Facing this situation, Rhein shook his head with a wry smile. "When Maskelyn wrote up to this point, he must have remembered something critically important. His emotions were so shaken that he destroyed the secret chamber and left in a hurry before finishing his speculative conclusions, leaving those of us reading his notes utterly frustrated."
"I think so too," Lucian said, having recovered his composure. "Given that no legendary battle took place here and there's no evidence of deliberate damage, it's easy to conclude that Mr. Maskelyn left voluntarily — yet extremely hurriedly." He was piecing together the scene from the faintest clues.
Rhein looked around the chamber and said, "This means whatever Maskelyn rushed off to do was more important than leaving clues behind — it may have been the key to destroying the monster."
"But no matter how rushed he was, he couldn't have been so pressed for time that he couldn't even finish writing the result... How long does it take to write a name? With the aid of magic?" Lucian answered his own question. "Less than a second."
Rhein studied the long ink trail that Maskelyn had dragged across the page, looking exactly like a historian authenticating a document — he was practically reaching for a magnifying glass. "You can clearly feel the shock Maskelyn experienced from this scratch. Logically speaking, he'd already reasoned this far — he shouldn't have been so stunned that he couldn't even write a name, unless something happened outside the secret chamber, or some clue suddenly appeared before his eyes..."
A thought struck Lucian, one he himself could barely believe. "Perhaps when Mr. Maskelyn wrote to this point, he suddenly recalled a critical detail he'd overlooked — one that completely overturned his previous reasoning and gave him an entirely new direction of speculation. So he rushed off to seek confirmation from objects or traces elsewhere. The reason the scratch he left behind seems so full of shock is that the new suspect was someone he never would have expected. And the reason he didn't finish writing the monster's identity from his earlier theory is because that theory was wrong."
"A remarkably bold hypothesis, and a very plausible explanation," Rhein remarked with admiration. "But regardless, I suspect the monster is connected to Thanatos — because that fellow is a monster himself. Heh, just like you."
He spoke as though he were quite familiar with Thanatos.
"I've suspected the same," Lucian said. "Previously, in the Sun King's underground palace, I obtained Thanatos's incomplete notes and saw the divinity sphere he had condensed — or rather, the negative emotion sphere. Combined with Rudolf II's behavior and words about the considerable gains he obtained from it, I believe the Sun King found a way to transform himself into one of the Seven Ancient Devils. Drawing from the path of how false gods condense divinity, he eliminated the negative side effects of this transformation. Such a creation should be able to project itself into others' bodies and also directly transform into anyone based on memories or negative emotions."
Lucian spoke more and more fluidly, as though Thanatos were the culprit — yet the thought that an existence approaching quasi-godhood from over a thousand years ago might be responsible sent a chill down his spine. By now, "he" probably had the true power of a quasi-god, didn't he?
Rhein asked, puzzled, "I know he studied the Ancient Devils — I even provided some of the materials myself. But what exactly is a divinity sphere? And what is a negative emotion sphere?"
"That would be the inner chamber that you weren't able to discover, Mr. Rhein..." Lucian gave a brief explanation.
Rhein let out a breath. "So he kept quite a lot of his research hidden. Judging from the several times Rudolf II manifested through projection, he may have truly found a way to go further — using transformation into the Seven Ancient Devils to escape his original limitations. Hmm, now that I think about it, don't you find that the monster's ability to know our memories fits the characteristics of a 'Thanatos Demon'? Understanding all present conditions allows complete mastery of past and future..."
"In theory, I don't believe a 'Thanatos Demon' could exist. It's merely an abstract concept used to illustrate a certain principle. If it truly existed, the computational power and corresponding energy required would be beyond imagination — destroying the entire world and all the extra-dimensional spaces wouldn't be enough." Lucian answered Rhein's question from the rigorous perspective of an Archanist, while silently thinking to himself: If it really is a "Thanatos Demon," then I'll unleash "Schrödinger's Cat"!
