Legacy of the Dark Sage

Thirty minutes before the Alchemy and Array Creation competition started, all participants went to their respective locker rooms.

The match-up on today's Alchemy was as follows:

Royal Army - Courtenay Family (Dome Function Hall 4)

Conclave - Montgomeray Family (Dome Function Hall 3)

As for the Array Creation, the match was:

Royal Army - Lumley Family (Dome Function Hall 2)

Conclave - Courtenay Family (Dome Function Hall 1)

Both competitions will start at four in the afternoon and end at seven in the evening.

Inside the left locker room at Function Hall 1, Owen, Hamish and Kyran sat in silence on the bench at the center of the room. This room was reserved for the Conclave, while the right locker room was reserved for the Courtenay Family.

Chairman Noir and Head Chief Vaness, overseeing them during the competition, were called by the Courtenay Family representative a few minutes ago for a short meeting.

The meeting was for formality's sake and a newly implemented precautionary measure that all leaders agreed on during that morning's meeting.

Conducting a meeting before a match would also minimize sudden changes in the rules without the knowledge of the other team. The leaders of both teams would also inspect all safety measures placed in and out of the function hall to ensure no foul play would occur.

In the first place, this kind of meeting should have been conducted right from the beginning of the event. Unfortunately, because of each faction's hidden agenda, they avoided meeting with the others for fear their motives could be seen.

While waiting for Noir and Vaness, Kyran, Owen, and Hamish made idle talks.

The two mostly asked Kyran about his health. Recently, it had become common knowledge how Tyr was still suffering from mana depletion after battling Lev from the Montgomeray Family.

Because of this, the participants of the Courtenay Family believed they had a better shot at winning the Array Creation this round.

"If the rules are the same, I can do the mock battle," Owen declared.

Hamish nodded in agreement, "True. So far, they already saw me in battle. Though I only succeeded with the Field Array with the support of the magic item, there is no telling if we can redo that."

Kyran shook his head and said, "We won't do the same tactics."

He looked at them with a slight smile and added, "There will not be a mock battle this time."

"Why do you say so?" They both asked.

"After what happened yesterday, the Courtenay Family would not want a confrontational battle. Besides..." Kyran looked at the door that led inside the hall. "They changed the hall's Array Formation."

Owen and Hamish also turned toward the door.

With slight perplexed yet respectful expression, they looked back at Kyran.

"You could see the hall's Array Formation from here?" Hamish asked.

"Rather than 'seeing' it from here," Kyran lifted his hand where he was holding a white disc, the communication device issued by the Courtenay Family, "Master just sent an update."

"Ahehehe..." Owen and Hamish let out a foolish laugh.

A few minutes later, Noir and Vaness entered with grim expressions.

"They changed the flow of the Array Creation," Noir declared as soon as Vaness closed the door.

Upon hearing his declaration, Owen and Hamish stood up and waited for Noir to continue.

Kyran remained seated, mainly because he was still 'acting' unwell. He even adjusted the face-altering mask's complexion to make him look pale.

"What has changed, Chairman?" Owen asked.

"You will not craft a magic item nor do a mock battle. Instead, each of you will be given three Array Calculation you have to decipher within an alotted time; one hour per calculation."

Kyran, Owen and Hamish all frowned at this at once.

Deciphering an Array Calculation took time depending on its level. However, that was not the reason for their discontent. It was more with the fact that they had to do it in front of people.

Deciphering was a crucial ability that distinguished a real Array Specialist to a mage with Array knowledge. Because deciphering was an ability developed through experience and not by  reading books. For this reason, a mage could acquire vast Array knowledge but unless he learned how to decipher a calculation, then he would not be promoted to an Array Specialist.

Apart from this every Array Specialist had their own deciphering techniques. Which was why, Array Specialist would only decipher in private, not in public.

Thinking of this, Kyran probably was the only odd one. Since he openly showed his deciphering technique in front of Noir, Sigma and many others. Then again, most people who had seen Kyran in action, were trustworthy. Besides, his deciphering technique was only possible because he possessed Void magic.

"This is supposed to be an Array Creation competition, why would they ask us to decipher?" Owen asked no one in particular.

Hamish also nodded, "I'm not belittling our opponents but can they even do the task? Aren't we the only Array Specialists here? If they can't do it, can this even be called a match?"

"Our opponent having the ability to complete the task is not the real problem," Kyran joined the discussion.

"What do you mean?" Hamish asked.

"It's what they want us to decipher," Kyran replied with a bitter smile. "Apart from this, every match we have with the Three Noble Families are considered a 'friendly exchange.' They can do whatever they want during a match and not care about the results. The way I see it, they are using these competitions to check our abilities and 'learn' something from us."

Noir nodded, "That is right. In the meeting just now, Vaness and I wanted to object. However, the Crown Princess asked us to think of the competition as a way to improve everyone's mood by sharing one or two things on Array."

"What? Even the Crown Princess is asking us to teach others?" Owen asked in disbelief.

"More or less."

"This is insane," Hamish muttered in exasperation. "It's like they are asking us to share trade secrets!"

"It is. Unfortunately, we cannot say no after what happened on the island," Noir said, his expression turning hard. "The Courtenay Family insisted that because our members in the Beast Hunt event 'tweaked' the Transportation Array on the island and used it to escape, the members from the Royal Army failed to use it and escape themselves."

Kyran's eyes narrowed at once. As far as he was concerned, the Royal Army members were already dead by the time he warped Styx and the others to the Courtenay's transportation array.

It seemed, the head committee would do anything to force them to shown their deciphering techniques.

"They also said, because of what we did, the Courtenay's people failed to provide immediate assistance which led to the deaths of the Royal Army members."

"That is unreasonable!" Hamish blurted. He did not know what happened, but to blame their members because they used the Transportation Array?

"Not to them," Kyran said with a bitter smile. "Now they want us to compensate by teaching them."

"Yes," Vaness replied with a sigh. "They said, if others know how to decipher an array, if an incident similar to what happened on the island occurred, then they will not be stumped at what to do."

Kyran chuckled. He did not expect the head committee to blackmail the Conclave.

No. The way Kyran see this, it was only a lame excuse to force 'Tyr' to showcase his 'deciphering' ability.

The Royal Family was now in a desperate position and wanted to confirm if Tyr could really help them with the Regis Estate's Defensive Array.

Kyran realized it when Savagery's body turned into several thousands of beast eggs. She applied the Beast plane's Array Formation to assimilate all the beast eggs in her body.

That was right, Savagery was an Array Master. To be precise, she was an Array Saint.

Unfortunately, Array fundamentals in the Human plane was different from the Beast plane, thus, she had to learn from scratch if she wanted to decipher the Regis Estate's Defensive Array.

"If that is what they want, then let's go do it," Kyran told them.

Owen and Hamish looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you really okay with this?" Owen asked.

"Of course not. But instead of complaining, its best to go out there and do what they want us to do."

"But if they learn how we do things..."

"Who says anything about letting them learn?" Kyran cut Hamish midsentence.

The two looked at him in confusion.

On the side, Noir and Vaness also smiled. They did agree with the change in the rules but that did not mean they would freely let others learn how they do things.

Instead of explaining, Kyran looked at Noir and said, "Master, what's the condition in winning the competition?"

"If all of you succeed in deciphering all three Array Calculations assigned to you before the time runs out, then our side will win."

"That's it?"

"That's it," Noir replied with a smile.

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