Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-280

Lucien stared at the sky like a real ghoul, and he murmured to himself in his mind out of confusion, "Is the red-robed cardinal from the North or the South Church? Why is he here? Is he chasing after Nikonov?"

The main divergence between the North and the South Church was their different understandings of some doctrines and prayers. The North Church especially doubted the status of the pope as "the Speaker of God on the Land of Truth". Therefore, after the secession, the North Church referred to the pope as pontiff, and a pontiff should not enjoy the lofty status of being respected as the spokesperson of God, but only a leader of the grand cardinals. Through the grand cardinals, a pontiff could lead the church. And that was it.

Therefore, in order to prove their own legitimacy, the hierarchy of the two churches still followed the tradition: the grand cardinals, then red-robed cardinals, then bishops and then pastors. Furthermore, the religious clothes they wore and their symbol—the cross—were basically the same.

As soon as Lucien had these questions in his mind, he mocked himself silently, "Come on, Lucien, are you muddled from the fight? The cardinal came in through the gap at the bottom of the mine, so he must be from the north!"

At the same time, Lucien also realized who that person was, since there was only one single cardinal who had this power and might know about the existence of this world—the level seven red-robed cardinal, Nevskiy…

One might have this thought that the person could also be some red-robed cardinal from the south who had secretly arrived in Ural because of some important task. However, it would be almost impossible to see a like that cardinal just carelessly wearing his own cardinal robe and flying around, considering how much the North and the South Church hated each other.

Then, Lucien's mind was filled with many new thoughts. He wondered how the cardinal knew about the existence of this world—did he learn this a long time ago? Or did he find the place when he was chasing after Nikonov? Lucien hoped the answer was the latter, but if it was the former, the cardinal's relationship with Nikonov could be quite complicated. After all, the secret of the World of Souls was not as easy to get as cabbages sold on the market.

Also, Lucien wanted to know what kind of undead creature was that thing which just flew across the sky some time ago.

The secret of the World of Souls was like its own existence, as both of them were covered in a thick cluster of fog.

Lucien decided to leave the place later, because the cradinal might come back at any time, and he might have left some complicated traps around the exit to make sure that no one was following him. If Lucien hurriedly left this place, he would put himself under great risk. Also, there might be more senior-rank people coming.

Patience was always a good thing in most cases.

Waving his arms, Lucien wandered on the wild land aimlessly just like the many ghouls. Pretending that he was seeking dead bodies, Lucien was waiting for the cardinal to come back.

At the same time, Lucien was reading the books about the history of the Church that he had collected so far, trying to find what happened before and after the secession.

Facing the secession, both the South Church and the North Church were trying to glorify themselves and bring shame on the other by destroying all the history records that were not on their side. Lucien was slightly amused by the fact that both sides had totally different comments on the same thing or the same person. For example, according to the South Church, the pope Gregory I was merciful and devout, while the first pontiff Ivan, was pictured corrupted and greedy as a big liar.

However, according to the North Church, Ivan, the first pontiff, was the one completely devout to the God. In order to prevent the world from being deceived by the pope, Ivan bravely stood out and chose to fight. Meanwhile, they denounced Gregory I, the pope who led the Saint Truth to the period of great prosperity, as the primary defiler, who kept stealing the glory of God, and should be purified first of all.

Although the Congress of Magic collected and saved the copy of lots of history records from that time and tried to stay neutral when understanding the history, there was nothing special or really valuable in the plain records, except the scandals of some important people from the church.

Part of the book Lucien was reading recorded the grand opening of the Highest Theology Conference, "…On that day, God stared at the Holy City. The four Saints—Ivan, Aleksey, Uriel, and Felix—and the seven Saint Cardinals including Sotte, Alester, and Siricius, stood in the holy light and denounced Gregory as the avatar of the Lord of Hell…"

The Saint was a holy title in the Saint Truth, following the Speaker of God, and the Saints were regarded as the archangels sent by God to the mundane. Although the title did not necessarily represent one's power, they were closely connected together. Pastors or cardinals could upgrade more asily under this title. Therefore, in most cases, they were the most powerful ones in the Church, following right after the Pope.

