As the silver-gray long sword swayed slightly, Rhine suddenly flashed behind the door that had not yet been closed, leaving only a slowly disappearing phantom on the spot. He said in amusement and anger, "You also met the monster that can disguise as other people?"
He sounded more or less relieved, as if he had confirmed that Lucien was real.
Lucien looked at him warily. After the enhancement of Mechanized Mind and Mental Barrier, he was rather calm and did not attack directly. "Mr. Rhein, how can I be sure that you are real?"
At the very least, you have to provide an irrefutable fact, or we'd better go our separate ways.
Rhein pulled the gate and did not let it close. He smiled. "I understand. The scent, bloodline, body, and memories cannot be distinguished from the monster's disguise. I was wounded because of that earlier. However, I believe that the monster cannot imitate me unless it is the God of Truth."
"What is it?" Lucien vaguely guessed Rhein's answer.
A pair of enormous bat wings appeared behind Rhein's red coat. The vague Silver Moon glowed, and the air of a demigod arrived, making the gray hall seem to be rising slowly. "It's the air of the Primordial Ancestor. The monster couldn't have pretended to be a demigod, but the air on your left hand told me that you were not fake."
Sensing the familiar air of Alterna, Lucien finally took a breath and revealed the remaining air of the Silver Moon and the mysterious existence of the World of Souls on his left hand without any reservation. "Alright, I believe that you are Mr. Rhein. If the monster could imitate the air of a demigod, I wouldn't have been able to get away whether I was deceived or not."
Rhine coughed twice, blood flowing out of the corner of his mouth. Although vomiting blood was a serious injury for a vampire, he didn't mind it at all and smiled. "It's normal to be cautious. I was just careless."
"The monster that I ran into pretended to be you. What about the one that you ran into?" Lucien put away the Sword of Truth but did not put down the Shield of Truth. He remained vigilant the whole time.
Rhein coughed again. "It's disguised as another vampire prince, the one who's on good terms with me."
"Oh, from the looks of it, not only can the monster disguise itself as a lifeform that has entered the Gray Maze, but it can also imitate other powerhouses," Lucien said, puzzled. What was the basis of this?
"Grey Labyrinth" was what Lucien called the grey hall and the black gate.
"Gray maze? Hehe. This place is called the 'Realm of Gates'. At least, that's what the legendary sorcerers who went missing here call it. " Rhein corrected Lucien's naming. "I suspect that something is wrong with this' Realm of Gates'. Perhaps our memories cannot be kept secret here, so the monster pretended to be him according to my memories."
Memories can't be kept a secret, but what about the secret that I came from Earth? Where is the Library of the Soul? Lucien frowned and thought about this serious question. Will I see the monster simulate Yuanshi Tianzun, Taishang Laojun, Gundam, Super Saiyan, Planet Destroyer, and Retreat Cannon?
That was truly a wonderful world ….
"The Realm of Gates? Mr. Rhein, have you found what Viken and the rest of them left? " Since he could not discuss the Library of the Soul with Rhein, Lucien changed the topic.
Rhein shook his head. "I came to this place by tracing the mysterious pieces inside Sardes' body. I only found a few scraps of paper before I was attacked. There were some records on them."
Not keeping anything to himself, he took out a few pieces of gray paper and 'flew' them to Lucien.
Catching them carefully with 'Hand of Magic', Lucien browsed through them in a hurry.
"… There are almost too many black gates in this place. A surprise or danger could be hidden behind every gate. We have named it 'Realm of Gates' …"
"… We accidentally found some weird creatures behind a few gates. They seem to be similar to the studies that we conducted earlier. If we hadn't had some research results, we might've never discovered them …"
"… Maybe we can find a way to enter the place by studying those creatures …"
"… Somebody seems to have been here before …"
Lucien was very familiar with the handwriting on two of the pieces of paper. One of them was McLeod's, and the other was Maskelyne's.
"Weird creatures. Were there a lot of them?" Lucien said, his blood freezing, while he considered the content on the last piece of paper. Somebody had been here before? Before Maskelyne and the rest of them?
Rhein closed the black gate and wiped the blood on his lips with a white handkerchief. He shook his head and said, "That's impossible. If there were a lot of monsters, how could Maskelyne and the rest of them have had a chance to discover them and take notes so easily?"
He was implying that Maskelyne and the rest of them must've been annihilated soon after they entered. After all, they were not as strong as him, who could summon the Silver Moon. Also, there were too many of them, which could've given the monsters who were good at camouflage an opportunity.
"That does make sense. Even you were heavily wounded, Mr. Rhein." Lucien nodded his head. "Right, Mr. Rhein, how strong were the monsters that you encountered?"
