Throne of Magical Arcana

“… Beef jerky…” Lucien’s expression uncontrollably twisted a bit. If his prophecy did not go wrong, that dark piece of meat was exactly a part of Ramiro’s body which he prepared in advance for his resurrection. However, it had now been roasted by this young girl.

Yet somehow, Lucien did not feel disgusted, only amused.

Lucien felt that Ramiro was still lucky to some degree. In the middle of the wilderness, his flesh could have been taken away by a jackal. Comparatively speaking, being made into a piece of beef jerky did not seem as bad.

The scarlet-eyed girl picked up the tree branch and munched on the meat. It did not take her long before swallowing it down. Then she patted on her belly, looking still a bit not fully satisfied.

“I’m starving…”

Lucien was about to prevent the girl from eating random things she found in the wilderness like this, but seeing the young girl’s good appetite, he did not know what to say.

Blond hair, scarlet eyes, genderless beauty, and the fact that she could easily digest the flesh of a radiant knight… Lucien believed that he knew who this young girl was.

“Alterna?” He asked cautiously.

If the young girl was indeed Alterna, it would explain why Lucien felt the strange sense of intimacy and why he felt that someone was watching him before.

The blond girl stood up, using the long sword wrapped with the black fire as her walking stick. She stared at Lucien as if she had known him for a quite long time and complained seriously.

“I’m starving.”

“What do you need? Blood? A radiant knight’s flesh?” Lucien wondered if Alterna was still during the period of recovery after the fall.

Hearing Lucien’s question, the young girl frowned slightly and recalled the taste of the ‘beef jerky’ she made. Then she shook her head. “Don’t like it.”

Lucien was again speechless, although he was facing probably the most powerful existence in this world. He asked in patience, “then what do you want? What can make you recover?”

The blond-haired girl looked both indifferent and serious. “I want the cheese you confined.”

Her red eyes lit up in eagerness.

Cheese? When did he confine cheese? Lucien was confused. But soon he realized what happened. “Did you kill the Lord of Underworld?”

Lucien had so far only used Confinement once in this world, and that was for restraining the Lord of Underworld.

The girl nodded elegantly. “Yes. I want cheese like that.”

“So you need godhoods? Any kind of godhood? Or only those related to the Silver Moon, Death, and Resurrection? How much power do you still have? How long can it still sustain?” Lucien had basically made sure that the young girl was Alterna, the Silver Moon, and he hurriedly threw all the questions out.

Alterna snuffled a bit, and her body became a bit transparent. “Only the cheese like that.”

Then her body started looking more translucent and wavy. Her red eyes were half-closed.

“I need some sleep. Watch out for the Single-eyed.”

Then she turned into a sharp flash of silver moonlight and sneaked into Lucien’s left hand before Lucien even realized it.

Lucien felt the will of Alterna — profound, boundless, and almighty. For a second, Alterna’s will overwhelmed Lucien, and his mind blanked out. When everything in his mind settled down and he came back to his full consciousness, Lucien saw that there was a mark of the silver moon on the back his left hand. But soon the moon mark also dimmed and melted into his skin, vanishing finally as if nothing ever happened.

Lucien took a deep breath as he was shocked by how a demigod existed in this world. Alterna was now living in his own blood and flesh! This could never be achieved by any existing substances. However, if the form of a demigod was only soul, will, or spiritual imprint, why did the young girl, Alterna, look so real and how could she digest flesh?

Focalizing his spiritual power, Lucien carefully checked his left hand. After a while, he finally sensed the almighty will with the horrible power settling in his left hand.

Lucien tried to wake Alterna to know more, but there was no response at all.

Therefore, Lucien had to make his own guesses:

It seemed that Alterna was very weak right now. The fall had severely damaged Alterna and She would not be able to recover in a short period of time. Sleeping was Alterna’s current method for sustainment.

It should have been a while since Alterna started watching the Lord of Underworld, or Alterna would not have been able to know the new divine realm of the Lord of Underworld. Perhaps, Alterna was the “thing” mentioned by Asin that was found and brought back by the Lord of Underworld. However, the fact that Alterna did not immediately consume “the tasty cheese” indicated that Alterna was either too weak to kill the Lord of Underworld or that She had been waiting for the chance to kill Him with one quick strike so that the attention of the other false gods wouldn’t be attracted.

The latter seemed more reasonable as it should be Alterna who unlocked Confinement and killed the Lord of Underworld in the end. Therefore, Lucien guesses that after taking in the godhood of Death, and by falling into sleep for a while, Alterna could more or less accumulate some fighting power. However, if Alterna wanted a faster recovery or even to resume the power of the demigod, She would need abundant similar godhoods. Then, if Alterna could find the mysterious existence from the World of Souls and take in Its power, She should be able to recover in the shortest period of time.

