After a few days of Tirus getting the summon,
Central Continent,
In the deserted forest filled with deadly magical beasts, there was a teleportation formation which seemed to be guarded by hundreds of vengeful spirits.
The teleportation formation had moss growing on it, as if it hadn't been used for decades, but today, the teleportation formation started shaking and soon, started emitting a bright light.
In a few seconds, the light dimmed and a man wearing black magus robes revealed himself. He had black wavy hair, black eyes as well as snow-white skin which looked almost flawless.
"Returning here after so many years feels somewhat…refreshing." He murmured under his breath as he cast a flight spell on himself.
In the past 20 years he stayed in the twilight zone, most of Jupiter's lightning's missions were completed by the members of his guild that he sent to the central continent as he rarely ever left the twilight zone.
After a few hours of flying at top speed, Tirus reached the Hadleigh plains. Normal magi would have taken a few days of time to reach this place if they only used their flight spells instead of flying ships, but for Tirus, a morning star magus, this distance was nothing.
Once he reached the Hadleigh plains, the door to the underground facility opened automatically, without even him needing to identify himself. Of course, as asking a morning star magus for his identification could be considered a serious offense.
Although the Central continent was a place which was more developed than any of the other regions on the surface world, rank 4 magi remained the figures of extreme importance and influence. Even in the ancient times, when rank 1 and 2 magi were as common as clouds, rank 4 magi still had a lot of authority.
"Please, senior, enter through this." A magus with the height of 1 meter requested Tirus to enter the secret plane which was the headquarters of this organization, as well as the residence of their leader was.
…
Inside the secret plane,
The main hall,
Tirus entered and saw a man, seemingly in his thirties, sitting on a throne.
"Welcome back, morning star magus, Tirus." Zegna greeted Tirus with a smile, to which Tirus replied courteously.
"So, what is the mission?" Tirus asked after chatting for a while.
"This mission is an interplanar one. Since you studied this field in the past, we thought that you would be the best choice, as interplanar travel also requires one to have at least morning star realm cultivation." Zenga said while slightly squinting his eyes, his tone growing a little serious.
The 'we' in Zegna's sentence clearly implied that there were still magi apart from him who had enough authority to order Tirus, a morning star magus, around. This was no provocation, he was just letting Tirus know that even though his cultivation realm has reached Zegna's level, he still shouldn't think that a betrayal would be a good idea.
'This man…' Tirus understood this meaning, but he really didn't have any interest in annexing other organizations for now, and definitely not the ones which has rank 4 leaders.
"Tell me the details of the mission and the rewards, remember, they mustn't disappoint me, after all, you summoned me here for it." Tirus's gaze became increasingly sharper as he slowly let his radiation flow more and more, until Zegna's expression changed a bit and a drop of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Of course, let me tell you the details." Zegna used wind element particles to secretly wipe out the drop of sweat that had formed of his forehead as he pretended like the previous conversation didn't even take place.
"The world that you have to go to is the fiery world, in that world, we have made contact with that world in the past and even helped some natives to build an organization there. That organization is still a mid-scale one and the higher-ups of that world are trying to destroy the organization, this is all just an experiment to see if we can take control of a world this way.
So, your mission is to go there along with other morning star magi that we have deployed and wipe out the enemies."
"What's the duration of this mission?"
"Anywhere between 10 to 16 years, of course, according to that world's time, it would be different in the magus world due to time dilation." Zegna replied immediately without a change in his expression.
Tirus was a morning star magus who had lived for centuries. He wasn't really concerned about spending a decade or two in another plane.
"What is the name of this organization that you speak of?"
"Shadow Union." Zegna replied calmly. What he couldn't notice was the slight change in Tirus's expression, which was immediately suppressed.
'The Shadow Union?' Tirus thought in amazement. In the canon, there was only one world over which Jupiter's lightning had control over, which was the lava world, there, an organization named the Atlan Union was like the overlord of the lava world, having the longest history and high-grade meditation techniques.
'It seems they are trying to see if they can secretly encroach upon the territory of the Blazing Flame Monarch, huh. I know this plan will fail, after all, there was no mention of any organization named Shadow Union, maybe they were wiped out completely.'
"And the rewards?" Tirus asked without hesitation, to which Zegna replied, "The rewards will be 100,000 contribution points, as well as all 6 level of any high-grade meditation technique you want.
Not only that, you can even keep the souls of anyone you kill in the fiery world and earn extra contribution points in the Shadow union to exchange it for unique otherworldly resources like the red-inkstone." Zegna said, right now, he looked like a salesman who was close to selling his product.
And Tirus now felt like a customer who was being convinced by a shrewd merchant. The record of the nameless wanderer that he got in the inheritance had a total of 6 levels, with the 6th level being slightly incomplete.
This was enough for Tirus to be able to cultivate until the peak of 4 and even breakthrough to rank 5, though the 6th level was needed if he wanted to cultivate from the early stage of rank 5 to the peak and breakthrough to rank 6.
However, after having the A.I. chip do all the research for the past 2 decades, he was close to completing the 6th level as well. But having another high-grade meditation technique would be a great reference for further improvement of the level 6.
'And wasn't the Sun's child bloodline said to be found in the Fiery world?' This thought appeared in Tirus's mind.
In the canon, during an auction, the sun's child bloodline was brought out for sale. Although Tirus didn't know about other details due to not reading those chapters, he believed that he could make use of that bloodline even though he wasn't planning on becoming a warlock.
But if the Sun's child bloodline was found in the Fiery world, then the question arises, why didn't Blazing Flame monarch take it?
The reason for that was simple. She lived at the edge of the Fiery world, in the Duz city, near the edges of the fiery world and was usually in secluded cultivation. So she didn't have time, aside from when she was coming up with plans to further develop her city. Plus her subordinates were busy with other missions.
However, it would be another story if she knew that a treasure so strong existed in her world.
"You're being quite generous." Tirus said with a smile, to which Zegna replied, "You are a morning star magus after all, how could we simply give you ordinary rewards?"
The atmosphere in the room became slightly tense, but soon, Tirus broke the silence, "Then, bring me the necessary equipment for this mission."
"Yes, you'll get them in a few minutes, for now, you should go and rest."
"Then, I'll be heading to my residential area." Tirus nodded and left the place.
An azure silhouette appeared behind Zegna and said, "Were you really nervous? There is no way he'd have killed you." This was Melinda, Zegna's teacher.
"Well, I know that, but those eyes of his...it felt as if there was an abyss that had already devoured countless beings."
"Little Zegna, you have to understand this, any magus who can break through to rank 4 is not ordinary, all of them are eccentrics who can do anything, just be careful from now on, okay?" Melinda said in a tone filled with disappointment.
"Yes, master, disciple understands." Zegna bowed his head a little, feeling a little bad about disappointing his master.
Seeing her disciple like this, Melinda couldn't help but feel a little guilt in her now illusory heart. She had seen this little boy grow up from a commoner to a rank 4 magi over the course of hundreds of years, and had formed a bond with him, although not strong.
Every time she thought of what she was going to do to this little disciple of hers in the future, she would feel her heart overflowing with resentment for that blazing flame monarch.
'I swear, I will take my body back. No matter what' She thought internally before returning to the ring in which she had been residing for the past several hundred years.
To be continued…