-50 thousand miles east, Skyrending mountains
A man could be seen perched precariously on a ledge. He was looking at something down below. The man's had medium length vermillion coloured hair was concealed under a white hood. It wasn't long enough to be tied into a ponytail but not short enough to make tying one impossible either.
His fringe parted early on to both sides. They reached down and slightly passed his eyebrows, somewhat veiling a pair of observant grey eyes.
The man held a tight grip on his white cloak, pulling it close into his body to prevent it from billowing out behind him and keeping himself blended into the snowy white background of the mountains.
The man was at least 10000 feet above ground. His already supernatural eyesight, coupled with high caliber magical enchantments made the acuity of his visual perception nearly unparalleled.
He was silent for a long time, the howl of the wind was the only audible sound in the surroundings.
Then, the man spoke. His voice was barely a whisper, obviously meant only for his ears to hear.
" 1.4… no 1.5 million"
" Well, I guess we're fucked"
Below him, a massive stream of flickering lights could be seen moving down the mountain pass.
On closer inspection, one would discover that these were not lights but rather the reflection of the sun's rays off silver.
Silver what you ask? Silver armour.
Tens of hundreds of thousands of them.
The army seemed nearly endless, the resounding thump of their synchronised marching sounded like hum of some well oiled giant machine.
The man could almost admit that it was quite a sight to see. If only this army wasn't poised to lay siege to his home.
The man stayed unmoving in the same position for several more hours, watching the whole military procession pass by and disappear as they turned the bend. The man took out a small hand held device.
Taking several moments to activate its magic circles, the man felt a strange sense of relief as familiar a voice came through.
" Yo! How's it hanging!"
The voice was cheerful and full of optimism, helping cheer the man up considerably before he had to break the bleak news.
" My king. I have successfully determined the enemy numbers."
" Mhm. And what it look like?" The voice asked without missing a beat or losing its vibrancy.
" My king, the enemy numbers approximately one and a half million soldiers."
A few gasps and sharp intakes of breath could be heard from the other side of the device from other voices before a small cacophony broke out.
People were all whispering amongst themselves at the same time and the man could hear the fear in their voice. It was almost palpable.
The man had been reporting to the noble council so it was natural that he wouldn't be addressing the king only.
The man grimaced. Although he had expected something like this given the current situation, he hadn't imagined what it would be like to experience it. If the country's leaders were to panic and run around like headless chickens, they were truly doomed.
The clamour slowly got even louder. The man could tell that the situation was getting from bad to worse and was, prepared to intervene when another voice beat him to it.
" Alright, alright settle down. It's not that bad."
Hearing the king's voice had considerably calmed the rest of the people down.
" We will be alright as long as we tackle this problem sensibly, and realistically."
The king stressed his last two words and with that, the raging waves of anxiety and fear completely calmed into a still, cool lake.
" Continue your report."
" Yes my king. I estimate that at their current pace, they would reach the eastern border of our country in two months time the soonest. However, the terrain of the mountains will hinder their progress on foot and they will also be unable to stray from the pass due to the presence of Deathwyrms in other areas. This will likely give us an extra month or two to prepare."
" Other than a limited amount of reconnaissance, no other air power has been deployed. It would appear so far that the rumours of the Stonehearth kingdom having a weak Air Force is true. There are no more than a hundred Wind mages in their million strong army."
A few signs of relief and approving grunts could be heard from the other side. It was reassuring to know that at least they had one advantage over their invaders.
" This is all I have thus far. I and my team will continue our work here and inform your majesty of any new developments." The man said as he concluded his report.
The line was silent for awhile as everyone on the other side digested the information dump. They had learned of the plans the Stonehearth kingdom had for an invasion one year ago but had ruled it out as impossible due to the natural barrier of the mountains and it's monstrous inhabitants.
Now, that decision had come back to bite them in the ass.
" You did well. Thank you Archduke."
" I am undeserving, my king."
Silence followed for awhile before the connection was severed.
The man stood up slowly and groaned. He had been in the position for hours and the cramps were now killing him.
Gazing towards the east, the man tired to see if he could spot even a semblance of his distant homeland.
Naturally, he couldn't even with his enhanced eyesight.
He had lied to his family, saying that he was safely living in the royal capital but in fact, he was on the front lines investigating the enemy.
" Oh Sylvia, how I wish I could be home with you."
Closing his eyes, William Zy Ashborne offered a silent prayer to the gods, praying for the safety of his wife and son. As well as that of his own.
- Ashbrone residence
Weasley was shivering in his boots as his master beckoned for him to come closer. Which was strange since he was sweating from the intense heat.
Weasley obediently inched closer, shuffling forward abit before stopping.
His teacher beckoned for him to get even closer.
Weasley complied and inched forward another inch.
His teacher beckoned again.
And again.
And again.
Until Weasley stood right infront of her, face to face with the monster itself.
Henner's poker face broke and a kindly smile took its place. It was so unnatural that Weasley had to suppress the urge to run away.
" Urgh hmm, good morning Mrs Henner, I trust you had a good night's sleep?" Weasley ventured. He had decided to play the young master's authority card to try to escape his current predicament.
Henner didn't miss a beat and instantly replied.
" I did young master, very kind of you to pay heed."
Henner's smile widened which instantly made Weasley triple guess his life decisions. However, he had committed to playing this card and abandoning it now would only serve to set the chances of his receiving even more severe punishment for his tardiness in stone.
