After the beacon fire was lit at the 2nd Lookout Tower, the soldiers on Blackport City's walls spotted it immediately. In an instant, tension swept through both the city and its surroundings. The alarm bells on the walls set the entire city in motion.
The sailors at the tops of the West Empire fleet's masts also saw the beacon. At the bow of a West Empire warship, Vice Admiral Helena looked toward the lookout tower on the coastal cliff, where thick smoke was rolling into the sky. "We made many mistakes during our last night raid," she said. "For example, we should have blown up all their lookout towers."
A West officer behind her said, "Honored Lady Helena! This time, we will completely eliminate every potential threat the Empire faces on the Mist Sea, insignificant though those threats may be. Let the complete destruction of Blackport City's naval strength begin with smashing that miserable lookout tower!"
Far away inside the lookout tower, Leo continued observing the fleet while giving orders. "Ignaz! Signal Blackport City with flags!" Ignaz hurriedly pulled out red, yellow, and white signal flags.
Leo said, "Five enemy ships! Target: the mouth of the Loire River!" Ignaz waved the flags, exchanging information with the signalmen on Blackport City's walls.
Leo lifted his head from the telescope with a disappointed expression. "All right. Our mission is over. Ignaz, once a lookout squad discovers the enemy, is there any follow-up duty?"
Ignaz swallowed with difficulty. "The lookout squad remains with the lookout tower. As long as the tower still stands, we have to hold it. Otherwise, we'll be treated as deserters."
Leo thought for a moment. "Go down. Have the soldiers equip their weapons and armor. Be ready to relocate and fight at any time."
Ignaz stressed again, "Our duty is to defend the tower!"
Leo glanced at him. "Deputy Squad Leader, carry out my orders! I do not need to explain my orders to you. I hope this is the last time. No one can provide protection for this lookout tower. One or two cannon shots from the West Empire fleet will be enough to knock it down. They only need to sail past and fire, and then we'll have no tower left to defend!"
Cold sweat ran down Ignaz's forehead. He hurried down the ladder to carry out Leo's orders. The West Empire fleet drew closer and closer. They no longer needed telescopes to make out the twin-lion flags.
Under Leo's gaze, four ships continued toward the mouth of the Loire River while one turned slightly, shifting its course toward the lookout tower. Little Locke heard the new Squad Leader say a word he did not understand, but he knew it had to be a curse.
"Little Locke!" Leo shouted. "Get downstairs! Now!"
Little Locke thought he must have misheard. The Squad Leader was telling him to run first? Wasn't the Squad Leader usually the first one to run? Leo kicked the stunned Little Locke toward the ladder hatch. Little Locke stumbled and scrambled, grabbed the ladder, and started climbing down.
On the West warship, an officer placed one hand on a broadside cannon on the deck, then directed the West soldiers as they adjusted the barrel's elevation. Leo knew that officer had to be a Haste Mage. He had to be using Projectile Intuition to adjust the cannonball's trajectory.
Damn it!
The West artillerymen had already lit the cannon on the deck. Without thinking, Leo jumped straight down through the ladder opening. Climb the ladder? There was no time.
Little Locke had already made it more than halfway down when he saw the new Squad Leader simply leap through the opening above him. That was a full twenty meters! Little Locke instinctively wanted to reach out and catch his free-falling Squad Leader, but a deafening impact and vibration struck the tower, forcing him to clamp both hands tightly around the ladder.
An iron cannonball punched straight through the seaward outer wall of the tower, leaving a hole two meters wide. Leo was still falling when the lead ball screamed past half a meter above his head and smashed violently into the inner wall on the opposite side.
Broken stone sprayed through the tower and struck Leo's body, but he ignored the pain. His eyes were fixed only on the ground. Leo was wearing an iron breastplate, and it was not light. If he hit the ground directly from this height, the bones in his legs would definitely break. Little Locke, hanging from the ladder nearby, thought the same thing. Their new Squad Leader was about to shatter his legs.
Yet the instant Leo hit the ground, a cloud of dust suddenly exploded upward.
The floor inside the lookout tower had somehow turned into sand!
Leo felt as if his head were splitting apart. He had focused his attention on the ground beforehand. Then his Cipher spell left his body and repeatedly washed over the hard stone floor, grinding the stone down into fine, soft sand.
...
First Principle of Fallen Superstring Mages: Principle of Out-of-Body Soul Tempering
Pain is the source of the soul's power. When casting, the soul leaves the body and endures the hammering of nature's great forces. If one becomes accustomed to extreme pain, the power of the soul will grow stronger.
...
Leo's legs sank deep into the sand. His legs had not broken, but now it felt as though his head was about to split open. The ringing in his ears drowned out every sound. For an instant, Leo lost all awareness. Broken stones crashed down around him, but he felt nothing.
In that desperate moment, releasing his Cipher mana outside his body had given Leo his first real understanding of what "the hammering of nature's great forces" meant. Cipher mana outside the body was like tender flesh stripped of its skin and rubbed directly across rough stone. The sensation of every single cell screaming in pain sent Leo's brain straight into shock.
The violent pain swallowed his consciousness. Leo did not even know whether he had recovered all of the Cipher mana he had released.
According to Holy Archmage Hilquins, Cipher mana was part of an open-string soul. If mana released outside the body was not completely recovered, part of the soul itself would be lost. Under a violent impact, a mage might lose part of their memory, or even part of their personality.
Did Fallen Mages really increase the power of their souls this way? Was this "hammering" something a human being could endure? They called this "Out-of-Body Soul Tempering"?
For more than ten days, Leo had been training relentlessly. Every day, he exhausted all of his available spellcasting, yet his soul power had not increased at all. Clearly, trying to increase soul power through bitter training was extremely difficult.
But this first experience of casting with his soul outside his body made Leo feel that his soul power had finally loosened. It had not increased yet, but he felt he was not far from gaining another point. The price was far too high.
Little Locke hooked both arms under Leo's armpits and struggled to drag him out of the lookout tower. Little Locke's movements finally brought the dazed Leo back to himself.
Leo plunged both hands into the sand and let his Cipher mana enter it again. First, it would make it easier for Little Locke to pull him free. Second, Leo wanted to search for any Cipher mana he might have lost.
The upper half of the lookout tower had already collapsed beyond the wall with a tremendous crash. If Leo had not decisively jumped from the tower, he would certainly have been crushed to death.
It was not that Leo wanted to travel farther and farther down the path of a Fallen Mage. It was simply that Fallen Mage casting methods really could save his life at critical moments.
After Little Locke stumbled and dragged Leo out of the lookout tower, the second cannon shot struck. This time, even half of the remaining tower did not survive. Leo's eyes remained vacant and unfocused until Ignaz anxiously slapped his face, finally pulling him out of his stupor.
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