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"There are more of us; unfortunately, they can't come because there is a lot of work left in the office. Please excuse them," Cassandra of the Southern Defense Wall politely informed Cedric.
The Young Sage felt a bit surprised and frightened by her politeness, so he hurriedly said, "That's quite alright, ma'am. It's already presumptuous of me to occupy some of your valuable time. I'm already thankful that some of you are able to come."
"You can speak more comfortably with us, Young Sage." Filius of the Eastern Defense Wall smiled at him. "Don't let our status make you uncomfortable."
"What he said, Young Sage," Anthony of the Western Defense Wall chimed in. "Besides, we actually have to thank you instead. If you hadn't called for us, we'd still be swamped with mountains of paperwork. It feels rather nice to stretch our legs and take a breath of fresh air instead of being stuffed inside a small office."
Others laughed at his words, mostly because they could relate to them. Cedric couldn't, but he joined them nonetheless.
"Anyway, how about we get this show going?" Raven of the Northern Defense Wall suggested. He then looked at Cedric and asked, "We've been notified of this project about a week ago and have been looking forward to it. I assume that the preparations just finished today."
"Yes." Cedric nodded. "I asked Archbishop Gabriel's help along with the resources of the House of Light to assist me with this. Thanks to them, the preparations were made rather quick."
"I happened to catch whiff of this since I happened to be around when Gabriel notified everybody. But I lack most of the information about this project. Can you tell me more about it, Young Cedric?" Old Man Jin asked.
"Of course! I was planning on doing that before taking action, anyway," Cedric replied confidently.
"At first, I called this the Leyline Repair Task. But now, it'd be more accurate to call it the Leyline Restoration Effort. It's pretty straightforward. The goal of this effort is to restore or revitalize the Leylines within our territory."
"I thought about this during my altercations with the Cult of the Demon Saint. When I was still a citizen of the Black Thread City, I personally witnessed how the cult took advantage of the Leylines to create and sustain demons they snuck in, which almost devastated the city."
"The cult's been dealt with and the entrance to that specific Leyline had been sealed by me. I've planned to revitalize the Leylines ever since but didn't have the necessary means to do so. Because of that, I've neglected it for quite sometime. I was only reminded of it recently. Now, I have all the tools I need to finish this project. I've already consulted Acala for this and got her go signal.
That's why I asked all of you to come because I want you all to witness it as well."
Some of the elders looked at each other knowingly. They couldn't help but admire the young Sage but also feel pity for him.
'He's a little too young to be paying attention to these things.' - this was generally what they all thought. What makes them feel worse is that he actually found a way to do something that should've been their responsibility to begin with.
"I'll also ask my students to go and help out," Lissandra added.
"The commotion this will cause might spread outside," Cedric reminded everybody. "For now, we're surrounded by the misdirection mist, so we should be fine for quite some time."
"However, since the Demons are paying attention to this, they will definitely know that our presence has been liberated. They will for sure not like that at all. But we have time," Cedric concluded.
"Yes, we have time. We've also gathered more resources thanks to you, and our defenses have also been upgraded thanks to you. If they want to attack us, they better be prepared to lose their lives in the process. We're ready for this," Fiona fervently stated.
Cedric had a few things to say about that, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to douse their burning conviction with the harsh and merciless truth.
"Anything else?" Cassandra asked.
"No, that's about it." Cedric smiled as he shook his head. "I'll begin shortly; once I start, we have about a week until the process is finished. That's when the commotion will happen. I'd appreciate it if the necessary arrangements are done by then."
"Do your thing in peace, Young Cedric. Don't worry about the rest; we will handle it for you." Old Man Jin patted his shoulders. "I'll guard the entrance to this cave. Like I said, even if a Demon King were to come, they could forget about disturbing you."
"Thank you." Cedric bowed at him. He then stepped back and went to the exposed spiritual vein to sit down in front of it.
Before starting with this, Cedric made sure to notify his girlfriends that he would be unavailable for a week at most. He told them that he'd be in seclusion, which isn't strange for superhumans like them.
Chrissy and Erica replied that they understood and wished him luck. Cedric felt a little guilty about lying to them like this, but for now, it's all he could do.
He then closed his eyes and adjusted his state of mind. The people behind him watched and felt the Young Sage harmonizing with the environment; his presence blended so well that if they weren't looking at him, they would've almost missed him.
They knew that he started the moment it happened. Several runes shimmered into being around him, and the entire cave lit up with a golden radiance. A large array lit up in front of the sitting sage in response to this stimulation.
"It's starting, folks," Filius softly announced. "We can't let this child down. Come, we've got work to do."
After saying that, he marched out of the cave to do his part. He was, of course, followed by the others.
As for Old Man Jin, he remained at the entrance of the cave. He sat down, looking bored as ever, but his senses were primed and on the lookout for any possible interruptions.
May God have mercy on someone who intends to harm the child who's trying to save humanity, because he sure as hell won't.