Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-636

Perhaps because Maskelyne covered for them, nobody disturbed Lucien and Rhine’s recovery, which helped them survive the most difficult moment smoothly.

“Although the Mummy’s Gloves are not usable, the Shield of Truth will do. Sometimes, the Shield of Truth provides even better defense.” Lucien took out the Shield of Truth from the alchemical cottage and inserted the Mummy’s Gloves into it.

In terms of pure physical defense, the Mummy’s Gloves were better, but the Shield of Truth’s defense was based on time and space and was less likely to be breached. Also, it wouldn’t slow down his mind as the Mummy’s Gloves would, which was definitely not an enjoyable feeling for an arcanist who couldn’t survive without his brain.

Rhine regained the look of a human. He cleaned his collar and his silver long hair, as if he were about to go to a dinner. “I’m mostly recovered save the wounds caused by the monster at the beginning. Even if we run into Ivan, there’s still a chance that we can flee in one piece.”

“Then, let’s get out of here fast. It will probably be Arvin who returns later.” Lucien checked the Robe of Grand Arcanists, the Moon Timer and the Congus Ring again to confirm that they were in perfect condition.

Rhine nodded his head. “Although I’m not scared of fighting Arvin right now, we may be attacked by the six seraphs together after we are stalled by one of them, considering that they have a deep understanding of the Realm of Gates. Also, with Mountain Paradise nearby, it is much easier for them to summon projections. Almost every one of them is half a level stronger here.”

“I didn’t know that Mountain Paradise lies inside the Realm of Gates…” Lucien opened the black gate. Sensing the slowed time, he stepped out.

Rhine followed him. “Essentially speaking, Mountain Paradise is a beautiful wish of most human beings about their afterlife. It’s sort of a death custom, too. Hehe. From the deepest and heaviest death and darkness, the most sacred and exuberant life and brightness are born…”

“But the question remains whether Mountain Paradise came into being naturally or had to do with Thanos and Mr. Maskelyne’s experiment…” Lucien spoke of his speculation. In the meantime, inside his cognitive world, the Host Star of Destiny began to spin, and the black swirl that seemed able to swallow all rays of light moved to the front, absorbing, deviating and disrupting all the traces.

Rhine seemed to have sensed something. He moved faster and walked next to Lucien. Turning his head to the side, he said, “I feel that your track of destiny became fuzzy and disordered…”

“Mr. Maskelyne is one of the greatest prophets of the school of astrology, and he is now empowered by the ‘God of Truth’ and ‘Mountain Paradise’. We have to be prudent, or we may see Arvin waiting for us in the hall behind this black gate after we open it.” Lucien smiled but did not explain the things about the Secretive.

Passing through the grey halls, Lucien and Rhine approached the place as hinted by the Mirror of Fate.

……

Successfully getting rid of the ‘headless pope’, Douglas and Fernando returned to the entrance according to the pattern of coordinate changes, leaving a lot of secret marks for Lucien on their way.

After they opened a black gate, Douglas suddenly looked around in confusion, “I’ve sensed a familiar smell.”

“Not Lucien’s…” Fernando identified it carefully, before he suddenly remarked, “It’s Mecantron, the Angel King!”

“Why was he here?” Douglas found it hard to believe. “Was he fabricated by the monster?”

He examined the owner of the smell with his ‘Lackluster Celestial Globe’, adding the monster as a variable this time.

After a while, Douglas said in a self-mocking smile. “There’s an 80% chance that it was the Angel King, and a 20% chance that the monster fabricated him. Does astrology help at all? My conclusion would have been the same without it.”

He knew that his prophecy had been severely affected because the monster was too powerful. It was also partly because he hadn’t prepared enough.

Looking at the black gate where the smell disappeared, Fernando proposed, “Should we try to trace him?”

Having encountered the monster twice, he was now more confident in escaping from the danger. Also, he was still worried about Lucien.

“Are you not worried that you will see Mountain Paradise and meet the God of Truth in this place?” Douglas said jokingly. “The Angel King must’ve only just crossed this hall. We can try to trace him, but we must not be delayed too long. If we don’t find anything in ten minutes, we will return immediately. Perhaps, Lucien is waiting for us at the entrance.”

“Alright.” Fernando knew that he was only using tracing the Angel King as an excuse to continue the search for Lucien.

……

“It’s not far away from Thanos’ laboratory now, and we haven’t met a single enemy on our way. I’m starting to think that we are not so unlucky after all.” Rhine was more and more skilled in calculating the changing coordinates. He made fun of himself and Lucien.

Remember how ‘speak of the devil’ worked, Lucien chuckled, “Mr. Rhine, you must not make such a statement when we haven’t arrived yet, or we may encounter an enemy after we open this black gate.”

Rhine’s lips twitched. “I can’t be so unfortunate, can I?”

As he spoke, he opened the black gate.

Suddenly, his face changed, and his body collapsed into countless little bats that flew in the hall.

A long black scythe, mixed with a mysterious air, passed space and time and slashed where he stood just now, and pale flames arose on the ground, melting the grey bricks into weird, transparent liquids.

