"This is only a hypothesis of mine, but I might know the reason why the tower is currently in this half-active state."
Having just formed their little alliance, Theodore immediately went into the issue at hand. From the moment he had a gander at the tower and the lagoon it sat in the center of, Theodore had an inkling as to what the tower was supposed to be.
"Anything is better than nothing, do share your thoughts," Kalman said eagerly, welcoming the Demon Lord's insight.
For the longest time, Kalman had been discreetly investigating the tower, digging through what information he could find while fearing that the other elders might see through his intentions, to little avail. As an elder with little magical strength, though he had authority in name, he was naturally unable to go against the other elders directly. Even if he did try, nothing would come of it as he would have no means of taking action against them. As such, he feigned apathy before them, pretending to have no interest in the Circle's affair.
To be honest, Kalman was about to lose hope. He was about to give up on his dearest wish and spend the rest of his life quietly. That was, until Theodore showed up. From the moment he heard that the boy might be the Demon Lord reincarnate and that he was to be placed under his custody, Kalman felt a fire reignite in his heart. It was at that moment he swore to himself that he'll do everything to gain his cooperation. From that moment on, Kalman was ready to sell his soul to the devil if he had to.
"I'll start from the beginning then. From the investigation of the late Demon Lord and my observations upon arrival."
Theodore closed his eyes momentarily after those words, it was as if he was trying to drag up old memories to the surface of the sea of his mind. It was barely a moment later did he opened his eyes again.
"It was shortly after the Cygnus Union fell to the demonkin and the Demon Lord was planning their next invasion into the Nixian Empire. Knowing that their greatest threat would be the Mage Tower, the Demon Lord sent spies to investigate..."
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For mages, Aether was their greatest weapon. So long as the supply of Aether was rich, the mages, as a collective, was a force to be reckoned with. As such, the first and foremost concern of the Demon Lord was the leylines in the vicinity of the tower.
Upon investigation, what the Demon Lord's spies discovered was shocking even to the Demon Lord. According to the report sent in by the spies, the leylines within the empire had unnatural flows, their paths twisted in ways atypical of leylines. That in itself was not a surprise as there were many ways to influence the flow of a leyline through the use of magic arrays, forcefully bending the flow of Aether in the desired direction. What was unnatural about the leylines found within the empire was that there were no arrays set in their paths whatsoever.
It was as if rather than being redirected, the flow of Aether was being drawn towards a singular spot. Said spot was, of course, underneath where the tower stood. Something was drawing the Aether towards the tower from deep underground, a force so great that even the Demon Lord felt fear at the mere idea of it.
Typically, when leylines intersect, the collision would result in a portion of Aether being carried upwards, at times penetrating out to the surface and creating a 'wellspring' of Aether. Since ancient times, witches had used such wellsprings to power their magic structures and devices.
The Demon Lord suspected that the tower was no different, having once used the Aether wellspring to power it. However, as the mages who discovered the tower roughly five hundred years ago were unable to reach the top of the tower, the wellspring must have receded.
Yet, the leylines were found to be drawn towards the tower still, meaning that there was still a large amount of Aether being gathered beneath the tower despite the tower being in a half-active state for at least five hundred years. As for what that meant, the Demon Lord had two guesses. Either something was blocking the majority of Aether from reaching the tower or something had been siphoning the massive amount of Aether, both possibilities would leave very little Aether for the tower and force it to operate on minimal power.
It was at that moment the late Demon Lord decided that they must either obtain the said 'something' or destroy it. Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, the Demon Lord never made it that far, being defeated in the Luftyr Plains where the final battle took place.
If what the Demon Lord suspected was true, then Theodore reasoned that by removing whatever was keeping Aether from reaching the tower, then the tower should be back to a fully functional state, allowing the mages to have access to the top of the tower and the mythical Alvan ship docked high up above.
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End of Chapter 69
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