Chapter 632: Unexpected Encounter

Rhine was amused by the situation. "Maskelyne must've thought of something of paramount importance when he wrote to this part, to the extent that he ruined the chamber in his emotional turmoil. He didn't finish his speculation and simply left in a hurry, not bothering how it would upset the future readers."

"I think so, too. Considering that no battle of legends happened here and nothing was intentionally damaged, it's not hard to tell that Mr. Maskelyne left voluntarily but hurriedly." Lucien calmed down and restored the battle from the traces.

Rhine looked around and said, "It means that what Maskelyne was eager to do was more important than finishing the clue. It's perhaps the key to destroying the monster."

"However, how much time would it have taken him to finish the name with the help of magic?" Lucien answered his own question. "No more than one second."

Rhine examined the long ink mark left by Maskelyne so carefully that he almost brought out the magnifying glass. "The mark is indicative enough of Maskelyne's shock. By logic, he couldn't have been too stunned to finish the name when he already finished the deduction, unless something happened outside, or a new clue suddenly occurred to him..."

Lucien thought of something. "Perhaps, Mr. Maskelyne thought of an important detail that he neglected, which entirely disapproved his speculation. So, he left in a hurry to search for other clues to confirm it. He was so shocked towards the end because his new speculation was beyond his imagination. He didn't finish his previous speculation because it was wrong."

"A very bold hypothesis and a very reasonable explanation." Rhine complimented. "However, I believe that the monster is related to Thanos in any case, because the guy was a monster himself, just like you."

He acted as if he was Thanos' best friend.

"I suspect so, too. I found Thanos' incomplete journal in the underground palace of the Sun King. I speculated that the Sun King found a way to transform himself into the seven primeval devils and eliminated the negative influences of such transformation in the way that the fake gods gathered godhood. Such products should probably be able to transform into anybody according to memories or negative feelings other than being projected into someone's body."

The more Lucien talked, the faster he became, as if Thanos were already the culprit. However, Lucien was chilled when he thought that someone close to a demigod a thousand years ago was the murderer.

Rhine asked in confusion. "I know that he studied the primeval devils. I even provided some of the files for him. I know how godhood is gathered, too. But what do you mean by negative feelings?"

"It's about the other secret chamber that you didn't discover, Mr. Rhine..." Lucien explained the temple where the Sun Staff was discovered.

Rhine chuckled, "He kept a lot of his discoveries to himself. Judging from Rudolf II's projection, he might've found ways to break the previous limit by transforming into the seven primeval ghosts. Well, do you think the monster matches the features of 'Thanos Demon'? If you know everything at present, you will completely grasp the past and the future..."

"...Theoretically speaking, I don't think 'Thanos Demon' can exist in reality. If it exists for real, the computation load and the energy required will be unimaginable." Lucien answered Rhine's question from the perspective of arcana. In the meantime, he thought to himself, if it was 'Thanos Demon', I'll release 'Schrodinger's cat'!

Rhine clicked his tongue. "Perhaps, it's only a simplified version. Alright, what are we going to do?"

"Mr. Maskelyne's journal was cut at the critical part, but the files about how the monster was created must be still in the laboratory left by Thanos that they mentioned, if they are not destroyed by the monster yet..." Thinking for a moment, Lucien was full of momentum again. "The ancient sorcerers such as Mr. Maskelyne perhaps couldn't tell anything wrong from the experiment records, but we the modern arcanists certain can!"

Seeing Lucien's determined face, Rhine chuckled, "You could've activated your blood power with your resolution even if you failed to become a sorcerer. Hehe. With everything coming to this point, we can only go to Thanos' laboratory now. The problem is, where can we find it?"

Lucien brought out the Mirror of Fate. "It can tell the past accurately, at least much more accurately than the prediction of the monster's weakness."

Since Maskelyne only got fuzzy hints, Lucien dropped the idea of predicting the monster with the Mirror of Fate.

Holding the magic crystal ball in his left hand, Lucien swiped the Mirror of Fate with his right hand and cast the intricate spell.

The grey Mirror of Fate rippled, and a pair of numbers appeared among the waves.

"We have the coordinates of Thanos' laboratory now." Lucien smiled.

After a crack, the Mirror of Fate fell apart, but it disappeared into light instead of hitting the ground in pieces.

"We're going now?" Asked Rhine.

Lucien shook his head. "Time here flows as fast as the outside world. We must seize the chance to recover the legendary items."

While speaking, he picked up the torso of the puppet and stabbed the two arms and the leg back into it.

"I'll eliminate my weakness, too." Rhine nodded, leaning against a bookshelf.

After a few hours, the gold crown on Lucien's right hand emitted vague black air.

"The Primordial Mummy's crown? What's the effect?" Rhine opened his silver eyes, which were already back to normal.

Lucien clicked his tongue. "The Primordial Mummy did not leave any information. I can only tell that it can be transformed into gloves, armor or boots. It offers a physical defense that is close to the peak of legendary, as well as immunity to many negative legendary spells. However, one's head would be more or less slowed if they wear it."

