Althea stuck a smile on as she started walking forward. The ballroom was something she hadn't expected. The sheer crowd present, and the way they were separated around it.

Just about every major noble on the continent had arrived, making the crowd expected. That still did little to prepare her for it. At least she wasn't the sole attraction. No, this time she shared attention with a particular person she would have expected to be adversarial.

Duke Zerolain, the closest thing she had to an enemy, and her escort to the ball. The entrance had attracted attention, as they had expected too, but it was more muted than she had thought. The nobles did not stare, they did not accept them like she was used to.

No, they tried to seem bothered by what had happened as they talked among themselves. There were quite a few people that would turn towards them every few seconds, observing them in a not very discreet manner, but they tried to act nonchalant about it.

"I wish to approach the Emperor first." the Duke said. That was proper, he was the highest ranking person in the room, and they should approach him first.

"I agree." she said as they began walking towards him, their arms entwined together. Althea still found it awkward, and more than a little uncomfortable. Keeping her arms entwined with the duke's took more than a little, making even her new Master stage muscles strain under the effort. Of course, she did not let it show on her face, or put up anything but a graceful front. The action was effortless as far as the rest of the nobles were concerned.

"I greet her majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Soleria." she said, giving a shallow bow after the Duke had done so.

"Duke Zerolain. Countess Guarding Diery." The Emperor stated, smiling despite his formal greeting. "I welcome you to this ball. Please, enjoy and wish our team a great victory."

Althea smiled. "Of course, your majesty. I do wish for my victory, after all."

The Empress laughed. "That is expected, yes."

"And may I say, congratulations on breakthrough to the Master stage." the Empress said. "That makes you the youngest in this millennia, doesn't it?"

"I do believe so, yes, your majesty." Althea answered

The Emperor nodded. "An achievement to be sure."

The two of them moved on, leaving the Emperor and Empress to talk to the next group.

"I think this is when we separate, at least for now." the Duke said, leaving her without saying any other word.

Althea nodded. The two would have to meet again when the dances began. After all, the first and last dances went to their escorts. Althea looked around the middle circle. There were few, practically none, that she was familiar with.

Oh, she knew who they were. There wasn't a person here that wasn't part of her education. Take the person approaching her.

Grand Duke Arman of the Sel Empire.

A five hundred-year-old with ample history. A commoner by birth, he had reached his position by virtue of one simple thing. The man was the only person in the world that could cultivate the Soldier manual, the manual of the once destroyed Rahn Grandmaster clan.

How he found the manual, even she was unsure of, but the truth remained. The man had risen through the ranks of the Empire and stages of cultivation with nearly unmatched ferocity, becoming the powerhouse he was today.

"Rahn of Sel greets the Druid of Soleria." the Grand Duke said, a slight smile on his face.

"I return the greeting with honor." Althea said, glad that she had bothered to remember the old greetings. The greetings did not matter anymore, the time of the Grandmaster clans was in the past, but that would not stop the Sel Empire from using it to make connections.

The old powers had forged themselves from the ashes of Grandmaster clans, giving them close connections to the Solerian Empire. Of course, they would shamelessly use those connections to further push their agendas.

"I extend the congratulations of my clan, and that of the Sel Empire on your breakthrough." the Grand Duke said, his face not changing at all while he spoke.

"I am thankful for your greetings, Grand Duke. Tell me, how may I aid the Sel Empire?" she asked.

"Oh, there is no such thing, Countess. I simply wished to speak to the next Grandmaster of humanity." the Grand Duke's face was starting to get freaky. How was it that his expression did not change at all? The Soldier clan had great control over their muscles, but did that actually extend to their faces?

"Please, that is empty praise, Grand Duke. The path of cultivation is long, and there is no telling what will happen on the way." Althea said. "There are many that shot through the early stages, only to find themselves stalled at the later ones. The path is highly dependent on the manual, after all."

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"And yet, even those geniuses cannot be compared to you, Countess. The Druid manual is known to increase its difficulty gradually anyway. I doubt you will face any great difficulty." the Grand Duke said.

Althea smiled. "Perhaps. But a manual is only part of it. I am young, Grand Duke. Practicing the art is one thing, Mastering myself is quite another. I expect it will take me years to breakthrough, at least."

The Grand Duke's smile twitched a little, a very minute amount, but it was something. Althea was glad for it. "Even if it took you a decade, Countess, it would still be faster than any other. Even I took fifteen years to find myself. I know not how the mages of old crossed the stages so quickly."

"A mixture of expertise and special areas, I would say." Althea answered. "There Is much that was lost to time."

The Grand Duke's expression broke down, turning into one of sadness. Althea was too intelligent to think it anything but a conscious change in emotion. The Grand Duke wanted to show her this change.

