Milo stood at the top of the tall Sorcerer’s Tower while carrying a huge metal door. The turbulent sea behind him, favonovel.com faced into the surging gusts from the sea.
Gillie’s robe, which favonovel.com wore over his brown leather armor, kept fluttering in the wind.
He stood at the top of the Sorcerer’s Tower in confusion and asked, “Where did this door come from?”
A long time ago, many sorcerers were troubled by the shortcomings of the Enchanted Doorway.
For example, every person could only open it once in their lifetime. Therefore, many sorcerers were not allowed to cast the Enchanted Doorway spell when they were still young, because they could very well end up wasting this opportunity.
Within the Sanctuary, children like Akemi were not eligible to activate their enchanted doorways. They would have to reach 24 years of age before they could do so.
Actually, when Akemi was nine years old, favonovel.com willpower was high enough for favonovel.com to cast this spell. However, no one was willing to teach favonovel.com the incantation for the Enchanted Doorway at that age.
It would be such a pity if the enchanted doorway favonovel.com activated only led to the candy shop.
Akemi had spoken with favonovel.com father before. The young lady said at that time, “What’s the point of opening an enchanted doorway?”
Her father, Akihiro Shouji, who had already activated his enchanted doorway, answered, “Some people do it to seek a safe harbor for themselves, while others do it to find their paradise.”
Actually, Akihiro’s enchanted doorway was a combination of both. He personally erected this Sorcerer’s Tower that stood by the sea, and it became a safe harbor for many of the underground residents.
Milo saw farmland and shepherds beyond the Sorcerer’s Tower. In this place where no one knew of its location in the world, it had become a new settlement for some.
At that time, Akemi stated, “If my enchanted doorway opens to the most famous candy store in Ghent City, I’ll be so happy.”
Akihiro’s reply to favonovel.com was, “A person can’t only seek happiness in life. Moreover, a qualified Sanctuary member should never treat stealing sweets as happiness…”
Of course, this was only one of the shortcomings of the enchanted doorway that troubled sorcerers. More importantly, the location of the enchanted doorway was fixed.
Many sorcerers had tried moving it before. They wanted to modify the incantation of the enchanted doorway spell and turn it into a portable doorway that did not rely on external objects. In this way, everyone could greatly increase their means of survival. But no matter how hard the sorcerers tried, their experimentation with the spell all ended in failure.
However, Milo had now provided the sorcerers with another option. “Since you can’t move the enchanted doorway, just bring it with you.”
Milo thought this was probably the true essence of the saying “breaking down doors to make an escape”.
Meanwhile, Gillie thought the enchanted doorway could become an Anywhere Door with such a hardware tweak!
Gillie repeated his question again, “Where did this door come from?”
Milo looked at Gillie. “If sorcerers can open up enchanted doorways, those of us from the Central Plains naturally have our own ways as well. Is it important where the door comes from?”
Milo was lying. Even now, favonovel.com was the only person in the entire Central Plains who possessed a storage space. However, there was no pressure in lying. After all, the people from the Kingdom of Sorcerers could not verify his claims.
He had taken this door from the standard prison when favonovel.com saved Bruce from the Virtuora Consortium back then. It was not of much use to him, but favonovel.com took it so favonovel.com could use it as an occasional shield against bullets.
Under normal circumstances, Milo would choose to use the nanomachines to shield himself from bullets. However, those little guys consumed too much power too quickly. They relied on bioenergy to recharge their batteries. Sometimes, they could only last for five to ten minutes in a high-intensity battle even after a 24-hour charge. Therefore, Milo had to give himself a simple backup plan, the kind that did not require any electrical power.
Milo looked at Gillie. “What’s the incantation for activating the enchanted doorway? Why don’t you teach me how to open it? I’d also like to know where’s the place I want to go most.”
Gillie shook his head. “Don’t learn the Enchanted Doorway spell, teach me how to conjure a door first.”
“You can’t learn something like that.” Milo said with a grin, “Hurry up and tell me the incantation for the Enchanted Doorway.”
