Chapter 303: 78. The Cold Moon (Two-in-One)
The sun in the sky slowly slanted westward, and a faint blue light rose from around the Moon Rabbit Shrine, gradually enveloping it. This was a six-ring protection magic that Fisher and Haldor completed together, although it was mainly Fisher who did it alone, as he didn’t dare to trouble Haldor due to his special circumstances.
Fisher used the text he saw in the sealing cage as bait to divert Haldor’s attention. According to him, this relic was purchased overseas by the Turan Family. They discovered the text inside when they bought it, but they did not know who left it behind.
Humans have a very vague understanding of the origins of relics, with the mainstream viewpoints suggesting that “they come from some unknown ancient subhumans,” which aligns slightly with reality.
The text was not in the language of the Angels but was from someone related to the Soul Supplement Handbook. Fisher understood this clearly, but for now, he found no more clues, so he could only record all the strange writings he had gathered, considering whether he should ask someone from the Creation Society about their contents.
At this moment, Ilos had walked around the Moon Rabbit Shrine again. The items inside were still laid out similarly to when she was a child, and there wasn’t much more to do for now, as she could only see many things at night that were invisible during the day.
With everything ready at the shrine, Fisher relaxed and sat in the snow, looking down at the magic materials and iron nails in his hands, lost in thought. His magic engraver roughly retouched the shape on the iron nails but hesitated to begin sculpting.
At this moment, facing the magic in his hands, Fisher appeared quite hesitant. This was a scene rarely seen in Emhart’s eyes; after spending some time together, he knew this Nali mage named “Fisher” had a high-level magical talent. Basically, there was no current magical problem that could trouble him.
“What’s up? Is there actually a magical problem that can stump you? I thought the only difficult question you had to consider in this world was how to escape from all the ladies who adore you.”
Fisher shot a glance at Emhart on his shoulder, not picking up on his teasing, and instead murmured to himself as if explaining, “The Double Ring Head Magic, the only magic I cannot engrave, I haven’t succeeded even once so far.”
“The Double Ring Head Magic, what is that?”
Fisher sighed and put down the carving knife. “It’s a magic that has two types of rings working together. Do you remember the lightning pillar we saw in the sky when we fled from Nali? That was a double-ring head magic with [Lightning] and [Destruction] as the heads, and it’s my teacher Heilson’s signature technique, the [Dragon Slayer Spear].”
“Yeah, it seems you mages classify magic by the number of rings, how many rings does that magic have?”
“Ten rings.”
“Hmph, isn’t that pretty garbage?”
Fisher looked at the magic-ignorant Sir Book Emhart with some pity and reluctantly gestured to explain the concept of this magic. “Each ring head can mobilize a distinctly different type of world resonance, but few magics can simultaneously activate two types of world resonance to produce a specific effect. A magic needs to limit and stabilize two ring heads; the structural and engraving techniques of the magic from top to bottom need to be trained and simulated separately.”
“The [Dragon Slayer Spear] is the only existing double-ring head magic. Though it has ten rings, it is much stronger than a fourteen-ring single-ring killing magic. If we correspond the ranks with the magics, its power has already fully entered the mythical rank, and it’s regarded as the [Ultimate of Magic]. This is also a magical problem I have yet to overcome; even though Teacher Heilson has taught me, my skills are still insufficient to engrave such magic.”
Emhart found it a bit perplexing but grasped the core issue that Fisher seemed to question himself about, asking him, “Is it your engraving level and magic power that are not enough?”
Fisher shook his head and looked down at the iron nails and magic materials in his hands. To a mage, these materials are the bridge to communicate with the world. “I’m not sensitive enough to the world resonance. The sensitivity requirement for double-ring head magic nearly approaches the extreme level for mages. I really can’t think of anyone in this world besides Heilson who has such a sensitive resonance perception.”
But if he were to deal with Erwind, even though Fisher’s life rank had progressed to the ninth rank and he had the assistance of the Creation Society’s Mechanism Lord and the death runes given to him by Eil, he still felt uncertain inside; he needed greater power.
He glanced at the Soul Supplement Handbook in his arms, which seemed to be gently warming and calling to him. Just as he was lost in thought, a sudden, densely-packed “buzzing” sound, like that of bees, came from afar.
Fisher looked up and saw a strange mechanism, slightly wobbling as it approached him through the snowstorm. It was strange because the blue glow on this mechanism flickered on and off, with many areas still stained with blood.
At the first sight of that mechanism, Fisher’s expression grew serious, and a bad premonition rose in his heart. He reached out and pulled Emhart, who was also gauging it, into his arms and slowly walked towards the swaying mechanism, “Mechanism Lord?”
“Beep. Connection failure, detecting task target, commencing secondary line message task.”
