The Eastern War Zone was divided into multiple battlefronts, each advancing further into enemy territory.
Behind these countless frontlines, those truly in control of the situation were the war fortresses standing at the core of each battlefront the command centers, the nerve centers of the entire war zone.
The Thirteenth War Fortress was the heart of the battlefront where Lynn was stationed.
However, this once awe-inspiring fortress was now shrouded in the shadow of defeat.
A crushing loss, a heavy toll the Thirteenth Battlefront of the Eastern War Zone had suffered a near-total collapse!
This battle forced the entire frontline into a full-scale retreat, pulling all defenses back toward the war fortress, where they constructed layer upon layer of fortifications.
No one dared to launch reckless offensives anymore. Everyone understood that the Thirteenth Battlefront was severely weakened.
If they were to suffer another assault of the same scale, the entire defense line could collapse in an instant!
Thus, the Supreme Command issued its top priority: "Hold the line. Do not let the forces of the Goddess exploit our weakness."
But holding the fortress was merely the baseline.
Beyond that, they had to recover their strength and accumulate military achievements whenever possible.
The two supreme commanders above them did not want to be looked down upon by the Morning Star Wizards. They expected the wizards under their command to take initiative and amass battle merits.
They aimed to achieve greater military success with fewer resources than other battlefronts, proving that the Thirteenth War Fortress was not a useless burden.
To this end, the two Third-Tier Great Wizards, Yude and Earl, implemented an incredibly generous reward system.
Anyone who earned battle merits could exchange them for rare resources, and even receive personal guidance from high-ranking wizards!
Tempted by such rewards, the entire Thirteenth Battlefront was instantly thrown into a frenzy!
As soon as Yude and Earl's orders were issued, the wizards in the fortress swarmed into action.
One after another, they eagerly volunteered for missions, some even exaggerating their accomplishments just to have their names recorded in the battle merit logs.
"A certain wizard single-handedly slew two First-level Starhunter wizards!"
"A team of apprentices successfully raided an enemy outpost and seized large amounts of resources!"
"A certain wizard infiltrated enemy lines alone and blew up an armory!"
Reports of military achievements flooded in, filled with exaggerated accounts of victories.
Of course, they dared not outright fabricate their achievements. If caught, the consequences would be severe ranging from merit deductions to court-martial trials, or worse.
However, "embellishing" battle records was tacitly accepted.
Many otherwise minor accomplishments were exaggerated with grandiose descriptions, turning them into seemingly impressive feats.
But the Battle Merit Review Department was no mere decoration!
Deep within the Thirteenth War Fortress, in a room filled with stacks of documents and reports, a middle-aged wizard wearing reading glasses sat at a long table, frowning as he sifted through the countless submitted battle reports.
He was one of the merit review officers, responsible for filtering out overly exaggerated or even false reports.
"These people…"
Massaging his temples, he flipped through the parchment scrolls, quickly scanning each record and setting aside those that were blatantly inflated.
Suddenly, a particular merit submission caught his eye, making his brow furrow slightly.
"Guardian Wizard… Lynn?"
His eyes narrowed slightly as if the name sounded familiar.
Indeed, he did remember this person.
During a recent resource allocation, Lynn was the only officially recognized wizard assigned to the entire Thirteenth Battlefront!
That alone was an unusual occurrence, making his name stand out to many.
But what truly made the reviewer frown was not Lynn's identity it was the content of his submission.
"Confirmed intelligence on a Starhunter spy. Requesting reinforcements…"
A Starhunter spy?!
The middle-aged wizard's expression changed, and he quickly pulled up Lynn's records.
According to the archives:
Lynn was merely an Early-Stage First-Tier Wizard,
His primary role was as a researcher,
His combat ability was not outstanding.
And yet, this young research wizard had directly submitted a military merit report on a Starhunter spy?
How did he discover this?
How could he be so sure it was real?
Before the reviewer could think further, a detailed written report and an image appeared before his eyes.
The report meticulously outlined several covert incidents, and Lynn claimed that he had extracted this intelligence directly from the spy's mind!
