The silver-gray longsword wavered slightly, and Rhein suddenly flickered to a spot behind the not-yet-closed door, leaving only a fading phantom at his original position. He spoke with a mix of amusement and curiosity: "You ran into that monster that can genuinely disguise itself as others too?"
There was a hint of relief in his tone, as though confirming Lucian was real.
Lucian watched him warily. After re-casting Mechanical Mind and Psychic Barrier, he felt sufficiently rational and composed not to launch a direct attack. "Mr. Rhein, how can I be sure you're real?"
At the very least, you need to provide irrefutable proof. Otherwise, it would be better for us to go our separate ways.
Rhein held the door open, preventing it from closing, and smiled. "I understand. Aura, bloodline, body, memory — none of those can reliably determine whether someone is the monster in disguise. I've already been hurt that way before. But there is one thing I believe the monster cannot replicate — unless it happens to be the God of Truth itself."
"What is it?" Lucian vaguely guessed at Rhein's answer.
A pair of enormous bat wings materialized behind Rhein's crimson coat. A faint silver-white moonlight blazed to life, and the aura of a demigod — transcendent and otherworldly, as though gazing down from on high — descended upon the gray hall, as if a silver moon were slowly rising within it.
"That is the Ancestor's presence. The monster certainly cannot impersonate a demigod. And the intertwined aura on your left hand tells me you are not a fake."
Sensing the familiar presence of Etna, Lucian finally let out a soft breath. He unreservedly revealed the lingering traces of Silver Moon and the mysterious death-realm entity's aura on his left hand. "Fine. I believe you are Mr. Rhein. If the monster could replicate a demigod's aura, then whether I'm deceived or not wouldn't matter — I'd be unable to escape either way."
Rhein coughed twice, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. For a vampire, coughing up blood was a grave injury, but he smiled without the slightest concern. "Caution is the natural choice. I was merely careless for a moment."
"The monster I encountered was disguised as you. What about yours?" Lucian put away the Sword of Truth but kept the Shield of Truth raised, maintaining his guard at all times.
Rhein coughed twice more. "It was disguised as another prince of the blood clan — the one I'm on good terms with."
"Oh. So it seems the monster can't only disguise itself as living beings that have entered the 'Gray Labyrinth,' but can also simulate other powerful individuals." Lucian said with puzzlement. What principle was this based on?
Gray Labyrinth was what Lucian called the gray hall with its black doors.
"Gray Labyrinth? Heh. This place is called the 'World of Doors' — at least, that's what the legendary mages who disappeared here used to call it." Rhein corrected Lucian's naming. "I suspect there's something peculiar about this World of Doors. Perhaps our memories cannot be kept secret, and the monster used my memory to disguise itself as him."
If memories couldn't be kept secret, what about his secret of coming from Earth? What about the Soul Library? Lucian frowned as he pondered this grave question. Would he soon see that monster mimicking the Primordial Heavenly Lord, the Supreme Elderly Lord, a Gundam, a Super Saiyan, a planet-destroying warship, or a shrink ray?
Now that really would be quite the spectacular sight…
"The World of Doors? Mr. Rhein, did you find something that Viken and the others left behind?" There was no way to discuss the Soul Library with Rhein, so Lucian shifted to another key topic.
Rhein shook his head. "I tracked the mysterious fragment inside Saer de's body to this place. Before the ambush, I only found a few torn scraps of paper with some records on them."
He harbored no secrets about this and "sent" several gray sheets of paper flying toward Lucian.
Carefully catching them with Mage's Hand, Lucian hastily scanned through the contents. "…There are practically countless black doors here. Behind each door may lie a surprise, or perhaps danger. We have named this place the World of Doors…"
"…Behind several doors, we happened upon some peculiar creatures. They appear to share similarities with the research we were previously conducting. Had we not already made some progress in our work, we might never have discovered them…"
"…Perhaps through studying these creatures, we can find a way to enter that place…"
"…It seems someone has been in here before…"
The handwriting on two of the sheets was familiar to Lucian. One belonged to MacLeod, whom he had just encountered, and the other to the Prophet Maskelyne.
"Peculiar creatures? Does that mean there are many of those monsters?" Lucian said with a creeping sense of dread, while privately mulling over the contents of the last scrap. Someone had been here before? Before Maskelyne and the others?
Rhein closed the black door, produced a clean white handkerchief, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He shook his head. "Impossible. If there were many monsters, Maskelyne and his group wouldn't have had the chance to discover them, let alone take notes so calmly."
He meant that Maskelyne's group had likely been wiped out shortly after entering. After all, their strength couldn't match his own — the man who could summon the Silver Moon's descent — and with their large numbers, they would have been easy prey for monsters skilled at disguise.
"That's true. Even you, Mr. Rhein, were ambushed and seriously wounded." Lucian nodded gently. "By the way, Mr. Rhein, how strong was the monster you encountered?"
Rhein folded the handkerchief and tucked it into his coat pocket. "Peak legendary. A genuine peak legendary. I had to summon the Ancestor's power just to drive it back. Though, if I hadn't been caught off guard, even if I couldn't have beaten it, I could still have escaped." He paused for a moment, then smiled and added with a touch of humor: "After all, I am a third-rank legendary."
"How come the one I encountered was only second-rank legendary?" Lucian found this quite puzzling. "Could it be that we ran into different monsters?"
"If they were different monsters, why would both happen to be exactly one rank above our own strength?" Rhein keenly spotted the inconsistency. "Setting aside the ability to summon the Ancestor, I am a third-rank legendary. Without equipment bonuses, you should only be at first-rank legendary level, correct?"