Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-690

Augustus continued his prayer after hearing Harold’s report. Unless it was something very important, he would never interrupt the tributes to ‘God of Steam’, ‘Lord of Life and Death’ and ‘Glowing Morning Star’.

After several minutes, Augustus stood up agilely and said, covering his eyes with his right hand. “Supreme Steam!”

That was a symbolic movement of prayer that he had designed after witnessing the explosion of Eternal Blaze in Rentato with consideration of the view of ‘Atlantis’ in his dream. It was like how the believers of the Saint Truth drew crosses!

“The Kingdom of Dwarfs?” Augustus finished his prayer and asked in confusion.

His face was healthily red, and he was wearing a special silver armor whose parts were connected through complicated mechanical craft. Filled with a delicate but cold sense of beauty, it was the ritual suit that he had designed for the God of Steam.

As the leader of dwarfs, Augustus was the honorary manager of many alchemical workshops. He did not have a lot to do, and the miserable life on the Night Highland was long gone. He was quite grateful and spent most of his time preaching and praising the God of Steam.

Because Rentato was not secluded, Augusta had a basic understanding of the continent. He knew that the surviving dwarfs had been gathered in the northwest of the Dark Mountain Range, where they established a kingdom named ‘Dumute’. In the language of dwarfs, ‘dumute’ meant ‘glory’. However, what they worshiped was Okun, the God of Valiance and Heit, the God of Craftsmen, instead of the God of Steam, the Lord of Life and Death, and the Great Existence Whose Name Must Not Be Invoked.

Therefore, Augustus was rather confused that an emissary of the God of Steam came from the kingdom of dwarfs.

Harold scratched his head. “I found it odd, too. The Lord has never issued any oracle asking us to go to Dumute. They do not worship the Great Lord, either…”

Puzzled as he might be, he had to be prudent since it concerned the Lord, and he dared not kick the guy away.

Cleaning his armor, Augustus picked up the steam hammer and said, “Bring him here.”

Harold turned around and left. Very soon, he returned with a dwarf in leather armor.

The dwarf’s face was covered in a gold beard, making it impossible to infer his age from his face.

He was rather polite in the way he spoke. “Honorable elder of the Night Tribe, I am Ham from Dumute. I am a temple warrior who serves the great God of Steam. I received an oracle a while ago, which asked me to contact you in Rentato so that you could really be embraced by the Lord.”

“The God of Steam?” Augustus expressed his confusion, not entirely sincerely.

Ham nodded solemnly. “Yes. Not a long time ago, the great Lord Heit announced his real identity. As it turns out, he is not just the God of Craftsmen but also the God of Steam who has been looking after dwarfs for generations. It was only because he was sleeping that his incarnation walked the earth…”

He introduced what happened in the kingdom of dwarfs. “…The dusk of gods is about to come. Therefore, the Lord has been woken up from his sleep and arrived again. That’s why you were freed from the Night Highland…”

“The God of Craftsmen…” Augustus recited the name quietly.

Seeing no apparent objection from him and Harold, Ham said solemnly, “The Lord hopes that you can spread His glory in Holm and let everybody praise His name.”

While talking, he took out a dwarf figurine from his storage bag. It was holding a hammer, with its beard and hair stretching out, giving the feeling of sacredness and profundity.

“You must feel very strange that the reverends and cardinals of the Saint Truth can perform divine powers while you can’t. That’s because you have never passed the test of the Lord until right now! Just place the Lord’s figurine on the altar and worship it according to this ritual, and the pious will be granted divine powers very soon, just like me!” Ham brought out a ritual book and announced. In the meantime, he stepped forward, his body glowing in ivory brilliant that called for reverence.

He was a ‘Saint Warrior’, a fake reverend who was more inclined to face-to-face battles. That was why he could perform the spell of God’s Grant.

“A divine power…” Harold and Augustus both beamed with interest. It had been their greatest worry that the God of Steam never gave them any divine power.

Ham laughed and transferred the figurine and the ritual book to Augustus. “In the future, we will be fellows!”

After seeing Ham off, Harold came back. He looked at the stunned Augustus and asked, “Senior elder, do you believe what he said?”

“I don’t.” Augustus looked gloomily, “We are the dwarfs who left the Night Highland thanks to the grace of the great God of Steam. We are His favored people. Even if He has any oracle, it shouldn’t be forwarded by an external dwarf; the Lord would’ve given it to us directly!”

The issue made him feel that his position as the senior elder was threatened. Always considering himself as a spokesperson of the God of Steam on the earth, he did not receive any oracle and had to wait for a common dwarf to inform him!

Therefore, after a brief contemplation, he firmly denied the possibility that the God of Craftsmen was an incarnation of the God of Steam, unless the Lord said otherwise to himself directly!

Until then, he would not waver at all but would continue his devotion. If words and divine power were enough to confirm that a being was the great God of Steam, all the fake gods would be Glowing Morning Stars!

