After being welcomed by the members of the order at that post, Vicente picked up his Throne of Darkness, smiling subtly and standing with his hands folded behind his back as he looked at those people.",

"Stand up." He ordered them, making the 12 people of varying appearances stand.

Of the 12 individuals, the four women didn't look so bad. Two of them looked as good as Lauren, while the other two looked older, with a few wrinkles here and there. Of the eight men, only one had a cadaverous appearance, being the one who wore the most clothes to hide his body.

The others had one characteristic in common: they were very thin. Apart from that, their appearances were not so similar to the stereotypical look of Dark Path magicians. Most of them could easily blend into the crowds of a city as long as they didn't use their powers.

"Altar Master..." The Mid-level Paragon's head hung low as Vicente stopped beside him.

"How did you get in here? How long have you been at this post?" Vicente asked in curiosity.

"We've been locked up here for nine months, Altar Master. But I've known the place for over 100 years. Only three of us were original members of the order during the war millennia ago. Back then, we survived the persecution of the men from the Congregation of Revelations.

We were occupied with external affairs for a long time, trying to survive, look for survivors, etc. We didn't know the location of this post at the time. So we hid elsewhere.

When things on the continent calmed down a little, we spent some time trying to understand what had happened and rebuild the order. But we failed miserably. The only group we created was the one in front of you now.

We spent the last 100 years traveling the continent, exploring the order's old outposts in the north, and then we come back to this place 9 months ago."

Vicente didn't need to ask these people why they weren't helping the magicians' cause against the monsters. Dark Path magicians were much frowned upon by the society of Light Path magicians. Besides, they had no obligation to help the continent in the fight against the monsters. Protecting themselves as they had done was the most logical thing for beings without allies, with enemies on both sides of the current confrontation.

"I see. So we almost met in the north." Vicente muttered as he walked with Lauren towards the interior of this altar.

"You did what you had to, given your circumstances. But now that I'm here, things are going to be different."

"Altar Master, please give us your orders," said the only Paragon woman among those individuals.

Vicente said. "I'm going to revive the Cataclysm Order and reactivate the Awakening Altars. The continent is going through an unprecedented crisis, with young people from various cities prevented from awakening their powers.

I'm going to activate the order's altars to enable the awakening of young people around the south and center of the continent. In particular, this post will be my first place to act publicly."

"That..."

The men and women looked at each other, not so sure that this was a good idea.

"Won't that be dangerous? Light Path magicians would hardly trust us to bring their children here and we also have the Congregation of Revelations, who would surely hunt us down if they learned of our existence."

"The monsters on the continent, led by the vampires, don't want to exterminate our race. They want to turn us into cattle for them to feed on whenever they want. To do this, they intend to force us against the walls of our cities and take away all the dominion we have over the continent."

Vicente told them, showing them the reality that perhaps they didn't know.

"If we don't move together with Light Path magicians, we will die sooner or later. Worse, we'll lose our freedom and become lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Besides..."

Vicente stopped as he entered the Awakening Altar at that post, a place very similar to the Awakening Platforms.

When he stopped, his five pentagrams appeared one after the other, as those 12 individuals realized Vicente was a very rare Dark Path and Light Path magician.

"I'm a Light Path magician myself. Do you think you can't trust me?"

Those 12 promptly denied it, showing Vicente they were wrong to doubt him.

While these people were sweating, Torne said. "The master wishes to create a city above this post. It will be connected to others nearby, whose primary duty will be to protect the south of the continent from the hordes of monsters coming from the north.

For this to work, we must use practitioners from both paths. Get used to the idea of fighting side by side with Light Path magicians against monsters."

The 12 individuals said no more, seeing that the dark master had powerful motivations for trying to raise the society of magicians against the monsters.

"What's to the south? May we know, Altar Master?" The other Paragon, who had said nothing yet, asked.

"My home. My family." Vicente answered succinctly, before picking up a bunch of Magic Gems and placing them around the spot he was standing in.

"Since we have three Paragons here, you will also activate altars of the order in the future." Torne said to the strongest of the group.

"We'll certainly do our best." Said the strongest of the magicians.

Even if he and the others didn't entirely agree with Vicente's plans, they wouldn't fail to carry out the young magician's orders. His goal was to revive their organization, and Vice looked like he was going to do it, even with his strange plans. As such, even before signing any kind of agreement with him, they were willing to obey him even when they disagreed.

"What should we do now?" One sovereign asked.

Vicente looked at that person and said. "I'm going to separate you. The city I will build above will be too safe to need the help of Sovereigns. But there is a city nearby that could use your powers. I want you to join the Sentinels of the Order of Dresbert.

As for the three Paragons, one of you will stay here and the others will accompany me. I'll decide your future over the next few weeks."

Vicente had already done something similar when he left Nixlas' Shadows, having ordered the Dark Path beasts he had conquered to head south and join the human forces in the fight against monsters.

Those creatures were faster than he and his group and shouldn't have stopped halfway to help magicians. So by now they should have been quite close to the Seidel Kingdom!