The Golem Mage

Just as Alec and his group were about to step outside the throne room, a sudden, powerful bang reverberated through the area, causing everything around them to tremble violently.

A booming voice echoed across the human territory of the Origin realm, delivering a solemn announcement:

[New regions have once again merged with the human territory of the Origin realm, to those who aspire to become new human kings and those who have become human king rank already after entering the Origin realm, remember this: the moment you assume king-rank leadership within this realm, you are bound as natives of the human domain, and as native, it is your solemn duty to defend this land against all external invasions from other sub-realms of the Origin realm.]

Even without the announcement, everyone could sense the drastic shift in their surroundings. Near Alec’s territory, he and his sub-lords gazed out to see a vast, unfamiliar landscape stretching far into the distance, a land that had not existed there moments before.

A slender, glowing thin boundary shield had manifested, stretching across the threshold where the Wilderness region and the Beast Forest met.

And it wasn’t just the Wilderness region that found itself adjacent to a new territory, which appeared to be encased in shimmering, bubble-like energy shields, because the Beast Forest region seems to have one too and it was directly opposite to the Landmass that appeared on the Human’s side.

Along the Beast Forest border, a distinct line of thin energy now divided the land from the Wilderness realm, which was now recognized as a human domain by the fractured new will that had awakened after the split of the Origin realm for different factions.

Directly facing the newly surfaced Region close to his domain on the other side of the divided line, Alec finally noticed another mysterious landmass had taken its place there close to the Beast forest but this region was vastly different.

Surveying the strange landscape, Alec reached a startling realization that it had to be undoubtedly the home of the second-dimensional lifeforms they had been battling for so long in the Five Kingdom region.

Even those not as experienced as Alec could tell that it was their home that appeared, as long as they came from the Five Kingdom region they would be able to recognize their own birth realm in an instant; it was unmistakably the place they once called home before moving to the origin realm, appearing right before the eyes of Alec and his group.

But because it was once a minor realm, its integration into the human-dominated sectors of the Origin realm meant its status had shifted; what was once a world of its own was now merely referred to as a region within the vast Origin realm.

Based on Alec’s knowledge, such an event should not have transpired for at least another fifty to a hundred years following his conversation with the old man, whom he subsequently learned was the Wilderness King.

However, removing the barrier that separated the Blood Moon space from the Origin Realm seems to have altered everything, this removal not only fractured the Will of the Origin Realm, setting the stage for a major faction war among all the races inside the Origin realm, but it also divided the lands, causing the Will that awaken in each area to manifest in the likeness of whichever race dominated the given expanse.

This was merely a fraction of the information he had gathered from his City Heart AI. Yet, none of it addressed his primary concern: whatever had been removed had somehow disrupted the expected timeline for the Five Kingdom region’s ascension.

He even suspected that the Origin Realm had absorbed not only the Five Kingdom region and Abyss regions, but also numerous other minor realms to ignite this impending conflict.

For one, he did not believe they were ready to handle the scale of attacks heading their way.

Though the hundred lords previously brought into the Origin Realm had avoided relentless onslaughts only because they had integrated into already established kingdoms.

However, this vast new region close to alec domain contained just five kingdoms, meaning five new thrones that could be claimed if those kingdoms were absorbed.

For ambitious Great lords seeking ascension without confronting an old king, this shift was a massive opportunity.

Instead of taking immense risks against experienced rulers of the origin realm, they could target novice kings who had no true understanding of what it meant to hold king-rank power in the Origin Realm.

Recognizing this, Alec realized he needed to check if there was any way to evacuate the members of his clan as well as those from the War God Mage Academy towards his domain.

They were the only ones he still cared about enough to make a move for. Still, he worried that the situation might play into the hands of Liam and David Tudor, who could potentially summon the royal mages of their clan to target him, since their kingdom was now in the origin realm and it’s not just them against Alec.

While the Northern Kingdom did not boast the strongest army in the Five Kingdoms region, its royal guard was widely recognized as an elite force, and it was the very reason the Northern royal family had still stayed in rule for so long, however when he thought about the amount of troubles they would have to face as a new lord he doubted that they would have much of his time.

“Alec, over there!” Agnes’s voice suddenly broke through his long train of thought, drawing his focus toward the group of Beastkins preparing to attack.

Curiously, not a single member of the Werewolf tribe could be found among the ranks of Beastkin; despite Alec’s lingering apprehension that they would be his primary opponents, it appeared the werewolves had opted not to seize this particular opportunity to attack him, at least within the gathering before him.

The assembly he observed consisted entirely of Tigerkins—commonly known as were-tigers, and the choice of equipment among the males gave them the rugged appearance of seasoned adventurers.

Most of them seem to favor blades and sabers as their primary weapons of choice, the sizable force was led by a male Tigerkin wearing an eyepatch over his left eye, standing alongside them were the Bearkin.

Alec had never imagined he would see the day when he would stand against ursine humanoids in battle.

Unlike the Tigerkin, the Bearkin wore full sets of heavy armor and wielded massive bludgeoning weapons.

Given their innate, tremendous strength, the sheer impact of those heavy strikes was something Alec preferred not to dwell upon.

Combined, the two Beastkin forces comprised approximately 7,000 formidable warriors—5,000 Tigerkin and 2,000 Bearkin.

They remained stationary just beyond the perimeter of Alec’s domain, seemingly awaiting a command, having monitored the influx of messages in the regional group chat, Alec already recognized this was a coordinated assault on all of the human territories.