When reading this record, Lucien frowned. "Mr. Rhine said I could find something interesting, but I've found nothing here. There were some interesting anecdotes, but they're not what I'm looking for…"

Having nothing else safe to do, Lucien continued reading the books.

After a while, the red-robed cardinal flew back through the sky. Ignoring the ghouls on the ground, he directly left here through the gap. However, neither Nikonov nor the senior-rank creature showed up. The world then became dull and dreadful again.

When reading a book called The Saint Ivan, Lucien saw the cardinal flying across the sky. He wondered what happened, and maybe it was time for him to leave the place now.

Lucien had to leave this place, to avoid meeting other grand cardinals in case the cardinal decided to bring them to this place. Meanwhile, he also did not want to rush before making sure the red-robed cardinal had really left the place. The proper timing was very important here.

When Lucien closed the book, The Saint Ivan, he took a glance at the sentence on one of the pages, "… so the Saint Ivan accepted the command and headed toward the land under Wilfred's control. They needed to purify this extremely vicious and horrible sorcerer…"

A strange idea struck Lucien's mind suddenly, like a flash of lightning.

"Wilfred… the Great Master of Paleness… Wasn't he the legendary necromancer who once worked with Maskelyne and his partners?"

Lucien got this information from Hunt's notebook. Meanwhile, Lucien also saw this name, Wilfred, many times in other books that he had read. Unlike Maskelyne, Viken and the other three legendary archmages who got lost or were trapped in the World of Souls in the end, Wilfred died in the encirclement of the several grand cardinals.

Maybe due to some reasons, Wilfred did not manage to join the team exploring the deep secret of the World of Souls… That was Lucien's guess. At the same time, he quickly searched the Church's record of the important encirclement.

To his surprise, which also concerned Lucien a bit, the search results were mostly from the North Church and the Congress, while the South Church chose to be very brief on this historical event, without even mentioning the leader, the Saint Ivan.

"The six grand cardinals—Ivan, Aleksey, Nicon, Uriel, Geno, Felix—launched a surprise attack on Wilfred's Demiplanes Magic Tower. In this bitter fight, the six grand cardinals killed the necromancer and destroyed his life box… Nicon was killed by Wilfred."

Lucien repeated the names in his mind, and he felt that the tip of the horrible secret had been revealed…

Nicon was killed by Wilfred… but what about Geno?

Searching the materials quickly, Lucien saw the last record of this grand cardinal, "During the fight against the vicious necromancer Wilfred, the Grand Cardinal Geno, was severely injured the last second before Wilfred died. Geno's soul was entangled by the power of death. Seven years later, Geno died in Lance, the Holy City."

The book was left open on the spirit library table. Lucien was lost in his thoughts…

After a while, Lucien realized what the most important thing was right now. He forced himself to calm down and secretly left the ghoul team, running toward the exit gap.

After scanned and sensed the whole place using Sun's Corona, Lucien passed through the heavy and cold "curtains" in the gap and came back to the material world. Quickly, he left the mine pit and hid in the mountain range.

...

One week later, beside a pond deep in the Ural mountain range.

Leo secretly popped out from the bushes and checked the surroundings very carefully, making sure no one was following him.

Some unnoticeable marks were left beside the pond, guiding Leo to go somewhere else.

Leo followed the signs, and the location for them to meet was changed a few times. Finally, Leo heard the gentle voice, "Leo, is the Church and the empire still searching for us?"

Leo quickly turned around and saw Lucien standing on a giant pine tree with a heavy sword in his hands.

"Yes, they still are. We might have a few tough days going to Duchy of Violet through the forests…" Leo's voice suddenly trembled, then he asked in an unbelievable way, "My lord… This heavy sword is…?"

Kris_Liu Kris_Liu

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