Throne of Magical Arcana

Seeing the familiar view, Lucien immediately recalled the identity of the sphinx mummy before him. It was exactly Finks, the King of Sphinxes that he encountered when he accomplished Rhine’s task.

At that time, it was sealed inside a coffin, and it was executed by him with Pale Justice after his resurrection, falling into dormancy again. When he escaped through the gap of the World of Souls, he saw the shadow of its mausoleum, the bloodstained ball of light, and the weird red ‘spider threads’, which made him realize that it was actually sealed in the World of Souls.

Right now, its real self had been slain by the Sword of Truth through the projection. There was no need to worry about sealing him anymore, because beings which had completely died could not be sealed.

“Is this a projection? Sacrificing the wisdom to obtain the original strength? No wonder my ‘Fateful Meteor’ failed to destroy it.” Douglas said speculatively. ‘Fateful Meteor’ could destroy all the life-preserving preparations when it was imposed on the real self, but it could not destroy the real self through projections or clones.

Lucien said solemnly, “Perhaps it’s not only because it sacrificed its wisdom. I suspect that it was sealed in the World of Souls because somebody intended to extract the power in the light ball of its godhood. Right. It is Finks, the King of Sphinxes.”

“Finks, the legend who died ten thousand years ago?” Douglas was very familiar with ancient civilizations. Also, Finks’ mausoleum still lied in the southern desert of the Gusta Empire today.

Fernando, on the other hand, grasped the key point in Lucien’s words. “The ball of godhood?”

Lucien nodded and described what he saw in Finks’ mausoleum and the reflection of the World of Souls.

If it were a few years ago, they wouldn’t have known what the weird ball that could not be touched or approached was, but right now, they had absolutely no doubt that it was a cluster of godhood.

After a brief silence, Douglas said solemnly, “So to speak, Finks was possibly not really dead ten thousand years ago. It was actually captured by somebody of the World of Souls and sealed in a specific place to gather the ball of godhood. The projection to defend the Temple of Spirits was only a side effect.”

“Hehe. That explains why there were no fake gods in the main material world until the War of Dawn! I checked all the ancient records and discovered no fake gods at all! I was most curious about that. Since there were so many fake gods during the War of Dawn, it meant that the main material world had the conditions to gather the ball of godhood, but why are there so many fake gods in the alternate dimensions but none in the main material world? Because the World of Souls is behind everything.” Fernando sniffed.

Erica frowned. “Are you suggesting that every legend or powerful creature who could possibly gather the ball of godhood was noticed by the World of Souls, and they died ‘naturally’ when they almost succeeded?”

“More or less. According to Evans’ report, the mysterious existence of the World of Souls recovered a lot by absorbing the godhood of the same nature. Perhaps, the legends of the World of Souls captured the King of Sphinxes and transformed his godhood in order to awaken him.” Vicente said gloomily.

For a legend like Finks, although he would not collect godhood actively, the light of godhood would be naturally gathered in him after he was worshiped by all the tribes of sphinxes. Then, he caught the World of Souls’ attention.

Also, since he was not really dead, the spontaneous power of faith would be gathered where he was sealed, making it impossible for future generations to become a ‘god’. It should be the same case for ‘Amboula’, the Lord of Ocean worshiped by the Kuo-toans. Even though the emperor of the Kuo-toans was stronger than him, he could not sense any power of faith at all.

That was why no fake gods had ever appeared after the age of myths. It was not until the War of Dawn that a large group of people began to preach and collect faith.

After a brief conversation, the six legendary sorcerers had basically uncovered the scheme that lingered for tens of thousands of years.

The World of Souls had always been peeping at and threatening the main material world. It was definitely not harmless!

The exploration was much more valuable than anticipated!

“The ritual in the World of Souls is not bad at all. The King of Sphinxes slept for ten thousand years without decaying at all.” Klaus shook his head with a smile, dissolving the temporarily frozen atmosphere with a joke.

Lucien smiled. “When you approach the end of your life, you can send an application to the legends of the World of Souls to be sealed. Then, thousands of years later, when your dream becomes reality, you can be woken up again and enjoy everything.”

“Huh, that’s a great idea.” Klaus smiled. “But I still have a long life that I can enjoy and many puppets that are waiting for me. I cannot be sealed in a gloomy mausoleum and defend the Temple of Spirits with a disgusting look.”

Taking a deep breath, Douglas pointed at the secret entrance up ahead, “More terrible things may be waiting for us. We must be careful.”

The corpse of the King of Sphinxes stopped slithering. The swarm of black beetles lost the feelings of a mixture of life and death. They soon turned into grey mucus and melted into the black mud.

……

The pure black gate was decorated with the gloomy stripes. Emitting unusual coldness, it invoked awe in everybody who saw it.

The entrance was dozens of meters tall, as if it were designed for giants, but according to Adol’s description, it was the smallest door in the group of palaces.

