<h4>Chapter 270</h4>


    Even among all the magical towers in the world, the magical tower in Sunewick was considered the best. The interior of the magical tower, which seemed to stretch up to the sky and exude an unshakable presence, was on the brink of exploding into an enormous conflict. The conflict was intense enough for it to be categorized as a war.


    Bam! Bam!


    All kinds of magic flew around with the stairs in the center. Fireballs and water bombs were thrown and thunder and wind magic were sometimes added in. Many magic attacks were offset by each other, and some bounced off and hit the walls or stairs. However, not a single magic could make a dent on the magical tower.


    “It’s great that the tower is tough!” Zich said this while slicing a fireball flying towards him. From behind, L created tens of fireballs at once and literally bombed the upper floors. Their enemies hiding behind the top of the stairs let out screams and magic stoppeding from them for a short time. Zich used that opening to jump up to the top floor.


    “The magical tower is not just tough! It also decreases the power of magic! It’s fundamentally tiring to use magic here!” After letting out a powerful magic, Lined unlike her usual self.


    Zich loudlyughed, and while cutting down an enemy blocking him, he said, “Hang in there! It’s just the magical tower’s defense system working! I warned you about this before!”


    The tower’s defense system was a system that activated when people invaded the tower. There were several functions of the defense system, but the most basic ones were strengthening the tower’s physical structure through mana and interfering with magic activation. When the defense system was activated, the magic interference effect that was usually only in the dungeon exponentially increased and spread to the rest of the magical tower.


    Naturally, the magic interference effect lessened as one went up the tower. Therefore, when a fight urred inside the tower, the people on the upper floors had a clear advantage against people on the lower floors. It was a system that effectively stopped mages from attacking and invading the tower. Unfortunately, this effect was clearly being exploited right now as well.


    Bang! Bang!


    Mages began pouring down magic from the upper floors. Their magic was significantly weaker than the magic they usually used, but the mages’ magic on the lower floors was literally a level weaker. However, the mages on the lower floors were slowly pushing their enemies back and climbing up.


    Baaang!


    It was thanks to L who continued to send out astounding magic without getting hampered by the magic hindering effect—


    Crunnch! And Zich who ripped apart all the magic that flew towards them. Of course, Hans wielding Estede and Snoc using mithril to attack his opponents also yed arge part in pushing back the enemy’s forces.


    “Hmm.” The old mage, Alben, let out a small cry as he watched Zich and hispanions. He knew who they were. Of course, he didn’t know them well; he just knew them from the rumors going around in the magical tower.


    Zich and hispanions were the evil group that had kidnapped the master’s granddaughter, Elena Dwayne. At the same time, they were also the main reason why this whole conflict had started in the magical tower in the first ce. He obviously didn’t have a favorable impression of them at all. Frankly, he thought that coborating with them felt extremely ufortable and unpleasant. However, it was also true that Wayne Jaewick and his group had started a coup, captured the master, and locked Alben and other mages up in the dungeon. Thus, Alben decided to cooperate with Zich and hispanions with the mindset that an enemy of an enemy was a foe; that was how desperate he was.


    However, Alben soon contemted why Zich and hispanions decided to form an alliance with them. ‘…Wouldn’t it have been enough by themselves?’


    The magic interference effect greatly reduced the capabilities of mages on their side, including Alben’s magic. Moreover, the mages on the other side were also experiencing a less but still significant decrease in their magic powers.


    However, Zich and hispanions, excluding L, were not hampered by the magic interference effect in the first ce, and L was strong enough to ovee the tower’s defense system. Thus, the tower’s defense system actually created a thoroughly favorable environment for Zich and hispanions.


    Even though it was good that the people on his side were strong, it was a serious problem if they became his enemiester on. Alben fell into deep thought. However, Zich and hispanions paid no attention to Alben’s concerns and continued to push forward with great speed.


    “We’ve arrived at the 11th floor!”


    When Zich said this, Alben pointed at the 11th floor corridor with his staff and said, “Our enemies might be here! Check all the rooms!”


    The mages began to gather all together on the 11th floor. Zich signaled to Hans and Snoc with his eyes so that they could help with the search.


    “I’m also going to say this to everyone—don’t look at other people’s research! If anyone gets caught looking at the progress of another mage’s research, I’m going to use the rest of my life to kick them out!” Alben raised his voice.


    “That person is pretty good.” While heading towards the staircase that connected the 11th and 12th floors, L murmured to herself from behind Zich.


    Zich nced back. “I investigated a bit and he’s not from an elite family nor is he strong enough to participate in the top mages conference, but he’s a highly reputable mage. Even though he’s not from a high-ranking family and he doesn’t have much talent in magic, he gave up on having a family, friend, and high status to research magic. Just by this, he was close to gaining the rights to participate in the top <meta charset="utf-8">mages conference. He also holds the highest rank among all the mages in the dungeon.”


    “He sounds like an amazing person.” L could trust a person like that to carry through with his words. Then she looked past the stairs to the upper floor. “I’m d everything is going pretty smoothly. I don’t think our side received much damage.”


    “They made the mistake of activating the tower’s defense system. It’s working great against them.”


    “If we continue like this, everything will go smoothly, right? If everything goes ording to n, the people who were being locked up separately will also escape and help us fight against the coup’s forces.”


    “If everything goes ording to n.”


    “…Did you create another ploy?” L asked with suspicion in her voice.


    “What do you mean ‘ploy’? I just imagined something bad. The magic interference effect isn’t the only function of the tower’s defense system. It also has something a bit more dangerous.”


    “Something dangerous?”


    “You must be talking about the final device.”


