Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-255

"Mr. Evans?" Sandra looked at Lucien a bit confusedly. She did not understand why what she had just said was surprising at all.

"Uh… My hand just trembled, from the reflected damage from the ring…" Lucien quickly found an excuse and picked up the book.

What Lucien said was not true, and the truth was that he was shocked by Sandra's words, because Viken was not the only sorcerer who disappeared before the War of Dawn. Maskelyne also did.

Although Sandra and Charlie knew part of the story, they did not know those details: Maskelyne, the Prophet, went missing deep into the World of Souls, together with his several friends mentioned in his notes, and at that time, they were all working on some important magic experiment. The whole thing got even more weird with the fact that Maskelyne could make divine items with magic, and his symbol, the Grand Cross, looked very much like the Church's Cross of Truth.

This made Lucien think whether Viken was one of Maskelyne friends and whether he was part of the experiment. Also, did the experiment had anything to do with the special summoning rite? Lucien wondered if the ultimate secret of the world lay deep inside the World of Souls? The place must be very, very dangerous!

"One day if I can become a grand arcanist, or even a legendary archmage, I'm definitely going to explore the World of Souls." Lucien decided to keep this information to himself, but when he was ready, he wanted to invite other legendary archmages or grand arcanists he trusted to go together with him.

Neither Charlie nor Sandra doubted Lucien's words. His words made totally sense.

"No matter how curious we are, the last thing we should do is to try the rite." Sandra reminded them. As a sorcerer who specialized in Summoning, she was very concerned with such a creepy summoning rite and its unpredictable consequences.

Lucien smiled, "I'm not gonna touch it before I become a senior-rank. I don't think I can handle the demon right now, and I believe that the Congress will soon gather more information about the demon."

"The Congress should. If we had had more information, we would not have been so lost when facing the demon." Charlie agreed.

Sandra nodded, "The Congress can take away some pressure, so we don't have to worry about it too much, but I still want to read Pain Fable to see whether it is as desperate as what Scott described."

"Me, too, but I still need to borrow a few other books from here first," said Lucien. Then, he asked Alex to find him some basic arcana books in the schools of Force Field and Necromancy and basic magic books in other schools.

Charlie put on his hat and said, "I've still got some other stuff to deal with, so I have to go now. Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans, Ms. Sandra, and I hope we can work together again in the future."

"I'm heading for Allyn City Library as well, Mr. Evans. You're not that kind of arcanist who can only survive in labs. You're reliable, and you're a good leader." Sandra was also going to leave, and before that, she shook hands with Lucien.

Lucien said to them in a humble manner, "You two are very experienced sorcerers, and I've learned a lot from you two. Without you, Sandra and Charlie, I would certainly have died in the castle already. We should stay in contact with each other to exchange ideas from time to time."

...

At the bottom floor of Aalto Abbey, a female voice was humming an old and solemn tune, as if the sky was being covered with dark clouds before the storm came. The voice was a bit hoarse but sexy.

The pitch got slowly higher, and the voice became softer but sad. Then, the melody got faster and more pressing, like rain drops hitting the ground and wild wind blowing.

After a while, the female eased in a soothing and gentle tune as if an isolated but pure mind was recalling all the memories with emotions in the storm. And in those memories, lightnings were forgotten; thundering was forgotten; harsh raindrops were forgotten; and as well as all the depression and sadness, and even the whole world.

The storm was still lashing her mind, but soon, at the end of the first movement, the melody became warm and nice.

Natasha finished humming the major melody of Storm Sonata, and then she looked at the letter in her hand. It was the one Lucien sent on July 30th. She was very satisfied with the sonata, her birthday gift from Lucien.

"Although Storm Sonata is not as outstanding as Pathetique and Moonlight, it is still impressive, and it shares the same theme and spirit with Symphony of Fate—perseverance and faith. It's a great birthday gift," Natasha murmured in a low voice. Then she looked up and started to read the rest of the letter again. It was all about Lucien's interesting experiences in Allyn, including how he tortured the apprentices with lots of exercises, those apprentices complaints and jokes, the story when he was mistakenly invited to the conference because of his name, and so on.

Natasha was comforted by Lucien's letter. She felt that Lucien, her old friend, was telling her all those stories right in front of her relaxedly.