Rhein folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket. "The peak of legendary. The real peak of legendary. I had to summon the power of the Primordial Ancestor to beat it back. However, if I hadn't been careless, I would've been able to escape even if I couldn't defeat it."
Pausing for a moment, he smiled and said humorously, "I'm a level-three legendary man now."
"Why were the monsters that I encountered only level-two legendary?" Lucien was rather confused about that. "Did we encounter different monsters?"
"If they were different monsters, why did they happen to be one level higher than us?" Rhein keenly sensed the suspicion. "Without the ability to summon the Primordial Ancestor, I'm level-three legendary. Without the improvement of your equipment, you should be only level-one legendary, shouldn't you?"
Being in this place, he did not know the time difference with the outside world. So, he was not sure whether or not Lucien, whose speed of advancement was unimaginably fast, had already advanced into level-two legendary.
Lucien had the weird sense of familiarity again. He seemed to have run into such a situation somewhere before, but he could not find anything that matched the conditions. He could only ponder and say, "Yes, level-one legendary. Perhaps, due to some special restrictions, the monsters can only carry out the strength of one level higher than the target? "
"It's possible." Rhein put on his usual smile, as if he were encouraging Lucien to continue his speculation.
Lucien suddenly had an idea. He looked at Rhein with a smile. "Mr. Rhein, if my inference is true, do you think that we will encounter one monster or two monsters when we act together? Will they be level-two legendary or at the peak of legendary?"
"It should be a monster at the peak of legendary." Rhein thought for a moment and replied.
Lucien 'coldly' turned his face away. "Then let's split up."
"I'm sorry, but I happen to be on the same path as you." Rhein replied with the same humor. "Also, an experienced observer who knows secrets will be of great use here. Besides, it was just my speculation just now."
Lucien smiled. "I'm also worried that I might encounter a monster at the peak of legendary when I act alone. So, it's better that I have you as my scapegoat, Mr. Rhein. I don't think there will be any demigod-level monsters … Well, Mr. Rhein, I'm not going to continue the exploration and am ready to return. This place is not far away from the entrance. There are only a dozen black gates. Do you want to come with me?"
"I'm heavily wounded. It's clearly unsuitable for me to stay here any longer." Rhein took out a bright green puppet arm. "Thankfully, I met a guy like you who knows the pattern of the coordinate changes, or I don't know how long it would take me to explore. This is a payment in advance. It's a component of a stand-in puppet made by McLeod in a unique way. You'll gain a lot by analyzing it."
Observing the environment and concluding patterns were the strengths of sorcerers, and the arcanists were particularly good at it. Rhein knew himself very well.
Lucien's face immediately turned green. He became alert again. "Mr. Rhein, put the puppet arm on the ground."
"What's wrong? Were you tricked by the puppet arm just now? " Rhein smiled delightedly and threw the puppet arm on the ground unconcernedly, watching Lucien pick it up with Hand of Magic.
After picking it up, Lucien finally realized that it was the other arm of the puppet. It happened to be a set.
Slightly relieved, Lucien pushed open the black gate behind him. What appeared before his eyes was a familiar gray hall with silver magic patterns on the ground.
"No, it's not the previous one." Lucien soon realized that the complicated magic patterns as a whole were another part of the hexagram.
"Huh? Shredded paper?" Rhein also discovered a piece of gray paper and showed it to Lucien.
"No!"
It was similar to the piece of paper where "devil" was written earlier, in hysterical madness and fear. Lucien, on the other hand, found the right leg of the puppet while he memorized the complicated magic patterns.
Lucien, who had collected the three parts of the puppet, was not delighted at all. Instead, he asked in confusion and solemnness, "Why were the pieces and the parts waiting for us to discover them?"
"There are too many halls in the Realm of Gates. The monster may not have found all of them." Rhein speculated.
Lucien shook his head. "Then, why was it able to find us so accurately?"
… …
In the gray hall, Douglas and Fernando, surrounded by countless alert spells, walked steadily.
"Is there nothing here except for the hall and the black gate?" Fernando observed the environment. Was there not even danger or monster? That was even more alarming. They were in the deepest part of the World of Souls, where many legendary sorcerers had gone missing!
Douglas looked around. "The position is changing fast, but it fits the pattern of change of coordinates that Maskelyne left. However, it will be barely possible for us to run into Lucien. We can only leave marks on our way and let him leave the same marks after he discovers us."
"He must've hidden nearby for a while before he returns to the entrance. We only need to calculate the time." Fernando vaguely guessed his student's plan after noticing that the position of the hall was changing fast.
While talking, he opened a black gate with magic.
… …
"Life scent?" Rhein speculated again.
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when the two of them raised their heads at the same time and looked at a black gate that was slowly opening warily.
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