Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1751  Attack The Realm

In the propaganda video he had just watched, Idore had meticulously explained exactly why the Pagna warriors were the ultimate enemy. However, his highly edited explanation really only worked for those who were sheltered, ignorant mages who had never actually been to Pagna before. It was a classic tactic: creating a terrifying enemy out of the unknown, and relying on the blind, unwavering trust the populace placed in the words of the Grand Magus.

But Raze had walked the lands of Pagna. He knew the truth of its people, both their cruelties and their honors.

Since he was currently standing alone inside Idore's private office, surrounded by the man's highly classified files, Raze thought that maybe this terminal was the way for him to finally learn the actual truth. He needed to uncover the real, hidden reason as to why the Grand Magus was dedicating his extraordinarily long life to making Pagna an enemy.

Raze's hands hovered over the glowing magical console, his eyes rapidly scanning the decrypted runic texts scrolling through the air.

'There's a staggering amount of information regarding Alterian's dimensional anomalies here,' Raze commented internally, reading through the classified logs. 'It looks like Idore possessed a highly specialized artifact, an item that allowed him to communicate across the void with those from other worlds through localized rifts. But he didn't possess the Golden Globe. He didn't have the power to physically jump from world to world himself.'

He pulled up a series of encrypted correspondence logs, the glowing runes reflecting in his dark eyes.

'I see… Idore knew exactly who Heino was, and he actively sought him out. It was Idore that had made contact with Heino first across the dimensional gap. They were secretly working together for years to try and find a stabilized, permanent way for constant, safe travel between both realms.'

Raze read through the transcripts of their magical communications. 'It appears that even Heino desperately wanted to return to Alterian eventually, even though he had set up quite the comfortable, powerful life for himself over in Pagna as a martial arts master.'

But a glaring discrepancy in the timeline caught Raze's attention.

'But the reason for Idore getting in contact with Heino in the first place was because Idore was already actively trying to seek out those from Pagna. So, he knew intricate details about Pagna even before that initial contact was ever made? But how? And why? Especially if, according to all these comprehensive travel files, Pagna is a place that Idore has never even physically been to?'

That was the one concrete fact that had become absolutely clear as Raze sifted through the data: Idore had never once stepped foot in Pagna. This was in stark contrast to the original Dark Faction founder, who had crossed over. It was a severe limitation that Raze initially thought a man as powerful as Idore would have overcome by now.

'They couldn't cross over, but they did manage to trade vital information, and they supported each other's agendas from afar,' Raze analyzed, looking at the inventory manifests. 'They spent decades finding unstable ways to send each other specialized equipment. It looks like, even though they were never able to physically meet on the soil of Pagna, they used the elite Noble Guild members as dimensional couriers. At times, they were able to meet in neutral, volatile pocket dimensions with each other.'

Raze pieced together the dangerous logistical network Idore had built.

'So, Idore's mages would leave Alterian equipment in a particular intermediate dimension, and then Heino would force open a dimensional rift on the Pagna side to retrieve it? And vice versa, allowing someone from the other side to get the equipment without fully crossing the main borders?'

A heavy realization hit Raze like a physical blow.

'Is this exactly why the chaotic portals had been randomly opening up all over Pagna recently? Was it all of Idore's doing, just him recklessly trying to find a backdoor way to hand equipment and influence over to Heino? And is it the same for the anomalies in Alterian? It appears that their crude, brute-force methods weren't exactly accurate, and the resulting magical friction was causing massive portal instability across both worlds.'

When Raze looked back at the timestamps on the older files, all he could see was that Idore had been relentlessly trying to achieve this dimensional bridge for a very long time. A terrifyingly long time.

'He must have been sitting at the peak as a nine-star mage for centuries to orchestrate this,' Raze thought, feeling the weight of the history in the room. 'But still, what was the root cause of all of this obsession?'

Then, that's when Raze saw something buried deep within a restricted sub-folder. There was a massive, sprawling archive of information and theoretical research attempting to find out everything possible about the Divine Realm. For someone who had never even been to the mortal realm of Pagna, Idore certainly knew an unsettling amount of classified information about the realm of the gods above it.

The sheer volume of the data was just driving Raze to try and search even deeper. He was actively ignoring the ticking clock in his head. He had already spent far more time than he would have liked looking through Idore's personal files.

In the first place, he had already firmly decided that he was going to kill the Grand Magus. So, what did it ultimately matter what the man's convoluted reasoning was for all of his wrongdoings?

But Raze couldn't pull himself away because he realized something horrifying: he feared that maybe there was something much bigger going on, a cosmic machination that would inevitably sweep up all of Pagna and Alterian in its destructive wake, regardless of whether Idore lived or died today.

Because of that lingering dread, Raze continued to frantically search the console. But all he could find was page after page of obsessive notes on the energy structures of the Divine Realm. And then, he saw a single, isolated digital note, which was presumably written directly by Idore himself in a moment of private contemplation.

'Are we strong enough to defeat the Divine Realm?'

Raze stopped breathing for a second as he stared at the glowing words.

"The Divine Realm," Raze whispered aloud into the empty office. "So everything he has been building... the relentless training of the mages, the propaganda, the massive floating fortress of Noble Land... it's all been meticulously designed to go up against the Divine Realm itself? But does he even know a way to access it? Wait... the Golden Globe, right?"

Raze's mind fired on all cylinders, connecting the final dots.

"It's the one supreme artifact that can transcend even the fundamental laws of what each planet has. So I imagine someone possessing it could use it to bypass the barriers and travel directly to the Divine Realm. That's why. My guess is the Divine Warriors up there are desperately after the Globe as well."

He paced the length of the desk, his eyes wide.

"If the Divine Warriors use the Golden Globe to descend down to the mortal plane of Pagna, their god-like powers are unlikely to be limited or suppressed by the planetary laws. Why does Idore want to fight against the Divine Realm so badly? A preemptive strike? Or maybe Idore really does just see them as the ultimate enemy to his absolute control."

Raze looked back at the glowing terminal one last time.

"Either way, it doesn't seem like the actual, personal reason he wants to wage a war against the Divine Realm is written down here. And I've already wasted entirely too much time playing detective. My breakthrough exhaustion is settling in, and my allies are dying. I need to get out of here right now."

With a swift motion, Raze severed the magical connection to the console. The holographic text vanished into thin air. Knowing a little bit more about Idore and the terrifying scope of his life's ambition, Raze turned his back on the desk and sprinted out of the room, ready to face the architect of this madness.