Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3032: Intrude

The Serpent branch of Draconic Prime City stood apart from the rest of the district, resembling a guildhall.

Twin statues flanked its entrance, each rising nearly thirty feet into the air. Serpents reared upright with their hoods fully spread, fangs bared toward the street as though daring anyone to approach without permission.

Two guards stood beneath the statues.

Both were pale-skinned, their eyes a solid serpent-gold without visible pupils. They stepped into Emery’s path the moment he approached.

"Identity."

Emery gave his name and presented the letter of introduction the Ouroboros Queen had prepared for him before his departure.

Even so, it took several minutes before the guards found someone who actually recognized the seal and knew to expect him. Ouroboros carried considerable prestige, but it was only one among the many great Serpent clans.

Eventually, the gates opened.

The Grand Magus who came to receive him wore the crest of a winged serpent embroidered across one shoulder—the emblem of the Targaryen Serpent Clan. He appeared middle-aged, with sharp eyes that widened slightly the moment he got a proper look at Emery’s face.

"I know you," the man said slowly.

After a brief moment, Emery realized why.

The Grand Magus had been among those involved in the battle on Faulen Planet decades ago. That realization seemed to settle any remaining doubts. Without further ceremony, the man led Emery into a private reception room.

"I heard you’ve come to ask about our Patriarch."

Emery nodded.

There was little the Grand Magus could actually tell him.

The only people with reliable information were the researchers stationed within the Supreme Gene Center itself—the heavily restricted facility at the heart of the city.

According to the reports that occasionally filtered back, the Patriarch remained alive and in good health. Beyond that... No one could say.

The researchers simply could not speak of it.

Emery immediately understood what that implied.

A bloodline suppression.

It was one of the most common restrictions imposed by higher bloodlines upon their descendants and subordinates. When enforced by a Supreme, its authority became nearly absolute, making betrayal impossible even if one wished to speak.

What Emery truly needed to know was whether that silence had been imposed by the Patriarch himself and not someone else’s.

"Then let me speak to one of the researchers," Emery said. "Master Bob should be among them. I heard he joined the project not long ago."

The Grand Magus’s expression shifted ever so slightly.

"He did. He entered the facility three years ago." After a brief pause, he added, "Unfortunately, no researcher assigned to the project has been permitted to leave for the past two years. Not ours, and not those from the other clans either."

Emery frowned.

"Why?"

"They were only told that the research had reached a critical stage."

Emery let out a slow breath.

No wonder the Ouroboros Queen had sounded so concerned.

From the outside, it looked suspiciously like a cover-up disguised as procedure.

Yet the more he listened, the less certain he became. There was something odd about the situation.

The Grand Magus summoned someone.

A young man entered the room a moment later, bowing respectfully before introducing himself as the liaison assigned to the Supreme Gene Center. Once every month, he was permitted to deliver letters and personal supplies to the researchers, relay messages to their families, and handle whatever minor requests they had.

Beyond that, he knew very little.

He admitted that he had never been told anything about the project itself, nor had he ever been allowed to meet the Patriarch.

Emery studied the young man in silence for several moments before a plan slowly formed in his mind.

Then he laid out his plan.

The Grand Magus hesitated, clearly unhappy with what was being asked of him — but between the Ouroboros writ and his own concern for the Patriarch, he reluctantly agreed.

---

Hours later, a young Serpent liaison climbed the mountain path alone.

Hundreds of stairs carried him upward before the trail opened into a sacred valley, a cleft that looked as though something enormous had once torn the mountain apart and never let it heal. A massive formation array hummed along the valley’s edge, and dozens of dragon knights stood guard at even intervals along it.

The captain recognized him immediately.

"You’re not due for another week. Why are you here?"

"My apologies," the young Serpent said. "There’s an urgent message for Master Bob. I was told to deliver it myself."

He wasn’t allowed past the gate — exactly as expected. But the captain, dutiful if nothing else, agreed to carry the message in personally.

"Thank you. It’s for Master Bob."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you." The captain waved him away. "Off you go."

The young Serpent turned and began walking back down the mountain path.

He was, of course, Emery.

His innate shapeshifting maintained the borrowed appearance effortlessly as he descended. At the same time, his sense remained fixed on the captain, then quietly attached itself to the letter as it passed from one hand to another, following it until a Dragon Knight was assigned to carry it deeper into the valley.

Only then did Emery move.

A concealment technique layered together with [Khaos Voidstep] erased both his presence and movement as he slipped silently through the checkpoint, falling into step behind the Dragon Knight carrying his letter.

The path continued for nearly a mile before branching into a dozen different stairways, each winding toward a separate mountain peak. Whether by design or coincidence, the layout formed a natural maze that would leave anyone without an escort hopelessly lost.

After another mile of climbing, the destination finally appeared.

From afar, it resembled another ancient temple, perfectly matching the sacred architecture scattered throughout the valley.

Up close, however, the illusion collapsed.

The walls were built from smooth metallic alloys instead of carved stone. Formation arrays pulsed beneath translucent panels, while straight-edged corridors and geometric structures clashed completely with the ancient architecture surrounding them.

It was a research facility disguised as a temple.

Emery halted just outside the entrance.

Getting inside would require breaking through the protective formations. Even the slightest fluctuation of spiritual force—or the careless extension of his divine sense—could alert someone with a sufficiently powerful spiritual perception.

Or worse.

A Supreme.

He was almost certain one of the Dragon Supremes was residing somewhere among these mountain peaks.

Rather than rush in, Emery waited and continued observing.

The letter passed through the outer checkpoint without issue.

It wasn’t delivered.

Instead, it was placed atop a small stack of unopened correspondence, apparently waiting until someone had time to deal with it.

There were only two explanations.

The optimistic one was that the researchers were simply too absorbed in their work to be disturbed outside scheduled breaks.

The pessimistic one...

...was that something inside had already gone so wrong that ordinary correspondence no longer mattered.

Emery had no intention of waiting long enough to discover which was true. Every additional minute he remained in the valley increased the risk of being discovered.

He took out one of the precious invisibility talismans Klea had crafted for him and activated it. Then he quietly cast [Runelock Threading], the barrier-breaking spell Veyarel had once taught him.

A narrow opening appeared within the formation.

Emery slipped through immediately.

He knew he didn’t have much time.

Inside, the facility resembled a laboratory far more than a temple. Researchers moved between crystal consoles, suspended tubes, and strange machines, hurrying from one workstation to another with single-minded focus.

Emery ignored everything else and quickly searched the room for Master Bob.

Then he froze.

He found a chamber where stood a massive cylindrical tank filled with pale, glowing fluid.

Suspended within it floated a familiar figure.

Emery recognized him instantly.

Ronan Faulen, The Serpent Supreme.

Dead.

.

.

####

Author’s Note

This Chapter concludes the month of July, and I would like to thank all of you for your continued support sincerely. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey so far.

As promised for the 3,000-Chapter milestone, I worked on a passion project—an animated Episode 1 of Earth’s Greatest Magus. It has now been published on a new website:

https://avans.base44.app/

I hope you’ll check it out! You can also join our Discord for the link, updates, and discussions:

https://discord.gg/kH6vMW3J7

Thank you once again for your continued support and patience. More Chapters are coming throughout August!