[????]
The time was ripe as his armies marched forth through the gates. His plan to spend the rest of his points he had accumulated and, with some 'favours', resulted in a third gate.
With the addition of the third gate. A scheme he planned began to unfold, and it resulted in success in his books.
Although suppressed faster than he initially anticipated, the losses the enemy suffered were quite large. And would even more so after his push when he could personally descend.
After all, the time left before the final war was fast approaching.
"Wave 15, huh? I wonder how long he could last before I personally play with him for a couple of rounds..." He said to himself.
The calculations had predicted 5 years before wave 15 and the final clash.
Outside of his castle was pure desolation. Elves, dwarves, and demons stood in a legion, like lifeless puppets waiting for the order from their master.
Area surrounding his castle was filled with troops and it only increased in time.
...
[Magnus]
After he joined hands and recognised Sophia, the two coordinated a couple of 'heists'. Most notable of all was his attempt at taking a small bite of the system, which was the main overseer of this event.
The danger included in failure did not need to be discussed. However, he had one great advantage on his side.
Unless divination existed and was powerful, the enemy so far showed no signs of knowing that he existed.
To further add fuel to the fire, Magnus' accelerating mana created by the system had already begun to show signs of 'breaking' those shackles.
Although the system reinforced those shackles in case he could truly break them. It was a sign of progress and a sign that the system wasn't omnipotent nor omniscient.
Their heist began with Sophia, bringing Magnus back into her dimension. This time, though, their connection was not totally lost, just greatly weakened.
With some spells, his soul had been reinforced from inside, albeit quite useless. If the system had full power, it made the difference.
He then 'plucked' the runes powering the system from his soul, causing great pain. Sophia meanwhile had to keep strengthening the dimension as the system had noticed some oddities.
With the race against the time, Magnus had to endure the pain as the defence mechanism tried to damage his soul.
The excruciating pain continued as he finished casting the most complex spell in the whole operation.
Its function was to copy and analyze whatever was behind the system. This meant that the portion of the system he copied was random.
Space around him began to tremble as the system increased its intensity from the outside. Magnus could feel Sophia's plight and he hurriedly returned the 'system' back inside of him.
With a signal, Sophia let the system in. A huge eye appeared as it scanned both of the beings.
[Detecting anomalies... Found time discrepancy in system No. ########... No other anomalies found... Searching....]
Another part of the fight began as the system scanned his entire being and almost his soul before it stopped for a second and let it be.
Every second he was being scanned, he had to 'forget' everything that had happened in order to ensure no plans would leak.
[Search resulted in no anomalies found... Target is to be put in 'suspect' category...]
System finished its search, and the eye shone with bright light before vanishing. Unknown to it, Sophia was now holding a piece of the 'system'.
The duo took a breather as Magnus looked at Sophia.
"How the hell did you do this alone the first time?!" He said quite shocked.
"It wasn't supposed to be this hard. At least the first time I did it, the response from the system was just a simple scan..." Sophia said as she got rid of her sweat with a simple spell.
"Whatever. Do you have it?" He asked in anticipation.
Sophia nodded her head and grinned before she showed him the little blue rock in her hands. She waited for a while before she strengthened the dimension once again.
Leaving bare minimum to keep the system from not suspecting something once again. After that she casted a special inspection spell.
A screen appeared above them and scenes began to play out. Like a program, thousands of integrated small scale spells were working in unison to create higher tier spells.
Way to get stronger spells, which Magnus didn't think of yet. Or rather, it was incredibly hard. Sure, boosting fire with wind was easy, but making an equivalent of an AI from these spells?
Impossible for the current of him. But now they had a cheat code, and he was confident to learn the ins and outs in a year or so.
The spell in question was in the category of information. Both blocking and gaining information spells had been integrated into one.
He even found a spell that, if he understood correctly, used a bit of time to see back in the past. This, though, took so much mana that he would be drained a thousand times over before activating it even for a millisecond.
Sophia too learned a lot, and she began with implementing changes to the system. At least before he had dealt with the enemy and joined the academy.
They agreed to let Sophia be in the shadows like a scientist conducting billions of experiments, while Magnus gave her the necessary equipment and resources.
Time passed in a flash and in just a month. Magnus noticed the much more detailed status. He even gained a 'system' spell which the system casted for him.
An identification spell which combined most of the spells, except a few very advanced ones.
If needed, he now could use Sophia's mana. To their bafflement, the reason the system seemed to exist was because it worked like a law.
Law which could be strengthened to, in theory, infinity. Maybe even more abstract concepts exceeding infinity could be used to strengthen the system even further.
While the system was being polished and some smaller thefts on basic system templates, Magnus briefly introduced the war continued like normal.
