A year and a half had passed from the moment the first tribes of Wasteland reached the Daybreak Magic Tower and became part of the Daybreak clan.
Great changes had happened in the territories around the tower since now there was a city built around it, populated for thousands of people of dozens of different races.
This city did not have an official name at first, but due to the fact that there was a golden light always immersing it and most of its inhabitants having the ability to release golden light from inside their bodies, it was called the City of the Sun.
Due to the constant recruitment made from the Wasteland and the news about the great quality of life that people of diverse races could have inside the clan, the number of tribes that joined was huge and it did not take long for the number of people forming part of the Daybreak clan to reach over ten thousand.
From time to time you could see some Magus coming to the tower and buying all types of items.
They were not members of the clan, but external people that were using the tower to buy all sorts of articles, since like most, the Daybreak Magic Tower worked as a commercial location open for everyone.
Despite the tower being quite new, the amount of Magus that were buying stuff in it was not small and the reason was due to the price for Rank 1 runes, magic equipment and potions were incredibly low.
Dante had created a factory in the level where the warehouse was and in there, with the use of the Elder Brain and automatons, was making all these items.
Of course, even with the Elder Brain, the ability to start creating Rank 1 runes and other stuff out of nowhere was impossible, but Zatiel, Sophia, and Ezequiel had uploaded their memories about their profession and the diverse amount of things they created in it.
With that information, Dante used the Elder Brain to make those automatons copy the patterns and movements he had recorded in his memory and create the magical equipment, runes, and potions.
Due to they being only copies and not being created by someone with actual expertize, the quality of these items were average, but since there was almost no expense in creating them, besides the value of their raw materials, the price at which they were sold was very low, and their quantities were tremendous so the net income that the tower gained was immense.
One thing interesting was that every Magus that visited the tower behaved very carefully when they interacted with the members of the clan.
This attitude was due to the events that happened not long after the first tribes of Wasteland joined the Daybreak clan.
A group of Magi, in which there was a Rank 2 Magus, were visiting the City of the Sun, and a group of children from the frog-people race passed by their side.
The children didn't do anything to them, but these Magus, especially the one at Rank 2, were extremely evil and vicious, and seeing a group of individuals of what they considered an inferior race near them infuriated them.
The Rank 2 Magus did not say anything and sent a spell with enough power to disintegrate the bodies of those children. In his mind, this was a fair punishment to an individual of a race like that for daring to be near him.
There was no way that these children could survive the attacks of a Rank 2 Magus, but luckily for them, on each of their hands was what they called a Sun Tadpole which has been monitoring them and their surroundings at all times.
Before the spell of the Magus could touch the children, a beam of golden light was fired from the Sunlight Core and landed in their bodies, covering in a golden membrane and protecting them from any damage.
Despite being a vicious and cruel person, the Magus was not stupid and understood immediately that the leader of the clan values the life of these children greatly. And by the power he just saw in the beam of light, he knew that it was more than enough to kill him.
This group of Magi were preparing to escape from the City of the Sun, but before they could leave, all of them feel a pair of crimson eyes looking at them, knocking unconscious all those Rank 1 Magus immediately and although the one at Rank 2 was able to withstand a couple of second, his fate was the same.
When they woke up, they were at the periphery of the city floating in the sky, with their extremities extended, and their energy and body paralyzed
The Rank 2 Magus immediately started to scream that they should be released or else their family head will come to look for them and the price they will pay was something they could not afford.
The answer he got were small threads of a dark liquid infiltrating his blood vessels, as well as the ones on his companions.
All of them started to scream immediately once the Styx water entered their bodies, and started to rot them from the inside out, but despite the immense pain they were feeling, the water never touched their vital organs, ensuring that they could live for a long time.
It was on the third day from the moment these groups of Magus started to scream due to the horrible torture, that an old man had come to the city.
This man was the patriarch of the family to which this group was part of, and when he saw the state of his descendants, he became furious.
He was ready to take the members of his family away and destroy the city under them, for daring to harm his people but before he could even charge a spell, from the Sunlight Core, a dozen beams of light were fired against him.