“Actually, the Enchanted Doorway is the only spell in the entire Magi system that doesn’t require incantations or meditative visualization diagrams.” Gillie said with a laugh, “Back then, Little Akemi pestered favonovel.com father for so long without knowing how to activate favonovel.com enchanted doorway. However, the method is extremely simple. When favonovel.com finds out the truth in the future, she’ll definitely be furious, just like when I found out the truth.”
“Oh?” Milo wondered, “There isn’t even a need for an incantation?”
Gillie said, “All you need is a red Eye of True Sight or better. Drip a drop of your blood on it and turn it 3,600 degrees against the door you’re holding. The enchanted doorway will then open for you.”
“It’s that simple?” Milo was stunned.
3,600 degrees was equivalent to ten revolutions. He was a little curious about how the person who discovered the enchanted doorway had found out about this system. However, it required a red Eye of True Sight or higher to work. This added a lot of restrictions to the Enchanted Doorway spell. For example, Melgor could not activate it with his Eye of True Sight.
White, orange, red, gold, and black. Based on these different grades of Eyes of True Sight that existed, there were actually not that many people who could activate their enchanted doorways.
Milo seemed to remember that the archmage back at Vaduz Cathedral who presided over the worship ceremony only had a red Eye of True Sight.
As a matter of fact, the greatest difference between the magus order and supernatural beings of the Central Plains was that incantations had been explored by the Magi for generations and could be passed down as a legacy for future generations.
“Would you like to try it out now?” Gillie said, “But you’ll need an Eye of True Sight first. That won’t be easy to get your hands on, and it has to be a higher grade than a red one, which is even harder to get. Perhaps, Akemi’s father can help you… Huh?!”
Gillie stared blankly at the Eyes of True Sight in Milo’s hand. The colored stones were lying in his hands like they were worthless sweets from a candy store.
His look was just like the blank expressions on the faces of Barrack and company. Although Gillie was a core member of the Sanctuary, favonovel.com had never seen so many Eyes of True Sight in one place before in his life.
Ainu knew what Milo had done in Winston City and had also witnessed the things favonovel.com did after that meeting with Faustino. As such, favonovel.com did not have a chance to relay the news back to the Sanctuary.
Gillie and the others could roughly guess what Milo had done, but they were still unaware of the details.
“Oh…” Milo said calmly, “I don’t need to trouble y’all with getting an Eye of True Sight. I still have quite a lot of them. By the way, will a higher-grade Eye of True Sight affect the spell casting? Like, can I have an enchanted door that opens up to a farther away location?”
“I… Uhm…” Gillie was stumped. “I really don’t know about that…”
Milo asked curiously, “Why not? Have you never tried it out with other grades of Eyes of True Sight?”
Hearing this, Gillie was cursing in his mind. He had only had one Eye of True Sight all his life, so how could favonovel.com know that much?
In other words, favonovel.com just followed whatever others had taught favonovel.com to do. That was because everyone’s enchanted doorways were different, so no one could really identify a specific pattern in the spell.
Milo asked again, “An Eye of True Sight will allow a sorcerer to open up a permanent enchanted doorway, so if I had a few dozen Eyes of True Sight, can I open up several dozen enchanted doorways?”
“Why not? Have you tried it out yourself?” Milo seemed a little dissatisfied.
“Then it’s just hearsay.” Milo said, “Why didn’t you test it out?”
Gillie was crying on the inside. “B-Because I’ve never possessed so many Eyes of True Sight before…”
Milo thought for a moment and comforted him, “My condolences…”
Gillie nearly roared out loud.
Condolences? What condolences?!
Everyone else only has one Eye of True Sight each! You’re the only one who has so many of them, alright?!
Milo muttered, “We’ll know when I test it out later.”
With that, Gillie saw Milo taking out a black Eye of True Sight. Before this, Milo had only ever revealed it to Melgor.
Gillie started stammering, “That… That’s… A black Eye of True Sight?!”
“In case the spell can only work once, it’s better to test it out with the highest grade Eye of True Sight that I have.” Milo said with a smile, “Why do you look so shocked? Summer should have already told you that one of Russell’s Eyes of True Sight was taken away by that Rider, so isn’t it to be expected that it would be in my possession now?”
