A month after the destruction of the kobold empire.
The humans increased their vigilance against the dark elven and the Gnome empires.
There were some instances of them attempting to infiltrate the human regions, but their plans were thwarted by the efforts of the magi councils of humans in each region.
Dark Dawn guild headquarters,
"Among all other guilds, our losses aren't too much. The dark elves have tried to disrupt our supply of the nightshade essence, but usually, they fail, while occasionally their attacks are successful." Beth gave the report to Tirus.
"And also, four other small-scale guilds have shown the intentions of assimilating with us."
"Hm, I see, we would need some more magi casualties as well. We have to put on a show." Tirus murmured with an indifferent expression. This wasn't anything new to Tirus. The news he got had been the same for a month now.
"Okay." Beth said as she exited the room.
'Is he planning on annexing all other guilds while their battle strength is at their lowest?' She thought while looking back.
She wasn't excellent when it came to scheming against others, but she could manage people, and that was her skill that she was most proud of as well.
"Vice guild master!" A female official, magus, came to Beth frantically.
"What happened?" Beth inquired while putting on a cold expression. What could make a magus lose their composure like this?
"The magi that went to explore the secret valley were attacked by the dark elves. Two magi died while the third one survived, and we got a body of a deceased dark elf."
"Is that so? Hm, tell the remaining magi and acolytes to stay vigilant and don't leave the guild."
….
"No, No! Why did this happen?" The magus cried out in despair. This magus was Karl, who was now missing an eye, and the reason for his despair was that one of the two magi that died was his sister, Hannah.
"I couldn't save her... Older brother? What older brother, I'm nothing but a joke." He murmured in a gloomy tone. He was unable to even save her true soul from being destroyed.
'I am…weak. I shouldn't have been the one to survive.'
Although he had grade 5 talent, he still was just an ordinary magus and thus, his elemental essence conversion rate had not even reached 10%.
Tirus was able to cultivate so fast who only because of his meditation technique and the resources he got from the inheritance, but not every magus could be like Tirus.
"Official Magus Karl, you have done a great job surviving such an attack. Although you've lost your eye, you can still exchange your contribution points for a mechanical eye." An emotionless sound transmission resounded in the room.
"..."
Karl didn't say anything for a long time after that, but then he thought 'I lived, and she died…it's a fact, so I can only accept it. But just because she sacrificed herself for me, I must live on and get stronger!' Flames of fury burned his heart as he made a declaration,
"I swear, from this day onwards, whenever I see a dark elf, I'll kill them!"
….
In the magi council of eastern twilight zone,
Leon sat on his desk with disoriented hair.
"What the hell are they doing? Don't they care about their reputation?" He murmured.
The actions of the dark dawn guild had rendered him confused. They had been directly attacked by the dark elves, but they still were on the defensive.
"Are they colluding with the dark elven empire?"
"No! They're trying to annex all the guilds, huh. Quite risky, I'd say. What would they rule if everything is ruined?" His tone turned devious from monotone.
The dark dawn guild had been increasing their influence in these times of war. It was nothing special, actually, there were many other mid-scale organizations in the twilight zone were trying to do the same thing. But not to this extent.
The reports stated that they have already annexed 6 other small-scale guilds completely. Their growth speed was exponential.
"And this is just the start of the war, this war may last for another decade or two, I doubt they'd be able to maintain their strategy, hehehehe." He mumbled while rubbing his palms against each other.
….
'Hm, so that's how their body works? It's quite similar to humans, eh.' Tirus thought as he looked at the dissected body of the dark elf in front of him, which was lying on the experimental table.
"A.I. chip, scan the body and optimize the spell."
[Task established… Beep! Data has been stored]
[It will take 300 hours and 12 minutes to optimize the rank 3 spell 'Tune of Death']
'Quite fast for a rank 3 spells.' He exclaimed.
'Tune of death' was a rank 3 spells he got from the inheritance and was the best spell for slaughter.
….
The war went exactly as Leon had predicted and it continued for another 10 years,
However, contrary to his expectations, during this decade long war, the dark dawn guild's influence made great progress and now it was one of the top ten guilds of the human regions of the twilight zone.
Their authority had reached an entirely new height both in eastern, southern and even central twilight zone.
There were hundreds of official magi in their ranks, and most of the small-scale guilds had summited to them.
And their leader, Tirus, was rumored to have reached the peak of rank 2. His dark dawn guild had caused the dark elves to suffer from severe losses, thus earning great popularity.
Not only that, there was also the vice-guild leader who rarely ever showed herself. She was also at the peak of rank 2 and had excellent battle strength.
Although they only had 3 more rank 2 magi, their strength was still quite formidable.
Now the war had come to a standstill, at least on the surface.
To be continued…