Chapter 80: Sovereign Academy

Karl, Arthur, Leon, Mira and Galzan appeared inside one of Aurelis’s teleportation halls.

Compared to Ardent’s, the place was on an entirely different scale.

The hall was enormous, with hundreds of teleportation formations spread throughout it.

Flashes of light appeared almost constantly as groups arrived and disappeared while streams of people moved between the different sections without stopping.

Yet despite appearing together with Arthur and Galzan, Karl’s group barely attracted any attention.

Within moments, they had already blended into the crowd.

Karl looked around the massive hall with a faint smile.

Aurelis...

It had once served as the capital of the Human Alliance before the political centre eventually shifted elsewhere, but even after losing that position Aurelis had never truly declined.

Instead, it had become the economic capital of humanity.

Major guilds, trading organizations, auction houses, ancient families and countless other powerful forces maintained branches or headquarters here.

Wealth flowed through Aurelis on a scale cities like Ardent simply couldn’t compare to.

And at the centre of all that stood something even older than much of the city itself.

Sovereign Academy.

More than nine thousand years ago, before the other Great Academies even existed, Sovereign had already stood as humanity’s first true academy.

For thousands of years it had carried much of humanity’s burden alone, producing generation after generation of powerful Awakened until other institutions gradually rose and began sharing that weight.

Even now, despite Sovereign having fallen to fifth place among the Five Great Academies during the last several centuries, its history and foundations remained unmatched.

Karl knew much of that decline had come from Sovereign’s own stubborn policies.

Unlike many of the other academies, Sovereign refused to let great families and outside organizations directly influence its affairs.

That independence had protected it for thousands of years, but it had also cost them enormous amounts of resources and support while the other academies became increasingly connected to the major powers of humanity.

Soon, the group made their way toward one of the enormous exits of the teleportation hall and passed through the Eastern Gate, one of its four main entrances.

The moment they stepped outside, the view before them opened completely.

A vast lake occupied the heart of Aurelis.

It was so enormous that calling it a lake almost felt inadequate.

Massive guild headquarters, auction houses, hotels, trading houses and countless other establishments covered its distant shores while roads and elevated pathways stretched around the water.

But almost none of that held their attention for long, their eyes were drawn toward the centre of the lake.

Five colossal structures rose directly from the water.

Each resembled an enormous skyscraper stretching hundreds of metres into the sky until their upper sections disappeared into the distant fog.

And between those five pillars floated something even more absurd.

A gigantic island, even from this distance, they could make out enormous buildings, walls and structures covering its surface.

It looked less like an academy and more like an ancient fortress-city suspended in the sky.

Arthur noticed the others staring and smiled.

"That is your academy."

His gaze shifted toward the distant floating island.

"And mind you, even now this is something no other academy can compare to."

"Magnificent, isn’t it?"

Leon and Mira continued staring while Galzan looked completely dumbfounded by the scale of everything before him.

Karl merely smiled, as far as he remembered, Sovereign Academy really was one of the most impressive things humanity had ever built.

Arthur pointed toward the five colossal pillars surrounding the floating island.

"Those five pillars are practically entire districts on their own."

"Training grounds, residences, libraries, halls, research facilities... each one has enough inside it to function independently."

His finger then shifted toward the enormous island between them.

"And that central island is the true heart of Sovereign Academy.

Most of the important facilities, central administration and many of its oldest structures are located there."

Arthur looked across the academy for a moment before continuing.

"The entire place has been expanded and rebuilt countless times over its nine-thousand-year history, but the original foundation has never changed."

His gaze then shifted toward the huge circular region surrounding Aurelis Lake.

"The academy also shaped much of the city around it."

The Grand Meridian formed an enormous ring around the entire lake.

Guild headquarters, auction houses, luxury hotels, trading companies, restaurants, financial institutions and countless other businesses occupied some of the most valuable land in Aurelis along it.

With Sovereign constantly attracting students, instructors, recruiters, merchants and powerful organizations from across human territory, the Grand Meridian had gradually become one of the greatest economic arteries in the entire city.

Leon kept looking toward the five enormous pillars before finally pointing at them.

"Then what are those five massive things actually for?"

He glanced toward the floating island.

"If the real academy is on that island, why does it need five ridiculous towers around it?"

Arthur chuckled.

"Those belong to the Five Great Factions of Sovereign Academy."

His expression became slightly more serious.

"Each faction controls one of the pillars, and each is led by a Faction Head each of whom had surpassed level 1000."

Arthur pointed toward the pillar standing directly ahead of them.

"The one in front belongs to Judgement."

"They are the academy’s enforcers rules, punishment, internal security, dangerous students, conflicts that get out of hand, Judgement usually handles it."

His hand moved toward one of the pillars at the side.

"That one is Apex."

Arthur smiled slightly.

"Apex doesn’t take just anyone talent, potential, accomplishments and you need to prove you belong among the very best before they’ll even seriously look at you."

Leon’s eyes brightened slightly, but Arthur ignored him and shifted toward the opposite pillar.

"And that is Dominion."

"They produce leaders, people capable of commanding armies, organizations, cities and sometimes much more than that."

Arthur paused before adding casually,

"I graduated from Dominion myself and so did the First Marshal."

Arthur then pointed toward one of the two pillars farther behind.

"That one belongs to Genesis."

"Genesis is filled with people who refuse to walk paths that already exist, they take techniques apart, rebuild them, combine things that were never meant to work together and push professions in directions nobody expected."

Arthur gave a small shrug.

"Half of them are geniuses as of the other half they are well probably insane."

Arthur finally looked toward the last pillar.

"And that is Erudition."

"Erudition doesn’t care much about rankings, fame or how destructive your abilities are, they have a special sorts of a legacy test for selection."

"Lost civilizations, ancient techniques, Domains, history, strange professions, laws of the world... things humanity has studied for thousands of years without ever fully understanding."

Arthur looked toward the distant pillar.

"Across Sovereign Academy’s entire nine-thousand-year history, only twenty-eight people have ever been accepted into Erudition."

Leon’s eyes widened.

"Only twenty-eight?"

Arthur nodded.

"Only twenty-eight and right now there are seven."

"All seven are scholars, though calling them ordinary scholars would be rather insulting."

"You’ll understand once you reach the academy."

For a while, the group simply looked across Aurelis Lake at the five colossal pillars surrounding the floating island.

Then Mira finally spoke.

"So... how exactly are we getting over there?"

She looked down toward the enormous lake.

"I hope you’re not planning to make us swim."

Arthur chuckled. "Indeed not you couldn’t swim there even if you wanted to."

Arthur looked toward Sovereign Academy.

"Flying across the lake is prohibited as well. The entire area is covered by defensive formations and measures that have been reinforced for thousands of years."

Leon stared across the water.

"Then how the hell do we get there?"

Arthur’s smile widened slightly.

"There is a much simpler way."