Inside his room, Lark received Anandra's report. He frowned, dismayed at the fact that he failed to immediately notice the undulations of mana from the nearby forest during the fight. He would have noticed it under normal circumstances, but his talk with the leader of the supply team regarding the fall of the Magic Empire made him too preoccupied with his thoughts. By the time he arrived at the scene, General Rizel and his men had already fled the area.
"It was a blunder on my part, My Lord." Anandra bowed his head low. "The enemy General was right before me, but I let him escape right under my nose. I will accept my due punishment."
Lark tossed a small vial to him and Anandra caught it. "Drink it.
You look like a mess."
Anandra stared at the vial in his hand. Clear, reddish fluid sloshed inside. It was the same middle-grade healing potion Big Mona was selling in Lion City at an exorbitant price. Without knowing the item's worth, Anandra gulped it down. He blinked several times after noticing that his body felt lighter somewhat.
"Siphon magic." Lark read the documents in his hands, not bothering to look up as he talked. "Probably that old man's fog. It's negligible, but that fog is certainly capable of sucking away a person's life force."
Lark surmised that this was probably the same reason why his surveillance bird instantly dropped dead and cut all communication after touching the fog. Such magic was way too dangerous, but it showed how proficient the General was. If left unchecked, the fog would have killed even his allies in a matter of weeks.
"Gather all the soldiers who went to battle with you. Those who touched the fog, in particular." Lark finally stopped flipping through the documents. He looked at Anandra. "They'll need to be treated, otherwise they'll fall into coma after a week or two when a significant amount of their life force has leaked out."
Hearing this, Anandra shuddered. He realized that even though he managed to come out of his battle with the General alive, he would probably have died several weeks after their bout. And the terrifying part was that no herb meant to cure poison would heal him, since the fog magic targeted the person's life force itself.
What a terrifyingly insidious skill.
"I will immediately gather the soldiers," said Anandra. He paused then added, "As for my punishment—" "—There's no punishment," Lark said, a little bit annoyed at the man's sense of responsibility. "I will personally see those soldiers later.
Go."
Anandra closed his eyes and bowed his head. "As you wish, My Lord."
After Anandra left the room, Lark walked toward the suit of armor standing motionless next to the wall. He ordered for one of the suits of armor who participated in the battle with the Ghost of the Empire to come for inspection.
"Interesting," Lark mumbled as he scrutinized the metallic soldier.
There were dents here and there, probably due to swinging a medium-sized tree around, but aside from that, there was no other noticeable damage. Most importantly, this Blackstone Knight was still alive. The essence of the monster he attached to the living armor was still intact, fully anchored to the five vital points of its shell.
It was too early to come to conclusions, but in this initial encounter, it seemed that the Ghost of the Empire was unable to siphon the Blackstone Knights' life force.
If this was indeed true, then these guys would prove crucial in defeating their enemies in the upcoming clashes.
"Good work," he said to the Blackstone Knight.
He touched its metallic chest and channeled mana into its body.
Slowly, it reverted to its former glory. Its silver luster was back and the dents and scratches were gone.
The Blackstone Knight groaned. Its eyes flickered several times inside its helmet.
Lark chuckled. "You like it, huh?"
The Blackstone Knight nodded, almost humanlike.
Lark tapped its shoulder twice. "Go back to your post. We need to finish the moats before the end of this month."
The Blackstone Knight grunted and opened the door with surprising precision. It went out of the room and shut the door.
A few minutes of silence fell. Lark sat on his chair and sighed, his mind filled with various thoughts. The short skirmish a while ago. The sudden loss of communication with the Baron. The revelation by the leader of the supply team last night.
Lark cast his spell and an illusion manifested before him. It was the image of Lark and the red-haired woman. They were sitting opposite each other on the couch, with refreshments on the table before them.
The woman, her eyes bright like a curious child, spoke. "You say you want to know more about the Cataclysm?"
The image of Lark nodded. "And the Descent. The two catastrophes that befell the Magic Empire. I want to hear everything you know about them."
The woman lightly tilted her head to the side. "I don't know why the commander is interested in something that happened a millennium ago."
She breathed deeply. "But alright."
To Lark's surprise, the woman did not conceal the fact that she was capable of magic. She chanted her spell and a melon-sized sphere made of water started forming in front of them, with five smaller spheres orbiting around it.
"All my knowledge about what transpired a thousand years ago came from a book, and that thing's severely lacking, with several pages missing, so I'm not sure about the accuracy of the story," she said. "But the records of the Grand Historian, Gustav Chavalion, corroborates some of the findings."
She started her story.
