Throne of Magical Arcana

“Sard…” Lucien confirmed Rhine’s judgment from the feedback of his magic.

Although the former Grand Cardinal of the Orvarit parish and the ambitious schemer had lost his body and his soul under God’s Arrival and only had a mysterious piece left, there were still plenty of secrets surrounding him. For example, why could he use God’s Arrival, what did he obtain from the Realm of Gates, why could he escape from the monster, how he cooperated with the Angel King, and what the mysterious piece was exactly.

Rhine smiled, “I came to the Realm of Gates to track him but lost clues after I encountered the monster. However, now that I’ve given up and I’m devoted to the mysteries of the monster, his traces have unexpectedly shown up again. What a treacherous thing fate is.”

“I believe that the most important thing for us right now is to go to Thanos’ laboratory and figure out the secrets of the monster.” Lucien was interested in Sard’s piece, too, but they had to stay focused in this dangerous Realm of Gates without being distracted easily.

Rhine did not object. He smiled in self-mockery. “You open the gate. I’m worried that I’m still haunted by bad luck.”

Lucien meant to say that they were the same, because it was he who opened the gate when they encountered Ivan. However, he remembered that what lay behind the gate Rhine opened was ‘Mountain Paradise’, which was definitely much more severe. So, he nodded his head and said, “Alright. At the very least, the enemy that we encountered after I opened the gate could still be gotten rid of.”

The rest of their journey was peaceful and quiet. The terrifying monster seemed to have forgotten them. As they approached Thanos’ laboratory, Rhine suddenly halted and said in confusion, “The traces left by the mysterious piece again…”

Sard had only a mysterious piece left and was incapable of covering his traces. It was only reasonable that he was sensed by the people who entered the same hall. However, the odds were few to none for them to enter the same hall in the Realm of Gates!

“Is Sard’s destination Thanos’ laboratory, too?” Their first encounter might’ve been coincidental, but now that they’d met again, Lucien couldn’t help but wonder if they were going the same way, and the only reason why they were going the same way was that they had the same destination!

Rhine maintained his graceful smile. “Possibly. I’m very curious about his past. How did he pick up God’s Arrival? Perhaps the secret lies within Thanos’ laboratory.”

After three grey halls, they discovered Sard’s smell and traces again, which further assured them of their speculation.

Several minutes later, Lucien and Rhine stopped before a black gate that seemed no different from others.

“Is Thanos’ laboratory behind this gate?” Not confident about his calculation ability, Rhine asked for confirmation from the specialist.

Lucien nodded his head solemnly. “Mr. Rhine, be prepared. Great dangers might be looming inside. My Host Star of Destiny keeps giving me premonitions.”

“Of course. The laboratory of a top sorcerer must be carefully defended.” Known as the ‘Observer’, Rhine had abundant adventure experiences.

Hardly had he finished his sentence when a black gate nearby shivered and creaked.

Lucien and Rhine had been wary that somebody might break in. They almost attacked with their instinct, but the gate remained closed after the creak, showing no sign that anybody was coming, as if it was just their hallucination a moment ago.

“I smell Sard.” As a vampire prince, Rhine had a particularly keen smell about living creatures.

“He wanted to come in?” Lucien corrected himself subconsciously. “No, he just left.”

In the final hall that led to Thanos’ laboratory, Lucien and Rhine also discovered Sard’s traces and inferred that he had already entered the laboratory, but as it turned out, he went to a different place and intentionally made a noise?

“Is he tricking in order to ambush us?” Rhine speculated Sard’s purpose.

Lucien shook his head. “Is it necessary? He could’ve ambushed us inside Thanos’ laboratory. It’s the place that we have to go to.”

Suddenly, Lucien had an uncanny intuition. So, he brought out his crystal ball and performed astrology. Out of his expectation, he got a fuzzy result. “Follow Sard…”

“Well?” Lucien and Rhine looked at each other, equally surprised.

“Should we try following him? We will return in three minutes whatever happens. It will not delay our exploration in Thanos’ laboratory.” The sorcerers of the school of astrology all pay enough attention to their prophecy. That was why Lucien made the proposal.

After completing the general theory of relativity, his ability of astrology had greatly improved and was as good as the level-one ‘Prophet’.

Thinking for a moment, Rhine fell into a weird silence and nodded his head. “Alright.”

Therefore, the two of them opened the door where the noise came from and, within their expectations, found the remaining scent of Sard. Then, following the scent, they passed two grey halls and stopped before a black gate that showed no anomalies.

Having been calculating the coordinates all the time, Lucien suddenly said in surprise, “Behind this gate is also Thanos’ laboratory!”

“We’re back after a detour?” Said Rhine in amusement. Had they been tricked by Sard?

Lucien shook his head. “This should be another entrance.”

“Sard wants us to enter through this entrance?” Rhine stopped smiling and opened the black gate warily, his legendary items all prepared.

