The power of the level-three mage was too strong.
Brandon overwhelmed the leaders of the rebel group with ease. Some frail bodies exploded due to sudden internal pressure.
Sherlock lifted his hand, and suddenly all the rebels in the Makalu mountains were trapped in water bubbles and lifted into the air.
The task took the three less than an hour to finish. The once strong rebels were now almost gone.
The two senior mages didn't stay there long. After capturing everyone, Brandon created a huge teleportation circle out of nowhere. In a flash, they were back at the Dimensional Hub Platform.
There, many mages were surprised by the appearance of various creatures. They looked at the different dragon species, talking about their value and asking about prices.
The forest elves, still awake among the captives, were shocked. But before they could react, the strong energy from the mages started affecting their health, and the weakest began to fall. Without help, they would surely die.
Lina, in fear, said to Adam, "Master, my people..."
She knew Adam was strong, but only now did she realize the true power of his race. She felt too small in the presence of these powerful mages.
Adam quickly put up a protective barrier to shield them from the harmful energy. Hearing this, Sherlock said, "These people will help speed up the war for the command center. Let's complete our mission first and talk about trades later."
Knowing the command center's mission was most important, the mages shared contact details with Adam's group and left. Adam and the rebel leaders were then quickly teleported to meet Evans.
"Welcome back. It looks like you did well," said Evans, smiling.
...
After the mages took control of the rebels, the rest of their work was simple.
The main control center made deals with the leading members and the strongest of each species. They were ordered to go back to their dragon world to gather their people.
The forest elves, who were the first to join the mages, were treated well. Lina became their leader, and the other forest elves helped the mages as scouts and guides for capturing missions.
The mages were very interested in the natural abilities of the people from the dragon world, especially after seeing a fire dragon that had been magically changed.
A top-level mage, who specialized in refining bodies using magic, worked with an expert in alchemy. They changed the fire dragon right there.
The body-refining mage removed the natural protection around the dragon's soul and made its bloodline purer, almost turning it into an elemental creature. The alchemist made a mechanical body and a system for magical energy for it.
After these changes, the fire dragon, which was only second-level before, showed the power of a level-four creature. Even though its real level didn't go up, it was very useful as a servant or a weapon.
What's more, these changes didn't need many resources, so they were very cost-effective.
Other species were changed too, showing more potential than the mages expected. The natives, especially those who could have children, became very valuable.
The forest elves were the first to be completely controlled. Because of Adam's important work as an Explorer in this war, they weren't just treated as items to be sold. Every forest elf caught by a mage was given to Adam, who shared ways to communicate in the Mage Network with them. They knew it was better to help an Explorer than to just have a few servants.
Lina lived with both fear and excitement, suddenly in charge of a whole world. She even felt she was at the highest point of her life, not caring that this power was just given to her by the mages. Feelings of unhappiness, anger, and wanting revenge went away after seeing such great power.
Seven days later, Lina came to Adam with surprising news.
"Master, a mage has caught a young ice dragon, it might be Sophia."
Adam had almost forgotten about "Sophia," the young ice dragon.
Adam remembered leaving Sophia, the young frost dragon, in a cave when he departed from the City of Freedom. His delay due to the devil's interference prevented him from completing a pact with her.
Since he couldn't take a liability into battle, he left her there, thinking her intelligence and strength wouldn't be enough for her survival. Surprisingly, he was now hearing about her again.
"Are you sure it's her?" he asked.
Lina nodded but hesitated, "The hatchling has been in a deep sleep. Based on her size, it should be her, but she's very thin now."
...
At the Dimensional Hub Platform, a trading point organized by the mages, Adam saw Sophia among a group of ordinary species slaves.
Unlike the other frightened slaves, Sophia wasn't affected and kept sleeping, as Lina had described. She was skin and bones, barely alive in her sleeping state. If not for her dormant state maintaining her last bit of vitality, she might have starved to death.
"No wonder she survived till now. Probably, this foolish dragon never left the cave. Lucky not to starve to death," the devil commented cynically, appearing beside Adam.
The level-two mage who captured Sophia knew Adam. After hearing the devil's remarks, he said with a mix of laughter and disbelief, "Indeed, a foolish dragon. She woke up once after I captured her. I thought she'd resist, but she just mumbled a few words and fell asleep again."
Curious, the devil asked, "What did she say?"
"Something like, 'Caught again, Big Dragon, come save me, where are you, Big Dragon, I'm so hungry.'"
The devil burst into laughter and couldn't resist adding, "That's all? She didn't say 'Big Dragon, I want to mate with you'?"
***Bang!***
The devil was suddenly pressed to the ground by a giant hand of thunder, electricity coursing over him, distorting his face and silencing its speech. Adam stepped forward, placing his foot on the devil's mouth, and addressed the level-two mage, "Can I trade for this frost dragon?"
