Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-370

Although Lucien was quite used to hearing bad news, he was still a bit nervous, "What happened, Mr. Rhine?"

The World of Souls contained the genuine secret of immortality, and thus even a slight change could be vital. Lucien was even more nervous seeing that Rhine was this serious.

Was it going to be a catastrophe?

"I don't know for sure. You know, I am trapped here, and I can only feel that something very horrible is slowly waking up. Its power is strong enough to overthrow the entire world. Maybe in a year or two, the horrible change will start. And it's most likely to go in the worst direction," said Rhine, dressing very formally like he was attending a fancy dinner. Although he was talking in a very serious manner, Rhine did not panic.

Lucien frowned, "So… I should inform the Highest Council of the existence of the World of Souls."

Even though the Lord of Storm was Lucien's teacher, Lucien was still unable to feel a hundred percent at ease with telling Fernando the big secret. No one could say for sure that Fernando would not kill Lucien because of greed. After all, Lucien had not had much time to get to know the Lord of Storm well enough. Therefore, when the situation really became very serious, Lucien would inform the entire Highest Council because the grand arcanists and legendary archmages would restrain each other, so Lucien would be much safer.

"We're not there yet. I told you that I had some planning before I entered the World of Souls, and I asked you to help me get out of this place after you become a senior-rank sorcerer…" said Rhine very seriously, which was rare. "I know you are still working on it, but I still wish that you would get close to senior-rank in the next half a year, and then you can spend another half year activating my plannings. At that time, I will give you a spell. Hopefully, Zie can suppress what was going on deep in the World of Souls. If my plan does not work, you should tell this to the Congress."

Neither of them, Rhine or Lucien, was an idiot. If they were helpless, they would not keep the secret and just let the worst happen.

"Zie?" Lucien repeated confusedly.

Rhine nodded seriously, "The ancestor of we vampires, the closest existence to God, the true incarnation of the deathless silver moon."

"Alterna?" Lucien had seen this name many times in the books stored in the Congress. It was said that, like the Pope, Zie was the closest to the realm of God.

However, because Zie was only a legend, the Cleansing List did not include Zie's name.

The corner of Rhine's mouth twitched a bit, "You can call Zie Alterna, but unlike what is said in the books, the primitive existence does not belong to any gender. The Congress follows the bad tradition left by the magic empire and likes to describe all the gods and the nature of the world as female… However, the Pope is always a male…"

"I see… Maybe Zie can really save the world." Lucien nodded, and he was also thinking that, if he could have the honor to meet Zie, he wished to be granted a piece of Zie's flesh, a drop of blood, or even a hair for his study.

Lucien had already become a crazy arcanist.

Rhine grinned, and the handsome smile was back again, "I can't believe we're both being busy saving the world now."

Lucien thought to himself that, in fact, Mr. Fernando had always been busy with preventing his student, Lucien, from destroying the world.

"So… where should I go to activate the magic circles?" asked Lucien.

"First, go to my castle located in the Dark Mountain Range to get the Transformation Mask, the three items for activating the magic circles, and your reward. Then you go to Kuo-toa's altar in the polluted area of the Boundless Ocean, the Manticore Tomb in the southern desert in Gusta, and the Sun King Thanos' underground palace in the capital Antiffler of Holy Heilz Empire. You activate the magic circles there using the spell and gesture. Finally, you come back to my castle. You light up all the candles and lights in my castle when the silver moon is the brightest. Under the moonlight, you enchant the spell again." Rhine's projection started to shake. His power was fading.

The polluted area, the southern desert, and the Sun King… It was not Lucien's first time hearing the words. Not to mention the Sun King, Lucien learned about the polluted ocean area when he came to Holm by ship as a stowaway, and he even earned an arcana credit from selling the information. Lucien heard about the south desert from Florencia the other day: it was the source area of uranium, and this area was under the ruling of another magic empire named Meshkate.

There had been three paralleled ancient magic empires - Sylvanas, Meshkate, and Asso. Meshkate studied deeper in Necromancy, Illusion, and Summoning, and it ruled the southern desert of the Empire of Gusta, the oasis, and the Dragon Moor; Asso was famous for its navigation techniques and the buildings underwater, whose territory extended from today's Duchy of Calais, the Kingdom of Brianna, and the many islands including the Pearl Islands in the Boundless Ocean; and the rest of the land was governed by the most powerful magic empire, Sylvanas.

