Chapter 286: Rhapsody (1)

Desir knew all too well that Priscilla was not a foolish person.

‘She probably believes that once they capture Dresden, they can overcome everything that will happen after that.’

Desir was unable to come up with an exact method, but that had to be why she was acting so recklessly. With the resources Priscilla has access to, she shouldn’t be able to continue the war after taking Dresden. So, if it is not a war of conquest, and there is something she wants in Dresden that will allow her to continue the war…

In a flash of inspiration, Desir recalled someone else’s plan. Something capable of transcending physical military power, something that would make a war in the present irrelevant.

‘… the Artemis system.’

Desir hurriedly removed the necklace from his dimensional pocket and activated it. Instantly the scenery around him began to morph and distort until it was replaced by a blanket of white. Looking around, he found what he was searching for: Lunia. Upon seeing Desir, she politely greeted him with a small curtsy.

“You’re back, user.”

“Nice to see you, Lunia.”

After a simple greeting, Desir asked without hesitation.

“Lunia, I’d like to know if the city called Dresden has means to operate the Artemis system.”

Even if Priscilla won the battle, their defeat would be imminent. If they used the Artemis system, they could change the past to overcome any burden incurred. But at the moment, the Artemis system was completely dysfunctional.

But there were other variables in play. In Altea, Priscilla was clearly working with Pierrot Mask, who had certainly betrayed Skull Mask. Under the circumstances, Desir was now certain that Pierrot Mask had stolen the core of the power source shortly after killing him, and was planning to use that to activate the Artemis system.

Lunia closed her eyes in response. Straight away, the circuits that were carved onto her dress and the runic alphabet on her skin began to glow. Her eyes quickly fluttered open, and her mouth soon followed.

“It existed.”

“Past tense? Does it not exist any more?”

“To be exact, there used to be facilities capable of activating the Artemis system at the geographical location where Dresden now lies, but they were destroyed during the fall of mankind.”

It was as he assumed; this was her goal.

‘Skull Mask had been around since the fall of mankind, so he must have known about the facilities in Dresden too.’

However, Skull Mask had not been able to use them. He worked tirelessly to build a foundation for his plan, going as far as to puppet several nations into working for him.

In other words, Skull Mask was dependent on building a new foundation in order to repair the Artemis system.

But Priscilla was another story.

She had a transcendent recovery ability that she had kept disguised as a healing ability up until now. It was strong enough that she was capable of restoring an entire airship within a second.

‘Perhaps she’s trying to restore the operating facility for the Artemis system.’

Once Priscilla dominated Dresden, she could get the facility back into working condition. With the system fixed, she only needed the means to power it, which Pierrot Mask had obtained.

‘She’s probably known about the Artemis system for a very long time.’

Thinking that the Church of Artemis and the Artemis system were unrelated was optimistic at best, and naive at worst. It was likely that Priscilla had known about the Artemis system since she became the Saint, or maybe even sooner.

As Desir organized his thoughts, he continued to ask questions.

“Is there anywhere else with such facilities?”

“In total, there are four places from which you can operate the Artemis system. Unfortunately, the other three are impossible to access after errors occurred in the reproduction of history.”

She was referring to the erosion caused by failing to clear a Shadow World.

This was why Priscilla was aiming for Dresden.

Desir spoke with a nod.

“Tell me the exact place of the facilities for the Artemis System in Dresden.”

At that moment, the white-colored space distorted and a landscape appeared.

The more the view came into focus, the wider Desir’s eyes grew.

A lakeside by willow trees.

A dorm with a pink tone.

The landscape was all too familiar.

‘What are the odds?’

The place where the Artemis System facility was located, the place Priscilla was aiming for…

It was the Hebrion Academy.

Shortly after recovering from his surprise, Desir quickly calmed down and organized his thoughts.

There was no time to waste on such things.

“Lunia, I have a few more things to check.”

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* * *

After finding out what he could, Desir returned to reality and contacted someone on his communication pad.

Afterwards, he made his way towards the Magic Tower branch in Adeina. Thanks to the Immortal Rosario, Desir had recovered enough for him to move around on his own, but combat was still out of the question. Having arrived at his destination, Desir made his way towards the basement.

