“...... So you know everything?" asked Stobel, wondering if his tone was respectful enough.

"Perhaps. The old mage replied slyly, "It's just speculation." After all, a lonely old man like me didn't even have a reliable disciple, let alone eyes and ears as ubiquitous as a spider or a cockroach...... What can you know?"

The lazy tone was sarcastic or self-deprecating. Stormbell glanced back at the old mage's thin figure, and the stuffy air in his chest unexpectedly dissipated.

He still remembered that when he first entered the Archmage Tower, Verona still looked quite strong and middle-aged mage, arrogant, stubborn, and poisonous, even in front of Santo, the stone shaper, would not restrain much, but he also had strong energy, acted neatly, and even walked a few points faster than others...... Santo once said that this unlikable mage was actually very suitable for a teacher, and that he might be too strict, but he was serious and unreserved.

However, now, as the owner of the Supreme Tower, Verona is not without disciples by his side...... It's just that it's more like a servant.

His once enthusiasm had been reduced to ashes after disappointment after disappointment, and it seemed that there was not even a trace of warmth left.

Stormbell gave up on getting sure of the answers from him—and even when the old mage still had the passion to be a teacher, he rarely gave direct answers.

He turned his head to look out. Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling window, the entire archmage tower seemed to be the same as when he entered here in the morning, shrouded in a layer of mist, and the city of Neo in the distance was even more misty, but when he raised his head, the sky above his head was not a cloudy cloud that would fall at any time, but a pitch black, like a starless and moonless night, only occasionally passing a faint light, like a cloud blown by a strong wind, and disappeared in an instant.

But it's not yet noon.

"Archmage Tower......" he began, "transferred to another dimension?"

After a brief pause, he denied himself again: "No, we are in the gap between two spaces?"

"Did Santo tell you anything?" Verona was not surprised, "about the secrets of this place...... Even if you haven't become the owner of any of the towers. ”

Stobel nodded.

"If necessary, the Archmage's Tower can be a world of its own and exist out of it. "When there is no other choice...... At a time when the world is facing inevitable annihilation, it would allow the people of the tower to escape the fate of destruction that would follow, and a chance to pass on our race and the knowledge we have - that day may indeed come, but it will definitely not be today. ”

Today, the circle hidden under the tower suddenly activated, apparently not for refuge.

The old mage was a little more interested—at least he wouldn't play the harp to the cow.

"It's not your area of expertise, but Santo should have told you......," he casually drew a circle in mid-air, and the trail of white light stayed in mid-air, almost blinding.

Verona narrowed her eyes, chuckled lowly, muttered something vaguely, and the light softened in the next smaller circle.

"When we are in the original world...... We are in fact under some kind of protection, or some kind of rule. He said, "And when we get out of ......"

He dragged out the small circle in the big circle, "We are actually closer to the origin of magic—closer to the origin of all power, the place where the gods were born and died, the eternal and endless sea of nothingness. Without protection, no one knows when we will be devoured, but before we are devoured, all of our magic will manifest in a more powerful form, and perhaps even enough to allow us to escape being devoured...... The danger, however, is whether the fragile flesh and blood we have been given, the soul we must rely on to exist, really control such power without collapsing...... But wouldn't you want to try it, the feeling of being surrounded by something purer, more than anything?"

Stormbell looked at him with a strange look for a few moments before he spoke slowly.

"If that's what you're trying to say, that's what they're for...... I don't think Master Tumus is the one who would be willing to put so much effort into taking such a risk just to 'try'. In particular, if the power that can only be controlled in this situation does not mean much to him at all - he enjoys more the power that comes with having power. So...... Does he have a way to steal the power of the Sea of Nothingness back?"

Verona laughed, though the voice was more like a hard gasp: "'Steal'...... That's a good word, you'll have to tell Tumus, I'd love to see the look on his face. ”

Stobel had no choice but to tug at the corners of his mouth in cooperation.

"I used to think you were boring, Stobel...... And there's not much talent to speak of. The old mage slowly sat down with his chest on his chest and said bluntly, "You don't even look like a mage at all, and you understand the world in a very different way than we do...... But you also hold certain truths in your own way. ”

“...... I'm very accurate in seeing people. Stobel summed it up on his behalf, frustrated by the hide-and-seek-like way of talking, "So, I guessed right?"

"Sort of. The old mage seemed to be tired of laughing, and the wrinkles that had loosened down were even more tired, "But it's not him who 'has a way', let alone those who are shrinking in their own territory and don't even dare to come out...... It's the three people who built this place. More precisely, my teacher, the silver scepter Harold. ”

Stobel was silent.

He feared his teacher as he feared a god, but Harold the Silver Scepter was another legend. While Santo the Stone Sculptor is cautious, wise, and forgiving, Harold is more in line with the image of the "archmage" that most people nowadays think of, daring to the point of madness, eager to try every possibility, with little regard for the cost—no, in fact he probably did, because he was always on the brink of danger, but never really out of control.

"They've seen a dilemma decades ago that many people don't realize they know today. Verona's voice lowered, "What we once thought was an inexhaustible source of magic is like a river that is drying up...... So the Stone Shaper set up a circle, and within the confines of the Archmage Tower, the power we used was actually stored, like a huge pool of water that caught the rain that fell from the sky, and then carefully hid it so that it was not allowed to return to the source. All he wanted was to buy the mages a little longer so that we could find a real solution to the problem, but Harold ...... He didn't think that was enough. ”