The mechanism before him suddenly lost its ability to fly and collapsed into the snow, but with the swirling blue glimmers of magic, the familiar voice of the Mechanism Lord appeared in Fisher’s ears once again.
“Mr. Fisher, time is of the essence, so I will be brief. I have been monitoring the movements of the Fate Lord; he has been approaching the Sema Snow Mountain, and so I let my guard down and did not warn you about his whereabouts. However, ever since he landed in the Northern Region, he has been looking for my hiding place, wanting to eliminate me first.”
“I engaged in conflict near my database’s core. Due to my severely limited combat mechanism reserves, my database core has been destroyed. But before my consciousness dissipated, I activated the self-destruction program of the database, erasing all clues that may be related to the Frost Parasol Tree. However, he will likely still sense that the Turan Family may be connected to the Frost Parasol Tree.”
“Mr. Fisher, please be careful. You mustn’t allow the Fate Lord to obtain anything from within the Frost Parasol Tree; that item would aid him in reaching the mythical rank, allowing him to read more content from the supplement handbooks. Please ensure you protect the two supplement handbooks you carry with you. If Erwind reads the contents of the second handbook, the entire Northern Region will fall into disaster, which the Creation Society does not want to see.”
Fisher frowned and stared at the mechanism lying in the snow, asking, “Why? What kind of consequences would he face by obtaining the second supplement handbook?”
The light on the mechanism Lord dimmed further, but his voice remained calm, “The former president, the Magic Lord, established a strict rule: any owner of a supplement handbook can only read the knowledge from one handbook. Each book corresponds to a long path leading to the [Ultimate]. The Fate Lord’s ascension on the [Life] path has stagnated; he seeks to use the power of another long path to help him.”
“Climbing the long path is like a precarious situation; even a slight misstep could lead to an abyss of madness. No one has ever maintained their sanity after reading the contents of two supplement handbooks. Once the Fate Lord obtains your Soul Supplement Handbook, a monster of mythical rank will emerge in the Northern Region.”
“Mythical beings have already vanished after the war; at that point, no one will be able to stop the Fate Lord from stepping into the Ultimate in his madness.”
The light on the Mechanism Lord dimmed even more, as if he would leave this world at any moment. Fisher stared at the Mechanism Lord lying in the snow for a long time, then nodded and said, “I understand.”
“That’s good, Mr. Fisher. In fact, I am not the true owner of the Mechanism Supplement Handbook; the real Mechanism Lord created me and left much knowledge recorded in the supplement handbooks in my database. Now, I will pass all that content to you, please read it carefully.”
As the Mechanism Lord spoke, he extended a small, strange mechanism like last time when the spider disintegrated. This mechanism glowed with layers of faint light but bore no text.
“Hold this mechanism chip in your hand, close your eyes, and wait ten seconds to read the content within.”
Fisher took the small mechanism chip and looked at the Mechanism Lord lying in the snow, asking, “Erwind cannot read the contents of the second supplement handbook, yet you are giving me the content of the Mechanism Supplement Handbook. You know I have read the Soul Supplement Handbook, right? Why are you giving this to me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll go mad?”
“The data on it has already been processed by the true Mechanism Lord; reading the content will not trigger [whispers] or madness. Furthermore, using the knowledge from the mechanism requires a lot of raw materials and production lines; relying on just yourself, you cannot wield the power on it.”
“But you can deepen your understanding of our Creation Society by reading the story of the first Mechanism Lord in history and potentially gain a clue about the Magic Lord. This is what the Fate Lord hopes to see. Beep, I don’t have much time left; my consciousness will soon be terminated. I have enjoyed collaborating with you during this time.”
“By the way, there’s one more thing I need to remind you. The consciousness of that Mr. Haldor is also stored in my database; however, due to the attack by the Fate Lord, the database was destroyed. His consciousness will soon vanish, and the soul energy that originally belonged to him will dissipate completely.”
Fisher’s pupils contracted slightly as he turned his head to look towards the direction of the Moon Rabbit Shrine behind him. There, the sunset was gradually setting, the distant blood-red afterglow slowly outlined half of the sky, but no matter how hard it tried, it could not stop the deep moonlight on the other side from swallowing its radiance.
Fisher said nothing, and the Mechanism Lord’s voice became quieter and quieter, but he explained to him, “Mr. Fisher, please don’t misunderstand. I used the knowledge of the Soul Lord not to desecrate Mr. Haldor’s life; I do not wish for you to have any estrangement or resistance towards the Creation Society or the Fate Lord because of this. In fact, I followed his wishes when replacing his body.”
“It was Mr. Haldor, who was about to die, that requested to have his dying soul infused into a new body as fuel, so that he could continue to engrave magic after reincarnation and serve Miss Valentina Turan, rather than living on as a useless machine.”
“Of course, the Turan Family is fully aware of this. They and Mr. Haldor did not inform Miss Valentina Turan.”
