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Chapter 370: Rhine's Plan

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Although Lucien was quite used to hearing bad news, he was still a bit nervous, "What happened, Mr. Rhine?"

The World of Souls contained the genuine secret of immortality, and thus even a slight change could be vital. Lucien was even more nervous seeing that Rhine was this serious.

Was it going to be a catastrophe?

"I don't know for sure. You know, I am trapped here, and I can only feel that something very horrible is slowly waking up. Its power is strong enough to overthrow the entire world. Maybe in a year or two, the horrible change will start. And it's most likely to go in the worst direction," said Rhine, dressing very formally like he was attending a fancy dinner. Although he was talking in a very serious manner, Rhine did not panic.

Lucien frowned, "So… I should inform the Highest Council of the existence of the World of Souls."

Even though the Lord of Storm was Lucien's teacher, Lucien was still unable to feel a hundred percent at ease with telling Fernando the big secret. No one could say for sure that Fernando would not kill Lucien because of greed. After all, Lucien had not had much time to get to know the Lord of Storm well enough. Therefore, when the situation really became very serious, Lucien would inform the entire Highest Council because the grand arcanists and legendary archmages would restrain each other, so Lucien would be much safer.

"We're not there yet. I told you that I had some planning before I entered the World of Souls, and I asked you to help me get out of this place after you become a senior-rank sorcerer…" said Rhine very seriously, which was rare. "I know you are still working on it, but I still wish that you would get close to senior-rank in the next half a year, and then you can spend another half year activating my plannings. At that time, I will give you a spell. Hopefully, Zie can suppress what was going on deep in the World of Souls. If my plan does not work, you should tell this to the Congress."

Neither of them, Rhine or Lucien, was an idiot. If they were helpless, they would not keep the secret and just let the worst happen.

"Zie?" Lucien repeated confusedly.

Rhine nodded seriously, "The ancestor of we vampires, the closest existence to God, the true incarnation of the deathless silver moon."

"Alterna?" Lucien had seen this name many times in the books stored in the Congress. It was said that, like the Pope, Zie was the closest to the realm of God.

However, because Zie was only a legend, the Cleansing List did not include Zie's name.

The corner of Rhine's mouth twitched a bit, "You can call Zie Alterna, but unlike what is said in the books, the primitive existence does not belong to any gender. The Congress follows the bad tradition left by the magic empire and likes to describe all the gods and the nature of the world as female… However, the Pope is always a male…"

"I see… Maybe Zie can really save the world." Lucien nodded, and he was also thinking that, if he could have the honor to meet Zie, he wished to be granted a piece of Zie's flesh, a drop of blood, or even a hair for his study.

Lucien had already become a crazy arcanist.

Rhine grinned, and the handsome smile was back again, "I can't believe we're both being busy saving the world now."

Lucien thought to himself that, in fact, Mr. Fernando had always been busy with preventing his student, Lucien, from destroying the world.

"So… where should I go to activate the magic circles?" asked Lucien.

"First, go to my castle located in the Dark Mountain Range to get the Transformation Mask, the three items for activating the magic circles, and your reward. Then you go to Kuo-toa's altar in the polluted area of the Boundless Ocean, the Manticore Tomb in the southern desert in Gusta, and the Sun King Thanos' underground palace in the capital Antiffler of Holy Heilz Empire. You activate the magic circles there using the spell and gesture. Finally, you come back to my castle. You light up all the candles and lights in my castle when the silver moon is the brightest. Under the moonlight, you enchant the spell again." Rhine's projection started to shake. His power was fading.

The polluted area, the southern desert, and the Sun King… It was not Lucien's first time hearing the words. Not to mention the Sun King, Lucien learned about the polluted ocean area when he came to Holm by ship as a stowaway, and he even earned an arcana credit from selling the information. Lucien heard about the south desert from Florencia the other day: it was the source area of uranium, and this area was under the ruling of another magic empire named Meshkate.

There had been three paralleled ancient magic empires – Sylvanas, Meshkate, and Asso. Meshkate studied deeper in Necromancy, Illusion, and Summoning, and it ruled the southern desert of the Empire of Gusta, the oasis, and the Dragon Moor; Asso was famous for its navigation techniques and the buildings underwater, whose territory extended from today's Duchy of Calais, the Kingdom of Brianna, and the many islands including the Pearl Islands in the Boundless Ocean; and the rest of the land was governed by the most powerful magic empire, Sylvanas.

Rhine grinned, "I don't have the power to set up all the great magic circles, so I borrowed the power of the altar, the tomb, and the underground palace. Don't worry… When you get close to becoming a senior-rank mage, if you can use the mask and the magic items in my palace properly, you are not going to take too big of a risk. The only problem is that you might not be able to do all of these within half a year… You can't fly as fast as a senior-rank mage…"

"Umm…" Lucien had to confess, "I think I should be able to set off in a few days. To some degree, I am already very close to becoming a senior-rank."

To become a senior-rank, the substantialization of the cognition world was the most challenging stage, followed by the process of performing the magic rite. After these two steps, one still had to finish analyzing a sixth-circle spell and thus, finally, be able to interfere with the reality using his or her spiritual power and soul. Lucien had finished substantializing his cognition world, and he was about to finish analyzing the sixth-circle spell very soon.

Rhine knew about magic relatively well. Hearing Lucien's words, he took a deep breath and looked around in the dream. He felt a bit amused as he said, "I thought you just went back to Allyn a few months ago… Am I having a problem with my sense of time from being trapped here?"

When Lucien was in Allyn, Rhine could not project himself in Lucien's dream because the grand arcanists and legendary archmages could easily notice it.

"I'm… how to say… quite different," Lucien said in an ambiguous way.

"You're getting boring. When you become a legendary archmage, you'll be really boring." Rhine sighed, "Then, please take action as soon as possible."

The dream was gone. Lucien opened his eyes. The conversation that Rhine just had with him repeated in his mind.

Lucien knew that it was very likely Rhine that was still hiding some things from him. Rhine knew about the World of Souls way more than Lucien could expect. However, Lucien was also aware of the fact that sometimes knowing too much was not a good thing.

Lucien sat up suddenly, and Alferris was startled. Its tail swung and almost whipped a chair into pieces.

"I didn't do anything!" Alferris raised its tone.

Lucien wished that he could take Alferris with him, but except for guarding the great secret, Lucien could also imagine how Alferris would rob Rhine's warehouse.

The biggest problem Lucien was facing now was that he needed to find an excuse to leave Allyn as the Lord of Storm would not easily approve his departure.

…

In Heidler, in the banquet hall of a magic tower, the white candles dimly lit up the hall.

Standing in the hall, Lucien felt that he was attending a funeral. Holding the white, sticky drink, Lucien was hesitant with tasting it, while Alferris was quite enjoying itself, and right now it was holding the big plate indulging itself in all kinds of strange food such as the fried meat strings like fat maggots, the skull-shaped bread, and the organ platter…

Looking at the food, Lucien shook his head a bit, and then he saw Felipe wearing his black long jacket walking toward him.

Stopping in front of Lucien, Felipe put on a light smile, "I thought you dared not to come to Heidler, as your magic rank is still low… You do have the reason to worry."

"I thought you would not have enough courage to come here today, to watch me winning the award." Lucien fought back, "I'm a member of the Review Board. Why should I worry about visiting the place under the rule of the Congress?"

"Shall I give you the first-hand material of my study on cell memory?" Felipe did not retreat, "So, even if you are killed, there is still hope for you to come back to life."

Lucien shook his head, "I don't really trust the research outcome of low or middle-rank arcanists."

That was how they greeted each other. At this time, an elder man wearing a fancy Meshkate robe came to them. Holding the red wine in his glass and staring at Lucien with his red pupils, he said to Lucien in a cold tone, "Thank you for your Miracle Experiment."

Then, he directly walked away.

"Who is this?" Lucien asked Felipe.

Felipe's face, which always looked very sick, put on a smile and answered, "Mr. Sousa, a level six arcanist, seventh-circle necromancer, one of the senior members of our group. He once almost got exploded. So I'd say that the hope is rather dim for him to become an eighth-circle sorcerer." Talking about this, Felipe was in quite a good mood. He was never a nice and generous person.

"There are many things in the world that we cannot control." Lucien swirled the wine in his glass.

There were not many people at the banquet, as many necromancers were very unwilling to watch an elemental sorcerer winning the Immortal Throne award. Only the invited guests came to greet Lucien, for the sake that he was a member of the Review Board.

One of the two presidents of the Hand of Paleness, a very powerful lich and ninth-circle necromancer, Schokola, walked onto the stage wearing a heavy black magic robe. Then, he invited Lucien to go onto the stage as well.

Behind him stood a mummy holding a crystal tray, on which there was a neatly folded, dark gray magic robe. Under the light, there was the flow of glory on it.

"Mr. Lucien Evans' Miracle Experiment has shown us another possibility of the origin of life, which is the secret that all the necromancers have been pursuing," said Schokola briefly. "He is definitely qualified to be the one on the Immortal Throne."

Chapter 371: The Good News

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After the short speech, Schokola put the dark gray magic robe on Lucien and said, "The exploration of the secret of life shall bring us the real immortality."

As told, Lucien left his spirit mark in the magic robe and got its information:

"Fountain of Life, level seven perfect-rank magic item (one layer of seal). A sorcerer whose spiritual power has reached the senior rank can unseal it and the magic robe's full power could be released.

