Chapter 231: Opening
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Both Nicolay and Walter were both originally devout dervishes, and later they joined the Night Watch for some reasons. Right now, both of them were level five pastors. One was the leader of a night watcher team from Holm, and the other was from another night watcher team called Hammer, belonging to the Lance Inquisition. Both Nicolay and Walter were particularly fanatical and steadfast in their faith, and this was why Varantine called them in, as whoever took the mission was basically doomed to die.
“Lord Varantine, I’m all the time prepared to sacrifice my life to defend the glory of God. Death is not the end, and there’s an eternal wonderland behind the gate of Mountain Paradise.” Nicolay knelt down on one knee and crossed himself.
He was a tough, middle-aged man, dressed in a simple white robe. He had no wife, no children and zero possessions, as he had devoted everything to the God of Truth.
Although Walter, a man with brown hair, looked younger than Nicolay, his blue eyes showed that he had experienced a lot, “Lord Varantine, there’s nothing to be afraid of when facing death. What is truly dreadful is to lose faith in God, as it’s like being trapped in hell forever. If we die, Lord Varantine, we’re just going back into the arms of our all-mighty God.”
“Great. Your devotion to the Lord is noble, and I can feel the joy of the Lord. The gate of Mountain Paradise will always be open to you, and if you can come back alive from this mission, I will take you two to see the Pope in the Holy City to have his blessing, and you two will become senior-rank cardinals.”
Feeling touched by the two night watchers’ devotion, Varantine spoke highly of the two and promised them a lot, “You major target in this mission is Felipe Carneiro, who now ranks ninety-first on the Cleansing List. Besides him, your second target is Lucien Evans X, but always focus on killing Felipe as he is your top priority. As Lucien Evans X is right now under the protection of a few archmages and senior-rank sorcerers, don’t sacrifice your life for him if you two get a chance to escape.”
“All blasphemers must be cleared!” Nicolay and Walter replied loudly.
On the other side, Vaharall solemnly brought out a silver sword, which, despite its ordinary look, actually had great power in it, “This is a replica of the divine item, Sword of Truth, from Holm parish, and its power partially comes from the true sword. It can cut off any connections between a sorcerer and the person’s magic items, including one’s life box or soul container. As Felipe’s a necromancer, we have to use it to really kill him.”
The reason why the Blessing of the Hoffenberg family was also called Sword of Truth was that the Hoffenbergs enjoyed the same power.
Under no circunstance would the cardinals allow the two night watchers to take the legendary weapon, as losing the sword was the last thing the cardinals wanted to see. Therefore, three legendary saint cardinals spent several days on duplicating the sword with all kinds of magic circles, materials and their own power, and the power of the replica could be used once.
Letting Nicolay take over the sword, Vaharall said to them, “An old sorcerer whose name’s Vern will put you two in the manor in Sariva where Felipe is. Be patient, and you two will certainly kill Felipe.”
Vern was a level four arcanist, level five sorcerer. When he was younger, he actually accomplished a lot, and he also killed quite a few night watchers. However, as he got older, his progress in arcana slowed down and finally stopped. Vern got lost.
Vern was lost within so many fundamental questions that he asked himself — where did life come from? How magic power was born? How and where soul was originally born? As he could not find any answers in arcana, he gradually turned himself into a devout follower of God.
Therefore, only Vern would accept the task of putting two night watchers in the place where one of the most important geniuses of the Congress of Magic lived. For other traitors, no matter what reasons that made them willing to work with the Church, they didn’t dare to do this.
Nicolay and Walter stood up, crossing in front of their chests, “Only truth lives forever!”
“Only truth lives forever!” Varantine and Vaharall repeated and then watched the two night watchers leaving.
Vaharall sighed, “They are the Lord’s good servants. They’re so devout that they should not be sacrificed. And it took us a lot of work to have a sorcerer who’s willing to work for us in Allyn. This task will bring great loss to us.”
“Our loss will be compensated.” Varantine closed his eyes, looking rather serious, “This is not sacrifice, but dedication.”
…
“Good afternoon, Mr. Felipe.”
“Mr. Felipe…”
Outside of the manor, when seeing Felipe, who was in his black long jacket as usual, walking towards them, several middle-rank necromancers all greeted him with sincere respect.
