Why Did You Summon Me?

The road to Da Xue had been sealed, and activities within the campus had seized. There was only the foreboding atmosphere that preluded a war. The students whose names were called quickly picked their best weapons and gadgets, while the students whose names weren’t called formed a group and gossiped in low voices.

The students at Da Xue took the entire situation calmly — something one would rarely see from students their age. This was not a surprise, though, as Da Xue’s students had had to pass stringent tests before they were admitted. These tests had been designed to weed those without bravery and calm.

Attie had nothing to do in this preparatory stage, so she headed to the city guards’ headquarters. Her revealing outfit attracted a lot of the attention from the guards, who now found themselves gawking at her, instead of focusing on the approaching enemies.

When Attie reached the entrance of the headquarters, her path was blocked by a guard.

“It’s okay. Please, let Professor Attie in.” The voice of a youth rang out; it belonged to a young tactician, who hurried out of the building only moments after speaking. He bowed low to Attie and said, “Good to see you, Professor Attie!”

There was a pendant on his neck; it had the emblem of Da Xue engraved on it. The emblem was not made from platinum, but bronze. The pendants were keepsakes for people that had graduated from Da Xue, but a bronze pendant held a lot less prestige than a platinum pendant.

Nevertheless, a bronze pendant was enough to get the graduate a position as the tactician of the guardsmen of the largest city.

“You’ve graduated from the academy, alright? There’s no need to be so formal,” Attie casually replied, ruffling the young tactician’s hair as though he was a kid.

The youth’s face turned red, and he hurriedly turned his face away in an attempt not to stare at the bewitching curves revealed by Attie skimpy, satin outfit. The nervous youth could not help stuttering, “Is there… Is there something we can help you w-with, Professor Attie?”

“There is.” She tossed a communication slab over to him. “In a while, Tisdale, your senior will send Da Xue’s battle strategies to the headquarters, just so that you may look for ways to cooperate.”

After that, Attie turned around and walked away. When she was about to leave the barracks, she stopped and turned to the youth, who had been watching her walk away. “There are no professors to protect all of you, now, so take care of yourself, and don’t die!”

“Understood!” The young man stood straight and shouted. “I’ll show Professor Attie just how much I grew after I graduated!”

Mimicking Baiyi’s style, Attie turned around and waved while she walked away.

When Attie reached the city’s outer walls, she realized that she could not remember the young tactician’s name. She could, however, recall that he had been extremely ballsy in his time at Da Xue, as he was among the brats who had sent her a love letter. Now, that little punk had grown into someone responsible for protecting the lives of hundreds of millions.

A small smile appeared on Attie’s face. She believed that she now understood why her master loved teaching so much. It was probably because of the joy brought about by watching the brats grow.

Attie’s smile did not last long, though. The thin, black line in the horizon had begun to thicken.

It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and the sunlight was supposed to be at its zenith; however, as Duat was being superimposed onto Isythre, the sky had darkened. It was as though dusk had arrived. A night of terror was about to begin. The long, thickening black line in the distance was like the dark of night, inching towards them.

“They’re here already?” Attie murmured. She walked forward and picked up a dagger lying just outside the city wall, then she pulled the blade out of its scabbard. She raised her left hand and smashed it down on the dagger’s blade, chopping it in half.

The Divine Mark hidden in her chest moved to her forehead and began to glow brightly. The scintillating glow soon divided into three colors: red, blue, and yellow. Three beams of light burst out of the Divine Mark. The red light, which at the center, shone the brightest, as though it was the leader of the beams. The beams shot upwards and glowed even brighter, and it looked as though Attie was wearing a crown with three colors.

The severed blade in her hand began to glow in three different colors, and a tricolored light beam burst out of the dagger’s handle, making it resembled a sword with a tricolored blade. Attie had turned an average dagger into a War God’s Sword!

She soared into the air and pointed her tri-colored sword at the incoming sea of undead. Without a loud bang, she sped towards them. Her tricolored sword left three light beams in its wake, and these beams began to spiral around the speeding Attie. She was like a technicolored, diamond drill coursing through the sky.

A spy marionette as small as a grain of sand, which Tisdale used, had been making rounds around the city walls captured the scene. Vidomina could not help exclaiming in shock, “Is that the War God’s Sword? I thought Godfather had borrowed it! Why is it in her hands now? Has Godfather returned?”