Many senior-rank spectres similar to Adol were floating. They were defending the pathway in puffy long robes.

Douglas frowned. “The spiritual power is blocked in the Temple of Spirits. My magic eyes would be disconnected after they are sent in. It seems that we can only sneak in.”

“Perhaps, the Temple of Spirits is part of the projection of the mysterious existence of the World of Souls.” Vicente suddenly said.

“Very possible.” Fernando, unusually, agreed with Vicente.

Therefore, under the protection of illusion, the six legendary sorcerers went to the gate.

It seemed that Finks was the legend who guarded this entrance. Lucien and the team did not encounter any other experts. Under the watch of the dozens of senior-rank spectres, they entered openly and casually as if they were returning to their own home. Those senior-rank spectres all turned a blind eye to them.

All the palaces were pure black, cold and silent. All the gardens had pale faces growing in them. All the corridors were sealed. All the corners were frequented by stinky spectres… After walking for a long time, Douglas said, “The temple up head is no longer the ‘Lake of Ghosts’ in Adol’s memories. It means that the coordinates have changed. We have to count on ourselves now.”

Thankfully, there was still the pattern that Maskelyne and Viken left. Since it was confirmed that they went missing behind the Furnace of Souls, they would definitely reach the Furnace of Souls as long as they moved on to the calculated coordinates.

After calculating the coordinates according to environmental parameters, the team pressed on. They repeated the process once in a while.

“I feel that time and space is unusual inside the Temple of Spirits.” Douglas suddenly stopped before a temple. “It seems that we have come to a different world.”

Lucien took out his silver ‘Moon Timer’. “Yes, time and space is different. The second hand, the minute hand and the hour hand are all bouncing randomly. The time and space is changing after our every step.”

“Also, the deeper we go in, the slower the time will be. One day here equals five days outside.” Douglas wrote it down on his magic notebook. That was a responsibility of the ‘pioneers’.

Furnace of Souls calculated the coordinates where Maskelyne went missing and the current coordinates. “It wouldn’t be long before we see the Furnace of Souls.”

On their way, the team happened upon four unintelligent legendary spectres. Thanks to Vicente and Erica, they were cheated without any trouble.

“Hopefully, we will find our target after we pass this palace.” Douglas turned into gas and crawled through the gap on the gate of the palace, not triggering any magic circle.

Inside the palace were rows of bookshelves where yellowish books were kept in the intense air of rotting. On each level of the bookshelf, there were three white candles that emanated pale light, adding to the horrible atmosphere in the room.

“A library?” Klaus was rather surprised. “There’s a library in the Temple of Spirits?”

None of those spectres seemed to be interested in books!

His red eyes emitting silver brilliance, Fernando read the books through the covers without causing any change.

“They are the precious books of different ages that have recorded many lost civilizations, including those in the mythological age that we do not know.” After a long time, Fernando said in a low voice.

For sorcerers, books were among the best trophies!

Douglas smiled. “Remember the coordinates of this place and let’s keep moving. We will take away the books when we return.”

It would easily alarm the legendary spectres if they took away the books right now, which would cause unnecessary changes and delay their exploration on the Furnace of Souls. They would have no such concerns when they returned. Also, this place was still in the peripheral area and fitted the pattern of coordinate changes in Adol’s memories. No additional puzzles needed to be solved.

In the light of the shivering candles, Vicente’s dry cheeks that had only one skin was exceptionally horrible. He said, deep in thought, “Something has changed?”

Fernando became solemn. He immediately sensed something wrong with his spiritual power. “Where is Erica?”

It was not until then that Lucien realized that Erica, ‘Master of Transformation’ who had always been in the team, was gone! She went missing without any of them realizing it!

In the windless library, the fire of the candles were flickering like weird eyes.

A transparent crystal ball suddenly appeared in Douglas’ hands. After it glittered, he extended his right hand and suddenly opened an invisible door.

The space changed, and a secret chamber appeared inside the library.

Inside the secret chamber, a demonic man, who had black hair and red lips, was holding Erica and sticking his sharp teeth deeply into her neck. Erica’s flaxen eyes lost their vigor, and her face was frozen.

Sensing that the secret chamber was opened, the weird man in a splendid robe turned around abruptly. His unusually pale face and his mouthful of redness were a major contrast. As blood dripped off from his lips, he laughed crazily: “It’s been a long time since I enjoyed such delicious blood!”

He thought that Douglas, Lucien and the rest of them would be shocked and horrified, but he saw nothing but smiles of mockery – except from Vicente, who barely had any normal facial expression.

In surprise, he held his neck in pain, as if something was burning his soul from inside. The blood on his lips emitted sacred brilliance.

Erica in his hands somehow recovered. Knocking his hands away, she wiped her neck with her handkerchief and sneered, “Has your mom never told you not to drink the blood of any random guy, particularly not that of a Master of Transformation?”