"Level six… arcanist!" Relph was totally shocked. In his eyes, Beaulac suddenly became so strange to him. No… He should say that the man standing in front of him was right now a total stranger to him. There was no way that the real Beaulac could have become a senior-rank as he had never left Antiffler before.
It must be that a senior-rank sorcerer or archmage had turned into Beaulac and used some special ways to hide from the blood power check done by Nuremburk. As for the purpose, the sorcerer was certainly there to pursue the secret left by Sun King.
Suddenly, a scene flashed past his mind: he remembered the sincere appreciation from Beaulac after he bragged about the existence of another secret chamber and showed off by telling Beaulac how to open the chamber.
"…Well, thanks for telling me."
That was what Beaulac… no, the arcanist, said.
Relph could not believe how stupid he had been. Although he wanted to cry out loud to remind the princess, Deniz, and Arthen that this was not really Beaulac, he was clearly aware of how powerful a senior-rank arcanist was. Within a second, the arcanist could easily kill him with a single glance; and even if all the n.o.bles present had decided to unite together, the arcanist could still kill them one by one within half a minute.
The only way to survive was to yield and wait until Sir Metatron showed up in time as agreed.
Relph had absolutely no idea how the senior-rank arcanist managed to creep in. It was like a lion staying with a flock of sheep!
He could not help trembling out of the great fear and could not concentrate his spiritual power at all. However, he knew that there was no need for him to stay concentrated as he had no chance to cast when standing beside a senior-rank arcanist. Although he was already very close to obtaining the secret of Sun King and he did dream of becoming a sixth-circle sorcerer, Relph was only looking forward to using his power to acquire glory and high status.
A level-six arcanist was very likely a seventh or eighth-circle sorcerer or even a ninth-circle archmage! Relph had completely given up resistance.
"Smart." Lucien smiled and took a glance at Relph, whose face had completely turned pale.
Relph nodded like a golem as he was incapable of thinking. Staring at the blue eyes of the fake Beaulac, Relph fell deeper and deeper into them…
Very easily, Lucien had seized the control of Relph"s mind, putting him in a great panic.
The fifth-circle illusion spell, Dominate Person!
When knowing that his experience in Castle Bertren was a test from his teacher, the Lord of Storm, Lucien also got to know that it was the little crystal dragon, Alferris, that was playing the demon, Hatred. From the Lord of Storm and Alferris, Lucien had learned a lot more in details about the seven mysterious demons from h.e.l.l and realized that Pain Fable was not merely a joke.
According to Fernando and Alferris" speculation, when certain negative emotions piled up, the projection of the corresponding demon would show up, and this process did not require the help of any special rite. The rites that people believed in were for improving the projections" power to make them grow, and the rites thus were in fact not magic rites, but just something that further convinced people of the existence of the evil power.
Therefore, it seemed that even the most absurd magic rite could also summon a powerful demon.
Pain Fable played a very important role in collecting a person"s negative emotions. A person who enjoyed reading the fables tended to gain the connection to the mysterious demons including Wrath, Envy, Greed and so on. At this time, the person"s mind could become twisted, but without the stimulation of a major accident or any following rites, the person could not gain a great evil power.
In other words, the steps of a rite did not matter, and what mattered was the rite itself. Without a rite, the projection of a demon could not gain its power. Meanwhile, what was more important than the rite was the gathering of negative emotions, or there was no way that a demon could cast its projection in one"s mind.
When Lucien"s was deceiving Beaulac into following the pure made-up rite, the former randomly made a joke about the steps of the rite, since he was quite certain that, without the emotional foundation shaped by the special book such as Pain Fable, neither Beaulac nor Frederick could successfully summon the projection of Greed.
However, what was going on right now was totally out of Lucien"s expectation. Frederick had successfully summoned Greed using the ridiculous magic rite made up by Lucien, and had gained the power of a radiant knight!
