Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-642

The Lich King and the Wraith Lord, who were hiding near the Furnace of Souls, kept an eye on the Realm of Gates, ready to attack anyone who had escaped out of there.

Suddenly, they saw that the Servant of Death flew out with the Dragon Lich in a cluster of smoke.

“Did you kill them?” The Lich King appeared from the void. Although he knew that the Servant of Death could not kill Douglas, he still couldn’t help but ask.

The Servant of Death put down the Dragon Lich who had been heavily wounded by Rhine. Two red spots were gathered in the smoke, as he spoke casually, “We didn’t, but we could not linger any longer, or the monster would’ve killed us.”

He secretly gnashed his teeth. A while before, he thought that he was the hunter, but he found that the prey inside were all terribly brutal. Even the two young ‘gentlemen’ who looked weak could’ve killed him with their equipment. He probably would’ve completely perished if he hadn’t reacted quickly enough. It was all thanks to the protection of the ‘Lord’ that he was not killed!

“We have fulfilled our responsibility. The ‘Lord’ will not blame us.” The Lich King comforted the Servant of Death as well as himself.

…

Enshrouded by the two opposite, incompatible powers, Lucien felt that his soul, body, spiritual power, clothes, rings, badges and pocket watch were all caught in an amazing state.

The transcendental feeling of looking down at everything from high above that he had when Alterna arrived occurred to him again, allowing Lucien to transform towards that direction. He seemed to be away from the material world as well as the spiritual world and was observing himself from a very high perspective in a state where the two worlds coexisted.

It was an indescribable thing, because his soul, his physical body, his spiritual power, and his consciousness were all inside the magic circle. It was impossible for him to see himself from the outside world!

But the feeling was so real, and it was similar to the feeling that somebody looked at him from the high cosmos when his cognitive world received the feedback. The only difference was that his perspective had been moved to the ‘guy’ who observed him from the high cosmos indifferently.

His soul and his physical body had uncanny, unimaginable changes. They were now ubiquitous like clouds in the sky, and now compressed into concrete matter.

“This is…” Lucien, who observed himself transcendentally, vaguely realized what was going on, the real ability of the magic circle, and its relationship with the Furnace of Souls… Those were perhaps things that even the Sun King did not know even though he was the one who established the magic circle.

“Comparing such a transformation with Silver Moon’s arrival, I can tell that they have major differences despite the apparent similarities. Also, they are both short of something critical. Is that why they are only demigods and why Alterna and the others cannot pass the pathway of immortality?” Nobody had more experience than Lucien did in this world. He had abundant theories and hypotheses that he could verify with.

After being used too many times, vague cracks had appeared on the patterns in the magic circle. It seemed to be breaking after several usages. Only the Sun King was capable of renewing it, and other people must spend a tremendously long time on cracking it first.

Suddenly, Lucien’s body and soul seemed to be melted. Generating an enormous attraction force, they pulled ‘Lucien’ who was observing himself indifferently from high above into his body.

The transcendental perspective was immediately gone. After a brief dizziness, Lucien resumed his consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw the monster who was looking at him.

“Very good. You are already ‘dead’.” The monster put a smile on his gloomy, slim face. “As a matter of fact, I was worried that you could not be transformed by the magic circle, because there are too many things in your soul that I cannot perceive and pry into. It seems that you have many enigmas in your body.”

“That’s a different matter.” Lucien stood up with a smile. He discovered that he was in a weird ghost state. He could be dispersed and regathered at any point, and he was still level-one legendary. All his items were still on him. He even had a perfect ‘substitution puppet’.

Rhine had also been transformed into a similar state. He chuckled, “This magic circle gives me a similar feeling to the Primordial Ancestor’s. It seems that the mystery of Thanos’ advancement is in it. Hehe. I thought that I could be promoted into a demigod after the transformation.”

“How could it be so easy to become a demigod? I am a demigod because Viken and I are the two sides of the same entity. We are the different forms of the same demigod. That’s also a problem of this path. Thanos experienced the same. That’s why he tried to become a real god despite the risks. However, Mountain Paradise was merely a combination of world energy and the power of faith. It was powerful but not of a high level, and it only had the qualities of a real god when Thanos’ consciousness was melted into it.” The monster did not dive into the details. It seemed that he was forbidden from telling the secrets even though his listeners were ‘dead’.

Lucien did not pursue any further, fearing that the monster would kill him if he triggered a certain restraint. However, he could guess what happened. Viken must’ve been a top legend before he entered the World of Souls and was looking for a way to become a demigod. What was left in Thanos’ laboratory gave him a complete approach. So, when the monster was being created, he separated part of his soul and melted it into the monster with his virtual personality, transforming it into his clone. He let the monster deal with Maskelyne while he took the chance to become a demigod using the Sun King’s possessions.

Something must’ve gone wrong during the process. As a result, the monster gained certain self-awareness, and Viken got rid of all the other problems, turning into a more perfect demigod than Thanos. Otherwise, it would be unexplainable why Thanos had problems all the time whereas Viken led the development of the Saint Truth for a thousand years.

