Forsaken Realm:
The team of Julian, Kirin, Licht, and Lumiere stood in front of a battle coliseum from a distance.
Captain Jack and other Praying Mantis members were standing around the Colosseum, surveying the surroundings.
Finally, the members of the Magic Research Department surrounded the Colosseum, making their final checks.
Some of the notable members of the department are Sally - who was recruited due to her talent, Reina - the researcher who tasked Julian to collect stones capable of flight, Millie Maxwell - a green-haired woman who specializes in designing, and finally, Secre.
Today was a special day since the magic research department was going to display its breakthrough on the project of the floating city.
Although the floating city was not an entirely new concept, as the Dragoninds had them, their civilization is long gone.
Now it was humanity's turn to achieve that feat.
What was difficult was not making the coliseum float but controlling its altitude.
Finally, they were able to design two locks, one on the Colosseum and one on the land, which could control the altitude.
To avoid misuse, they designed multiple keys that must be used all at once to operate the Colosseum.
Julian's help in collecting those stones from the Rift Hound dungeon, the investment of Secre and Sally, and finally, the Heart Kingdom's mana method greatly increased the development, which brings everyone to today.
There were also some elves who had a talent for magic research, so their contribution helped too.
The battle coliseum in the common realm was chosen as the first subject of the project.
This Colosseum is owned by the magic knights, where people can duel freely by paying a small fee.
The duels vary from solving personal disputes to practice to amusement.
Betting is also allowed in the duels.
Everything regarding the Colosseum is maintained by the Praying Mantis to make sure no one goes too far in duels or maintains fairness.
Apart from normal duels, it is also used by the Magic Knights to hold tournaments. For example, an event that happens every few years where magic knights fight a duel, and the winner gets money and artifacts as rewards.
If this project is successful, Julian will arrange for the event to happen here.
Since everyone was there for the floating coliseum, Julian recounted the events that happened in Alric's Dungeon to Licht and Lumiere, making them shocked by the information.
Licht had some information regarding the Ragnvindrs, Tree of Sephriah, Tree of Quiliphoth, and angels from the records of their ancestors, but not the complete information.
Lumiere too somewhat knew about that information from Licht, but receiving the complete information changed their views about the world.
Julian also told them about the Will of the Tree, keeping aside the topic of his reincarnation.
"You can read more about this topic in the books in the Library under my castle."
As the final checks were complete, Reina approached Julian with a remote.
The remote was the master key to control the magic stones, aside from the two sets of keys that could control the Colosseum.
"Please accept this remote; it will activate the artifacts we designed."
Unlike the pervert Reina Julian met in private, she was more civil outside.
"It would be unfair for me to do it since you all worked for this. All of you deserve to activate them instead of me," Julian said to Reina, bringing smiles to the faces of the mages.
Reina took back the remote and asked Sally, Secre, and Millie to press the remote together.
Mages of the magic research department held their breath with anticipation as the countdown started.
As soon as the switch was pressed, multiple magic circles formed at the base of the Colosseum, rapidly absorbing natural mana from the surroundings.
Mages burst with cheers as the Colosseum started to elevate from the ground and finally stopped at an altitude of two hundred meters.
"Don't celebrate yet; begin phase two of the test," Reina announced.
More magic circles formed around the Colosseum as a barrier formed around it to protect it from external attacks.
Mages used their spells on the barrier, ranging from strong, and medium to strong spells, but nothing could break the barrier.
"Now you can start celebrating!" Reina said loudly, setting off a wave of celebration among all the mages present there.
To celebrate the success, Julian invited several chefs, including Charmy, to cook their best food for everyone present there.
"This barrier is not completely made by you all, is it?" Julian asked Secre.
"Yes, there was already a barrier spell present, cast by a mage in the past, so we just modified it to make it stronger," Secre replied.
"You have a backdoor to the barrier, right?"
"We have already taken everything into consideration, so no need to worry about it. There is one more feature we introduced... come with me," Secre took Julian excitedly to the top of the Colosseum.
With her instruction, Julian touched the Colosseum and found that he could enter it freely.
"I created an authorization system that gave certain individuals the ability to enter or exit freely," Secre said, making Julian praise her a lot for her efforts.
After a short celebration at the top of the Colosseum, Secre wished to talk about something important.
"There is something you need to know...
During the process of attacking the magic stones, we found traces of Julius Novarono's time-sealing magic.
Something or someone was sealed under the Colosseum but is no longer there.
The barrier belonged to the person who was sealed here.
Judging by the seal, it was recently broken... it is during the time Julius lost his power.
I want you to be careful," Secre said.
"Thanks for the info; I will look into it."
Diamond Kingdom:
It was a moonless night as the entire kingdom was enveloped in darkness.
Huff! Huff!
General Alaina carried Mars' bleeding body and ran through an alley.
Her mana was almost exhausted, and her eyes almost closed down due to being awake for days.
"Turn right and go straight," Mars was barely conscious but gave out directions to Alaina.
Finally, she reached the door of a house that was supposed to be their hiding place.
That is when a shadow jumped at her from the roof, but his body was turned to minced meat by Alaina's magic.
"That's the last spell I can use for now; heal yourself fast, Mars," Alaina muttered.
"I know... give me a minute," Mars replied.
As soon as Alaina opened the door, both of their faces dropped.
All the furniture in the house was destroyed, with splashes of blood all over.
General Lotus was pinned to the wall with one of his arms missing.
From his blood, a message was written on the wall.
"We have his family and your comrades. If you want to see them again... surrender!"
Alaina looked around to ensure there were no traps, while Mars focused on healing himself enough to stand on his feet.
Alaina put Lotus down from the wall and checked his pulse, and fortunately, he wasn't dead yet.
She took out the last healing potion she had from her pocket and fed it to Lotus to at least save his life.
After taking over the Diamond Kingdom Administration, the Dark Triad didn't set foot in the Diamond Kingdom but let their subordinates control the kingdom.
This had made the kingdom sink into darkness.
Violence, murders, and rapes are off the roof as Spade soldiers kingdom is doing everything to take over the entire kingdom.
In the short war, only Mars, Alaina, and Lotus survived and formed a resistance army to oppose the Spade rule, but every day they had been meeting with nothing but failure.
Devil-powered soldiers are too strong for Diamond mages to defend against.
"Sigh, this is hell..." Alaina sat on the broken couch, overcome with tiredness.
"Seems like I have no choice..." Mars said, taking out a communicator.
"What are you doing?" Alaina asked.
"Asking for help... from my friends in the Clover Kingdom."
"Isn't Fanzell already helping us? Who else do you know in Clover Kingdom?"
"Wizard King Julian Ragnvindr," Mars replied.