Inside the workshop in Zone 19.

Victor Iron Flame sat poised behind a desk crafted from hundred-year-old wood, where every item on its surface was arranged just so.

He languidly stirred the amber liquid in his glass with a small Mithril spoon. It was a century-old vintage from the Elven Royal Court, every drop worth a fortune.

The entire reception room, from the oil paintings of the Ancient Golem War hanging on the walls to the soft Dragon Hide rug underfoot, spoke volumes of the Tieyan Clan’s heritage and his own exacting tastes.

Just then, the soft chime of an encrypted communication channel sounded.

[Be there soon.]

Victor set down his glass and walked out the door.

He leisurely adjusted his immaculate Wizard Robe, preparing to welcome his old friend and rival.

’Let’s see what kind of stunt that guy is going to pull this time.’

Victor stood on the terrace outside the workshop, raised his wrist to glance at his communicator, and frowned slightly.

His gaze swept across the hazy skyline, but there was no sign of the familiar starship, the Odyssey.

Even the Magic Power radar showed no feedback from any flying vehicles.

’So he promoted to a Second-level Wizard, and now even his travel is this stealthy?’ Victor muttered to himself.

...

Above the clouds.

[Celestial Throne has reached the target airspace.]

Receiving Jarvis’s notification, Allen raised his right hand. The [Ring of Instantaneous Shadow] on his finger flashed faintly.

The dizziness from the spatial displacement lasted only a tenth of a second.

Cold. A bone-chilling cold.

Allen landed steadily on the deployment deck of the Celestial Throne.

Thirty thousand meters up, at the upper edge of the troposphere.

The temperature here was as low as negative sixty-seven degrees Celsius, and the violent astral winds were like countless invisible steel blades, slicing at the protective Force Field with a piercing shriek.

He looked down.

Below him was a roiling sea of lead-gray clouds.

An Illusion Rune Array perfectly blended the entire Celestial Throne, along with him, into the void at the edge of this layer of Law. From the ground, there was only clouds and wind.

"First time I’ve ever been this high up," Allen said, his breath instantly freezing into ice crystals that were swept away by the wind.

He brought up the communication channel and sent Victor a short text message: [Be there soon.]

"Jarvis, calibrate the landing point." Allen glanced at the data model below.

Victor’s thirty-five-meter-tall workshop looked like a delicate toy in front of Cyclops.

A mass of fifty-four thousand tons falling from thirty thousand meters, even with the Gravity Control system for deceleration, would carry enough kinetic energy to shake that workshop into a pile of scrap metal.

"You ready, big guy?"

"Ready when you are, Boss," a steady voice echoed in his mind.

"Target, five kilometers away from Victor’s workshop. Don’t actually stomp his place into the ground."

"Alright then."

Allen patted Cyclops’s cold armor. "Jump."

BOOM!

The deck of the Celestial Throne shuddered violently. The crimson colossus took a step off the edge, its massive body instantly plunging into the sea of clouds.

Gravitational acceleration caused Cyclops’s descent speed to skyrocket. The violent air friction created a dazzling layer of fire across its crimson armor, making it look like a meteor tearing across the sky.

...

Three minutes passed.

The sky was completely empty—not even a magical bat flew by—and there was still no sign of the starship Odyssey.

Victor’s brow furrowed slightly.

’Such pointless theatrics.’

Just as his patience was wearing thin, a low-pitched alarm suddenly blared from within the workshop without any warning!

WHOOO—!

It was an air-raid combat alert—and the highest level one at that!

Victor’s expression changed, and he snapped his head up to look at the sky.

At some point, a black dot had appeared above the clouds, and it was rapidly growing larger.

It wasn’t a starship, nor was it any Flying Magical Beast he recognized.

It was... a falling Golem!

On the ground, Victor’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.

He had never seen such an insane spectacle in his entire life.

He watched, powerless, as the enormous black shadow pierced through the clouds with world-destroying momentum. Just as it was about to hit the ground, an invisible Force Field erupted, and the massive body’s descent abruptly slowed!

Anti-Gravity Control!

But even so, the terrifying kinetic energy could not be completely negated.

BOOM!!!!!!

A colossal sound that defied description rang out, as if the entire world had been shaken by the impact.

The ground beneath Victor’s feet heaved violently, like a small boat in a tsunami. He had to immediately cast a spell of Witchcraft to steady himself and avoid falling over on the spot.

The shockwave followed close behind, kicking up a sky-full of sand and dust like a hundred-meter-high city wall, slamming violently toward his workshop!

The workshop’s defensive Force Field instantly activated at maximum power. The curtain of light flickered violently, letting out a groan as if under immense strain.

The massive, floor-to-ceiling Crystal Stone window in the reception room filled with a web of cracks accompanied by a sharp snapping sound.

From inside the workshop came a series of loud crashes—the sounds of twisting metal and falling objects.

Victor could just imagine the carnage inside. His expensive collectibles were probably shattered all over the floor.

The dust and smoke cleared.

A forty-eight-meter-tall crimson colossus slowly rose from the impact crater. Its thick arms braced against the ground, and a heart-stopping red glow emanated from the Earth Core Furnace visible in the crevice of its chest.

The single eye-crystal on its forehead was as vivid as blood. Like a god or demon that had clawed its way out of Hell, it stared coldly at Workshop No. 19 in the distance.

Victor’s golden hair was a mess from the blast, his face was covered in dust, and his expression was dazed. He still hadn’t processed what had just happened.

A figure descended from the sky, landing lightly in front of him, his clothes not even touched by a speck of dust.