But it was the accompanying image that made the reviewer's heart jolt!
It was a high-resolution image of a Witch-Hunter Dagger!
The blade was as black as ink, emanating an eerie magical aura. And on the dagger's hilt, the Starhunter's signature emblem the Azure Seven Stars was clearly visible!
"This…"
The middle-aged wizard sat up straight, his eyes fixed on the image, his earlier doubts vanishing in an instant replaced by shock and gravity.
"It's real?! And… he even obtained the Starhunter's passphrase?!"
He quickly scanned through the rest of Lynn's report. At the very end, a series of unfamiliar yet unmistakably significant words stood out:
"Dark clouds cover the sky, the Seven Stars shine bright."
"…Damn it!"
The middle-aged wizard's face turned grim in an instant. His hand clenched into a tight fist, his knuckles turning white.
This is the latest updated Starhunter Society passphrase!
On the battlefield, Starhunter Society spies are as slippery as eels. They constantly change their contacts and passcodes, hiding so deeply that it's impossible to wipe them out in one go!
What's even more terrifying is that, on the surface, they don't directly participate in the war. They don't commit mass killings, nor do they launch frontal assaults on the battlefield.
Yet their existence is an unquantifiable form of information warfare!
The leakage of tactical intelligence, the sabotage of military supply routes, the assassination of key figures, the exposure of defensive lines…
All of these are driven by their machinations in the shadows!
To win the war, these hidden vipers must be eradicated!
However, Starhunter Society spies are incredibly difficult to capture. And even when they are caught, extracting their memories is nearly impossible!
Deep within their souls lies a divine imprint any attempt to infiltrate their minds with wizardry is instantly detected, triggering immediate soul destruction!
This means that a captured Starhunter Society spy will never reveal any valuable information!
Even a Tier-3 Grand Wizard can do nothing but violently obliterate their souls, unable to extract precise intelligence.
But Lynn…
A mere Tier-1 Wizard… not only managed to capture a Starhunter Society spy but also successfully retrieved such highly classified information from their mind?!
How did he accomplish this?!
The middle-aged wizard's expression turned pale and grim. His heart pounded as if an invisible hand was squeezing it tight. He stared at the document and projection before him, filled with doubt and shock.
This was an absolute breakthrough!
Even greater than he had imagined!
In the past, even Grand Wizards interrogating Starhunter Society spies could only resort to extreme violence.
And that often meant that once a spy was forcibly broken, all other spies would immediately sense it and swiftly switch to a new intelligence network!
But Lynn…
How did he manage to steal such crucial information without alerting the other Starhunter Society members?!
At this moment, the middle-aged wizard had no time for further speculation. He took a deep breath, his gaze sharp and decisive.
Without hesitation, he compiled and sealed the intelligence, then quickly penned an urgent war report.
This intelligence must be sent to the higher-ups immediately!
It must reach Lord Yude!
As one of the supreme commanders of the Thirteenth Front, Grand Wizard Yude had been thirsting for vengeance ever since their previous defeat. He longed to tear apart every last one of the Goddess's minions!
And now… if this intelligence was accurate, then Grand Wizard Yude would undoubtedly take action personally!
In the sky, a massive black dragon soared, carving a grand and elegant arc across the heavens.
Its wings spread wide, blotting out the sun. With each powerful flap, fierce winds howled, shredding the clouds, sending deep, rumbling echoes across the firmament like thunder roaring through the skies.
Upon the dragon's back sat a slender and graceful figure.
She was draped in a jet-black robe, hood drawn low, concealing half of her face.
Yet the rushing winds unraveled the hood's restraints, revealing a breathtakingly beautiful visage.
Her eyes violet like crystalline gems were deep and mesmerizing.
However, where there should have been vibrant brilliance, there was instead a layer of bleak, lifeless gloom. Her gaze was empty, as if her soul had been shackled, leaving only a body bereft of will.
Behind her, standing firmly on the dragon's back was another figure.
