Emergency Summons (1)
Once I reached the 4th Circle, the world looked completely different.
It was more than a simple increase in mana. Even the way I perceived magic itself had changed at a fundamental level.
Until now, I had merely been using mana. Now, it felt as if I could speak to it.
“I can hardly believe it…”
Alberte murmured in a stunned voice. He must have hurried in after feeling the surge.
“So the mana fluctuation I just sensed was from Tower Master? To reach the 4th Circle in such a short time…”
Reverence filled Alberte’s eyes.
Even he, once called a genius twenty years ago, had needed four years to rise from the 3rd Circle to the 4th.
And I had jumped two ranks in a single day.
“I got lucky. While creating the Flame Concentration Cannon, I gained some insight into the essence of attributes.”
I slowly stood and checked the state of my body.
To my surprise, the tiny cracks in my mana circuits from the last attempt had healed completely.
No—if anything, they felt sturdier and wider than before.
“Tower Master, may I ask how much mana you have now?”
Alberte asked carefully.
“If I convert it into a number, it’s about 668.”
“668… that’s nearly the threshold of the 5th Circle. Early 4th Circle mages are usually around 500, but… wow, that is truly remarkable.”
So, 4th Circle mana was roughly at the level of a 5th Circle beginner.
It was enough to avoid being looked down on anywhere, but it was still far from enough.
Especially when the first rift came.
Could I really survive with my current strength?
Well, if I used my unilateral command authority, I could probably survive.
And if our Magic Tower wasn’t directly attacked, we’d likely make it through safely.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
Even if I survived, the second and third dimensional rifts would be waiting.
By memory alone, once the second dimensional rift occurred, the world would be doomed unless the player intervened, and it was game over.
In other words, total annihilation.
How was I supposed to survive that?
What else am I supposed to do…?
I was still lost in that thought when Lia entered my office.
“Tower Master! A message by carrier pigeon arrived from Vilheim Magic Tower!”
“A carrier pigeon? What does it say?”
“I haven’t opened it.”
Lia handed me a letter sealed with the crest of Vilheim Magic Tower.
I quickly broke the seal and checked the contents.
Emergency Summons - Roimdel
Noon tomorrow, Imperial Capital Grand Council Hall.
Emergency meeting of the Five Great Magic Towers.
Discussion of countermeasures for the dimensional rift.
Due to the sudden surge in mutated monster appearances across the empire, the meeting originally scheduled for a week from now has been urgently moved up.
Attendance by the Fusion Magic Tower Lord is mandatory.
There were two main points.
The meeting that had been scheduled for a week later had been moved up to tomorrow.
And “attendance requested” had become “mandatory attendance.”
It seemed they had already learned about the mutated monster I had just killed.
“What does it say?”
Alberte asked.
“Read it.”
I handed him the letter.
“…So the mutated monsters aren’t only appearing here.”
“Right.”
“One month… at this rate, the rift may happen even sooner than expected.”
“For now, keep our Magic Tower safe. I’ll go to the meeting tomorrow.”
“Will you be going alone?”
“Lia will come with me.”
“Yes. Understood.”
***
The next day, Lia and I left our Magic Tower and arrived at the Imperial Capital Grand Council Hall, where the emergency meeting was being held.
The imperial palace was far larger than I had imagined.
Buildings made of pure white marble gleamed under the sunlight, and the intimidating presence of the guard mages stationed everywhere was overwhelming.
“Wow, I had no idea the palace would be this magnificent…”
Lia breathed softly as she looked around.
“First time here?”
“Yes! I never dreamed I’d ever get to come to a place like this.”
As we walked the corridor leading to the council hall, we passed several people from the various Magic Towers.
They spotted us and began whispering among themselves.
“That’s the Fusion Magic Tower Lord?”
“I heard he was just a third-rate mage who perfected Mana Amplification…”
“And yesterday, he even took down a mutated monster.”
