In an instant, the light around them vanished.
The Blue Dragon Throne took over. "That is the Academy's punishment for you. Once it has been carried out, you will be cleared of all responsibility for this incident, and no one may use it against you again. Next, the Academic Committee has decided on the following rewards. The Green Dragon Witch, the Red Dragon Witch, and I will each give you a special gift."
Until then, Locke had been unable to sense the Magic Pressure of the three Throne Wizards in the office.
But in that instant, he learned what terror meant.
He could suddenly sense their Magic Pressure. Perhaps each had revealed no more than a trace to him, yet those traces felt alien, as though they came from another world. Their Magic Pressure was so powerful, its quality so high, that it was like facing three black holes. Within those terrifying black holes seemed to lie still more black holes, shifting like a kaleidoscope. Even the magic within him was suppressed, as though submitting to the three Throne Wizards.
Locke suddenly realized that although these Throne-Class Wizards had been approachable with him, the gulf between them was still vast.
The three Thrones had shown him only an insignificant facet of themselves. It did not make him afraid. Instead, it brought back the feeling he had known as an apprentice and then as a First-Ring Wizard facing the world: he could not fight or resist. He had to move with the Magic Pressure of the Third-Ring Wizards if he wanted to go further.
A thought rose unbidden in him. Heaven may favor some, and then the grasses and trees know spring.
To any Bloodline School Wizard or Breeder, these three Wizards of Breeding Science and the Bloodline School were like