Shades of the New World

Chapter 122: The secret base

Kal then looked at the tattooed youth with some admiration. Vin, The Lightspeed. This one was quite famous. Amidst the row of proud and narcissistic Luminous Mages, who only thought about shining as bright as they could, Vin's specialty embodied the speed of light. Although, apparently it wasn't as fast as the Authorities themselves. The youth who was famous for his unruly attitude and his promise of never getting caught alive by his enemies, who then turning into a rebel thorn at the Mage King's side, was effortlessly caught by Judeus, almost like a kitten by their mother.

Kal smiled lightly and looked at the Mage King in question. A tall old man wrapped in a black coat stood near Vin, eyeing the youth hatefully. Kal looked at the patches of grey-white hair somehow hanging from the man's wrinkled, dry skin. His left eye was completely white and unfunctional, moving about by itself occasionally. His raspy, labored breaths indicated that the insides of his body did not fare well either. It truly made one wonder if the man was a real mage or not. If he was a mage, why hadn't he used the Worlds to heal himself?

The Mage King of the West was known for his other name: The Oathbreaker. In search of power and freedom, he broke all the Oaths and Contracts he made over the years. The result was his body's current state and that he was banned from accessing half the Worlds with the World of Life being one of them.

'If I remember correctly, his Darkness should be named the Purgatory Darkness or something, right?' Kal pondered. Aside from the mages of the World of Thoughts and the World of Emotions, Dark mages had the most variety of specialties. 

'I Suppose the unknown dark stimulates the imagination,' Kal decided.

The Oathbreaker's Darkness specialized in punishing and condemning. Kal didn't quite know how it worked, but he knew that some mages were greatly affected by the Mage King's Darkness while others, not much so. Judging from the name and the effect, people guessed that it specifically targeted some and spared others. Some bored mages tried to make sense of it, but couldn't quite guess the pattern.

Kal then looked at the Cosmic who was floating near the area, friendly with everyone here speaking of their new Banking business. And what better customers than the leaders of the countries in the world? From what Kal could remember, this new version of theirs was a few times more successful compared to their last attempt, which failed spectacularly. 

'Truly, the Cosmics knew how to make money,' Kal lamented. After becoming the leader of the Paradra, Kal needed to think about funds and so he had some dealings with this Cosmic inside the World of Space. He was named Devin Elmes. The Cosmic looked like a simple black cat in the material World and even in the World of Space, the Cosmic was void black. Obviously, its abilities were top-notch. It could probably trap everyone here for a good couple hours if it wanted to.

Kal then looked at the two mages from the East. He knew nothing about the two. Although they were a mystery, they were friendly enough, bringing up some small-talk with the rest of the group.

One was a short old man with a healthy complexion, wearing the traditional clothing of the East. The other was woman with glossy and brown skin, which looked almost bronze in Kal's eyes. She had black-hair and was dressed in tight-fitting clothing with a cloak over it. From under some areas of the cloak, the crimson-horned man could see a slim and fit body. 

'A feast of the eyes' the leader of the Paradra wasn't dishonest in his likes. A pretty face like the Undine was nice to see, but in the end, the body triumphed. 

Then thinking of his children and wife, Kal's face paled. Even the man who stood atop the World who was famed among the mortals for his unquenchable wrath would still fear the fury of his wife.

Now one might wonder why the Authorities gathered such a random assortment of mages, who obviously didn't want anything to do with each other. Well, during the meeting, when it was almost decided that only the North would send troops to this place and share their discoveries with the rest of the world, Judeus suddenly proposed that since it was a rare opportunity, they should create a team of the best mages of all the magic Worlds. Judeus was really the type who should've been partying with the rest, but for some reason he would always be present in every meeting to fuck it up eventually.

The other three immediately refused, but somehow, the rest of the Authorities who were drinking nearby heard about it and thought that it was a marvelous idea. They then pestered the opposing three to yield to their demands. They even forced Veidrakar to cast her grand divination magic (which was basically a 100% spot-on search tool) to find all the whereabouts of these strong super-imposers, so they could gather them the next day.

'I wonder if I'll ever become like them' Kal thought with resignation. As he finished his judgement of this ragtag group, Irene had finished casting her spell.

"It is done. Although I couldn't recreate the sounds, the images should be bright enough," she said.

An illusory image became visible to the super-imposers around. The broken and vacant machines around them now looked completely functional and there were some teenagers inside, floating in the liquid. Suddenly, one of the teenagers started making a fuss inside the liquid tanks and a worker hurried to release him.

'It really might have something to do with reincarnation!' Kal thought, looking at the scene in front of him.

The released teenager shivered heavily and struggled to convey something to the worker. The latter heavily nodded and supported the teenage boy outside the room. 

Kal and the other super-imposers followed behind the vision, all of them thinking of one thing or another. 

They witnessed the teenage boy communicate with someone through a magical device with a sorry expression, and then resolutely start destroying the base. They extracted all the motionless teenagers in the liquid tanks and put them in some freezing box as well. Then they all opened a huge portal and went through it.

The apparition made of silver energies ended there.

"Devin," Kal urged.

The cosmic nodded slightly and started creating a portal. If one could see closely, it was an exact copy of the portal that appeared in Irene's spell. Every small blur and unnoticeable swirl was recreated by this Cosmic who gracefully bowed for the rest to enter the portal.

"Where does it lead?" Kal asked.

"Some underground area, a bit south of the border between the North and the Varas'hati Empire," the Cosmic replied curtly.

Kal lead the group and entered the portal. After him were the mages from the North and then the ones from the other countries. Finally, Devin floated through the portal.

At the other end of the portal, the group found themselves in an even bigger secret base. Compared to the other one, which was still half open, this one's walls were fortified by steel, which looked much more domineering and stable.

Suddenly, Kortan cast a spell. The air around the group shifted ever so slightly, the changed air approached the others, seemingly asking permission to invade through their passive defenses.

"Poison," he murmured from behind his mask.

The others nodded and let the man's spell engulf them, although they made sure to keep a secondary body scanning Mana formation in the backs of their minds. Only the Mage King refused and cast his own spell for dealing with poisonous gases.

The spot they appeared in was some sort of tunnel with the only open path being ahead. Behind them was a broken-down tunnel.

"Irene, can you cast your spell here?" Kal asked.

"We will need to find a different place. The strands of destiny are too scattered here," the blindfolded woman replied.

"Nonsensical sophistry," spat out the Puppeteer impulsively and closed her mouth.

"Let's move forward, stay close," Kal ordered. He wanted to break through the rubble behind him, but he was expectant to see what this secret organization had prepared for them. However, he was careful to not underestimate his enemies. 

Even though he stood at the peak of the mortal World, the Authorities were always there to remind him of his limits.

Two Tales was more than enough to beat this ten-man group here with his bare fists. Well, the others would be forced into a fist fight, anyway, with no chance of relying on their Worlds since they would all be locked in the Authority's absolute domain.

Kal shook his head and focused on the path ahead. The tunnel went on for a bit until a metal door appeared in the super-imposers' path. The short old man of the East slightly pulled at air and the door gently opened. 

Inside the room ahead, Kal could see some strange devices scattered about. A dozen of them, to be exact. This time, the devices weren't broken or burnt, looking completely functional. A dangerous feeling arose inside Kal when he saw them. Not a trace of mana could be felt from the devices, but there was something familiar about it to him. It also seemed poisonous to a degree.

The room was quite obviously rigged with traps.