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Chapter 43: Rifts and Cracks

Translator: CKtalon

In the era when the Doomsday Watchers were active, the Mage Guild reached its peak under William’s management. The most outstanding magic researchers on the continent of the time gathered and jointly proposed the Astral Circuit.

After the “Magic Dawn” mission was completed, William, who had publicized the Astral Circuit technology, had been looking forward to the game’s sequel. Would it be a world where magic and steam combined?

However, things didn’t go as planned. At least a thousand years later, this world still looked like it had medieval productivity.

However, later generations realized the Astral Circuit.

This made William very curious about how they solved those technical problems.

The greatest technical difficulty of the Astral Circuit wasn’t building the Astral Lighthouse or even building a magic network that covered the continent. These were all secular problems that could be done as long as a ruler dared to invest resources.

The true difficulty was finding many paths that could bypass the Moon Realm and connect Currere to the Astral World.

In this world, stars weren’t true celestial bodies, but holes. They penetrated the Moon Realm that symbolized nothingness and allowed Creatons from the Astral World to pass through themselves. Those Creatons turned into starlight after being filtered by the World Shell.

In William’s era, due to the drastic changes in the Moon Realm, even the greatest Astral Constellation Master in the world couldn’t accurately predict the direction of the stars.

Without a stable prediction, it was impossible to draw a star map, and it was impossible to build a natural astral circuit.

According to his calculations, it would take at least 500 years for the Moon Realm to gradually calm down. However, he learned from Liliana that the Astral Laws had been established slightly over 200 years after he left.

Then, how did they bypass the unstable Moon Realm and head to the Astral World to build a circuit?

The answer was that they hadn’t bypassed the Moon Realm at all.

When William saw the dense spatial stabilization runes engraved on the tower, his heart fell.

When he saw the huge Moon Realm rift on the top of the tower through the spell, Moon Realm Detection, he almost blew a gasket.

The designer of the Astral Laws didn’t choose to bypass the unpredictable Moon Realm. Instead, he simply and crudely chiseled open the World Shell and passed through the Moon Realm to build the Astral Circuit.

The Scar of Sorrow suppressed by the Twilight Fortress used to be the largest Moon Realm rift in Currere. That was the opening to the World Shell, and it was also the largest portal for the Moon Realm’s invasion of Vic Continent back then.

As for the rift at the top of the Astral Lighthouse, although it wasn’t as large as the Scar of Sorrow, once a Void Sovereign wanted to do something through it, it would cause catastrophic consequences.

Back then, after the Doomsday Watcher repelled the Moon Realm’s invasion, it took a lot of effort to seal the wound. Even so, the Scar of Sorrow was still the World Shell’s weak point to this day. The Stumbling Demon summoned there proved this.

And they dug open the World Shell themselves just to monopolize the Astral World’s magic power source?

William still remembered that Liliana had said that there were a total of 24 Astral Lighthouses on the continent. If the Moon Realm rift here wasn’t an exception, then there were 24 Moon Realm rifts evenly distributed on the Vic Continent.

This news was too shocking.

William did a simple calculation. If the Moon Realm planned on invading, the scale and strength would be more than twice as large as 1,000 years ago. Considering that the rifts covered the entire continent, the trouble would be at least ten times greater.

“What did you guys do after I left…”

William stared at the rift and sighed.

His hand that was stroking the runes on the tower trembled slightly. He could sense that the spatial runes used to prevent Lunar Monsters from entering Currere were very powerful. Ordinary Lunar Monsters couldn’t even approach this place.

However, these rune barriers were only superficial decorations to the Void Sovereigns. They didn’t destroy them purely because They didn’t want to do so for the time being.

Wasn’t any of the Judges going to stop those bastards from doing so?

Alright, the Astral Laws were formulated more than 200 years after he left. Many of his Judgment companions probably weren’t around then, but among the 13 Judges, other than mortals, there were still many long-lived ones.

Dowa King of the Dragons, Coles Jackdaw of the Crowmen, Remides Shadowmoon of the High Elves, and Koos, whose body was already immortal…

If nothing unexpected happened, their lifespans were definitely enough to live to this day.

