A man dressed in armor with a sword in his side rushed to the delegation where Edward and the Council members were, yelling: "Your majesty, your majesty, I just want a few minutes of your time."
However, none of the guards listened to him. They gave him a warning not to approach, but the guy did not listen. So, the members of the Royal Guards attacked.
One of them created a fireball ten meters in diameter, rushing straight to that oncoming visitor. However, the guy took out his sword and slashed the fireball into two, thus completely negating the attack.
Unfortunately for him, what followed after the first spell was a rain of bullets. Nevertheless, this guy was quite skilled. Controlling the mana from his core to strengthen his muscles and nerves, he swung his sword so rapidly that he blocked most of the bullets.
But a few still managed to hit. Luckily for him, his armor was powerful enough to block some of these bullets--except for the enchanted one. However, once these bullets hit his skin, a white light flashed on his body, protecting him.
Seeing that the opponent was more skilled than anticipated, they prepared to use more force to take him down. However, they all stopped as Edward raised his hand.
"Seeing that no ordinary Wizard Knights are as skilled as you, you must have some sort of reputation. So, who are you?" asked Edward.
"Your majesty, my name is Mark Griffin and it's a pleasure to meet you," replied Mark while breathing heavily.
"Oh, you're the Wizard Knight who created the method to condense the shield and layered it around the skin to increase protection. Your method was quite ingenious and has revolutionized the Wizard Knight Path. So, what do I owe for this visit?"
"It is my honor for your majesty to know me. The reason that I'm imposing on you is that I would like to ask your majesty to find a way forward for us Wizard Knight."
"If I remember correctly, didn't Tower Masters Adola Obi and Ahalu create a way for Wizard Knight to place enchantments on the body, thus allowing them to increase their strength beyond superhuman levels."
"This method has many flaws, plus it is not the right way," replied Mark with a stubborn look on his face.
"So, you're one of those Mana Purists who believe that the path of Wizard Knight lies in finding better ways to control mana to strengthen the body."
Mark did not say anything. Edward gave him a look before saying:
"The sad truth is that Wizard Knight is a very new field with little knowledge to go on, so progress will indeed be slow. Adding to the fact that most of you are very stubborn and might even hold some prejudiced notions clearly outlawed by the Empire, it is no wonder that your general progress has been slow.
"So, my advice to you is either slowly develop your field as you have been doing, or work with other branches of the Wizard Knight Path that have been created. The Eastern Wizards have recently identified the energy known as Ki and its relationship with mana.
"Many of them have been trying to recreate Martial Arts based on their cultures. So, maybe you guys can try discovering the concept of Aura, and whether it is the same as Ki."
Mark's eyes light up after hearing, got on one knee to salute Edward before departing. Meanwhile, one of the Ten Rings Council Member hurriedly said:
"Your majesty is wise, always guiding our civilization in the right path when we are blind."
"You do not need to praise me," replied Edward with a smile. "Over the years, I have greatly supported all types of artists from writers to moviemakers, to game designers. All because I want the Empire to take the wild ideas from these people's minds and try to turn them into a reality. Unfortunately, not many people have discovered such benefits."
Many people had a sudden realization. Over the years, they all thought that the reason that his majesty supported these industries was that his cousin was a painter, but it turned out that he was using them as an "idea machine" to further develop the Empire.
After figuring this out, the gaze that these people looked at Edward became more respectful; their reverence for him drastically increased.
As the commotion ended, the group headed to the 2nd Magic Tower for the Inspection.
"Did you plan all of this?" asked Amelia through mind communication/
"Luna's prediction; she wanted me to use this event to further stabilize the Empire before I left. "
--Scene Break--
The group entered the Magic Tower, and the first thing they saw was Narcissa Malfoy and Soleil Greengrass. After a brief introduction, the group was teleported to the Fifth Floor where her main research took place.
"As you all know, many years ago, I researched placing a magic beasts' soul into a human," said Soleil. "At first, the majority of subjects died due to their souls being destroyed. However, after implanting a non-magical soul into a human body, one subject survived and transformed; to be precise, a genetic transformation."