Rhein clicked his tongue. "Perhaps it's just a simplified version. So — what do we do next?"
"Mr. Maskelyn's notes break off at a critical point, leaving us unable to determine how the monster was created, what weaknesses it has, or how to exploit them. All of that should be documented in Thanatos's leftover laboratory that they mentioned. At the very least, there must be experimental records of how the monster was made — if the monster hasn't already destroyed them..." Lucian thought for a moment, overcame his frustration, and found his fighting spirit renewed. "Mr. Maskelyn and those ancient mages might not have been able to spot the problems in those experimental records, but we modern Archanists just might!"
Seeing the fierce determination on Lucian's face, Rhein chuckled. "Even if you hadn't become a mage back then, you could have awakened your bloodline power through sheer willpower. A lack of training before coming of age can be compensated for, you know. Heh — at this point, we have no choice but to go to Thanatos's laboratory. The problem is, we don't know the location or coordinates, do we?"
Lucian produced the Mirror of Destiny. "This concerns events that have already occurred in the past — it should be able to give a precise prediction, at least much clearer than trying to divine the monster's weaknesses."
The fact that Maskelyn had only received vague hints had already put Lucian off the idea of using the Mirror of Destiny to predict the monster.
Lucian held the magic crystal ball in his left hand. Once it lit up, he swept his right hand across the Mirror of Destiny — its surface covered in mysterious patterns — and chanted strange, arcane incantations.
The dull, gray surface of the Mirror of Destiny rippled with a watery sheen, and within the shimmering light, a pair of numbers materialized.
"We have the coordinates to Thanatos's laboratory." Lucian smiled.
With a sharp crack, the Mirror of Destiny shattered completely — yet no fragments fell to the ground. Instead, it dissolved into countless shards of light that danced and vanished.
"We're going now?" Rhein asked.
Lucian shook his head. "The flow of time here is consistent with the outside world — much faster than the World of the Gate. We need to take this opportunity to let the legendary items recover."
As he spoke, he picked up the puppet's torso and attached two arms and a leg to it.
"I'll use this chance to expel my weakness as well." Rhein nodded, leaning sideways against a bookshelf.
A few hours later, inside the secret chamber, the golden crown held in Lucian's right hand was emitting a faint dark aura.
"The Ancient Mummy's crown? What effects does it have?" Rhein opened his eyes, his silver irises having returned to normal.
Lucian smacked his lips. "The Ancient Mummy didn't leave any information about this item. Right now I can only roughly judge that it can transform into gloves, armor, boots, and similar items, providing defensive capability approaching the peak of legendary tier, immunity to numerous negative legendary magic, and emanating a terrifying aura of decay. However, wearing it causes slight confusion in the brain and effectively impairs cognitive function..."
Leaving information within magical items was a practice that only became popular during the Magic Empire era, allowing each successive owner to master the item more easily. For example, Lucian had successfully handled the Mirror of Destiny with just an Identify spell. At the same time, this custom allowed the names of item crafters to spread far and wide, becoming celebrated legends. Later, the Church inherited this tradition intact and applied the same treatment to lost civilization artifacts it collected. However, Ancient Mummies and Lich Kings are undead creatures — they obviously never developed this habit.
"It would pair nicely with the Sword of Truth," Rhein said with a jest. "A knight only needs normal reasoning in combat anyway. In fact, a standard barbarian epic warrior is quite formidable too. Shall we wait for the Shield of Truth to be repaired before we set out?"
"No need. Since we already have an extremely powerful defensive piece of equipment, there's no reason to wait for the Shield of Truth — time is of the essence." Lucian made his decision. The Moon Chronometer and the Grand Archanist's Robe still needed close to half a day to fully recover, and they couldn't just sit around waiting for the monster to come to them.
As he spoke, he transformed into an Epic Knight and converted the "Mummy Crown" into "Mummy Gloves," which he put on.
Rhein straightened up from where he'd been leaning. "Then let's go!"