Lucien and Rhein looked at each other and saw the surprise on each other's face. Was Sardes intentionally exposing himself? Where was he leading them to?
Although he hadn't recovered the ability to summon Silver Moon Alterna due to his wounds, Rhein felt that he was already in his peak state. Lucien, on the other hand, was quite confident about his own strength when his equipment was intact. Therefore, the two of them dispersed and approached the corridor where Sardes' air spread out warily.
Sardes' air began to move and wandered in the corridor. Eventually, he entered an inconspicuous gray room that was easy to be ignored.
The door of the room was not closed, allowing Lucien and Rhein to see what was inside even though they were in the corridor. At the center of the room was a deep pit. The bottom of the pit and the surroundings were engraved with countless unimaginably weird magic patterns, mixed with divine symbols now and then.
Those patterns and symbols were not flat but extended to the floor, the walls, and the void. The whole room seemed to be enshrouded in a magic model, giving a sacred and weird feeling.
At the bottom of the pit, the fuzzy, translucent gray pieces stretched into the shape of a human and twisted toward the center.
"This is the most complicated and incomprehensible magic model that I've ever seen." Lucien had 'Eternal Blaze' that only level-three legends could've grasped, 'Hand of Uncertainties' that was beyond the imagination of the current arcanists, and he had seen the defense of Allyn. However, this magic circle was far more complicated than them. Also, that was only part of it. Lucien believed that the patterns that spread out and disappeared into the void, the floor, and the wall did not really disappear but were connected to the entire Realm of Gates and the World of Souls in a certain way. They had the same structure!
Lucien could make such an assertion as a grand arcanist.
Rhein's expression was a bit strange, as if he had thought of something in the past. Finally, he said, "I once saw part of the patterns in Thanos's place. I didn't know that he had been studying similar things since then."
Sardes was walking very slowly at the bottom of the pit, not as fast as before, so Lucien had time to think if he should stop him. He also had time to ask curiously, "Mr. Rhein, are you good friends with Thanos?"
"I like to get to know young people with potential and watch them grow. If I really like them, I'll even turn them into members of the Blood Clan. Therefore, I have a lot of good friends, and Thanos happens to be one of them. Of course, he's also the most talented and monster-like one. Hehe, you've already surpassed him in terms of arcana," Rhein said with a smile.
Lucien thought for a moment and remarked with mixed feelings, "As expected of the Observer. When you open a history book and point at a random famous person, you can say that you know them and watch them grow up. It's a very special and wonderful feeling."
"I only have a few hobbies left." Rhein said with a smile, "It's a pity that I didn't witness the growth of Douglas. He's a great person who's on par with Thanos, if not even better. After all, he created a path of arcana in the most difficult situation and saved magic. Also, in only four hundred years, he's developed to the level that the ancient Magic Empire could barely achieve in thousands of years. The number of top legends he has is the same as that of the Magic Empire in its heyday."
"Why? I've admired Mr. President since the first time I saw his enlightening question. I believe that he's a great person. Mr. Rhein, you must've noticed it, didn't you? "Lucien asked in confusion. He was an Observer who had supported many young people.
Rhein shook his head. "At the end of the Magic Empire and the beginning of the War of Dawn, Douglas was not very distinguished. Perhaps it was because of his habit of 'Hundred Thousand Whys' and his weird way of thinking that made him incompatible with all the sorcerers in Antiffler at that time. Also, he was not very strong in the first place, and he could've easily been eclipsed by the many geniuses at that time. That's why I didn't try to get to know him at all."
"The arcana system that he founded is a field that I'm completely weak in. Therefore, I couldn't witness the grand arcanists and legendary sorcerers of the Congress of Magic at all, except for you."
Lucien's curiosity was satisfied. Seeing that Sardes was about to reach the center of the pit, he asked, "Should we stop him?"
"Can you tell its basic function? I believe that the magic circle is the key to the laboratory, and we can't experiment on ourselves. However, if it's a magic circle that can transform people into monsters, Sardes will deal with us after he transforms … "Rhein seemed to be interested in what Sardes was going to do exactly.
Lucien shook his head. "I can only tell that it's related to resurrection. Look, the Original Fire was resurrected after it was hit by 'Fateful Meteor'. As a matter of fact, it's common sense that the more complicated, delicate, and powerful a magic circle is, the more likely it will be destroyed before it's completed. We can wait and see what Sardes is going to do first. If anything goes wrong, we'll interrupt it at the critical moment. If the magic circle is protected by the power of defense from the beginning, we'll destroy it immediately!"
"Alright." Rhein was already inclined in the first place. After hearing Lucien's explanation, he couldn't have agreed more.