"When wearing the magic robe, the wearer can awaken all the dead bodies within two kilometers (except those above senior rank) and make them fight for the wearer. When wearing the magic robe, the wearer can have the ability of transformation. Without the careful check, even senior-rank sorcerers and archmages will not be able to notice the difference. When wearing the magic robe, if the wearer dies, his soul will be protected by the magic robe, and once someone else tried to possess the magic robe by controlling its core, the magic robe will exchange the two souls between, and thus the wearer can take over the new body.

"The magic robe also offers the wearer the magic resistance power of a fifth-circle sorcerer and the defense of a level three grand knight. The great power of death enables the wearer to cast Soul Cage, the fifth-circle spell, three times a day, Ghost Transformation three times a day, and Weakening Ray, the seventh-circle spell, three times a day. When sealed, the wearer, before reaching level six, can still force to cast the seventh-circle spell once at the cost of completely draining up his spiritual power and damaging his life force.

"October, Year 819, for Mr. Lucien Evans' great contribution to the origin of life.

"The origin of life contains the secret of immortality!

"From: Gauci Cromwell."

Putting on the magic robe, Lucien was a bit amused by the stinginess of the Hand of Paleness: The enchanted magic effect on the robe was transformation, and the two fifth-circle spells were almost useless. Soul Cage could draw one's soul out of the person's body when the person was still alive and put the person's soul into a magic item, which was used mainly for getting information, and it did not work on a dead person whose soul had not dismissed. Ghost Transformation could turn the common undead creatures and the caster into the form of a ghost.

Lucien was definitely hoping for something better, such as replenishing his life force or regrowing limbs, so he would be able to use his rings with no fear. However, there was no way that the Hand of Paleness would be that considerate.

Fortunately, Lucien still quite liked the seventh-circle spell and the other enchanted magic effect. Weakening Ray, like Dark Sword, could ignore the target's defense level and lower the target's power by one level. If no action was taken, the target's power level would be further lowered twelve seconds later. However, unlike Dark Sword which required one to conduct the special rite to recover the power, Weakening Ray's effect could only last five minutes, and it could be counteracted by other spells.

Although Lucien felt that it was quite dirty hiding oneself in the magic robe and stealing another person's body, Lucien had to concede that it was a perfect way to save one's life and the only left hope, which complied with the style of the Hand of Paleness.

"Mr. Lucien Evans, would you like to share with us your feeling right now and your insight into Necromancy?" asked Schokola with no facial expression as he only had the skull.

"My insight… in Necromancy?" Lucien murmured to himself. He took a step forward the saw the cold face of Felipe and Sousa's eyes shining with red light.

Lucien remained rather calm and said, "The immortality of life is the ultimate pursuit of the School of Necromancy, and this is also the terrain we hold the most respect toward. There are so many things we want to explore: why can the bloodline be passed on? Why can blood powers be combined? Why do people age? When aging, what happens to the cells? However, our ways of investigation are restraining us from going further, and thus we need the other schools of magic to work together. There is no such a thing as an isolated school of magic!"

Hearing Lucien's words, Felipe frowned a bit. He wondered what kind of progress Lucien had made. Was Lucien facing the same difficulty as he was?

Lucien finished his short speech, and Felipe saw him walking off the stage directly toward him, with a gentle but suspicious smile. So he asked confusedly, "What?"

"I remember… we once had a promise." Lucien grinned. He almost forgot the promise, but when he saw Felipe's face on the stage, Lucien was reminded of it.

Felipe's facial expression changed, "What do you want? Prolong your life-span? Strengthen your soul?"

Felipe was reminded by Lucien. He remembered that after escaping the assassination from Traquair, he was being rather short-tempered to take his revenge, so he instigated and also threatened Lucien to publish his paper on the synthesized carbamide. Felipe promised Lucien that he would run a rite for him.

"Strengthen my soul. My soul potential has just got developed, so the common magic rites won't work," said Lucien with a meaningful smile on his face.

Felipe squinted a bit, "The Hand of Paleness does have some special rites."

However, those rites were very expensive! Still, a promise was a promise. Proud as Felipe was, he would not fail his own words. No matter how expensive the rite was, he had to pay for it. He indeed earned some decent money from improving Life Hiding, but now the money would be soon gone.

He had to say that he did feel a bit regretful.

"Thank you very much. I hope that you can kindly run the rite for me as soon as possible. Well… in Allyn, under the watch of my teacher, Mr. Fernando." Lucien grinned and slightly bowed to Felipe.

Felipe's hands clenched into fists in the pockets and he wished that he could directly punch Lucien's smiling face. And he said the words one by one from his teeth, "You have to give me five days to get prepared."

"No problem. I'll be waiting for you, Mr. Felipe." Lucien was in a very good mood. He did not care about Felipe's attitude.

Seeing that Lucien just turned around and was about to leave, it suddenly occurred to Felipe and he hurriedly asked, "Your cognition world has been substantialized?"

Was that why that Lucien was in a rush to strengthen his soul power?

Felipe was clearly aware of the fact that, for the geniuses like Lucien and him, under the special attention from all the directions focused on them, getting the important magic potions was not a big deal for them, and their speed of improving the soul power and spiritual power mostly depended on themselves and their teachers' suggestion—who usually would not rush their students to advance, as the foundation might not be firm—, therefore, the two biggest challenges for them to become a senior-rank were to substantialize their cognition world and to analyze the sixth-circle magic spell.

Facing the two challenges, no one could help them, but they could only rely on their own effort. Felipe himself substantialized his cognition world after he successfully synthesized grease, and then his spiritual power and soul soon met the requirements of the further advancement. With the help of the magic rite, he managed to become a senior-rank with relatively less effort. However, Lucien's advancing process was too fast, and unlike Felipe, his spiritual power level was not ready yet, and solely relying on the magic potions could not help him.

When Felipe was still a middle-rank mage, he got the guidance and help from Congus, the Demigod-lich, and thus he soon became Congus' student after reaching the senior rank.

Lucien turned around and thought for a second, "Well… I'll let you guess…"

There was no way that Lucien would directly tell this to his enemy! Felipe was quite pissed off, but Lucien's reaction affirmed his guess.

Did he substantialize his cognition world because of the assumption of the discontinuous form of energy, or the discovery of electron?

Many thoughts flashed through Felipe's mind.

…

On the thirty-third floor of the magic tower in Allyn, Lucien was standing in front of Fernando nervously.

"Are you sure you want to use the rite from the Hand of Paleness?" asked Fernando seriously, "Your soul's potential has just got developed. Rushing to use the rite will leave you an unstable foundation, and you'll have a harder time improving your power in the future. If you take the steps one by one, after becoming a senior-rank mage, in the recent fifteen to twenty years, there is a possibility that you can become an archmage. But if you insist to do so, it is going to take you thirty years, sixty years, a hundred years, or even longer. I did once consider whether I should help you with running a similar rite for you, but I decided to let you grow by yourself. Why are you in such a rush?"

After thinking about it for a second, Lucien said to Fernando directly, "Sir, I have some personal stuff to deal with, and it is an emergency. I have to leave Allyn. For my own safety, I have to do so."

"Personal stuff? What is it? Do you know how big a risk you are taking? Did someone cast any spells on you?" asked Fernando. His red eyes shone with many tiny bolts of lightning to make sure that Lucien was not mentally deluded by anyone.

"Sir, can you keep it as a secret?" Lucien was anxious. He did not know how to persuade Fernando other than telling him the truth.

Fernando's red rigorous eyes stared at Lucien for a long time, but he did not say anything.

Lucien was almost sweating. Finally, Fernando closed his eyes and slightly nodded, "It's your own choice. Don't regret it."

Lucien released a long sigh seeing that Fernando did not insist on asking. When Lucien was about to leave, he heard Fernando's voice:

"Wait."

"Yes, sir?" Lucien became nervous again.

Knocking at the desk with his knuckle gently, Fernando said, "The special soul rite from the Hand of Paleness is indeed much better than the similar rites that I know. Still, maybe it is not going to affect you that much."

"Yes, sir." Lucien did not get Fernando's point.

Fernando paused a bit and then slowly took out a scroll from under his magic robe, "You used it before… the teleportation scroll. Take it with you. Don't get killed, my flathead student."

"Sir…" Lucien was touched.

Fernando suddenly grinned, "When I was young, I did many ridiculous things as well. When I look back, some of them are very funny. So I more or less understand how you young people think. And this is probably the price you have to pay to grow. Well… the scroll is made of the skin of ninth-level creature called Karachi. I only have two pieces. So you don't have another chance to be stupid… Also, I don't think you have had enough money to buy all the materials you need for reaching the senior-rank. Go to my demiplane warehouse to take a look, but you should leave me your following three years' annual earnings as a pledge."

"Yes, sir…" Lucien's voice trembled slightly.

Chapter 372: Banshee's Blessing

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After accepting the scroll, Lucien calmed down a bit and asked curiously, "Sir, you mentioned that you did many ridiculous things when you were young. What are these things?"

Fernando immediately threw a furious stare at Lucien and roared, "That's not what you should pry into! Go back and study Spell Trigger! Don't think you can easily become a senior-rank just because of the rite!"

Lucien was startled by Fernando's roaring and he hurriedly jumped out of his teacher's office. After closing the door, Lucien murmured to himself, feeling a bit amused but also perplexed:

"So Mr. Fernando indeed did some really ridiculous things…"

…

Five days later, in the empty hall on the thirty-third floor of the headquarter of the Congress.