"The Cataclysm. An event that happened over a thousand years ago.
In an age where magic was at its peak and the humans were capable of waging war with the dragons."
Lark reminisced after hearing this. He remembered the time when he was still living in the Magic Empire. He repeatedly declined the offer of becoming one of its Royal Court Magicians, since he did not want to be tied up to any country or state. He had been daring back then, doing everything and anything his mind decided to. He taught his disciples forbidden spells.
Raised pets other people classified as monsters. His foolish self even went as far as searching for the way to immortality. But he had no regrets. It had been a satisfying life filled with adventures, after all.
The largest orb before them slowly spun, while the five smaller ones orbited around it.
"Look closely. This is our world, and the five orbs orbiting around it are Ranys, Aetera, Ilum, Rangiris, and Yuna. The five moons that illuminated the night back in the Magic Era," she said. "Every ten thousand years, the planets align and this opens a direct path to the Void Realm."
A vortex made of water magic appeared right next to the orbs and started sucking away the smaller ones. One after another, the smaller orbs burst into non-existence, until only two of them were left.
Lark remembered the first few days when he first arrived in this timeline. The twin crimson moons above. So, those two were the only ones who managed to survive.
"The planetary alignment lasted only a single day, but the opened path to the Void Realm did not close until a month later."
Lark immediately understood the implications of this statement. He realized the grim aftereffects of this planetary alignment.
"Then… The mana," said Lark.
The red-haired woman bobbed her head. "That's right. For one month, during the time the path to the Void Realm was open, the mana from the dragon vein below was continuously sucked away into the Void Realm.
One month was more than enough to suck the mana in this world dry."
Lark suppressed a sigh from leaking out. He was starting to see the reason why the mighty Magic Empire crumbled.
"Of course, given enough time, the dragon vein below would have eventually recovered. A hundred years at most and the mana in this world would have reverted to its normal state."
"But this Descent you spoke of befell the land," surmised Lark.
The woman sighed. "That's right. Such a shame, isn't it? A simple relic like the magic tower is enough to overturn the tides of war. I'm pretty sure that it's just one of the many artifacts the Magic Empire have in their possession."
She shook her head, as though it was the most regretful thing in the world. "But of course, the demons took advantage of the Magic Empire's plight."
The sphere representing the world started forming a hexagon, a representation of the demons' magic cores.
"The demons, unlike humans, are capable of storing vast amounts of mana inside their bodies through their cores. With the ambient mana gone and the magicians incapable of casting most of their spells, the demon race launched an all-out attack against the Magic Empire."
Lark's pupils shook. The demons' lifespan was far longer than humans, and some of the stronger ones could live for more than half a millennium. The Demon Lords he'd fought back in his prime would have been still alive during that time, 1100 years ago.
Lark knew that it would be impossible to kill them without using any of the forbidden spells. A magician without his magic was nothing but a farmer with a sickle.
"The records said that despite losing their magic, the Magic Empire resisted with all its might. The five Royal Court Magicians offered their lives to summon Elementals and drove the demons back."
Lark clenched his fists. Among the Royal Court Magicians, two were his close friends. If it's them, they would definitely have sacrificed their lives to save the Magic Empire. Lark was sure of it.
"And when the Elementals were defeated, the savages valiantly fought until the last man."
The last part took Lark by surprise.
The savages.
The non-magicians scorned and shunned by the Magic Empire due to their inability to wield magic. He had not expected that the so-called barbarians would come to their aid and help drive the demons back. Lark had a somewhat friendly relationship with them, and they even went as far as teaching him their combat techniques which formed the foundation of Lark's hand-to-hand technique until this day. Hearing of the tribe's demise squeezed his heart.
"Hey, are you alright?" The woman's question jolted Lark out of his trance.
Lark reprimanded himself for showing his sentimental side to this woman.
"Of course," he replied as calmly as possible.
The story of the red-haired woman continued, and as expected, the story ended with the collapse of the Magic Empire. Fortunately, the war with the Magic Empire also took a toll on the demon race; the mana stored in their cores were depleted.
After achieving their goal, the demon race retreated and hid in seclusion. Lark surmised that this was to prevent unwarranted clashes with the dragons, who, like them, were capable of storing vast amounts of mana in their core. It was only several decades after the fall of the Magic Empire, at a time when the dragon vein below had recovered a portion of its strength, that the demons started appearing again.
By this time, the magicians were again capable of casting spells and recovering their mana, but the fall of the Magic Empire and its surrounding countries struck a terrible blow to the human race. Technology, artifacts, relics, and spells were lost and never recovered.