After the disturbance of the electric current noise, Lucien heard Natasha's voice, sounding both concerned and relieved.
"Lucien?"
Obviously, getting back into contact was a great relief to this young lady.
"It's me. I was about to call you as well." Lucien could not hold back the smile on his face. Since Natasha's call came as soon as he arrived in Aalto, it was reasonable for him to a.s.sume that Natasha had kept on calling him for at least the past half an hour.
Unlike Lucien, who mastered the knowledge of Horoscope, Natasha could not tell if her friend was safe through divination. The many accidents that happened during their plan greatly worried Natasha.
"Good news," said Natasha in great relief. "I was worried about you since Dracula went back earlier than we expected—he never approached the bait in the mountains. But it seems that you did it, right? Was it because of you? —I'm talking about the scarlet moon."
Lucien's connection to the scarlet moon was too obvious to ignore.
Lucien also felt relieved hearing Natasha's words. Apparently, it was some kind of special connection that Prince Dracula possessed with other first-generation vampires that helped him find out it was a trap, so he never really got close to Natasha. In this case, Lucien did not have to worry whether Natasha had been cursed anymore.
"I summoned the G.o.d of Silver Moon, but I've got no idea why the moon turned scarlet. So far, I can't say the task has been fulfilled, since I haven't heard anything from the other side." Lucien could not confess to the Princess that he was in such a hurry to confirm her safety that he had not spared time to contact Rhine yet.
"Anyways." Lucien paused with an unaware smile on his face. "Thanks for your help, really. There was no way that I could do this without you. Dracula could have killed me like cras.h.i.+ng a little bug… I'm so glad you're not in any trouble because of me…"
"Of course. I'm always trustworthy." Natasha cut Lucien off triumphantly. "Where are you? I'll give the mask back to you."
Lucien, who had got used to Natasha's style, immediately informed the Princess where he was.
After less than ten minutes, Lucien saw Natasha in her fine milky-white full set of armor, followed by Camil. As usual, she was glamorous.
"It's a pity that the mask can't turn a male into a female," said Natasha sincerely when she handed the mask back to Lucien while staring at him.
Lucien was speechless, so he decided to simply look up at the sky where the silver moon was still hanging when he took the mask back.
Natasha was just subconsciously joking. Seeing that Lucien was not into this kind of talk, she laughed and soon became serious again. "I was told that Dracula is an expert in casting curses and nightmares. You probably want to have your teacher or Hathaway to check you out as soon as possible when you go back. Umm… I think you should go and find the Eye of Curse. He is the authority on these cases."
"No worries. I was under the defense s.h.i.+eld all the time. Before Dracula broke the s.h.i.+eld, the G.o.d of Silver Moon was summoned and drove him away. I was not affected at all." Lucien grinned again, feeling rather sweet and warm in his heart.
"Great." Natasha nodded slightly and then looked at the sky. "When you summoned Alterna, the black, white, and grey… the solidified colors, they were the same with what you saw beside Lake Elsinore, right? It's another dimension… I wonder if Mr. Rhine and the Grand Cardinal Sard have something to do with it…"
She was not digging into Lucien's secrets but was just putting forward questions without demanding for an answer. Meanwhile, she was also trying to remind Lucien that other powerful existences who experienced the collapse of the Grand Cross should have also figured out some pieces of the puzzle. After all, at that time, the silent world of black, white, and grey emerged out of the water. Although so far "no one" had found the entrance to the world yet, it was easy for one to connect the two things together. Therefore, Lucien had to be even more careful in the future.
Natasha believed that she was so far the only one except for Lucien who had grasped something about Rhine and Sard, since Lucien had given her the reminders.
"You're right. To find the entrance of the dimension, Mr. Rhine decided to work with Sard, but he was betrayed by Sard, who definitely was hiding some secrets. Therefore, Mr. Rhine was trapped. To help him get out, I summoned the G.o.d of Silver Moon. But obviously, the secrets of the dimension are even more complex than I expected. So far, I have no idea whether I succeeded or not."
Since Natasha had figured out much of the story on her own, Lucien generally explained the situation to her without touching the deeper secrets. Besides, Natasha's unconditional help made Lucien trusted her even more.
Natasha nodded solemnly. "Since the fall of the Magic Empire, despite the ongoing conflicts between the South and the North Church, there have been no conflicts powerful enough to involve in the entire continent. In the dimension that attracted both Sard and Rhine hides the power that rivals that of Alterna. Maybe… this is the beginning of a new great era."
Natasha put on a confident and bright smile. "In every great era, there are great powers that ended up fallen, but there are also new powers catching up and exceeding the former. We shall work hard together, Lucien! I can feel that my blood's longing to fight!"
"I've caught up with you." Lucien pretended to be quite aggressive. "Perhaps sooner or later, my power will exceed yours."
Natasha readily accepted the challenge, happy and excited at the same time. "We'll see who becomes a level nine first, and who becomes a legendary first. If you lose…"
She put on a cunning smile, as if she was hiding some little secrets.
