Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Priam simply waited patiently for the news while delving deeper into the Elders’ memories. With every new discovery, his certainty that the Sorcerers would go completely insane only grew.

He discovered that every planet under the sect’s control had a hidden, extremely high-level Inscription.

It possessed no offensive power and was almost impossible to detect, but it served a vital function: recording the number and power level of any Sorcerer who approached the planet and immediately transmitting that information to the Main Sect.

This was the real reason the Sorcerers never sent combatants excessively above the Enlightened Rank. The tolerated limit was the first level of the Philosopher Rank.

Furthermore, they couldn’t send more than twice the number of Sorcerers to face it, or the confrontation would become an impossible battle for Priam’s army to win.

The war between the sect and the Sorcerers was a complex and bizarre game, built around the understanding that neither side could ever completely exterminate the other.

The central headquarters of the Ironweald Sect was absolutely impenetrable and indestructible. On the other side, the Sorcerers inhabited hidden realms and secret dimensions that were impossible to track.

Because of this, no matter the scale of the massacre, in the end it amounted to nothing more than superficial scratches on the overall strength of both sides. The true conflict lay in controlling strategic territories and vital resources.

Knowing this, the Sorcerers would never break the rules. If they did, they would provoke a brutal counterattack from the Main Sect, unnecessarily sacrificing their own high-level assets.

On the other hand, by sending forces within the permitted margin, they created the illusion that the sect’s disciples had a chance to defend themselves. If the Sorcerers were fast enough, they could take over a planet and complete the conquest before the Main Sect could intervene.

The sect wouldn’t send overly powerful people under normal circumstances, since the powerful ones were fighting somewhere else, waging another high-level war against the most powerful Sorcerers.

Once the planet was purged and corruption seeped into the land, the territory became permanently theirs. The contamination took root so deeply that it was impossible to reverse in the short term, causing the sect to choose not to waste resources or lives trying to reclaim a dead land in the middle of the war.

Unfortunately for the sect, the enemies had a terrifying numerical advantage this time.

Even without deploying their most fearsome figures, the Sorcerers were certain that the sect would lose vast territories during this offensive. And among them were the 8 hidden targets.

At least, that was what they expected.

At the scale at which Priam was fighting, the responsibility fell only to a few lower-ranking Sorcerer sects.

They had a limited quota of disciples at this level. Thus, the simplest and most efficient plan was to conceal their initial numerical superiority and then launch a coordinated attack against multiple planets simultaneously.

The number of Sorcerers assigned to each location wouldn’t be astronomical. However, each planet had billions of Mages and only a few thousand local Sages to defend it. Even if they were mediocre individually, their sheer numbers were enough to defend the place for quite some time.

Under normal circumstances, Priam’s army — composed of only 150,000 soldiers — would never have been able to contain this tide. He would have been trapped in exhausting, hours-long battles in a single location while the other planets fell one by one.

But Priam had simply shattered that logic. He had neutralized 100% of the attacks so far, even when four planets were attacked at the same time.

It had become obvious that his strength was capable of wiping out entirely superior armies within just a few hours. If the Sorcerers spread out their troops to attack more targets, Priam would be able to move at an overwhelming pace, clearing several planets one after another.

In the end, logically, the sect would still lose several planets. But the price paid in Sorcerer blood on the planets Priam defended would be catastrophic.

This way, the war would become unsustainable for the Sorcerers. Gaining random territories at the cost of devastating losses would destroy their ability to achieve their real objective: the three strategic planets.

Because of this, they would abandon the idea of attacking random planets as a distraction and instead focus on their actual targets. That way, they would make sure they had enough people to conquer what they wanted. But...

With the fleet positioned exactly at that neutral point between the main targets, Priam showed that it wouldn’t be that simple.

He was omnipresent, omniscient, and worse than any demon, leaving the Sorcerers genuinely stunned.

Attacking multiple locations would only mean conquering meaningless planets. Attacking the real targets was the only choice, but Priam knew that, and that was why he would fight to defend them.

---

Two days later, Dandara received the news.

”Boss! Elder Central sent the alert. The entire Sorcerer army we’re supposed to fight has gathered near Violet Cloud Planet!” Dandara said, tension visible in her eyes.

”There are 2 million enemies positioned there. They’re going to attack that place with everything they’ve got, but they should do it with a smaller contingent, using the strongest forces they have! It’ll be all or nothing!”

Priam nodded. The tactic was simple:

The Sorcerers would only send 300,000 troops so they wouldn’t break the rules. They would be the best of the best, allowing them to actually hold Priam’s army back.

But the moment the battle erupted, they would launch attacks on the other two locations with their remaining forces.

Priam’s army would be trapped in one place while they conquered the others.

In the end, after taking over the other two, they would all join forces to wipe out the sect’s army at the first location. The rules wouldn’t matter anymore; all they had to do was conquer that one remaining planet.

It seemed perfect. But... no one was stupid enough not to understand what was happening.

Elder Central had noticed this sudden change and would take measures.

The moment Priam thought of this, Dandara received another message and spoke.

”Elder Central will send some Elders to help us, along with another allied army. They’ve already been sent; we should...”

Priam interrupted her. ”No, tell them we’re still treating the wounded and that we’ll be there soon. We don’t need to be the first ones to arrive unless they start attacking. We’ll make some preparations first.”