The Meeting (1)

The meeting that was about to occur was called an 'Astral Meeting'. It is a meeting where the mages meet in their astral forms, not their physical bodies in a private space created by a space mage which helps avoid leaving their territories vulnerable.

The Astral Projection technique is a 6-circle technique where the mage can create an astral body and send it out of his physical body, working as a second body. The astral body is a body of consciousness, when using it the mage can move the body away from his physical body, its effective range depends on the rank of the mage. However, it has a downside where if a mage spends too much time outside their physical body, they would suffer serious mental damage, possibly killing them.

The 7-circle space mage who created the private space for the meeting was a descendant of the Choros family who was a part of the Imperial Guard, working directly under the Emperor.

The Emperor and the other masters all sat in their private rooms after deploying a protection barrier around them, as 8-circle mages who use this technique become vulnerable to physical and mental attacks, with 9-circle mages having a bit more defense while using it.

The Emperor activated the technique and a hollow clone started to take form over his body, a couple of seconds later, the hollow clone opened its eyes while The Emperor stayed still in a mediating state.

'Good! Now, to the private space!' claimed the hollow clone as it shot to the sky passing through the roof of his room. The Emperor and the other masters created a loophole in their barrier to make it possible for their astral forms to escape through it. Gabriel Choros, the 7-circle Imperial Guard who the Emperor ordered to set up the private space already gave everyone the coordinates.

Needless to say, the hollow clone or astral form can use the same spells the main body can use, albeit with less strength as the main body is still the one carrying all the mana.

In simpler terms, it's like the astral form borrows mana from the main body to maintain itself and use spells, so although the rank stays the same, the strength of the spells diminishes considerably.

The Emperor entered the newly created space, although it was found in the sky, its inside suggested otherwise, as it seemed like a professional meeting room for a wealthy company with many members already seated waiting for the meeting to start.

The seated members that were sitting in front of a large table that spread across the entire room were all prominent mages that were respected all over the world.

Hugo Chronos immediately spotted a couple of familiar faces the moment he entered, as they were none other than the leaders of the five dukedoms with his brother sitting next to them. The Alchemist of the Royal Family, Austin Chronos was also present. A lot of 8-circle mages were there with a couple of 9-circle mages, The Rulers of the Central, Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Continents.

"You're finally here, Ruler of the Central Continent!"

The one who said that was the Pope of the Holy Kingdom of the Northern Continent, the only light mage to ever reach the 9-circle rank, Edward Vinson, and also the oldest living mage, being 930 years old.

"I'm ashamed that I've made you wait, Senior" Some of the newly advanced 8-circle mages were surprised by the usually haughty Emperor's current attitude. However, it does make sense why he's polite with both being at the low tier of the 9th circle, and the Pope older than him by almost 700 years.

"Don't mind it, Don't mind it," said the Pope while signaling the Emperor to sit down.

"A-Ahem, I'm sure that all of you don't want to have small talks as all of everyone currently here's as busy as can be, so let's get to the real problem," stated the Emperor as the 'host' of this meeting with him not only being one of the strongest people currently in the room but also the only one to face the Demon Emperor directly.

"This was something surprising, something not even 'He' could see," The moment the Emperor stated that everyone fell silent, shocked.

"Hmmm, That is indeed concerning, considering he $@#&($#^#$&%#^&@" Everyone shut their ears, even The Pope, the person speaking, yet failed to block the voice. It was like a scream straight to the soul, bypassing any and all protection a person can have.

"P-Pardon me, I didn't even intend to say it, yet such a thing happened!" apologized The Pope.

"No worries Senior, 'It' isn't something we can comprehend so obviously you couldn't know" replied The Emperor.

"Anyways, I think we need to speed up our plans," continued The Emperor while receiving looks from the present mages, agreeing with him.

"The Academy was a good faculty to gather future pillars to fight against the demon race.

However, it will be hard for them to become strong enough in merely two years to fight against the Demon race, so I will have to request assistance from you all. I need all of you to help by providing opportunities to assist in their growth. If such a plan works, then we will have a special force to fight demons," said The Emperor, indicating the original purpose of the Academy.

That is why there was the 'Mystical Waterfall' as the grand prize of a simple tournament. Although the best thing to do would be to allow all the students with high potential to enter it, unfortunately, the Mystical Waterfall's water is so scanty that it can only be opened once every 10 years with 3 maximum members to make use of it.

The Emperor decided to publicly use the tournament as an excuse to let the winners of the 3 tournaments carry on with the prize. Although Kyle did indeed break the rules by killing Hector, it was justified as he was possessed by a demon, thus becoming a 'Demi-Human'.

There are three types of Demi-Humans. The type where a demon possesses a human, and the child of a Demon and Human race. However, the second type exists in such a small amount that they can be counted on one hand if they haven't been killed yet, as both races have been at war since ancient times, making the enmity between them soar through the roof. The third type, and the most common type is when a Dark Mage's mind is completely taken over.

Although all three of them are from the same species, they all have different characteristics. The first type can act like a normal human, and how long depends on the Demon's rank. The second type is the most humane as they possess both genes, they exist as a new species, evil or not depends on themselves. The third type is the ugliest as they just become beasts with horrendous forms and attack everyone and everything, except those who possess a higher purity of Dark Magic.

"Thank you once again, Cynthia, for letting us use your treasure," thanked The Emperor, the Matriarch of the Nero Duchy.

"No problem, what use is a treasure if no one can use it, and what use is it if the human race is going to end" she replied.