On the floor, a creepy magic circle in the shape of a human body was drawn using Banshee's blood and some other precious materials. The head, left chest, hands, and feet of the human body shape were drawn with the many magic lines forming into the many beating dark-red hearts.

"Lie down in the magic circle," said Felipe.

After setting up the basic magic circle, Felipe finally let Lucien and the Lord of Storm come in the hall, leaving them out until that moment to prevent them from learning the special soul rite, called Banshee's Blessing.

After taking off all of the magic items he was wearing, the Holm Crown rings, Ice Revenger, Ogre Glove, Sun's Corona, Fire Weaver bracelet, and the magic and arcana badges, Lucien also took off the Immortal Throne magic robe and the Sidestep boots. Then, he handed all of these items to Alferris to safeguard them, who was longing so badly for them on the side.

A soul rite like this should not be disturbed by any magic items.

Alferris was not focusing on the rite at all. Staring at the items, its big amber-colored eyes were shining, and from time to time, it would lick the amulet and rings with a great sense of satisfaction.

Wearing a white shirt and slim pants, Lucien lay down as told by Felipe. The necromancer took out six huge bone nails made from senior-rank Banshee's fangs.

"Don't scream," said Felipe in a very cold tone.

As soon as he finished his words, Felipe picked up one of the nails carved with the complicated patterns and directly knocked it in Lucien's right hand.

The nail was even sharper than Lucien expected. Lucien was a level two knight, but it still directly went through Lucien's body and nailed him to the ground. Lucien grimaced in pain although he was mentally prepared. However, he had experienced something even worse, so he did not scream.

Lucien's drops of blood shining with the dim moonlight dyed the Banshee's bone nail in crimson. However, soon the color faded very fast and finally disappeared. Lucien's blood was sucked in by the bone nail and the blood slowly went into the lines of the magic circle.

After nailing Lucien's left hand, right ankle, and left ankle to the ground, Felipe gently stuck the remaining two bone nails into the skin of Lucien's forehead and his left chest respectively. Although the two nails did not go in deep, they were immediately connected to the magic circle that Lucien way lying on, and thus they stood still in Lucien's skin, although it seemed that the two bone nails were directly knocked in Lucien's head and heart.

After finishing all of these processes, Felipe took a few steps backward and started to cast the spell. The lines of the magic circle lit up one by one.

Felipe's casting was like singing, and the hypnosis power overwhelmed Lucien through the bone nails and the magic circle. Lucien began to have a difficult time keeping his eyes open when his mind was wandering. Lucien remembered that the analysis of the spell, Spell Trigger, had been done over half… and in the next second, Lucien started to wonder what Arthur and Florencia thought of his effort on improving the structure and the material used for the magic crystal lights.

"The wind from the Land of Death, please embrace the helpless soul, and always embrace it." Felipe lifted up his black magic staff inlaid with many colorful gems. The language he used was the special language of necromancers created by the ancient Empire of Meshkate. He walked around the magic circle about one-third of the distance.

A big white gem lit up, and Felipe's long coat flapped in the air like the wings of a bat. The wind smelled a bit decayed.

Lucien fell into a deeper trance.

"The fire from Skeleton Land, please warm the helpless soul. Please bless the soul forever." After walking around the magic circle about one-third of the distance, Felipe cast the spell again.

The clusters of faint white flame grew out of the magic circle. Instead of doing any harm to Lucien's body, they warmed Lucien and made his soul even purer.

Fernando was standing on the side, observing what was going on with his eyes half open. In the white flame, Fernando saw the indistinct figure of a monster wearing a long black robe and holding a sickle, behind which was the background of the wasteland, where countless ghosts were loitering.

"The coldness from the silent hell, please surround the helpless soul. Give him the eternal peace." Felipe finished the last part of the walk and a silver-colored gem lit up.

The endless silence and coldness surrounded Lucien's soul and further substantialized it.

After all of these, Felipe raised his left hand and screamed silently.

The six bone nails were engorged with Lucien's blood, and now they were distorting like real snakes, and their shadows suddenly rose into the air.

The shadows turned out to be the phantoms of some beautiful females. The fair-skinned women were half-naked, but their faces were written with great pain. However, as Felipe's silent scream continued, they opened their mouth and started to sing.

The singing was beautiful, but it could only be heard by one's soul. Vaguely, Lucien saw his own soul ripple in the singing and it slowly absorbed all the flowing liquid in the magic circle.

Two minutes later, Felipe's forehead was beaded with sweat. Putting down his left hand, Felipe took out a strange black mirror inlaid with small gems in the shape of leaves and some pale eyeballs. The back of the mirror was covered with the facial skin of a horrible Banshee.

Felipe tossed the mirror into the air and the mirror floated above Lucien. The black mirror floated right above him.

Felipe started to cast the creepy necromancy spell again. At this time, all the gems on his magic staff lit up together, which even managed to draw Alferris' attention.

The mirror slightly trembled. The six Banshees' song was turned into a bitter scream. The black mirror then cracked, and a white eye was revealed! In the pupil, the creepy and distorted figures were dancing in a weird manner.

The eye looked at Lucien, and Lucien's soul suddenly rose high. Higher above the clouds, high above the sky… His soul went straight upward and finally met his Host Star of Destiny. Lucien could feel that, in the far end, in the place where Lucien could not reach, something had already been connected to his soul.

It was overlooking Lucien, with a condescending attitude!

The lines of the magic circle started to tremble as if they were alive. Then, Lucien's body was entangled by the lines. The lines went into his body and fiercely pulled his soul back. After shivering for seven times, Lucien finally sobered up.

"I have done what I promised," Felipe wiped his forehead with his white handkerchief. "I don't owe you anything now."

Felipe turned around and directly left. Lucien still felt a bit dizzy, for he was not yet used to the power of his soul. After a few minutes, he casually exerted his spiritual power and turned the bone nails into powder.

"My spiritual power and soul can interfere with the reality now…" Lucien murmured to himself with mixed feelings. He must be the one in the Congress of Magic who made the fastest advancement but at the cost of his future progress.

Lucien stood up, and his body was completely unhurt. The magic circle on the floor had disappeared completely.

"What was that eye?" murmured Fernando, feeling a bit perplexed.

A grand arcanist like him always saw the nature of the things through the fancy form of the rites. He could understand most part of the rite, but Fernando could not figure out what the last step was.

Recalling the last step, Lucien asked a bit concernedly, "Sir… I feel my soul was connected to something very far from us at the end of the rite. Is it normal?"

Before this rite, Lucien didn't dare to ask Fernando things like this because he was afraid of revealing the secret of the spirit library. However, since Fernando also did not fully understand the rite, Lucien could use the rite as a perfect excuse for almost everything strange about him.

"That is what I said…" Fernando sighed. "Your foundation is not solid. There is still a large portion of the knowledge about becoming a senior-rank that you do not know. This is more than normal. It is believed that it is because of the interaction between the cognition and the real world and the illusion produced by the nature of the real world."

Hearing that, Lucien was more relieved.

Fernando took a glance at Alferris and asked it to return all the items back to Lucien. Then he said, "Take a rest for a week to get used to the power. Don't rush to hold the rite for your senior-rank advancement."

"Yes, sir." Lucien nodded seriously.

…

In the advanced warehouse section on the twenty-eighth floor of the Congress.

"Red Dragon scales…

"Scarlet Tree sap…

"The green Soul-eater Flower…

"Six sunstones…

"The brain of Ghast…

"The tear of Ghost…"

…

"Mr. Evans, these are the materials you need," The warehouse guard, a fifth-circle sorcerer, Smith, handed Lucien the materials. He could not help but ask, "So, Mr. Evans… You're reaching the senior rank?"

Many of the materials used for this magic rite were precious and expensive. So all of the fifth-circle sorcerers who were in need could report it to Sorcerer Administrative Department to get the materials from the Congress at half price. Holding the documents, Lucien came to the warehouse. However, he had only gathered one-third of the things he needed after almost spending all of his arcana credits and Thales.

It seemed that Lucien had to give Fernando his following three years' annual earnings to collect all the things he needed. Thinking that he still had to pay Alferris in advance with his subsidy from the Congress and the Will of Elements to make Alferris transform into himself during his absence, Lucien's heart twitched.

Then, he grinned, "I am just preparing in advance."

Smith did not believe what Lucien said. He had never heard anyone buying the materials in advance. The warehouse never moved!

Smith was deeply shocked by Lucien's pace of advancing.

…

Seven days later, Lucien came to the hall again where his previous rite was held. He was a bit nervous as the rite for pushing him forward to become a senior-rank was very likely to fail. Three to four out of ten fifth-circle sorcerers would not get the results they wanted. And for Lucien, this would be even more difficult as his power just came from Banshee's Blessing rite.

Chapter 373: The Untraceable Destiny

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

There was a complex magic circle drawn with a silver-colored liquid on the floor. The big array consisted of thirteen circles, and at the center of each, different creepy patterns were drawn. The twelve smaller circles surrounded the biggest one, which was decorated with the many symbols representing the earth and the six hexagrams.

Between the circles, there were many silver-gray lines connecting them together, forming the mysterious stellar map. In the smaller circles, there were also many constellation signs and symbols of elements.

There was more than one magic rite for one to improve to senior-rank, as sorcerers majored in different schools and their cognition words also varied. If a rite was more on the necromantic, force field, or illusion side, it would not be appropriate to be applied to a sorcerer who studied elements and electromagnetism. Therefore, there were more than dozens of magic rites.