Lucien knew that as long as the silver moon was still hanging up in the sky, the God of Silver Moon would always be able to return from “Nothingness”. However, it would take too long, even too long for the eternal God of Silver Moon.

But who was the Single-eyed? Lucien frowned, thinking over Alterna’s last words.

Suddenly, Lucien looked up at the direction where the Temple of War sat.

Lucien remembered that the statue of Antanas, the Lord of War, was a middle-aged, single-eyed man.

Was Alterna talking about the Lord of War? Had the Lord of Underworld told the Lord of War the situation of Alterna? It made sense, but… but there was no need for Alterna to warn Lucien about this. Lucien himself would never go and find Antanas to bring great trouble to himself. If Ell wanted to kill Antanas, he would always send Francis and Jacob first to the front.

Also, vampires were always proud and even arrogant. As their Primordial Ancestor, Alterna should be the same. Even if Alterna was now severely injured and might take caution in Her actions, Lucien did not believe that Alterna would admit it to him.

Unless there was a bigger story hiding underneath… The look on Lucien’s face was very serious, and he believed that he had got the rough answer.

Shaking his head, Lucien calmed himself down. He stared at his left hand and wondered if from now on he should call this hand “the Left Hand of God”.

At this time, the look on Lucien’s face suddenly changed. He immediately activated the mask and turned himself into a fish hiding among the water plants.

From the almost fully-collapsed realm, a cluster of black haze flew out.

It was Francis.

Francis’s face looked very pale. It looked like he was severely injured. However, he also looked very excited. Maybe it was because he had found something important in the palace.

Looking back at the ruins and checking around carefully, Francis shook his head and sighed. “Such a pity that the talented Leviathan died in there.”

Obviously, Francis thought that both Leviathan and Anheuse had died in the collapsion.

Lucien was not planning on reuniting with Francis at all. After the fight against Ramiro and running into Alterna, Lucien had decided to give up the identity of Leviathan and put himself into the crowd, so he could hide better. The plan on watching how a god evolved had to be abandoned from now on.

Now that night watcher Ramiro had gone missing, and Ell had taken in the godhood of the God of Moon, the Church would very likely send more powerful priests here, probably even including a Grand Cardinal. Then, if Lucien was still one the apostles of Ell, he would definitely be closely investigated. What was worse was that, if Prince Dracula had also arrived here, there might be a connection between him and Alterna within a certain distance. That would put Lucien under great risk!

Therefore, Lucien decided to take the opportunity and hide in the crowd to be safe.

However, simply hiding would not work for Lucien for too long. The more hungry Alterna became, the more likely problems would occur. Also, the cities and villages were still too small for Lucien to hide safely under the investigation from a legendary like Dracula. Lucien knew that his following step of the plan would be turning the current situation into a big stir when the timing was proper, big enough to catch the Congress’s attention. Once he could come into contact with the Congress of Magic again, he would be safe.

Even if the Congress would not be able to locate Lucien over such a great distance, once there were lots of night watchers and radiant knights chasing after him, Lucien would be able to catch one and get the information of which areas were under the control of the Congress through harsh investigation.

Facing the current circumstance and the underlying risks, Lucien temporarily gave up without hesitation his observation of how Ell grew into a true god.

After confirming that Francis had indeed left, Lucien turned him into a common man and sneaked into the city of Husum. With the help of magic, he became a legal resident of the city.

……

“Did you hear that? A few days ago, there were black, grey, and white waves gushing out in Solna River. In the waves, there were monsters that don’t die! Rotten monsters!” Said a white-haired old man mysteriously to a few strangers in the early evening.

“Really?” Asked the strangers. Their life was quite dull in most cases, and thus they were especially interested in this kind of news and legends.

The old man said with great certainty, “I was told by someone else, but it was the priest of the God of Love the Beauty who saw it with his own eyes! Also, there was the true silver moon at the bottom of the river, not a reflection!”

“Which part of the river?” Asked a tough man who laboured on the docks.

The old man looked around and lowered his voice. “The part beside the Temple of War…”

The short man gasped. “Was it the Lord of Redemption? After taking away the godhood of the God of Moon, he’s coming back for the Lord of War?!”

The old man said alertly, “maybe.”

A while later, the old man found an excuse and hurriedly left to avoid attracting too much attention.

In the dark corner, the old man turned into an ordinary-looking man. It was Lucien, who had been hiding in the city of Husum.