Gui and Elvia's expectations, and they didn't bother to expose it.
As for Irene's warning,
Elvia smirked.
Her tone carried a hint of pride.
“Yeah, you're right.”
“Powerful concealment capabilities in the wasteland are indeed a terrifying asset.”
“Whether for us or for them.”
Elvia's confidence caused a trace of doubt to rise in Irene's heart.
She opened her mouth, just about to ask something else,
when Lin Gui, sitting in front, suddenly spoke up.
“Alright, end of conversation.”
His voice was calm, yet carried an indisputable air of finality.
“Time to get to work.”
As his words fell, his eyes turned grey.
Eyes of the Netherworld, silently activated.
Deep within his grey pupils reflected two blue soul masses.
Far in the distance, roughly two kilometers away, they were slowly advancing.
Their speed was extraordinarily slow.
Eerily slow.
Lin Gui's brows knitted slightly.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night instantly enveloped the entire raft, and the flying raft abruptly came to a hover in midair.
Controlling the raft, he raised it silently upward.
With his field of vision widened, he then looked back down.
In front of those two blue soul masses,
under Lin Gui's soul-level observation, the dead trees along the eastern side of the entire ridge were a sea of crimson.
The dead trees in that area were taller and stouter than those around them, their crowns blocking out the sun, their branches twisted and gnarled like countless withered arms reaching toward the sky.
The appearance of these dead trees, height aside,
looked no different from ordinary dead wood forests nearby.
However, the crimson color of their souls told Lin Gui that these were all living demons.
At a glance, there were at least a hundred of them.
And every single one possessed power at or above the Hero Rank.
That was a territory of demons.
And that assassin and ranger were currently walking toward this territory.
Over there, at the edge of the dead wood forest,
the assassin came to a halt.
His brows were tightly furrowed, his hand clutching a Transmission Stone that glowed with a faint blue light.
“How many times do I have to tell you?! I didn't capture that straggling half-demon!”
“I'm not hiding anything!”
“Your piece-of-shit compass is broken!”
“That guy isn't with me at all!”
The assassin kept his voice extremely low, but the suppressed rage within it was still unmistakable.
The Transcendent Ranger beside him nudged his shoulder and said in a cold voice,
“Hey, quiet down. Don't alert these things.”
Hearing this, the assassin irritably stuffed the Transmission Stone into his coat.
“Fuck's sake,”
he cursed under his breath.
“I'm definitely going to settle the score with that bastard when we get back.”
“The red dot for the half-demon is right on my position—how the hell do I not know about it?!”
The ranger didn't answer.
His gaze landed on the dead wood forest ahead, his throat bobbing.
Those trees were too quiet.
So quiet they didn't seem like living things.
He instinctively took half a step back.
“We're taking a detour.”
he said.
The assassin frowned.
“A detour will add half a day to our trip.”
The ranger gave him a glance.
“You wanna die?”
The assassin fell silent for a moment.
Then he glanced at the massive dead trees before them.
“Fine, we'll do it your way.”
Rate on N.U.