After checking carefully and making sure that the magic circle was set up correctly, Lucien took a short break to be fully prepared for the rite.

Fernando, the Lord of Storm, stood beside, and he had no plan to help Lucien with the magic circle. In his eyes, that was something that Lucien should be able to do on his own, and if he made any mistakes, Fernando was definitely going to yell at him furiously.

Thompson was in a great shock when he heard that Lucien was about to become a senior-rank mage, and now he was also here observing the rite. He was well aware of the fact that Lucien had just become a fifth-circle sorcerer six months ago, and although he could use the potions and the rites to help him meet the requirement of the spiritual power level and soul power, there was no shortcut for him to achieve the substantialization of his cognition world. Lucien either had to greatly improve his knowledge of the true world and thus get close to the real nature of the world, or he had to boost his spiritual and soul power to the level that was almost crazy, like the ancient sorcerers did, and then use the rites to help him with the substantialization of his cognition world.

However, even if that were the case, Lucien's advancement was still inconceivably fast. It did not make sense to Thompson.

When seeking for advancement, most arcanists nowadays often combined the two methods together: they first explored the world and studied arcana to improve their cognition and to push their cognition world toward the edge of being substantialized, and then they would turn to the magic rites. Therefore, hopefully, they could reach senior-rank in about twenty years.

For those who managed to become a senior-rank before thirty years old, they all had substantialized their cognition world simply from their exploration of the world.

Thompson shook his head to get rid of his slight feeling of envy toward Lucien. He wondered if one's understanding of the micro-world really mattered that much and if the micro-world was the truth of the world. It took Thompson sharp twenty-six years to reach the sixth-circle, and by that time he was already close to his fifties.

However, his attitude toward Lucien's rushed advancement was different than Fernando's. Thompson agreed with what Lucien was doing. After all, Lucien was always surrounded by danger, and thus, when it was possible, he should make his advancement as soon as possible, or when he encountered a real danger, it would be too late for him to do anything.

In Thompson's eyes, reaching a higher circle was still very necessary as long as the cost was not too great even if Lucien had not been a troublemaker. When one's arcana knowledge had not been transferred into his or her magic power, the sorcerer was always in a certain kind of danger. It happened before that a few great arcana geniuses died before they managed to improve their magic power.

Alferris held no opinion toward what Lucien was doing. It only had a vague understanding of time. When Alferris reached senior-rank, it did not use any rites. It only relied on its arcana and magic knowledge to improve its soul's power and used the power to stimulate its body, just like how the mature and fully-grown dragons did. Therefore, right now, Alferris was having a sweet time playing with Lucien's many magic items, wearing the Holm Crown rings on its claws to show off.

Although the Immortal Throne magic robe did not have any precious stones on it, Alferris knew that it was still worth a lot and could be traded for crystals and precious stones.

When Lucien was ready, he took out the twelve crystal balls out of his magic pouch.

They were made of the different crystals with Sun Stones, Wave Stones, Scarlet Tree sap, and some other materials respectively, each shining in different colors. Some were like stars, some were shining like a sun, and some were mysterious like the ocean. The twelve crystal balls symbolized twelve constellations and twelve elements.

Lucien placed the twelve crystal balls at the center of the twelve smaller circles, one at each respectively. The crystal balls were instantly connected to the power of the magic circle and burst out with dazzling lights. The invisible power of the magic circle raised them up.

Then, Lucien stepped in the biggest circle in the middle and stood on the symbol representing the earth. Lucien took out another six dim crystal balls and put them at the center of each of the hexagram symbols.

Throwing the pouch out of the magic circle, Lucien started to activate the core part of the magic circle.

The six hexagrams burst out silver light and rose into the air, like six altars. The six crystal balls representing the other six kinds of the element were also on the altars.

Bright red, dark blue, black, light cyan, jade green, and pure white, the six colors of light burst out of the crystal balls like six small suns.

Lucien cast the spell in a low voice, and then his volume gradually increased, like a song of praise for the starry sky and the universe. Along with the enchanting, the silver lines of the magic circle lit up one by one, and there were also the same lines connecting the crystal balls together.

Slowly, the crystal balls started to move around Lucien. There were twelve crystal balls on the outer ring and six inside. Although they followed different traces, they did not hinder each other's movement at all.

The light covering the magic circle made the rite look like a dream. The moving crystal balls were just like the mysterious stars in the sky.

Driven by the power of the magic circle, Lucien fell into the half-virtual cognition world. The starry sky was still up there, hanging the invisible gravity strings. Lucien's Host Star of Destiny was above there in the sky at the center of the world, connected with its reflection in Lucien's soul, suggesting the unpredictability of one's fate.

The furious fire, the free wind, and the gentle water consisted of the foundation of the world. The form of energy came no more in flows but in portions.

The many light spots representing the many elements further laid the foundation of Lucien's cognition world. The electrons were moving around, and from time to time, radiant light shot out.

Drops of liquid then brought the world ice and snow, glittering.

The crystal balls went through the boundary between the reality and the visionary world, stirring this cognition world, and then they went back to the real material world where the magic circle lay, like dazzling meteors.

Between the real and the illusionary, Lucien was not sure where he was right now.

Forcing himself to focus, Lucien started to manipulate the reflection of his Host Star of Destiny in his soul. Instantly, the shining star line lit up and connected to the host star in the sky.

The line trembled suddenly, dragging both ends!

The reflection of the star caused the vibration of Lucien's spiritual power, following which Lucien's soul also started changing. The Host Star of Destiny moved along with the cognition world, and the power from both ends interacted with each other!

This could only be achieved after the substantialization of one's cognition world. In the past, when Lucien was doing meditation, he could only control his soul but not his cognition world.

One crystal ball spun into the cognition world as expected and it directly hit the star line. The violent vibration was caused and the star was broken into shining pieces, which then went into Lucien's soul, his Host Star of Destiny and the elemental light spots.

A dazzling spiritual power ray shot out of Lucien's soul and became the first line forming the structure of the spell, Spell Trigger.

There were more and more lines gathering, and the vibration of Lucien's cognition world became more and more violent. The hiding power was going to burst out as if something was trying to jump out of the illusionary world into the real world and to become part of Lucien's soul.

More crystal balls hit the illusionary world and a very complex magic structure was gradually built. Like facing a catastrophe, Lucien's cognition world started to boil. The Host Star of Destiny started to swell. Bigger and bigger, the star occupied most of the starry sky.

Because of the power of the crystal balls, the elemental light spots also enlarged. Lucien was like an electron looking up at the huge nuclei.

However, the nuclei were hiding in the wind, fire, and water. They were prevented from approaching the stars seemingly because of an invisible force wall.

The elemental world and the astrology world were very different just like the micro-world and the macro-world.

When the last crystal ball hit the star string, the final stage of the rite was triggered.

In silence, the Host Star of Destiny shone like a burst, illuminating the entire cognition world. The starry sky expanded rapidly, swallowing up the environment of wind, fire, and water, as well as the elements, atoms, and electrons.

Using the power, Lucien's consciousness remained very stable, and he managed to finish the final touch of the magic structure.

There followed a low bang. All the light went into Lucien's soul and joined the magic model.

However, at this time, Lucien found his own soul was unable to control the explosive power of his Host Star of Destiny and the expansion of the starry sky. His cognition world was probably going to explode in any second!

Fernando took a step forward and raised both his hands. Between his palms, there were bolts of bright lightning, and there was a powerful storm in his red eyes!

If this was out of Lucien's control, he would break off the rite even if Lucien would be severely hurt by it, which was always better than being exploded!

Thompson's right hand, using which he was planning to adjust his glasses, was right now suspending in the air. He knew something was wrong with the final step.

Even Alferris forgot the shining rings and amulets. Although it did not really understand what was going on in the magic circle, Alferris was also worried.

Lucien's consciousness, as a bystander, quickly came up with all the knowledge he had learned. His soul was only able to control part of his Host Star of Destiny. With the expansion and swell of the star, it already looked like clusters of light.

Lucien had got only one way to go!

He controlled part of the star and let it burn furiously and grow bigger at an even higher speed!

Was he out of his mind?!

The part of the Host Star of Destiny became brighter and brighter, however, after reaching the limit, it suddenly went dim. Lucien did not stop it but kept pushing it to explode, which shaped a sharp contrast to the other part.

The expanding of the star had reached the final stage, and the part of the star under Lucien's control suddenly collapsed. Lucien felt the sharp pain in his soul.

Bang!

The collapsed part of the star formed a black swirl, devouring everything around it, even the light!

Using this power, Lucien managed to stop the further expansion of the remaining part of the star. The established magic model's reflection was now in his cognition world in the form of a dazzling star.

The rest of the magic models were also cast to the sky, forming the smaller stars. Surrounding the model of Magic Trigger, a galaxy was formed, and it was close to Lucien's entire cognition world.

At the center of the starry sky, the Host Star of Destiny was much brighter now. However, when it spun, no one could see what was behind it. There was endless darkness behind it, like a swirl that could devour everything around it, and even the tracks of the light close to it were distorted.

The dark swirl and the bright star were like twins.

Their reflection in Lucien's soul was also like this. Lucien had no idea whether it was good or bad.

Anyway, he had finally become a senior-rank mage!

When Lucien opened his eyes, the eighteen crystal balls fell onto the ground at the same time and collapsed into clusters of dim power.

…

When the back swirl appeared, a bolt of lightning flashed through his red eyes.

"The Untraceable Destiny?"

