Chapter 498 : Equipment

เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มี.ค. 2569 06:33

Amid the rubble of Baruch Royal Palace’s grand hall, Shadi stood quietly, watching Vania vanish into the distance. Only after she disappeared from view did he lift his gaze toward the expansive sky overhead, where thunder still boomed and lightning crashed. Furrowing his brow, he spoke under his breath. “Setut… The words she spoke felt so vague. As if she said something important, yet it also felt like she said nothing at all. Did you glean anything more from it?” Inside Shadi’s body, Setut pondered, showing a hint of excitement. It seemed he wanted to manifest and question that ‘Heaven’s Arbiter Priestess’ face-to-face, but in the end, his rational side prevailed. Without clearer intel on that mysterious organization, he refrained from revealing himself impulsively. “Huh. So you have no more than conjectures? Nothing concrete?” Shadi questioned again, as the leader of Addus’s Revolutionary Army, naturally concerned about this mysterious group’s strength. Only by understanding their approximate power could he plan how to interact with them going forward. “Their strength? I can’t be certain. Based on today’s display, they could use the defensive array of the Temple of Revelation Runes, manipulate that nun with spiritual threads, and show both Revelation lightning arts and puppet mastery. That means their group must have at least enough resources to cultivate two different branches up to at least the Formation (White Ash) rank—something most ordinary organizations can’t manage. “So yes, their power is by no means negligible. Although they haven’t displayed a Creator-rank ability outright, that doesn’t mean they don’t possess it. You need to tread carefully if you’re going to deal with them.” Setut gave his warning to Shadi, who mulled it over, then nodded. “If they can simultaneously supply at least two branches up to White Ash, there’s a considerable chance they also have a Crimson. I’ll handle further contact with caution…” “Mhm… For them to revive the path of ‘Revelation’ after thousands of years—and to reopen faith in the Heavenly Saint Master—there must be many buried secrets. Their vague statements are clearly meant to keep us guessing, prevent sensitive info from leaking. If you want to learn more in the future, you might have to gain their trust.” Setut concluded. Hearing this, Shadi angled his head slightly and replied. “From your tone, it sounds like you want me to keep good relations with them and learn more. But why don’t you approach them yourself? They claim to follow the same ancient god that you once served. Weren’t you a noble from the First Dynasty seven thousand years ago? Shouldn’t you share common ground with them?” Shadi, well aware of Setut’s desire for contact yet noticing his reluctance to appear in person, felt slightly perplexed. Setut stayed silent for a moment, apparently deliberating, before he finally said, “I have my reasons. Until I’m sure they truly serve the Heavenly Saint Master, reflecting Their genuine will, I won’t show myself…” “And if you find out they’re merely imposters using the Heavenly Saint Master’s name?” “If they’re just posing under Their name for profit, so be it. But if they’re defiling the Heavenly Saint Master’s honor, they’ll learn the consequences…” “And if they actually do represent Heaven’s Arbiter, maybe even preparing for Their revival—would you reveal yourself to them straight away?” Shadi continued questioning. Setut hesitated. After some reflection, he sighed. “In that case… I’ll have to see. Part of me longs to be under the Heavenly Saint Master’s teachings again, but in a certain sense, to the true Apostles of the Master, my current existence must be full of sin…” … Once his conversation with Shadi ended, Dorothy, still hidden within the Temple of Revelation Runes, began organizing the aftermath of the battle. She controlled Vania to exit the palace, arranging for Nephthys to retrieve Vania, who remained unconscious. Meanwhile, she continued to rain lightning upon the Savior’s Advent militia scattered about Yadith. With Muhtar dead, his commandments no longer supported them, so the militiamen reverted to ordinary soldiers entirely vulnerable to Dorothy’s unrelenting thunder from above. Watching their comrades struck down by lightning, the Savior’s Advent soldiers at last displayed the reaction of ordinary men faced with heaven’s wrath: they abandoned their positions, fleeing blindly under the deafening blasts and brilliant flashes. Deprived of their Commandments, they collapsed into chaos. Finally, after driving out the Savior’s Advent forces across all of Yadith, Dorothy observed Shadi taking command of the Revolutionary Army to restore order in the city and reassure its citizens. She let out a long breath. Then, finding a suitable moment, Dorothy used a method discovered within the temple’s records to exit the hidden realm. Unnoticed by anyone, she returned quietly to her former lodging. Under Dorothy’s arrangement, the unconscious Vania was placed in a safe location by Nephthys. Meanwhile, Muhtar’s stone coffer was delivered by one of Dorothy’s corpse marionettes to her. Standing on the balcony of her hotel room, Dorothy gazed out over the smoke-shrouded city. She waited as a marionette eagle arrived, depositing the stone box that had belonged to Muhtar into Dorothy’s hands. Once Dorothy got hold of the stone coffer, she immediately set about inventorying the spoils. Sitting at the desk in her room, she placed the coffer—which had already been carefully checked and opened by her marionette—on the tabletop to inspect its contents. Muhtar’s coffer was noticeably smaller than her own “magic box,” being about a third of Aldrich’s design in storage capacity, yet it still contained a considerable haul. One by one, Dorothy meticulously examined the contents. Besides various supplies like water, food, and assorted weapons, there were also numerous mystical items: sigils, artifacts, spiritual storage, and mystical texts. Naturally, Dorothy focused first on the truly extraordinary objects. Conducting a standard appraisal ritual, she started analyzing each item left behind by Muhtar. At the top of the list were his sigils. Though Muhtar had used up most of his sigils during the fight, a fair number remained. First, there were the sigils he used to enhance his melee prowess—one called Feast and another called “Swift Extreme.” Each consumed five points of stored spirituality to grant second-stage Chalice or Shadow physical abilities. For someone already attributed with Chalice or Shadow at higher levels, the boost would be small, but for ordinary people or lower-rank Beyonders, it was significant. “Hmph… This type of item greatly helps non-Chalice or Shadow Beyonders—or even regular folks—by providing a huge physical buff, but it requires a hefty external spirituality consumption. Typically, only the rich and powerful can afford it. And a Crimson rank hardly needs these…” Dorothy mused, recalling from personal experience how strong the Feast Sigil could be. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚 She set the two buff sigils aside and examined the next group: the smaller explosive sigils Muhtar had used. Named “Blazing Detonation,” these unleashed a concentrated burst of high-temperature fire upon activation. Dorothy had already witnessed their destructive effect in battle. Though their actual explosive force was somewhat limited, their flame temperatures were extremely high—perfect for someone like Muhtar to blow himself free when pinned down. Two of these sigils still remained inside the coffer. “For Muhtar, it’s more defensive than offensive. If someone pinned him, he’d blow himself loose. For a ‘super-HP’ build like his, it’s a decent method to break control.” After appraising them, Dorothy set the sigils aside and moved on to the rest of Muhtar’s mystical gadgets. Among those, the first to catch her attention was a resplendent gemstone, emanating a soft glow. Initially, Dorothy assumed it was a piece of Lantern spiritual storage, but a closer look revealed it to be a single-use mystical item. Known as a “Sun-Eye Stone”—or “Solar Eye”—its function was straightforward: it could be ground into powder and sprinkled into a Lantern Beyonder’s eyes, greatly amplifying their detection ability. By using this Sun-Eye Stone, a Lantern Beyonder gained ultra-range vision out to ten kilometers, with the ability to see through physical barriers at will. It also massively boosted one’s mystical detection range to that same ten kilometers, allowing a small expenditure of Lantern spirituality to detect Shadow entities normally concealed. Crucially, one could stack multiple Sun-Eye Stones for an even more advanced view—expanding both the physical range and, crucially, letting the user see deeper layers of the inner world. Each additional stone required a substantial supply of Lantern spirituality to maintain, and repeated usage inflicted strain on the eyes, from mild vision loss to outright blindness. In the worst cases, it could permanently warp one’s regular field of vision into something else altogether. “So that’s it… Quite powerful—it must’ve let Muhtar find my location. And from the look of things, he probably used two. This is the only one left,” Dorothy thought. After the fight, she had discovered that the Shadow loaded in her Concealment Ring had been completely purged, implying that Muhtar had employed a method to pierce the outer shell of reality and pinpoint her presence—likely how he managed to ensnare her in his reflection commandment. Having admired the Sun-Eye Stone’s translucence, Dorothy concluded it was extremely precious and carefully set it aside. She turned to examine the remaining items, which included a ring and an amulet. The ring was known as a “Soul-Needle Ring,” designed for a Silence Beyonder. It could transform the user’s soul or Silence spirituality into a weapon, forming a spectral sword or arrow that could penetrate any ordinary, spiritually lacking physical barrier—bypassing mundane armor or guards. However, it was ineffective against enchanted items or mystical artifacts. Meanwhile, the “Hovering Spirit Amulet” provided a simple effect: letting the wearer float like a spirit, albeit not very high or fast—still generally swifter than running. “A ring that arms Silence as a spectral weapon? That’s not half bad. Muhtar must’ve used it against Vania. Thank goodness I’d given her that Heart-Devouring Cane Sword to parry intangible attacks. Otherwise, with that ‘no-escape’ commandment in play, she wouldn’t have been able to run, dodge, or block. It all pairs too well with his gear and commandments.” “As for floating with the amulet… it’s a small bonus. Probably served Muhtar more for show—hovering in front of his zealots to boost his mystique.” Having assessed these items, Dorothy set them aside and turned to Muhtar’s final mystical artifact—a scroll. At first, she assumed it was just a mystical text, but upon close inspection, she discovered it to be an actual mystical tool. It was called a “Soul-Contract Scroll”—used for drafting soul pacts. Such contracts could take many forms; in this particular instance, it documented a “power-borrowing covenant.” Muhtar’s scroll established a contract with an entity named “Bamigura the Martyr Beast,” apparently a divine-like presence dwelling deep in the inner realms. The contract text showed that Muhtar could borrow Bamigura’s power at the cost of a portion of his soul. Once invoked, Bamigura would enhance Muhtar’s Commandment Enforcer abilities to counter an immediate crisis, but in return, Muhtar had to feed a full third of his soul’s essence to Bamigura afterward. That irreversibly mutilated his spirit, which explained his abrupt power surge in the final moments. Crucially, this scroll was not limited to the single arrangement with Bamigura. Per its instructions, Dorothy noted she had two possible uses now that Muhtar had died. First, using the existing contract, she could contact Bamigura in the inner realm and become the new signatory. Or second, she could wipe clean the scroll’s content, returning it to a blank state ready for forging new covenants with different inner-world creatures or deities—provided the contract arrangement fell within its supported scope.

React

พูดคุย