Soleil showed a video of the first patient she mentioned. In the video, the subject displayed the ability of echolocation.
Unfortunately, not many people in the council paid much attention to this information as she showed the same thing in the last inspection.
Nevertheless, they knew that this was an introduction that would lead to her real experiment, so they waited patiently.
"This mutation was the result of the connection of the "Soul' and 'Body' in the Life Code. So, after placing the soul of a bat inside of him, he acquired the animal's echolocation ability."
"Meanwhile, during that time, I conducted a different experiment that resulted in similar results," added Narcissa. "After implanting the organ of a werewolf inside one of my subjects, she did not acquire magical abilities as I speculated, but her gene also mutated. The subject displayed an increase in strength, reflexes, acquired sensitive smell and even grew fangs."
"After that, the two of us started working together. We placed different animals' souls into people's bodies. Although only a few survived, they all underwent genetic mutation and acquired some characteristics of the animals whose souls were placed inside of them.
"By studying these individuals' genes, the Empire's genetic technology developed rapidly to the point of being able to genetically modify the body without implanting another soul into the body."
"Fellow Tower Master," interrupted one of the council members. "We all know that the Empire's current genetic technology is due to all your efforts, but please show us your recent findings instead of wasting time."
Both Narcissa and Soleil glared at the person who spoke, and that person was immediately scared as he remembered that these two were wizards that have broken through their Third Limiters, and are classified as 'walking city destroyers" according to the Empire.
Despite being outraged, these two did not say or do anything else. So, they continued their explanation.
"One of the failures of our research has always been the fact that most magical animals' souls or organs, after being implanted on people, would always lead to death.
"However, recently, after implanting the soul of the newly discovered magical beast Niwas, a new power was discovered."
A video appeared in the air showing a few different individuals. One of them was levitating things around him, one was floating in the air, while another was banding a metal plate with a wave of his hand. However, none of these individuals had any mana.
"We have discovered a new energy in their brain which is currently labeled as psychic energy," added Narcissa with a hint of joy on her face. Unfortunately, she was one of the few who thought that way
"Is that it?" said the previous council member. "Telekinesis? There are countless spells in the Grand Arcane Library that grant such ability."
These words instantly made these two upset, however, they soon realized by these council members ' facial expressions that many other people felt the same way.
Although angry, Narcissa and Soleil did not say anything as these council members would decide the number of fundings they will receive for the next 20 years. This was a method to balance the rising influence and power of wizards--especially Tower Masters--in the Empire.
Meanwhile, Edward--who was silent for most of the time--finally spoke.
"You guys fell to see the potential of this discovery"
"Your majesty, how so?"
Everyone looked at him, including Amelia who also was not that impressed with this discovery.
"Let me paint a scenario for you guys. Our Arcane Empire encounters a civilization that studied magic extensively and has even developed Anti-Magic technology. They managed to bypass our security system and dropped an Anti-Mana Bomb on Earth, rendering all our technical and magical creations useless, thus turning our civilization back to the stone age."
"How is that possible?"
"Why is it not possible? I've warned all you countless times not to get complacent of our achievements; the Arcane Empire is not the only magical civilization existing in this universe, and we are way too young compared to the vast majority of them."
The council members quieted down after hearing this, then someone asked: "What does this scenario have to do with anything?"
"The answer to such a problem is right in front of us," replied Edward with a smile. "This psychic energy is a brand new power system not inferior to magic in terms of potential.
"As such, we can build an entire system based on it. For example, if we could recreate all our magical and technical advancements to make sure that they run on psychic energy instead of mana, then we can deal with the scenario I just spoke about.
"Not to mention that there may be things that psychic energy can do better than magic, so we can take advantage of that and combine the two together--just like we did with technology."
These council members finally understood the importance of Narcissa and Soleil's discovery. So, after discussion, they agreed to increase the number of fundings for these two so that they could better develop psychic energy.
Then, the group headed to the next Tower.
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