Chapter 284 — The Secret Assembly of All Things' End

"That need not trouble you. I have my own means of putting those elves at ease," Beiyila said coolly. "According to our intelligence, large mutated individuals appeared among the aberrations that crossed the barrier this time. No one has ever mentioned such a thing in previous reports, and the Grand Hierophant has ordered me to investigate it thoroughly."

"I understand. The Dark Bridge will be ready within a day. Where do you intend to establish the connection?"

"...Typhon," Beiyila said after a brief pause for thought. "We and the Long Dusk Order have been too active in the west lately. The lords and nobles there have already grown wary."

...

In Cecil Territory, within the Rune Institute, Kamael stood quietly in his laboratory before a broad test bench strewn with all manner of magical instruments and alchemical tools. The surface of the bench was covered with arcane runes he had carved himself, and at the center of them all, on a small silver tray, a fragment of black-red bone was giving off a faint wisp of smoke and dust, in the final stage of total disintegration.

Kamael simply stood there watching the bone fragment in silence, saying nothing, moving not at all; yet the instruments and tools on the bench, still carrying a trace of magical reaction, showed that he had only just finished a complex magical experiment, and the arcane sparks drifting ceaselessly across the surface of his body showed that this ancient mage's mood was not as calm as his outward appearance suggested.

"So that is how it is... so that is how it is..." At last Kamael broke the silence with a murmur. "So... all of this was our doing... Who?!"

He had suddenly sensed a furtive presence appear at his side. The ancient mage had never imagined that anyone could slip so easily to a place so close to him. Even if he had been somewhat distracted, his perception should never have grown so poor!

But before arcane lightning could take shape beside Kamael, a figure tumbling awkwardly out of the air and a familiar voice sounding at the same moment cut short his movement: "Hey, hey, hey, it's me! It's me! What kind of person are you, u-ing people without a word—"

"Miss Amber?" Kamael hurriedly dispersed the magical energy he had just gathered, and asked offhandedly, "What does 'u-ing' mean?"

Amber answered at once: "No idea. A word the old zongzi taught me. He said there are mainly two ways to release magic—one is to rub it out, the other is to u it out. What you did is called u-ing. What Rebecca does is rubbing."

"You show far too little respect for the lord... but you are the lord's personal guard, so all I can do is remind you," Kamael said, his tone somewhat stern and at the same time somewhat rueful. "The lord truly does know a great deal of knowledge unknown to others..."

"Heaven knows whether his knowledge is genuine or just there to hoodwink me—he's always playing tricks on me," Amber waved a hand. "Never mind that. Old... Gao Dai wants to discuss a technical matter with you... But what are you doing here? Just now I watched you staring blankly at the test bench for the longest time."

"I..." Kamael hesitated, then a trembling sigh issued from his invisible arcane form. "Nothing. As it happens, I have matters to report to the lord as well. Let us go."

ps:

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