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Chapter 090: Gathering of the Alliance (1)

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It was a 'Race' that she wasn't aware of. There are no records of a fox-eared Terran Race in the records left in the archive of her grandfather.

Siva sat on a chair and massaged his nose bridge while Cortana moved behind him to massage his shoulders. Although it was just purely mental, 3% of the state of Siva's game avatar was reflected to himself in the real world. The massage somehow eased some sort of mental fatigue on Siva.

"It would seem that I really need to visit Laurasia as soon as possible and get those Mana Stones."

As he murmured the words, he thought of the whole process he just went through in replacing all of those 1st-gen Liberty Drones with the ones he already fitted with the Mini Realm attachments supporting the 'expansion' feature. The only one missing was the [upgrade part] for the receptacle and it needed Mana Stones as raw material.

It took him 15 minutes to completely edit them all.

And through this, Siva realized the 'price' of this ability of his.

—of course, everything must have a price.

Through this, as well, Siva realized the difference between [Magic] and [Ability]. The Split Dimension was an [Ability] that's why it wasn't affected by his curse; that each time he used it, his Mana was still expended and that's why he was this tired.

But every [Magic] related abilities and skill spells he tries wouldn't work because of his constitution that doesn't absorb and emit Mana.

Because of this constitution....

...evoking [Ability] needs internal Mana invocation, whereas [Magic] needs external Mana invocation.

Ability phenomena affect oneself...

Magic phenomena affects the world.

While this looks like a contradictory to the Laws of Magic that he knows all this time, the strength of [Magic] —Ability or Spells— otherwise, is reliant still to the personal Mana Pool of the individual.

What defines Mortal Magics (Tier-6 spells) and Immortal Magics (Tier-7 and beyond) are those so called "cap" (or the "limit") on their personal Mana Pools, which are dependent on their vessels, the body, which houses the [soul] which then houses and defines the Limit Cap for Immortal Ascension.

While it was possible to use external resources to boost the evolution of the vessel —the body— so as to shorten the procedure time to ascension, a fact still remains that such resources, like freshly resourced Dragon Blood, was harder to obtain as it was to mention.

For someone cursed to live like a corpse who can think and talk such as Siva, not to mention Tier-7 Spells, he can't even personally invoke any Tier-1 Spells because he was technically "dead" in the eyes of Mana.

"Aaaaaahhh... such troublesome things..."

In the end, no matter how much he tries to plug that hole of being unable to cast Personal Spells, it was still an issue if he wants to contend against the true elites of the enemies.

—but this short realization was still a fruit of sorts.

After experiencing this twist, Siva became aware of a tiny detail of the complex system of [Magic] in the Terran Universe.

Referencing on Gaia's explanation about the Spell Formations Magic Art, the Player Panel simplified all processes of personal Magic Art application.

No invocation chants were needed, no rituals, and no more sacrifices were needed to cast a spell. It just needed personal Mana Pool to cast a spell and all will happen according to the process.

In simple words, just like how he had assumed the Magic System in this game world was, the "soul" is like a container for Mana, the "spirit" (or mind) is where the [Magic Formula] comes from, and the "body" is where the processing happens to make the [World Alteration Phenomena] —or the Magic that affects the reality in Terroa— takes effect.

In essence, as miraculous as [Magic] was, it was still reliant to Calculable Physics to materialize.

Siva thought back to the old ages...

—what has changed from before was too vague even for me to be put into words...

As far as Siva was concerned, before, all concept of [Magic] during the Era of the Gods are nothing but different kinds of "blessings" given as gifts by the Gods to their followers and children.

In other words, it was their Legacy.

There are those born with "gifts" but once they've become aware of it, they immediately become a God Candidate and with their maturity, also arise as new Gods upon adulthood.

But these people are so rare that in all honesty, Siva had only known of Gabriel as being such a case.

And so [Magic] is, in short, gifted only to those favored by the Gods or are born with it.

Siva was pondering deeply about this discovery.

