Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability
chapter-900

Outside an abandoned ancient castle.

Madam Magician waited with Lumian for a while, then following the guidance of spirituality, took a step and arrived at a place inside, stopping in front of a vermilion door.

Knock knock knock, knock knock knock, knock knock knock. The Major Arcana card holder knocked three times in succession.

After a few seconds, a relaxed voice came from inside, "Enter, please."

With these words, the vermilion door slowly opened inward.

Lumian immediately saw heavy curtains, with sunlight struggling to shine through the gaps, bringing golden light that revealed floating dust to parts of the room.

On the other side, unaffected by sunlight, a black coffin was quietly placed instead of a common bed.

Opposite the coffin, near the sunlight, the desk was piled with letters.

At this moment, a man wearing loose pajamas was sitting in front of the desk, having just put down a fountain pen with a gold nib and black barrel, and folded a paper filled with words.

The man stood up, walked towards the door, with his back to the sunlight.

Lumian, having gained dark vision through the Demoness pathway, clearly saw the man's appearance: about 40 years old, average build, bronze skin, clean-shaven, black hair and brown eyes, soft features, with an indescribable sense of world-weariness in his eyes, and a small black mole below his right ear that was only visible upon close inspection…

"Good afternoon, Mr. Azik," Madam Magician greeted the gentleman respectfully.

Lumian also said similar words.

They spoke in ancient Feysac.

The middle-aged man called Azik suddenly seemed dazed for a moment, as if instantly receiving a large amount of information from the spirit world and His own subconscious.

He nodded and said in a gentle voice, "Thank you for your help, allowing me to wake up early and my soul to be healed to some extent."

"It was mainly this young friend who made the contribution." Madam Magician pointed to Lumian beside her.

She then introduced to Lumian, "This is Mr. Azik Eggers, the son of the Death from the Fourth Epoch, and former Consul of the Balam Empire."

Son of Death, former Death Consul of the Balam Empire… Lumian suddenly recalled part of the content from the Fool's Church canon: The Angel of Death has followed our Lord for the longest period of time and is the consul of the Underworld…

Could this be the Angel of Death beside Mr. Fool's divine throne? Lumian greeted him again.

"A Demoness." Azik glanced at Lumian and nodded slightly, "You have the aura of the source of the River Styx."

The Angel of Death refers to the river connecting two worlds as the source of the River Styx? Lumian was stunned for a moment and said, "That's the seal of the Underworld Daoist."

"Underworld Daoist…" Azik muttered softly, as if He had never heard of this existence.

Madam Magician smiled and changed the subject. "Mr. Azik, we came to visit you today mainly to inquire about some matters."

Azik looked at the corridor outside. "Let's take a walk around the castle, talk as we go. This is an important memory from a period of my life."

"Alright." Madam Magician made way.

Lumian and she followed behind Mr. Azik, who was presumably the Angel of Death, through the corridor, along the stairs, step by step upwards.

Along the way, ancient wall lamps embedded in the walls lit up one after another, burning with a cold and pale-white flame.

Lumian saw oil paintings hanging on both sides of the corridor, some of Azik Himself, but with more lively expressions, even smiling, and some of beautiful ladies with their hair tied up and children playing with wild deer.

Azik's gaze slowly swept over these paintings, occasionally lingering. After quite a while, He asked Madam Magician and Lumian, "What do you want to ask?"

Madam Magician, wearing a purplish magician's robe today, asked straightforwardly, "Mr. Azik, do you know why the Primordial Demoness sought cooperation with your father, the Death of the Fourth Epoch, after the War of the Four Emperors? Did you notice any problems with the Primordial Demoness?"

Hearing this question, Lumian was stunned for a moment, then realized. Indeed, who better to ask than someone who personally experienced those events of the late Fourth Epoch?

He is indeed an ancient Angel who has lived for over a thousand years…

Madam Magician should be about the same, but my spiritual intuition tells me she's still quite young…

Azik recalled for a few seconds and said, "There was a gap of over a hundred years between the end of the War of the Four Emperors and the beginning of the Pale Disaster. The Primordial Demoness's arrival was probably in the middle of this period. We don't know exactly what She discussed with my father; I only know that She declared to us Her intention to avenge the Blood Emperor, to make all seven gods of the Northern Continent perish, and to bring the Blood Emperor's deity corpse back to the surface from Underground Trier."

