Chương 124: Chaotic Magic

"Oh? Does Lord Advisor have another excellent strategy?" Count Fischer looked at the old mage Fortier who had just spoken. On the surface, his face was filled with anticipation, but inwardly, he was filled with bitter complaints. Damn it, these mages clearly possess immensely powerful strength, yet they refuse to risk their lives in battle. If the mages would simply don heavy armor, he could have the soldiers escort them right onto the fortress walls.

Once the mages closed the distance and hurled Fireball spells at the enemy, they could easily blast open a landing zone, making it a certainty to capture the wall with ease. Yet, this group of mages—who considered themselves so noble—were completely unwilling to put their lives on the line. Earlier, when he had asked them to scramble into the trenches just to help extinguish the flames on the Cloud Ladders, they had whined and grumbled for ages.

He honestly didn't know what the fucking point of having these mages along was. It was like he was catering to two hundred pampered grandpas, fuck! The old mage Fortier maintained a leisurely and relaxed demeanor. As he packed tobacco shreds into his pipe, he spoke slowly:"I am confident that I can blast a ten-meter-wide breach in the fortress wall. If the execution is sudden enough, the enemy won't have time to set up defenses at the breach.

If you have your soldiers charge into the city through this opening, will you be able to take Poloia?" Count Fischer's face lit up with joy.

"Ah, Lord Advisor! Houses are tightly packed throughout Poloia. As long as our soldiers charge inside, it will be very easy for them to establish a secure footing!"

"Once we enter urban warfare, the enemy will lack a clear field of fire, and their combat effectiveness will drop. We will be able to maximize our numerical advantage to the fullest extent. Taking Poloia will be as easy as lifting a finger!" The old mage Fortier nodded. Holding the tobacco-filled pipe in his mouth, he manifested a tiny flame with his fingertip to light the tobacco, after which he sat there smoking in silence. The assembled nobles were completely bewildered. Wait, why had he stopped talking?

Everyone exchanged perplexed glances. Was the old man intentionally leaving them in suspense, or what? Count Fischer reacted quickly; the other party was clearly waiting for benefits. So, what kind of benefits did he want? Count Fischer recalled the usual practices of the Mage Guild. The thing they loved to do most was establish colonies, set up magic academies, and absorb children who possessed a natural talent for learning magic.

Once these children completed their apprenticeship period, they would be sent to the territories of the Mage Guild for advanced studies. This was exactly how the mages across the four human kingdoms were monopolized by the Mage Guild. Count Fischer already regarded Poloia as his personal fiefdom. He knew full well the massive hidden dangers of allowing the Mage Guild to establish a colony within his territory, and he fundamentally did not want to agree to it.

But looking at this old bastard sitting in the corner blowing smoke rings, if he didn't display a sufficient amount of sincerity, the other party wouldn't say a single word about the method to shatter the fortress wall. Count Fischer let out a sigh, capitulating.

"I have heard that the magic academy in Poloia is only the size of a few residential sectors. That is far too small; its boundaries should definitely be expanded." The old mage Fortier smiled, asking while keeping the pipe in his mouth, "Then, Count Fischer, what size do you think would be best for the expansion...?" This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Following a fierce war of words, Count Fischer ultimately promised that after the city was breached, one-tenth of Poloia's urban sectors would be allocated to the Mage Guild as a colony. Yes, one-tenth! For a large town capable of housing 150, 000 people, to have the mages take action just a single time, such a magnificent piece of land was signed away just like that. This was the absolute weight of a monopoly on magic.

Now that the price was right, the old mage Fortier stood up, brushing off nonexistent dust from his mage robes.

"I require five days to prepare. My lords, select the location for the breach and dig trenches beneath the fortress wall in advance to ensure the absolute suddenness of the assault." Having finished speaking, he walked out of the tent and returned to the mages' encampment, gathering all the mages together.