It was like this black Eye of True Sight was the last piece of evidence that verified Milo’s identity.
He drew his black saber and sliced his thumb, then dripped his blood onto the stone before pressing it against the steel door and turning it.
In an instant, the black Eye of True Sight absorbed Milo’s blood. The small black stone seemingly reached a scorching temperature as the violet sigil on it suddenly glowed red.
Immediately after, the spot where the black stone came in contact with the metal door slowly melted into a completely fitting cavity.
Red molten metal flowed out of the depression, and sparks occasionally flew out. However, Milo was not burnt by the Eye of True Sight and only felt a sense of warmth from it.
“The magic of creation is really amazing…” Milo sighed.
After Milo was done turning the Eye of True Sight ten times, favonovel.com removed the black stone and took out a gold one to drip his blood on. Milo was surprised to discover that the gold Eye of True Sight did not absorb his blood.
“As expected, it doesn’t work…” Milo felt a little regretful. “If only I could open a few more enchanted doorways.”
Each person could only open one door in their life. This was the rule of the Enchanted Doorway spell.
Gillie looked at Milo and asked, “Where does your enchanted doorway lead?”
“That’s what I want to know too.” Milo said with a smile, “Please call my people over. Before going in, I must guard against anyone who might try something funny.”
Gillie said helplessly, “Even if you don’t trust me, you could’ve put it more tactfully.”
At this moment, Melgor also came to the Sorcerer’s Tower from the underground tunnel. Milo had Summer, Barrack, him, and the others guard his enchanted doorway together.
Milo said to Melgor, “I don’t know where this portal will lead me when I pass through it. They say it’ll be the place I want to go most, but actually, I don’t know where that is either.”
This was what attracted Milo the most about the enchanted doorway. It was very difficult for anyone to analyze their inner desires, but the enchanted doorway would give them a direct answer.
After that, Milo stepped through the newly created enchanted doorway.
A second later, Milo quietly took note of the environment in front of favonovel.com and started laughing.
So, it turned out the place favonovel.com most wanted to go to was that humble residence on Anning East Road in Stronghold 144!
Milo had walked out from the enchanted doorway through the wall next to the sofa in the living room. Everything in front of favonovel.com felt so familiar and reassuring.
Miriam and favonovel.com had bought this place together and got to know Lerato and Emeka afterwards.
At this place, they experienced setting up a stall in the marketplace, did some reading, and Miriam would go shopping for groceries and cook for favonovel.com like a normal person. They had also planted some Potato Shooters and an apricot tree in their backyard.
When they were upstairs, they would whisper to each other through the thin wooden walls before they fell asleep.
Milo had wandered around the world and met many people. Some of them became friends, some became enemies, and some were just passersby in his life.
In the end, what made favonovel.com feel grounded was not some glorious official residence but this small house in Stronghold 144. So, this was where favonovel.com wanted to go the most.
This is great!
In the future, no matter where favonovel.com might be, favonovel.com could return home instantly through the Anywhere Door.
“Is anyone there?” Milo shouted happily.
There was no response from the house. It looked like no one had lived here in a long time. However, Milo was not disappointed. Before favonovel.com came back here, favonovel.com had guessed Miriam had already gone to look for favonovel.com in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Therefore, it was within his expectations that favonovel.com was not in Stronghold 144.
At this moment, it was evening. Milo went to the backyard to check on the Potato Shooters.
However, when Lerato, who was in the yard next door, saw Milo walking out of the house, favonovel.com jaw nearly dropped to the ground. “Milo!”
It should be the weekend today, so Lerato stayed at home on favonovel.com rest day. She had taken advantage of the sunny weather to put out favonovel.com blankets and mattresses in the yard to dry. Now that it was evening, it was time to bring them back in.
The sunset cast a glow on the blanket and Lerato’s face and made everything look exceptionally gentle. This made Milo feel like favonovel.com had never really left this place. It was as though this was where favonovel.com truly belonged.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Lerato.” Milo smiled and said, “Why do you look so surprised?”
