Chương 340: The Protectorate

"Mage Wells, I have news of the attempt on your life," Crimson Order outpost commander Mage Brian Wren said.

"Really?" Damion was surprised. While he felt the commander was sure to attempt to investigate, he was not so sure about the success the mage would have.

"Yes. We have identified the group that made an attempt on your life, unfortunately, we have very little information about them."

"You are saying this was not just some noble trying for revenge?"

"That is correct Mage Wells. The attempt on your life through the use of my outpost's defenses was orchestrated by the Protectorate."

"The who?" Damion had never heard of the Protectorate before. The name was a bit too ostentatious to be a group of bandits and their ability to take over certain functions of a Crimson Order outpost smacked of high-level access. This seemed to mean this group was well protected by powerful people or had powerful people as members. The biggest question that came to his mind was, why did they want to kill him?

"The Protectorate is a very old organization that ages ago sought to protect the unity of the human race by eliminating people that posed a threat to peace and the established order."

"You said they wanted to protect the peace, how does killing me and likely causing Mage Teft, an S Rank mage go into a revenge rampage help protect the peace?"

"That was their original purpose. Over the ages, they have… strayed from that path. The original organization disappeared thousands of years ago once the Mage Association and the Adventurer Association had firmly established themselves as powerful organizations. With those two groups as beacons for the masses, the Protectorate faded to obscurity. It has only been in the last few hundred years a group using the same name has appeared."

"I take it this order is not as… high minded as the original group."

"That would be putting it mildly."

"How come I've never heard of them before? You'd think a group that protected humanity would have been at least a footnote in one of my history lessons."

"Because the S Rank Assembly does not want them discussed anymore. Since this new group showed up using the old name, the Assembly has tried to silence any mention of them, original or resurgent." Hearing that, Damion had a sudden suspicion of who some of the members might be. The only reason to ban the teaching of such a noble group, was to help hide the existence of the resurgent group. If the Assembly had a hand in hiding this group, it meant at least some of their members were responsible.

"How is it that you found out?" Damion asked Mage Wren.

"Mage Teft contacted me shortly after my inquiry into your attack reached the Assembly and I was gently dissuaded from investigating further." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"So, someone, or maybe multiple people, in the Assembly are part of the Protectorate."

"Or have some tie to it. I'm sorry to say, with the Assembly closing the investigation as a dead end, I don't think I will be able to track down who tried to kill you."

"Don't worry too much about it," Damion told Commander Wren.

"I'm sure Mage Teft has a few ideas of her own and passed along her message to make sure the two of us kept our heads down."

"Thank you for understanding." Commander Wren ended the connection leaving Damion alone in his house. There was little he could do with the knowledge about the Protectorate. For now, he would keep his head down and continue to search for a labyrinth. Once that was accomplished, he and Mage Teft would need to determine where to build their new school. Given everything that had happened to him and to Mage Teft, he had a feeling their new school would need to be a bit exclusive at first. Not to mention hard to reach.

Hard to reach was easy, safe was another matter. Just flying deep into a Black Zone he could find a hard to reach place. But trying to build a school in such a dangerous place was suicide. This meant they would either need to find or clear a safe zone. Having a labyrinth would guarantee their new school the ability to hire and maintain guards to keep an area clear, since all they needed to due to lure talents would be to offer entrance to the labyrinth as one of the perks of their working for the new school.

The next morning, Damion let Phil out to roam while he contemplated what he was going to do for the next few days. As Mage Picard he had been exploring, but if his alter ego suddenly kept exploring the same areas his true self was exploring, it would not be hard to connect the two together. He considered exploring deeper into the Red Zones but given that he had already found 8 A Rank Realm Breaches, Damion thought it would be wiser for James Picard to try to stay out of the spotlight for a while.

That left Damion with the opportunity to visit his family. He did not want to expose who they were, but he felt a visit every few weeks would be safe enough. Donning his Metamorphic Bracelet and activating his disguise, Damion opened a Portal to outside of Levande and then quickly used Blink to move himself inside the city walls.

He would have like to have opened Portal directly inside his parent's apartment, but since he could not be completely certain the place he opened a Portal was clear, he did not want to risk harming anyone. Perhaps he should designate an area of their apartment to keep clear for incoming Portals, that way he would not need to worry. When he reached the apartment, Damion knocked, but no one answered. He could not hear anyone inside moving around, but he still found it odd that no one was home.

Perhaps his family had taken Bethany to the park to play. Not wanting to be spotted loitering in the hallway or around the building, he decided to wait inside. Since he had been inside the apartment before, using Blink to teleport himself inside was no problem at all. After making sure no one else was in the hallway, Damion teleported himself into the apartment. The moment he appeared inside he was suddenly gripped by a strong force and pinned to the ground.

He tried looking around to see who was attacking him, but Damion could not see anything. Whatever it was that was binding him and had pushed him to the ground, was also covering his eyes. Whatever it was, felt wet. Not slippery or slimy, like he would expect from a tentacle, but wet, almost as if what was holding him was made of water. Damion tried and failed to free himself, but he figured if he was being bound by a Water affinity spell, he might just be able to overcome his attacker with a spell of his own.

As the bindings around him tightened, Damion channeled his mana and cast Water Mastery. This spell allowed him to seize control of all water around him. It would not be easy to rip control of a Water affinity spell from another mage, but as long as his magic power was strong enough, he should be able to. Damion's sudden casting of Water Mastery seemed to surprise his attacker and for a brief moment the two fought for control of the spell.

Unfortunately, he was not able to win control and a moment later he was lifted up off the floor and held in midair, completely at the mercy of his attacker.