The Vastness of Magical Destiny

As part of the exchange terms, the Great Mysterium Sect was granted a plot of land in the center of Piraeus City State to construct a grand-scale Dark Temple. The Great Mysterium Sect planned to erect an unprecedented sacrificial hall and altar in the central square of Piraeus City so that all the followers of Hades in the Southern Mediterranean could fulfill their lifelong wishes without needing to make a pilgrimage to the Giganthia Temple on Zago Island.

This was likewise considered a win-win situation for the city officials. Some believers of the Dark Lineage within the city council had long proposed the idea of constructing a temple for worship in the city center. Now, someone had stepped forward with this very idea, and it wouldn’t even require municipal funding—only a piece of land designated for religious use. Why would they not be pleased?

The people of Piraeus also felt a sense of honor from the visits of delegates from neighboring countries. This recognition was even more influential than the short-term impact of the city-state’s economic development. People across the Southern Mediterranean knew that the Piraeus people had defeated the Spartains and claimed the crown in the Chariot Race. They all wanted to know how their city-state had achieved this, which filled the city officials with both excitement and anxiety.

The Great Mysterium Sect had a large number of followers in other countries and cities, but in Piraeus City State, Hades, the god of darkness, was the most devoutly worshipped deity. Although some city council members had proposed making Hades the guardian god of Piraeus, this suggestion hadn’t been universally supported. After all, in the Southern Mediterranean Region, no city-states or countries had designated Hades as their guardian god. Instead, they chose original traditional deities as their protectors and patrons. However, it seemed like the time had come for some changes. Otherwise, it would be hard to say if Piraeus would remain attractive to the Dark preachers if other city-states offered more favorable conditions for the Great Mysterium Sect’s missionary work, or even if they designated Hades as their country or city’s guardian god before Piraeus did.

For the past few days, Xerob had been in an extremely excited state. The attitude of the officials of Piraeus City State had drastically changed from when they first participated in the competition. The entries of Solonberg, Vladimir Koff, and another Guardian Mage King of the Great Mysterium Sect had secured three spots for Piraeus out of the sixteen contenders in the gladiator competition’s rematch. This was an unprecedented breakthrough; in previous years, the best result Piraeus had achieved was just one person reaching the rematch, and more often, none at all.

And now, Piraeus had earned nearly as many entries as the Spartains and even one more than the Corinthians and Iberians. In terms of the competition, the number of entry spots essentially symbolized a country’s military strength to some extent. Although there were many secrets unknown to the public, this vanity alone was enough to intoxicate the officials of Piraeus City State.

The brilliant performance in the Chariot Race led the city officials of Piraeus to immediately agree upon returning to submit the proposal to declare Hades as the guardian god of Piraeus City State and assured Xerob it would certainly pass in the city council. After Xerob introduced the status and situation of the City (Court) Mage Group in the Northern Continent to the officials, they showed intense interest in his proposal to help establish the first City (Court) Mage Group in the south for the people of Piraeus. The concern that other countries and city-states were continuously visiting to learn more and that the Great Mysterium Sect might be swayed by others filled Xerob with immense satisfaction.