    L turned back in surprise. Without her noticing, Alben had crept up right behind her. Did he perhaps hear them talking about their n? However, there was no change in expression on Alben’s face. Moreover, there was no way Zich would reveal important information when someone was approaching them.


    L worked to maintain a neutral face and asked, “Did you just say final device?”


    Just hearing it sounded ominous. However, Alben replied with a light tone as if they had nothing to worry about. “Don’t worry. Since it’s a final device, only the master can activate it, and the current master will never activate it—even if his son and granddaughter’s lives are at stake.”


    L paused and then said, “…Then it might be better if he actually activates it.”


    “…”


    Alben looked at the beauty in front of him. She was probably the genius mage who had taught Elena. Her magic was amazing like the rumors said. It was enough to make his jealousy, which he thought he had thrown away years ago,e ming back again. Although he was able to extinguish the fires of jealousy through his years of mental cultivation, a question popped up in his mind. The name Elena hade out of this woman’s mouth a few times now, and there was deep concern in her voice whenever she mentioned Elena’s name.


    ‘…Are they really the people who kidnapped Elena?’ At the very least, it seemed as if L wouldn’t try to harm Elena.


    L tightly clutched her staff. Even though Zich assured her that Elena was safe, and L also thought she was probably safe, she wasn’t able to fully control her emotions. ‘Yeah, like Zich said, Elena is probably safe. Then, it would be better if Walwiss doesn’t activate the final devi…’


    L stopped her thoughts as Zich was swinging Windur noisily in front of her. However, his face was looking towards her direction with a strange smile on his face.


    ‘…Perhaps!’ L strongly thought that herpanion, who was like a viin, had done something useless; no, she was certain of it.


    * * *


    Arge group of people was at the top floor of the magical tower. It was a special ce reserved for the master of the magical tower, and not many outsiders entered the top floor unless there was a special event like the top mages conference. However, the top floor was filled with people, including Wayne Jaewick, who were all the leaders of the coup. Their ns had progressed sessfully. They were able to capture the master of the tower, many reputable mages, Sunewick’s mayor, and other high officials. Their n had worked so well that it made them almost wonder if it was okay that everything was running so smoothly. However, the most important part of their n was its ending. Wayne and his group still had to nicely settle the ragged situation that they had ripped and cut apart to achieve their goals. Regardless of how well they carried out their ns, if they messed up the end, their n would end up as a failure.


    If everything went ording to n, Walwiss would now use the coup to get rid of his true political opponents, granting authority and power to Wayne and his forces who instigated the coup. In order to achieve this goal, Wayne acted as the viin and staged a coup. Even though he felt frightful and nervous, he worked hard to obtain the sweet fruits of his effort. Moreover, it hadn’t been long, but Wayne recalled how he felt when he found out that the person leading them was actually the master, Walwiss Dwayne.


    When Wayne first learned of this, his shock was immense. He couldn’t believe that the opponent they had to work the hardest to defeat was on their side. He praised the master’s intelligence and guts. Then, he was certain of his n’s sess. Who would imagine that the two opposing forces fighting against each other in the magical tower were actually on the same side? Just thinking about this had made Wayne want to burst out inughter.


    However, all of his ns and dreams were crashing down upon him.


    “Ah, damn it!”


    Crash! Wayne strongly hit the floor with his staff. His extremely expensive staff didn’t break from this movement. However, mages normally took great care of their staffs, and there were very few people who would treat their staffs like this. Wayne’s actions clearly reflected how angry he was. Tied up in a chair with silver cuffs, Walwiss looked at him with a cold expression.


    “What are you staring at me for!” Wayne grabbed Walwiss’ cor; there was a crazed look on his face. “You’re the one who sent us the codes! You’re the one who made all the ns! You’re the one who led us!”


    A pathetic, dirty, and extremely desperate cry came out from Wayne. However, Walwiss still spoke coldly. “I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding you have but… I never instigated this coup and I never sent a code to you guys. You either had some kind of serious misunderstanding or were yed by another person.”


    “D-don’t make meughhhhh!”


    Crash! Wayne threw Walwiss on the ground. Walwiss fell onto the ground, and his body rolled. His head also began bleeding, but his expression did not change.


    “Are you—are you trying to throw us away?” Wayne said as if he was cursing Walwiss. “You’re trying to use us and throw us away! You had no ns to share your power with us!”


    “I’m saying this again but…” Walwiss red at Wayne and said, “It’s not me. And if I did start a conspiracy like that, do you think I would join hands with low-lives like all of you?”


    “This bastard!”


    Kick! Wayne kicked him. Walwiss let out a groan as he received a heavy blow against his old body. However, Wayne kicked him several more times.


    “H-hey! What are you going to do now!” Another mage grabbed Wayne’s shoulder and desperately asked, “You said that the master was definitely on our side! Wasn’t that the reason why we made this n in the first ce!”


    “Hey! Answer, Wayne Jaewick!”


    Wayne heard hisrades—no, pieces of trash start barking. People who obediently followed his words, even before he revealed to them that Walwiss was the one who was ordering them, were now pushing all the responsibility on him.


    Wayne let out augh in shock. His ultimate dream of bing the next master was flying far away. No, it didn’t just end with his dream being crushed, his life and the Jaewick family was at serious risk. However, he couldn’t let it end like this. He couldn’t just be yed like this and do nothing.


    Wayne pushed away the pieces of trash rushing towards him and red at Walwiss. “So you’re not the mastermind behind this n?”


    “Yes, that’s right.”


    Wayne smirked. “Then tell me. How do I know about this?”


    Wayne began walking away.