“Did Viken separate himself and create a ‘monster’ as a way to eliminate most of the insidious problems because his research was better than Thanos’, or was it a coincidence?” Lucien preferred the first guess. Viken couldn’t have seen it coming that the monster also became a demigod after he became a demigod, which made it impossible for him to melt the monster.

The monster was rather talkative, perhaps because he had been suffocated for too long. “In order to become a demigod on this path, you first need an alternate dimension or a world behind the gate that high matches you. Then, you have to boast enormous power of faith. After that, you have to find a way to melt them. In the end, you transform the two things with the force of feelings that have been gathered earlier. The odds of failure are very high. There can be many insidious problems. The strength may be higher than the natural-born demigods, but it is not as good as their strength in nature.”

“Hehe, but we can all use ‘God’s Arrival’. Maltimus and Alterna wandered outside several times but dared not come in. Only the brainless Abyss barged in without thinking.”

Lucien became rather solemn. He was capable of ‘God’s Arrival’, too? It was not entirely impossible based on the fact that Sard could use ‘God’s Arrival’ with the mysterious piece. Therefore, he asked in a low voice, “Mr. Monster, neither you nor Viken easily used ‘God’s Arrival’. It couldn’t have been because you feared that you might die. Was it because you were wary of each other?”

Demigods, to some extent, boasted an external life. The recoil on the soul and the body was certainly not a big deal. Therefore, Lucien speculated that the more ‘God’s Arrival’ was used, the weaker the soul would be and the more likely that they would be swallowed by ‘themselves’.

In that case, Viken, or the pope, would be even more terrifying than he thought. He was probably the strongest of all demigods if he had his platinum staff.

The monster smiled but did not reply. There was no telling whether he would rather not say it or he had been restrained. “So, you’d better not try to become a demigod in this way. You don’t want to fight yourself every day, do you?”

Lucien smiled. “I have my own direction. I will not walk on the path that is possibly wrong.”

He was not certain that it was wrong because his research hadn’t proved so. He was merely rephrasing Silver Moon Alterna’s narration.

Also, based on his knowledge and his feelings just now, Lucien vaguely thought that Thanos and Viken had both regarded assistances as the key but ignored what was really critical to becoming a demigod, exactly like what the Lord of Hell mocked before.

“You seem very confident. Then, I wouldn’t project myself into your body and help you perform ‘God’s Arrival’, which will make your soul corrupted by me. Alright, such a status can last ten minutes. When you turn back, you will no longer be the intruder now, and I won’t kill you. However, you’d better not touch other things, or my restraints may be activated and get you into serious trouble.” The monster reminded him. For him, it was already a success if Lucien could learn Viken’s secrets and make it out alive.

He didn’t find Douglas and the rest of them because they were too strong and tended to be greedy. The monster knew desires very well.

Lucien nodded his head. “Alright.”

He was truly confident about himself. Just now, the status transformation gave him the hope of improving to level-two legendary very soon. More importantly, he vaguely understood and grasped something through the ritual, which shed light on his future development.

“I suggest you take a look at the Chamber of Immortality.” The monster suddenly said, “Most of the dangers on the way have been eliminated by Thanos, Viken and me. You should be able to reach it safely. It’s a shame that none of us understood what we saw. That’s why Viken has been eager to capture the Silver Moon and the Lord of Hell, hoping to find a way to make up for the insidious problems from them.”

Rhine smiled. “Are you resorting to the strategy of numbers, wagering on the possibility that some of them could see through the mysteries of immortality?”

“Don’t be so blunt.” The monster turned into Rhine’s look and teased him, showing no sign that he was a murderous monster. However, Lucien was still quite wary of him. He understood people very well, was born from an assortment of feelings, and melted part of Viken’s negative personalities. He was a natural ‘devil’. He was only so convivial because he was stranded in this place. If he made it out alive…

Lucien nodded. “In fact, I would pay a visit to the Chamber of Immortality even if you didn’t mention it, Mr. Monster. It’s not easy to be transformed into such a state.”

Rhine naturally had no objection. That was his purpose when he explored the World of Souls for the first time.

When Lucien and Rhine went to the pathway of immortality through the Realm of Gates, the monster smiled and said to himself, “I have to fight other people now…”

Thanos’ laboratory became quiet again. From the pure, scorching light of the defense, a shadow suddenly crept out. In a white long robe with scarlet eyes and an eternal mocking smile on his lips, he was exactly ‘Geno’, the embodiment of the Lord of Hell!

“Had I known this, I would have come in directly instead of covering my trace with the air of Silver Moon on Lucien.” The Lord of Hell shrugged with a smile and jumped into the pit, activating the magic circle again.

Obvious cracks appeared as the magic circle began to function. After this time, the magic circle probably could never be used again.

…

Recovering from his wounds, ‘Mecantron’ snorted, “Hehe. That monster Viken wanted the emperor with the blood power of ‘Angel King’ to stall Mecantron? That’s really the greatest joke!”

As he spoke, his wounds were recovered, and his body was twisted into unpredictable transparency.

“What’s inside the Chamber of Immortality? I can’t remember it at all…”

“However, I do remember that this is the way to go into the Chamber of Immortality…”