“I don’t think so,” Tisdale replied, shaking her head sideways. “Sir once said that the War God’s Sword was just the manifestation of one of the Arbiter Rights that the War God possesses. Now that the original manifestation is missing, the War God probably gave Attie a new Arbiter Right that was similar… Gods could gift any part of its Rights to whoever they chose to.

“If that’s the case, then I feel much more relieved, as we have the War God on our side!” Vidomina replied, her expression relaxing.

“That would be the case for Arfin City, at least. I wouldn’t be so relaxed when it comes to, well, others,” Tisdale murmured.

The table before them had ten communication slabs on it. Vidomina leaned forward to study them and realized that every one of them was displaying distress signals from other cities!

She frowned. ‘How many undead are we actually dealing with?’

“An endless horde” may not be the right term to describe the number of invaders. This was supported by the fact that although the sea of undead approaching Arfin City seemed endless, these undead had been gathered from a few armies of undead nearby. They were only a third of the undead terrorizing Isythre.

The other two-thirds of the undead had, acting on the Grandruler’s command, gone to attack the cities with weak defenses — ‘weak cities’. The more humans died in one city, the more undead storm the next city. Their numbers were skyrocketing at a crazy pace, but the number of humans who could fight them did not increase despite being low. Only a few young men and women were strong enough to put up a fight. Most of the people that inhabited Arfin City were not fighters; should they die, they would only serve to increase the number of undead wreaking havoc on Isythre.

The disparity between the numbers of undead and humans was growing at an alarming rate!

The inhabitants of weak cities that were close to other cities with strong defenses, ‘strong cities’, were luckier; in the face of an invasion, they could flee to the strong cities that were close by, taking shelter there. This could not be said for small to midsized weak cities that were situated in rural areas. These cities were the main targets of the undead.

“Their priority is to attack cities with little to no defense!?” Vidomina’s expression turned solemn. “This isn’t a war; it’s a massacre!”

“Why expect human morales and standards from a bunch of walking corpses?” Tisdale said, looking a little confused.

“Whatever. What are we gonna do now?” Vidomina asked. She looked visibly distressed.

Tisdale had no answer. Her brows were knotted tightly as she thought hard.

It was no surprise that the Empire did not possess enough manpower or resources to save all the cities from the onslaught. The Church, the Sorcerers’ Association, and Da Xue were the only organizations with enough manpower to offer any meaningful assistance to the struggling cities.

Having arrived at the realization, Tisdale hurried over to one of the communications slabs on the table, intent on contacting someone, but before she could reach it, the slab began to blink, indicating an incoming message.

It had been sent from someone she knew back in the day.

“Good evening, Miss Dale. I’m afraid that’s the greeting I can offer under our terrible time constraint. I’m the Vice President of the Sorcerers’ Association, Grant. I would like to inquire about Da Xue’s plans regarding our current crisis.”

Vice President Grant, who was famous mostly for his duel with Baiyi, was once suspected of having ties with the Godsfall cult. Baiyi had reported him to the Church’s Judiciary Court. However, ten years had passed since them, but Grant retained his position, as no incriminating evidence to support Baiyi’s claim had come to light, despite how much effort the Church put into finding one. Most of the people who observed the trial came up with two possibilities: one, Grant was truly innocent of what he had been accused of, or two, he really had been a part of Godsfall but cut ties with the cult at exactly the right time.

At that moment, however, Vice President Grant was still a famous but neutral party who could be negotiated with.

When Tisdale realized who she was talking to, she paused briefly before replying, “Respected Vice President, quite coincidentally, we would also like to know the Association’s stance on this matter.”

Grant was silent for a time, and when he finally spoke, his answer was no direct. “Is Grand Principal Hope unavailable? Is His Royal Majesty also unavailable?”

“Yes; both are not here with us. Da Xue is now under the command of Vidomina and me,” Tisdale replied.

Grant was silent for even longer, this time. A long while later, he said, “To be honest with you, the Association has also received multiple distress signals, and we have tried our best to provide relief to those that sought us. However, there’s a limit to what we can do; this is something I am sure that you, a fellow sorcerer, would understand. As per the Association’s rules, we cannot provide too many hands.”

There were many sorcerers in this universe, and a majority of them had registered at the Sorcerer’s Association. However, the control that the Sorcerer’s Association had over its members was limited. Some were lecturers at Da Xue or loyal to other organizations. Hence, in the face of such a large-scale crisis, the number of personnel that the Sorcerer’s Association could provide was actually lesser than most people would think.