The habit to leave information inside the magic items began from the Magic Empire, so that it would be easier for the future generations to take over the items. For example, Lucien picked up the Mirror of Fate after examination more than easily. The Primordial Mummy and the Lich King, as undead creatures, obviously did not have such a habit.

"It's a nice match for the Sword of Truth. After all, a knight does not need to think in a battle. As a matter of fact, the standard barbarian legendary warrior is also very strong." Rhine joked. "Should we wait until the Shield of Truth is repaired?"

"That's unnecessary. Now that we have super gear for defense, there's no need to wait for the Shield of Truth to be repaired." Lucien made up his mind. The Moon Timer and the Robe of Grand Arcanists wouldn't be restored in another half day. He couldn't afford waiting any longer.

While talking, he turned into a legendary knight and put on the crown as a pair of gloves.

Rhine stood straight and said, "Let's go!"

The heavy wounds caused by the monster hadn't feel healed, and he hadn't eliminated the weakness caused by Eternal Blaze yet. He could only carry out the strength around level three of legendary. He couldn't summon the Silver Moon for now, either.

After leaving Maskelyne's secret laboratory, Lucien and Rhine passed the grey halls and black gates as quickly as possible, ignoring the unusual worlds that showed up once in a while.

When they pushed one of the black gates, Lucien's Host Star of Destiny suddenly shivered, and he felt a strong sense of danger. So, he raised the Mummy Gloves without any hesitation.

From the other side of the gate, a solemn voice echoed. "Light of Judgment!"

Through the gap of the gate, Lucien saw 'Saint Ivan' and 'the angel of light'!

They had launched the attack the moment they saw that the gate was being opened!

An overwhelming beam of light descended from the heights, judging all the evils!

It was the second time that Lucien came across 'Light of Judgment'. Last time, it was performed by 'Geno', the reincarnation of the Lord of Hell, but it was carried out by the pontiff of the North Church right now!

In the surging sacredness, Lucien's metal gloves spread out intense black air, but it melted quickly.

The light hit the gloves, raising the most splendid fireworks.

The gloves cracked in huge noises. The 'angel of light' on the opposite side also performed the divine power: "Purging Spear!"

The brilliant and cold spear of light was thrown at Lucien who was resisting the Light of Judgment. At this moment, ten fair and long fingers appeared before Lucien and grabbed the spear of light, extinguishing it.

Rhine had come to Lucien's rescue in time!

As the Light of Judgment disappeared, Lucien felt that his hands were soft and knew that the gloves were too seriously damaged to be used again anytime soon. After all, the Light of Judgment countered the items of the school of necromancy.

"We have to escape as soon as possible, or we will die for sure!"

Countless thoughts occurred to Lucien, but his action was not affected. A silver pocket watch appeared in his right hand, and its ticking sound echoed inside the grey hall.

Crack. Lucien pressed the watch with his middle finger, and a hemisphere of void immediately appeared next to Ivan, slowing down his subsequent attack.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lucien performed 'Accurate Teleportation'. As a portal of space was opened and closed, he blinked to another black gate, followed by Rhine.

Right when Lucien pushed the black gate, the wings on Ivan's back got rid of Gravity Collapse, flapping arrows of light at Lucien.

Before him was the unopened gate, and behind him was the scorching horror. Lucien gritted his teeth and knocked the black gate without dodging, lunging through it.

Pa. 'Elemental Skin' was damaged, 'Magic Absorber' reached the limits, and the effects brought by 'Magic Order' and 'Spell Sequencer' all collapsed!

Eventually, Lucien got rid of the remaining power of the arrows of light through 'Short-Distance Blink' in 'Spell Trigger. Together with Rhine, he opened the black gates and escaped aimlessly and unstoppably!

"Go after them!" 'Ivan' was rather infuriated after failing to kill a level-one legendary sorcerer in an ambush.

As he fled crazily, Lucien opened black gates one after another. Thanks to the rapid locational changes of the halls, they finally got away from 'Ivan' and 'the angel of light'.

"This gate looks somewhat weird. There are vague black-and-white patterns on it." After they were slightly eased, Rhine noticed a rather strange black gate."

Lucien calculated the coordinates and realized that it was not the spot of the laboratory. So, he speculated, "Perhaps there's a special world behind it. Let's run a few more grey halls. The distance is not long enough yet. 'Ivan' may still catch up with us."

His life was truly at stake just now. Even someone as calm as Lucien was rather scared when he thought of it.

Rhine opened the weird black gate with a smile. "Let's go to the world behind it."

As the gate was opened, infinite holy light leaped into their eyes, and they were surrounded by the beautiful hymns.

In the middle of the overwhelming holy light, a seven-floored, mountain-like world was vaguely appearing, with countless angels flying around it.

Lucien's mouth was widened, and he forgot how to close it.

Rhine's smile was frozen on his face. He murmured to himself in self-mockery:

"This is getting serious now..."