Throne of Magical Arcana

In the dim underground palace, the pillars of light mixed with fire fell nonstop. The deep darkness melted quickly like the snow that had met the sunlight. The peculiar worms were rigidified, and the foul shadows screamed miserably.

A glimmer flashed, and the priests floating in midair suddenly collapsed, as if somebody dragged their ankles brutally. The defense on them did not work at all. Most of the evil arts came to an abrupt halt.

Before they were able to react, the intimidating gold-haired middle-aged man before them had opened his right hand. On his every finger was a little eye, and at the center of his palm was a brownish giant eye that was stained by blood.

The five horrible little eyes were in different colors and shooting different rays, but the yellowish giant eye glistened and made everybody feel heavy. The gravity in this place seemed to have been intensified.

Rays in green, blue, and other colors hit those black-robed priests, slowing, paralyzing, or even simply reducing them into countless spots of light. The formidable enemies that the reverends, bishops, knights, and common night watchers could not take care of were immediately suppressed. Victory was near at hand.

Some of the cultists screamed in panic. They had never seen such a weird and strong enemy before!

“Where… Where is the Chief Priest?”

“Shouldn’t the Chief Priest be stopping him?”

At the critical moment, they remembered their leader, an envoy of the supreme “Heir of Chaos”. Wasn’t he fighting the intimidating middle-aged man just now?

The middle-aged man who was dressed in a white overall attacked even harder after hearing their remarks. Creepy little eyes grew out of his face and his other hand, shooting out defensive or aggressive rays of light. He sneered, “Do you think a level-seven cultist priest can stop me? I’ve killed dozens of priests who were stronger than him.”

What? After confirming the death of their Chief Priest, the remaining cultists and priests immediately collapsed. They had even forgotten the prayer for power from “Heir of Chaos” when the rays came at them. Panicked, they soon lost their combat ability, getting killed or captured by the night watchers, the reverends, and the knights. None of them escaped at all.

“Hehe. There are too many uncanny cults recently. We have to dig out their source!” The terrifying eyes on the face and hands of the middle-aged man were closed without leaving any mark.

One of the night watchers said gratefully, “Thank god you were around, my lord, or those priests of ‘Heir of Chaos’ might have escaped.”

As a matter of fact, not only would they have escaped, but they would have also killed all the night watchers. Fortunately, the dire consequences had been avoided as Winchell, “Eyes of Radiance”, who ranked the third among the night watchers, had come when he pursued another lead.

“It’s my responsibility to deal with the cultists.” Winchell nodded. “You will search for the place in groups. Do not let go of any cultist.”

“Yes, my lord,” the captain of the night watchers answered respectfully.

Winchell paced in the hall. He looked at the messy altar, which was engraved with naked men and women, and searched for clues worth investigating.

Looking at the magnificent but somewhat old underground palace, the dim environment that was full of bodies, and the ancient stone gates and rooms, Winchell suddenly had a lot of mixed feelings. He had encountered such a scene far too many times. In both his careers as an adventurer and during the operations to purge cultists where he became a night watcher, he seemed to have always been visiting and fighting in underground establishments.

“Those goddamn ancient sorcerers always like to dig holes…” Winchell cursed.

Suddenly, he sensed something. His eyes turned into rubies and shot out two rays of light, breaking one of the walls nearby and revealing the hidden door inside.

Having no time to call the other clerics, he flew into the narrow channel and chased after the enemy.

After taking a turn, Winchell found himself before a bunch of astonished cultists who were crawling into a secret chamber in turns.

Hehe. Winchell chuckled. Are you trying to get away from me?

The dense eyes were opened again, and the cultists fell one after another. Winchell broke into the chamber and pressed forward, chasing after the enemy in the lead. Those behind who had been immobilized would be taken care of by the following clerics.

As he pursued on, fewer and fewer cultists were before him, until he could see none. However, Winchell did not stop. His intuitions told him that a big fish was up ahead, one that was as important as the “envoy” just now.

BAM.

A stone gate that was full of patterns was broken by the rays, and Winchell entered the deepest part of the chamber. He looked around warily, but there was nothing in the place except for the statue of “Queen of Chaos” who was holding a burning torch.

Why isn’t there any enemy? Winchell looked around, slightly dazed. As a gold knight, he was quite confident about his guts.

Suddenly, a cold wind passed him, and Winchell shivered even though he was a gold knight. He sensed danger for the first time.

The feeling was not too strong. Winchell did not run away immediately but cast out defensive rays, surrounding himself with an iron wall.

Looking around, Winchell saw the lifeless wall, the quiet and empty room, the ordinary and crude statue, but no source of danger at all.

However, the chilling feeling still terrified him. He couldn’t help but step backward. Exactly at this moment, the fire on the torch that the Queen of Chaos held suddenly rose high and burnt fervently in evil laughter.

Instantly, Winchell sensed the indescribable danger that was hundreds if not thousands of times more intense than previous. Even though he had been wandering on the verge of precipices before as a night watcher, he still couldn’t help but tremble. He understood that his previous intuition had obviously been affected, and that someone who could affect his intuition so effectively was absolutely not someone he could resist, just like the priest just now who could not resist him.

