Chapter 1026 — Coming of Age

Luoyan Augustus stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of the Hall of Arcana. Here he could not hear the cheers on the battlefield, nor the cries of the dying and the wounded. The whole world had gone quiet, so quiet it was as though the fierce battle before had been nothing but an illusion. He lifted his head and saw those strangely shaped aircraft and soldiers still circling above Winterhold, and that incredible white spider had vanished without a trace at some point.

The communication crystal not far behind him buzzed, runes on its surface lighting up in sequence, and Palin Winterhold's voice rang out from the crystal: "Your Majesty, are you all right, Your Majesty? Something unexpected just happened on our end... We saw what was happening in the sky, we..."

"We won," Luoyan said mildly, his gaze still not leaving the sky. "It seems our neighbor had plenty of good cards hidden too... This time, that's a good thing."

"As long as you're safe," the Count of Winterhold's voice came at once. "Part of the main wall on the west side of the castle has collapsed. Your position may not be safe—please leave as soon as possible. I've already sent men to the Hall of Arcana to meet you..."

"No, wait a while longer," Luoyan suddenly cut him off. "I still have some things to finish here."

"Your Majesty?"

"You and Duke Pei Yi down the mountain deal with the aftermath first. We have an enormous mess to clean up now," Luoyan said steadily, with an air that brooked no doubt. "The enemy has fallen, but the damage He left behind is still spreading. The faster we handle the aftermath, the more people we can save. There is also something else we must do—those fragments that fell from the sky in the final phase are scattered across the entire battlefield, and no one knows what effect they might have. Take whatever mage corps can still move and collect those remains as thoroughly as you can... The Cecilians have probably started moving as well."

"Yes, Your Majesty! And you..."

"I am quite safe here. I will contact you later—until you receive my orders, let no one approach the Hall of Arcana."

"...I understand."

The Count of Winterhold's communication cut off, and only then did Luoyan let out a slight breath of relief. He turned and walked back to the center of the Hall of Arcana. He glanced at the illusionary wall, now shattered by the final surge of magic, and at the somewhat disordered hall: the fall of the God of War and the shockwave from the earlier close-range detonation of the Annihilation Wound had caused a certain degree of damage to this sturdy hall. The walls were cracked, the roof lightly damaged as well, fallen debris and dust lay thick upon the floor, and a table and chairs set in the center of the hall were covered in dust.

"Not exactly fit for receiving guests... but it doesn't matter."

He muttered this offhandedly, waved a hand to summon an invisible whirlwind, blew most of the dust off the surface of a chair, and sat down casually. Then he picked up the teacup lying upside down on the table, wiped the dust from its rim, took the teapot from beside it, and poured himself a cup of tea that had already gone cold.

After a sip of tea, he sat there quietly, as though awaiting the arrival of some fate. And behind him, one after another hazy, nearly transparent figures were silently emerging from the air.

If any noble scholar familiar with the Augustus family were present, these figures would not be unfamiliar at all—

George Augustus, Marjorie Augustus, Colentina Augustus...

They were all the dead of the Augustus family, the blood kin of Luoyan Augustus over the past two hundred years.

Some of these figures were solid, others so illusory they were nearly invisible. They stood quietly behind Luoyan, waiting together in silence and patience, and their wait did not last long. Soon, the phantom of Marjorie Augustus gave a hollow, ethereal sound like a sigh: "It's about time."

Almost the instant those words fell, an invisible wind abruptly whipped up in the empty Hall of Arcana. As a deathly still, stagnant breath suddenly seeped into the dusk light beyond the floor-to-ceiling window, the roof and floor of the hall were instantly covered in scattered points of radiance, as though countless people were whispering in the hall, countless dreamlike murmurs coming from all directions. And a hollow eye formed of a great many twisted, contorted lines swiftly appeared before Luoyan—accompanied by a shrill, furious shriek: "What is going on!? What have you damned mortals done to me? Why can't I return to my divine realm, why can't I reach my true body, why... why is my power constantly draining away?!"

"Welcome back," Luoyan said placidly, looking at the "Eye of God" that had suddenly appeared before him. For the first time in decades, his expression was this light—he even smiled and raised his teacup. "Care for some red tea? Blended with dust of great antiquity and the gunsmoke of a god-slaying battlefield."

"You..." The Eye of God whipped around toward Luoyan, and then noticed the blurry figures behind him. "Augustus... you petty mortals... So it really was you who did this?!"

"Compared to the God of War, the performance of a fragment from the ancient era such as yourself is truly sorry to behold—at least the God of War fought to the very last moment," Luoyan set down his teacup and slowly rose to his feet before the Eye of God. "You are confused? You don't know why your power is draining away so fast? Don't know why you cannot reach your 'true body'? Don't know why you cannot return to your divine realm?"

The twisted outline around the Eye of God quivered, whether from rage or nerves, and Luoyan unhurriedly gave the answer:

"Simple. Because civilization has already changed hands. The era you remember... is in fact an ancient epoch from untold cycles of civilization ago. Your 'true body' is some God of Dreams long since annihilated in history; that god and His divine realm ceased to exist ages ago. The mortals who once sustained you have long since gone completely extinct, and the intelligent beings of this world today have no connection to them whatsoever. We are the remnant people of the Gondor Empire, not descendants of the Countercurrent."

"You think you understand this world well enough? You think you hold the situation in your grip?

"A pity. What you know is only what we filtered for you—and for that we prepared meticulously, over two hundred years, across many generations."

Luoyan burst out laughing, laughing more brilliantly than he had in decades, so brightly that even the figures behind him, one after another, began to laugh as well; beneath the furious glare of the Eye of God, he spoke with immense delight:

"So this is the answer—the times have changed, and we simply did not tell you."

(End of this chapter)