Although his power was not yet fully developed, Frederick was unstoppable. The creepy and horrible look on his twisted face had made Lucien believe that all of these was a masterpiece done by the demon, Greed!
Lucien had no idea how Fredrick had collected such a strong feeling of greed within a single month. Was it from watching Beaulac summoning the demon? Or was it because of this creepy underground palace?
However, no matter what it was, Lucien had to hurry up, even if he had to use magic! As time pa.s.sed by and more people were killed, Frederick"s power as a radiant knight would be fully developed!
From the few rounds of the fight between Fredrick and Beyer, Lucien speculated that he still had three to four minutes to take actions. He first had to turn on the magic circle in case later anything unexpected would happen. After all, this was Lucien"s ultimate purpose in going down there.
While keeping Relph under control, using Secondary Telepathic Bond, Lucien made sure that neither Relph nor Metatron knew the existence of the other secret pa.s.sage and the inner part of the palace, and then he secretly examined the slaughterhouse-like chamber and made sure that no one was in it.
Then, when Sophia was busy with casting spells to help Beyer defeat Fredrick, Lucien cast Persistent Image and Gaseous Form and sneaked into the chamber where they found Frederick.
Compared to Frederick"s power, what concerned Lucien much more was the fact that Metatron was also down there in the palace. But as long as he was not in the secret chamber, things would be much easier!
Once Lucien stepped into the secret chamber, he was overwhelmed by the strong, disgusting smell of blood and flesh, but he was not affected by it at all. He walked to the painting of the first Gorse Duke and started casting a long and strange spell, with the help of complex hand gestures.
The sound of metal collisions was loud, and no one wanted to stay close to the secret chamber because of the strong smell of blood. Therefore, no one heard the low voice casting a spell in the chamber.
Finally, Lucien finished casting the long spell given by Rhine. In the gas form, his body rose in the air and somehow entered the painting!
Inside the painting, there was a pa.s.sage which was not very long. Without any barriers, Lucien had successfully entered the inner layer of the palace, which looked exactly the same as the hall above the ground!
In the middle of the hall, there was a sun altar, on which there was the statue of Sun King, Thanos.
It was a middle-aged man looking up, as if nothing else was worthy of his attention except for the endless and mysterious starry sky.
Thanos" face was well-featured and the look on it was serious. The statue was wearing a magic crown inlaid with magic precious stones and a black magic robe with complicated red patterns on it.
The statue was very well-built, which showed the great manner of Sun King when he was still alive. Meanwhile, the statue"s right hand reached out, as if it was holding something invisible.
Lucien could simply put the gorse brooch back on the statue and then he could start the advanced magic rite, but now, he frowned and stood where he was.
Why… Why he could not sense the existence of the World of Souls?
According to Lucien"s experience in the tomb of Finks, he believed that the three places that Rhine told him should all have some close connection to the World of Souls, but…
After a few seconds" of thinking, Lucien took out Sun"s Corona and wore it around his neck.
Instantly, his eyes became blurry and the statue changed.
Above the right hand reaching out, there was a half-transparent, white light ball. However, there were other colors hiding underneath, that Lucien could not tell what they were with his bare eyes. The light ball was going through some constant changes, like a beating heart.
The light ball felt very familiar to Lucien, just like the rust-colored one that Lucien saw in Finks" tomb. Although it was right there in front of him, he felt that the light ball did not exist in this world.
In the light ball, there was a small black crack, twisted and disgusting.
Lucien sensed the weak smell of death from the crack.
The gap of the World of Souls was wrapped in the light ball! No wonder Lucien could not feel its existence!
Lucien still had a few more minutes, thus he could not help being curious and wondered what was in the light ball.
Calming down, he cast a series of detection spells, but all of them directly went through the light ball.
After thinking carefully, Lucien cast a few layers of defensive spells on himself. Then, with great determination, he reached out his hand.
His fingers slowly touched the margin of the light ball.