Fisher suddenly turned to look at the Mechanism Lord in the snow, opening his mouth to say something more, but his body had already completely dimmed, turning into a pile of cold, lifeless scrap metal, dead in the cold northern snow.
At this moment, in the Moon Rabbit Shrine, Ilos stood beneath the courtyard she had visited countless times as a child. The huge plaza originally used for the Moon Rabbit Tribe’s singing and dancing was now covered in ice and snow, falling silent. Thus, she could only look up through the skylight to the sky, watching the moonlight slowly engulf the fading evening sun.
“Sister Ilos, do you feel that something is wrong now that it’s almost night?”
A voice suddenly sounded behind her, startling Ilos, who hurriedly turned around and saw that Balzak and Felis had arrived, with Valentina in a wheelchair being pushed by Haldor.
The shrine was entirely made of stone, with the walls on the first floor carved with various exquisite murals that narrated the ancient glorious history of the Moon Rabbit Tribe, depicting how their ancestors followed the great phoenix to overcome their enemies and achieve glory.
Ilos shook her head, biting her lip and tightening her thick robe, replying to Balzak, “No, everything is just like usual; I don’t feel anything wrong. But it could also be because the moon hasn’t fully risen yet. I will only see many things that are usually invisible once the moonlight shines.”
“Well, you’ve roughly guessed a few places, right? But the problem is, what if the Moon Rabbit Tribe’s mark isn’t on the first floor and you still get attacked? Someone must protect your safety. If any accident happens, you must immediately run out of the shrine and enter the sealing cage we arranged outside, understood?”
Balzak urgently scanned the surroundings, having already made Ilos memorize all the places that might store the mark and even made her memorize the route to escape back to the sealing cage. The reason was simple; they could not afford to lose this last Moon Rabbit heir. If anything happened to Ilos, no one would be able to see that mark of the Moon Rabbit Tribe.
Ilos nodded in agreement, but Balzak still looked uneasy, gazing at the gradually rising misty moonlight above. He anxiously glanced back, “That Fisher from Nali, doesn’t he carry magic? He should be sensitive to these invisible things, he should be here to protect Ilos. Where is he? Why hasn’t he come over? Hah, he just started executing tasks with us and has already hidden away.”
Both Haldor and Fisher were mages; Balzak knew Haldor belonged to Valentina, so he didn’t dare to give orders to him and could only bully Fisher, the new guy, verbally, who had no idea what was attacking the Moon Rabbit Tribe but dared to claim mages were sensitive to such things.
Valentina remained silent, but Haldor beside her let out a puff of steam, calmly saying, “Beep. The mage cannot see the strange things like the Moon Rabbit Tribe can. He has already set up magic with me this afternoon; everything outside is properly arranged, and nothing will come in. He just went outside to engrave some spells for personal use and will be back shortly. Beep.”
As Haldor finished speaking, his body suddenly released a puff of steam, and he started to glow with a faint blue light, causing Valentina to immediately turn her head to look at him, frowning, “Haldor, what’s wrong with your body?”
But the next second, Haldor gently waved his hand at Valentina, stood upright with a smile, and said, “Beep. It’s nothing, just that I engraved a bit too much magic this afternoon. Perhaps Fisher was right; I shouldn’t be engraving magic lately.”
Valentina hesitated, and just as she was lightly rubbing her ring and considering how to make Haldor return to the outside camp to rest for a while, Ilos, standing in front, suddenly perked up her ears, attracting everyone’s attention.
Remarkably, behind Ilos, a pure, bright moonlight finally expelled the sun that had occupied the entire morning. It passed through the heavy clouds and visibly fell upon this rather cold northern land, dyeing Ilos’s shoulders in a layer of silver.
Her long ears twitched slightly, and the dark pupils in her eyes transformed into a remarkably striking pink hue.
“Is this the bloodline of the Moon Rabbit Tribe that can see through secrets?”
Even Balzak, who had studied the history of the Northern Region for many years, couldn’t help but murmur upon witnessing this scene, as if one of the six tribes that had distinguished themselves alongside the phoenix thousands of years ago was right before him.
But Ilos clearly did not share the same sentiment regarding her tribe’s history; for some reason, at this moment, her body wrapped in a heavy robe trembled slightly. The quiet shrine during the day presented a completely different scene in her eyes.
Indeed, the Moon Rabbit Tribe had hidden many treasures here, but that was not what she was currently focused on.
Ilos’s gaze turned towards the shrine’s exterior wrapped in heavy protective magic. In the distant depths of the Sema Snow Mountain, an extremely biting, cold wind was howling towards her, the slender heir of the Moon Rabbit Tribe.
“Something… is coming.”
Ilos struggled to catch her breath as she spoke to those in front of her.
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(End of Chapter)
