Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lucien and Rhine looked at each other, both noticing the surprise on each others faces. Sard was intentionally exposing himself? Where was he leading them to?
Although he hadn’t recovered the ability to summon Silver Moon Alterna because of his wound, Rhine felt that he was still in good shape, and ‘tycoon’ Lucien was rather confident about himself now that he had all his equipment. Therefore, the two of them split and approached the corridor where Sard’s scent spread out in full wariness.
Sard’s scent began to move among the pathways, until it reached an inconspicuous grey room that could’ve been easily neglected.
The door of the room was not closed, allowing Lucien and Rhine to see clearly what was inside from the outside. At the center of the room was a deep pit. There were countless unimaginably eerie magic patterns, mixed with the symbols and divine power, at the bottom of and near the pit.
Those patterns and symbols were not superficial but extended below the floor, beyond the wall, and into the void, spreading nonstop. The whole room seemed to be covered in a magic model, giving both a sacred and weird feeling.
At the bottom of the pit, the fuzzy, translucent grey piece was pulled into the shape of a human, who toddled towards the center.
“This is the most complicated and incomprehensible magic model that I have ever seen.” Lucien had ‘Eternal Blaze’ that only level-three legends could learn, the ‘Hand of Uncertainties’ that was beyond the imagination of the arcanists today, and he had witnessed the defense of Allyn. However, this magic circle eclipsed all of them in terms of complexity. Also, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Lucien believed that the patterns that disappeared into the void, the floor and the wall were not really gone but connected to the whole Realm of Gates and World of Souls in a certain way. They were of the same structure!
Lucien was confident to make such a statement as a grand arcanist.
Rhine looked rather weird, as if he had remembered something. In the end, he said, “I once saw part of the pattern from Thanos. I didn’t know that he had already begun the studies on such things back then.”
Sard walked very slowly at the bottom of the pit, not nearly as swift as just now. So, Lucien had the time to consider whether or not to stop him, as well as the time to ask curiously, “Mr. Rhine, you and Thanos were good friends?”
“I like to make friends with talented young men and watch them grow. I will even transform my favorites into vampires. So, I have a lot of good friends, and Thanos was one of them. Of course, he was also the most monstrously brilliant one. Hehe. You are already better than him in terms of arcana.” Said Rhine in a smile.
Lucien thought for a moment and said with mixed feelings. “As expected of the Observer. When you open the history book and point at a random name, you can say that you knew him and watched his growth. That must be a special and enjoyable feeling.”
“That’s one of my few hobbies now.” Rhine said, “It’s a pity that I didn’t witness the growth of Douglas, a great person who can compare to Thanos, if not even better. After all, he established the path of arcana through the greatest difficulties and rescued magic. After only four hundred years of development, his group has reached the level that the ancient Magic Empire achieved after thousands of years, and it has an equal number of top legends to that in the prime days of the Magic Empire.”
“Why? I admired Mr. President the first time I read his inspiring questions and believed that he was one of the greatest people. I don’t think that you didn’t see it, Mr. Rhine?” Asked Lucien in confusion. That was an Observer who supported many young men.
Rhine shook his head. “Douglas was not very distinguished in the last years of the Magic Empire and in the beginning of the War of Dawn. Perhaps because of his habit of asking questions and his unusual mindset, he was not appreciated by any other sorcerers in Antiffler. Also, he was not very strong himself and only advanced regularly. Naturally, he was eclipsed by the many geniuses at that time. That’s why I overlooked him and didn’t get to know him at all.”
“The arcana system he established, on the other hand, is the domain that I don’t have the slightest clue about. So, the grand arcanists and the legendary sorcerers who were raised in the Congress of Magic were not witnessed by me at all, except you.”
Lucien’s curiosity was satisfied. Seeing that Sard was about to reach the center of the pit, he asked, “Should we stop him?”
“Can you identify its function? I believe that this magic circle is the pivot of the laboratory, but we cannot test it ourselves. However, if the magic circle transforms subjects into monsters, Sard will definitely attack us after his transformation…” Rhine seemed eager to find out what Sard wanted.
Lucien shook his head. “I can only tell that it is associated with resurrection, as can be seen how the Original Fire came back to life after he was smashed by ‘Fateful Meteor’. As a matter of fact, it is common sense in magic that the more delicate, complicated and powerful a magic circle is, the more easily it can be sabotaged during the operation. We can see what Sard is up to first. If anything goes wrong, we will interrupt it at the critical moment. If the magic circle is defended the moment it begins, we will destroy it immediately!”