Just the intensity increased and casualties followed along with it. Some pessimists began to argue for the surrender as they claimed for it to be a more peaceful option.
Foolish they were. Magnus was confident that whatever it was would not let a single soul exist in peace. Even the recreation of hell was not too farfetched.
A large part of them thankfully joined Gaia's Will in secret. Which made it easy to get rid of them. Still, after such a long time, the scrutiny Myrkr was under was not small.
Some began to feel doubts and Magnus had to do things he wished he hadn't in order to keep the ball rolling for longer.
By year three, the [Human System] was so advanced that it alone could give Magnus the edge to win if he started with it.
Features like levelling up and help with comprehension through the system were possible. Though the energy source needed for a large scale operation was still a huge problem.
From what Magnus had seen. The options inside the system included some good mana generating options.
Their price was too expensive, though. If he turned into a mana dispensing slave for 500 years, maybe he could afford one. Not to mention multiple.
They weren't deterred and already had a plan. All it took was the control of the Solar System. Therefore, he bid his time as he waited for the final clash.
Under his lead, the expansion of the Beacon Empire's influence had been incredible. Some considered him an unofficial SSS rank.
With such massive improvement, some SS ranks were even demoted back to S rank because they couldn't keep up.
Although considered a humiliation, they represented the absolute peak of S rank. These changes were not limited to SS and S ranks, though.
Millions of humans that were talented or lacked the drive and even imagination began to fall under the F rank.
Thus workforce for creation of weapons multiplied and boosted the development of the technological branch.
Not contributing to humanity and lazing around was considered a crime against humanity, after all. The invasion of the Roman Empire's city worked like a beautiful incentive for humans.
Wave 14 began with 3 SSS ranks appearing in each gate, excluding the aquatic ones. Albeit barely 3 SS ranks were enough in the Southern Pole combined with the technological might.
Northen Pole was dealt with 30 SS ranks ganging up on the 1 SSS rank whilst technology halted the advancement of SS ranks and below.
And as for the gate near the Roman Empire. Magnus himself held the fort. His job was just to stop the SSS rank from advancing further.
It wasn't a hard job and an hour in the reinforcements from the Northen Pole appeared. Even though the fight ended with minimal losses of one SS rank.
The presence of 30 SS ranks and 3 SSS ranks were too of a concern. And with the 3 year clock before Wave 15. The need for SS ranks and SSS ranks was higher than ever.
Sophia was long considered a disgrace, like many potential or demoted SS ranks, and was mostly forgotten. Even her comrades paid little to no attention to her.
She would lie if it didn't hurt, but she chose to see the good things instead of the bad ones. Concern began to grow in Magnus' heart.
In spite of the fact, that she seemed fine. She kept growing more and more recluse. Despite that, he didn't know how to change it and just tried to spend some time with her.
As much as he wished to help. Taking some time off in order to learn spells was the best compromise. The battle kept creeping closer, and he felt that the shackles kept weakening.
He was sure that Wave 15 would welcome 'his' arrival. Still, he wasn't confident of defeating that guy for sure. He was and still is a higher realm of being, after all.
If Magnus had a trump card, that guy should have a thousand of them. The presence of the Olympus didn't help much either.
While suspicious, he slowed down their advancement and didn't stop it fully. To his relief, with mana, most humans didn't see the need for a God.
Most of them were already considered gods compared to their past selves. So why believe in one?
The Feathered Serpent and Roc had also vanished after Magnus had killed their clones. Perhaps they would return, but for sure they were now enemies.
Earth thrived, and breakthroughs kept happening every day. Companion system had too been more polished over the years.
And thus the final year before Wave 15 flowed by. A minute before the Wave 15, he felt his shackles vanish.
For a brief second, every SS rank human could feel power whose presence alone could kill them. Most interpreted it as the arrival of the enemy and they got very nervous.
The greatest load weapons were aimed and buried near the Gates. Most were ready to die with their enemy if the victory was impossible...
The clock hit zero. Enemies poured out and current SS rank threats appeared in the hundreds. Each of those SS ranks was an equivalent to SSS rank in the Wave 14.
Explosions shook the Earth and everyone waited for the ending result. To both their dismay and delight Southern Pole and the third gate had no enemies left.
The largest army, though... It was untouched, as a barrier protected them from losing even a piece of hair.
A woman with raven dark hair and dead eyes led the army. Her power clearly touching the SSSS rank territory.
To the dismay of humans, mana beasts and the Atlantis Divine Kingdom. The army opened a path and thousands of 'beauties'. Carried a huge throne.
An artifact exceeding the power of anything they had ever seen. On it was a man munching on something as his smile gave everyone watching shivers.
"Don't disappoint me too much, weaklings." He said as his army began its march. Every piece of technology lost its power near the army.
It was now a clash of flesh and mana...