In his shiver, Winchell’s magnificent willpower stabilized his mind, and his abundant experience allowed him to notice the anomaly. It was more than easy for such a strong being to kill him, but the being had spent a lot of time alluring him away from his team and tempting him to enter the chamber. It was obvious that there were other purposes.

“Who is it?” he asked tentatively, with dirty fluids flowing out of the eyes on his hand.

The fire rose into the shape of a human and said in a coarse voice, “It doesn’t matter who I am; it’s what I can offer that matters.”

“Hehe. I am the Lord’s defender in the darkness. I would rather die before I deal with demons.” Winchell ruled out the possibility that the enemy was a devil from the rational speech.

In the empty chamber, the laughter of the fire echoed. “What if it will make you closer to your Lord so that you can contribute to Him more easily?”

“What do you mean?” Winchell felt absurdly hilarious, but he was also deeply puzzled.

The tone of the fire became grave. “Have you never found it odd? As the devout believers and defenders of the God of Truth, reverends, bishops, ascetics, and part of the knights are granted divine powers, but most of the night watchers who were not reverends at the beginning can only fight with your blood powers. Also, most of the knights are far weaker than reverends of the same level in terms of divine powers. Why is that? Why does the fair and selfless God of Truth treat His defenders so partially?”

“Nonsense! There are original sins on our backs. We can only win the Lord’s blessing through selfless devotion!” Winchell’s anger was not entirely authentic.

“Is that so?” the fire mocked. “Considering your contributions to the God of Truth, your knight level should’ve been increased even though you are never given divine power, right?”

Right when Winchell was about to refute in fury again, the fire continued, “As a matter of fact, it has nothing to do with the God of Truth. His blessings to you have been intercepted by the pope and the Grand Cardinals. Since He is still asleep, He is absolutely unaware of that.”

“What?” Winchell was less angry now that the Lord was not guilty of that.

“You may take a look at this file. This is a reward from the God of Truth. You’ve earned it.” Words jumped out of the fire and constituted an article that was full of sophisticated symbols.

Winchell was rather wary that it might be a temptation of demons, but his confusion still prompted him to read the article. After all, he would never betray the Church! That was his stance!

The moment he saw it, he found it impossible to move his eyes away and was completely fascinated by it.

“This is…” He shook his head in both fear and excitement.

“As the Almighty God, why would the God of Truth demand the dissemination of faith? Is it necessary for Him? The power of faith is actually a reward for loyal defenders like you so that you can polish yourselves with it and be closer to Him. However, the pope and the Grand Cardinals have intercepted all of it without leaving any for you. Now, you understand why they are so strong, don’t you?” The fire’s voice became gentle, but Winchell was shivering under every word.

“I don’t believe it.” He shook his head hard before asking in disbelief, “You’ve shown me such an important method just like that?”

The way to “steal” and make use of the power of faith had been etched in his brain.

“Now that you have sincerely asked, I’ll give you a candid answer. I am the embodiment of justice, and I hate unfair things like this most.” The fire chuckled and went on despite the suspicion in Winchell’s eyes. “I’ll occasionally ask for some information from you. Rest assured, nobody will suspect you. I have many other sources of intelligence, including several red robes.”

Red robes? Winchell’s pupils constricted abruptly. For hundreds of years, due to the uniqueness of the heart of faith, the Church had never had spies in the level of red robes, or at the very least, no external spies, since the North Church and the South Church had sent plenty of spies of such a level to each other.

Was he from the North Church?

“Are you scared that your heart of faith will be shaken after you get this? So, don’t guess who I am. You only need to remember my codename, the Red Burier.” The fire gradually died down.

Winchell stood where he was and looked at the empty room, unable to say anything for a long time. He felt that he had the most bizarre dream. Had he obtained a most precious and useful approach by paying nothing at all?

……

Inside the Land of Truth, Lucien said to Douglas with a smile, “Viken secretly released the ways to become a demigod to let the legendary experts compete with each other, and now, we are doing exactly the same thing. We’ll spread the secrets to steal and make use of the power of faith among part of the red robes, thus allowing them to steal the power of faith. In such a way, the foundation of the South Church will be messed up, too. After all, the dissemination of faith cannot be conducted alone like sorcerers’ exploration of arcana and the world. A hierarchical organization is indispensable for them. Unless he can project a seed to the mind of every cleric, this is not something that Viken can avoid.

“If it weren’t for the fear that Viken might discover it, I would’ve publicized the way to steal the power of faith through ‘Arcana Voice’.”

“If Viken knows how you are using such a valuable method, his expression will certainly be very spectacular.” Douglas chuckled. After all, who could’ve thought that somebody would spread out the method? Were they worried that they had too few competitors? Only Lucien and the other grand arcanists who never considered the approach were determined enough to do that.

Lucien opened his hands. “Perhaps he would curse that I am a lunatic.