"Why do I feel those stories are more interesting than the music itself?" Natasha rubbed her chin a bit and asked herself confusedly, "Is it because I haven't talked to other people for too long?"

...

In the Month of Flower, the fifth of the year, the weather was getting hot. However, Allyn, as the city in the sky, still remained relatively cool.

In the magic lab of Lucien's garden villa.

The light white, tear-shaped mark on Lucien's left hand burst out gentle light, and slowly rose up into the sky. Lucien added the powder of Sunstone and some more magic materials into the tear mark and started casting.

After a long and complicated process, the tear looked less transparent but more solid. It's light still looked pure and gentle.

At this time, the light spots in the crystal ball in Lucien's right hand flew out of it one by one. The light spots surrounded the tear and formed a stellar map, and then, the map was absorbed by Lucien's left hand.

When the dazzling starlight disappeared, nothing was left on Lucien's left hand. However, Lucien could control the power anytime he wanted to use it by lighting the tear-shaped mark up.

According to Lucien Blessing Book, with all the materials gathered by Lucien and the mark left by the little girl, Lucien created his first permanent blessing, Innocent Gratefulness. It could help Lucien protect himself in the environment full of dead and rotten bodies, and also improve his defence level against soul attack spells.

In order to build the permanent blessing, Lucien spent his two hundred arcana points that he earned from Bertren Castle. In the recent months, he fully relied on the subsidy from the congress and the Will of Elements to continue his study of Life Force and Necromancy.

Currently, in total, Lucien had a hundred and two arcana points, and he had constructed another five third-circle spells: Dimensional Cage, Protection from Energy, Curse of the Putrid Husk, Secondary Telepathic Bond and Lightning. So far, as for second circle spells, Lucien had twenty of them, and he reconstructed many of the spells to make them work better.

After finishing his work, when Lucien was about to leave the lab, he saw his steward Charles, who was an elegant old gentleman, coming over.

"Mr. Evans, Mr. Gaston, from the Will of Elements, wants to see you in his office," said Charles.

...

In Allyn, the Will of Elements' division.

"Evans, I heard that you've been reading Pain Fable recently, did you find anything in it?" Gaston made Lucien sit down and asked him casually.

"Not really." Lucien shook his head lightly, "I feel that those stories were dark and gloomy for the sake of being depressing. The only purpose of the book was to make people feel painful and discouraged and upset. By the way, Mr. Gaston, has the congress made any progress in investigating the demon? I mean… if it's confidential, you don't have to tell me."

"So far not a single senior-rank sorcerer involved in the study has managed to summon the demon you guys encountered in the castle, and that makes the special summoning rite very suspicious in their eyes, and they wonder if Bill had hidden other parts of his experience…" Gaston directly told Lucien what was going on.

After a bit of a pause, Gaston stared at Lucien with his dark yellow eyes and said, "The reason why I asked you to come over here is that we have a mandatory task for you from the Will of Elements. A gentleman asked the Will of Elements to send a letter for him to Mr. Stanis, the King of Nightmare. Because you're from Violet, Lucien, we want you to take the mission. The reward is a thousand arcana points. Don't worry, the King of Nightmare would send his people to guide you through the Dark Mountain Range, so you'll not be alone there in the mountains."

Gaston's words brought Lucien's memory about the Duchy of Violet back instantly. Although Lucien had a pretty hard time there, he also had lots of good memories. In Lucien's mind, Aalto was like his hometown.

Seeing Lucien did not say yes immediately, Gaston continued, "Of course I'm not saying that it's gonna be a completely safe and sound trip. If you don't want to accept the task, it's also okay, and you can choose something else. But if you're willing to take it, you can get the one thousand arcana points in advance, as well as enjoy a year long subsidy, so you can go and buy all the materials and potions you need to get prepared."

All his friends' faces showed up in Lucien's mind, giving him mixed feelings. Then, Lucien nodded, smiling, "I'll take this task, Mr. Gaston."

"Be careful, Evans. You'd better take the north route as the Church is strengthening their patrols over Storm Strait." Gaston patted on Lucien's shoulder, "You still take the monocle with you, but because of the electromagnetic interference of Storm Strait, when you get to the other side, it will be hard for you to contact us."