Chapter 332 – Mother World
In another realm, similar in many ways to Nerotath’s realm or the realm where Earth resided, a dungeon portal flickered and vanished just after depositing a single woman on the ground where the Realm Breach had been. Her white hair, pale skin and green robes were not in their usually pristine condition.
Her hair was frizzled, remnants of static causing it to disobey her and not float in the perfect order it should. On her skin was mud and to her surprise a bruise was forming where she had been hit by one of the Stone mages boulders.
The humans had surprised her. Usually, it takes them months to find new Realm Breaches, but it was only a few days after these were formed that humans had invaded. This was most likely bad luck, but the presence of a B Rank True Mage amongst the humans was hard to ignore.
Humans had cut been off from the true path of magic when they were banished and all remnants of their existence on the Mother World were erased. Most realms humans had been sent to were completely devoid of magic. It was a constant irritation to her that in the last few thousand years more and more Realm Breaches encountered humans. It was almost as if the Mother World was trying to bring them back.
“Mistress, you are back early. And the Wood affinity plantation Realm Breach is gone!” Cried a younger Alfar, this one male, though his hair was also white, and he had equally pale skin.
“Good of you to notice. Quickly, send in the gatherers to the other Realm Breaches. Use Empathy artifacts to ward off the beasts. Better yet, have the beasts converge on the entrances to the Breaches. If any more humans come through I want them to suffer before they can explore.”
“Humans mistress?” the young Alfar questioned.
“Yes, humans, you nitwit. Now do as I say. We must harvest everything we can before the humans claim it for themselves. And permanently collapse the Breaches when you are done. No sense if giving them a perfectly good training ground.”
“But mistress, these are all A Rank Realm Breaches. If we close both our and their entrances, the instability created will…”
“SILENCE!” the Alfar mistress bellowed. “You will do as I say.”
“Of course, mistress.”
The male Alfar scurried off to summon the gatherers and begin the harvest of the Realm Breaches. He did not know why his mistress was so upset with the presence of a few humans. He had personally seen her dispatch groups of humans with ease. Whatever was upsetting her was sure to be something dreadful, he just hoped he could do his task fast enough that she would not take her anger out on him.
The Alfar mistress left the Realm Breach containment area and went to her private chambers. Just has her underlings needed to do as they were told, she too had a mistress she had to answer too. However, her current self was not presentable. The humans had actually managed to damage her S Rank defensive artifact, but more importantly, they had gotten her dirty. Going before her clan’s Matron in such a state would show weakness to the other Alfar seeking her position. First, she had to clean up, then she would report to her matron.
A short time later the female Alfar was standing before a large mirror like artifact. What showed on the surface of the mirror was not her reflection though, it was the image of a much older Alfar, whose white hair had gone grey and their once perfect porcelain like face had lines and sags, undeniably losing the war against time.
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“Mirax. I was not expecting you to contact me. Do things go well with your plantations?”
“No, Matron Jysella, things do not go well.”
“What has happened child?” Matron Jysella asked.
“Humans invaded my Wood affinity plantation. I expect them to encroach on the others soon.”
“Did you not kill them all? Killing the first wave off usually grants you a few days before they can dispatch a second group of invaders.”
“I did not. The ones that came were a match for me. And there was a True Mage among them.”
“A human true mage? Are you sure?”
“Yes, Matron. I could detect an unbelievably strong Ice magic within him, as well as Fire, Earth and Shadow. There were other affinities as well, but they were too weak to discern. And the human attacked with Spatial magic.”
“Interesting. How strong was this human?”
“The beginnings of B Rank.”
“Beginnings of B Rank! That is no match for you! Why did you just not kill the bug?”
“He surprised me. I had not expected a True Mage and seeing one I thought of the old tales. That it takes a True Mage of each race to…”
“Silence. Do not reference those children’s stories to me!” Mistress Mirax went silent and lowered her head in submission to her Matron’s outburst. After a moment, Matron Jysella calmed herself and continued. “Humanity is a scourge and shall never return to the Mother World. However, your report of encountering a True Mage amongst them is disturbing.”
“Why is that Matron?”
“Because I have recently learned that an Iblis scum encountered a C Rank human True Mage just a few months ago.”
“Could it be the same human?” Mistress Mirax questioned.
“Open your mind to me and show me the look of the one you fought. If it is the same one, the human is growing fast. And if it is not, then the humans are recovering their magic faster than we anticipated.”
Mirax lowered her mental guards and allowed her Matron to probe her mind. Her recent battle against the humans played through from the beginning to the end. Once the memory had finished replaying, the Matron let out a snort.
“The look of the one you encountered is different than the picture I have seen of the one the Iblis assisted. It seems the humans are advancing more quickly than we thought. Given their stubbornness, they should not have even begun to explore the path of a true mage for several thousand more generations.”
“What is your will Matron?”
“I have seen already what you plan. Punishing them with the beasts at the entrance will buy you the time you need. But do not collapse all the Realm Breaches completely. That many pocket dimensions collapsing could cause instability in our realm. The Mother World does not like its gardens destroyed and she may retaliate if you do so wantonly.”
“Then we let the humans gain so many training grounds?”
“They would have acquired the Realm Breaches at some point anyway. Unless you were already planning to disobey the directives for your plantations?”
“Of course not, Matron. The Breaches anchored to our world only appear for a short time in their realm, but the harvest comes faster in Realm Breaches anchored to their world. By utilizing their world as the anchor, we are able to easily meet our production quotas, but it seems like a waste to just send all that mana away after one harvest.”
“It is a small matter. With the Mother World producing so much excess mana, sending Breaches to other realms helps us relieve the pressure and seeds those worlds with the amount of mana we will need if we ever wish to venture there. Go. Attend to your duties. Keep me informed of what the humans acquire.”
“Yes, Matron,” Mirax replied. She did not agree with the Matron, but open disagreement or disobedience meant death.
Mirax suspected that Matron Jysella knew why the Mother World was producing more and more mana each year but was keeping it a secret from those below her. Realm Breaches used to be stable pocket dimensions, created with the help of the Mother World to produce the rarest of materials, but now the Mother World created them in mass. So much so, that the Mother World had actually suffered from a beast wave in recent years.
The event had been scandalous. Luckily, it had happened in the goblin territories and the greater population blamed the toads for mismanagement of their pocket spaces, but Mirax knew the truth. Not only that, but she suspected, that if things did not change, soon it would not just be a single beast wave in the goblin territories, it would be one in the heart of the Alfar domain.