"Yes, it is fortunate that you brought this topic up. I, too, think that far too much has been lost. At times, I wonder what propelled our ancestors to orchestrate the burning. Or the Fae wars. Or just about any of the great conflicts that weakened ourselves. What would our ancestors from five thousand years ago think if they looked at us today? The ones who had armies of Grandmasters, where we do not have even one."

Althea nodded, surprised at the Grand Duke's monologue. The Grand Duke was right, of course. If one only went by the number of Grandmasters, the world had weakened by a thousand times. Or more. There were over five thousand Grandmasters in the Diery family alone when the Grandmaster Council was formed. A Council to combat foreign threats, implying that at least one other force had similar numbers.

Now there were...six. Two of those, the King and Queen of Fae were over ten thousand years old. Perhaps even fifteen years old. The pair had established the Fae Empire and ruled it since.

The Human Grandmaster and one of the Elven Grandmasters were approaching their end, having lived for well over a thousand years. If the vault's records and her calculations were correct, they would die within thirty years at most. The other Elven Grandmasters weren't very young either. The Wizard was older than the burning, and though he still had centuries in him, he couldn't be considered young. Even the Mad King was over three hundred years old.

The entire world had weakened greatly. As if someone had purposefully, and very carefully, weakened them a bit by bit, Grandmaster by Grandmaster. Of course, that was just her mind running on itself. Doing something like that would benefit no one and be far too difficult to pull off.

"At least you have been able to preserve a little of our history here." the Grand Duke continued. Had he been talking this entire time? Althea hadn't noticed. That was quite rude of her, but oh well.

"This ballroom is a replica of the original in the old Citadel, yes?" the Grand Duke asked.

"A smaller one, I would wager." Althea replied.

"Oh?" The Grand Duke's surprise probably wasn't fake. The ballroom was extravagant, to say the least. Not just in the decorations, though they were wastefully expensive, but the mana cost.

The entire ballroom was powered by enchantments, including the stages. The dances would take place in floating disks that would take the mana of several Adepts to power it. And yet, it was probably less than what the original Law clan had built.

"The ballroom in the Deadre palace would require six Grandmasters to power it, at least. I cannot think the Law clan built anything that would require less. "

"I was not aware that the Deadre ballrooms were so lavish. How have you been conducting so many balls if they cost so much?"

Althea was not surprised that the Grand Duke was aware of her activities. Heck, she would be surprised if every noble in this ballroom hadn't read a report on her.

"Oh, those are merely large rooms. I am told they used to be administrative and training halls in the olden days. The real ballroom is on the highest floor of the palace. The six 'petals' have formations that come together to make a large floor made of pure mana. Mana of such high concentration that is solid enough to walk on."

The Grand Duke stared at her, surprise clear on his face. For once, she was sure she had managed to actually surprise him.

"That- would six Grandmasters even be enough for that?"

Althea smiled. "No. I think they used the ambient mana, at least that is what we have been able to piece together from the formations. But of course, that would imply that there used to be levels of ambient mana far greater than anything we have seen."

The Grand Duke took a great shuddering breath. "Yes, that does make sense, to some degree. The Diery family once boasted over a thousand Grandmasters. At least that is what our records say. At that level...perhaps they had enough mana to solidify an entire kilometer of space."

"Three." Althea interrupted. "The ballroom would be of at least one kilometer in radius according to the formations. So the space in total would have to be at least three kilometers."

The Grand Duke nodded, slowly. "Yes, three kilometers. Three kilometers."

The Grand Duke seemed to have gotten a big shock. Althea could see why. Perhaps a Novice would not understand what solidifying mana meant. But anyone above Master stage would. At Master stage, the core of mana solidified. That was what gave rise to the sheer difference in power between Master and Journeyman stage.

Althea's abilities had extended five times as much, allowing her to stretch for dozens of kilometers just from a liter of solid mana. The ballroom she spoke of would have kilometers of solid mana, enough to destroy continents. There was evidence, formations, historical proofs, but they did little to assure that such a thing was even possible. The amount of mana needed was simply...too great.

"Tell me, Countess, if all the mana on our continent were solidified, then how much would there be?" the Grand Duke asked. "What do you think?"

The question took her by surprise. Why was he asking that? The answer could be gotten from simple math, but why ask?

"I would say a kilometer or two." she said.

The Grand Duke shook his head. "No, you are missing how little mana the remote kingdoms truly have. I have spent the last few decades of my life calculating, and I believe we have no more than a five hundred meters of solid mana. In fact, the entire world combined does not have more than five kilometers of solid mana."

Althea frowned.

"There are records of other Grandmaster clans using far more mana than that.."

"Yes, the Rahn mansion was supposedly built on a floating city. A floating city, Countess. That is not possible with the mana we have now." the Grand Duke smiled, a smile that reached his eyes as he stared at her.

Althea realized two things from his words. The Grand Duke had been leading her the entire time, dragging her towards a particular question. The expressions, the exposition, even approaching her.

And that his leading did little to negate the actual question.

Where the heck did the mana go?