Didn’t they try to stop these things, or did they try and fail?

No matter what, there must be a deeper reason behind the establishment of the Riel Empire 800 years ago.

The only thing worth rejoicing about now was that the size of the Moon Realm rift wasn’t enough for a Void Sovereign’s main body to pass through. Even Their incarnations couldn’t squeeze in.

As long as it was something that had a health bar, he could defeat it.

With this in mind, William retracted his gaze from the crack and continued climbing up the stairs of the lighthouse.

He pondered as he walked.

This Astral Lighthouse had been in operation for nearly 800 years. During this period, no Lunar Monsters had invaded the Vic Continent—at the very least, he hadn’t seen any similar records in the historical documents he had read over the past few days.

Just as he had thought, the fact that the Void Sovereigns didn’t use these rifts only meant that They didn’t want to do so for the time being. However, this didn’t mean that They weren’t plotting something. Instead, They had been making preparations for more than 800 years.

An unknown threat was the most terrifying threat.

Then, what were They up to?

William, who was walking in the shadows, turned his body to avoid the patrol route of a Fire Soul.

After entering the middle level of the lighthouse, the security measures and spell traps along the way began to increase. The patrolling security guards also changed from guards to various Elemental Souls.

Helpless, William changed his Illusion-type Stealth to Shadow-type Stealth.

Of course, if he was still discovered like this, he could only try Peerless-type Stealth.

Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen.

…

After Duke Simon returned to the Rose Palace, he found out that Vincent had been waiting for him in the conference hall.

Seeing Simon enter, Vincent requested the adjutant who had returned with him out to leave and lock the door on his way out. At the same time, he used the magical medium in his hand to knock on the door.

Blue lightning spread along the magical medium to the four walls of the room. All sound in the room was blocked, and no one outside could hear their conversation.

This was a lightning-element magic power usage technique he had figured out—to block sound by causing light spatial ripples. This technique wasn’t included in the spell catalog of the Astral Laws, so it was considered a heretical act in a sense.

However, the two people in the room didn’t care about this.

“I can take it that you’re trying to assassinate me.”

Simon teased. He was probably a little relaxed now that the preparations for the ritual were complete.

However, seeing Vincent’s serious expression, Simon restrained his smile and asked,

“What’s wrong? Did you not deal with the Silverstream Mine?”

Vincent shook his head and said, “There’s still something that hasn’t been blocked.”

As he spoke, he pointed the magical medium in his hand at Simon’s forehead. A weak bolt of lightning was connected between the magical medium and Simon’s glabella.

In Simon’s ether domain, his connection with the spirit of the Three Moon Realm was temporarily severed.

Simon turned nervous. He looked around furtively and asked, “What exactly do you want?”

“I want to tell you what I just encountered under the Silverstream Mine, but I can’t let others know about this. This includes the few-month-old Moon Realm spirit who signed a contract with you,” Vincent quickly explained.

“What happened? Could that person really be Demon Burial’s Paladin?” Simon asked suspiciously.

“No, it’s much scarier than that. Listen to me first. Before I finish speaking, don’t refute me like a rational normal person.”

Then, Vincent began to talk about how he had encountered the magic chanter who called himself the Presiding Judge after descending to the mine.

He spoke quickly, but his logic was very clear, and his words didn’t carry any emotion.

In the beginning, Simon had planned on interrupting Vincent a few times to get the details, but Vincent spoke too quickly and didn’t give him a chance to interrupt.

When Simon heard that the magic chanter had used Divine Realm Frost magic, his expression turned solemn.

When he heard that the magic chanter wanted Vincent to become the new ruler of the Blackwater Province, Simon fell completely silent.

“…In the end, he didn’t attack me when I turned around and left. I immediately rushed here after leaving the mine and learned from the butler that you had gone to the Astral Lighthouse and would be back soon. That’s why I’ve been waiting here for you to return.”

Vincent finally said. Then, he looked into Simon’s eyes and asked, “What should we do next?”

Simon looked at him in silence. After a while, he slowly said, “What about you? What do you think?”

