Chapter 1217
Everything seemed to have happened just yesterday.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five!"
A group of young men and women, full of energy and hope for the world"s future, were gathered around the newly built ignition device. Their faces were filled with antic.i.p.ation.
Even from a distance of ten kilometers, Duke, who was observing them with magic, believed that the world"s future belonged to them.
Whether they succeeded or failed, they certainly took a big step in history.
"Five, four, three, two, one, ignition!"
Homer, the most outstanding disciple, created the ignition device and proudly activated the switch, initiating the beginning of that nightmare.
What happened in the next second would forever be etched in Duke"s heart, even millions of years later.
The orange sun appeared.
Although it was smaller, its core temperature exceeded millions of degrees, burning everything, devouring everything, destroying everything.
Its radiance instantly broke through a magic barrier consisting of thirty-six layers, which was considered impenetrable even by the most powerful spells. None of the layers could withstand even a second in front of this miniature sun.
His favorite student, Homer.
The young people who were hailed as the "last miracle" of this era.
Fully supporting their experiment, witnessing firsthand the revolutionary members who were destined to be recorded in history.
In that moment, everything turned to ashes and was devoured by the spreading orange sun.
Even the bodies couldn"t exist anymore, as the infinite orange light instantly destroyed the entire underground magical experiment ground, lifting hundreds of meters of rock layers and creating a huge mushroom cloud in this world.
The resulting high temperature and shockwave evaporated everything within a few kilometers.
Not even the Duke Mage Tower, which was located ten kilometers away, could escape. It collapsed with less than ten seconds of support.
Duke, who was observing the experiment with a magic mirror, was blown away. If it weren"t for the magic shield supported by the Magic Star, he would probably have suffered the same fate as his student, Homer.
The earth mourned, the sky trembled. In the moment when the small sun bloomed on the ground, everyone lost their sight and hearing.
Within a ten-kilometer radius, only Duke survived, while the other owners of the wizard towers, without the magical crown called the G.o.d Weapon, were not protected. The wizard towers were destroyed, and they lost their lives in the Yellow Spring.
Even Duke, who survived, was penetrated by invisible particles of terror and suffered irreversible fatal injuries within a minute.
All of this happened in less than a minute.
The location of the underground experimental site now remained as a huge hollow. The edges of the hollow were filled with burnt gla.s.s-like powder. People couldn"t even find any artifacts belonging to those wizards here.
Duke remained in a coma for the next three days. His eardrums were shattered by terrifying sound waves. If it wasn"t for the protection of the G.o.d Weapon, he would not have been able to endure these three nightmare-like days and nights.
The main members of the reformist faction were completely wiped out.
In the end, the generation of miracles, before they could step onto their own stage in history, perished along with this nuclear explosion.
The traditional faction, originally at a disadvantage, turned the tables and gained an absolute majority in the council. Even the neutral wizards sided with them one after another.
Everyone felt a deep terror in their hearts about the accident caused by the ignition device.
According to the later estimated data, this experimental accident caused the heaviest casualties for the Mage Council since the divine era and the dragon war.
The second seat, fifth seat, sixth seat, seventh seat, tenth seat, eleventh seat, and twelfth seat of the Red Robe Council were all buried in the testing ground, with the oldest being three hundred years old and the youngest only sixteen years old.
Known as the "Last Miracle" generation, entrusted with the future by countless people, even though they could accept the failure of this experiment, no one survived.
After the accident, some insisted on continuing their research and even proposed the need for larger uninhabited areas to prevent similar accidents.
If the explosion only resulted in this, perhaps this research would continue.
Even though they lost the Last Miracle generation, there are still people who want to fulfill their unfinished wishes and continue on the path called "science."
It wasn"t until the mages discovered that after the nuclear explosion, all the animals and plants within hundreds of kilometers began to undergo terrifying and distorted mutations.
Some animals developed horrifying tumors on their bodies, and herbivores began to attack humans.
Plants grew organs that they shouldn"t have and showed signs of continuing mutation.
After the nuclear explosion, something even more terrifying than direct casualties appeared: mutations that couldn"t be reversed even with magic. Many wizards who were initially affected by the aftermath of the explosion didn"t die immediately but instead perished one by one over the next hundred days.
Even Duke, the highest leader of the Red Robe Council with the protection of the Magic Star, couldn"t escape this disaster.
In the end, he had no choice but to resort to forbidden methods in order to survive.
From then on, no one dared to restart nuclear experiments because most of the wizards who wanted to do so had died.
The Red Robe Council suffered the loss of an entire generation of elites and over half of its members. The main reformists and neutral factions were almost completely wiped out.
Ironically, the traditionalists were excluded from this experimental ignition because the reformists and neutrals joined forces.
In order to prevent them from sabotaging this crucial experiment, several traditionalist council members weren"t even allowed to enter the mountain range where the testing site was located. This actually kept them away from the accident.
As the only member of the council who survived the nuclear accident, Duke was forced to make a difficult decision—abandoning the study of this power.
Most of the technical information remained, but no one could understand what the data represented anymore. Homer"s intelligence was a miracle that spanned across eras. Without him and the efforts of the last generation of miracle-workers, the creation of the ignition device would be impossible.
After losing Homer and the last generation of miracles, the Red Robe Council no longer had the power to carry out experiments of this scale.
Two well-built igniters were buried by him in a place known only to him.
The Red Robe Council completely abandoned the path represented by nuclear explosions and instead began to study the mysterious phenomena of the Underground Cemetery.
The remaining few reformists were also unable to restart nuclear explosion experiments and began to evolve in a different direction, continuing Homer"s legacy and paving the way for "science."