At the Yin Yang Tower, 5 days had passed since the meeting of the Order of Sages. Rafael was accompanied by Omar, Jhon, Natasha, Yuri, and Laura while explaining several details of the Tower of Distortion:
"You see, the Tower of Dark Distortion was a name given later by the 3rd Master who occupied this Tower, but its real name has always been Tower of Distortion or Tower of Dilation. The reason for these names is that the lower floors of this tower are more extensive than any other tower. This tower is our best option for those who plan to move and establish more spiritual item cultivation. I heard that on some floors of the tower, it can take days to cross a single floor walking, and the ceiling is much higher than normal. It does not have stairs or elevators, but rather some kind of shadow movement device.
It was the brothers' first time hearing about the Tower of Distortion, and they were amazed at the many details that made it unique in the entire city. Rafael waited for them to digest the information and continued his lecture.
"That was the reason why the Shadowmancers thought that the tower used some kind of high-level shadow compression spell. The fact that the land occupied by this tower is not much larger than the land occupied by other large towers is also common knowledge. This has always been a burden for its owners, as they needed a lot of manpower to take care of their underground floors."
"For me, there is only one explanation: we have some kind of high-level spatial magic... I know you may not understand what this type of magic means, but the explanation I have at the moment is only theoretical, with little proof, but this is a high-level magic that in the past was only used by the original inhabitants of Asshai and ancient races. This is also the reason why we have focused on studying this tower."
"I have already found evidence of the use of this magic in the arboreal storage bags. Now, when we conquer this tower, we will finally be able to take the first steps in the study of a magic that no one in this world knows about…"
While Rafael was still explaining, he was interrupted by a bird made of shadows that began to emerge from its shadow. The process was very slow, taking almost 20 seconds. It was slow on purpose, so as not to scare the person receiving the message. As soon as Rafael saw that bird, he knew who the message belonged to… The bird then vomited a parchment, and when he opened the parchment, and saw the strange symbol on the letter. He recognized who it was from and what it was about before even looking at the system. The only writing on the paper was a 10-minute countdown timer that was made using a special magical ink. He knew that something bad was about to happen…
The other members of the Order did not know what was happening, nor who the message was from. But they knew it was something important when they saw Rafael's serious face as he read the message.
His next gestures were even more worrying: He summoned a creature that was only used in emergencies by paying large amounts of blood from his wrist, which he had cut. The disgusting centipede made of shadows did not let a single drop of blood fall to the ground before drinking it all and quickly leaving, picking up two cards that he took from his inventory.
He finally turned to them and spoke loudly:
"Jhon, the Order is being targeted by assassins. Go to the Garden of Beasts and help the apprentices there. Omar, go to the Sage Store quickly. Yuri and Laura go to the Mage's Throat. There are some apprentices there. Likely, the assassins have already infiltrated the towers."
"Jhon, switch places with me!" Omar shouted, worried about the sisters who were still in the Garden of Beasts.
"Okay."
After agreeing to the trade, Jhon jumped from the top floor of the tower, opening a pair of wings made of vines and huge leaves and gliding towards the Sage Store. While a black wolf almost the size of a horse emerged from Omar's shadow, allowing him to mount it before diving into a shadow and reappearing outside the tower, quickly running towards the Garden of Beasts.
Yuri and Laura also jumped out the window while a giant bird emerged from the Shadowmancer's shadow and allowed the two brothers to fall on its back and fly towards the Mage's Throat. When only Natasha and Rafael were left in the room, he looked at her and said:
"Protect the tower and don't hold back. I'll try to capture whoever comes after me."
"Yes!"
Rafael jumped from the top floor using only his body and landed on the ground, leaving several cracks in the black rock from the impact of jumping from almost 9 stories high. He then walked calmly towards one of Asshai's dark alleys...
***
Inside the small Tower of the Sages, Vitarys received Rafael's message almost instantly, and when he saw it, he knew he needed to act quickly. He opened a huge cage full of altered red crows, which was to be used only in emergencies. Each crow had a special spell on its body and a torn piece of cloth on their feet. This was a tracking spell that allowed them to track the owner of the belongings, no matter where they were, traveling quickly through a shadow ritual.
When he activated the ritual, freeing all the crows and sending them to all the members of the Order, many crows did not respond and remained still. It was expected that those apprentices at sea and in Westeros would not be able to receive the special message, after all, it only had a range within the shadow territory, but 3 additional ravens remained still without being able to detect the location of their recipients. They were the ravens destined for Little Liu and his parents.
Without much to do and unable to leave his position during this emergency, Vitarys lifted a cloth from a glass table, inside which were more than 50 medals glowing with a red light. Inside these medals were the codenames of all the founding members and normal members of the Order. Less than 15 minutes later, Vitarys saw 9 of these medals lose their red light as they cracked in half. When he saw the names on the 9 medals that broke, his heart sank…
****
Special thanks to the Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan, Vinnie, frimorigo, Leery Falcon, Parsa, Scott Robertson, and Pato Senalima!
Magical Apprentice: Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Takatchi, mandeep singh, Austin, and Kobe Robertson!