In just a few short years, Augustus had defeated most of the Wizard Organizations along the East Coast, from north to south, from east to west, subjugating them all, thus establishing the mighty Black Spirit Empire. Over the following years, he solidified the entire Black Spirit Empire thoroughly.
During this process, Augustus encountered no difficulties or challenges whatsoever—it all went smoothly.
He realized that all the various problems encountered during the establishment of the Black Spirit Empire had already been taught to him while he was learning from the old man. Initially, he did not know the purpose of these teachings, only memorizing them out of fear of punishment, and only when he really applied them did he discover their astonishing effect.
For instance, he prohibited the hereditary succession of officials, strengthened centralized power, established circuit courts, and enforced that all descendants of the nobles had territorial rights of ennobled lands, among other things.
Thus, over a decade, in infinite reverence for the old man, he transformed the Black Forest Empire into a stable, strong, praised by the people, with honest officials, reasonably restricted nobles, highly centralized power, and a vibrant country.
He felt he had absolutely fulfilled the task given to him by the old man and returned to the place where he had parted from the old man to find him.
But he did not find the old man; he only found a scroll left by him.
The scroll contained a message from the old man. It began by affirming his excellent performance, telling him that he had successfully completed his mission. Then it offered him a four-word warning: "Beware of them!"
Augustus, puzzled by the old man’s four-word advice, couldn’t figure it out. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖
Beware of them? Who are they?
After thinking for a long time without understanding, Augustus returned to the Royal Capital of the Black Spirit Empire, burdened with immense confusion, and ruled over the entire Black Spirit Empire for several more decades, bringing the empire to new heights.
Throughout these years, he continuously pondered, trying to understand the meaning behind the old man’s warning, until one day, decades later, he understood who "they" were! And soon after, a major catastrophe arrived.
Everything started with a minor and unexpected rebellion.
At the time, Augustus received the news but wasn’t overly concerned, assuming he could easily quell it. This wasn’t arrogance, but rather, over the years, the whole empire had developed a complete and robust system. Through this system, he could calmly deal with all kinds of natural disasters and man-made calamities, minimizing the impact while solving them. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
But what Augustus hadn’t anticipated was that the rebellion spread like wildfire on a dry prairie, faster than he or anyone else had expected. In a very short time, one-fifth of the empire’s territory was enveloped in it, and all his responses proved ineffective.
After discovering severe human errors in the communication system for his orders, he finally realized that "they" had arrived, and his empire seemed to have been infiltrated by "them," turning it into a sieve; his responses could not be fully implemented—he had been undermined!
Once he understood this, he couldn’t help panicking, followed by furious anger, and ultimately he responded with all his might.
He quickly adjusted the empire’s major policies, re-employed spies, strengthened supervision, controlled public opinion, controlled strategic resources, massively recruited soldiers, developed magical weapons, built Wizard Groups, and constructed armies of Wizard Apprentices, trying to defeat the mysterious "they" with a nationwide war.
As the war began, he and "they," who stood behind the Rebel Army, clashed multiple times. During these encounters, they inflicted damage on each other, but with his powerful strength, he was not afraid to exchange blow for blow. Following a few devastating losses, he almost completely annihilated the enemy.
But after the same situation repeated several times, he realized that he had been too confident. "They" were actually stronger and more cunning than him; he had completely fallen into the trap of their war of attrition.
What made him feel powerless was that he seemed completely unable to kill them. Even if he managed to kill one of them, it would not be long before they resurrected through another person’s body. This was a spell he had never heard of before—powerful, malevolent, and unassailable.
After a period of stalemate, the war situation inevitably began to turn increasingly disadvantageous.
In order to make a desperate counterattack, he began to frantically extract resources from his kingdom.
At that time, someone reported to him that there had been a breakthrough with a magic weapon from long ago—the "Destructive Gloves." Once the research was successful, the "Destructive Gloves" could completely kill the endlessly resurrecting "them" through their powerful Prediction Magic effects, thus defeating "them."
Augustus was overjoyed when he heard this and invested a large amount of resources into the research project of the magic weapon, instructing scholar wizards to expedite the process at all costs to successfully develop the "Destructive Gloves" and then improve the production process for mass manufacture.
Meanwhile, Augustus also realized another possibility: if the situation continued to worsen, even the successful development of the "Destructive Gloves" would be unable to turn the tide.
In light of this, he made dual preparations.
He had his trusted subordinates bury a part of the resources that could not immediately be converted into military strength in various locations, creating hidden treasures. He included a detailed record of the information he had collected about "them" and scrolls containing spell knowledge.
These included the design drawings of the "Destructive Gloves" and the original manufacturing process.
That way, if he truly failed, as long as his descendants could find his treasure, they could quietly accumulate power, manufacture a large number of "Destructive Gloves," and defeat "them" to successfully restore the empire.
Upon reaching this point, Richard sighed softly; he already knew the subsequent events: the Black Spirit King died suddenly (most likely assassinated by the so-called "them"), the Black Spirit Empire fell and split, resulting in the current situation on the East Coast. The numerous descendants of the Black Spirit King had since then been holed up in the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom on the central East Coast. According to the trend, in a few hundred more years, there would be no hope for the restoration of the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom, and perhaps even this last spark would be extinguished. After all, despite its wealth, the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom lacked the corresponding power, making it an attractive target for any onlooker.
Of course, the fate of the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom had nothing to do with him.
After sighing, Richard looked at the end of the scroll. It contained all the information about "them" that the Black Spirit King had gathered, hoping to give his descendants a proper warning, unlike the exceedingly vague one given by his former teacher—which, to him, was relevant and valuable.
Looking further, Richard’s expression grew increasingly solemn. Many things he had already speculated, but having them confirmed through the contributions of the Black Spirit King still inevitably weighed heavily on his heart.
According to the record in the scroll, the so-called "them" should be fully known as the "Supreme Order Divine Society."
The "Supreme Order Divine Society" was truly immensely powerful, each member almost eternally undying, possessing unimaginably bizarre spells.
Without the mighty weapon that was the "Destructive Gloves," the entire Black Spirit Empire was barely managing to cope with even the lower members of the "Supreme Order Divine Society." If the high-ranking members of the "Supreme Order Divine Society" were to join the fray, one could not even imagine the consequences.
And this pointed to a very harsh reality: the "Supreme Order Divine Society" dealing with the Black Spirit Empire didn’t seem like they were going all out; it seemed more like mockery.
It was disheartening.