"Alright, you should go now. For what happened tonight, the Grand Cardinal and the priests must be on high alert right now. Although we're not that important, we still gotta be very careful. After all, your mentor is a grand arcanist…" Natasha hurried Lucien as she did not know that Lucien came here by s.p.a.ce jump. "And remember to write to me!"
Lucien's heart suddenly sank. How came he forgot this part? He was in such a rush that he directly jumped to the suburb nearby Aalto. Sard might have already noticed it! Luckily, Fernando was still with them!
High up in the air, where Lucien and Natasha's sight could not reach, Fernando in his red robe was smiling at an old man in front of him. It was Sard, the Grand Cardinal of Aalto.
"It's not decent to peep at the kids' dating." Fernando grinned.
"Tonight is not a peaceful night," said Sard expressionlessly, "so as the Grand Cardinal of Violet, I'm responsible for the Princess's safety."
He was the one who made the most information out from the scarlet moon incident tonight. Thus, right now every single unusual sign and anyone in Aalto who was worth extra attention was being watched by Sard.
Fernando stood right in front of Sard and blocked his way like an old scoundrel. He sighed and said, "Sard… you're so close to becoming the Saint. I really want to destroy you right now."
Obviously, Fernando was threatening Sard by reminding him that he was still not yet a Saint!
"Bellia and his people are also watching," Sard replied. It seemed that Fernando's words did not really bother him. After all, there was more than one legendary in the parish of Violet.
Meanwhile, Sard did not take any further movement either, as he knew that this short-tempered legendary-level archmage could fulfill his words at any moment.
Fernando stood still while observing Sard with a meaningful smile. However, in his mind, he had already blamed his student multiple times for his unusual recklessness. After what happened, a s.p.a.ce jump would easily catch the attention of all factions including Aalto and the North Fortress.
Fernando looked down. He secretly criticized again that Natasha was being enough impetuous this time as well, and somehow Camil did not even stop her.
These kids… Fernando sighed.
He was here not just for sending and picking up Lucien!
......
After Fernando's ten-minute-long roaring, Lucien made an in-depth and sincere self-criticism. Then, wearing the Transformation Mask, he arrived in Rentato by magic train. There Lucien found a random hotel and went to sleep to summon Rhine's projection in his dream - Allyn's many magic circles would prevent Rhine's from projecting to Lucien.
In the foggy world of dream, Rhine, who was wearing a tight red s.h.i.+rt and a black high-necked coat, soon appeared.
"Mr. Rhine, you are still trapped…" Seeing that Rhine was still projecting through the World of Souls, Lucien got the answer.
Rhine smiled helplessly, though his silver-colored eyes were charming as usual and his bearing was still elegant. "The Primordial Ancestor was injured and fell together with that thing from deep of the World of Souls. Thus, He had no chance to help me out. Hopefully, the Primordial Ancestor can wake up as soon as possible… Or probably I should count on you and wait until when you become a legendary."
"Then what about the threat from the World of Souls? Has it stopped?" Lucien hurriedly asked. He had taken such a huge risk and sincerely hoped that it would not go in vain.
Rhine nodded gently, the helplessness and bitterness disappearing from his smile. "It has stopped. These senior-rank specters are in such a rage that they are now using their most powerful Horoscope spells to figure out who did it. But because of the power of the Primordial Ancestor and your strange track of destiny, they can't find you."
"I indeed felt from the imprint in my soul the moment when the Primordial Ancestor fell. He was severely injured, so His rank could not be maintained, and recovery would require a long time. Of course, even if killed, the Primordial Ancestor could still gain power from the darkness and the silver moon to resurrect. He never dies."
"As for the mysterious existence from deep of the World of Souls, because it never woke up completely, it has been broken into many pieces. Its recovery might take even longer. Part of its pieces fell into the unknown dimension. So, Lucien, if you can find them, I'm sure it would be a remarkable benefit to you, since it could make up the cost you paid for becoming a senior-rank in a rush, not to mention that it can also guide you in your future progress."
Lucien nodded. If he could find the pieces, with the knowledge in the spiritual library, he could perhaps reveal most of the truth of the world.
As for how to compensate for the loss caused by advancing too fast, Lucien did not need the extra help, since he had already found the direction: To create his own meditation.
Because of some magic experiments, arcanists believed that spiritual power and light were in fact the same by nature. Therefore, whether light came in the form of waves or particles involved the understanding of spiritual power, and in which direction meditation should go.
So far, despite their differences from each other, most meditation methods were based on the belief that light came in waves. However, there were still a few that were based on the Theory of Particles, and they worked quite well—even better than Theory-of-Waves meditations for some arcanists with unique cognitive worlds.
Building on the photoelectric effect that has been discovered, the next step that Lucien was going to take was to study the wave-particle duality of light, which was also the wave-particle duality of spiritual power!
