After returning to Alinya, Heidi did not head to the Mission Area to report the situation, nor did she go to the Mage Administration Department to have high-ranking astrologers handle the materials and items from this evil magic ritual case. Instead, she went directly to the outer layer of the "Babel Tower," and under the guidance of a servant, entered the "Atomic Universe."
She felt that this matter was quite bizarre and needed to be reported to her teacher.
Inside the "Atomic Universe," the true Babel Tower soared from the iron-element planet into the void of space, possessing an almost fantastical beauty.
"Good afternoon, Your Majesty." The moment Heidi stepped through the door, she saw Natasha, and immediately greeted her in a somewhat flustered manner. She greatly admired and revered Natasha's personality and way of doing things, so she always felt considerable pressure and quite nervous when facing her.
Natasha looked at Heidi's slightly hurried demeanor with amusement, rubbing her chin as she said, "I'm not a man-eating monster. Is there really any need to be afraid?"
"No, I just—" Heidi hurriedly tried to explain.
Natasha waved her hand, cutting her off. "Your teacher is waiting for you."
"Mm, my teacher knew I would come?" Upon getting to business, Heidi's nervousness quickly subsided, and she asked with a hint of doubt. Then, before Natasha could answer, she murmured thoughtfully to herself, "I channeled the power of my teacher's demiplane earlier. Perhaps he was paying attention to the scene at that time because of that."
As she pondered, she followed Natasha to the study, where she saw her teacher sitting in the chair behind the desk, smiling at her.
Lucian was still wearing his black double-breasted long coat, his hair had grown a bit longer, and the monocle over his left eye shimmered faintly in the light streaming from the window. "I already know the general details of what happened. Hand over the materials and items to me."
"Teacher. I think this matter is probably not that simple. This magic ritual seems to conceal something even more deeply bizarre—" Heidi handed the materials and items to Lucian.
"I know. I'll discuss it with the Chairman, my teacher, and Grandmother Hathaway. An evil magic ritual like this can't be judged by its surface elements alone." Lucian casually flipped through the materials. "Turn in your mission assignment. What comes after is beyond your involvement."
Heidi nodded solemnly. "Yes, Teacher."
As the Queen of the Holm Kingdom, Natasha naturally also had an interest in this matter. After Heidi left, she turned a serious gaze on Lucian. "It reminds me very much of the Seven Ancient Devils. The removal of internal organs is merely a superficial ritual step. What it truly seeks is the emotion of suffering. Wikie knows you've discovered his identity, so he recklessly leaked the method of converting into Ancient Devils on a large scale, trying to get the Kingdom and the Council to fight among themselves first?"
"Greed is the root of all things." Lucian sighed. "As for whether it was Wikie who had the Night Watch secretly disseminate it, or whether there's some other mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes — we can't trace it for now. We can only use other methods to apply pressure for the time being, acting quietly while keeping things tight in secret."
Natasha nodded gently, frowning slightly. "The Ancient Devils are extremely troublesome. Difficult to eradicate, though fortunately the 'Sword of Truth' bloodline is quite effective against them. Lucian, have you finished analyzing your legendary spell? Are you preparing to advance to the third tier of legendary?"
For Grand Arcanists, advancing to the third tier was almost without obstacle. Lucian had published enough important papers over the past two years, so he was only half a step away from the third tier. However, the gap from third tier to the peak was a major bottleneck. Before Lucian's new alchemy was published, among the Council's seven Grand Arcanists, only two had reached legendary peak! And Oliver, Helen, and Vincent had all been unable to break through even during the era of great arcane development.
As for the leap from peak to demigod — over countless years, among the many who had reached legendary peak, only Thanos and Wikie had succeeded, and even then with hidden dangers!
"The two legendary spells 'Wrath of the Ice Goddess' and 'Silent Abyss' have been fully analyzed, and I've obtained the information I wanted. I'm currently combining these gains to improve 'Wrath of the Ice Goddess,' turning it into an entirely new legendary spell." Lucian hid nothing from Natasha, speaking freely about his current work.
In truth, if he wished to advance, it would be even easier for him than for other Grand Arcanists, because the "Eternal Solar Flare" was a spell that could only be learned at the third tier of legendary, and it had long since taken shape in his world of cognition. With the assistance of a magic ritual, he could break through smoothly.
Currently, the legendary spells constructed within Lucian's soul numbered nine: "Atomic Fission," "Gaze of Vengeance," "Scepter of Space-Time," "Evans's Hand of Uncertainty," "Grand Dissolution," "Abrupt Reversal," "Psychic Detonation," "Storm Barrier," and "Mirror of Destiny." Once the improved "Wrath of the Ice Goddess" was completed and successfully constructed, he would reach the pinnacle of the second tier of legendary, and then advance using the "Eternal Solar Flare."
Natasha looked at Lucian curiously. "Improve? You've gained quite a lot from these two ice-type legendary spells?"
"Temperature is a manifestation of molecular thermal movement. The more vigorous the movement, the higher the temperature, and vice versa. At the legendary level, conventional cooling procedures and spellcasting materials can no longer achieve better results. So I needed to analyze these two ice-type legendary spells, find their temperature-lowering partial models, and correspond them with their arcane significance. The results were pretty much what I expected — it saved me the effort of building new models from scratch. I only need to make improvements to a certain degree. Moreover, this method also has important applications in microscopic-level research."
Lucian pointed at the legendary spell materials on the desk as he spoke.
Natasha did not find these topics Lucian brought up tedious at all — in fact, she was quite interested. "I've heard that precisely because the arcane significance of ice-type legendary spells wasn't well understood, the legendary mages of the Palamedes Hut throughout the generations were all relatively weaker in strength. They could only rely on spiritual power and superficial understanding to forcibly construct the spells, which meant many ice-type legendary spells were difficult to learn and couldn't be brought to their maximum effect. Lady Helen is considered an exceptional arcanist, yet when she learned 'Wrath of the Ice Goddess,' she also basically had to force-construct it."