Rhine grinned, "I don't have the power to set up all the great magic circles, so I borrowed the power of the altar, the tomb, and the underground palace. Don't worry… When you get close to becoming a senior-rank mage, if you can use the mask and the magic items in my palace properly, you are not going to take too big of a risk. The only problem is that you might not be able to do all of these within half a year… You can't fly as fast as a senior-rank mage…"

"Umm…" Lucien had to confess, "I think I should be able to set off in a few days. To some degree, I am already very close to becoming a senior-rank."

To become a senior-rank, the substantialization of the cognition world was the most challenging stage, followed by the process of performing the magic rite. After these two steps, one still had to finish analyzing a sixth-circle spell and thus, finally, be able to interfere with the reality using his or her spiritual power and soul. Lucien had finished substantializing his cognition world, and he was about to finish analyzing the sixth-circle spell very soon.

Rhine knew about magic relatively well. Hearing Lucien's words, he took a deep breath and looked around in the dream. He felt a bit amused as he said, "I thought you just went back to Allyn a few months ago… Am I having a problem with my sense of time from being trapped here?"

When Lucien was in Allyn, Rhine could not project himself in Lucien's dream because the grand arcanists and legendary archmages could easily notice it.

"I'm… how to say… quite different," Lucien said in an ambiguous way.

"You're getting boring. When you become a legendary archmage, you'll be really boring." Rhine sighed, "Then, please take action as soon as possible."

The dream was gone. Lucien opened his eyes. The conversation that Rhine just had with him repeated in his mind.

Lucien knew that it was very likely Rhine that was still hiding some things from him. Rhine knew about the World of Souls way more than Lucien could expect. However, Lucien was also aware of the fact that sometimes knowing too much was not a good thing.

Lucien sat up suddenly, and Alferris was startled. Its tail swung and almost whipped a chair into pieces.

"I didn't do anything!" Alferris raised its tone.

Lucien wished that he could take Alferris with him, but except for guarding the great secret, Lucien could also imagine how Alferris would rob Rhine's warehouse.

The biggest problem Lucien was facing now was that he needed to find an excuse to leave Allyn as the Lord of Storm would not easily approve his departure.

...

In Heidler, in the banquet hall of a magic tower, the white candles dimly lit up the hall.

Standing in the hall, Lucien felt that he was attending a funeral. Holding the white, sticky drink, Lucien was hesitant with tasting it, while Alferris was quite enjoying itself, and right now it was holding the big plate indulging itself in all kinds of strange food such as the fried meat strings like fat maggots, the skull-shaped bread, and the organ platter…

Looking at the food, Lucien shook his head a bit, and then he saw Felipe wearing his black long jacket walking toward him.

Stopping in front of Lucien, Felipe put on a light smile, "I thought you dared not to come to Heidler, as your magic rank is still low… You do have the reason to worry."

"I thought you would not have enough courage to come here today, to watch me winning the award." Lucien fought back, "I'm a member of the Review Board. Why should I worry about visiting the place under the rule of the Congress?"

"Shall I give you the first-hand material of my study on cell memory?" Felipe did not retreat, "So, even if you are killed, there is still hope for you to come back to life."

Lucien shook his head, "I don't really trust the research outcome of low or middle-rank arcanists."

That was how they greeted each other. At this time, an elder man wearing a fancy Meshkate robe came to them. Holding the red wine in his glass and staring at Lucien with his red pupils, he said to Lucien in a cold tone, "Thank you for your Miracle Experiment."

Then, he directly walked away.

"Who is this?" Lucien asked Felipe.

Felipe's face, which always looked very sick, put on a smile and answered, "Mr. Sousa, a level six arcanist, seventh-circle necromancer, one of the senior members of our group. He once almost got exploded. So I'd say that the hope is rather dim for him to become an eighth-circle sorcerer."

Talking about this, Felipe was in quite a good mood. He was never a nice and generous person.

"There are many things in the world that we cannot control." Lucien swirled the wine in his glass.

There were not many people at the banquet, as many necromancers were very unwilling to watch an elemental sorcerer winning the Immortal Throne award. Only the invited guests came to greet Lucien, for the sake that he was a member of the Review Board.

One of the two presidents of the Hand of Paleness, a very powerful lich and ninth-circle necromancer, Schokola, walked onto the stage wearing a heavy black magic robe. Then, he invited Lucien to go onto the stage as well.

Behind him stood a mummy holding a crystal tray, on which there was a neatly folded, dark gray magic robe. Under the light, there was the flow of glory on it.

"Mr. Lucien Evans' Miracle Experiment has shown us another possibility of the origin of life, which is the secret that all the necromancers have been pursuing," said Schokola briefly. "He is definitely qualified to be the one on the Immortal Throne."