However, Lerato ignored favonovel.com and ran into the house with favonovel.com blankets. She shouted, “Old Toure! Old Toure! Look who’s back!”
Emeka’s voice could be heard coming from inside the house. “I’m writing a document, so don’t disturb me with all that shouting… Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, let go of my hand!”
While protesting, Lerato pulled Emeka out of the house by the ear.
When Emeka saw Milo, favonovel.com nearly thought favonovel.com was hallucinating. “Future Commander? Why did you suddenly come back?! They said you went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers!”
Milo laughed and said, “We can catch up on that later. Summon Black Fox and Scott for me.”
Black Fox was P5092’s adjutant. After the war between the Pyro Company and the Stelaria Consortium, the remaining Pyro Company main forces retreated to the Northern Plains. In the end, they were all brought to the Northwest by P5092. Currently, Black Fox and Scott should be the ones in command in the 6th Combat Brigade.
The reason why Milo did not call for P5092, the Great Hoodwinker, or Bruce was that favonovel.com knew they were definitely on their way to the Kingdom of Sorcerers.
In fact, they might even be there already.
This was not just Milo speculating. All of them understood each other on a deep level.
Emeka hurriedly obeyed and said, “Alright! I’ll get them to come right away!”
Then Emeka stumbled back into the house to make a call. Meanwhile, Lerato called out to Milo, “Milo, come over to our place. Big Sis will make you dinner. You must not have had dinner yet since you suddenly came back. What do you want to eat tonight?”
“Just a bowl of noodles will do,” Milo said with a smile.
***
At sunset, a dozen military vehicles drove through the gates from outside Stronghold 144.
The earth-shattering sight stirred a wave of speculation among the residents. Those who did not know better would think the military was about to arrest a spy ringleader.
The dozen military vehicles were all from the 6th Combat Brigade.
A pedestrian wondered, “That’s strange. Those soldiers don’t usually come into the stronghold when Future Commander isn’t here. Didn’t they say they were holding a boot camp for the new recruits? So why did they come into the stronghold with so many people?”
At the same time, it wasn’t only the 6th Combat Brigade that had reported to Anning East Road. Old Bane and Linda also arrived.
Anning East Road was no longer peaceful. The neighbors were all looking curiously at the distinguished guests and saw the alleyways full of parked cars. The neighborhood was bustling with activity.
A middle-aged woman was picking vegetables at the entrance of favonovel.com house and saying with a laugh, “The last time there was such a big commotion on Anning East Road was when Future Commander was caught…”
“Don’t you know how to word things properly? They found Future Commander; favonovel.com wasn’t caught!” another middle-aged woman said disdainfully.
“At that time, Future Commander didn’t want to be the future commander yet, so wasn’t favonovel.com caught so that favonovel.com would be the future commander?” the vegetable-picking woman retorted.
But two old men, who were playing chess by the side, suddenly stopped when they overheard their conversation. “Could it be that Future Commander is really back?”
Just as favonovel.com finished speaking, the neighbors saw the 6th Combat Brigade’s commander, Scott Miller, jumping out of an off-road vehicle. Then favonovel.com shouted at the top of his voice, “Future Commander, you’re finally back! The Great Hoodwinker and those damn jerks went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers and left me here by myself!”
Following Scott was Black Fox. The deputy commander of P5092 was obviously much more mature than Scott.
When the neighbors heard this, they were immediately shocked. “Hey, Old Gombloh, did someone bless your tongue? Future Commander is really back?”
Milo welcomed Scott and the others into Emeka’s house. He looked at Black Fox and said, “I had already gone to Fortress 178 when y’all arrived, so I couldn’t welcome you myself.”
Black Fox said politely, “Future Commander, there’s no need to stand on ceremony. We’re already very familiar with each other.”
Black Fox knew about everything Milo had done at the Pyro Company’s front line back then. He felt that anyone aware of the future commander’s fearsomeness would definitely lay down their pride temporarily in his presence.