The man was confident in his abilities and was sure that the power of a newly made magic tower could not harm him.
Due to his overconfident attitude, by the time he felt the power in those beams of light, it was too late, and due to the amazing accuracy of those attacks, all the twelve beams reached his body, creating an immense explosion of golden flames.
By the time his figure was visible again, the Rank 3 Magus only had the upper side of his body left, and even that was badly wounded, so without a second thought, he immediately ran away.
Unfortunately for the man, just like his people he was a wicked individual and the number of enemies he had was not small, so when they found out about his condition, they immediately attacked him, killing not only him but also his entire family.
As for those being tortured in the sky above the City of the Sun, they lived for another entire month of pure pain before dying.
A family headed by a Rank 3 Magus had a lot of power in the Aeternum Empire so when the news that they were exterminated due to the events that started with a member of this one trying to harm children of another race part of the Daybreak clan, it raises a huge commotion around the empire.
The name of Zatiel Daybreak was already known throughout the empire due to his marvelous rune master skill and the events happening in the expedition of the fallen star where he killed two Eye Lords, displaying monstrous talent by jumping an entire Rank in battle power.
And now, just a couple of years later, he has established a thriving clan with more than ten thousand members and the power to kill Rank 3 life forms if they try to invade his territory.
The fact that he was able to achieve all of this, and not even being forty years old, made a lot of people wondering how could someone be so perfect.
Although some people on the empire claimed that he obtained all of it thanks to him being under the leadership of Heinz, those who know better understood that the relationship between them was not so simple.
Regardless of what the heads of those families and clans thought, they made sure that their people understood that if they offended the Daybreak clan or harm their members, then they could be considered dead since no one will dare to try to rescue them, so they must be very careful when they visit the City of the Sun.
........
Zatiel was in his laboratory, and there was an immense pile with all sorts of material on one side and a bunch of runes inscribed on the skin of magic creatures on the other.
He knew that the amount of time left before the invasion started was not enough to increase his body transformation as a Neo-Demon nor to increase his energy pools, so he focused all of his time in two goals.
One of those goals was to increase his skills as a Runemaster and the other was to reach Rank 1 Animus, so he could use his Mind Force without the need of tapping into the mind magic of the Elder Brain since he could generate it on his own.
Luckily, he could advance in both of them at the same time by having his Mind Force activate to increase his body functions and concentration, increasing the speed at which he could practice his rune crafting as well the quality of it.
Zatiel's abilities as a Rank 2 Runemaster had reached his peak long ago and the only reason he was not able to progress was due to his energy shortage, so he was able to become a Rank 3 Runemaster very soon after advancing to Rank 2 Neo-Demon.
What he wanted to do was create Rank 3 Runic Set for him, Ezequiel, and Sophia, and although the amount of time they will be able to have it active at the beginning will be less than thirty seconds before being completely exhausted, it will be an excellent trump card.
The runic set he had in mind was very complicated, and he needed more practice so he had been creating dozens Rank 2 Runic sets for the Neo-Demons as well hundreds of Rank 1 Runic sets for the Sunlight Champions that will be joining him in the invasion.
Even though he would have wanted for the Sunlight Champions to also use Rank 2 Runic sets, they could not handle that amount of depletion in their vitality and energy.
The ones that the kobold will use are only Low Rank 2, since that is the maximum they can handle unless they wanted to be drained in less than a minute, and in this world war the fights will not be short and the number of enemies they will have to face will be hundreds in each great battle.
Zatiel was preparing to start a new runic set when he heard a voice in his head.
"Father, the members of the Scientia Kingdom have arrived and they bring the information that you wanted."
Dante has been waiting for Zatiel to be unoccupied before contacting him since he did not want to create a problem during his work.
Zatiel's eyes narrowed when he heard that, and a solemn expression appeared on his face as well as immense interest could be seen in his eyes.
"Bring them here. I want to speak to them immediately"
"Yes, father."
'They arrived just in time, or else they would have to wait until I came back from the war. Let's see what information they have over the event that ended up in my demise as an Abyssal Lord.'