Vincent analyzed and said, “First, we need to figure out the identity of that magic chanter. It’s impossible for a magic chanter who can reach the Divine Realm under the Astral Laws to choose to help the Blackwater Province become independent. And if he’s a heretical mage, he cannot reach that realm silently…”

Fifty years ago, a heretical mage who had reached the Divine Realm appeared in Shattered Tooth Province. To satisfy his huge magic power consumption, he spread a withering plague in Shattered Tooth Province. It was a disease that could wither the body and soul after being infected. All the infected would gradually burn their souls to become the source of his magic power.

This chaos called the Withering Calamity was ultimately resolved by the Demon Burial and the Platinum Ring. The method was to slaughter everyone infected with the Withering Plague and cut off the magical power source of the Divine Realm heretical mage.

From this example, it could be seen that if he relied on burning his soul as a source of magic power, the commotion when reaching the Divine Realm would undoubtedly be disastrous.

“…And he said that his goal is to escape the control of the gods, so it’s unlikely that he reached the Divine Realm through the Moon Realm. Then, there are only two possibilities: First, he’s a powerhouse who reached the Divine Realm before the Astral Laws appeared. For example, we once saw the Judges under the stone plaque in the Holy Sepulchre. This corresponds to him calling himself the Presiding Judge.”

Vincent continued analyzing, “As for the second possibility, it’s even crazier. He might be a prophet like Terra I. If that’s the case, everything makes sense. This is because the descent of a Holy Spirit definitely won’t be restricted by the Astral Laws…

Duke Simon listened to Vincent’s endless analysis. After a long time, he said, “That’s not what I’m asking.”

Vincent stopped and looked at Duke Simon in confusion.

Duke Simon looked into Vincent’s eyes and deliberated before saying, “What do you think of what he said about hoping that you would become the new ruler of the Blackwater Province?”

Vincent looked incredulous. He never expected Simon to ask this question.

“Simon Walde. I hope I can still call you that.”

Vincent also stared into the other party’s eyes and said, “Ignoring my servitude to you as a mage consultant for 24 years, if I had… even the slightest intention of replacing you, do you think I would have told you everything about this? Or have you long forgotten your original intention of fighting for independence for the Blackwater Province? Have you become a monster that only knows about seizing power?”

After Vincent finished speaking, the two of them looked at each other in silence for a long time.

Finally, Duke Simon broke the silence.

“I’m sorry, Vincent. My current position doesn’t allow me to miss out on any threats…”

Vincent said, “But you can always trust me.”

Duke Simon asked, “Then what do you plan on doing next?”

Vincent replied, “Confirm that person’s identity first. If he’s a prophet or a Judge, I don’t think it’s impossible to cooperate with him. The conditions he proposes aren’t worse than the three goddesses. When the time comes, as long as you swear to him that you will give up on cooperation with the Moon Realm, he will agree to let you…”

This was also why Vincent wanted to block Duke Simon’s connection with the spirit of the Moon Realm.

But before he could finish speaking, Duke Simon interrupted him. “No.”

Duke Simon’s expression returned to that of superciliousness.

“No, there’s no turning back. Be it the King and Rebel Conversion or the Eternal Gift, all the rituals are ready. Go to the Astral Lighthouse’s Astral Observatory later and replace that old turtle as the tower guardian for half a day,” Duke Simon said to Vincent in a commanding tone.

“After the ritual on my side is completed, there should be a few days before the Astral Council closes the Stranger Tower. When the time comes, use the authority of the tower to break through to that realm. After that, you, I, and the Blackwater Kingdom will announce our new life to this world.”

Vincent looked at Duke Simon, who was gradually becoming fanatical, with a wooden expression. He felt like he was looking at a stranger.

“The preparations for the ritual have been completed? When did that happen?”

Duke Simon didn’t answer Vincent’s question.

“What about the Divine Realm magic chanter? How are you going to deal with him?” Vincent continued asking.

“When everything is settled, even a Divine Realm mage can’t threaten the new Blackwater Kingdom,” Duke Simon replied.

“Otherwise, why would I have the confidence to gain independence from the Riel Empire?”