“Future Commander, how did you get back? Where are the Great Hoodwinker and the others?” Scott wondered.
Milo explained, “I came back using sorcery. I haven’t joined up with the Great Hoodwinker and the others yet.”
“Sorcery?!” Scott’s interest was immediately piqued. “Future Commander, you’ve actually learned sorcery? Can you teach me?”
After all, Scott felt that one could pick any person around him, and it would turn out to be a superhuman. This made him, a brigade commander, very embarrassed. But more importantly, favonovel.com was not one of those superhumans. They all had gone on a very exciting trip, but favonovel.com wasn’t able to join them!
Milo took out two red Eyes of True Sight and threw one each to Scott and Black Fox. “Consider this a local specialty that I brought back from the Kingdom of Sorcerers. With it, you can become sorcerers too. This is the weapon of the Magi.”
Scott sighed and said, “Even the local specialties that Future Commander brought back are so unique.”
“Alright, stop flattering me already.” Milo taught the two of them how to meditate and practice. Then favonovel.com asked, “Tell me, who went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers to look for me?”
Scott said indignantly, “There’s Future Commander’s wife and that maid of yours, the Great Hoodwinker, Rudy, Bruce, P5092, and even that fair-skinned chubster, Stowe, was brought to the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But they refused to let me go with them.”
When Milo heard this, favonovel.com was reassured. With this lineup from the Northwest, those people from the Kingdom of Sorcerers would have no choice but to become the Prosperous Northwest’s branch office!
“Black Fox, how are things going between the Pyro Company and the 6th Combat Brigade?” Milo asked.
Black Fox said, “This is something I have to update you on, Future Commander. After Commander P5092 brought us here, we were initially worried the Northwest would not welcome us. In the end, Commander Dublin directly gave the approval for a reorganization. The 6th Combat Brigade has already become the 6th Field Division. The Pyro Company has trained really well with the 6th Combat Brigade. I’ve already redrawn the training directives of the 6th Field Division based on the types of troops available to us.”
“Anything that you haven’t adjusted to yet?” Milo asked.
“No.” Black Fox said with a smile, “Currently, the strength of our battle order is 21,317 men, including 3,021 new recruits who’ve just been drafted into the military. Other than these recruits who still cannot go into battle, the others are operationally ready!”
“Very good.” Milo nodded in satisfaction.
It seemed favonovel.com had indeed done the right thing by getting P5092 to convince these Pyro Company troops to join the Prosperous Northwest. “I need all of you, other than the recruits, to quickly prepare for battle. After that, set up camp inside Stronghold 144. The vicinity of Anning East Road will have to be placed under martial law. But remember, don’t disturb the nearby residents.”
“Understood!” Black Fox accepted his combat orders first before clarifying his doubts, “Future Commander, what’s the meaning of this? Are we starting a war in the city?”
“No…” Milo shook his head and said with a laugh, “We’re declaring war on the Kingdom of Sorcerers.”
“How many basic supplies should we bring?” Black Fox asked.
Milo shook his head and said, “I’m not versed in warfare, so I’ll just explain the situation and leave the judgment call to you. This battle shouldn’t require many logistical supplies. We’ll be facing over a 100,000 cavalry units, and there might be street battles or walled defense tactics in play…”
Black Fox silently made a note of it. “I already have a rough idea of what the situation is, but I still have some doubts. Future Commander, why do you want us to set up camp inside Stronghold 144? And surely we need logistical supplies for the march to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, right?”
Milo shook his head while smiling. “There’s no need for that. If we run out of supplies, we can just come back and transport them. We’re only one step away from the Kingdom of Sorcerers.”
The moment Milo realized his enchanted doorway was connected to Stronghold 144, favonovel.com knew how they should fight this war.
It was as though the enchanted doorway in his house had opened a path right in the face of the Magi. Originally, the Northwest would have to travel thousands of kilometers to send their troops to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, so their entire supply line would be a problematic issue.
But it was different now. The entirety of Stronghold 144 had become their forward operating base. With that, the 6th Field Division’s firepower was really only a step away from the Kingdom of Sorcerers!