“Fusion of the same attribute… was that actually possible?”
Their stares were oppressive, but I ignored them and entered the grand council hall.
The mages from the Five Great Magic Towers had already arrived.
Roimdel from Vilheim, Valter from Crown, Serena from Astral. And two others I’d never seen before.
“Fusion Magic Tower Lord, you’re here.”
Roimdel spotted me and gave a slight nod.
“Let me introduce them. This is Leon, the Tower Lord of Solaris Magic Tower, and this is Lady Silvia, the Tower Lord of Moonlight Magic Tower.”
Leon, the lord of Solaris Magic Tower, was a middle-aged man with red hair and sharp features, while Silvia of Moonlight Magic Tower was a white-haired woman with a cool, distant air.
Come to think of it, where are the Tower Lords of Vilheim, Crown, and Astral?
I had never seen them.
Only the chief mages.
While I was thinking that, Leon swept me with a sharp gaze and said, “So you’re the Fusion Magic Tower Lord. I’ve heard a great deal about you.”
“A fusion of the same attribute… it’s an interesting idea.”
Silvia added in her cold voice as well.
Then the door to the council hall opened, and an elderly man in a lavish robe entered. It was Arkanus, the Imperial Chief Mage.
“Everyone is here.”
When Arkanus took his seat, the room fell silent.
As a 7th Circle grand mage, he was one of the most powerful mages in the empire.
“I’ll be direct. The situation is more serious than anticipated.”
With a flick of his hand, he projected a map of the empire into the air. Red dots were scattered across it in many places.
“The red dots mark the regions where mutated monsters have appeared. Seventeen locations, all in a single day yesterday.”
Seventeen locations. What we had faced was only the tip of the iceberg.
“And the bigger problem is this…”
Arkanus paused, then continued with a grave expression.
“According to the observatory’s report, there is a high probability that the dimensional rift will open two weeks earlier than expected.”
“…So that’s how it’s going to be.”
Valter let out a heavy sigh.
“Two weeks? That means we’ve only got two weeks left? That’s nowhere near enough time to prepare.”
“If mutated monsters are already appearing, then when the rift truly opens…”
“The empire could be reduced to ash.”
Other attendees chimed in one by one.
“……”
“……”
Heavy silence settled over the hall.
“So what exactly happens when the rift opens? Do mutated monsters keep spawning? Or do monsters pour out of the rift itself? We don’t even have time, and nobody seems to know anything.”
Valter grumbled.
“According to ancient records, when a dimensional rift opens, beings from another dimension invade our world.”
Arkanus continued his explanation with a solemn face.
“They will not be mere monsters, but creatures in forms beyond anything we can imagine. They do not follow the physical laws of this world, and ordinary magic may not be enough to counter them.”
Arkanus was half right, and half wrong.
According to the community information, it was true that monsters of unimaginable forms would appear.
But they did follow the laws of this world, and ordinary magic was sufficient to deal with them.
The real issue was… the strength of that ordinary magic.
“Like the violet barrier on the mutated monster, you mean?”
“Exactly.”
Arkanus said yes, but I silently disagreed.
The mutated monster was, at best, an effect of the Prism Spectrum that arose from the dimensional rift.
So maybe it wasn’t directly connected to the actual rift after all.
Of course, I wasn’t certain.
But from everything I’d gathered from the Magic Tower management game’s community information, that seemed to be the case.
They had said enemies that came through dimensional rifts could still be handled with ordinary magic.
It wasn’t something that required a special gimmick to block.
“Hmm…”
Should I say this or not?
While I hesitated, Roimdel noticed my expression and asked, “Fusion Magic Tower Lord? Do you have something to say?”
At his words, everyone in the room turned to look at me.
“Ah… well.”
After gathering my thoughts for a moment, I spoke.
“I think the violet barrier on the mutated monsters and the beings that will emerge from the dimensional rift are a little different.”
“Different?”
