"Saer de…" Lucian confirmed Rhein's judgment through the Arcane Magic feedback.
This former Cardinal of the Voltaire diocese, the ambitious conspirator, had long since lost his body and soul under the Divine Descent Art, leaving behind only mysterious fragments — yet the secrets he harbored were far from few. Why had he been able to use the Divine Descent Art? What exactly had he obtained in the World of Doors? How had he managed to escape that monster? What was the nature of his partnership with the Seraph King? And what exactly were those mysterious fragments?
Rhein chuckled. "I originally entered the World of Doors to track him, but after running into the monster, I lost his trail. Who would have thought that just as I'd completely given up and decided to focus entirely on solving the mystery of the monster, I'd stumble upon traces of him again? Fate is truly unpredictable."
"I believe our top priority right now is still reaching Thanos's laboratory and uncovering the monster's secrets." Lucian was very tempted to track down the "Saer de fragment" as well, but this was the dangerous World of Doors. He had to keep firmly focused on the main objective and not get distracted.
Rhein didn't object. He gave a self-deprecating smile. "You open the door then — I'm worried my bad luck might rub off."
Lucian wanted to say that they were about even — after all, he'd been the one who opened the door when they encountered "Ivan." In professional terms, both of them had terribly black hands. But then he considered that Rhein had opened a door and discovered "Heavenly Mountain" — a feat of bad luck he couldn't hope to match — so he simply nodded. "Fine. At least after I open a door, the thing on the other side tends to still be within an escapable range."
The path fell quiet once more, as though the terrifying monster had forgotten about them both. But as they drew ever closer to Thanos's laboratory, Rhein suddenly halted, speaking in puzzlement: "It's that mysterious fragment's trail again…"
Saer de had been reduced to nothing but mysterious fragments. He had no ability to erase his traces or aura, so it was only natural that someone entering the same hall could sense him. But in the World of Doors, entering the same hall was a matter of probability!
"Could Saer de's destination also be Thanos's laboratory?" One encounter was a coincidence. Two encounters, and Lucian could no longer help but suspect that their paths were converging — and there was only one reason for converging paths: the same destination.
Rhein maintained his elegant smile. "Very possible. I've always been quite curious about what happened to him. He somehow became able to use the Divine Descent Art out of nowhere. Perhaps the secret lies within Thanos's laboratory."
Over the next three grey halls, the two of them discovered Saer de's aura and traces in one of them without surprise, further confirming their theory.
A few minutes later, Lucian and Rhein stood before a black door that showed nothing out of the ordinary.
"Thanos's laboratory is beyond this door?" Rhein lacked confidence in his own calculation abilities and sought confirmation from Lucian, the expert.
Lucian nodded solemnly. "Master Rhein, prepare yourself. There may be great danger within. My ruling star in fate has been giving me warning premonitions."
"Of course — a top mage's laboratory would certainly be protected by a maze lock." Rhein's title was "The Observer," and his adventuring experience was extensive.
The words had barely left his mouth when suddenly one of the black doors nearby shifted, emitting a faint sound.
Lucian and Rhein had been on guard against someone breaking in all along, and their instincts nearly drove them to attack. But after that faint noise, the door remained tightly shut, with no sign of having opened at all — as if the two of them had simply hallucinated.
"I smell Saer de's aura." As a Vampire Prince, Rhein possessed extraordinarily keen senses for the scent of living beings.
"He's trying to come in?" Lucian said instinctively. "No — he just left."
In this final hall leading to Thanos's laboratory, Lucian and Rhein had also found Saer de's traces, which meant they believed he had already entered the laboratory. Who knew where he had gone instead? And now he had deliberately come back to make a noise?
"Luring us over, to ambush us?" Rhein speculated on Saer de's intentions.
Lucian shook his head. "Is there any need for that? He could simply ambush us inside Thanos's laboratory — that's a place we have no choice but to go."
Suddenly, Lucian felt a stir in his heart, an inexplicable premonition. He took out a crystal ball and cast a divination spell, receiving a surprisingly vague result: "Follow Saer de…"
"What?" Lucian and Rhein exchanged a glance, equally startled.
"Shall we follow him then? We'll head back after three minutes regardless of what we find — it won't delay our exploration of Thanos's laboratory." Astrology mages maintained a certain degree of confidence in their own prophetic results, so Lucian made the suggestion.
After completing his theory of General Relativity, his divination abilities had improved dramatically, no worse than those of a first-rank "Prophet" class.
Rhein thought for a moment, then strangely fell silent before nodding. "Very well."
And so, the two of them cautiously pushed open the door that had made the noise. As expected, they found traces of Saer de's lingering aura, and following his trail, they passed through two consecutive grey halls before once again stopping before a black door that appeared to have nothing peculiar about it.
Lucian, who had been calculating their coordinates the entire time, suddenly said in surprise: "Beyond this door is also Thanos's laboratory!"
"We've circled around and come back?" Rhein said with an amused tone — had they been played by Saer de?
Lucian shook his head. "This must be a different entrance."
"Saer de wants to lure us in through this entrance?" Rhein's smile faded. Several Legendary-grade artifacts on his person hummed with latent power, ready to deploy at a moment's notice. Then, warily, he pushed open the black door.
The door swung slowly open, and a vast, magnificent laboratory appeared before their eyes. Mysterious patterns covered every surface — three-dimensional models, eerie Magic Circles, solemn arrays of Divine Arts, and row upon row of shattered mirrors embedded in the grey walls.
The laboratory was the size of the entire Naxera Palace, with numerous corridors leading to different chambers and fragments scattered across the floor.