403 Astonishmen (1/2)

”Level six… arcanist!” Relph was totally shocked. In his eyes, Beaulac suddenly became so strange to him. No… He should say that the man standing in front of him was right now a total stranger to him. There was no way that the real Beaulac could have become a senior-rank as he had never left Antiffler before.

It must be that a senior-rank sorcerer or archmage had turned into Beaulac and used some special ways to hide from the blood power check done by Nuremburk. As for the purpose, the sorcerer was certainly there to pursue the secret left by Sun King.

Suddenly, a scene flashed past his mind: he remembered the sincere appreciation from Beaulac after he bragged about the existence of another secret chamber and showed off by telling Beaulac how to open the chamber.

”…Well, thanks for telling me.”

That was what Beaulac… no, the arcanist, said.

Relph could not believe how stupid he had been. Although he wanted to cry out loud to remind the princess, Deniz, and Arthen that this was not really Beaulac, he was clearly aware of how powerful a senior-rank arcanist was. Within a second, the arcanist could easily kill him with a single glance; and even if all the nobles present had decided to unite together, the arcanist could still kill them one by one within half a minute.

The only way to survive was to yield and wait until Sir Metatron showed up in time as agreed.

Relph had absolutely no idea how the senior-rank arcanist managed to creep in. It was like a lion staying with a flock of sheep!

He could not help trembling out of the great fear and could not concentrate his spiritual power at all. However, he knew that there was no need for him to stay concentrated as he had no chance to cast when standing beside a senior-rank arcanist. Although he was already very close to obtaining the secret of Sun King and he did dream of becoming a sixth-circle sorcerer, Relph was only looking forward to using his power to acquire glory and high status.

A level-six arcanist was very likely a seventh or eighth-circle sorcerer or even a ninth-circle archmage! Relph had completely given up resistance.

”Smart.” Lucien smiled and took a glance at Relph, whose face had completely turned pale.

Relph nodded like a golem as he was incapable of thinking. Staring at the blue eyes of the fake Beaulac, Relph fell deeper and deeper into them…

Very easily, Lucien had seized the control of Relph's mind, putting him in a great panic.

The fifth-circle illusion spell, Dominate Person!

When knowing that his experience in Castle Bertren was a test from his teacher, the Lord of Storm, Lucien also got to know that it was the little crystal dragon, Alferris, that was playing the demon, Hatred. From the Lord of Storm and Alferris, Lucien had learned a lot more in details about the seven mysterious demons from hell and realized that Pain Fable was not merely a joke.

According to Fernando and Alferris' speculation, when certain negative emotions piled up, the projection of the corresponding demon would show up, and this process did not require the help of any special rite. The rites that people believed in were for improving the projections' power to make them grow, and the rites thus were in fact not magic rites, but just something that further convinced people of the existence of the evil power.

Therefore, it seemed that even the most absurd magic rite could also summon a powerful demon.

Pain Fable played a very important role in collecting a person's negative emotions. A person who enjoyed reading the fables tended to gain the connection to the mysterious demons including Wrath, Envy, Greed and so on. At this time, the person's mind could become twisted, but without the stimulation of a major accident or any following rites, the person could not gain a great evil power.

In other words, the steps of a rite did not matter, and what mattered was the rite itself. Without a rite, the projection of a demon could not gain its power. Meanwhile, what was more important than the rite was the gathering of negative emotions, or there was no way that a demon could cast its projection in one's mind.

When Lucien's was deceiving Beaulac into following the pure made-up rite, the former randomly made a joke about the steps of the rite, since he was quite certain that, without the emotional foundation shaped by the special book such as Pain Fable, neither Beaulac nor Frederick could successfully summon the projection of Greed.

However, what was going on right now was totally out of Lucien's expectation. Frederick had successfully summoned Greed using the ridiculous magic rite made up by Lucien, and had gained the power of a radiant knight!

Although his power was not yet fully developed, Frederick was unstoppable. The creepy and horrible look on his twisted face had made Lucien believe that all of these was a masterpiece done by the demon, Greed!

Lucien had no idea how Fredrick had collected such a strong feeling of greed within a single month. Was it from watching Beaulac summoning the demon? Or was it because of this creepy underground palace?

However, no matter what it was, Lucien had to hurry up, even if he had to use magic! As time passed by and more people were killed, Frederick's power as a radiant knight would be fully developed!

From the few rounds of the fight between Fredrick and Beyer, Lucien speculated that he still had three to four minutes to take actions. He first had to turn on the magic circle in case later anything unexpected would happen. After all, this was Lucien's ultimate purpose in going down there.