Felipe was the only one, except those grand arcanists and legendary sorcerers, who could hopefully win Immortal Throne again, and possibly Holm Crown prize as well. Although his previous research studying the cell memory was also something very insightful and helpful, it was not even close to the study that completely overthrew Life Force Theory, the cornerstone of the school of Necromancy.
However, of course there were also many, many necromancers who hated Felipe so much that they wanted to turn him into their husk. In contrast, most arcanists from the Will of Elements were quite regretful as they wished that it was an elemental sorcerer who discovered the truth.
Facing a lot of attention, Felipe was very calm and confident. After slightly nodding to the necromancers, he headed toward the main hall of the manor, following Rogerio and other senior-rank arcanists.
Before entering the hall, Felipe took a glance at another direction, where Lucien was walking out of his house. The corner of Felipe’s mouth curled a bit, and a gloomy smile appeared on his face, as if he was saying, “Good job, Mr. Professor.”
Obviously, Felipe was pretty happy with the outcome of his plan. Although so far there was no necromancer who got his or her head exploded because of the new theory, many stubborn old guys in the school of Necromancy were definitely going be trapped within their arcana study for a long time.
Before Lucien reacted, Felipe walked into the hall directly. Surprisingly, a half-raised stage was built in the center of the hall. On the stage, there was an alchemical operation platform and a whole set of lab equipment surrounded by many powerful magic circles.
A few glass tubes and pipes and two glass bottles together built up a closed system with inner circulation function, and the whole thing looked mysterious and beautiful.
“What’s going on here?” Felipe was a bit surprised. He thought that they were here to discuss their project with the druids.
“What do they want to do…? Those people from the Will of Elements…” Feeling rather suspicious, Felipe sat down in the middle of the row behind Rogerio and Pesor.
“You’ve got any ideas what is going on here?” Rogerio asked Pesor, the member of Arcana Review Board.
Pesor nodded, “No idea. The meeting at the end of the project was suggested by Gaston.”
He did not really care, as there was no way that the elemental sorcerers could put forward another overturning research finding that could hurt the foundation of the school of Necromancy after what happened to Life Force Theory, and it was almost impossible for one to overthrow the other fundamental theories in the school of Necromancy since they were just too abstract to be comprehended by human beings.
At this time, Lucien, together with Raventi, Gaston, LockLynn and other sorcerers from the Will of Elements, also entered the hall and sat down on the other side.
“Morris? Why is he here?” Tina-Timos lifted her eyebrow.
Morris was not in this research project. She wondered why Morris showed up today.
“He must be interested in the discussion over Life Force Theory as well, just like me.” Rogerio did not see anything special with Morris’s appearance.
At two in the afternoon, all the arcanists involved in the project were present. Meanwhile, as the representatives of druids, Iristine and Arcelion also arrived. Because Malfurion had given up the effort of working with the grand arcanists to study nature divine power, the druids were now suffering way less pressure from the forests.
Upstairs, Malfurion and several grand arcanists were also staring at the stage from a demiplane space.
“Hathaway, why do you want us to be here?” asked Thanatos, who was sitting in a fancy armchair. Although the school of Necromancy still suffered quite a bit loss, he was relieved that most necromancers had so far withstood the difficulty brought by Life Force Theory being overturned.
“To watch an experiment, simple but powerful enough to shake the foundation of the Church,” responded Hathaway without turning her head. Her silvery-gray eyes were staring at the stage, “Sometimes we are trapped because we think in a too sophisticated way, but the truth might not be like this, actually. And maybe this is the same with nature divine power.”
Hearing Hathaway’s words, the president of the Congress, Douglas, who suspended his experiment to come here, and the vice president, Brook, all looked very serious.
Except for the Witch of Iceland and the Hand of Annihilation, who could not make it, the rest of the grand arcanists were all there.
…
Raventi, in his gray robe, came onto the stage and stood behind the whole set of equipment. Then, he said loudly, “The great discussion over the validity of Life Force Theory has inspired us, senior-rank elemental sorcerers from the Will of Elements. Combing the inspiration with legends, they’ve designed a wonderful experiment. Ladies and gentlemen, as the experiment is probably going to take a long time, let’s discuss the project findings while waiting for the experiment outcome.”
Seeing Raventi was being very serious, many arcanists started to feel very curious.
What was this experiment?