For some reason, he felt that it was connected to him and the secret of this Universe, of this World, one way or another.

—I have a feeling that UNICORN also wants this piece of information... or perhaps it was data?

Even during the [War of the Braves] 56 years ago in this game world, [Magic] was rare and only the select elite Terrans of the Circle of Magi are able to use them freely. The rest of the Terrans were only reliant on the "blessings" given by the many Terran Churches that survived until this day to be able to use Magic. In Siva's memory, it was the so called [Prayer Magic] that was the rawest of forms of Magic that could be available straight only from the so called Gods of the ancient past.

As proven by what he had seen so far while being able to "play" this game, it was only after Humans integrated into the Terran Society did the Magic Systems improved and became public; and based on what he saw in the 1km-large facility below the SS-Pandora, and based on what he and Pistareen talked about on his office on their first meeting, the person who called himself as [The Teacher] —Janus, to the rare few who knew the truth of his identity— that suddenly emerged 56 years ago, is the person responsible for universalizing the rare ability called "Magic" by ushering in the system all Terrans nowadays are aware of: the [Instructions Panel] that was the NPC counterpart of the Player Panel Windows of the [Players].

So in essence, the process of "Magic" was indeed simplified by Janus' wager: by using the rarest of the only ten [Memory Crystals], the 10th Memory Crystal, the Terran Universe became open as a game world, and all lost Godly Legacies (Unique Initial Abilities), extinct Ancient Terran Races, and long lost Rune Artifacts from the Era of the Gods, began to, one by one, show up and resurface again.

—but that was the NPC side of things.

With how the logic physics of the Terran Universe works, whether he understood it or not, Siva was still aware that everything in Terroa was editable by the so called Janus Console in the real world.

So, what do "players" have that enables them to manipulate Mana and cast Magic, change the very fabric of reality in the game world of Terroa, and affect everything else?

It was the [Mind].

Players send their minds in Terroa... and with this element, the Circle of Magic was completed and they could cast [Magic] and [Ability] within their different aspects but same world-altering effects.

—but this was [Magic] and it's basically useless in the real world that doesn't have [Mana] in it...

——was it really just my intuition going wrong?

If Pegasus had succeeded back then, four years ago, even if he had the knowledge on how to use and apply [Magic] in the real world, it would still be a pipe dream for him because there is no Mana in the real world.

And yet why, back then, and even until now, he still felt that everything in this world could be applied in the real world?

What made him think so?

It was his, Rex Kingsley's, real world condition.

Cyborgs like him that retained all normal human bodily functions but had all constitutional enhancements provided by the NanoMechs, were all possible in RPG: Terroa... and so perhaps it was this that made him think so of this possibility.

Siva made another audible sigh.

He was so deep I thought that he didn't notice the change occurring outside the waiting room.

Cortana knew the things happening on his mind at this moment so she didn't dare to disturb him for she feared that perhaps Siva would undergo one of those rare mental breakthroughs.

One might wanna ask, what was the importance of understanding a game world's system of using the [Magic] when it was useless in the real world?

Siva was a stupid idiot to pour so much brain cells just to working it out and it was taking their time.

There was a meeting waiting to happen beyond that door but here he was, pondering over some pointless stuff about Magic and Abilities...

Yes, [Magic] and [Ability] was different and Mana used for them was also different in application. In fact, what was the use of knowing game elements like the Magic System?

It was useless in the real world, why study it?

To everyone else, it might be a bunch of useless data, but to Siva, such information was vital. That's because as someone who can't use Magic and as someone deeply connected to all these seemingly obsolete, ancient, and senseless information—

——understanding the foundation of the similarity and difference between the two could lead to him being able to unlock or somehow speed things up on controlling the "extra things" on his body.

"—because UNICORN created this world and all things in this world had something to do with what happened to me, I have to at least know how they work so that when the time comes, I can counter it when it matters."