It was all or nothing!
" I am gla-"
" However! I am very displeased with your tardiness young master. May I please ask the reason for your making me wait three hours in the hot sun without a trace of my pupil in sight?"
Weasley kept a calm face externally but inside, he was panicking!
' Masaka!( This means "no way! " in japanese)'
' Could she have known that my plan this whole time was to beat her to the punch and steer the subject away to something else? Impossible!'
' I must find a way to escape this!'
" Ha- Ha ha, teacher let's move on to training already. We are wasting time here." Weasley stammered out while trying his best to keep up a strong front.
" Indeed we are, so let's start with you running 50 laps around the field shall we?"
Weasley's mind was racing as he tried to a last minute answer.
" Teacher, with all due respect, we are training magic here are we not? It would inappropriate to spend time on something completely irrelevant."
" Irrelevant you say?" Henner mused with a cheeky and murderous glint in her eye.
" Uh-h, yes master. I believe so."
" Are you insinuating that you know the literature on magic cultivation better than me?"
Critical damage dealt!
Weasley could offer no defence. However, he had one last card to play.
Weasley dropped to both his knees and kowtowed. With the sincerest voice he could muster, he yelled out.
" Your pupil is very sorry master. No amount of words can express my guilt! Please accept my sincerest apologies!"
Henner was taken aback and completely forgot her intentions to punish her pupil. In the world, mages held a certain social standing and this was even more evident in the Pixis Kingdom where the majority of their military force of magic cultivators were mages.
They were definitely higher up the ladder than mere peasants but unless one was a Archmage, even the lowest ranked nobles ranked higher than them. But right now, the only son of the highest ranking noble family was kowtowing before her! For a mere grand mage like her, it was an insane breach of social contract!
It was unprecedented!
Henner did not know that Weasley did not know this.
It wasn't like Henner would be executed for it or anything but it was like having the king kowtow before a commoner. People looking on would be uncomfortable. The commoner being kowtowed to even more so.
Henner's face flushed and she took a step back, flustered.
" Th-there's no need to bow.I'm not mad I promise."
She was stuttering.
Weasley glanced upwards. Seeing Henner's red face which had averted its gaze from him, Weasley mentally gave himself a pat on the back and hid a devilish smile.
' Mission success!'
Weasley maintained the position for awhile longer to demonstrate his 'sincerity'. Only when Henner pleaded him to stand did he finally get up and dust himself off.
" What should we do now Ms Henner?" He asked, his tone serious as he made his second deliberate attempt to steer away from the topic. He was still nervous that his teacher might still insist on the punishment so he thought it best that he directed her attention to something else.
Weasley was a cautious person in this regard.
His worries were unfounded however as Henner was still struggling to regain her calm.
" W-well, we would naturally be continuing your magic casting practice today. Afterall, we have only three days before the deadline your mother gave us."
Weasley had not forgotten about his mother's challenge. Although he was partly sure that she would still teach him even if he broke through at a later date, he had no intention of being stuck in the stage for any longer.
There was also the fact that he had his new training boosting domain that he wanted to try out as soon as possible!
However, he now had new plans on how he would complete this task.
" Master, instead of doing that, can we work on a new casting technique?" He asked.
Henner frowned. Her pupil had always resisted any sort of technique change adamantly before. Why the sudden change of heart?
Henner thought about it for awhile.
" Given that we can develop the technique and get you acclimatised to it, it would take two full days of work at least. This means that you would only have one day or even less to do spell casting."
" It pains me to say it but this task is impossible. The chances of you succeeding are less than 1%."
Weasley immediately replied.
" It's no problem. I can do it."
His assertiveness took Henner slightly aback.
'Does he not understand how daunting a task this is? Even if we can create a technique that is extremely compatible with him, integration will still take at least 3 weeks!'
However, Weasley could not be persuaded.The thing was that Weasley had given this choice a lot of thought the night before while he lay restless in bed.
When he had first asked Siri to help him find a way to break through, it had rejected rejected his request as it was unable to directly assess his cultivation status. However, it had given him some advice.
" Contractor, many a mage has bottlenecked and made unable to breakthrough due to their stubbornness in sticking to old but flawed habits. One must understand that there is more than one path up the mountain. The method that works for one may not work for another."
It was a generic piece of advice but for Weasley it had hit the nail on the head.
What had he to lose but time? He had tried his old method for 3 months already and yet it bore no results. Was it time to give up? Why was he hesitating?
In the end, Weasley decided to give it a shot.
He had to learn when to give up. He didn't have the time to mindlessly grind a technique that would produce no results.
Sure, if he continued practicing this very technique, he might be able to break though in several months or at most a year's time. But did he have that kind of time?
No! Even if he put aside his mother's challenge, there was no way he would allow himself to be stuck on the same level, the same mindless grind, the same bottleneck for another year! Think of all the better things he could do, all the better things he could learn in that time!
And hell, even if the gamble failed, he would still be sure to end up with a better method towards mana conversion and would still be able to break through a month or too sooner than if he persisted with this defective and unproductive method!
It was a better path both ways so why was he hesitating? It was right there!
He had to grab it!
As such, no matter how hard Henner tried to persuade him, the two year old didn't budge.
Henner signed as she beckoned for Weasley to follow her back to her lab.
The next two days were going to be very long.