497 Time and Space (1/2)

It was rather cold in the mountains at night. The summer heat had gradually faded away. When the light breeze found its way into the cave, both Lucien and Natasha felt very refreshed.

Natasha watched Lucien spread the parchment roll in great curiosity. Lucien activated the magic circle, turned on the crystal light, and picked up the quill-pen.

It wasn't her first time seeing an arcanist writing a paper, but she never knew that an arcanist could focus on developing his paper in such an environment and such a dangerous situation. Lucien always surprised her.

Holding her breath, Natasha watched Lucien finish writing down the title of the paper and start working on the introduction.

”The paper is developed on the basis of the relativity principle and the principle of the constancy of light velocity. Therefore, the preconditions are as follows:”

Howling of beasts came from distance.

And louder howling followed. Together, they sounded intimidating.

Natasha was a bit startled, then she murmured to herself, joking. ”When night arrives, it is the beasts' and animals' turn to start their day.”

She was a big fan of Arcana Voice, which was recorded and sent to her by Lucien, and learned quite some new collocations and expressions with the radio programme.

Natasha then tried to follow Lucien's deduction. She wanted to see how much she could understand.

After the first part in which Lucien had some difficulties in progressing, he started to write faster and faster. Lines, formulas, and equations flowed out of his quill-pen like a river. Natasha felt a bit dizzy chasing the lines, so she immediately shook her head and looked up. Her eyes caught the profile of Lucien's face under the light. The serious and devoted look on his face made him rather attractive.

Her left hand holding her right elbow and her right hand rubbing her chin, Natasha looked at Lucien carefully. From time to time, she said to herself in a low voice.

”What a pity…”

......

In an oasis in the eastern desert, a building complex floated in the air like a palace.

Among the buildings, the one that took up that most space was a Church with a tall cross in the front. In the back of it was a study decorated very simply, and in the study was the Pope, Benedict II who looked like an ordinary old man wearing a soft hat. He was reading the information sent back from all patrolled areas while taking a sip of his black tea from time to time.

Suddenly, Benedict II's right hand trembled. The white teacup fell from his hand. But when it almost hit the ground, it seemed to be caught by the wind and flew back to Benedict II's hand.

Slightly frowning, Benedict II put down the teacup and walked to the window. Staring at the starry sky, he felt his breath a bit heavy.

He did not know what had just happened. But he knew it was something big.

He took a deep breath and then took out his staff. He prayed in a low voice, seeking for an indication from his God.

But he received no answers. Benedict II wondered if a fight just took place between Alterna and the existence in the World of Souls.

......

To the east of the stormy ocean, along the coast were a number of magic towers.

In one of the magic towers, Douglas, the Lord of Storm, and Hathaway were discussing their next step. The Lord of Storm just came back from his search which had proved in vain. Meanwhile, Oliver and Thanatos were searching in the marsh in the east, chasing after a legendary-level false god. The false god itself was a black dragon, somehow worshipped by some human beings and other dragons, and thus reached the legendary level because of the power of faith. Acclaiming itself to be the Dark Dragon Lord.

Hellen the Witch of Iceland and Hathaway just had their duty shift. The former had returned to Allyn to safeguard the headquarter.

”Don't worry too much, Fernando. No news is good news.” Douglas comforted the Lord of Storm.

The Lord of Storm disputed, hiding his true feeling. ”Why would I worry? Lucien's always hiding so many secrets and research outcomes. He's the biggest trouble himself!”

”If there's no bigger story behind, Lucien should be safe,” Hathaway commented briefly.

In Hathaway's eyes, Lucien's intelligence and resourcefulness should be able to keep himself intact.

”But if there is one…” said Fernando gloomily. His red eyes opened big. Outside of the magic tower, dark clouds started gathering because of Fernando's anger.

They were grand arcanists. Grand arcanists did not believe in coincidence. Facing all the things that had happened, they already had some rough ideas about what was going on.

As they were talking, Douglas seemed to sense something and looked out of the window. He saw that on the other side of the magic tower, the sun was slowly rising. The morning glow dyed the ocean red.

The view was supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful. However, in Douglas's eyes, the ocean now looked like a horrible blood pool.

”What happened?”

”It's good, but also not good…”

As an expert in Astrology and Force Field, Douglas could even rival the Prophet in making a prophecy.

Both Fernando and Hathaway looked out of the window. They had no idea what just happened, but they somehow felt contradictory feelings of oppression and freedom in their hearts.