Chapter 445 – Seeking Assistance

“Mage Wells, if you would please present Atlantis’ aid request to the S Rank Assembly,” Mage Harris asked after order was called.

The S Rank Assembly had barely recessed for a day after Mage Fletcher’s explosive news before Mage Wells request for aid had come to the Assembly. There were certain rules for requesting aid directly from the S Rank Assembly. Most aid was requested from, and provided by, either the Adventurer Association or the Mage Association. Special missions, difficult Realm Breaches, even hunting high Rank Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts typically went through them.

Of course, Mage Harris understood why Damion would not want to file his petition with either of those organizations. Not only would any request he made to either group be slowed down or given little consideration, it might just disappear entirely, considering his trepid relationship with the associations. Still, going to the S Rank Assembly should only be done in a situation where the associations would not be able to help. Even if the request might have been ignored or delayed by going through the proper channels, it still needed to follow procedure.

By going directly to the S Rank Assembly, Mage Harris was worried that Damion’s request would be dismissed out of hand. If that happened, then the Mage Association would certainly snub his request even more, since he would inevitably have to go through them before it reached the Assembly level again. All he could hope was that Mage Wells had a matter that truly required the S Rank Assembly.

“Thank you Mage Harris,” Damion said with a nod to the Time mage before turning to the S Rank mages.

A surprising number had turned up in person, even more than had been at the meeting a day ago for Mage Veers’ ascension announcement. Damion had a feeling that most of these mages had shown up specifically because he was going to be here in person. They wanted to gage his strength and be able to accurately tell if he was being honest by checking his aura.

“After being trapped by an Exile spell I found myself in an unfamiliar land surrounded by the ruins of an ancient city. Mage Fletcher has supplied you with a rough outline of events, so pardon me if I do not expound on my basic journey. Suffice it to say, I encountered goblins, Iblis and Alfar during my time on the Mother World and learned some disturbing things.

“First, is that the goblins have been forced to resort to using Realm Breaches to breed and raise their young to a certain magic power level before taking them back to the Mother World. This is because the ambient mana level of the Mother World is at A Rank and in some places even pushing S Rank.

“Disagreement between the races on a solution to the ever-increasing mana density has led to a prolonged war between the Iblis and the Alfar. The Iblis, wish to halt the effect and possibly even reverse it, to allow all the races to live in harmony once again. The Alfar, however, believe they can continue to shunt the mana away from their lands until the other races have gone extinct and then implement whatever other solution they have devised.”

“What does any of this have to do with us?” Phillip Spurlock, Lightning mage, asked.

“The method that the Alfar use to shunt the mana away from their land, is what causes many of our Realm Breaches.”

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Damion’s assertion caused many of the S Rankers to shift uneasily in their seats. They were beginning to have an idea of what his request was going to be. The question was, how? What was he really going to ask them to do, and what would he be offering in return?

“The mana density of our world has been slowly rising. In the distant past records indicate that the mana density was only low D Rank, but now it is mid C Rank across the world. I do not know at what point humanity will become like the goblins, unable to reproduce in our normal habitat because our children will not be able to withstand the higher mana density, but at some point, if we do nothing, it will happen.”

“What are you proposing?” Mage Harris asked.

“In return for assisting me in returning to Nerotath, I promised the Iblis that I would seek assistance from my people to aid them…”

“We will not fight a war for another race!” Headmaster Colon declared, several other noble families followed suit, causing the Assembly to fall into a shouting match between sides. It was not until Mage Harris froze everyone in place that the argument was halted.

“Please allow Mage Wells to continue,” Mage Harris said calmly.

“Thank you, Mage Harris. The Iblis requested our aid for two reasons. One, is that they and the Alfar are fairly evenly matched, so they cannot spare forces to reach the cause of the problem. Which leads to the second reason they requested human aid. The cause of the increased mana density was an enchantment created by our ancestors.”

Once again the room went from stunned silence to heated argument forcing Mage Harris to freeze everyone in time once again to regain order.

“Please explain further,” Mage Harris said to Damion.

“Mage Thresbane of the Protectorate confirms what the Iblis have claimed that our ancestors were once exiled from the Mother World after a great war. Proof of this can be found in the Exile spell itself. The spell always connects to the place it was anchored to. When any Spatial mage casts the spell, anything trapped inside is sent to the same place. Any mage familiar with Spatial spells can tell you, the only way for the spell to be anchored to another world is because it was created there. If we created the spell here, it would be anchored here and all things Exiled would end up at the place designated by the spell, which would then not be much of an Exile.”

“Is that how you were returned to Nerotath by the Iblis? They used Exile to send you back?” Headmaster Sorin asked.

“No. While it is possible for Exile to connect to our world from the Mother World, it is not likely. The other end of the spell is not anchored, so anyone caught in Exile from the Mother World would end up on a random world, just as I suspect different groups of our ancestors were."

“What do you mean?" Mage Harris asked.

“Isn’t it obvious, our ancestors came here, perhaps on purpose many eons ago, or perhaps the ones exiled after the war were the first to come here, but I don’t think all the humans that left the Mother World ended up on Nerotath. No one could hold Exile open that long or large enough for thousands, maybe millions of people to go through. I think, and the Iblis hinted at it, that there are many human worlds out there. And they are in the same situation that we are, rising mana levels and increasing frequency of Realm Breaches. Because just like Exile cannot determine its destination, except to return to the Mother World, I don’t think the Alfar can control the location their Realm Breaches open, or at least not easily control.”

“I can understand why you agreed to provide aid,” Mage Harris said. “With the knowledge that one day, our people may face similar problems to what is happening on the Mother World, your choice was clear. However, there are still unanswered questions. How will our people reach the Mother World? Through Exile? And how will we return? I can only assume that the method you used to come back is not a simple one.”

“Yes, a Portal was opened for me, but even that took quite a bit of mana and I am not sure our Spatial mages are capable of opening a Portal that far.”

“I am assuming you have another solution,” Mage Harris said.

“Yes. According to the Iblis, labyrinths do not go on forever. They are bridges back to the Mother World.”