542 Terms of Cooperation (2/2)
While the amulet of life was not as critical as a lich's phylactery, and he wouldn't be killed when the item was destroyed, Lucien dare not be careless because he traded half of his possessions for it.
Fernando became solemn and hinted Lucien to walk in.
After Lucien entered in confusion, he closed the library, turned on the magic circle and said, ”The Highest Council has passed the motion to cooperate with Sard. They also met him in secret yesterday and signed a magic contract with him respectively.”
”Every one of them? What requests did he propose? What's his promise?” Lucien mentioned how mysterious and queer Sard was to his teacher before. He turned solemn, too.
Fernando invited Lucien in exactly because he wanted to hear Lucien's opinion. He spoke frankly, ”Every member of the Highest Council signed it. As per Sard's request, we the sorcerers asked for the fairness of the Lord of Hell, and he swore to the God of Truth with his Heart of Faith, before we signed the contract.”
Generally speaking, ordinary magic contracts did not work on legendary sorcerers. After all, the devils and other mysterious creatures who supervised the magic contracts risked being captured by the legendary sorcerers as experiment materials. They were highly incapable of supervising such contracts and punishing the violators. Therefore, the magic contracts of such a level were mostly supervised by the nine dukes of hell, or sworn to the Origin of Magic.
Because the Origin of Magic was unpredictable, the restraint of the latter contracts had been questioned. Some people's cognitive worlds collapsed because they violated their vows, but some were as healthy as before. Although it was accepted that they used wordplays in their vows, Sard obviously did not intend to take the risk and therefore demanded the supervision of the Lord of Hell, who was a demigod. His oath based on faith, on the other hand, was an absolutely effective restraint on the clergy.
”The Lord of Hell… Is he going to meddle in this too?” Hearing reference to the terrifying big shot, Lucien couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Fernando smiled, ”If it were before, he might intervene in secret. Schemes are his favorite. However, he was just ambushed by Silver Moon Alterna recently and lost an important projection under your 'Eternal Blaze'. He might be unwilling to take the risk. The Silver Moon, on the other hand, is basically recovered and watching over us in the sky. He may be unable to defeat Douglas even if he casts a projection here.”
”That great prophet and Angel King are likely to be played by Sard himself to manipulate the radical clerics and night watchers, but he never admitted it.”
'Watching over us in the sky' was a common metaphor in the magic world to indicate Alterna's attention.
”What's your vow and what's Sard's promise?” Lucien asked the key question again.
Fernando nodded slowly, ”The contract stipulates that, until Sard breaks his promise or attacks any sorcerer of the Congress of Magic not in self-defense, we cannot attack him. Also, until his new church jeopardizes the Congress, we cannot suppress their development. Furthermore, he will enjoy the priority preaching rights on every colony of our alternate dimension that we will obtain.”
It's a reasonable summary of Sard's desire and also seems to imply his sincerity for the cooperation… Lucien thought to himself.
”The promise he made was that today one year later, he would leave the Radiance Church and let the Congress take over the massive transmission magic circles and divine power defenses inside, which is even better than him shutting down the transmission magic circles himself. Also, he will ask the Grand Cardinals of the other four churches to do the same. Those who are not enchanted by him will be ambushed by us under his cooperation.” Fernando looked at Lucien and said, ”With your understanding about Sard, is there a problem with this?”
Lucien shook his head. ”I only know that he had been keeping my relationship with Natasha a secret to the pope, which befits his purpose right now. I don't see any loopholes yet, but none of us know what he got from the World of Souls, and we have to be prepared for other changes.”
Fernando did not say anything more and simply reminded Lucien, ”Forward the issue to Natasha and ask her not to mention anything about this in front of Sard. She can give connivance and cooperate in secret, but she must not leave any textual or vocal evidence, so that there will still be chances for us to make a comeback.”
”Master, are you suggesting…?” Lucien was more or less surprised.
Fernando nodded solemnly, ”Before you calculate your victory, you have to be prepared for an utter defeat.”
The South Church was very powerful. It had 24 legendary experts and one demigod by itself. As for the countries attached to it, even without Holm and other countries beyond the Storm Strait, there were still thirteen legendary knights. It was the well-deserved greatest force. While the Congress of Magic had been flourishing, there was still a major gap between them, and competing with the Church was definitely full of dangers.
”I'm getting nervous because of you, master.” Lucien breathed heavily, ”Then, should we postpone the paper on the special theory of relativity for a year? We cannot afford any accidents in such a critical period.”
Fernando shook his head. ”Since we did not foresee that Sard would ask for cooperation so soon, we already raised Oliver's transformation formulas. Even without our guidance, considering the vogue and the progress of arcana studies, some arcanists will discover it on their own in half a year at most. So, it is unnecessary for us to keep it a secret. All we need to do is to tread more lightly.”