Wizard: I Have a Cultivation System

He didn’t refute it, evidently accepting the Balance Keeper’s judgment.

"Enough!" a previously silent figure suddenly spoke, their voice aged and impatient. "Stop playing games and testing us, Balance Keeper. We all came here for our own reasons. Time is short, and the risks are immense. Tell us directly, what is your plan? How do we deal with that Demon?"

All eyes focused on the Balance Keeper.

The Balance Keeper chuckled softly. "Fight him? No, we don’t need to fight him directly. An imbalanced system will naturally attract a corrective force. We merely need to accelerate that process."

"Accelerate?" someone asked, puzzled.

"You mean..." Adrian’s voice carried a hint of dawning realization and astonishment.

"Precisely." The Balance Keeper’s voice grew deep. "We don’t need to deal with him ourselves. Elsewhere, there are those who can ’correct’ this sort of imbalance. We just need to make him ’leave’ quickly enough."

"Leave? You mean Elementalization?" a voice with a heavy accent that had not yet spoken rang out, thick with suspicion.

Ambrosius’s heart skipped a beat. He recognized the accent and phrasing—it was a noble from the Rotalia Empire.

The Balance Keeper didn’t answer directly, instead slowly retrieving an object from within their robes.

It was an ancient-looking bronze artifact, about the size of a fist, shaped like a twisted polyhedron. Its surface was etched with countless lines so fine they were nearly invisible to the naked eye. In the glow of the campfire, it shone with a dim luster.

"This artifact can ’catalyze’ the Elementalization process of the Holy Sword," the Balance Keeper’s voice echoed in the cavern. "It has been active for a long time, working silently, stealthily. But to accelerate the process, to ensure the appointed time arrives sooner, we need additional ’fuel.’"

"Fuel?" Ambrosius asked in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the bronze artifact. "What kind of fuel?"

"Very simple," the Balance Keeper said, cradling the artifact in their palm. "Just pour your power into it. Power of any nature, from any source, as long as it’s pure enough and carries a sufficient ’desire to change the status quo,’ can be absorbed and converted, becoming a force for acceleration. And the power each of you holds is perfectly suitable."

"Pour our power into it?" the sharp voice from earlier piped up, full of skepticism. "Let’s not even question whether this artifact is real or fake. Just the idea of pouring our power into some object of unknown origin... What if it’s a trap? For all we know, you were sent by that Demon to test us!"

Before the Balance Keeper could respond, another voice spoke up, tinged with exhaustion. "Doubts? At this stage, do you have any other choice? If you won’t trust a Balance Keeper—a member of the great organization tasked with maintaining the balance of the Continent—then who can you trust? Should we just stand by and watch that Demon shatter the old order and sweep us all into the trash heap of history?"

"Maintain the balance?" Suddenly, a cold laugh shattered the brief silence.

The one who had spoken was standing deep in the shadows, having barely moved until now:

"Such a nice turn of phrase. ’Maintain the balance’... Well then, ten years ago, when the seal on the Sanctuary Half-Plane suddenly weakened, causing the powers of four Wizards to leak out and nearly destroy the Holy City—was that ’accident’ also the work of the great Balance Keepers, all for the sake of ’maintaining the balance’?"

The voice wasn’t loud, yet it boomed through the cavern like a thunderclap.

Ambrosius’s pupils shrank. He recognized the owner of the voice. It was another Cardinal from within the Church Court, one with a conservative stance who had been gradually losing power under the new political climate.

The Balance Keeper’s silhouette wavered for a moment in the firelight, but their voice remained steady:

"What’s past is past, and everything happens for a reason. We are gathered here today to deal with an imminent threat. Dredging up old grievances will do nothing to solve our current problem."

"Hmph." The Cardinal snorted coldly but didn’t press the issue.

Adrian spoke up at this point. "Let the past be the past. The Balance Keeper is right. What we should be focused on now is how to deal with... or rather, how to make that Demon leave. Can this artifact truly accelerate his Elementalization?"

"It is already taking effect," the Balance Keeper affirmed. "I can feel it. But the speed is insufficient. We need to give it another push."

They extended the hand holding the bronze artifact. "Those of you willing to do your part to restore the balance, please step forward."

The cavern fell silent once again, the only sound being the CRACKLE of the campfire.

Finally, the first to step forward was the figure with the exhausted voice.

He extended a hand from beneath his cloak—it was aged but steady. A faint yet pure mote of holy light appeared at his fingertip, and he slowly touched it to the bronze artifact.

Adrian followed immediately after.

He too stepped forward. Without any unnecessary fanfare, he silently channeled a stream of pure Holy Power into the artifact.

Ambrosius watched this scene play out, then glanced at the several figures stirring restlessly in the shadows.

’There’s no turning back for me now. Coming here was the same as choosing this path.’

He took a deep breath, strode forward as well, and extended his hand. Cautiously, thread by thread, he channeled the Holy Power he had accumulated within his body into the cold bronze artifact.

One, two, then three... The figures by the campfire made their choice one after another. All except for the owner of the sharp, skeptical voice, who hesitated for a moment before finally gritting their teeth and stepping forward as well.

As it absorbed the streams of power—each different in nature, yet all equally saturated with bitterness and desperate longing—the patterns on the dark bronze artifact’s surface seemed to come alive. A faint, yet sinister, light began to flow across them.

The light was not bright, yet it seemed to cause the temperature throughout the cavern to drop by several degrees.

The shadows beneath the Balance Keeper’s hood seemed to curve upward slightly. They gazed at the faintly vibrating artifact in their hand, murmuring in a low voice that was both a whisper to themself and a proclamation to all:

"The gears of balance have begun to turn faster..."