Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Chapter 329: Reputation

As soon as Priam finished extracting the memories of the eight Sorcerers, his gaze turned toward Dandara, his expression grave.

"Move the entire army to the extreme east immediately. One of the three main planets will be attacked soon."

Upon hearing the order, Dandara simply nodded and quickly headed toward the command center.

Meanwhile, Priam took a deep breath, assimilating the web of information he had just uncovered.

The southern region of the Divine Plane had around eleven Sorcerer sects. Those eight belonged to a minor sect and had limited knowledge. But the enemies’ initial tactics were already well-defined.

To put it simply, Priam had been thrown into a war that had been mathematically designed to be lost.

The initial attack on Violet Ocean Planet had merely been a test carried out by second-rate forces. The goal was to measure the true strength of the army led by Priam.

The most alarming part, however, was the information leak: the Sorcerers knew exactly where Priam’s fleet had been stationed before they even began the invasion.

The Sorcerers’ techniques were brutal. Acting like a pack of wolves unleashed upon defenseless civilians, they slaughtered entire populations to absorb the blood and vital essence of their victims, strengthening their weapons, bodies, and spirits in real time.

The invaders’ initial gamble was that ten hours of uninterrupted slaughter would give their soldiers enough power to have an 80% chance of defeating Priam’s army, assuming he was merely average.

Since Priam’s fleet proved to be far stronger than estimated, the second phase of the enemy’s strategy came into play: the pulverization of chaos.

The Sorcerers would begin carrying out dozens of small, simultaneous attacks on secondary planets. The goal wasn’t direct conquest, but to create a smokescreen to conceal devastating strikes against the most strategically valuable targets.

Those eight only knew which planets were the most likely candidates to be targeted first in that strategy, in the eastern region.

Then, the inescapable trap would spring.

Priam was responsible for defending nearly a hundred priority planets.

Regarding attacks in several different locations, if he split his army of 150,000 soldiers to try to cover multiple points of conflict, small contingents would end up falling into ambushes by the Sorcerers’ main forces and be wiped out.

On the other hand, if he kept the fleet unified, he would only be able to protect one location at a time, forced to watch helplessly as dozens of other planets were destroyed.

It was a simple and logical trap, but impossible to predict beforehand. After all, the initial estimates provided by Dandara indicated a much smaller contingent of low-level soldiers among the enemy.

The sect’s prediction was that the Sorcerers would attack, at most, two locations simultaneously, since sending fewer than 100,000 soldiers to a planet would allow the local population to use their numerical advantage to wage a war of attrition.

The problem was that those numbers were completely wrong: the enemy army was at least five times larger than estimated.

Something had certainly happened among the Sorcerers for them to have such numbers in this generation. That was possibly the reason they had chosen to start a large-scale war. They had an immense advantage, one that extended to the high-level Sages as well.

To make matters worse, Priam felt that the Elder Central had suspected this.

That was because the Sorcerers had launched their initial attack with extreme caution, measuring the army’s strength and planning their moves in advance.

They could have simply attacked all at once, but they wanted to guarantee victory through tactics. It was as if they suspected the sect knew everything and was prepared.

Even so, the Elder Central had placed Priam in this position — he was the leader of an army created to protect every location, but one that would fail miserably. At most, he would take care of a dozen locations while several dozen others were destroyed.

How many billions of people would die?

Even without being at fault, Priam would be indirectly held responsible for the loss of dozens of planets. He wouldn’t face any formal punishment, but his name and reputation would be tarnished.

"Even though I’m trying to do the right thing and protect the sect, they threw me into this shitty situation..." Priam grumbled with a dry, cold smile.

The next second, his gaze hardened.

"On the other hand, someone had to take this mess. It’s not like the sect had many options. Fortunately, they chose the right person to lead this. Do they think I’ll accept defeat and watch the planets fall? Let’s see how long these Sorcerers can stand playing with me..."

Priam reflected in silence for a few moments. His plans had to be reconsidered. Continuing to chase after the Sorcerers in a purely defensive game would be his downfall. He needed to turn the tables.

But for that, he needed an opportunity.

...

After just a few hours of travel, the entire fleet reached the easternmost edge of the southern region of the Divine Plane. They strategically positioned themselves near the three main planets in that sector.

