Legacy of the Dark Sage

The first thing Kyran noticed upon arriving at the Junction Port was the buzz of activities around him. Leif told him that Junction Port not only served as a one-stop place for portals leading to other planes but also as a trading port.

Looking around, Kyran noticed all sorts of beings dressed in their clan robes or armor. Some were wearing formal wear or combat suits. Seeing the latter made him recall Loar's creation.

The last time Kyran saw Loar, he was starting a new project on combat suits that would allow pure mage to boost their physical capabilities. Loar had concluded his concept and had just started with the design and planning when Kyran left the Guardians to look for Cyneah.

While observing the beings wearing combat suits, Kyran could not help but imagine Loar doing everything he could to purchase one just to dismantle it and study it to create his own.

'As expected,' Kyran sighed inwardly. 'Concepts that mages just thought of in the Lower Realm are already a common practice in the Higher Realm. Even creations like combat suits are pretty common.' The stark contrast in magical advancements between the two realms never ceased to amaze him.

He shook his head, determined to not let his curiosity distract him from his mission. He started envisioning the Junction Port's map that Leif showed him in his mind, confirming his location with a sense of urgency.

Because the whole place was buzzing with activity, Kyran found himself blending into the crowd, unnoticed as he stood at the side of a stall selling low to mid-tier magic items. The Junction Port was a place where everyone was too busy with their own tasks to pay much attention to others.

When Kyran arrived, that was the case. He initially thought that because the artificial plane had tight security, there would be mages acting as security roaming around and preventing unauthorized entry to the port. However, it appeared that apart from where the portals were located, the security around the business area was pretty lenient.

That was not to say that there were no security mages roaming around because there were. However, they were only there to ensure peace and order. They were not even paying attention to those mages dropping from above or appearing from out of nowhere using transmission arrays or magic items. Find your adventure at мѵʟ

Not that Kyran was complaining. In fact, this worked well for him because he did not have to walk around stealthily just to get to the portals.

Kyran navigated through the business area, looking at the stores and matching them on the map Leif showed him.

'This place is bigger than I thought,' he realized after walking for a few minutes.

The stores were bigger, and some paths were longer than Kyran anticipated. Other than that, the map was pretty accurate since the establishments and store names were all located in the same place.

It took Kyran about half an hour before finding where the portals were. As a matter of fact, before reaching his destination, he already sensed the enormous magic fluctuation around it.

Just as Oceanus told him, the security around the portals was indeed heavy. Apart from a saint-tier array formation, peak Sovereigns stood guard around its periphery.

Kyran looked at the establishments around him and spotted the tallest building. He then blended into the crowd before teleporting right on top of it.

Oceanus managed to provide enough information about the Junction Port. However, even with their intelligence, they could not provide detailed information on the array formation that separated the portals' area from the business area.

Concealing his presence using the Shaiha's effect to the extent of his capabilities, Kyran hid on top of the building and observed the rune writings visible around the periphery of the portals.

'This is a bit challenging,' Kyran thought as he immediately noticed one of the visible formulas of the array formation was an alarm trigger once a mage's Divine Sense touched the periphery.

Thus far, Kyran's magic sense has yet to break through the Divine realm. If the array formation's alarm would trigger from a divine sense, which was higher, what more if it was a magic sense?

Without using magic sense, it would be hard even for Kyran to decipher and even affect the array formation. Not that he had no other means of deciphering it. There was another way, however, using that would only allow him to see the formation. If he wanted to affect it without triggering its alarm, he had to find another way.

'It can't be helped. Let's do that.'

Kyran circulated his Draconic magic and enhanced all of his senses. Since his body and natural senses were akin to young dragons, his senses were amplified tenfold after being enhanced with draconic magic.

Kyran's eyes turned to silver, with his pupils turning into slits. They emitted a faint silver glow as he observed the visible rune writings on the ground.

Soon, the whole array formation on the ground, starting from the periphery, became visible in his eyes.

Kyran tried to imprint the array formation in his mind. However, after only a minute, his eyes started to ache as if several fine needles were pricking them from within. He could have endured the pain, but the problem was his Draconic Core also started acting up.

'Ugh...'

In the end, Kyran was forced to close his eyes when blood started to trickle down their sides. He was also forced to his knees as the pain in his Draconic core reached an unbearable level.

Kyran knew the influence of Coelus's corpse's magic energy was still affecting his Draconic core. However, he thought that as long as he was out of its range, he would be able to use Draconic magic without having to suffer any repercussions.

Kyran wiped the blood on his face using his sleeves and tried opening his eyes. Thankfully, his vision was intact. The only downside was the throbbing pain that came after.

'This is not good,' he thought as he closed his eyes once more and sat before leaning on the wall. 'At least I managed to memorize the array formation.'

Since he could not use his eyes properly, Kyran used his other senses to keep watch on his surroundings. At the same time, he recalled the array formation in his mind and started deciphering all the formulas on it.

Offensive spells directed at intruders, support spells directed at the personnel inside, restraining spells targeted at those who were deemed by the head personnel as a threat, alarm that would call someone when the formation was breached or when the formation sensed malicious magic aimed at it, and so much more.

The array formation consisted of several layers of formulas with different types of spells. Normally, such a formation was impossible to create because the relationship between magic energy types used on different types of spells was not always positive.

However, the array formation around the portal area managed to find harmony between these contrasting magic energies and spells to form a complex and intricate saint-tier array.

Kyran took a deep breath, feeling a little overwhelmed at what he saw.

It was not his first time seeing such an array formation. On his recent trip to the Tower of the Ancients, he found many saint-tier and even transcendent-tier arrays in almost every area they had gone to. However, analyzing, deciphering, and even affecting those arrays were easier because he could freely use his magic sense.

This time around, apart from his Draconic core limiting his natural senses, he could not use his magic sense.

'Or can I really not?' Kyran wondered as he opened his eyes.

The throbbing pain in his eyes subsided, allowing him to see better. He could not use Draconic magic to enhance them, but that was fine. What mattered to him was that he could use his eyes.

The moment Kyran thought this, Cyneah's image flashed through his mind, and he could not help but feel somewhat bad.

Here he was, feeling relieved that he could still see even when he was in pain when Cyneah had been suffering from a loss of sight almost all her life.

Pushing the sudden thought at the back of his mind, Kyran closed his eyes once more and tried to sort all the formulas he managed to decipher thus far.

He recalled the runes used when listing the triggers of the alarm.

'The runes it used for the Divine Sense are different from the runes for Magic Sense,' Kyran started to analyze the formulas. 'Usually, the runes portraying the higher level of Magic Sense, which is the Divine Sense, differ in the middle character. But the one on the formula is written as Divine, similar to the realm itself...'

The problem was that the rune for Divine, as a word, did not have any relation to the Divine, which was an advanced realm of the Sense.

Kyran stood up and looked down at the visible rune writings once more.

'Why are those rune writings visible in the first place?' He wondered. It seemed to him that those writings were made visible for a reason.

Kyran narrowed his eyes as an idea crossed his mind.