Legacy of the Dark Sage

A few minutes after the surprise attack at the Military District.

Ducal was surprised that such a powerful attack slipped past the Dragon Plane's Array Formation. Although the plane's formation was not the most outstanding among the Ancients' Arrays, they still created it. For an attack to sneak past its surveillance was genuinely unfathomable.

While there were gaps within the Array Formation that one could exploit, Rae's assistance and Kyran's enhancement more or less addressed those gaps and covered them to lower the chances of the enemies using them.

The surprise attack was actually very potent. If Ducal were a fraction of a second late warning, the other dragons would have suffered fatalities. They were naturally born with good body and senses, but that did not make them unsusceptible to death.

To be honest, Ducal felt that Kyran and Rae's improvements to the Array Formation might have lowered the sneak attack's intensity, allowing them to endure it well.

"...Report your status!" Ducal shouted as soon as he emerged from under the rubble after the command center was destroyed.

"...Co-confirming everyone on the team has survived, with some minor injuries."

The team leader, who activated his Sigil and boosted his members' defenses, confirmed that all of them were alive.

"Tend to the wounded and take over this place. I have to check on the others," Ducal ordered the team leader after finding him among the explosion's devastation.

"Yes!" the team leader replied and started giving orders to his members, who could move without problem.

Ducal left as soon as he gave out an order and checked on the other location. He already used his Divine Sense to gauge his surroundings, but because others were also actively using their divine sense, he could barely understand what was being conveyed.

It was still a little early to make a statement, but at the very least, he confirmed that they did not lose anyone from the Military District.

'..But the problem is the communication tower,' Ducal thought as he rushed toward the district's center.

Before the attack, a few buildings surrounded the communication tower. However, the tower's height was too high that those buildings could not completely block it from one's view.

That was no longer the case.

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In fact, the brunt of the attack was concentrated on the communication tower, and nothing was left of it.

"Sir Ducal!"

A dragon, wearing the same uniform as Ducal, confirming his affiliation to the latter's department, appeared from behind the thick black smoke that still lingered where the communication tower used to be.

Ducal secretly heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing one of the selected few of his people who accompanied him there. Though he confirmed no one died through his Divine Sense, he was unsure of their status.

Since his people were stationed near the communication tower, it would not be strange if they suffered severe injuries. But judging by the members running toward him, it appeared that they endured the attack well.

"How are the others?" Ducal asked, doubling his pace to approach the member.

"We were able to survive because of the tower's defensive array. However, the array shattered soon after, and the tower suffered some damage—."

"Wait, what?"

"Yes. Unfortunately. The tower's defensive array only barely endured the attack and—."

"No. What are you talking about? The tower's defensive array? When did the tower ever have one?"

The member stared blankly at Ducal, at a loss for words.

"...Did you not set it up?"

Ducal frowned, "Would I ask if I did? There was indeed a defensive array here, but it was not concentrated within the communication tower. That array was also weak and did not even activate properly before we got hit by the attack..."

His voice trailed off as his Divine Sense picked up a few presences that he could not distinguish earlier.

With most high-ranked dragons in the Military District taking action to stabilize the situation, the flurry of Divine Sense also decreased, allowing Ducal to finally get a better view of what his Divine Sense conveyed. Only then was he able to judge the presence within the area.

'This presence... Cade a few of his members?'n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

That was when Ducal realized that the defensive array mentioned by his member might have been Cade and his people's doing. It was still his speculation, but he was already convinced that was what happened.

'Since when did they make a move?' he wondered with a wry smile.

"...sir Ducal—?"

"The damage to the communication tower," Ducal asked before the member could ask why he looked a little off, "When can it be fixed?"

"The others are still running a complete diagnostic, but from the initial assessment, we estimated it would take about half a day to fix it."

"One hour."

"Pardon?"

"We'll fix it in one hour."

"But—."

"We'll have the Regises assist us."

"The Regis Family?"

"Yes," Ducal nodded. Seeing the confused look on his member's face, he guessed that Cade and his people had entered the military district secretly and created a defensive array around the communication tower.

Whether they instinctively guessed that the enemies would target the communication first and did it, Ducal did not care. He was not even angry at them for sneaking inside the district. What mattered was that their action stopped their situation from turning into the worst-case.

"The plane's formation is still intact. But because of this attack, it is already certain that the enemies have successfully entered the plane. The communication tower is crucial to our side's planning and movement, so we must get it up and running as soon as possible.

"To be honest, I want the tower up and running in half an hour, but that is obviously impossible."

The member's complexion turned pale at Ducal's statement of fixing the tower in half an hour, and the latter's following words did not make the member feel any better.

"Since fixing it in half an hour is impossible, we'll do it in an hour."

"... A-an hour... T-That's... still..."

"Let's go," Ducal ignored the member's troubled expression and continued to the communication tower. He did not suggest that deadline just because the situation was urgent. He was aware of the Regis Family's Array Knowledge and believed in them; fixing the communication tower, or at least creating a workaround to make it work, was feasible. Though their skills were still lower than Kyran and Rae, they were still very skilled. In fact, it was wrong to compare their skills with Kyran and Rae because they were on a different level altogether.

Anyway, if Cade and his people combined their skills with Ducal and the members of his department, then fixing or creating a workaround was feasible in an hour.

Ducal and Cade spearheading the reconstruction of the communication tower was the scene that the team sent by Celestine witnessed after their arrival.

They sent a report after confirming that Ducal and the others survived. However, the residual magic fluctuation from the attack that lingered in the air disrupted the connection from the backup communication channel.

That was also why Ducal could not report their survival to the other Aides. While he could have sent a messenger to report their status to the war room, most of the abled dragons were still busy tending to the wounded. The abled dragons were also smaller, so they could not assign a team at once. Moreover, they deemed it wise to stay put rather than risk sending a team only to get ambushed by enemies, especially since they had yet to understand the overall situation.

In the end, the communication tower could not be fixed. At least, not in an hour. Thus, Ducal and Cade thought of a workaround by creating an array formation that would link the communication tower's intact part to the backup communication.

Doing so would allow backup communication to reach a more extensive range with a stable line. Moreover, since the other Aides were already linked to the backup communication channel, they did not have to send the new path to get them connected. The communication tower also linked every communication device, so everyone would automatically be connected to the backup channel.

This removed the downside of the backup communication channel, which could only connect a few higher-ranked dragons and the Aides.

Just as Ducal wanted, the workaround was completed in an hour.

Shiing!

The communication tower linked up to the backup communication channel instantly, and the monitor that Ducal's members fixed showed a replica of the map inside the war room.

"What?"

Everyone exclaimed as soon as they saw the enemy indicators at several locations on the map.

Ducal, in particular, who knew about the key points of the plane's formation, narrowed his eyes in exasperation.

"...Focus on monitoring and planning our next course of action with sir Celestine, sir Ducal," Cade, who was also looking at the monitor with a grim expression, said.

Ducal looked at him, somewhat distracted, "What...?"

"My people, and my son's... we'll move independently."