Chapter 984 — Critical Balance

Then, at some moment afterward, he suddenly awoke. Everything in the nightmare shed its disguise and lay before him drenched in blood, and he realized that the things in the nightmare... seemed already to have happened.

Luo Yan Augustus looked at Pei Yi, who had abruptly sat up in the middle of the magic circle, and a faint smile seemed to surface on his ever-gloomy features: "Lord Pei Yi, you have finally 'awakened.'"

Pei Yi gasped for breath in great heaves, as though he meant to expel every foul thing within him with those urgent breaths. Only when he finally felt his heart and spirit steady once more did he have the wherewithal to observe his surroundings—a sealed room that looked very much like a magical laboratory, windowless, with only a single small door. Bright mana-crystal lamps lit the entire chamber, and every nearby wall was covered in crooked, winding runes.

Pei Yi saw that apart from the runes there seemed to be no other furnishings in the room—even the place where he himself lay was a circular magic circle covered in runes.

"Your Majesty," the old duke finally recovered. The memories and correct perceptions that had been suppressed in his mind were now surging back madly, and within mere seconds he had grasped the terrible things that had happened over the past few days. Even the former Wolf General, who had weathered countless storms, could not help but feel a chill. "I may have been corrupted! I previously..."

"I know, I know, Lord Pei Yi. What's done is done—you need to compose yourself further," Luo Yan Augustus said with a placid expression. "The situation is indeed bad, but not entirely bad."

Pei Yi drew a deep breath and rose from the magic circle, his tone urgent: "Are we and Cecil..."

"We are already in a state of war—we declared it first, or rather, the War God declared it on our behalf," Luo Yan said, looking into Pei Yi's eyes. "Lord Pei Yi, Malm Dunet used the power of mental interference to deceive and distort your perception. The explanation we sent to Cecil was altered into a declaration of war—but this was not your fault."

In that instant, Pei Yi felt his heart skip a beat, but he checked himself before the dizziness could overwhelm him. Only after realizing that this matter could no longer be undone did he seem suddenly to notice the strangeness of this room—

This place seemed to be a magical laboratory; rune-like things could be seen everywhere. But after looking closely, he realized that none of them were magic runes he recognized. Those crooked, winding patterns were intricate and exquisite, yet their style resembled that of no race on the land. As he gazed at them, Pei Yi felt his somewhat oppressive mood swiftly settling and brightening, and the last remnants of muddled thought in his mind quickly became extraordinarily clear.

The old duke asked instinctively, "Your Majesty, what is this place..."

"This is still the Obsidian Palace. This room is one of Lady Windsor Mabel's laboratories. If you mean the runes—they come from the deep sea. The sirens first brought them to Cecil, and Cecil in turn presented them to us as a gift. I believe you have seen a few samples of these runes before, but this is indeed your first time seeing a 'Barrier Chamber' assembled on this scale, in its complete form."

"Runes from the deep sea..." At last some relevant information surfaced in Pei Yi's mind, and he recalled that there had indeed been such a matter. "Then these runes are used to..."

"Cleanse the corruption you have suffered," Luo Yan said evenly, "and ensure that for some time to come you will not again be affected by the will of the gods—and at present the effect looks very good."

Pei Yi felt his mental state recovering rapidly, and realized that the "effect" the other spoke of was indeed quite good—but the very next second, another thought occurred to him.

"Your Majesty, could it be that you knew long ago that I..."

"No, I have no gift of foresight," Luo Yan waved a hand, cutting Pei Yi off. "But I was certain that the gods' corrupting influence would inevitably spread to the upper echelons of the Empire—I simply never imagined that the first to be corrupted, and at the outset wholly undetected, would be you, a man who for years had been deliberately keeping his distance from the Church. In that respect, I underestimated the gods' will and its power to seep into mortal minds; but in another respect, we have now pinned down the laws by which this 'corruption' infiltrates and spreads, and defined the scope of those affected. All of that is very meaningful."

Luo Yan spoke with great composure, and Pei Yi swiftly discerned another layer of meaning in the Empire's ruler's tone and words—

This sovereign was indeed surprised, but what surprised him were only the "details"; as for the overall course of events... it seemed that even now it had not deviated from his judgment.

Did that include this war?

"Your Majesty," Pei Yi said in a low voice after a brief silence of a few seconds, "what do we do next?"

"War has broken out," Luo Yan said, as though speaking to himself, his gaze not resting on Pei Yi, "...and so the Empire must enter a state of emergency."

"You mean to invoke the Emperor's supreme adjudicative authority?"

"More than ten years ago, we tried to give this country a new face. We did so, and we truly accomplished many feats we once never dared even imagine—but looking back now, there is still much we left unfinished," Luo Yan said calmly. "Some people who should not have lived are alive; some things that should not have been preserved are still preserved... Don't you find that regrettable?"

"Truly regrettable," Pei Yi Wendell said. "It seems we can now finish what we left undone back then—but there is one more thing, Your Majesty: we are in all-out war with the Cecilians."

"It is that mad god who is at war with Cecil," Luo Yan said, looking into Pei Yi's eyes. "A god out of control is the common enemy of all humanity—this time, we are in fact on the same side as the Cecilians."

(End of this chapter)