Chapter 374: The Secretive

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The dream-like magic light disappeared. The silver lines on the floor had all turned into burned black as if they were drawn using charcoal.

Lucien had never felt more powerful, as the bond between his soul and his cognition world had been further strengthened. He felt that one day he might be able to cast his soul and cognition world into the real material world to turn the virtual into the reality. However, Lucien was aware of the fact that this would at least require the power of a legendary level archmage. For example, he knew that when his teacher, Fernando, was suffering from the great shift of his cognition world, the entire Allyn was covered with the dark clouds, shivering with the flashes of lightning.

Lucien finally felt what it was like to be a senior-rank mage. Raising his hands, he looked at them, feeling very encouraged. Although his hands looked still the same, Lucien could feel the power in them from his soul, spiritual power and his cognition world.

"Sir, what did you say?" Thompson asked, "Untraceable… Destiny?"

Lucien heard the question. He had no idea what Thompson was saying. What was Untraceable Destiny? What happened during the rite? Did it have anything to do with his Host Star of Destiny?

Lucien had so many questions in his mind.

Thompson felt the horrible power in the magic rite and the words Fernando burst out. As an eighth-circle sorcerer and a member of the Affairs Committee, he had never heard about something like this. What happened to Lucien?

Fernando did not answer his question right away, but gently rubbed the head of Alferris, who also felt rather confused. Then, he asked Lucien:

"Are you a senior-rank now?"

"Yes, sir… I managed to stop the expansion," answered Lucien honestly. "Sir, what did you just say? What is this Untraceable Destiny? When I was trying to control the power, I felt something changing in my Host Star of Destiny."

"You're such a troublemaker," said Fernando with a gloomy look. "Couldn't you just wait for another three or four years to make the advancement? But you just had to do it right now."

However, after pausing a bit, Fernando continued, "I should not comment too much on those things related to your cognition world since it is your own business. But, if you want to know, I'll tell you something… The Untraceable Destiny refers to the special group of sorcerers who are free from the constraint of destiny. When they connected to the Host Star of Destiny and got their own reflection, because of some unknown reasons, their reflection collapsed and the host star lost its radiance, and thus the trace can never be observed again. In other words, they are the sorcerers who cannot be prophesied."

"What?!" Thompson was very surprised, and then he turned to look at Lucien in great shock.

Any sorcerers who studied astrology would hold destiny in awe. It was Thompson's first time hearing that there was a group of people who were not affected by destiny!

"So what… They still died anyway." Fernando sneered.

"They died… Sir, who were they?" asked Lucien curiously.

Fernando grinned, "I know five of them. The most famous one should be the archon of the Sylvanas Magic Empire, the Sun King, Thanos. The other four sorcerers were also legendary archmages but all of them died."

"Thanos was an Untraceable? Then how did he become the Sun King? There is no historical record for this…" Thompson was very surprised. After all, the Sun King was one of the legendary classes of the school of ancient Astrology, and it was said that to become a Sun King, one had to turn his or her Host Star of Destiny into a sun to make further advances. If his Host Star of Destiny had collapsed, how did he make the further progress?

Lucien was just as confused.

Fernando shook his head and smiled, "Only the members of the Highest Council can have the access to the secret record. Well, maybe some really old ancient sorcerers have also heard something about it. Thanos reached the legendary level with an artificial small sun made of a great number of sunstones and the body of an ancient evil creature called Chirchira. At that time, almost every single legendary sorcerer believed that a sorcerer using this kind of method to reach the legendary level would not be able to proceed any further, however, in the end, Thanos became the one standing on the summit."

"So, the Untraceable always create miracles… Are they the sons of Destiny?" As Thompson was saying, he looked at Lucien.

Fernando looked at Thompson seriously and said, "Don't exaggerate… They are only immune to the prophecy magic, nothing else special. As for why all of the Untraceable were legendary archmages… you should think the opposite way. Those ones who did not manage to become a legendary archmage would not be remembered. I believe that there are many Untraceable, even among the many ordinary people."

"This is already very awesome…" Lucien hoped that he was an Untraceable.

"I don't believe in such a thing… the so-called Untraceable," Fernando sneered. "To be more specific, their destiny just cannot be observed. They are still under the control of destiny. With the development of the more advanced methods in the school of Astrology put forward by arcana, we will be able to see the invisible traces!"

Fernando was rather confident, and his tone was rather firm. As a grand arcanist who had experienced the rapid development of arcana, Fernando was always confident.

"So… Is Lucien an Untraceable?" Thompson could not help asking. Alferris was also very curious.

Fernando took a glance at Lucien and shook his head. He sounded a bit confused, "I thought he was, and I was wondering why did his talent only show up after reaching the senior-rank, but now I think that he is not an Untraceable, as his Host Star of Destiny can still be observed." Fernando turned to Lucien and asked, "What happened in your cognition world?"

"I was trying my best to control the star to stop the expansion, but it did not work well. When I reached my limit, somehow the Host Star of Destiny split into half. One half suddenly collapsed after the sudden expansion and formed a swirl that seemingly could devour everything. The other half stopped the burning of the Host Star of Destiny, and thus I seized the chance."

Lucien did not tell Fernando the entire truth. He did not explain the reason why the Host Star of Destiny was split in two, as no one could explain why the Untraceable existed.

Fernando folded his arms, "Why did the star split? How is your cognition world formed? If you don't want to say, you don't have to."

"There is nothing I cannot say." Lucien grinned. He described his cognition world but hid the parts about the constitution of fire, wind, and water and the ice and snow world, as Fernando, Thompson, and Alferris all knew that it was Lucien who put forward the assumption that the form of energy was discontinuous, and they also knew that Lucien regarded electron as part of the inner structure of an atom. What Lucien could not let Fernando know was the fact that his belief in the discontinuity of the form of energy had led to the substantialization of his cognition world.

Fernando guessed that part of Lucien's cognition world had ice and snow, but he did not say it directly. Fernando looked a bit confused, "I don't see the connection… Where were you born?"

One's date of birth and some other factors could intervene in the choice of the Host Star of Destiny.

Instantly, Lucien was inspired. He wondered if the split of the star had anything to do with his reincarnation.

Lucien answered Fernando's question, and Fernando did not doubt his words. Fernando took out a crystal ball to see if astrology still worked for Lucien.

Lucien was also very curious. He wished that his teacher could help him with figure out what the division of his Host Star of Destiny meant.

There were stars following the traces in the crystal balls.

Lucien could feel nothing different facing the fortunetelling power of a grand arcanist, which meant that he could not get prepared if a grand arcanist was trying to pry into his destiny. Behind his Host Star of Destiny, the black swirl was still sucking in the light.

Fernando looked more serious. He kept working on it and finally stopped after a few minutes.

"What is it, sir?" asked Lucien eagerly.

Fernando gently stroke the crystal ball and said in low voice, "I am this close to you. The astrology should be able to locate you perfectly and give me more information about you. However… the crystal ball told me that you are two meters away from me on the left."

Lucien checked where he was standing: He was indeed standing in front of Fernando on his left, but was only about a meter away!

"So… All the prophecies about me are going to stray away from the correct track. The deviation degree depends on the difference between my level and the prophet's level, but the deviation will always exist!"

Fernando nodded seriously, "Maybe we should call you… Secretive Destiny."

Chapter 375: The Medal

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Secretive Destiny?" Lucien repeated the title in a low voice and found himself quite happy with it. After all, a slight deviation in a prophecy could easily lead to a great difference.

Lucien did not know who was qualified to become a Secretive. Did he become one because of his knowledge in black holes, or his reincarnation?

Lucien knew that right now he was not able to find the answer. However, what he did know was that if he could apply the knowledge about black holes to the related astrology prophecies, very likely he would be able to observe part of the destiny trace of the Secretives! And, if the theory of gravitational lens was applied, the deviation in the prophecies about him could be more or less fixed.

The related knowledge all came from general relativity, and the corresponding books, in Lucien's spirit library, were still sealed. Lucien had no idea how long it would take him to figure these things out on his own without the assistance of the books.

Fernando took a glance at Lucien and said, "Although as a senior-rank you're much safer now, you still have to be careful all the time. You hear me?"

"Yes, sir. I will." Lucien smiled and nodded. He could feel Fernando's care in his stern tone.

Fernando twitched the corner of his lips and then took out a badge, "This is yours."

"This is… Ice & Snow Medal?" Lucien was very surprised seeing this very beautiful badge.

The hexagram-shaped medal was made of silver-white metal, inlaid with many ice crystals. It just looked like a bigger crystal snowflake. Between the gaps of the hollowed-out snowflake medal, there was a small word Helium written with even finer ice crystals, and beside it, there was a number: 1.

Alferris was drooling at the mouth. Its brain was unable to think clearly for a moment.

Fernando cast a look at Thompson to ask him to temporarily leave the room. After Thompson left and closed the door, Fernando explained briefly, "Following your paper, Hellen increased the pressure and managed to turn liquid helium into solid, and thus, for the first time, we have reached the range one degree Celsius above the absolute zero, which is a great progress in the magic of ice and snow. There is no doubt that you can win the medal."

"But… but sir, I thought the paper was sealed for now." Lucien was confused.

Fernando scolded, "Stupid. You are leaving Allyn and you have no idea what you are going to face. What is the point of keeping the paper as a secret? Even if the public can get access to the paper right now, how is that going to affect you? You are leaving Allyn very soon, anyway. And in that case, getting a good magic item is way more useful to you than keeping a secret for nothing."