“Alright.” Rhine hated Sard in the first place. He couldn’t agree more after hearing Lucien’s explanation.
The shape of the human transformed from the grey piece that lay inside the hexagram at the center of the pit. The magic lines around him glowed one after another, emitting pure silver brilliance.
After all the magic lines were illuminated, the intense, frozen air of death surged in along the patterns on the floor and the wall, bringing in silence and coldness.
“It indeed takes advantage of the power of the World of Souls.” Lucien took the opportunity to record and analyze the magic circle.
Right then, the patterns that stretched out to the void was painted with sacred and overwhelming light. A holy and vast tide also flooded into the pit.
“The power of Mountain Paradise…” Lucien couldn’t have been more surprised. Death and life? Evil and holy?
He was not bold enough before. That was why he failed to infer that the magic circle would extract power from Mountain Paradise!
The monotonous black, white and grey and the pure brightness were melted with Sard’s translucent figure as the center. Then, they entangled in an unimaginably weird state. As Lucien’s observed, they now revealed the frozen black, white and grey, and now revealed the lively and agile ivory brightness.
Enshrouded by them, Sard’s body changed quickly. It was now extremely dim and now seemed to be blessed with flesh and blood. Gradually, the feeling of flesh and blood was stronger and stronger.
“It’s really resurrection?” In the telepathic bond, Rhine asked.
Suddenly, the most overwhelming and supreme light surfaced inside Sard’s body, and the pleasant hymns resonated in the room. The entanglement of life and death was immediately disrupted, and the line between evil and holiness was drawn.
Sard’s body was reduced into a grey piece again, which seemed to be made of infinite regrets and desperation.
“I deserve better…”
In the vague, miserable cries, the grey pieces collapsed all of a sudden, and Sard completely disappeared from this world.
Both Rhine and Lucien were rather taken aback by such a change. It was not until a long time later that Lucien finally remarked, half in mockery and half in shock, “Sard attracted us to come to this place with so many efforts, just so that he could die in front of us?”
Rhine hated Sard’s guts in the first place and was only puzzled by his sudden death. He was immediately amused by Lucien’s words. “He was probably really trying to die before us.”
After the mockery, Lucien reviewed what he saw and took a deep breath. “At least, I have a basic speculation about the effect of the magic circle. It should be more than resurrection… Was Sard trying to tell us the function of the magic circle with his resurrection?”
“What a pity. He didn’t know that God’s Arrival was so powerful that it lingered to this moment. He was such an ambitious, brilliant and stealthy schemer, but he could only cry that he deserved better in the end.” Rhine felt rather complicated that the schemer who once deceived him ended up like that.
Lucien shook his head. “His biggest problem was that he did not recognize the trend of history. The Congress is developing faster than he imagined, but he went against the trend. If he had truly decided to divide the South Church, it’s possible that he’d already be a top legendary pontiff right now. The trend of history is unstoppable. Whoever stands in its way will be crushed.”
After the observation, Lucien suddenly sensed something wrong. “Mr. Rhine, if Sard were confident about his resurrection, there wouldn’t have been no need for him to attract us to come. He could’ve got in touch with us after he was resurrected, because either of us might’ve killed him when we lose control of ourselves. If he were not confident about his resurrection, he could’ve told us what he wanted to tell us in advance.”
Reminded by Lucien, Rhine was deep in thought, “Are you implying that he attracted us to come under somebody else’s instruction for the purpose of letting us see this magic circle, and that it didn’t really matter whether Sard survived or died in the end?”
“Yes. The guy who instructed him must be the guy who enabled him to use God’s Arrival.” Lucien nodded his head. “But I can’t figure out who it can be. The Angel King is incapable of God’s Arrival himself…”
Looking at the magic circle that had stopped, Rhine said, “What’s your opinion about the function of this magic circle?”
“Let’s find the experiment logs first. I need to confirm my thoughts.” Contemplating, Lucien left the grey room and opened the other ancillary laboratories and libraries, searching for all the files that remained.
Just like Maskelyne suggested, although the main laboratory had been destroyed, some of the experiment logs were preserved. They were arranged by Lucien and Rhine in the order of time.
On the intact mirror in one of the rooms, Lucien and Rhine’s image was reflected. They began to read the intermittent experiment logs, because many of the logs had been ruined, from the beginning.
Some of the experiments were Thanos’, some were left by Maskelyne and the other legendary sorcerers earlier, and only the last of them were written after the explorers entered the Realm of Gates.
“Phase of Preliminary Preparation: We accidentally captured a strange creature in the alternate dimension that was similar to the gods in the tales. Perhaps we can call it ‘fake god’.”
