Book 6, Chapter 158 (1/2)

A Reason For War

Once he understood how to approach capturing stars, Richard set one of his minds to mapping out new orbits constantly. Some preliminary calculations told him that five bodies orbiting him would provide the same amount of recovery as when he had the well of stars active now, doubling his mana recovery rate. Extending these calculations, 81 bodies would speed up his recovery to the point where it matched the full output of a normal grand mage. In other words, he could fight with the full output of a grand mage endlessly.

The thought was exciting for a brief moment, but that was short-lived. Calculating that number of orbits was a task comparable to mastering a plane’s laws; by the time he did it, he would be at least a few levels into the legendary realm and lack the need to fight on such a level.

Now with the possible addition of new paths in the future, he had to pick and choose his sources of power. The best choice was naturally the origin energy of a plane, but that was extremely rare and difficult to control. Still, the energy of the Boulder Highlands didn’t suit him much and would be a waste of a precious slot when he did finish mapping the fourth orbit; he would much rather look at the Goldflow Valley and the mana-oriented energy there. Outside of that, pure astral energy was the best choice as it could also strengthen his bloodlines.

Richard spent a few more days observing the Boulder Highlands and the prospective mines, waiting for some more troops to enter. Once more than a hundred of his trusted knights arrived, he left them to act as mid-ranking officers amongst the troops before returning with his rune knights and drones. Rae was left in charge for now, but he would move into more of an assistive role once Olar was transferred from Faelor.

……

For some reason, Richard felt like the atmosphere in Faust was quite strange. However, there seemed to be nothing amiss; there was no word of any significant upheaval, and he couldn’t point out the source of the oddness either. He even went to Noelene, but she said the same thing; with both his own sources and the Church saying everything was alright, nothing major could have happened. However, he still felt uneasy throughout the day.

While he was preparing his griffins for flight, Nyris had gotten word of his arrival and rushed over. The Fourth Prince was covered from head to toe in form-fitting armour, wearing a pure silver mask and covering himself with a cloak. It looked quite strange.

“You’re looking to fight the Silverswords?” he asked immediately.

“Yeah… My soldiers are almost there, I need to go lead them. Fenlier isn’t an issue at all, but whoever is backing him might make a move behind the scenes.”

Nyris took off his mask, revealing his beautiful face, “What if you don’t draw out their backers?”

“Then I’ll just wipe out the pawns. I can take the time to destroy Canaan too.:

Nyris frowned, “How will you explain it away?”

“Heh. History’s always proved that any war can be fought without reason. You only need to look for one in the aftermath.”

“Sounds deep, but you need to win first.”

Richard laughed, “My soldiers are powerful, well-equipped, and loyal. You really think I’d lose?”

“Let me come with you,” the prince patted him on the shoulder.

“Hmm? Are you that jobless?” Richard eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m in a bad mood right now. Besides, I can learn some things about leadership from you.”

Even as he continued to speak, Nyris didn’t take his hand off Richard’s shoulders. Feeling a little awkward, Richard grabbed the hand and shook it, “I don’t mind, but there isn’t anything for you to learn from me there.”

“Eh, enough talk! Didn’t you say you were leaving? Let’s go!”

Richard nodded, letting him run away for a moment as he fastened his bags to the griffin. Seeing Nyris return with only a single small bag, he frowned, “Is this all you’re bringing?”

“Yeah, just some clothes. I’ll get anything else I need from you.”

Feeling rather strange, Richard nodded and hopped on. Thankfully, he had bought new high-class griffins recently; even loaded up as they were, they could still accommodate Nyris as well. Six creatures quickly took to the skies, heading west.

“So, why the bad mood?” Richard probed along the way, but Nyris remained silent and refused to answer the question. Instead, the prince buried his head into the griffin’s fur and continued flying forward.