Except for Dandara, who blindly trusted Priam, the disciples from all the other branches were deeply uneasy.

The Elder Central’s explicit order had been to keep the fleet anchored in the central position, from where they could respond to any call from anywhere within a reasonable amount of time.

However, Priam had openly disobeyed the directive and headed straight east.

He was the commander of the army and held the decision-making power; however, if he made even a single mistake, the responsibility would fall entirely on his shoulders. If an attack happened in the far west now, it would take the fleet more than an entire day to cross the territory — more than enough time for everything to be reduced to ashes.

The southern region of the Divine Plane was a brutally treacherous territory. Casually navigating a Flying Warship outside the established routes was practically suicide.

No one knew exactly where the enemy sects’ hideouts were, and the space between solar systems and galaxies was filled with invisible traps made of pure corruption. Getting caught in one meant certain doom.

Because of this, in the absence of long-distance teleportation arrays — extremely rare resources that were also located very far apart from one another — the entire fleet had to travel strictly along fixed and mapped routes, fortified over the ages with defensive barriers and inscriptions against the Sorcerers.

These safe routes weren’t straight lines; they were filled with detours and sharp curves. Crossing the southern region from one end to the other required strictly respecting a speed limit so as not to leave the protected path, making any long journey a painfully slow process.

However, to everyone’s surprise...

...the fleet hadn’t even been positioned for two hours when the emergency alarm resounded throughout every vessel.

"Attack detected! Everyone to Blood Sun Planet!"

The order echoed across the thirteen vessels, which shot forward like lightning toward their destination.

The disciples from the branches were stunned. How did the leadership know the attack would happen exactly there?

Thanks to the advance repositioning, they could intervene in record time and contain the massacre before it spread. The vessels cut through space at maximum speed and, in less than a minute, entered the atmosphere of Blood Sun Planet.

There was no need to search the map: that planet housed a single massive metropolis, where the entire population and the greatest riches were concentrated.

As they slowed down through the skies above the city, something unexpected caught everyone’s attention.

Standing atop the monumental gates of the metropolis was the solitary figure of a man wrapped in a concealing cloak. He was a Sage — not a Sorcerer — but only the lower half of his face remained visible beneath the shadow of his hood.

In front of the city gates, an army of Sorcerers was preparing for the massacre.

In the hands of the strange hooded man, a spear of dazzling white light and multicolored hues manifested.

Pulling his right arm back in one clean, firm motion, he shifted his body and hurled the weapon like a devastating projectile.

"Heaven’s Rupture!"

A cold, deep voice echoed. Although it hadn’t been spoken loudly, it resounded with crystal-clear clarity across the entire planet.

*WOOOOOOOSH!*

The spear tore through the fabric of space, advancing toward the enemy horde like a falling star of destruction.

Initially only two meters long, the weapon expanded at a terrifying speed as it crossed the sky, releasing such an oppressive aura that the earth and atmosphere trembled in response.

By the time it approached within two hundred meters of the Sorcerer army, the projectile was already more than thirty meters wide.

**KBOOOM!**

An overwhelming wave of energy exploded in every direction, tearing a colossal crater into the ground.

Those hit directly were pulverized into a bloody mist. The sky was dyed red as more than half of the invading force was eradicated by that single attack.

At the last moment, the Sage-level Sorcerers joined forces to raise an emergency shield. They were only able to prevent half of them from dying. However, every single one of them staggered backward, coughing up blood.

That throw didn’t just possess tremendous physical power, but was overflowing with such overwhelming will that it instinctively compelled anyone who witnessed it to submit.

Aboard the Flying Warships, the disciples stared at the scene in shock, realizing the masterful combination of mental energy, spiritual energy, and raw power contained within the attack.

However...

Dandara looked at Priam and immediately noticed the change in his expression.

He had noticed something that had escaped the eyes of the ordinary soldiers.

’That attack was tailor-made to eradicate these Sorcerers... A technique focused on mental destruction, the exact weakness of this low-level sect that would attack this place. There was no way some random Sage could have known that. And the fact that he just happened to be positioned here, ready to defend the city even before we arrived... that’s far too suspicious.’