The human figure that the gray pieces turned into lay in the hexagram at the center of the pit, illuminating the magic lines around him. The silver brilliance was pure and brilliant.
After all the magic lines were glowing, the intense, frozen air of death, black, white, and gray flooded in through the patterns on the gray tiles and the wall. It was absolutely silent and cold.
"It's indeed borrowing the power of the World of Souls." Lucien seized the opportunity to memorize and analyze the magic circle.
Right then, the patterns that extended to the void were dyed with sacred brilliance, and the sacred air flooded into the pit too.
"The power of Mountain Paradise …" Lucien was very surprised. Death and life, evil and holiness?
It was exactly because he was not bold enough that he failed to tell that the magic circle would draw power from Mountain Paradise!
The monotonous black, white, and gray melted with the pure brightness around Sardes' translucent body. Then, they entangled in a weird and unimaginable state. As Lucien observed, they were now frozen black, white, and gray, and now they were lively and agile ivory.
Enshrouded in them, Sardes' body changed quickly. One moment, he was extremely dim, and the next moment, he seemed to have flesh and blood. Gradually, the feeling of flesh and blood grew more and more intense.
"Is he really resurrected?" In the telepathic bond, Rhein asked himself.
Suddenly, the overwhelming ivory brilliance spread out of Sardes' body, and beautiful hymns echoed. The entanglement of death and life was immediately disrupted, and evil and holiness were clearly separated.
Sardes' body was condensed into gray pieces again, which seemed to be made of infinite regret and desperation.
"I don't want to …"
Amidst a faint scream of agony, the grey fragment disintegrated, and Sard completely disappeared from this world.
Faced with such changes, Rhein and Lucien were both stunned. It was not until a long time later that Lucien said, half in shock and half in criticism, "Sardes went through all the trouble to lead us to this place, only to be killed in front of us?"
Rhein hated Sardes deeply in the first place, and he could not understand his death. Therefore, he was immediately amused by Lucien's words. "Chances are that he was really killed in front of us."
After complaining to himself, Lucien recalled what he saw earlier and took a deep breath. "At the very least, I have a general idea about the effect of the magic circle. It can't be just resurrection … Did Sardes intentionally tell us the function of the magic circle with the opportunity of his own resurrection?"
"It's a pity that he didn't know that God's Arrival would be so powerful that it lasted until now. It's a pity that he was ambitious, smart, and patient, but he ended up with an 'unwilling' ending in the end." Rhein used the word 'pity' twice in a row. He couldn't believe that such a schemer who set him up ended up like this.
Lucien shook his head. "His biggest problem was that he didn't recognize the general trend of history. The development of the Congress was completely beyond his imagination, and he moved against the trend. If he had sincerely chosen to split the South Church at the beginning, he probably would've become a peak legendary pontiff by now. The torrent of time is rolling forward, and those who try to go against it will all be crushed."
After sighing, Lucien suddenly sensed that something was wrong. "Mr. Rhein, since Sardes was very confident about his resurrection, there was no need for him to lead us here at all. Wouldn't it be better to contact him after he was really resurrected? What if one of us couldn't control ourselves and killed him in passing? If he was not confident about his resurrection, he could've told us what he wanted to tell us in advance. "
Rhein was enlightened by Lucien. Deep in thought, he said, "Are you suggesting that he was set up to lure us here so that we could see the functioning of the magic circle? It doesn't matter whether Sardes is dead or alive in the end."
"Yes. The one who set him up must've been the one who allowed him to use God's Arrival." Lucien nodded. "But I don't know who it was. The Angel King doesn't know God's Arrival himself either …"
Rhein looked at the magic circle that had stopped functioning. "Then, what's your speculation about the function of the magic circle?"
"Let's find the experiment records first. I need to confirm my speculation." Thinking, Lucien left the gray room and opened the doors of the ancillary laboratories and the library, searching for all the remaining files.
As Maskelyne expected, although the main laboratory had been destroyed, some experiment records were still preserved. They were arranged in chronological order by Lucien and Rhein.
In a certain laboratory, the mirror on the wall was perfectly preserved, reflecting Lucien and Rhein. They began to read the jumbled experiment records from the beginning because a lot of them had been damaged.
Some of the experiment records belonged to Thanos, some were completed by Maskelyne and other legendary sorcerers before, and the rest were recorded after they entered the Realm of Gates. Therefore, they were rather messy.
"Preliminary preparation phase: a weird creature was accidentally captured in an alternate dimension. It was similar to the gods in the legends. Perhaps we can call it a 'false god'."
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