Is this true love? Despite it being two against seven, She wanted to avenge the Blood Emperor…

No, if the Primordial Demoness had achieved Her goal then, it would have meant that the special mirror world would no longer be sealed, able to reveal all its problems, but the current Demoness Sect doesn't seem to have such ideas, and even intends to nail the coffin lid more firmly, not letting those Mirror People achieve their goals…

Also, was it really not the Emperor of the Underworld, that Death, who delivered the final blow to the Blood Emperor? The Uniqueness of the Red Priest fell into the hands of Death, and there's also something like the Samaritan Women's Spring under Trier… Lumian was filled with strong doubts, but didn't interrupt Mr. Azik's narration.

Azik said, "Without a doubt, the Primordial Demoness is the most charming woman in this world. Every living being who sees Her will inevitably be fascinated by Her, including me, my brothers and sisters, and even the undead in the Underworld. Even our father was inevitably attracted to some degree."

"Even the undead are attracted to the Primordial Demoness? This is already a charm at the level of concepts and authorities…" Madam Magician sighed and asked, "Was your father, the Death of the Fourth Epoch, bewitched by the Primordial Demoness when he finally decided to forcibly accommodate the Uniqueness of the Red Priest?"

Lumian had gained some understanding of the connection between Death and the Uniqueness of the Red Priest when reading the 0-01 sealing information, but this was the first time he clearly encountered the essence of the matter.

As thoughts raced through His mind, Azik shook His head slightly and said, "The Primordial Demoness's instigation should be one of the reasons, but I don't think it was the main one, otherwise my father wouldn't have waited decades to do that."

Madam Magician made a terse sound and repeated her previous question, "Did you notice anything unusual about the Primordial Demoness?"

Azik passed by an oil painting, lightly running His finger over it. "Every time I encountered the Primordial Demoness, I would lose my senses. How could I possibly notice any problems with Her?

"If there was anything unusual, it was that on a few occasions, Her charm was a bit weaker than normal. That should have been Her deliberately restraining Her charm."

As a Demoness, Lumian knew that a Demoness naturally emanating charm and deliberately restraining charm would indeed present two different states, but after experiencing the false Demoness of Black incident, he suspected there might be other possibilities.

Madam Magician thought for a moment and changed the subject. "Mr. Azik, do you know about the body of the Phoenix Ancestor in the depths of the Underworld?"

Azik turned His head to look at the two women.

"My father thought it would be a waste to just destroy the body of an ancient god like that. He believed it could serve a more important purpose, such as helping my father better and more completely control the Underworld, or enabling Him, as Death, to possess stronger power.

"Those in the death domain will never reject powerful corpses that can be controlled by themselves."

Before Madam Magician could ask further, Mr. Azik added, "My father also mentioned that the body of the Phoenix Ancestor, this ancient god, held some secrets."

"Secrets?" Madam Magician asked curiously.

Azik paced forward and said, "He never told me the specifics, only that the story of the Ancient Sun God killing the Phoenix Ancestor at the end of the Second Epoch was false. Well, more accurately, the process was correct, but the result was wrong. The Phoenix Ancestor was only severely wounded by the Ancient Sun God, not dying on the spot. She escaped to the Southern Continent and went into hiding."

"Yes, if the Phoenix Ancestor was truly killed by the Ancient Sun God, that divine corpse wouldn't likely have been obtained by Death and appeared in the Underworld, unless it was His arrangements again." Madam Magician expressed agreement.

Azik continued, "Similarly, the Giant King Aurmir didn't perish on the spot either, supposedly escaping and managing to pass on his power to his eldest son, the later God of Combat, Badheil, before dying."

Is there any connection to the Omebella matter? Hmm, the two ancient gods who weren't killed on the spot by the Ancient Sun God seem to be related to Omebella—one's corpse is laying eggs, currently incubating Omebella, while the other is Omebella's husband… Lumian glanced at Madam Magician, and after obtaining her consent, asked, "Mr. Azik, what is the relationship between the Phoenix Ancestor and the Goddess of Harvest Omebella?"

Azik shook His head.

"I was born in the Fourth Epoch. All I know about the history of the Second Epoch is what my father occasionally mentioned."

Saying this, He smiled at Lumian and said, "Speaking of which, I should give you some reward."

As He gently raised His right hand, a large number of white bones gushed out from the ground, forming a giant skeleton.

The skeleton respectfully handed a shiny Loen gold pound to Mr. Azik.

Azik took the gold coin and presented it to Lumian. "Is this acceptable as a reward?"

"Thank you," Lumian said sincerely, accepting the lucky coin that bore Mr. Fool's aura.