As a person with a deep insecurities to the future, Siva considers all event that may happen to him or to the people he knows so although these were all senseless information now, the fact that it was connected to Terroa which is connected to him in a very deep manner, he regarded the information as something vital for the unforeseen future.

The Vajras ignored his mumblings and didn't dare to disrupt his thoughts and patiently waited for him to finish aligning his faculties.

A few couple of minutes later, Siva finally stopped massaging his nose bridge and made a long and deep sigh. Cortana stopped massaging him and she too joined the procession of followers along with Mohindra and Linda.

Siva stood up and looked at them.

"I'll be giving you life-saving items that can only be used once so be sure to treasure it and only use it when it matters."

Everyone inhaled deep at his words. Aren't they a little bit ominous?

Siva didn't wait for anyone to reply and swiped the air with his right hand. With their eyes going wide at the sigh, the fabric of space was molded like a sticky liquid and a watery-transparent orb was taken away and stuck at the tip of his right index finger. Everyone would be shocked if they knew that within this finger-sized sticky-gum of the fabrics of space was over 300,000slots of space.

Converted into area, it can accommodate at least 100,000 square meters of space or items.

(AN: 3 slots = 1sq meter. Did I get that right?)

Siva didn't waste time and pulled out a Lightning Flash Bomb from his inventory and set the three rules for the Split-Dimension Mini Realm on the tip of his finger into it, then gave it to Mohindra.

He didn't say anything and repeated his actions.

Aside for Cortana, Siva gave the nine Vajras one each and only when they inspected it enough did he spoke to them.

"The thing you're holding right now is a bomb."

His opening speech made the people frown but they aren't much concerned because with the level of power they have, their intuition was also as sharp and they can't feel any danger from this thumb-sized item they were holding in their hand.

Siva continued, "In simple terms, this is an Escape Bomb that you can throw at your feet to escape a difficult situation. It will create an explosion that is strong enough to scratch an Immortal and shatter a building. But at the same time, you and anything that is attached to you will be teleported back 500 meters into the skies of Horbe."

Mohindra, realizing the uses of this item, asked in a concerned voice, "Are you worried about what Joffrey will be doing after this meeting?"

Siva answered, "Not after, but during the meeting since I plan to observe their reactions. If Joffrey is stupid enough to take my words lightly or even point a gun at me, then I won't hesitate to bring only the Elves and everyone who's willing to join our resistance to the incoming invasion, with me to the Asgard. I will not waste my time to people who wants to play politics and scheming on me."

Mohindra cautioned, "You do know that laying a hand on a Terran High Seat is considered an act of terrorism to the entire Terran Alliance."

"I know it. Don't worry. Unless Joffrey or all those other Terrans are stupid enough to provoke me, I will not act harshly. I'm actually doing them a favor by helping them mitigate or completely destroy the dangers of the spies of the Bloody Church in their cities. As well as, if the situation went on the good side and that everything goes as planned, informing them of the war nine months later. If it goes awry, then like I said, I don't mind giving the Terrans a piece of my own way of warning. And so during that time, if worst comes to worse, you all have to use that item and go back to Horbe."

After listening to him, Mohindra held the 'escape bomb' firmly and nodded, "Then I will do my job and prevent you from making us use this."

Siva laughed but didn't argue, "Then I'll be looking forward to this meeting."

As he spoke, he turned around and took a step.

With the step was a flash of light and his clothes changed. A fiery red-orange robe draped over his body with a tall pontifical hat that had a "V" on the crown if seen from the front topping over his head firmly. Then, a Kakashi-mask covered his mouth and nose with a pair of cloth hanging over his ears, covering the sides of his head, Siva's own version of a ruler's robe —the one he used to wear back in his days in Mitra, only different in color for the sake of practicality— was as eye-catching as it was dangerous.

After all, underneath that robe was the Fire Lord Set with the robe itself a textiled version of 1/8 of the entire Glandanium Alloy taken away from the former Rewloola Battleship.