Lucien was a bit embarrassed. He rubbed his hands together. He knew that what Fernando just said was correct.

After that, Fernando softened his tone a bit and said, "Hellen is the only person to whom I gave the paper. She agreed that the paper can for sure win you a medal, and so she made the medal in advance. When you reveal the paper to the public, the awarding ceremony would be given to you later. Now you have won the highest award in three different fields, which is worthy of a record in the history of the Congress. Including you, there are only five sorcerers who have made this achievement. If Moonsong League did not choose to turn a blind eye to the discovery of the electron, you'd be the only one who was qualified for the highest award in the four different fields before reaching senior-rank… Of course, nevertheless, you are not even close to me."

It was Fernando's habit to be cheap with giving his students good comments.

"So, how many awards did you win before reaching senior-rank, sir?" asked Lucien curiously. Lucien was touched by the fact that Fernando took the initiative and talked to Hellen Paris to get him one more magic item.

"Not a single one!" Fernando's eyes rounded. "Before I reached the legendary level, there was no such award at all, or at least I would be able to win four of them! But the Congress has compensated me with Holm Crown prize, Ice & Snow Medal, Silver Moon Medal, Arcana Scepter, and Sorcerer Laurel. As for the number, I rank the first place among all the grand arcanists and legendary archmages. You want to beat me? You have to win all of them."

Fernando was very proud of himself as he was good at the many different fields. Even when it came to the field of Illusion, Fernando's power was only a bit inferior to that of the legendary-level masters in Illusion such as Nightmare King and the Eye of Curse.

Before Lucien could respond, Fernando threw the medal at him, "I don't want to spoil my students with giving them a lot of powerful magic items when they are out of Allyn on their adventure, as it is not going to help them with their mastery and use of magic. However, you deserve the medal. Take it. It took Hellen nine days to produce the medal and it is way more powerful than what a young guy like Morris can make, so I did not bother talking to Morris about your fourth Holm Crown ring. Also, because Hathaway and Davy are out of Allyn right now, the application will not be approved."

Lucien swiftly caught the medal in the air.

Fernando turned around and shook his head, "Stay here for a few more days until you have mastered Advanced Fly spell."

Advanced Fly and Fly shared the same basic structure. Therefore, the analysis was not going to be too difficult.

After watching Fernando leave, Lucien infused his spiritual power into the Ice & Snow Medal and he instantly felt the harsh strike of coldness, which was so powerful that could hurt one's soul!

Shivering, Lucien carefully left his spiritual imprint in the medal to become its owner. The coldness, instead of freezing Lucien's consciousness, started to bring him the great feeling of refreshment.

"Ice & Snow Medal, Helium, a level seven perfect-rank magic item. Coldness alerts and sobers people. It can prevent people from being deceived by their desire. When wearing the honored medal, the wearer's resistance to illusionary spells and spells that work on the wearer's soul will be improved to that of a seventh-circle Ice & Snow Witch.

"As honor is the halo above the head, Ice and Snow Realm represents the halo of power. When activated, the wearer will bring a world of ice and snow with a radius of five hundred meters. For any creatures of middle-rank and under, if not immune to coldness, they will be frozen to death immediately; any creatures of senior-rank will be severely hurt by the ice and snow, and their movement will be slowed down to a great extent; any creature above senior rank, without the protection of the corresponding spells or blood power, will be hurt as every second proceeds, and their movement will be slowed down to a small extent – the slow-down effect will accumulate as time goes on.

"Ice and Snow Realm, also called Ice Halo, a seventh-circle spell, can last three minutes when the full range is activated; When casting in a smaller range, it can last up to fifteen minutes. The wearer can use it three times a day.

"The unearthly coldness from the Hell of Silence can freeze one's soul, and so can the seventh-circle spell, Silence Coffin, which derives from the coldness. The freezing ray that is able to damage one's soul can be cast by the wearer three times a day. But remember, since the temperature of the ray is not extremely low, the damage it can do to one's body is limited, and when a radiant knight is prepared, the ray will not be able to penetrate the radiant knight's body and freeze his or her soul. At the same time, due to its special properties, the effect of most defensive spells will be ignored.

"To approach the absolute zero is the lifetime pursuit for every sorcerer who specializes in Ice and Snow magic. Although several legendary spells have already shown us the great power when the temperature approaches the absolute zero, we are not able to figure out the theories behind them, and this is preventing us from moving forward.

"Many thanks to Mr. Lucien Evans for his discovery of Helium and the new Ice and Snow magic that he invented. We are now able to reach the range where we are only one degree Celsius from the absolute zero, which is a great breakthrough in Ice and Snow magic. Mr. Lucien Evans has brought us into a new era in the history of Ice and Snow magic!

"Year 819, Month of Gold, to acknowledge Mr. Lucien Evans' great contribution to the school of Thermodynamics in the field of Ice and Snow magic.

"The greatest dream among all the ice and snow mages–the absolute zero.

"From Hellen Paris."

"It is much better than the Holm Crown ring…" Lucien swallowed hard out of great excitement. Although the medal only had one enchanted magic effect, the enchanted seventh-circle was already alluring enough.

Without any doubt, the value of the medal was above the ring's, not to mention the Immortal Throne magic robe. Only the Sun's Corona that Lucien was wearing, whose the third layer of the seal was going to be released, could match the value of the medal.

At this time, Lucien heard the swallowing again. At first, Lucien thought that it was from himself, but when he turned around, he saw Alferris' big eyes staring at him, twinkling.

"Alferris, you know what you need to do now," Lucien grinned.

Alferris, carrying Lucien's magic robe and the many magic items, instantly took a few steps back from Lucien and shook its head in grief. After a great inner struggle, Alferris finally gave them back to Lucien.

When Lucien was wearing the magic items, a good idea suddenly stroke him. Lucien turned around with a big smile and asked, "Would you like to have a ring, Alferris?"

As he was saying, Lucien took out a ring, the Ice Revenger.

"Yes, yes!" Alferris nodded hard. Although it knew that the ring was not very valuable, the beautiful shape and the shining precious stone was still very tempting.

Lucien felt that he was lying to a little kid, grinning like a wolf grandmother, "Give me two tubes of your blood. And I will give the ring to you."

Alferris was good at casting illusion spells. So if Lucien could have its blood as casting reagent, the effect was going to be great.

"Blood?" Alferris was a bit surprised and it looked around and then said, "My blood is expensive!"

"Alright, then," Lucien was about to put back the ring.

"Wait, wait, deal!" Aferris hurriedly stopped Lucien before he made any further movement. It quickly took out two magic tubes and drew its blood into them. Losing this small amount of blood would not affect a dragon at all.

…

In the early morning after a week, Lucien had mastered Advanced Fly.

After checking carefully, Lucien cast Disguise on himself and left for the magic train station.

In the air of Allyn, Angwoods was watching Lucien's every single movement with a creepy smile. As a senior-rank specter, it could see through most of the disguises, and also invisibility.

As the creature summoned by Felipe, from the materials Felipe got for the rite for Lucien, Angwoods knew that Lucien was rushing into becoming a senior-rank. Angwoods had expected that Lucien was going to leave Allyn. So when Felipe completely devoted himself to his experiment, Angwoods would come here to watch Lucien.

However, afraid of being detected by Sun's Corona, Angwoods could only follow Lucien a long distance away from him.

Lucien spent half a day on the magic steam train and arrived at the big city in the south of the Kingdom of Holm. Then, he flew to the remote mountains and found a hidden cave in there. Lucien entered the cave.

Landing outside of the cave, Angwoods was a bit hesitant. If it was going to follow Lucien in the cave, very likely he was going to lose the target, as it could not approach Lucien.

Angwoods thought for a moment and decided to follow Lucien into the cave. It would stay out of the detection range of Sun's Corona and use prophecy magic to locate him.

Chapter 376: The Resent

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The cave was dark and small, just like the common caves. There were piles of faeces of wild animals in the corners. When Lucien entered the deeper part of the cave following a narrow path, there were more and more forks in the road as if he was facing a spider web.

Taking the crystal ball out of the magic pouch, Lucien gently stroked its surface and, with the information provided by Rhine, he cast a simple prophecy spell to figure out which path to choose.

Following the fork path downwards, Lucien made his way a few dozen meters and saw a new fork. He recognized the pile of oddly-shaped, dark coal ash as Rhine described.

The pale coal ash looked like the palm of a person's hand, like a road sign.

Lucien had to visit the Dark Mountain Range, the polluted area in the Boundless Ocean, the desert in the south part of the Gusta Empire, and the capital city of Holy Heilz Empire named Antiffler. These places extended from the south to north, west to east, covering the entire continent. Although Lucien had mastered Advanced Fly, it was still very difficult for him to visit all the places with great caution. Therefore, Rhine offered Lucien a dimension under the control of the vampires to help him jump through the space and save a lot of time.

Although most common sorcerers would imagine that the formation of the other dimensions and the main material world was just like the many small bubbles attaching to a big bubble, the reality was totally different. The form of the existence of space had exceeded their imagination and what they knew from their experience. Their existence could only be proved by the formulas.

The dimensions were connected to the main material world by many space joints. Although these dimensions were way smaller than the main world, despite the different coordinate that two dimensions had, say, one in the Dark Mountain Range and one in Allyn, the distance between the two dimensions was probably way shorter. Therefore, using the Dimension Gates on the space joints was a great way to travel far.

