Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: A New Age for Black Magic
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* * *
By the time Dale reached the 60th floor of the tower, what stood in his way was not a grand army of the dead.
A man in a hood was there, all alone. He was not even the mage who was supposed to be on this floor.
“…Venerable Master.”
“Welcome, Lord Dale. I have been waiting for you.”
The black mage, called Venerable Master, smiled with delight.
“It seems the ancient Mother of Darkness has taken quite a liking to you, my lord.”
“Is there another reason you have come all this way?”
“Why, I came to converse with a young and brilliant lord like yourself.”
There was likely no one in the Black Magic Tower who did not know of this venerable master… no, this ancient creature.
The Venerable Master removed his hood. Beneath it was a desiccated mummy, with nothing left but skin and bone, looking as though it might crumble at any moment. A mere husk, so gaunt that the silhouette of his skull was clearly visible.
While Dale had not known that Eris was an ancient being dating back to the founder of Sachsen, this man was a different matter. He was an old mage who had maintained an immortal life beside the former heads of Sachsen, the masters of the Black Magic Tower, as they ruled the tower through the generations.
A Lich.
“In my youth, I detested the recklessness and folly of the young.”
“Does my will displease you?”
Dale asked in return.
“Oh, heavens no.”
The Venerable Master laughed as if the idea was absurd. It was a hollow, empty laugh, like a soul escaping its vessel.
“In an age where rivers run dry and mountains erode, the only thing that turns the wheels of history is the impassioned vigor of youth.”
The power of blood. At those words, Dale drew a quiet breath.
“I find your passion, my lord, your desire to breathe new life into the Black Magic Tower, to be most admirable.”
“I am grateful for your words.”
Dale silently bowed his head.
“However, for those of us who have grown old and decrepit, we have, embarrassingly, nothing left but our dignity.”
The Venerable Master said this, smiling with amusement.
“Winning the hearts of old men who have nothing left but their stubbornness is, as you know, my lord, not a simple task.”
“…”
“So, please, try to persuade me.”
The Venerable Master spoke cheerfully, and there was only one method of persuasion Dale could employ before him.
The blood of the Dark Abyss enveloped his body, and the avatar of the Shadow Lord took form.
Before the oldest elder of the Black Magic Tower, the archmage closest to the five pinnacles of magic.
With his heart at the center, the three colors of magic—black, red, and blue—began to swirl, intricately interlocked.
“Ah, such a vibrant youth. It is truly a fine sight to behold.”
The Venerable Master continued, looking at the abyssal armor.
“Unfortunately, this old man no longer has the energy to match your youthful vigor, my lord. Besides, settling the superiority of an argument with force… is that not the way of the Red Magic Tower?”
“You are correct.”
Dale nodded.
“The organization known as the Black Magic Tower is, in the end, nothing more than a world where the strong survive, where strength determines the hierarchy of arguments and ranks.”
“Oh?”
“The number of circles, the intricacy of formulas, the power of magic, the strength of the undead—ultimately, no matter how we embellish it, the order of the Black Magic Tower is governed by ‘power.’ In that case, what makes us any different from the Red Magic Tower?”
“But is that not the way of the magical world?”
“That is precisely my point.”
Dale smiled as if he had been waiting for this.
“What we in the Black Magic Tower pursue is, above all, the power of truth, not magic itself. Then why is it that one’s status and superiority in the tower are determined solely by magical power, by the number of one’s circles?”
“Oh?”
“From the very beginning, the spirit of our Black Magic Tower had no need for violence. In other words…”
Dale spoke.
“One who seeks the truth of Black need not necessarily be a mage.”
“…!”
At those words, all emotion vanished from the Venerable Master’s face for the first time. At the same time, Dale could clearly feel the agitation of the elders who were watching him.
“The wisdom of Black will be granted equally, even to those who know no magic.”
Dale said.
“Should the need to use magic arise, one who can use it will be there to assist them.”
He was uttering a radical proposal that not even Lord Black would have dared to imagine.
“Those with a low number of circles, or even those who cannot use magic at all, will be able to attain the highest floors of the tower if they produce commensurate results. Their ideas will bring new wisdom to our Black Magic Tower.”
It was a revolution that would overturn the very foundation of the magic tower’s organization.
“Separately, for the black mages who purely seek strength, a new place will be created for them.”
The organization known as the Black Magic Tower would be reborn into a form dedicated purely to the pursuit of truth, where wisdom alone determined everything.
However, he had no intention of unilaterally abandoning the established powers within the existing Black Magic Tower—those who had gained their status through magical prowess.
“But that will not be the Black Magic Tower. It will be reborn as an ‘armed organization’ directly under the command of the Ducal House of Sachsen.”
“…”
“Instead of building shoddy defenses that barely qualify as war games, we will prepare for real war and battle, and I intend to train black mages solely for that purpose.”
Dale said.
