Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3021: Objectives

Four months remained before the expedition to Tartarus.

Officially, Emery’s mission was straightforward.

He was not being sent to become a savior of the Tartarus Realm, nor was the Alliance expecting him to involve himself in its endless conflicts.

His objective was far simpler: establish a stable passage into the realm, secure diplomatic contact with the local powers, and pave the way for future cooperation between the two worlds.

Once those objectives were completed, the expedition would be considered a success.

On paper, the entire operation should take only several months, a year or two at most.

At least, that was what every calculation suggested.

Emery, however, was far from optimistic.

He knew too well to believe anything there would ever proceed according to plan.

After all, he shared ties with the realm. The Fey races, the Pardera kingdom, the Skyroot clan and others. It was difficult to imagine arriving after decades of absence, exchanging a few polite greetings, and simply walking away.

Reality would almost certainly prove far more complicated.

More importantly, Emery had already learned the greatest danger of traveling between realms.

The last time he had entered Tartarus, a single mistake during his journey through the realm had stranded him there for decades. Years of his life had slipped away before he finally found a path home.

It was a mistake he had no intention of repeating.

For that reason, Emery resolved to prepare as thoroughly as possible before the expedition departed.

Foremost among his priorities was breaking through to the Third Cosmos. Every increase in cultivation would translate directly into a greater chance of surviving Tartarus—and whatever challenges awaited him afterward.

His cultivation had already reached the peak of the Second Cosmos, and the feeling of breakthrough had become impossible to ignore. Whether it was born from his ever-expanding comprehension of the laws or from his soul power, which had long since outgrown the limits of his realm, Emery could not say with certainty.

What he did know was that he no longer needed an external trigger.

With nothing more than his own will, he could summon the heavenly tribulation whenever he chose.

Yet he continued to delay it.

The flaw lay within his foundation.

Both of Emery’s insights into the Law of Origin had come through the path of darkness—one born from the savagery of the Star-Devouring Beast, the other from Khaos itself. While both had greatly strengthened him, they had also left his foundation inherently unbalanced. Carrying that imbalance into a Third Cosmos tribulation would be nothing less than gambling with his life.

He had failed his breakthrough once before.

He could not afford to make the same mistake again.

There were only a few ways to correct it.

The first was to achieve a breakthrough in either the Law of Light or the Law of Nature, restoring the balance his true body desperately lacked.

The second path lay in advancing his Dao of Heaven and Earth technique, which would likewise help harmonize the opposing forces within his foundation.

Unfortunately, that path led directly back to the unfinished Heaven and Earth Trials hidden within Skyroot Mountain.

And Skyroot Mountain...

...was in the Tartarus Realm.

Emery could only shake his head with a bitter smile.

The very opportunity that might grant him the breakthrough he desperately needed lay at the destination of the dangerous expedition he wished to become stronger before undertaking.

And so, over the past several weeks, Emery had focused on a third possibility.

Kieran.

The drow who possessed the fourth Khaos Gate.

It was a long shot, but one worth pursuing.

If he could find Kieran and reclaim the fourth gate—if he could finally reunite the scattered Khaos Gates—then the rewards would extend far beyond a simple increase in power. The complete set might grant him the spatial authority once wielded by the Lord of Khaos himself, enough to traverse even the most dangerous realms without fearing becoming stranded.

If that proved true...

It would change everything.

With that hope in mind, Emery devoted himself to perfecting the fourth Khaos Art—the Khaos Legion.

As his mastery deepened, he succeeded in creating ten additional shadow clones.

He could have created more.

But the limitation was no longer his cultivation.

It was his mind.

These were not disposable battle clones meant to exist for a few moments before fading away. They were persistent shadow constructs, each carrying a fragment of his consciousness so they could operate independently across the immense distances connected by the Khaos Waypoints. Every additional clone divided his attention further, stretching his divine sense ever thinner.

Twenty clones already pushed him close to his limit.

Maintaining awareness through all of them at once placed an enormous burden on his soul. The farther a clone traveled from the Khaos Hub, the weaker the connection became, making his commands sluggish and forcing him to devote even more concentration to maintaining control.

Even so, he pressed onward.

Half of the clones continued the painstaking task of exploring the more than two thousand Waypoints scattered throughout the dark elf domains, classifying each one until an accurate network gradually took shape within his mind.

The remaining clones pursued a single objective.

Finding Kieran.

Weeks passed, and Lyanna quickly proved her value.

With access to the intelligence networks of the dark elf nobility, the whispers passing between powerful clans, and the countless rumors flowing through frontier settlements, she succeeded where Emery’s shadow clones alone could not. Piece by piece, the scattered fragments came together until they pointed toward a single location.

Kieran’s last confirmed whereabouts.

A remote territory known as Vorn Hollow.

Once, it had been little more than a sparsely populated frontier region within the dark elf domains.

That was no longer the case.

Recently, Vorn Hollow had been transformed into a heavily fortified territory.

Not by the dark elves themselves.

But by their newest allies.

The Occulus Faction.

Once one of the Grade Five powers of the Magus Alliance, standing on equal footing with the Nephilim.

They turned traitor, defecting from the Alliance and migrating their people into dark elf territory.

It was here that Emery began his operation to locate Kieran.