"Everyone, prepare yourselves. We are going to construct a Chaotic Magic Array!" Upon hearing the words "Chaotic Magic Array," the expressions of the assembled mages varied. Some faces showed anticipation, some showed worry, while even more showed complete bewilderment—evidently having no idea what a Chaotic Magic Array even was. One mage asked with deep anxiety, "Professor, are you certain you want to construct a Chaotic Magic Array? This thing carries quite a bit of danger!" The old mage Fortier nodded.

"Rest assured, everyone. I have participated in the research and construction of Chaotic Magic Arrays multiple times; nothing will go wrong. Furthermore, we only need to construct a small-scale Chaotic Magic Array." Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and their excitement began to build. A Chaotic Magic Array was not something just anyone had the opportunity to witness.

The Chaotic Magic Array was a specialized array developed by the Mage Guild through observing the natural fluctuations of elemental magic tides. To the south of this continent lay a vast region of immense volcanoes and great deserts. Legend had it that during the ancient era, a Yama Evil God had died in the south. Following his demise, his corpse radiated a massive volume of fire-elemental magic, baking the entire southern territory into a desolate desert.

As time progressed, the fire elements accumulating within the desert grew denser and denser, eventually migrating toward the north along with the magic tides. When this dense tide of fire magic traveled north and encountered conflicting magical forces—such as a water-elemental magic tide—an intensely violent reaction would detonate, resulting in a massive explosion! Following such an explosion, torrential rain would fall from the sky.

The Magical Beast Forest, as well as the southern territories of the four human kingdoms, became exceptionally prosperous and fertile under the blessing of these rains. In reality, it was not particularly extraordinary that opposing magical energies would trigger an explosion upon colliding; the Mage Guild had discovered this natural phenomenon thousands of years ago.

However, the professors researching the magic tides discovered that if the explosion produced by the collision of two opposing forces was sufficiently large, it would trigger a phenomenon known as "Chaotic Magic." To put it simply, when two opposing forces collided and exploded, as long as the yield of this explosion was vast enough, it would trigger a chain reaction, causing the natural magic within a surrounding radius of several kilometers to detonate along with it.

Following the explosion, the magic near the ground-zero point would become wildly chaotic and exceptionally volatile, capable of piercing through physical matter. Any living being passing through a Chaotic Magic Zone would be riddled with countless holes and die directly. Currently, the Mage Guild was heavily invested in researching how to artificially trigger Chaotic Magic, aiming to develop a magic bomb capable of instantly obliterating an area of several kilometers, or even dozens of kilometers.

Yet, after several centuries, the professors and grandmasters of the Mage Guild had arrived at a conclusion: with the magical technology currently mastered by humanity, it was fundamentally impossible to artificially trigger true Chaotic Magic. The Mage Guild had once linked 20, 000 magic crystals in a series, injecting conflicting water and fire energies into them respectively before detonating them via an array.

They did indeed trigger an earth-shattering explosion, obliterating everything within a 500-meter radius, but it failed to trigger a chain reaction, nor did the Chaotic Magic effect manifest. This was equivalent to the concept that no matter how much TNT you piled together, it would never become a nuclear bomb. The professors pondered that perhaps the purity of artificial magic was inadequate, and the detonation array also required refinement.

Under the guidance of these cutting-edge research endeavors, a variety of byproduct innovations emerged—such as small-scale Chaotic Magic Bombs. Returning to the topic at hand. The 200 mages swung into action. They linked over a thousand magic cores with opposing elemental attributes in a series, intending to construct a highly potent magic bomb. Utilizing it to collapse a section of the fortress wall would pose no issue whatsoever. This task required the mages to painstakingly engrave magical script.

Because they currently lacked a magic tide observation instrument, they had no way of knowing whether there was interference from surrounding magic tides, making this work highly difficult and prone to producing defective pieces. Fortunately, there were more than 200 of them. Even if the defect rate was high, they would still be able to successfully cobble together a magic bomb within five days.