Harold thought the same, but he was less determined. “What about divine power…”

If the God of Steam never granted divine powers to them, part of their compatriots would definitely be attracted by this. Also, he was personally fascinated by the divine power, too.

“Divine power? Can the common divine powers be compared to Eternal Blaze and Atlantis? Can they compare to the burst guns we manufacture?” Although Augusta was also tempted by divine powers, he was not intimidated at all. “The oracle of the Lord asked us to construct the Atlantis on earth. The development of Rentato fit the vision we saw perfectly. As for Dumute, you must know that everything there is underdeveloped and against what is expected of Atlantis!”

“By the time we can create a weapon of Eternal Blaze, will divine power deserve any attention?”

Harold nodded heavily. “The life in Rentato is the life that I always dreamed about. I feel that my every effort makes me closer to Atlantis!”

But it will be even better if there are divine powers! he thought to himself.

“Senior elder, what do we do?” He looked at where Ham left just now.

Augustus shook his head. “It’s not a problem that we wait for the oracle instead of acknowledging Ham, but we cannot deal with him recklessly. What if this is a test of the Lord? We need to figure out a way to prevent him from getting in touch with other dwarfs…”

“But is there any way we can achieve that?” Asked Harold, upset.

……

In Allyn.

After opening the secret gate towards the core of the City in the Sky, Lucien and Fernando walked in, ready to observe the operation of the reactor and locate the possible flaws.

“…Introducing consciousness into the microscopic domain is pointless. The observer effect is more likely to be a reaction of the observing movement. It’s not as subjective as you described.” In the quiet channel, Fernando talked about Lucien’s weird explanation on the microscopic particles again. “Hypotheses that are not based on mathematics are just poppycock.”

He firmly believed in that, but he couldn’t find a better explanation for now due to the limitation of mathematics, or he would’ve roared a long time ago.

Lucien smiled, “However, whatever the explanation is, we have to reserve a place for magic in it. I believe that the secrets of magic must lie in the microscopic domain.”

Fernando rather agreed with that. If the source of magic couldn’t be found in the most peculiar microscopic domain, it would be impossible to find it in other fields. “Interpreting the spiritual power and the power of faith as special electromagnetic waves is not bad, but the problem is, why would godhood be gathered, and why could magic be performed, when the special electromagnetic waves are gathered?”

Their conversation was not as intense as last time.

After opening another gate that had complicated magic patterns, Lucien saw the fission reactor inside. Different from Earth, a lot of parts were not needed on the reactor thanks to magic. The nuclear energy was even directly transformed into electricity and other forms of power. It looked less gargantuan and more delicate and mysterious.

Glittering streams of energy flowed to different parts of the City in the Sky through different channels, sustaining its operation as a backup source of power. In this room that had a coverage of several dozen square meters, the flickering light added an air of profundity and mysteriousness to everything.

At the center of the room was black-and-white magic circles, which were connected into the complicated fission reactor.

“It looks normal.” Lucien approached and looked around.

Suddenly, the rows of red lights on the wall all shined, and a terrible storm spread out of the center of the reactor.

“Danger! Magic circles out of control! Top protection activated!”

Prospell’s voice echoed.

Complicated magic patterns glittered, and the defense of Allyn blocked the place where the reactor was at!

Because teleportation was forbidden here, Lucien could only seize the time to perform ‘Space Staff’.

Ripples of light glittered, and many different spaces were added to Lucien, making him seem to be in a different world.

BOOM!

An intense explosion took place at the center of the reactor. The dazzling light and the super-high temperature melted everything they could. Then, the terrible tempest of energy blew at the space-time barrier and gradually disappeared in different worlds.

After the explosion, Lucien opened his eyes and discovered that only several layers of the defense were broken. He was not greatly affected.

“What went wrong?” Fernando looked at the traces of meltdown with obvious confusion and reflected on the design of the reactor.

Lucien was more or less anxious just now, but after experiencing a reactor explosion in person, he came to the understanding that this was not Earth, and reactor explosions might cause no damage at all.

Fernando walked out of the barrier after enhancing himself with magic. Exposed to the overwhelming radiation, he began to examine the remains carefully.

“This place is enshrouded in curses. They must be cleared.” He said casually.

“Yes. Let’s clean them with Eternal Blaze.” Lucien also replied casually. Then he saw his teacher glaring at him.

……

Staying in a room in a small hotel, Ham walked back and forth in delight. That ‘God of Steam’ hadn’t granted the believers any divine power. It seemed that his mission could be accomplished easily now! Even if the senior elder had other plans, it would be easy for him to steal the guy’s power!

Dum, dum, dum. Somebody knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Asked Ham warily. He also checked the stranger with the few divine powers he knew.

“Dear guest, please open the door. The roasted fish with honey you ordered is ready.”