The mage, stunned by the interaction between Adam and the devil, hesitated but didn't ask questions. He opened the restraint and released Sophia, "Of course, for fifty complete ether crystals, she's yours."
Sophia felt like she had a long dream where she had an endless amount of food that slowly dwindled. After the last bit was gone, she woke from her dream to find herself in a strange environment, and too scared to leave.
Sophia was very hungry and believed sleeping would help her forget about being hungry and avoid dying. She hoped to wake up to find lots of food and the kind Big Dragon.
But as she got weaker, even sleeping was hard. The last time she woke up, she was captured again and didn't have the strength to try to escape.
Sophia's eyelids moved slightly.
"Master, she's awake!" The devil said excitedly, pointing at Sophia and talking to Adam.
"Don't cause trouble, or I'll turn you into a magic wand forever," Adam warned.
The devil was surprised for a moment and then said quietly, "Of course, Master. I won't bother you. I'm leaving now."
Adam stopped it and gave it ten big energy crystals, saying, "Go find Matthew and get the way to break the inheritable memory."
After the devil left, Adam spoke to the young dragon, who was still scared, "Stop pretending to sleep. You're safe here."
Sophia was afraid, recognizing the voice but feeling a different energy. She closed her eyes tighter, thinking, 'It's not true, it's not true, it's not true!'
Adam gave her a potion full of nutrients. It was made from very powerful substances and worked better than normal food. Sophia's body looked healthier, and she felt so good that she couldn't pretend to sleep anymore. She opened her eyes and made a sound of comfort.
When she saw Adam, she was surprised and closed her eyes again, trying to hide in a corner.
Adam had no choice but to act like a frost dragon. Sophia stopped and sniffed around, then slowly opened her eyes and asked, "Are you Big Dragon?"
Adam nodded.
"Really? Why are you so small?"
Before Adam could answer, Sophia said, "How can we mate if you're so small?"
Adam looked upset, realizing he couldn't talk properly with this silly dragon. He decided to make her sleep, planning to wait for the devil to return with the way to break the inheritable memory. Once they form a pact, she would understand everything.
In Adam's opinion, Sophia was not a soul slave, but more like a mount and a creature he could call upon. He wanted to set up a summoning pact with her, which was different from a usual master-slave pact.
The good part of this was that Adam could call Sophia to help in future missions without being rejected by the energy of the origin. The bad part was that their connection wouldn't be very close -- Adam couldn't directly control Sophia's life or death through the pact, and his death wouldn't affect her.
Adam thought of this after seeing how strong the changed fire dragon was. Having a powerful level-four creature to call upon would really increase his power.
...
The next half-month went by without anything big happening. The creatures running around the Dragon Plane were getting fewer, and all the dragons were caught. The mages' missions were almost done and they planned to take all the valuable things from the world before completely destroying it.
The practice of the dragon Plane's Refinement Art was utterly halted, and the erosion by Cthulhu was contained by Priscilla and her group. The edges of the plane became stable, and the top-level mages under Lind started setting up Plane Sacrifice Arrays worldwide.
Adam once asked Evans if it was really worth it to sacrifice such a broken world, as the very pure ether crystals needed for the magic array were expensive.
Evans was sure it was the right thing to do. He explained that the ultimate goal of the plane war was sacrifice. Ether crystals, born from the Heart of the World after the mage world's empowerment, served as the unique 'Energy stone' and 'currency' of the mage world. Thus, as long as it strengthened the origin, mages wouldn't hesitate to spend ether crystals.
After explaining, Evans said in a mysterious way, "After the sacrifice, every mage who helped will get something. As an Explorer, what you get will be almost as good as what the tower masters get. After your first time, you won't doubt the value of plane sacrifice."
Adam was curious and asked a few more questions, but Mage Evans only said he would find out soon.
As the Day of Sacrifice approached, only high-level mages remained active on Dragon Plane. The rest, including Adam, waited quietly on the Dimensional Hub Platform, watching through the protective barrier as the magic array below neared completion.
Everyone felt the Dragon Plane's origin wanting to resist, but it had lost the ability to do so. It couldn't even control its own 'body' anymore.
The natives, born and raised here, were most sensitive to these changes. Riots occurred almost daily, each brutally suppressed by the mages in a cold, bloody manner.
On the third day, Lind, who had not shown himself before, descended in person. He swung out a magical pillar that pierced the heavens and earth, connecting the starship and the center of the magic array.
This ignited the first energy node of the magic array. All the mages could clearly see from the sky how each 'torch' on the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas of Dragon Plane lit up one after another, forming a six-pointed star pattern.
Then, the tide of magical power receded like a wave. Pure, original energy, which Adam had only seen during his advancement, came to Dragon Plane through the six-pointed star.
