Free Web NovelChapter 393: Chapter 390: War Frenzy
As his split-self sacrificed its body to become a tree, his original body felt the change.
"Teacher?" Andre grew worried when he saw that the altar remained unchanged. But Rorschach began dismantling the entire ritual setup. "It’s over. The objective has been achieved."
"Then your split-self..."
That wisp of his split soul was certainly unrecoverable now. However, it wasn’t destroyed; it was simply buried deep within a space bubble, so his main body hadn’t suffered any trauma. ’A blessing in disguise?’ Rorschach sighed. Sacrificing a split-self for a piece of unclaimed land was a worthy trade. (Of course, neither he nor his split-self knew the original purpose of this space.)
The only negative consequence was that he could no longer cast the Descent Summoning Technique. If he tried to split his soul again, his main body would cry out in protest. Splitting one’s soul too many times only to lose one’s nose and hair wasn’t a price worth paying.
"Only you and I can know what happened today. You are not to tell anyone else," Rorschach reminded Andre. More than achieving his goal of finding a spatial vesicle, Rorschach was now preoccupied with the information he’d gleaned from the Thoth Temple.
He picked up the extinguished Balan’s Pearl, toying with it in his hand as a thought surfaced. ’Back in the second hall, aside from the numerous statues of "Bart," the most important things were the emblems.’
On the right side of the great hall, at the head of the line, stood the two-faced Thoth, one side with an "Ibis Head" and the other a "Monkey Head." The pattern on the wall, viewed from the right, was unmistakably the Secret Contract of the Aurora Hermitage—a design hidden within every Guild Mage’s badge. When Rorschach’s split-self had gazed upon this Secret Contract, it had responded, glowing sequentially with blue, purple, and then red light. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
The other side was even more intriguing. Balan was lined up there, along with Quilimo, the guardian deity of travelers—Rorschach recalled the second statue from the left; its features all pointed to that god. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
But the statue corresponding to the two-faced Thoth was just an empty pedestal. Either the original statue had vanished for some reason, or that Divine Spirit never had a physical form to begin with...
It was easy to make the connection to a being from a faith originating in a region near that of the two-faced Thoth... the Formless God!
All references, whether in text or effigy, seemed to state its nature plainly: It has no form and cannot be described.
And this entity, much like its counterpart Thoth—the god of wisdom, medicine, the Moon, and the "creator of writing and alchemy"—didn’t seem like a deity being worshiped in the hall. Instead, they stood like sentinels. In fact, all the statues resembled guards in formation, suggesting the entire second hall was built not for them, but for the pattern in the center—or rather, for the being that pattern represented.
And viewed from the left, that pattern was the Order Holy Emblem.
’Balan is a Subordinate God and Prophet of the Formless God, and the right hand of the Lord of Order is suspected to be the Formless God...’
’I think I’ve stumbled onto something huge. The old tirades of certain mythology conspiracy theorists might actually have some basis in fact.’ As an amateur investigator, Rorschach consulted his references again and found a description of the monster from the great hall in the scriptures of the God of Light and Order:
Hailub, a Great Angel commanded by a Guardian Spirit to protect a Divine Kingdom. He was glorified by zealots as the archetype of all living things and omnipresent among them. Different records describe him with various appearances, most commonly a winged beast’s body with a human head, but also with an eagle’s head like a griffin, or... a strange bull’s head.
’So I got the classic model.’ Rorschach chuckled to himself. He then recalled another detail: his split-self had rolled through the second veil under the light of the Hermitage’s Secret Contract on the right side of the hall. What if he had entered from the left side?
Connecting that to the appearance of the Divine Kingdom’s gatekeeper, could Rorschach have rolled right into the Divine Kingdom of the Lord of Order?
Hsss... ’I nearly took a shortcut to Heaven.’ An unbeliever barging into the domain of a powerful Divine Spirit confirmed to still be active... He couldn’t very well say to the deity, "Hi, I’m here to view the property. This lot looks pretty good, are you willing to sell or rent?"
In any case, Rorschach now occupied a spatial vesicle that perfectly met his requirements. To make further use of it, however, he would need to relocate the Tower Spirit’s core.
’No, there’s another prerequisite.’ He had to determine whether that region leaned more toward a material or ethereal state. If it was a quasi-Material Realm, like a "Sub-plane," it would be a simple matter of moving in. If it was the latter, a quasi-Symbolic Realm, there was no telling what problems might arise after the Tower Spirit’s core entered.
All these operations would require the assistance of an expert in spatiotemporal matters. Rorschach wrote another letter to Teacher Caroline. This time, however, it wasn’t to offer advice, but to extend an invitation for her to take up residence in his personal Mage Tower as a fellow researcher.
"I have chanced upon a small, unclaimed, independent plane. My preliminary assessment is that it exists within a Transformation Layer Flow, but thankfully its spatial walls are sufficiently stable... I invite you to come explore and research it with me." Rorschach was confident that this sentence alone would be enough to lure—ahem, hire—no, *persuade* Lady Caroline to come for some collaborative research.
Would Caroline come? It was highly likely. The "small, independent plane" Rorschach had dangled was the bait, and external factors were also pushing Caroline to find a new job.
By the time she returned to campus, the war had already started, and the apprentices at the Royal Magic Academy were exceptionally excited about it. They eagerly discussed the consolidated battle reports from various fronts.
As most of the Academy’s students came from wealthy or noble families, they had their own private channels of information, and the victory bulletins they shared among themselves were always a step ahead of the public media. They passionately discussed the heroic feats of the Empire Army. There was even a saying in the Imperial Capital that the speed at which the Moonlight Lake Restaurant’s revenue grew reflected the speed of the war’s progress.
Meritorious service, fiefdoms, and war bonds became frequent topics of conversation. A fervor born of victory permeated the air, both on and off campus.
The Empire and the Academy administration were happy to see this and even deliberately fanned the flames. Alumni who had earned distinction in the war were invited to the campus to speak during their temporary leave from the front lines.
On the open-air plaza that once hosted graduation ceremonies, the speaker was no longer the headmaster but an alumnus, and the speeches had gone from soporific to rousing. The speaker wore a standard-issue military uniform, his Mage Robe failing to conceal the gleaming medals on his chest. "The Empire needs more land under the sun! But the Divine Spirits are no longer creating new land, so where must our land come from?"
The crowd below shouted various responses, but the sentiment was the same: "Carve it from the bodies of our enemies!" "Take it by force!"
The alumnus was not satisfied with the disorganized replies. "I can’t hear you! With voices that soft, you expect to go to the battlefield?"
The apprentices finally roared at the top of their lungs, "War! War!"
The speaker was satisfied. "Good! That’s the spirit! That’s right, only iron and blood can win us what we desire. We must first forge the sword before we can use the plow."
"Everyone, each time the Empire expands its territory, it justly bestows that land upon those who contributed. We are luckier than the first graduates of this Academy! They received nothing more than manors in the bitter, cold lands of the north, but we—we will get the rich and fertile lands of Valois!"
Caroline despised this atmosphere. The students’ minds were no longer on the mysteries of Magic; they were completely distracted in her classes. For a Low Tier Mage, studying the stars and spacetime wasn’t something that could be used to strike down their enemies.
This continued until Caroline overheard students who had learned of her origins calling her "that Valois bitch" in private.
"This can’t go on any longer! I don’t believe a proper teaching environment exists here anymore." She furiously sought out the new head of discipline, a retired Military Mage.
But the head of discipline was dismissive. Coincidentally, he had something to tell Caroline as well. "Ma’am, I regret to inform you that you are required to undergo a security review. Until the results are available, your teaching duties are suspended."