At the moment, the Sorcerers’ Association could only assemble between three to five armies of sorcerers, which each army containing between two to five hundred sorcerers each. Although this paled in comparison to the number of undead marching in unison, if the sorcerers teamed up with local defense forces, they could still buy enough time for the inhabitants of Arfin City to escape.

In the end, the biggest problem at hand was the number of undead wreaking havoc in Isythre. There were too many cities that needed help, and the number of personnel that the Sorcerer’s Association and Da Xue could provide was minuscule; their hands were tied.

“How many can you provide?” Tisdale asked.

“Three complete sorcerer troops, which adds up to one thousand and five hundred men; I’ll personally lead them,” Vice President Grant replied. He did not sound optimistic, though. “I know it’s not a lot, but it can’t be helped. About half of our forces were taken other places, for example, the Imperial City, the Holy City, and the Templar Fort. We simply could not reject their requests. Now, this many people is all we can assemble.”

“What about the Knights Association? I’ll wager that you contacted them already,” Tisdale said.

“They had a bit more to offer, but it’s just about five thousand men.”

Vidomina, who had been listening in on their conversation, grimaced. Five thousand knights will sound like a lot, until one realizes that the number of knights in this world was a lot more than the number of sorcerers. With the number of knights that answered to the Knights Association, the five thousand knights currently on offer was a small unit. The Knights’ Association seemed even more miserly than the Sorcerers’ Association.

“They have their problems, too,” Tisdale whispered in Vidomina’s ears. “Unlike Da Xue and the headquarters of the Sorcerers’ Association, the HQ of the Knights’ Association was not completely secured. They needed a lot of their own men to protect it.”

Tisdale turned her attention back to the communication slab and began to negotiate with Grant. She offered to rally up a few troops, but their numbers were not so great, either.

Grant was not displeased, though. It was rather rare for an academy to offer help in situations like the current one. Da Xue was not even as large as the Doors of Conundrum. The latter had offered to send over many of its executives, but these people were just bookworms, whose knowledge of battle were insufficient. No one could tell if these executives would be a huge help or just get in the way of the others.

Da Xue was a lot more reliable than that.

Vice President Grant’s plan was to rally as many forces as he could into a massive relief army, whose focus would be on saving the cities that could still be saved. Before placing a call through to Tisdale, Grant had contacted other notable organizations, and other than the Church, who believed they could take down the enemies just fine on their own, everyone else he approached agreed to join.

With that, the largest force, created for rescue and relief, formed from members of notable organizations was established. Grant was to lead the force, and Tisdale, who had declined to take a leadership role, gathered up about three hundred students and some lectures from both the Knights Faculty and Sorcerers Faculty of Da Xue.

She made sure to remind Grant in a threatening manner to take proper care of the students. “I’m sure the Vice President remembers how we do things at Da Xue, yes? Gosh, my teacher and His Royal Highness Grampa both have quite the temper! It’s fine to accept the help of our students, but their safety must be your priority.”

When Grant heard the words “Grand Principal Hope” and “Sage-Emperor of the Magi”, he felt a chill crawl up his spine. These two had a habit of abandoning reason whenever they choose to; they would not hesitate to seek retribution against anyone who had stoked the fires of their wrath.

Grant still remembered something that happened two years prior. The thesis of a student at Da Xue was plagiarized by a sorcerer with a well-connected background. Grant quickly rushed over to rectify the situation, but what awaited him was the sight of Hope and the Sage-Emperor already inside Babel Tower.

They did not talk to anyone whatsoever. They both stretched out their hands, and a large black tome appeared over their hands and began to flip through its own pages. Without wasting any time, they had begun to mutter some incantations.

A while later, they left feeling satisfied. The thesis-thief had knelt in front of the student who was stolen from, begging for her forgiveness. The student who was stolen from was paid a large sum of money. However, the thesis-thief was still kicked from the Sorcerer’s Association.

Grant suddenly began to feel that he may not hae made the right decision. Was he just inviting trouble by inviting them in?

After the communication went dead, Vidomina grinned slyly at Tisdale. “Lemme guess; the people we dispatched do not constitute a part of our true power, right?”

“Of course. Sir does not trust that man, so neither do we,” Tisdale replied matter-of-factly.