“They will master the optimal necromancy for the sole purpose of winning battles and will train alongside the Night Raven Knights of House Sachsen, predicated on the principle of combined arms.”
“Hahaha, my, my!”
At those words, the Venerable Master began to laugh, unable to contain himself.
“Truly astonishing. So astonishing and revolutionary that I am at a loss for words.”
“Is it not rational?”
Dale asked back.
“You asked me to persuade you, Venerable Master, and I sincerely hope you will lend your strength to my cause.”
He knelt respectfully before him.
“Then let me ask you one thing, my vibrant and brilliant lord.”
Just then, the Venerable Master questioned him.
“Assuming there are elders who do not agree with your vision, how will you persuade them?”
“I will talk with them and try to persuade them as much as I can. I will have to negotiate day and night until they are, at the very least, convinced.”
“But what if, in the end, the negotiations fail?”
“As you said, Venerable Master, the current Black Magic Tower is no different from the Red Magic Tower, which reveres strength. It is a world of violence where one’s prowess as a mage justifies all.”
Dale answered coldly.
“In that case, we will have to speak with power, according to the ways of us mages.”
As the heir of Black, and moreover, as the son of the Master of the Black Magic Tower who reigned at its apex.
* * *
“This is… this is unthinkable!”
After Dale and the Venerable Master finished their conversation, in the chamber where the elders of the Black Magic Tower had gathered.
“To dare allow those who know no magic into the sacred Black Magic Tower! It is absurd!”
Unsurprisingly, not many were willing to readily agree to Dale’s proposal.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Lord continued to break through the tower’s floors one by one, carrying out the trial.
Justifying everything through his prowess as a mage.
The defensive positions and undead legions set up by 5th-Circle black mages were, quite literally, meaningless. They were merely sacrifices to prove the Shadow Lord’s power before all.
‘I deeply agree with Lord Dale’s vision!’
But then it happened.
Floor guardians who did not resist, but instead endorsed Dale’s vision, began to appear. Not everyone was opposed to his will.
Dale’s method for reforming the organization of the Black Magic Tower was exceedingly simple.
He would separate the cultivation of powerful mage forces from the pursuit of truth as distinct concepts.
“It was us.”
Watching the scene, the Venerable Master chuckled with delight.
“The stagnation of the Black Magic Tower was not because we forbade biological experiments or anything of the sort. It was because we stubborn old fools crushed the burgeoning spirit of the new age.”
“B-But, Venerable Master!”
“Look. See the faces of those children, their eyes shining as they agree with the young lord’s words!”
The Venerable Master spoke, unable to contain his emotion.
“The stubbornness of this old man is so shameful and embarrassing that I wish I could hide in a mouse hole.”
“B-But to so unilaterally abandon the traditions of Black…”
“Do you have something to say to me?”
Just then, the Venerable Master’s skull, almost completely stripped of its flesh, turned toward him. The elder, who had been about to say more, fell silent.
“Heh heh, it seems the young lord was right after all.”
Alongside the Master of the Black Magic Tower, Eris, he was the oldest and most powerful ancient creature in the tower.
And just as Dale had said, this was a world of ‘brutes’ where one’s strength as a mage determined the validity of their arguments. Following the laws of that world, no one dared to voice an objection before the Venerable Master.
“All this old man wishes to see is a new era.”
The Venerable Master said.
“And I am so looking forward to the new era that Lord Dale will bring, I can hardly bear it.”
His claims of being a dying old man with no energy left to face Dale could not change who he truly was.
* * *
At some point on the 70th floor, all resistance blocking the Shadow Lord’s path ceased.
Dale, too, finally understood what it meant.
The Council of Black Robes, the elder organization of the Black Magic Tower, must have finally unified their will.
And it was needless to say who had brought their wills into alignment.
The heir of Black ascended the floors of the tower, unopposed.
The 71st floor, the 79th, the 86th, and then the 98th floor.
Excluding the 100th floor, which existed for the Master of the Black Magic Tower, and the 99th floor, where the Agent of Black, Eris, resided… it was the floor of the third-highest-ranking guardian in the tower.
“Welcome, my lord.”
The Venerable Master was there.
As the guardian of the 98th floor, representing the Council of Black Robes to convey the elders’ will.
“I have been waiting for you.”
“Thank you, Venerable Master.”
“Ah, it is still too early for thanks.”
But just then, the Venerable Master waved his arm and smiled.
“Is there something else you desire?”
“Oh, yes. There is something I desire more than anything.”
At that moment, the entire world was dyed in the color of ink.
It was a world within an ink wash painting.
A world where all of creation was rendered through the three-dimensional depth of ink and water, like in an East Asian painting.
In that world, several cranes drawn with an ink brush took flight, beating their wings.
Like the flock of crows that once soared behind Lord Black.
“Won’t you please show this stubborn old man the youth of a new age?”
Like a sage about to ascend to immortality, the Venerable Master smiled.