Chapter 301: Invitation and Upheaval

The Beacon Bridge flared to life, tearing open the veil between worlds. From the vast ring of gleaming metal stepped a small group: Wang Yu and his companions, returning from the undead plane.

"I never expected the undead plane was a sealed box with actual borders. Those impenetrable boundaries..."

Wang Yu had been chatting with Sieg. While in the undead plane, he'd been struck by a sudden curiosity—what lay above the sky?

Was there a dissociative layer, like there purportedly was above the material plane? Was it a true planet? In the end, both Avia and Sieg had made it clear to him that the undead plane had borders.

Their knowledge came from old texts, but once Wang Yu raised the question, curiosity gripped them all. They decided to see it for themselves.

Sieg had transformed into a dragon and ferried them up toward the dim halo of fire that crowned the undead plane.

It was quickly apparent that this plane was unlike their own. There was no dissociative layer. At an altitude of around ten thousand meters, space itself began to harden. Sieg found it increasingly difficult to ascend.

At twelve thousand meters, the space approached the consistency of a physical wall—an invisible, airtight barrier that prevented Sieg from going any higher.

According to Sieg and Avia, this was likely the embryonic form of a planar barrier. If they had pushed further, the space would have solidified completely, forming the walls that sealed off entire planes.

"All known planes are like this," Sieg had said. "The elemental realms, the infernal planes... all of them. As far as we know, the only world without a defined boundary is the one we live in.

"But even that," he added, "remains a mystery. The dissociative layer prevents us from truly knowing what lies beyond the sky. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to access Skyborne City's archives of star charts. As a scholar, I can't ignore such treasure."

Having physically touched the ceiling of another world, Sieg found his curiosity reignited. Even knowing how many others had gone mad or vanished chasing the stars, his thirst for knowledge, so deeply rooted in all sapient species, could not be silenced.

"These planes," Avia mused, "are essentially massive spatial bubbles. Over time, they stabilize, developing structure and resistance. In the end, they're parasitic realities, tethered to the greater world we inhabit."

Her understanding of spatial mechanics surpassed Sieg's, and her insights carried more weight.

"This world is almost certainly a planet," Wang Yu muttered under his breath. "The curvature of the land gives it away—when someone walks out of sight, it's always the lower half of the body that disappears first."

That simple observation already made lots of things clear.

Just then, Sieg stopped mid-stride. "Hold on—Icarus is contacting us."

As they made their way toward the city districts of Skyborne City, Sieg pulled out his identity card. A string of glowing digits flashed across its surface, a signal from the Council of the Arcane's Icarus.

"Something from Icarus? Guess we'd better go see what he wants," Wang Yu said casually.

Whatever it was, the feathered scholar had helped them before. At the very least, a meeting would be worth their time.

Sieg used his mental energy to connect to the Magiweb via the array embedded in his card. The signal vanished and was replaced by a glowing arrow pointing toward Icarus' current location.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The identity cards that they'd all been given were quite versatile, allowing for communication, tracking, and messaging. These were all standard functions, but invaluable nonetheless.

Following the arrow, they turned down a street and immediately noticed a difference. Skyborne City was bustling.

Dozens of scholars and alchemists filled the streets, each bearing the insignia of one research society or another. Typically, such minds preferred the solitude of their labs. What had drawn them all outside today?

Then, high above the crowd, Wang Yu spotted him: Icarus, wings outstretched, flying above the street.

But it wasn't the feathered scholar that drew Wang Yu's eye—it was what he and several magician were circling. A massive pillar stood upright in the middle of the street. It radiated strong magical energy, and Icarus and his colleagues were clearly conducting some sort of inspection.

"Ah, there you are!" Icarus called out, descending swiftly. "I've been trying to get in touch, but I figured if I couldn't reach you, you were either out of the city or in another plane entirely. Looks like I guessed right."

Icarus' keen senses allowed him to detect Sieg and the others even from afar.

"What can we do for you, Mr. Icarus?" Sieg asked politely, cutting straight to the point.

Icarus smiled. "I had a suspicion that you were behind the Grade-8 Tinker's Workshop. Honestly, I didn't think you were serious about using monster parts to fund your research—but you proved me wrong."

"Yes, the shop is ours," Sieg confirmed.

Icarus' tone turned formal. "I'd like to propose a collaboration. The Council of the Arcane is currently conducting a rather critical experiment. We need certain high-precision components processed. If possible, I'd like to commission your team to handle the material work.

"You'll be paid fairly—above standard rate, even. The only condition is that you don't share the designs or processed materials with other academies.

"If our theoretical model proves successful, your names will be listed among the contributors submitted to the Central Assembly. That alone should be enough to elevate your identity cards to Mentor-rank."

"No problem," Sieg replied after a brief deliberation. "That's a generous offer. As long as we're capable of handling the materials, we'll accept the job. Though... may I ask what this research is about?

"You'll get the full details once you've completed the commission and report to the Council of the Arcane," Ikarios replied. "And of course, if any of you wish to join the project itself, you're more than welcome.

"There are already a number of Liaheim's elven scholars on the team—they'd welcome you.

"As for the project's name, after some discussion, we've settled on one term: Hypermagic."

