Cthulhu Gonfalon

The power of legendary magic was extraordinary; after Shadow Devil was hit by that rainbow light ball, his body abruptly froze entirely as if he had turned into a statue.

Satan was also a little tired out after casting this spell. He didn’t even bother looking at the results of his attack. Instead, he turned around and walked over to Sui Xiong.

“Done?” asked Sui Xiong.

“Mhm, it’s over,” Satan said.

“This spell is pretty interesting,” Sui Xiong laughed said. “What’s it called?”

“I haven’t thought of a name for it yet,” Satan replied. “I might just call it ‘Satan’s Rainbow Magic Sphere’ or something.”

Sui Xiong went silent. He felt this name… really lacked even the slightest hint of artistry. It was terrifyingly tacky!

Just then, the part of Shadow Devil’s body that had been hit with the rainbow light ball suddenly exploded. This explosion was so powerful that the shockwave from it instantly destroyed a large portion of the palace, sending countless scattered pieces flying into the air just like a tiny mushroom cloud.

“Huh!?” Sui Xiong obviously wasn’t hurt by the shockwave, but he was shocked. This spell was incredibly impressive and formidable! Definitely formidable!

Just then, a brilliant idea flashed through his head, and he said, “How about you call it ‘Satan’s Infernal Magic Sphere’ instead?”

Satan stared blankly at him for a moment, not understanding why his spell would be considered “infernal.”

He didn’t have any intention of fixing that though, and after thinking over it, he accepted Sui Xiong’s suggestion; although, he did make a tiny change to it.

“In that case, let’s take my name out,” he said. “Just calling it ‘Infernal Magic Sphere’ makes it feel a little more imposing.”

And so, it was decided.

As they were leaving, Sui Xiong also picked up the frozen ice block that was Death Knight and those few pieces that remained of the exploded Shadow Devil and took them along with him. Later after they returned to the human realm, he’d have his subordinates take Shadow Devil’s remains to put on public display; the other one could give a witness testimony that one of Satan’s spells had blown both Shadow Devil and his palace to smithereens.

Although, getting this guy to speak normally for a “witness testimony” wasn’t exactly easy.

News of the incident spread quickly, and spread along with it was a banner that Sui Xiong had written himself to display at the scene. It read: Ten years is nothing for a nobleman’s revenge.

Some people asked what a “nobleman” was supposed to mean. The clergy in charge of propaganda went to ask and afterwards stuck a note next to the banner.

A nobleman was a very high-level gentleman.

Was His Majesty, the Void Mask talking about himself? Some people asked this.

The clergy replied that this was referring to the head mage, Lord Satan.

Others looked at the image and asked what was up with that impossibly powerful spell. When they learned that it was a legendary spell created by Mage Satan himself, people immediately began inquiring if the master was still accepting students or if perhaps he might occasionally teach a class to the Mage Corps.

Still, others quietly asked when the master had created this spell. Was it a long time ago or just recently?

The clergy went and asked and then gave out answers to each of these questions: Master Satan had taken in a few students over the past few years; he was currently busy with a big project, so while he might not be accepting apprentices right now, he was willing to teach a few things to anyone who showed outstanding talent. Once the master was finished with his project, he would return to take charge of the Mage Corps again, at which point he would open regular classes. Finally, this legendary spell was created over the past few years, but as for a long time ago? The master had yet to enter the Legendary Realm then.

After receiving these answers, over the span of a few short days, the Church of the Void Mask’s Mage Corps received over 200 applications for enrollment.

When Satan received the news, he simply shook his head and let out a bitter laugh, but Sui Xiong was a little bewildered—this wasn’t the result he’d wanted!

According to Sui Xiong’s plans, killing Shadow Devil and displaying his “Ten years is nothing for a nobleman’s revenge” right now would create a powerful and ferocious persona for himself, which would then help promote the belief that he was particularly terrible and ruthless. First, this would raise the price those Legendary Masters would have to pay if they made trouble for Sui Xiong, and secondly, this would make those shadowy figures behind the scenes show some interesting expressions once Sui Xiong cheerfully let them go.

He’d never imagined that not only would it fail to produce this effect, but it had actually gotten Satan a whole bunch of students—or rather, fans.

Could this be called winning with a lucky stroke?

Sui Xiong wasn’t exactly unsatisfied with this result; he just felt it was a little… unexpected.

This was just like if you happened to see bubbles coming up from a pond and decided that there must be fish down there. You throw out a net only to discover that you’d caught not only fish but also shrimp and crabs as well.

A happy accident!

Until now, the Republic of Northwest had always been relatively lacking in magical talent. Even after decades of educating and recruiting, they’d never been able to match up to other countries, and this was largely because of the Mifata Federation and the Mystery Gods.

Actually, if the growth of Wall, the God of Knowledge, hadn’t convinced a lot of scholarly spellcasters to begin thinking that growing under the God of Knowledge’s flag wasn’t a bad idea, the number of spellcasters in this northwest territory would have been even lower.

Sui Xiong had often worried over this, but he never thought it would be so easily solved.

Once they heard that the Republic of Northwest had a genuine legendary great magician, the kind that could even research and invent his own legendary spells, many vagrant and half-vagrant mages were immediately moved.

No matter how good the Mifata Federation was, no matter how much the Country of Casters was a mage’s holy land—none of that really mattered. They could go there, sure, but even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to find a teacher willing to instruct them.

In the mage profession, once you reached a certain level, then unless you were a bonafide genius, you’d need to find a teacher to continue making progress. Those Legendary Masters who’d fought twenty years to reach their position either had unusual bloodlines, were being watched over by gods, or were those pure battle mages that were popularly nicknamed “Spellcasting Barbarians.”

In any case, for an ordinary mage, being unable to find a teacher was absolutely unacceptable. But finding a high-level teacher was easier said than done!

To be able to teach mages who’d already reached a certain level, a teacher would have to at least be at a high level themselves. However, what high-level mage would spend their energy teaching a bunch of strangers from who-knows-where?

The Mifata Federation was the Country of Casters, where geniuses came out by the dozen and outstanding talents gathered in swarms. Even if these mages were willing to sell themselves to get help, the high-level mages would still prefer to raise recognized fellow countrymen.

So after living in the Mifata Federation for a while and working as hard as they could, many mages still managed to gain nothing at all.

This time, they were surprised to discover that the Republic of Northwest held an incredibly powerful spot in the high-end spellcaster sphere—inventing legendary spells was definitely not something a genius could just hole themselves up and complete, nor was it something that could be made possible just through battle experience. This was something that could only be done through reliance on communication and cooperation among outstanding mages, as well as a good amount of assistance and aid.

This meant that the Republic of Northwest not only had an official spellcaster-oriented Legendary Master, it also had a reliable research team and sufficient high-level magic materials.

At the very absolute least, they definitely had to have a really top-notch library!

To put it another way, if you joined the Republic of Northwest, you’d not only get the chance to be taught by a legendary great mage (and even hopefully become Master Satan’s personal disciple), you’d also be able to use those high-level magic materials to make up for your own deficiencies.

After confirming this last point, there was no questioning what choice they would make.

After getting personally examined by Wall, those mages stepped into the great library and saw all the precious works Satan had collected. Their eyes lit up. They borrowed the books that they’d only dreamed of being able to read, and they’d even shed silent tears from how moved they were. How they felt right now needed no explanation.

This incident also brought Satan enormous popularity. Barely a few days later, the name “Wiseman of the Northwest” began to spread along with the incomparably powerful legendary spell Infernal Magic Sphere…