Allen had a mischievous grin on his face, like a prankster who’d just succeeded. "So? What do you think? Was that entrance shocking enough for you?"

Victor slowly turned his head, his ice-blue eyes blazing with fury.

He stared daggers at Allen, his chest heaving. It took a full three seconds before he managed to force the words out through clenched teeth.

"Allen Wesren!!"

A roar erupted, soaring into the sky.

"You son of a bitch!"

"My century-old vintage from the Elven Royal Court! My desk! My workshop! What in the world are you trying to do?!?"

Victor completely lost his composure, unleashing a torrent of curses laced with his aristocratic accent, like a string of firecrackers.

Watching the enraged Victor, Allen silently calculated the damages. He knew he’d have to pay up for this one, or the ship of their friendship was about to capsize.

"Calm down."

Seeing that Victor’s curses were getting uglier, Allen quickly held up his hands placatingly, his tone sincere. "I deliberately aimed five kilometers off-target. Otherwise, this workshop of yours would be gone. It’s a new toy, after all. I haven’t field-tested it, so my control isn’t quite polished yet."

"Five kilometers? At five kilometers, half my warehouse collapsed!"

Victor pointed at the smoking assembly area below, his finger trembling with rage. "If you don’t give me a proper explanation today, I’ll fight you to the death!"

"One Hive Mother Ship,"

Allen held up one finger. "As compensation. How about it?"

Victor’s cursing came to an abrupt halt.

The expression on his face froze, the fury in his eyes quickly replaced by calculation.

A Hive Mother Ship had a market price of seven hundred thousand Magic Stones. The money itself wasn’t that much, but more importantly, this was the first time he’d ever gotten money out of Allen.

He glanced at the crimson colossus in the distance, which looked like something straight out of mythology, then back at Allen’s raised finger.

A sharp glint flashed in his ice-blue eyes as he forced a smile onto his face.

"Deal. Please, come in." Victor stepped aside, making an impeccable gesture of invitation.

The speed of his change in expression was astonishing. It seemed he was maturing quickly, too.

The two walked through a wrecked hallway and arrived at Victor’s private reception room.

The decor here came as a surprise to Allen, who was visiting for the first time.

The room was filled with solid wood furniture that gave off a faint scent of pine. A heavy, handmade wool carpet covered the floor, and several classical oil paintings hung on the walls.

In a frontier plane filled with steel and smoke, creating a room like this was undoubtedly a costly affair.

Victor walked to the liquor cabinet, poured two glasses of the amber liquid, and handed one to Allen.

"A specialty I brought back from another plane. Dragon’s Blood Wine."

Victor leaned back on the sofa and took a sip. "Every glass is one less I have. You can’t even grow a decent blade of grass in this godforsaken place."

Allen took a sip. The fiery liquid flowed down his throat and transformed into a stream of pure Fire Magic Power, which merged into his Sea of Spirit.

"Good stuff," Allen praised.

"What’s the name of that Golem of yours?" Victor put down his glass, his gaze drifting through the window to the small mountain of a crimson Golem in the distance.

"Cyclops," Allen said. "It’s from the Divine Statue Series, my ace for frontal assaults."

"On par with a Second-level Wizard?"

"Theoretically, its physical destructive power can touch the threshold of a peak Second-level Wizard. But it can’t fly, so mobility is a major issue," Allen said nonchalantly.

Victor was silent for a moment, the image of the colossus falling from the sky replaying in his mind. Then, for some reason, his thoughts drifted to the past.

He remembered their student days in the Seven Towers Alliance.

Back then, he had used the best resources provided by his family and studied under the best mentor. He had been so full of ambition and pride.

There was a time when he thought he would always be ahead.

But then he had to run into this guy. The very thought was infuriating.

"Just you wait. After I get promoted, I’ll definitely build an invincible Golem, and I’ll beat that Cyclops of yours to its knees!"

"I’ll be waiting..."

The two traded their usual barbs for a few moments, then both fell silent in unspoken agreement.

"Are you really leaving?"

"Yeah. I’ve pretty much mined out all the viable veins in Zone 18. Once my time is up, my mentor won’t let me stay any longer either," Allen said, swirling the wine in his glass.

"Besides, a Second-level Wizard’s training requires far more resources than this place can provide."

"True. A Wizard must always move forward. Before you go, let me tell you some good news."

Victor’s expression grew intensely serious as he suddenly slipped into his businessman persona. "The Tieyan Clan... is impressed with your Golems."

"This isn’t a small order for a few dozen or a few hundred units. I need a long-term, stable, and prioritized supply agreement."

He looked at Allen and said, enunciating each word, "Your future Weisren Heavy Industry can become a top-tier strategic partner of the Tieyan Clan."

Allen smiled.

"Of course," he nodded. "We’re already partners, aren’t we?"

Victor looked at the smile on his face, feeling a mix of complex emotions.

He nodded, accepting the statement.

A simple agreement was quickly reached, but true cooperation would have to wait until Allen’s business was more established.

They were both mature Wizards; they didn’t have much time for sentimentality or reminiscing.

Before leaving, Victor couldn’t resist asking the question that had been circling in his mind for a while.

"That... Cyclops. How did you get it into the airspace above my territory? You didn’t just teleport it directly into the sky, did you?"

Allen stood up, walked to the door, and turned back to give him a mysterious smile.

"That..."

"Is another surprise. It’s better that you don’t know."

’If Victor knew a superweapon was floating right above his workshop, there’s no way he’d let Allen leave today.’

"Alright, see you next time. Try not to die."