He shook Sieg's hand, formally welcoming them aboard.

"Hypermagic..."

Avia and Sieg hummed thoughtfully. The word lingering on their tongues, heavy with implication. Their expressions grew more serious—the name hinted at ambition far beyond ordinary magical theory.

"We're about to initiate one of the Council's citywide assignments," Icarus added, glancing toward the towering pillar. "Care to come see it for yourselves?"

"An assignment?" Wang Yu echoed, puzzled. "Does Skyborne City issue academic assignments?"

"It does," Icarus replied with a faint smile. "The Central Assembly grants each academy its own district within the city and provides preferential access to resources. In return, the academies are expected to take on assignments—like this one: neutralizing chimeras created by rebel shamans in the orcish lands."

Sensing the group's interest, Icarus led them toward the towering "pillar" while explaining the nature of these so-called assignments.

Skyborne City ordinarily traveled across the continent on a fixed route, pausing only at specific sites to receive new members and replenish its supplies.

Those supplies often came from nearby kingdoms, who would request the city's assistance with local crises in exchange.

Given Skyborne City's vast stockpile of alchemical weaponry, fulfilling these requests was typically straightforward. Unless a disaster proved truly catastrophic, the Central Assembly could simply delegate the matter to one of the academies.

This time, while passing through orcish territory, the city received a call for aid—another outbreak of rogue chimeras, stronger and more numerous than before.

"I thought that chimera issue was already dealt with," Wang Yu muttered, remembering something. "Didn't Lilya say the cursebinding spire sent people to handle it?"

"They did," Icarus confirmed. "But apparently, another wave has appeared. Those rebellious shamans somehow managed to create even more of them, and they're more powerful too.

"The orcs can't handle this second wave on their own. So when Skyborne City passed nearby, they called for help in accordance with our agreements."

He paused, his tone turning grim. "Truth be told, things are chaotic all across the continent. Liaheim was just attacked by a colossal worm. The dwarves have an infernal outbreak in their deep fire-veins. The orcish uprising continues. And among the human kingdoms... several nations have started declaring war on each other."

He glanced at the group. "It's as if an invisible hand is stirring the waters of the continent. The turbulence hasn't reached its peak yet, but I suspect we're entering a year of upheaval."

His words cast a pall over the group. Wang Yu realized that what they'd seen in Alesterre and Liaheim might well be fragments of a wider, more insidious shift across the world.

Wang Yu shook his head inwardly. "There's no peace to be found anywhere..." But he let the thought pass—no use dwelling on what couldn't be changed.

"And what exactly is this?" he asked, stepping up to the massive column-like object in the street.

Icarus patted the structure. "A giant staff. Think of it as an ordinary wizard's staff, just... vastly magnified. We tried similar projects with swords, bows, even alchemical bombs, but those were all failures. This is the only success we've had with large-scale spell amplification."

With a flourish, Icarus pulled back the heavy cloth draped over the object, revealing a massive mana crystal embedded at the top. It did look exactly like an ordinary staff—just ten times the size.

Wang Yu stared. "Did you say a giant sword? You guys actually tried to make a giant sword?" The implications were absurd enough to leave him speechless. Just what did these alchemists and scholars do all day?

"Does the Council of the Arcane have a thing for gigantifying everything?" he asked bluntly.

Icarus chuckled. "It's a... philosophy, I suppose. Scale something up enough, and you change its nature. Though I admit, our academy's first director was a rather direct man."

He looked fondly at the oversized staff. "There was a motto he loved to quote—"

"‘Big is good, and good is big?'" Wang Yu guessed aloud.

"Exactly." Icarus laughed. "He was inspired by the alchemical bomb Morningstar, the one that tore a scar across the continent and ended the Abyssal War."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. So that was the origin of this academy's lofty-sounding name? Underneath the layers of scholarly formality was a simple love of power.

Just then, Icarus checked his identity card. It pulsed with a new signal. "We're in position. Have Lancer prepare the staff—we're targeting the airborne chimeras."

He turned to the magicians and alchemists still checking the staff's functions.

A metallic hum filled the air. Only now did Wang Yu notice that the street they stood on wasn't normal stone, but rather a large metal platform with panels connected by mechanical joints.

With a deep clunk, the platform began to sink. An elevator carried the enormous staff and everyone on it deep beneath the surface.

They descended through the layers of Skyborne City, all the way to its underbelly, where a massive platform awaited them.

And there below them lay the kingdom of the orcs. The sky churned with chaos. Dozens upon dozens of chimeras flew through the air, grotesque amalgams stitched together by shamanic sorcery.

The orc armies were fighting hard, but the enemy's varied and overwhelming abilities had left them in disarray. The flying chimeras, in particular, were nearly impossible to bring down with conventional weapons.

"Target acquired. Wind Blade—ready," Icarus declared.

The staff surged with violent magical energy. Strangely enough, the magician controlling it was only casting a basic first-tier spell—but what emerged was far from basic.

The next moment, a compressed Wind Blade, more than ten meters wide, coalesced at the tip of the staff. The giant blade sliced through the sky with blinding speed. The targeted chimera barely had time to react before it was cleaved in two. Gore and entrails rained down in a grotesque storm.

Skyborne City had entered the fray.