Empirical year, 97.

7 months after the incident of Yeomchon

Oranbus, the capital city of Krounen.

The Imperial court.

"What is there to know? Those guys are on holiday, wasting the food and the gold of the empire." It was followed by a long silence.

'Why that little piece of sh*t?'

'Why is he even here?'

Everyone's thought was along the same line but none dared to voice it. Whether it was the ministers or nobles, none dared to say such words. Even if it was just the court jester, the emperor was too fond of him. On top of that...

There was no golden throne, no soft silk coated soft bed. All there was a stone, a dark red stone. Wide enough for a person to sit and was high enough so that no one can look down on it.

On any other day, it would empty. But today a man was sitting straight on it. With a golden sheathless shamshir and a small round golden shield beside him.

The aura that was escaping him was so dominating that even the young scholars at the end of the hall were having a hard time breathing.

It was a sign. An ominous sign. Something bad is going to happen. And on the top of that, the jester was adding oil to the fire.

"Assistant Minister of War, can you explain, what does this silence imply?" His simple question murdered the whispers, those were spreading through the court.

"Highness we have good news. The Moon General has reached the first capital of Godola, the city of Ceblos. It took only 4 months to reach the capital. Not only had the general beaten the 20,000 Bosonic archers who were stationed in the city, but he also pushed the 50,000 of the Knight Templars, who came to their aid." The minister was all smiles, yet the emperor didn't respond.

The reason behind the emperor's dissatisfaction was clear to all of them. It was putting a strain on the empire's economy. It was not severe, however, the Emperor was keen about the slightest change in the Empire.

"What about the other fronts?" The emperor asked in a solemn voice.

Even if he wanted, the minister couldn’t even frown in front of him. Every one of them was aware of the situation, other than the Moon General none was able to produce any solid result.

They knew about it, so did the Emperor. There was nothing that could escape his eyes and ears. But bringing that up in the imperial court only meant one thing; there will be consequences.

"On Torria, The general of West had won the battle of Eale plane. Conquered the cities of Yeomcheon, Yeongjang, Pisa, Roirus, Wang. He was fighting at the city of Paeng. It won't be long before it falls."

"What about Cantela?" The bomb was dropped as soon as he finished.

"The General of North conquered the city of Gourgos and Hipodonas. But from the city of Hipodonas the plane of Myra begins, and against the Knight Templar the General was unable to produce any good result."

There was pin-drop silence throughout the imperial court, none of them dared to take any breath fearing the wrath of the strongest emperor.

"Didn't the Moon general won the city of the Gourgos?" Before anybody could respond, the Emperor gave an eye to the Court jester.

If it was any other time then the ministers would have been happy, however, they knew very well that he just angered the Emperor more.

But what he had pointed out was true. Rather than entering Godola from the empire, Moon General chose to first enter Cantela. There he had conquered the city of Gourgos before penetrating Godola from Cantela.

It was a surprising strategy and the result proved its effectiveness. In just 1 week, Moon general had conquered 7 cities along the border of Godola with more than 150,000 war-captives.

"The Moon General will stay at the Ceblos. Secure the city, and secure every city between Ceblos and the border. Then he can return to the capital."

The verdict fell. All they could do was listen to his words as the imperial scribe was writing down every word, without even missing the pauses.

"In 6 months the general of the West will capture Na before that.” It sounded like a prediction to the ears of the listener. Still, none of them dared to imagine the consequences if they didn't come true.

“Send the general of East to Cantela, after handing over the charge general of the North will return to the capital."

The first to fall from grace was the General of the North. The four cardinal generals were the four pillars of the army. Their position was not something that could be moved so easily. Yet one verdict sealed the fate of the General of the North.

On the other hand, a Moon general was rising in fame. Many had protested against the Moon general's posting as commander-in-chief at the Godola front but the results spoke for itself.

He was the first one to succeed. Everybody knew the new emperor preferred the Moon general who grew up with the emperor over, the old ones.

On the other hand, the situation of the general of the West was neither good nor bad. Though it sounded like he had won many of the cities, actually only 2 of them have any strategic value. And one of them had already been reduced to dust.