Arkanus asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes. The mutated monsters were altered by the influence of the Prism Spectrum; they didn’t come directly from the dimensional rift. In fact, the beings that emerge from the rift itself…”
I stopped and looked around. Everyone was waiting for my next words.
“Ordinary magic will probably work against them. The issue is that their durability and attack power are far beyond what we imagine.”
“What grounds do you have for saying that?”
Leon asked sharply.
“According to records left by the former Tower Lord…”
It was a lie, but I had no other way to explain it.
“Ha. Ridiculous. You mean that former Tower Lord, Rundel? You expect us to believe the records of some nameless mage? What exactly did that third-rate mage know that he would leave prophecies about dimensional rifts?”
Valter snorted, and the other mages looked at me with doubtful eyes.
“Chief Valter.”
Roimdel intervened in a calm voice.
“The Fusion Magic Tower Lord has already turned the impossible into reality many times. Shouldn’t we at least listen to him instead of dismissing him outright?”
“Roimdel, I know you’re backing him, but we can’t gamble the empire’s fate on baseless speculation.”
“That may be true, but…”
At Valter’s words, Roimdel had no further rebuttal.
“Fusion Magic Tower Lord, don’t get the wrong idea. Just because we recognized your tower as a special-command tower doesn’t mean you’re on equal footing with us.”
Valter drove the nail in deeper.
“……”
No, then why did they even call me here?
I sighed inwardly. If they were going to dismiss me like this, was there even any point in me coming all the way here and wasting my time?
“Understood. Then take my opinion as reference only.”
I spoke as calmly as possible, stripping all emotion from my voice.
Then Arkanus raised a hand and restored order to the room.
“Let’s leave that discussion there for now. What matters now is our response.”
He pointed to the map again and continued.
“Each Magic Tower must prepare for the appearance of mutated monsters within its own territory. And we need to secure as many combat personnel as possible for when the dimensional rift opens.”
“Isn’t that obvious? We need a concrete strategy.”
Leon said with his arms crossed.
“Which is why I propose a division of labor that makes use of each tower’s specialty.”
Arkanus looked at each Tower Lord in turn.
“Vilheim is the center of magical research, so it will focus on developing new countermeasures. Crown will handle city defense. Astral specializes in spatial magic, so it will observe and predict the rift…”
He continued assigning roles to each tower.
Solaris would handle combat, Moonlight would provide support, and so on.
Honestly, it was hard to call it a response strategy at all.
“And as for the Fusion Magic Tower… concentrate on producing Mana Amplification and Flame Concentration Cannon. Supply as many mages as possible.”
Arkanus looked at me as he said it.
But.
“…I refuse.”
“What?”
“I said I refuse. I will use my unilateral command authority. I and our Fusion Magic Tower will not participate in responding to this dimensional rift.”
I had no intention of obeying that order.
At my words, the grand council hall froze.
“What did you say?”
Valter shot to his feet and shouted.
“What are you saying right now? You’re going to sit this out while the empire is in crisis?”
“The unilateral command authority was part of the contract guaranteeing my tower’s independent action in the event of a dimensional rift. I’m simply exercising that right.”
When I answered calmly, Valter gave a cold laugh.
“As expected of a third-rate mage. When crisis hits, you tuck your tail and run.”
“I’m not running.”
I rose slowly from my seat.
“This is my own struggle. Countering a dimensional rift requires overwhelming firepower. Our tower will deal with the rift independently. However, we will continue supplying Mana Amplification as agreed by contract.”
What I really needed was firepower, and in the end, that meant a mage’s mana had to be high.
Honestly, I wanted to cut off the supply of Mana Amplification too.
But if I did that, we might be forced to face the second dimensional rift alone.
At the very least, we had to avoid annihilation.
“And one more thing… I’m no longer a third-rate mage. I’ve reached the 4th Circle.”
My words sent every mage in the chamber into shock.