As the gate was moved backwards, a magnificent and splendid laboratory was unfolded before them. Mysterious patterns, cubic models, weird magic circles, and broken mirrors that were embedded on the grey hall could be found everywhere.

The laboratory was as huge as the entire Nekso Palace, with many pathways that led to different rooms. Broken pieces were scattered on the ground.

The laboratory gave a feeling of devastation because almost everything was damaged, as if a legend of battles once broke out in this place, and the laboratory was not destroyed as a whole only because the strong defense. Even so, most of the patterns, magic circles and divine power circles had been wiped out. The alchemical platforms had been razed to the ground, too.

Pure and scorching brilliance flowed around the laboratory. It was the boundary of the defense, but there was a path before Lucien and Rhine through the defense. It seemed to be a secret channel that somebody established before.

“Sard wanted to save our time in destroying the defense?” Rhine walked into the laboratory.

Lucien followed him and observed the surroundings. “But his scent is gone from here.”

“Leave him alone. There should be experiment logs in the rooms that weren’t destroyed.” Said Rhine calmly.

At this moment, the door of one of the grey rooms was opened.

Similar to other places in the Realm of Gates, the doors here blocked the spread of spiritual power. Unable to identify who was coming out, the two of them split and prepared their attack.

Inside the grey room…

Banham, the Original Fire, heaved a long sigh in relief. He gnashed his teeth half in joy and half in fury, “I’ve finally recovered… Lucien Evans? Natasha Orvarit? I won’t let go of you. You made me lose all my legendary items. I count on the last thing I would like to use to avoid the utter demise!”

As for Derrick Douglas who gave him the final death blow, he subconsciously chose to forget it, because their gap was too huge.

“After I return to the Holy City, I’ll apply to His Holiness for a legendary item.” Thinking of his future arrangements, the Original Fire opened the door and was ready to leave.

The Church had collected many legendary items after killing many legendary experts. Since the Original Fire lost his possessions during a mission, he certainly should be compensated.

Hardly had he opened the door when the projection of the Original Fire’s Host Star of Destiny trembled, giving him a strong sense of danger. In the meantime, his pupils constricted violently, as he saw the handsome man in double-breasted long suit standing inside the ‘main laboratory’. The guy was smiling at him warmly with a monocle on his face.

Such an attire and such gentleness did not befit this place but a lively dinner hall!

“Lucien Evans…” The Original Fire moaned to himself. He almost thought that he was hallucinating because he hated and ‘missed’ the guy too hard.

In the next, with his abundant battle experience, he split into five shadows and fled without any hesitation, casting ‘Chaos Teleportation’ to every shadow.

“Space Staff.” The broken brilliance was gathered in Lucien’s hand into a rippling staff. As he pointed the staff, all the space ripples in the laboratory were calmed down, forcing the Original Fire to withdraw from the void. He hurried to chant, “Fire of Clones!”

Suddenly, his body turned into a pale fire that surrounded Lucien.

His original body, in the meantime, blinked to the entrance of the laboratory and opened the gate in delight.

However, his face was frozen after the gate was opened, because it was another Thanos’ laboratory behind the gate, except that it was not Lucien Evans but a handsome man in a black shirt and a red coat who stood at the center. Smiling, he bowed gracefully, with vague moonlight spreading out of his silver pupils.

“Are you satisfied with my Real Dream?”

The Original Fire stopped in shock. Lucien’s voice echoed behind him. “I’m very curious why you are here. If you choose to accept my magic restraint, maybe I’ll consider letting you live.”

Before him was Thanos’ laboratory, and behind him was still Thanos’ laboratory. The Original Fire did not know which side was reality and which was a dream at all.

Hearing Lucien’s words and looking at the delicate pocket watch in his hands, the Original Fire changed his face gloomily. In the end, he finally nodded his head and said, “Alright, you can use magic…”

Hardly had he finished his sentence when his face was twisted and his eyes were bloodshot. He clutched his own neck brutally and roared in disbelief, “W-Why?”

Sensing the drastic changes in him, as if a powerful being was about to arrive, Lucien knew that it was not good and simply cast the spell, “Vengeful Gaze!”

Lucien’s left eye was crimson and clear. A ray of light shot out. Enhanced by ‘Hand of Uncertainties’, it hit the Original Fire who hadn’t been completely transformed.

They were on the same level, and the enemy was just recovered. The Hand of Uncertainties worked out, allowing the red ray to pierce through the defense and transfixed the forehead of the Original Fire who was still struggling.

Rhine also splashed into countless bats that swooped at the Original Fire who had collapsed, covering him completely.

By the time the black bats dispersed and regathered into Rhine, there was nothing left on the ground anymore, and the power that intended to arrive failed.

“Who could it have been?” Lucien looked at Rhine in confusion.

Before Rhine replied, noises echoed in Thanos’ laboratory again, and a familiar scent spread out.

“Sard? The mysterious piece?”