'Generation Purge'. That is what people call it. Everybody knew clearly that with the rise of the new emperor a change will come. It happened for the emperor who came before him and was happening again.

The imperial court had gone through a bloody purge with the ascendency of the new emperor, and the military was facing it now. It came late but it came at last.

***********

[Analysis complete.]

[Creating the first Spell essence]

[Time Required: 6 hours 14 minutes 57 seconds]

Kinoya almost shouts in joy, alas, he was holding the talwar, which was plunged into the crystal. Still, he was relieved.

Even after 4 years of training, he had never been able to create the spell essence. Though the old man had said that it was a little hard for a little boy to comprehend a spell's essence, he wasn't satisfied.

How hard could it be for a person who had three or four lives? unfortunately, he had found out in a hard way.

For 4 years he trained inside the gravity domain of Varytita but was never able to comprehend the gravity domain.

However, when he plunged it in the magic crystal source, things changed. The energy inside the Varytita became unstable, affecting the whole city of Yeomcheon.

Little did the people above know that it was Kinoya, rather Varytita, who had destroyed the city.

To begin with, Kinoya had no prior knowledge of magic. He didn't even know what a spell essence is, much less comprehend it.

But that all changed due to Varytita's way to absorb the magic crystal energy. Rather than absorbing the whole energy at once, it had corrupted the magic crystal and made it on its own, then absorbed it slowly.

The magic crystal became the bigger version of Varytita, affecting gravity around it. With each influx of energy, it was creating one magic circle after another and It did the trick.

Seven months ago, when he plunged Varytita in the crystal, symbols of unknown language started to appear on the surface of it. Kinoya was unable to read it at first but with the repeated appearance, the effect was becoming clear.

[Understanding the language of Ether: 0.04%]

‘The language of Ether!? Isn’t that what they call ‘mana’ in the ancient language?’ Kinoya wasn’t sure about it. Then, from the confirmation of the system, he understood those letters were related to the spell essence.

He continued to study the symbols, even when it started to become more complex. He didn't know how much time had passed, still, he continued to absorb the knowledge of the ancient language and...

[Unable to create Spell essence]

[Initiating…]

[Failed…]

[Initiating...]

A string of massage woke him up. Yet Kinoya could feel his consciousness was fading away in the middle of the constant battering of the mechanical voice. Before he knew it he was standing in his mage space again.

Nothing much of it had changed. The man was still in sleep on the stone bed. The orb of water was still there with a constant heartbeat... The dark space was dark as usual.

All was same, except the constant struggling and the blinking of the mud slime on the table. It was in pain. Its puppy dog eye pleaded to Kinoya for a moment before it crumbled again in pain. Kinoya didn't know what to do.

[Unable to find the suitable element to bond]

[Searching…]

'Searching for an element?' Are those things elements? He can understand the orb of water represents the element of water, mud slime is earth but what the hell does that man represent?

[Unable to find the suitable element to bond]

[Searching…]

'Now is not the time to think.' He could guess what he could do. The talwar name was ‘Varytita’. It means gravity in an ancient language. ‘And what goes with gravity?’

Kinoya started to move towards the earth slime. It also tried its best to reach out for Kinoya but unfortunately, it couldn't leave the table. Kinoya moved and touched it. Nothing happened like last time, rather Kinoya could feel his mana was flowing from him to the earth slime.

At first, Kinoya was surprised to see that his mana is black. Upon closer inspection, he could see it was not just black rather it was the black smoke itself. He was afraid at first yet the blissful expression on the face of the slime relieved him.

After an unknown amount of time, the flow stopped. What greeted him was the black crystal eyes of the slime that jumped towards him from the table. It was a perfect slime who just found its playmate. However, before he knew it, the slime jumped off him and melted away on the ground.

[Suitable element is found]

[Beginning the bonding sequence]

Whatever was left of the slime continued to glow, and a bright light pillar shot out of it. And then the symbol started to appear. One divide in two, two into four, and it continued.

[Analysis complete.]

[Creating the first Spell essence]

[Time Required: 6 hours 14 minutes 57 seconds]