Life became pretty much a simple routine for Alex, he narrowed his studies to Arrays and the theory behind wards as he pretty much did not understand anything about mana yet. He had no idea why he was dragging his feet to actually study magic, but he reckoned it was because he already had a lot on his plate. But never the less for some reason studying arrays were not too hard for him, it took him just around three week as to fully master and memorize intermediate arrays and inscriptions.Alex had kept to himself mostly, it wasn"t exactly what he needed to do to move forward the next phase of their plan, but he was wholly focused on studying. To many his work ethic was admirable, but to everyone else in his tower, this was just a way for Alex to deal with the pain and disappointment he felt about the death the three Zhang clan members that were a part of his tower.
But even more was the fact that they were family, no matter how thin the bloodline was, or how distant the relationship was, they were his family. And he was unable to keep them safe, it made him doubt himself, he would eventually be given the helm of running the Zhang clan, after his uncle was incapable of having children, and his mother due to her somewhat ill.u.s.trious reputation was no one"s first choice.
The very idea that such a ma.s.sive responsibility would be placed on his shoulder scared him, he was afraid he would fail even more people than he already has, and that quite frankly has been holding him back. But no one could say anything to Alex; this was something that he had to take care of on his own. A hurdle he had to overcome all on his own, as hard as was for them to see this; they knew Alex had to forgive himself.
Alex moved his way through the crow of students as he made his way towards the administrative building, he was called there today, and he had no idea why. The academy had already proven that there weren"t a lot of things they cared about, so Alex could not begin to imagine what they wanted from him. If it was a shipment of sky steel then they did not need to have him come all the way here, that would just betray their sincerity to trade as they had summoned him instead of having him go to them.
But Alex didn"t feel the need to think too much into it, whatever it is that the academy needed from him, he was going to make sure there would at least be some gain for his tower in it. It wasn"t as if he had become more shrewd or anything, but Alex pretty much now lived by the code of putting his people first, he really wouldn"t want to put any of them in harm"s way again, so he tried making sure there was enough provision for everybody.
He got to the administration building, but couldn"t find anyone around; he"s not had the pleasure of being her before, not even when they first joined the academy. And that was because everything that he needed the schools administration for had already been taken care of, by Zhang Wuxi; sometimes it paid to have an elder by your side. It made pretty much everything that had to do with the Academy"s authority pretty much convenient.
But that was actually the norm here, most elders were all a part of one organization or the other, there were only very few elders that were completely under the employ of the academy. But Alex suspected the Academy had some hidden aces, after all; even though the academy had pretty much let its students run roughshod all over the place, it still had enough power and control to bring them to heel. There was reason why the academy was so feared, and even if he didn"t know what that reason was yet, it was still enough to have Alex be really careful ion his dealings with them.
He opened a door to a conference and stepped in; there was a ma.s.sive hand carved table in a half moon form with five seats in all. Four of the seats were occupied, with the one in the middle being empty. Alex pretty much ignored everybody else and shifted his gaze to the empty seat as he fell into thought; there was a legend amongst the students that the academy doesn"t actually have a dean. It was headed by four clans, two belonging to the original human who had established the school, and the other two belonging to the a.s.sa.s.sination organization the school was affiliated under.
Rumors were that the best student who is able to inherit the legacy of the first dean would be able to become the sole leader of the academy and control all of its forces. Problem was that n.o.body knew what that legacy was, where it was, and how to even go about obtaining it, so it was pretty much just a fancy story to give the new students entertainment and add a much needed mystique to the academy.
"Student Zhang Xiao...."
"Just call me Alex, that"s what everyone else does." He interrupted as he took the only set in front of him, facing the half moon table.
"Well then student Alex, we apologize for summoning you on such short notice, but there was a certain matter at hand that we need your help with. We would like you to hear us out, as there would be sufficient rewards in it for you and your tower." The person who had spoken was a woman, but given she had on this weird spiral mask, Alex couldn"t tell what she looked like. But seeing as she was the one who had spoken first, he suspected she was either the spokesperson, or had more power in play than the other three.
"It"s alright then, but there are probably hundreds of students better than me in the academy, not to mention more powerful. Why would you need me? And what would you even need me for?" Alex asked
"Well that"s simple, it"s because this task needs your particular area of expertise, and even more so your reputation and some of the resources you have access to. There"s really no one else for the job young man." Alex c.o.c.ked his head to the side; he was thinking deeply, something was definitely up.
By sheer chance the woman speaking had decided to look at Alex"s feet and taken a huge notice of his shadow; it was weird. Stretching upwards his shadow seemed to have split into three distinct forms, almost as if there were beings living in it. The woman had lived for a very long time, and she had seen similar things as people using shadows to travel or hiding within it, or even having access to a shadow dimension.
But having actual ghosts, live in your own shadow was totally something new. Alex was proving to the world that many ancient myths that they had believed to have been just stories were actually true, but apart from that it was the secret of this planet that was drawing them ever so closer to this boy, that somehow, in some way, he truly had the secret to G.o.dhood.
"You"ve given your sales pitch, but I can"t say that I"m interested, and at the same time I can"t say that I"m not. So please just tell me what it is that you require from me." Alex asked, already tired with the roundabout manner this woman was using to speak, obviously she wanted Alex to ask for it was they needed him for. He didn"t have time to waste, so all he could do was indulge her so that he could get this over with as quickly as possible.
"I"m pretty sure you"ve heard of the Ark wars."
Alex paused and raised an eyebrow, he moved his head to the side again as the shadows also seemed to sway and dance with his movement, of course Alex knew what the Ark wars were, h.e.l.l there was no one on earth who didn"t know about that b.l.o.o.d.y battlefield that"s open once every ten years. It"s the place where legacies are found, heroes and villains are born, and where warriors from other planes come to test their mettle against the best of earth. But it was also where a lot of people go to die!
"The ark wars is literally a personal war between every plane and power in the cosmos. Many believe that the other planes of existence actually exist in other dimensions and what not, but that"s far from the truth. There"s only one universe and countless powerful planets in it, traveling through them just seems like you"re traveling to other dimensions.
Either way, dimensions, realms, particle worlds etc also exist, and while most of them are created and propagated by the universe itself, many are also created by man. However the Ark wars are no simple battle for planetary supremacy, it"s a battle for one of the most elusive power, if not completely out of the reach of man, and that"s G.o.dhood.
The stories and what you might have watched from young about the ark is true. But you probably done have all the facts, but I will tell you the most important ones. The ark is indeed Noah"s ark of biblical legends, but it"s not holding animals or birds, it holds the remains and legacies of beings that at one point only ever existed on earth. And it"s this legacy that the entire universe wants to fight for, the legacies of G.o.ds!"