In short, Siva's clothing was like a warship itself, adding in the fact that it was him wearing it.

The transformation of clothes happened within a snap of a finger and when Siva reached the door, he didn't stop for a moment and pushed it with a slight force while canceling the lock in space that he placed in the room.

A slight *BANG* resounded in the long four walls of the room and the host King's eyes went wide in surprise seeing the procession of people coming from the room just adjacent to his.

"How did you—"

"—it's good to see you too. Thank you for all the escorts you sent outside the guest palace."

Siva cut him in the middle of his words and sat on his designated seat... a hot seat in front of all the High Seats of the Terran Alliance. The procession of his followers from Horbe —people that should not to be here— stood behind Siva and seeing all of them made Joffrey quake inwardly.

If they came with intent to kill him, they would've done so without saying a word.

Joffrey almost cried "Guards" but seeing that the "guest" didn't make a move against him and only sat there on his seat, he calmed himself with a lot of effort and only eyed the people who personally attended this meeting in Bardavon.

There was Gaia of the High Seats, along with two Elven Elders.

There was the Representative from the Church of Granados, High Priest Medan, and two Priests, also a High Seat.

There was the Dwarven Kingdom's Prince, Duren, and three Knights.

And there are also a few others more, numbering to almost twenty who attended this meeting of an unprecedented significance because one of the only Nine High Seats of the Terran Alliance, Gaia, the Magus of the Circle of Magi, had given her word that ignoring this summons will bring upon a calamity they wouldn't want to happen.

Knowing Gaia's reputation, especially her giving a lot of importance and gravity to the "cause" of this gathering, would these people actually say no to the High Seat that gave the Terrans the chance to fight back against the Dragons of the West?

As such, as much as they wanted to just kill Siva or make him spill it all out and be done with it, the meeting happened and here they are, checking each others out with glares and frowns.

Some stared at his robes with interest. Some also looked at the subservient Vajras standing behind.

Some thought he was too arrogant, sitting down without greeting anyone of them as if he was the star of this gathering.

Some cursed in their hearts, remembering how he trash talked the Alliance in the last meeting back in the attack in Jeremiah. Bah...!! It hasn't even been that long since then!

Siva sat there on his seat, relaxed, ignoring those with hostile attitudes towards his attendance.

Surveying these faces, he saw Gaia on one of the High Seats, and then saw the other delegates, eyeing them with a dignity of a sovereign ruler that a few Terrans found surprising.

"Well then," Siva began, dismissing all trivialities of introduction and political tom-flattery. "I will not waste your time so let me begin. I am here in front of you all to tell you that in Tiara, the Northern Continent of the surface continents, as all of you may have already known, the Bloody Church had already taken over the Port City of Dragona."

"We know that already." Joffrey scoffed. "But if you really pay so much attention to the courtesy on this Alliance, shouldn't you be removing your mask and giving us a salu—?"

Siva cut him with a clap of his hands and cheerful voice, "—alright! Since all of you already know of it then that shortens it. Let me tell you the rest of my Intel... The Northern Continent of Tiara in the surface is going to experience the massive invasion of the Bloody Church and the Emperor is in need of your help. I propose that we all band together and eradicate the threat of the Church as soon as possible."

Joffrey, being cut off in the middle of talking was an affront not only to the host country and its King but to also the rest of the High Seats who share the same status as them.

If Siva could be brazen at him, wouldn't he be as impudent to them as he was to Joffrey then?

Thinking to this, they all felt really angry at Siva.

"Bah!" one of the High Seats who did not attend the meeting in person, snorted at him, "What kind of bullshit are you talking about? Emperor? Who is the Emperor of Tiara? That man is a myth! The legend of the Immortal Emperor is nothing more than a child's bedtime story. And you dare to put these sorts of news in a gathering of High Seats of the Terran Alliance?! This is a waste of time! I don't want to listen to this bullsh—"

When this man spoke loudly, many other Terran High Seats followed in rebuking Siva.