Mage Adam

This method worked well. Adam and Sandy could both tell that the transcendent-level Dilus ahead wasn't just flying aimlessly---it was moving in a clear direction, though at a slow pace.

Unlike other beings, transcendent-level Diluses couldn't teleport with mystic power; they could only fly with their own bodies. So, Adam and Sandy had to give up on warping and follow it at its slow speed.

The void around them was vast, and Adam wasn't one to chat much. After exchanging a few words, they ran out of things to talk about. 

Sandy, bored, started shaping her elementals into balls and lines, but even that didn't break the monotony.

A few days later, Sandy suddenly appeared in front of Adam, her messy hair falling over her face. She reached out and said, "Let me borrow that little dragon on your head to play with."

Startled, Sophia hid deeper into Adam's hair---Sandy's strength made her nervous.

Adam had noticed that Sandy seemed to have two sides to her personality. During battles, she was serious and focused, but outside of them, she was unpredictable, often coming up with strange, random ideas. 

Garfield, who had been taken apart by her before, was now so scared of her that he stayed hidden in Adam's mind, refusing to come out.

Holding Sophia in his hand, Adam asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Well, your little dragon's bloodline is good, but its elemental magic is pretty sloppy. Hey, little dragon, why that look? I'm just offering to help. Do you know how many ether crystals it normally costs to get my help?"

Adam trusted that Sandy wouldn't harm Sophia, and getting a free upgrade sounded like a good deal. So, he handed over the trembling Sophia. 

Just then, the transcendent-level Dilus seemed to cross some invisible boundary in the void. Its soul began to stir, as if it was trying to break free.

Sandy snapped back to her serious self. She released Sophia and quickly cast a spell to tighten her control over the Dilus, saying, "We're close to its destination. Take control of the ship and keep us hidden."

Adam placed Sophia back on his head and moved to the control panel. He inserted his hand into a groove, and a powerful magnetic field, boosted by the ship's systems, cloaked them in invisibility within the void.

The Dilus had completed its job as a guide, and Sandy destroyed its soul, turning it into a puppet. Its vision was linked directly to the ship's screen.

Suddenly, the Dilus' speed increased tenfold. Sandy didn't mind that its body was falling apart as it flew, and in just a few minutes, it had covered hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Then, she killed the Dilus, using its body to leave behind a hidden eye in the void.

"Huh?" Sandy said, turning to Adam. "This is a huge plane. Could this be their transit station?"

The plane was massive, about two-thirds the size of Titania, though clearly damaged, and filled with countless creatures---including more Diluses.

Adam was sure he had never seen this kind of Dilus before. These creatures were devouring everything in the plane and then turning the digested matter into standardized energy. 

As they did this, the plane slowly shrank before Adam's eyes.

He nodded and said, "Yeah, that seems to be what's going on. The Tower's reports mention that Diluses consume any plane they pass by, converting it into energy to keep their war in the void going."

But being a transit station didn't mean this place would be easy to handle. Both Adam and Sandy could clearly see a level-seven Dilus overseeing everything within the plane.

Sandy glanced at Adam and said, "Looks like we're on the right path. These Diluses have specialized roles now. That one," she enlarged the screen to show a basic-looking Dilus, "is known as a 'scavenger' in the Mage World. It's a type we've already studied. But the others look like new breeds that evolved later. That level-seven one must be the commander."

"We can't take this plane down," Adam said.

"If I had transcendent power, I might give it a shot, but right now, I can't handle a level-seven. Anyway, fighting isn't our goal. We'll stick around for a few days, make sure the plane isn't moving much, then follow one of the Diluses when it leaves for the next gathering spot."

Sandy wasn't reckless. She calmly assessed their situation. Then she asked, "Your cloaking magic is still holding up?"

The number of transcendent Diluses at the station wasn't high, and they didn't seem to stay long. After refueling, they would quickly move on, continuing their journey.

"Yeah, I can blend the ship with the void's background. As long as they don't spot us directly, we'll stay hidden."

They stayed in position for five days. Adam mapped out the plane's trajectory, and Sandy uploaded the data and his calculations to the Mage Network. 

After leaving a hidden marker in the void, they quietly steered the ship closer to the edge of the plane.

Each Dilus took about three days to complete its resupply. Adam and Sandy chose one that had come from another direction a day earlier, planning to make it their next target and take control of it.

As they approached the plane, the tension rose. They stopped the ship about 50,000 kilometers away, as strange energy fluctuations filled the void ahead. 

The level-seven Dilus seemed to be using its immense power to monitor all the space around them.

"Very cautious," Sandy noted. "We can't go straight through. We'll need to circle around."

She added an extra layer of protection to the ship and guided it along a safer route, avoiding the boundary of the plane.

When the targeted Dilus finished its resupply and departed, the ship warped right beside it. Sandy swiftly took control.

This trip was even longer than the last one. The journey lasted a full six months. 

Sandy, bored out of her mind, entertained herself by splitting her elementals into two factions and making them fight each other in a petri dish.

At that moment, they reached their second destination. 

As soon as Sandy took in the scene before them, she gasped in disbelief. Turning to Adam, she said, "We've stumbled onto something incredible!"

Ahead of them was a structure that looked like an asteroid belt, but it was made up of thousands of small planes that the Diluses had relocated and clustered together. 

Each pair of planes was connected by special constructs, forming a massive ring-like pattern. 

On every plane, there was an altar, and countless Diluses were busy transporting enormous amounts of resources into them. These resources flowed through a network of tubes, all feeding into a gigantic central altar at the heart of the asteroid belt.

"I've seen something like this in the intelligence reports before the war," Sandy said, her eyes wide. "They're building a Void Fortress!"

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