“An enemy is really here…” Lucien did not know what he should say about Rhine and his luck. Two legendary spectres were drifting in the grey hall. One of them was wearing a black cloak, with surging black air on the surface and a pair of eyes that looked like red fire, and the other was a rotten dragon dozens of meters long that was spewing out grey fire. “The Servant of Death, the Dragon Lich…”

The former was a level-three legendary spectre and a Life Reaper who specialized in head-on battles but had the assistance of many quasi-magic abilities. The latter was a standard mage but was also not bad at melee fighting.

Without any hesitation, a delicate silver pocket watch appeared in Lucien’s right hand, whose thin chain was connected to the button on Lucien’s clothes with vague metal colors.

Crack. Before the Servant of Death and the Dragon Lich cast any spell, Lucien already pressed the button with his thumb.

Pure paleness infiltrated the greyness in the hall. The dancing bats in the hall seemed to have been confined by invisible shackles, and the giant scythe wielded by the Servant of Death moved forward one frame after another as if it were in slow motion like in a movie. The Dragon Lich and the grey fire next to its mouth were frozen where they were.

Cracking (Advanced)! Cracking (Advanced)! Lucien did not bother with the Dragon Lich but cast Cracking (Advanced) on his own and with what was stored inside the Moon Timer after attaching ‘Hand of Uncertainties’ to them. Then, he performed ‘Evans’ Maze of Quizzes’ that was enhanced with magic delay and Hand of Uncertainties!

After doing everything, Lucien transformed into a legendary knight, picked up the Sword of Truth, and slashed at the Servant of Death!

At such a moment, he could not consider saving his trump cards but had to defeat the enemy and finish the battle as quickly as possible!

The frozen paleness soon dispersed. The swarm of bats was recovered first. They flew to the Dragon Lich and bit its body and soul from all directions.

Rhine seemed to have guessed that Lucien would deal with the Servant of Death first, so he stopped the Dragon Lich for him in cooperation.

The weird scythe hit Lucien, only to cut an illusionary shadow apart. When the effect of Advanced Time Stop was about to be over, Lucien had already changed his location with the Shield of Truth in hand.

The darkness flowed from the black cloak of the Servant of Death, nullifying the spells of Cracking (Advanced) that Luxury Cracking cast. Suddenly, the darkness burst out like fireworks. One of the many ‘Hands of Uncertainties’ finally worked and destroyed the defense of the Servant of Death!

Crack, crack, crack. The sound of items being broken echoed around the Servant of Death, which almost made Lucien feel sorry. In the meantime, he regretted that he hadn’t learnt ‘Luxury Cracking’, or it would have been dissolved into nudity and only had the legendary scythe left!

Then, the silver sword flashed, and a terrifying crack appeared on the black cape, tearing apart the last defense.

Because the cloak blocked the attack for a moment, right when the Sword of Truth was about to chop the Servant of Death, its body suddenly turned transparent, before it became smoke and fled away, dodging the fatal attack.

“Ahhhhh!” The Servant of Death’s most regretful cry of his losses burst out. The pale smoke was gathered. Holding the gigantic scythe, it slashed down unpredictably in an even more mysterious atmosphere.

Pu. When the scythe hit Lucien’s Shield of Truth, only a dull noise was raised.

Lucien, who seemed to be in a different world, felt that a cold breeze was blowing at him. It passed the Robe of Grand Arcanists and his physical body and blew directly at his soul. He couldn’t help but tremble in the coldness.

“According to Adol’s files, the scythe of the Servant of Death purely attacks the soul and is extremely difficult to resist. Had it not been for the Shield of Truth, I probably would’ve been injured.” Lucien thought to himself.

Now that the scythe missed the target, the Servant of Death became a pale fire that surrounded Lucien in the waves of void. It also dispersed now and then to dodge the attack of the Sword of Truth.

The Moon Timer’s cooldown was over. Lucien put back the Sword of Truth and held the ticking pocket watch with his right hand again.

At this moment, the Servant of Death suddenly turned into smoke and rushed to where Rhine and the Dragon Lich was fighting, before it went to the black gate and left with the Dragon Lich in panic.

“He’s gone?” Lucien hadn’t even pressed the button of ‘Advanced Time Stop’ yet when he discovered that the Servant of Death had disappeared. As a level-three legendary expert, it was surely a fast escaper!

Rhine landed and chuckled, “‘Advanced Time Stop’ plus ‘Sword of Truth’ is truly an unreasonable way of fighting. Also, your ‘Advanced Time Stop’ was launched by the Moon Timer, your unique level-two legendary item, which had the power of almost level three. The Servant of Death was greatly affected by it and would’ve been killed completely if it stayed any longer.”

He thought that the Servant of Death was reduced to ‘nudity’ because Lucien brought certain gear that had the ability of Luxury Cracking with it, or it wouldn’t have been scared of the Sword of Truth’s attack as much and would have resisted it with its own defense.

“I’m very satisfied that I can scare a level-three legend away.” Lucien put his Sword of Truth back with a smile. It was certainly for the best not to waste the ability in his Moon Timer. Who could tell what other dangers were lurking inside the laboratory?

Rhine looked around in the grey hall. “When we discovered them, they seemed to be examining something, didn’t they?”

He checked the environment with his abilities. Lucien also canceled his transformed and helped him with magic.

“The smell of Sard, and the marks of the mysterious trace…” Rhine suddenly stopped.