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His mood was complicated.
Noah suddenly felt the urge to curse, not at his blood relatives whom he had never met and who had long since passed away, but at the so-called Edolas World Will.
There were not many factors that allowed a Mage to spontaneously awaken magic; besides the necessary talent and aptitude, the remaining factors influencing magic awakening were only bloodline and strong inner emotions.
For example, Ultear's Ice-Make was inherited from her mother.
And Erza, who also spontaneously awakened magic, did so because she witnessed her comrades in the Tower of Heaven rebellion continuously dying, and the intense emotional fluctuation led her to awaken Requip: The Knight.
Noah had always thought that his ability to awaken the Wish magic was a response to his late father's hopes for him when he was young, but now it seemed that was not the case.
Wish was very likely the work of the Edolas World Will, as this was a power that could connect to other worlds, and Noah had never seen any other similar magic.
And King Faust, who also wanted to save Edolas, unknowingly became an accomplice of the World Will, becoming the executor who brought about the birth of the Wish's vessel.
Clutching the emerald Lacrima, Noah showed a wry smile.
So I'm just a custom-made puppet, huh...
No, that's not right.
His old father even abandoned his plan to plunder magic for him, just as Shagotte sacrificed part of her own magic for Carla.
Their emotion called "love" could not be swayed.
Moreover, judging by the state of the Edolas Will in the Wish commission, his birth seemed to have exhausted its last shred of power.
If he didn't listen carefully, Noah couldn't even clearly hear the voice of the World Will from within that emerald crystal.
A flickering candle in the wind...
It seems that Magic Power is also related to the state and survival of the World Will.
Look at the World Will of Earth Land next door; its abundant Magic Power allows it to even keep out beings like gods, Black Abyss demons, and the Celestial Spirit King.
But the Edolas World Will was almost gone; how could it still have the ability to control his life?
Sure enough, I overthought things.
Thinking of this, Noah couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It's better not to be too smart, or these jumbled thoughts will only add to one's troubles.
Then, let's go save the world.
With the title of "savior," he would surely be able to slack off openly for the rest of his life.
As Noah finished his brainstorming, a cat's paw happened to pat his face. Noah looked at Carla in front of him. "You little cat, you really hold a grudge, ambushing me when I wasn't paying attention."
"Who ambushed you!"
Carla retracted her paw and returned to Wendy's side. "You were just smiling bitterly and then grinning foolishly; everyone thought you were having a fit."
He had been focused on the Wish commission before, so Noah really hadn't noticed his lapse in composure, but he wasn't embarrassed. After all, he had thick skin, and didn't even feel it when Carla slapped him.
Noah held the emerald crystal and looked at the Great Elder. "Old cat, of course I'm duty-bound to save the world, but I want to know where you got this thing?"
The Great Elder stroked his beard. "This is an ancestral item of our Exceed race; it is said to have appeared at the same time and place as the first Exceed."
Noah immediately understood.
As the only creatures in Edolas naturally born with magic, the Exceed were presumably also a masterpiece of the World Will, only at that time, there were no signs of Magic Power depletion.
Unfortunately, the emerald crystal could only hear the voice of the World Will but could not communicate with it, so Noah still had no clue how to save the world.
The Cat Queen and the Cat Elders had completely given up, leaving everything for Noah to worry about. After all, saving the world was something that capable people should do.
It was Wendy, the thoughtful little darling, who was sensible. Although she also didn't know how to revive the world's Magic Power, she couldn't bear to see Noah looking so troubled alone.
"Brother Noah, this Lacrima looks a lot like a seed."
"How about we try burying it in the ground?"
It was a wild idea, but Wendy's words gave Noah a huge inspiration.
The Magic Power of Edolas originated from the earth.
Noah had once seen in an ancient book in the palace that in the distant past, the world was a vast and boundless land, and later this land gradually split, evolving into the countless floating islands of today.
So, could the reason for the Magic depletion be that the splitting of the land caused the source of magic within the earth to also be broken apart?
An incomplete source of magic naturally could no longer produce magic.
And when the produced magic was exhausted, with no new magic to replenish it, the world naturally fell into the desperate situation of Magic depletion.
When Noah voiced his thoughts, he received unanimous approval from everyone and every cat present, and one of the Cat Elders even shamelessly flattered Noah.
"As expected of the savior, you immediately found the key to the problem."
"Then the next key question is to grasp the key to the problem... For example, if the floating islands are put back together, will Magic Power revive?"
You're just going in circles here.
But the Cat Elder's repetitive words did make sense.
"Regarding this, I need to conduct an experiment to confirm, and the subject of the experiment is..."
Noah gave a sinister smile, and the cats inwardly felt a premonition of disaster.
Shagotte spoke somewhat nervously. "Your Highness Noah, Extalia is too high, and there are no large enough floating islands nearby that can be joined together."
This was indeed true; the areas around Extalia were all super-small floating islands, so small that only one or two families could live on them.
But Noah had no intention of picking up those crumbs; he wanted to join the two largest floating islands: the Exceed Kingdom and the human kingdom below.
Only by joining these two largest floating islands could Noah confirm whether his conjecture was correct.
But would the Exceed present agree to this?
They definitely would. They had to.
Because they understood that once Noah spoke those words, they no longer had the right to refuse.
After receiving Noah's assurance that the safety of the Exceed would be guaranteed after the land fusion, the Cat Queen and the four Cat Elders wisely agreed to Noah's experiment with Extalia.
As Shagotte's command was issued, the news that Extalia was about to descend spread throughout the entire Exceed Kingdom, and for a time, fear and unease filled the faces of every cat.
However, the cat residents still carried out the Queen's command very well, and the Exceed throughout Extalia all activated their Aera.
The scene of hundreds of thousands of cats soaring into the air was quite spectacular.
Only Queen Shagotte encountered an accident; having lost part of her Magic Power, she was no longer able to cast complete Aera, with only one wing on her back, she couldn't even float normally.
Carla grabbed Shagotte and lifted her up; despite her tsundere nature, she couldn't bear to see her mother, who had paid a huge price for her, suffer.
Noah was not in the mood to care about the heartwarming scene of the cat mother and child. After receiving the news that all the Exceed residents had ascended, he began his actions.
Clapping his hands on the ground, a giant Magic Circle enveloped the entire Extalia with immense Magic Power.
Performing such a massive project for the first time, Noah felt not a trace of nervousness, but rather grew even more excited.
"Time's almost up."
"Extalia Drop Tower, activate!"