However, an unknown dimension could be very dangerous, like a maze. Due to the barrier between the different planes, one would not be able to connect to the main world when in another dimension. Hathaway, the Lord of Elements, when she once explored a dimension called Elks Maze, it took her ten years wandering in this dimension trying to find the exit. In the end, she had to use her own connection as a legendary archmage to her demiplane and forced her way by using Space Drifting to come back, which took her another five years.

Therefore, Lucien was very cautious and careful when it came to the existence of the World of Souls. It was like a chaotic reflection of the main world without any space joints. However, it was, at the same time, connected to the many space cracks and gaps like a spider web.

Lucien held the World of Souls in awe because of its dark features. Knowing that those very powerful archmages, such as Maskelyne, had been trapped in there, and that there were many souls, zombies, and specters wandering around, he was worried that one day the World of Soul might destroy the main material world.

This was why Lucien decided to help Rhine. It was partly because he once promised Rhine, but more because he believed that the task was still achievable to him. If it turned out that he was still incapable of finishing all the work, Lucien would go back without hesitance and take the risk to report it to the Highest Council.

When seeing the first inconspicuous road sign, Lucien followed the path downward faster and faster. He did not need the help of prophecy anymore.

However, Lucien did not put back the crystal ball but let it float in the air in front of him. He gently stroked the crystal ball five times.

The crystal ball became brighter and brighter, and more and more crystal clear. Suddenly, it went dim and a weird "thing" was spat out.

The thing was only of the size of a thumb. It was all black, with deep creases.

Lucien pointed at the thing with his finger and it rose in the air. The thing opened a crack in the middle, that quickly grew bigger, and then a pupil was revealed.

It was an eye!

The creepy eye became vague and then divided into nine equal-sized eyes. After becoming invisible, the nine eyes spread out toward the different directions.

The crystal ball became clear again. The scene in the ball was divided into nine parts, provided by the nine eyes.

This was the fifth-circle astrology spell, Spy Eye.

Meanwhile, Lucien also cast a fourth-circle astrology spell, Detect Danger, on himself, which could remind him of any possible dangers and spies in the range of fifty meters.

Looking at the crystal ball while being very careful with the surroundings, Lucien moved further toward the underground. According to what Rhine told him, there could be some monsters and creatures hiding in this ancient dwarf relic close to the space joint, such as the Underground Hunters, the specter of the dwarves, the distorted Hive Mother and the many evil creatures she produced. Although they would not be a big threat to Lucien, he still wanted to be very careful.

…

The many forks dizzied Angwoods. In this dark, moist, and suffocating cave, it had lost all trace of Lucien, including his smell.

After all, on erasing his trace, Lucien was well taught by Natasha, a radiant knight.

Angwoods remained rather calm and the two spots of red flame on its rotten face flickered. He cast the spell silently. It started to use prophecy to locate Lucien.

Although there were many forks, Angwoods was sure that the distance between them was no more than one kilometer, and therefore it was very confident that the prophecy spell would work very well.

Angwoods did get the astrology coordinate of Lucien, (159,260), and he knew that Lucien was only four hundred meters away from him. With the information, Angwoods carefully picked the forks in the road. As soon as it met a dead end, Angwoods went directly through the wall.

There was no such a standard in using astrology coordinate, and there was a prominent difference between how the senior-rank specters and the Congress of Magic used the coordinates. For the specters, their magic power came from their inherent talent, and they automatically gained new spells when they reached a higher rank.

After going through the walls more than ten times, Angwoods could feel that Lucien was already very close. Angwoods reminded itself that it could not step in the range within thirty meters of Lucien, or it would be detected by Lucien's divine item. Once Angwoods figured out Lucien's destination, it would be waiting there and launching an ambush at him.

…

With the assistance of the nine eyes, Lucien was very prepared when the degenerate creatures jumped out. Using the simplest and the fastest-cast spell, Magic Missile, he killed them easily one by one.

Some of the degenerate creatures were of the size of a human being, and some looked like dwarves. All of them had crooked horns and the sticky liquid on them had solidified into their black armor. The white bones in their right hand were revealed. Some of them were holding heavy axes and some long swords, and in their left hand, a black shield was carried.

They rushed to Lucien in groups, and their roaring sounded very evil, making Lucien feel a bit dizzy.

After killing four of them, Lucien took a glance at the disgusting liquid produced from their body. Because his magic pouch was already rather full, Lucien decided to give up collecting it.

As he was walking, he suddenly felt the burning from the amulet, Sun's Corona. Three layers of its seal had been revealed, and thus it was more sensitive now!

Lucien knew that the powerful specter was only about less than twenty-five meters from him, and he could feel that it was still following him. He wondered if Rhine's plan had been found out by someone else.

Rubbing the ring, Lucien was prepared.

…

Angwoods could feel that now it was only sixty meters away from Lucien, and it became more and more alert. Because of the many powerful magic items Lucien had, if Lucien was prepared, Angwoods would definitely be in trouble.

Hiding into the Wold of Souls and going through another gray stone wall, Angwoods popped out of the wall on another fork in the road. However, when it was about to relocate Lucien again, Angwoods was shocked to find that Lucien was standing in the corner, smiling at it. The sorcerer shot a dim ray shot directly at Angwoods, as if he was expecting this for a long time.

"It's impossible! How come I'm this close to him?!" Angwoods thought to itself in great shock.

Before it could take any action, the anti-magic ray directly hit it. All the magic effects on Angwoods had disappeared!

Lucien was also a bit confused when seeing the ray just hit the specter so easily. What was it doing there? The situation was a bit embarrassing. Lucien did all he could to get prepared for the ambush, but this senior-rank specter behaved in the way like it was just passing by.

However, soon Lucien noticed the familiar white patterns and the creepy black robe. He saw them before on the senior-rank specter when he was in the World of Souls. After the ray hit the specter, Lucien immediately cast Dimensional Cage. The spell was specifically used for binding specters.

Hit by the anti-magic ray, Angwoods temporarily lost the ability to go back and forth between the World of Souls and the main material world, as well as the ability to cast spells.

Angwoods, as a specter, was not able to fight hand-to-hand like a Death Knight. Right now, Angwoods rushed toward the stone wall to win a few seconds for itself.

It only needed a few seconds to recover!

However, as soon as Angwoods touched the stone wall, it failed to go through the wall as it expected but immediately bounced back.

Although Angwoods just hesitated for a few seconds, he had lost its precious chance.

At this time, the air surrounding Lucien started to become solemn and sacred, and a halo spread out.

The sixth-level divine spell, Exorcist Halo!

Dimensional Cage was just a third-circle magic, so Lucien did not have to spend much time on buffering.

When covered by the halo, like the melting snow under the sunlight, the entity of Angwoods started to thaw. Its bitter scream lingered in the narrow cave everywhere. Without any defense spells, Angwoods could not protect itself at all.

Angwoods did not understand why it never even had a chance to use its power, and why the prophecy magic showed such a terrible difference to the actual situation.

Before Angwoods was annihilated, an invisible pair of shackles trapped it and dragged it to Lucien.

The spell was from the Immortal Throne robe, Soul Cage! / NovelFull.Com

Lucien definitely would not let the chance slip out of his hand. He was going to get what he wanted to know out of the specter. He started to read the specter's most important memory.

Lucien first felt the bitterness, then anger, and confusion.

Chapter 377: The Lost Civilization

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The cave was very dark. The only dim light Lucien could see was from the noctilucent moss. However, with his Moonlight blood power, which the Church called Blessing, Lucien could see very well in the darkness.

In Lucien's dark pupil, there was the vague figure of Angwoods, flickering and shivering like a candle which had come to its end. Finally, it went out.

"The Lord… shall be back?" Lucien repeated in low voice. This was what he found in Angwoods's deepest memory except for its boundless anger and hatred.

When Lucien found this piece of information in Angwoods's memory, he could feel Angwoods's great respect and excitement.

Lucien wondered if something horrible was really going on in the World of Souls, if the real immortal would wake up and come back.

Of course, the Lord that Angwoods referred to was by no means the God of Truth followed by the Church. Zie should be the God believed in by the senior-rank specters in the World of Souls. However, Lucien had no idea whether this was a true god or just some kind of abstract representative, or if it was like the ancestor of the vampires—Alterna.

Lucien's power at reading one's memory was nowhere close to that of Thanatos, and therefore, this ambiguous piece of information was all that he could get. The only thing that he got to know from it was that he had to take some immediate actions, or something very horrible would definitely happen to the main world.

Meanwhile, because of the information that Lucien got from Angwoods, he was more reassured with Rhine's words. Yet, Lucien was not going to force himself to complete all the tasks to save the world. After all, he was just a senior-rank mage, and this was something that should at least require the power of a group of legendaries. When it was necessary, Lucien definitely would report this to the Highest Council.

Lucien also got to know that it was Felipe who summoned this senior-rank specter, and right now Felipe had not noticed the existence of the World of Souls and where the summoned specters came from. In Angwoods's deepest memory, there was its contempt for Felipe's arrogance and its wish that another senior-rank named Adol would end up being tortured and killed by a legendary archmage.

According to the general information he got, Lucien guessed that the Hand of Paleness was indeed aware of the existence of the World of Souls, but they chose to keep the information to themselves in order to explore it on their own, however, it was used by the senior-rank archmages only.

A bright cluster of flame grew out of Lucien's palm and completely burnt out the remains of Angwoods. Then, very carefully, Lucien erased all the traces of fighting in this cave, in case some other senior-rank specters would discover what happened there.