Given the countless number of branch locations, each Magic Tower had been designed slightly differently. Some branches had specialized in a certain type of research, and some were used as glorified warehouses, but they all had one thing in common:

There was a research department for Shadow Worlds in their basements.

Once the elevator doors parted, Desir was face to face with an impressive array of technological equipment adorning the huge space. Magical transportation tubes shot up and down the walls while several of the consoles whirred in concentration, working tirelessly to discover any incoming Shadow Worlds or compute equations given by any of the researchers present.

As he entered, someone noticed him and approached.

It was the Second Master of the Magic Tower, Hephaestus.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Is it ready?”

“Of course.”

Desir headed to the door-shaped structure in the center of the lab, following Hephaestus’s guide.

“Should we get started right away?”

“Yes, please.”

As Desir nodded, Hephaestus struck the ground twice with the cane he held. The researchers, who had already been scurrying around, quickly went into double time.

Soon the structure in front of him started activating, oozing a symphonic sound.

Hephaestus spoke to Desir after inspecting the now-activated gate.

“All the parameters are as you requested. The clear condition was set to flicking your finger twice in a row, so you can leave whenever you’re finished.”

The giant structure in front of them was the gate that connected to a virtual Shadow World.

Though Hephaestus acted nonchalant, Desir was very much aware of the tremendous effort and hard work it took to pull off his request.

“Thank you, Second Master.”

“As part of Zod Exarion’s will, you inherited all the rights of the previous Tower Master. Following the Tower Master’s instructions is just part of my job as Second Master.”

Hephaestus made a deep bow to Desir.

After Desir bowed back to him to show his appreciation, he strode towards the gate.

His vision blackened at the same time.

[-You have entered a Shadow World.]

The familiar notification rang out, but this time it felt a little strange. This was the first time Desir had entered a Shadow World since meeting Lunia, and the mental image was a little bizarre.

Still, Desir could not afford to waste time over inconsequential oddities. Desir stretched his joints, well aware of what he was about to face.

To be exact, the Shadow World he was about to enter was created to his specification, and it was the perfect opportunity for him to train. Even though battle would break out between the Artemis Church and the Hebrion Empire at any moment, this was not something he could afford to delay.

‘Let’s do my best.’

Although his body had recovered to be up and about due to the effect of Immortal Rosario, it was still too much for him to go into combat. He needed to heal more to be fully prepared and he had to make the most of his time. In that vein, he chose to spend this limited time on further improving his magic.

‘I need to get stronger than I am now.’

His most recent spell design was far more convoluted than the original system used to create his first modified spell, [Fire Storm]. He had integrated the tesseract’s spell structure into his draconic incantation, and was able to perform overwhelmingly powerful spells as a result.

But he miserably realized that this was not enough.

After the violent collision in Altea, he felt that his current self could not reach her.

‘Draconic magic is the only thing capable of overpowering her regenerative power.’

Draconic magic had a completely different level of power compared to general magic. It was strong enough to knock down the Ancient Demon, Dadenewt, and The Beast of Revelation.

However, as it had a powerful effect, it also had a few massive drawbacks. The enormous load that it put on its user was beyond what a human body could withstand and the long time spent casting the spell would put the user at risk.

Desir had known those drawbacks for a long time, and tried to improve on them. Though he could pull off these spells by using another spell to shift the heavy burden, he had made no progress on hastening the speed he could cast these spells at.

It seemed that Desir had hit a fundamental limit, something that was inherent to draconic magic that he could never overcome. Desir had given up, to an extent. There was no simple way to overcome such a situation.

That was, until he deciphered the code Zod had left within his cane.

*Rrrr*

Desir pulled out Zod’s cane from his dimensional pocket. It was adorned with a blood-red stone, carved into the shape of a flower. Zod had transformed the level one mana stone to resemble his favorite flower, and the stone had subsequently become known as the Red Spider Lily.

Zod had imbued the Red Spider Lily with a highly encrypted cypher, such that no one other than him or Desir could decode it.

It had taken him a few hours, but when Des1r deciphered the code, he discovered a recording from Zod.

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