This presence was eerie and unfamiliar, a being not of this world the very entity that had seized the will of the Maple Tree.
In his open palm, a miniature golden scale hovered.
It gleamed with resplendent light, flowing with an enchanting, mysterious radiance.
Yet upon closer inspection, one would notice an imperceptible sense of disharmony within the scale something crucial was missing, rendering it… incomplete.
The otherworldly being gazed at the golden scale in his palm, his expression unfathomable, as though peering through it into another realm.
[Almost there… Once I retrieve the fragment… I can repair it…]
His voice was low and murmuring, spoken not in the language of wizards but in an obscure, arcane tongue.
Its tone was strange, carrying an indescribable power, making the very air tremble with faint, distorted ripples.
In the next moment, the golden scale shimmered, revealing flickering, ephemeral silhouettes.
The figures surfaced like waves, appearing and vanishing some familiar, some foreign:
Sonya, the Spirit-Eyed Wizard, the black dragon, and even… Aestry!
Their images intertwined, shifted, and finally merged into a single, distinct form.
Lynn!
The otherworldly being's gaze locked onto Lynn's image, his silence heavy, his eyes deep as an abyss, as though weighing something within.
After a long moment, the scale quivered slightly. Lynn's image faded, and with it, the golden glow of the scale dissipated.
The being lifted his head, slowly looking out over the land, the corners of his lips curling into a cold smile though buried beneath was an unquenchable hatred.
[Another world ruled by the gods… But this time, it's different. At least, it's different from ours. With the wizards' involvement… perhaps the gods will pay a price beyond reckoning…]
His voice lingered in the air, carrying the weight of a curse.
His thoughts wavered as his gaze grew distant as if piercing through the mists of time to witness the world he had once called home.
Once, there had been a civilization of brilliant, majestic cities, powerful warriors, and countless intelligent beings thriving together.
But when the gods descended, everything changed.
On that fateful day, the sky cracked open. The figures of the divine arrived, draped in boundless radiance, devouring every last ember of resistance.
He watched his kin reduced to dust in the wrath of the gods.
He watched his comrades obliterated in a single divine strike.
He cradled his beloved in his arms, as her life slipped away between his fingers.
He had witnessed his entire world being torn apart, crushed beneath the gods' will.
Their cities, their faith, their history, their people…
Everything was devoured, trampled, erased!
The civilization of the gods was like an abyssal behemoth, consuming his world until nothing remained!
His people became slaves, sacrifices to the divine.
Against the gods, their resistance was futile like insects defying the storm.
In that hopeless battle, he too had taken up arms, fighting to the bitter end.
But in the end…
Tears of blood traced down his cheeks, laced with unrelenting hatred.
[The Wizard Civilization… I cannot judge them… but at least, they are no weaker than the Divine Civilization!]
The blood tears dried upon his face, turning to specks of light and vanishing. For a moment, his complexion turned deathly pale but soon, color returned.
The otherworldly being took pride in his civilization. Even if they were no match for the Divine Civilization or the Wizards, they were certainly not weak.
In the war against the gods, they had once slain a High God of the Pantheon proof of their strength!
From what he knew of the Divine Civilization, weaker worlds were doomed the moment they encountered the gods.
Even his world had barely lasted a thousand years before war became inevitable.
Yet the Wizards and the Divine Civilization had been entangled for millennia.
During this time, countless conflicts had erupted.
The Divine Civilization did not consider the Wizards mere prey.
Otherwise, full-scale war would have broken out long ago.
[Indeed, a civilization that can harness the corpse of a High God… Chantia may have fallen, but her divinity and godhood should have been passed on. Yet to this day, her seat remains empty in the Pantheon…]
The being looked down at his own body, clenching his fist, his gaze complex.
The goddess Chantia's corpse, godhood, and divine throne had been fully assimilated by the Wizard Civilization…
[Fine… With the Wizards involved, this war will last a long, long time… And I will have the time I need…]
The more he thought about it, the more exhilarated he became. His face even flushed slightly with excitement, looking far healthier than before…
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