Chapter 1103: Calm Before the Storm
The mountains around the Artor Valley were gorgeous in Leon’s estimation. Tall and imposing, with cliffs and steep slopes covered in green shrubs and enormous red-barked and blue-leafed trees, they formed a formidable barrier for anyone attempting to access the valley. Some of the taller mountains scraped the clouds, though they were relatively few and far between.
With towers and the long wall connecting them, the mountains looked relatively different than before, cutting a new profile that was a different kind of imposing. And as Leon stood upon the highest of the central mountain’s nine peaks and gazed upon the mountains all around him, he waited for the profile to change again.
It began fairly slowly, with a subtle but noticeable shift in the way that magic flowed through the valley. Where it was only moments before natural and chaotic, as the wards in the outer walls activated in earnest, the magic within the valley was leashed and directed, creating artificial flows that directed power into the wards.
There was a tremendous amount of ambient power in the Nexus thanks to the proximity of the universe’s Origin Spark, and having four eleventh-tier mages around certainly helped, so the ward scheme for the walls, despite the length of the structure, wasn’t that limited by available power. Leon had to admit that after an inspection of the walls only a few hours beforehand, he was impressed with what had been wrought. Though he was hardly one to relish making like a turtle and hiding behind a shell, he had to admit that these fortifications made for a terrifyingly sturdy shell.
As more and more of the wards activated, the one key ward that he was waiting for finally started receiving power. Rather quickly, mist gathered in the gaps between the mountains, obscuring the sky beyond. This mist thickened and expanded, rapidly moving to enshroud the barrier mountains until they disappeared from view down to about the halfway point. On the other side of the mountains, meanwhile, the newly conjured mist continued farther, reaching the foot of the mountains and continuing into the plains to the south and east, and further into the mountains to the west and north.
Half an hour after the wards began to activate, a new misty veil had appeared all around the Artor Valley nearly two miles thick.
Leon grinned at the sight. It was a complex issue to ensure that the plants and natural wildlife of the mountains remained unaffected, but his nature mages were some of the best, especially after having Tikos around to learn from. But the mist, as it had for Kataigida for thousands of years, protected the Artor Valley. Humans and arks in the mist would be disoriented and magically turned around, while everything designated as friendly by the wards would be unaffected.
If everything worked correctly, Leon’s Lances in the towers would be perfectly able to see what was around them, while any hostiles in the mist wouldn’t—an undeniable advantage. Of course, this misty veil was stronger than what lay around Kataigida, but the complexity of the strengthened enchantment had required a number of wisps and several giants to maintain. This gave the misty veil a more active quality that allowed the beasts within the mountains to continue about their lives relatively unaffected, while any war beasts brought against the valley would be just as disoriented as their human riders.
As impressed as he was with what had been accomplished in only six months, Leon still feared whether or not it would be enough. He doubted even this strengthened enchantment would stand against a fifteenth-tier mage, as the Ocean King was, and even if the Ocean King himself wasn’t present, any powerful mage within this expedition might have the means to bypass the valley’s defenses.