"But wouldn't that mean the fighting between Mage Towers would get even more..." the duck-voiced man asked fearfully. "We..."
"What are you afraid of?" Jerry asked calmly. "They'd have to kill all of us before it was your turn, with an Eighth-Circle Mage for a grandfather."
"What am I afraid of?" The duck-voiced man gave an awkward laugh. "The day you go to war is the day my countdown starts!
"Why else would you be sent into battle when you've already become the Meteor Mage's students?
"That could only mean we'd have to fight other Mage Towers for resources, or we wouldn't survive!
"When that happens, even if my grandfather cares about me, he'll send me to the battlefield.
"And I'm only a grandson with fairly ordinary talent!
"Besides, if it really comes to that, I'll actually be in more danger than you. I won't have the option of surrendering!"
Jerry couldn't deny what he said. In the end, he could only offer a little reassurance. "Maybe we'll catch another Astral Visitor before then!
"Isn't the Black Mystery Tower, with only three Eighth-Circle Mages, still holding on because they got lucky and happened to catch one?
"Our Despair Tower has a Ninth-Circle Mage!
"We'll get our chance eventually."
Then, in a voice full of longing, he smiled and slowly said, "As long as we offer an Astral Visitor to our goddess Bisozeya, we'll receive enough resources to sustain the Mage Tower for at least a hundred years!"
Hill, who had listened calmly until now, silently wrapped his arms around himself... That name explained everything.
There was only one Bisozeya: Asmodeus's wife, the Queen of Hell assassinated by Levistus, the archduke of the fifth layer, during Hell's first rebellion.
Although Levistus apparently had also been used by someone, and Asmodeus had