Finishing the work, with the assistance of Spy Eye, Lucien proceeded further toward the underground.

In the darkness sprinkled with the dim light spots, Lucien walked in this underground maze for more than ten minutes. Gradually, Lucien felt that the air had become a bit warmer, and then he heard the sound of a river flowing.

Lucien knew that he was already very close to the underground ancient city of the dwarves. He became even more cautious.

Turning around a corner very carefully, what Lucien saw surprised him.

What was in front of him was a huge passage, seven or eight meters high, and twenty or thirty meters wide, and the ground and the walls on either side were built by large gray stone blocks, with black pillars in the middle, supporting the ceiling. From the pillars, the passage was divided into three paths. At a glance, the great sense of grandeur seized Lucien's mind. As the underground passage was already this magnificent, he wondered what would the dwarves' city look like?

According to the historical records, the dwarves of ancient times did not have magic, nor great blood powers!

The noctilucent patches of mosses growing wantonly on both sides of the walls cast a dim light on the passage. Under the dim light, everything looked very blurry and dream-like. In this kind of environment where silence and gloom resided, Lucien felt that, at any moment, a corpse would crawl out, or maybe a ghost would float out.

After checking around using the eyes, Lucien stepped on the passage. Although he tried to be very gentle, his footsteps still echoed and lingered in the empty space while he was walking on the stone passage.

Lucien activated his blood power and accelerated his movement speed. Now his footsteps could not be heard, and Lucien was moving very fast but, at the same time, he made sure that he was still in the detection range of the nine eyes.

Both sides of the passage were lined with a pair of black metal tracks, which appeared to be the track for some special vehicles to transport goods. Lucien sped along them, and soon he saw the exit of the passage.

Lucien slowed down his pace, and from the pictures sent back by the eyes, he could see that in front of him lay a vast, abandoned architectural complex.

The cave was naturally divided into more than a dozen blocks by the rock walls and pillars supporting the roof. The half-collapsed tall stone houses, overgrown with weeds, looked down on streets that had not been occupied for thousands of years.

What made Lucien a bit nervous was that the stone houses were joined by a series of metal pipes, which protruded from any parts of the houses and then connected to the huge metal pipes at the top of the cave. Growing into the cave roof, no one knew where they were going.

Walking through the cold dreadful streets, Lucien could see at times the familiar metal parts such as bearings, springs, pistons, and gears on the ground, as if he had returned to earth and entered a factory.

The corner of his eye saw something glittering in the grass. Lucien bent forward and picked it up. It was a huge steam rifle as thick as a bazooka. The gears were all rusty and corroded, but Lucien could still tell their sophistication. Also, the steam rifle was attached to a high-pressure steam backpack made of steel, with half the size of a human one.

Gently stroking the rusty rifle, Lucien released a sigh, since it represented the loss of an ancient civilization.

Before the development of human beings, the dwarves who were good at all kinds of crafts, had invented many steam engines and built a splendid Steam Civilization.

Although the dwarves were rather short, the huge airships which could cover the sky, the steamboat which could voyage in the Storm Strait and Boundless Ocean, the cannons that could hold several people inside, the powerful steam rifles, and the steel factories and engineering works that released black smoke day and night were just gigantic as if they were designed for dragons.

Dwarves did not have much theoretical guidance. Relying on their talent and experience, they magically developed the steam, and summarized the mechanical design knowledge in many fields. Even the legendary alchemist, Klaus, had to learn from the dwarves to improve the steam train based on the airships. Klaus' inventions were more like the improvements based on the original creations of the dwarves, but he managed to use magic or divine power to fuel the vehicles and lower the cost by shrinking their size.

Unfortunately, that civilization had been lost. Lucien got to know about it from the senior-rank Arcana and Magic Library. Even a profound sorcerer like Lazar who grew up in the Congress would have no idea that it was the dwarves who first invented the steam train and used them to transport goods. For him, Klaus was the one who invented the magic steam train.

In the later stage of the dwarves' Steam Civilization, the pace they had when making that progress started to slow down. The periodic invasion of the dark creatures from the Dark Mountain Range made the dwarves pay hard. The power of the horrible senior-rank creatures was completely out of the dwarves' expectation, and the steam rifles and cannons failed to work when facing the evil creatures. Within short twenty years, the splendid civilization had retreated to the underground.

However, down there under the ground, Steam Civilization had no space to grow. The civilization finally died out under the attack of many evil creatures and hunters after witnessing the development of the Dragon era, the Nature Elf era, the heyday of Werewolves. At that time, the ancient magic empire first started to gain its power. Only the small proportion of dwarves who chose to stay on the ground, in the end, managed to gain the blood power and spiritual power because of the experiments conducted by the crazy sorcerers. Slowly, those dwarves living on the ground built up their own countries again.

Although today's dwarves were still good at the alchemy techniques, their civilization was a different one now.

Without the power to safeguard a civilization, one could only see the civilization dying out as time went on. Those ones who were remembered were the profound sorcerers, long-living vampires, and dragons. The rest would eventually be forgotten.

Lucien had some mixed feelings in his mind. He wondered how many splendid civilizations and great figures had been forgotten by history.

He put down the huge steam rifle and moved on. From time to time, he would bent down to pick up some other random stuff, including a silver coin forged with the pattern of a strange hammer and a set of gear, books such as Elementary Mechanical Forging, Steam Rifle Producing, the Illustration of the Steam Engines, the Illustration of Airboats and so on, and the many mechanical articles of various unique styles.

Fortunately, the dwarf language was relatively well preserved and was not very different from the language that the dwarves were using today. Lucien leafed through a few books and copied them in his spirit library.

After a few more minutes of walking in the lost civilization, Lucien saw a huge metal golem half lying on the ground and half leaning against a tall factory building. He stopped to take a closer look at its exposed interior mechanical structure.

Golems—the last piece of straw that the dwarves could grip to safeguard the falling civilization.

The dwarves tried to beat the horrible magical creatures by using this powerful weapon, but the golems that moved very slow failed to fulfill what they hoped. However, it had inspired the sorcerers later and thus they managed to invent the more powerful golems.

Suddenly, a sharp voice was delivered into Lucien's soul. One part of the crystal ball in his palm suddenly dimmed.

A magic eye was gone!

There came the sound of mournful cries, followed by the sound of busy footsteps that really got on Lucien's nerves.

Lucien looked up and saw in the distance large pale tentacles popping out of a factory building, and then a huge and disgusting monster got out.

The monster had the upper body of a plump old woman, fat and ugly, and its small eyes were basically just two tiny gaps flickering with fierce and ferocious light. The monster's huge naked breasts were covered with many black and white eyes, and its lower body was like a white octopus which had many tentacles with suckers.

Hive mother!

A hive mother could produce hundreds of thousands of evil creatures. Without enough food, the evil creatures would eat each other or try to get to the surface.

Following the hive mother, the many evil creatures came to Lucien like the waves of a tide coming from all directions. The number of them was hard to calculate, and among them were even many shooters and warlocks.

Lucien raised his right hand and stroked the badge on his chest. Suddenly, a halo of glittering light spread outwards and quickly covered the range of about five hundred meters.

A powerful storm started to blow, and the many degenerate evil creatures were instantly frozen into pieces and blown away by the strong wind.

As soon as the stone arrows came within the range, they directly fell to the ground since they were frozen with a thick layer ice. The same thing happened to the missiles, spider webs, and magic rays.

Lucien moved forward very quickly, and the halo moved following him. The tall buildings were frozen with the ice and frost. None of the evil creatures could stop him.

The hive mother noticed what was going on. Reaching out its tentacles, it started to climb and jump. The many black and white eyes shot out acid, spider webs, and toxic gas.

However, once they came in the halo of ice and snow, the liquid and gas were frozen solid and then broken into piles of powder.

A few seconds later, Lucien caught up with the hive mother and trapped it in the halo. The movement of the hive mother started to slow down, as its tentacles were frozen solid and thus became very heavy.

At the same time, under the power of the storm, the hive mother's body started to crack because of the extremely low temperature. As soon as the black fluid came out, it was turned into black ice.

Bang! Thirty seconds later, the hive mother died from cracking into pieces.

By the time Lucien stopped running and the halo disappeared, the entire dwarf city was covered with ice and frost. Some were black and some white. The city became empty and silent again.

The magic spell definitely worked very well, but it was also very likely to hurt Lucien's own teammates.

…

After more than ten minutes, Lucien finally found a space joint in the underground city. It was a distorted space gap, surrounded by the dwarves' altars, which were designed in a rather simple way.

It seemed that, at the final stage of the Steam Civilization, the dwarves also started to learn from the magic creatures, but obviously, it did not work very well. As a profound arcanist, Lucien was deeply touched by seeing how the great civilization finally fell.

Lucien took a glance at the poor magic altar, took out the materials and started to worry about his own safety. He wondered if he would get lost when entering another dimension using an altar like that.

After all, close to the space joints under the control of the Congress of Magic, the Congress had set up many space gates using the ninth-circle magic, Gate.

After carefully checking the space gap out and making sure that the gap was relatively stable, Lucien took out the materials and rearranged the space joint teleportation circle. He was glad that the poor quality of the teleportation circle was within his expectation.

It took Lucien three days to reset the teleportation circle. He stood up and did some exercise to warm up and then cast many layers of defense spells on himself. He had no idea what was there on the other end. After all, the last time Rhine used this space joint was several hundred years ago.

Then, Lucien stepped into the dimension which the vampires took away from the dwarves, Night Highland!