484 Change in the Night. (1/2)
The Congress' research in the field of space and time was lacking and had not yet formed a complete theory. Thus, it was impossible for the arcanists of the Congress of Magic to determine where Lucien would be teleported to after the disruption caused by Ramiro would. On top of that, Lucien himself is the Secretive. Due to its special abilities as well as this world's disturbance to long-distance magic and prophecy, Fernando and Hathaway had yet to find him.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Lucien concluded that this surveillance specter had fused with his body and soul before he had entered the Portal to Alternate Realm.
Otherwise, how was the man behind the scenes able to find him before Fernando and the Prophet, and let the wraith posses him before he recovered?
As another expert arcanist in the field of Necromancy, Lucien knew that since this specter could be ”executed” by the Pale Justice, then his mentor Fernando must have been able to sense it when they met. Therefore, the wraith must have possessed him sometime after Fernando stepped into the Portal to Alternate Realm and before Lucien was forced into it.
It seemed that the most possible explanation would be that the man behind the scenes did something to Ramiro's body so that when he self-exploded, the specter seized the opportunity and possessed Lucien. The explosion would also help to erase any trace, and since that Lucien had been forced into the Portal to Alternate Realm, even if Hathaway suspected anything, no trace was left to be found.
The man behind the scenes was aware of the exact time that the Portal would remain open. He was also able to let Ramiro carry out the assassination without knowing that he had been possessed. And finally, he is apt at this method of surveillance. Lucien wondered what Thanatos, the Demigod-lich or the Eye of Curse would want to know from him — Fabricating memory or strong hinting could both make Ramiro do things without realizing that they weren't his own decisions.
Pieces of memory flashed in Lucien's mind. He was trying to check if he had missed anything.
Suddenly, it dawned on Lucien:
”When I was passing through the underground ruins of the dwarfs, there was a senior-rank specter from the World of Souls that ambushed me. I had assumed that it was because Rhine's plan had been discovered.”
”When Adol was captured by Thanatos and sent to Allyn, he did not have any memories about the fact that Maskelyne and Mr. Rhine were trapped in the World of Souls. I had assumed that Adol did not hold a rank high enough to know about the deeper secrets. Thinking back now, I'm sure I had misjudged the situation then. ”
”From the deep memories of that senior-rank specter one could see that, while it loathed Adol, it could only curse him to be cleansed by the Saint Truth. It must be that its rank is lower than that of Adol. Could have been his assistant or subordinate. If even he knew about the plans of Mr Rhine, then Adol must have known about it too.”
”If Adol really didn't know anything, then why did the senior-rank specter ambush me? To avenge its master Felipe, whom he described with the word 'dumb?'”
”The two events form a paradox. The best explanation would be that Adol did knew a lot. He knew that Maskelyne and Rhine were trapped in the World of Souls. He also knew how they were related to me, which is what caused him to target me. However, he no longer knew about these things after he was sent to Allyn. Someone must have erased his memory. ”
”Considering all these, His Excellency the Eye of Curse is not likely to be the man behind the scenes. As for Thanatos, even if he was not the one committing the act, he at least allowed it to happen. Is he planning to use my connection with Alterna or the mysterious existence of the World of Souls to find Them in advance?”
”No wonder Ramiro came to investigate at Erdo. No wonder he could find Anheuse so quickly. No wonder that he attempted to attack me time and again. That's just way too many coincidences.”
Lucien took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. The idea that someone of legendary rank was keeping an eye over him made him feel very uneasy.
Admittedly, other grand arcanists could also be the suspect. If the specter had possessed him before Fernando had passed through the Portal and Fernando did not detect it, then Lucien's deductions would crumble. Hathaway who was guarding the Portal also had enough time and ability to tamper with such things. However, comparatively speaking, these two were very unlikely to have been the culprit.
Given Hathaway's character, her rather average Necromancy, and the bright future ahead of her brought about by ”New Alchemy”, given the times Lucien spent together with Fernando and the fact that Fernando's character has remained constant for several centuries, Lucien chose to believe them.
Now that Alterna of the Silver Moon has appeared, but neither Thanatos nor the Demigod-lich had acted. Lucien wondered if this meant that their main target was the mysterious existence in the World of Souls?
But Lucien quickly denied this thought. When he first passed through the realm of the Lord of Underworld, Alterna had already noticed him but didn't come out to meet him. Instead, She had entrusted Herself to his care, sleeping inside his hand as She is now. It probably wasn't because She was worried that Lucien would get in the way of her killing the Lord of Underworld though. Now that thinking about it, Alterna could have noticed that someone was spying on Lucien. The collapse of the underworld realm rendered the surveillance temporarily ineffective, and Alterna then suppressed the specter before showing up in Her true form. Otherwise, She would have hidden with that ”beef jerky” and Lucien would have never been able to find her.”
Lucien felt a chill down his spine once this thought occurred to him. It wasn't because the specter still lived, but out of genuine fear. He had recklessly slain the specter. The legendary that sent it must have noticed.
Lucien immediately jumped straight out of the window. He could only hope that the legendary is hiding in a faraway place in fear of alerting the silver moon and the World of Souls.
Lucien found himself in a gloomy forest. However, with his radiant knight transformation, he passed through it in a jiffy. He then jumped into a river and transformed into a fish, and swan with the currents for a while.
After a while, Lucien came up to the shore and used magic to erase his traces. Then he jumped back into the river and headed towards the place where the divine temples congregated. Lucien had made his decision — If the legendary sorcerer was able to track his movements, then Lucien would lead him into the Single-eyed that Alterna mentioned. It was a desperate attempt at survival.
After he had reached the divine temple area, Lucien deliberately slowed down. He focused on sensing the surroundings, focusing on any changes to his left hand. If he had been able to escape the legendary arcanist tracing behind, then there was no need for him to provoke the Lord of War Antanas, as Lucien was confident that his special abilities of the Secretive coupled with the Silver Moon's self-cloaking would be able to let him escape this conspiracy.
He continued swimming like that for a while. Suddenly, Lucien sensed intense shaking in the water, as though there was an earthquake nearby.
Poking his head out from the water reeds, Lucien found that the mountain ranges on the outskirts of the city were enveloped by thunder. The air of death blocked out the moon, and the towering mountain peak collapsed.