Chương 431: Chapter 430 – Completion

Mage Strand's question was the one the rest of the council, except for Mage Teft, had been wanting an answer to. If Damion was so important to them, why let him return?

"They assisted me in returning at my insistence, and with my promise to return. If they had kept me there, against my will, it would have shown me they were not the allies they claimed to be," Damion countered.

"I think there is more to it than that," Mage Fletcher interjected.

"There is," Damion admitted.

"When I return, I hope to bring strong mages with me to aid the Iblis in their war."

"You want us to get involved in this war between the Alfar and the Iblis?" Mage Chaparro questioned.

"Why should we do such a thing? It will only make us a target for retaliation."

"If the Iblis are correct though," Mage Fletcher began, "it would seem that it would be in our best interest to get involved."

"But can we be sure they were totally honest?" asked Mage Chaparro.

"We have only Mage Wells' account, but the Iblis' explanation of the status of their world and how it interacts with ours fits with our own understanding. Should the Mother World truly be on a path of constantly increasing the mana density then if nothing is done our world will likely suffer a similar fate in the future."

"Sending aid to the Iblis is not out of the question," Mage Strand cut in before Mage Chaparro could counter Mage Fletcher.

"But will just the few of us here truly make a difference?"

"I provided my auto-mappers to the Iblis, and they were able to quickly improve upon the design. They are able to now accurately track the Alfar forces, allowing them to easily counter or even attack where the Alfar are at a disadvantage," Damion informed them.

"I don't know details of the war effort, but they did tell me their high Rankers were fairly evenly matched and that with the planned usage of the auto-mappers they would have an advantage.

"However, with everything in war, strategies and tactics must continually evolve. If you don't your strategy may lead you into a trap at an inopportune moment and bring you to total ruin. Even a few S Ranks will likely be enough to tip the balance of power in the Iblis' favor, but that isn't the real goal asking you all to come with me."

"Oh? What is the real goal then?" Mage Strand asked.

"The seal that needs to be undone is in the midst of multiple high Rank dungeon breaks. The area is isolated, resulting in eons of Demonic Beasts filling the area. I have no hope of reaching the seal alone and the Iblis cannot easily spare people to aid me."

"But if you brought your own forces, they can, or they can trade places with some of the Iblis to give you local support," Mage Fletcher reasoned.

"Precisely."

"There is one problem," Mage Chaparro interrupted.

"If we all go, who is to protect Atlantis and Avalon? The Mage Association is chomping at the bit, as soon as we disappear they will know."

"Very true. Which is why not all of you can go, some must remain to protect Atlantis and our people from attack, either from the noble families or from Demonic Beasts. I intend to ask the S Rank assembly for aid as well. I am certain Mage Harris will hear me out and even if we only gain a few supporters, I think it will be enough to give us a reasonable chance at success."

"You want to ask those who would cheer our destruction for aid?" Mage Fletcher questioned. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Not all of them are our enemies and if enough of them were forced to come along with us, don't you think that would be sufficient to deter the remaining from doing anything while the bulk of our forces are gone?"

"Your idea has merit, but I don't see how we could force the issue," Mage Fletcher said.

"They don't have to know of our involvement before agreeing," Damion smiled.

"If Mage Harris agrees, he could make the proposition and only once they agreed to the broad strokes, reveal the full plan."

"Devious," Mage Fletcher said, flicking her eyes between Damion and his teacher Mage Teft as she wondered whose idea this was.

"If they agree and then backout, it will be clear they don't have the best interests of Nerotath at heart. Better still, Mage Harris might just force them to go."

"We could only hope to be so lucky," Mage Teft snorted.

"There is, however, one final obstacle for your plan Damion. Unless you intend for us all to willing jump through an Exile Portal."

"Even if everyone agreed, I would not recommend that course of action," Damion told them.

"Why is that?" Mage Chaparro asked.

"It is clear you went through the rift unharmed. Why should S Ranks fear the same method?"

"Because of where the spell sends us," Damion explained.

"It dumps us right on top of a ruined city under which are thousands of strong Demonic Beasts. We can't risk disturbing those the moment we appear."

"Not that I could easily Exile a group of S Ranks," Mage Fletcher admitted.

"If they resisted, likely only the willing would be moved through, leaving, most likely, our enemies behind."

"If we cannot use Exile to reach there, and since Mage Fletcher has not been there, are you, Mage Wells, strong enough to open a Portal back there? Unless you think Mage Fletcher should Exile herself and then open a Portal to bring us there?" Mage Strand asked.

"No, that method still runs the risk of disturbing the Demonic Beasts. As for me opening a Portal back, even if I am able, the Portal I would make would likely only be stable enough for me to go through."

"Then you have left us with quite the problem to solve," Mage Strand said calmly. He was looking at Damion, eyeing him as if he expected the younger mage to have an answer to the problem already.

"As mentioned before, I learned quite a bit about Realm Breaches while I was with the Iblis. And one of the things I learned is that Realm Breaches are a means of returning to the Mother World."

"How is that possible? Is there some secret exit? Is that how the Alfar, goblins and Iblis go back to their world instead of coming to ours?" Mage Chaparro quickly asked.

"No, there is no secret exit. Typical Realm Breaches, Unstable, Semi-Stable and Stable, all send people back to the world they entered from. Whether you go through the entrance or collapse the true or fake core, you always end up back on your world."

"You left out Growth Breaches," Mage Strand pointed out.

"I take it then that labyrinths are the key to this way back to the Mother World."

"Yes. As the Iblis explained it, typical Realm Breaches are just pockets of space, isolated but connected to both our world and theirs. You can enter them easily enough, but they are just out there alone somewhere in the cosmos. Mage Fletcher, I'm sure, has a few theories or can better explain the theories about them." Mage Fletcher nodded an affirmative, but said nothing, so Damion continued.

"Labyrinths, on the other hand, are like a chain of typical Realm Breaches. All linked together. Each floor of a labyrinth connects to another and another. Many have theorized that labyrinths have no end, but according to the Iblis, labyrinths connect back to the Mother World, and the number of floors is determined by the distance between our worlds."

"Then how many floors will our labyrinth have?" asked Mage Levine.

"The Iblis don't know, because they don't know how far our world is from the Mother World."

"Then are we just blindly supposed to go into the labyrinth and hope we reach the Mother World before it becomes too strong for us to pass through?" Mage Chaparro asked, sounding rather worried about the possibility.

"Not exactly," Damion said, trying to sound confident in his answer.

"The Iblis told me that Growth Breaches grow strong in both directions from the worlds they connect to and that the midpoint, is the strongest floor. Once the midpoint is passed, people going through a labyrinth will find the floors growing weaker as they get closer to the exit to the other world." The bombshell that Damion dropped caused all of the S Rank mages in the room to go silent. All they had to do to reach the Mother World was clear a labyrinth.

They all had believed such a task was impossible, it was difficult to even clear S Rank floors. Most S Rank mages simply went to the first S Rank floor and trained, they didn't even try to fight the guardian, after all, why fight the impossible. But now, this 20-year-old mage was telling them that if they could defeat the hardest floor, then they could pass through to another world.