Mage Manual
Chapter 552 - 447 The Princess is Still Here_2

Chapter 552: Chapter 447 The Princess is Still Here_2

"More importantly," the "experimental list" doesn’t have listing thresholds, so we Sea Demons, who have been blacklisted from the normal lists for exploiting Gospel loopholes, also qualify to become the guinea pigs of the All-knowing Weaver!"

"This is the opportunity Sea Demons need!" Helaphis’s tone became impassioned, "While you land-dwellers are caught off guard by the apocalypse, we can hide in the seas and lakes, swiftly develop through using the experimental list, and after the apocalypse, establish the Mermaid Dynasty, turning the Gospel into a blessing for our nation!"

Indeed, Sea Demons can hide in the ocean to seek refuge!

The Sea Witch realized she had perhaps said too much, drank a glass of Blue Tune Sweet Wine, and smiled, "My apologies for making Rusted Crow laugh."

"No worries. I’m very pleased that the Chaotic Witch speaks her true mind. This way, we indeed share a common interest," Igula said leisurely. "Honesty is indeed the most effective negotiation skill."

"So, you can provide information about the Princess now..."

"Just a moment." Helaphis said, "This is a trade, and I wonder what you plan to offer?"

"Money?" Hanna’s lips curled up slightly. "I don’t mind the price. After all, once this job is done, I won’t need money anyway."

"We also don’t need money," Helaphis said. "We plan to take our compensation directly from you—we want to make two prophecies about you."

Everyone exchanged glances, and Igula asked, "State your demands."

"First is the Ghost King," Helaphis said. "We want to know how you, as a mortal, come to wield a Divine Being."

"I don’t know," Harvey said. "Isn’t that something that happens in the future?"

Helaphis responded, "Time Flowing Gold, fleeting glimmers of light, the future has already left signs, the future is just a delayed reflection of the present. We don’t need your answers, just lie on the table, and we can take the information ourselves."

Harvey calmly laid down on the long table between the Sea Demons, looking like a Necromancer’s prop for body plating. The others curiously watched the Sea Demons’ prophecy ritual, but the Sea Demons sank into the pool, leaving them to only see the bubbles bubbling up.

Soon after, ten Sea Witches surfaced.

"The prophecy is over."

Harvey sat up and asked, "Can you tell me?"

"Of course, this is your prophecy," Helaphis said. "To put it simply, you will have a series of adventures on the Time Continent, eventually obtaining a Concept Avatar linked to the Necromancy Faction, which will be key to your wielding a Divine Being."

"What is a Concept Avatar?" Harvey asked curiously.

Ash paused for a moment, but before he could intervene, Helaphis answered, "According to the prophecy, a Concept Avatar should be a special entity that lies between a Technique Spirit and a Divine Being."

Really?

Was there such an explanation?

Wait, Ash suddenly remembered, the essence of a Concept Avatar is some abstract broader concept from the Void Realm...but the essence of a Technique Spirit seems to also be a concept! The difference between them is that a Technique Spirit is born from the Mage himself, while a Concept Avatar is born from the Void Realm!

"Ordinary mortals cannot wield Divine Beings, not because the Divine Beings are too vast, but because their spiritual forms are different," Helaphis explained. "Our souls are like a barrel, a Technique Spirit is like water, and a Divine Being is like a strong acid, which corrodes the barrel itself."

"A Concept Avatar is neither water nor acid, it doesn’t harm the barrel, and when it encounters a strong acid, it even forms a buffer layer. Well, this might be a bit hard to understand...it’s more like taking a wild beast cub to tame a wild beast, or taking a girlfriend to ask her father for money."

Ash blinked, so the image of Harvey taming a Divine Being in "Family List" was actually him wooing a Concept Avatar girlfriend and then digging up someone else’s old dad for financial support?

"However, you’ve lost your chance now," the Sea Witch said.

"Ah? Why?"

"Because you missed the initial adventure," Helaphis was also puzzled: "According to my understanding, you should have already encountered the first adventure in the Void Realm by now, but for some unknown reason, it was lost, and naturally, the subsequent adventures too."

Harvey gasped, instinctively glancing at Igula—Desperate Arena!

Speaking of recent missed adventures, it could only be that!

If it hadn’t been for those last-minute interruptions by the two Female Mages, they would have surely killed the Heroic Soul Commander and obtained the Commander’s mysterious spoils!

"Ah, what a pity." Although he said this, Harvey seemed not to care, as if it were just a plate of fat that had fallen to the ground.

After the Necromancer returned to the sequence, Igula asked, "What is the second request?"

"It’s simple," Helaphis replied, "I just need the Lord of Magic to answer one question."

Ash signaled Liss to get off him, stood up from doing push-ups, and asked, "What is the question?"

The Sea Witch was taken aback, as she had thought the other, shorter masked person who hadn’t spoken was the Lord of Magic. She did not expect that this one, who had been taking care of the child, was the Lord of Magic!

Tender with the child, yet heartless with the world, he had asked Hanna to draw his apocalyptic portrait earlier and then connected with Hanna’s mother and aunt, turning them into Necromancy to always accompany him... that’s right, only such a psychopath could be the Source of Chaos.

"Is Roger Diure’s death related to you?"

"No," Ash answered decisively.

The Sea Witches exchanged glances, their communication completed amidst the sound of flowing water: He wasn’t lying.

However, this was also expected. If there truly were any relations, Helaphis wouldn’t dare meet them.

"Nabistin Palace, Yalan Lake, on the central island."

The Sea Witch replied crisply, "The Princess resides in the tower on the island."

"Can you ensure that the information is correct?" Hanna asked. "I believe it’s not false, but it might be outdated."

"Well, you probably don’t know, but there was a disturbance on the land of Nabistin about thirty days ago," Helaphis said. "Although the news was immediately locked down, many people noticed and immediately came to us to ask if something had happened to the Princess. That’s when we realized there was a slight gap in the Miracle barrier of the palace, allowing limited access to information about the Princess, presumably intentionally released by the Yisu royal family to reassure everyone."

"These days we prophesy the Princess’s situation every day—the Princess has always been living in the tower, and it has not changed."

...

Once the conference room door closed, the Sea Witches breathed a sigh of relief.

"Helaphis, do you think they will succeed?"

"I don’t think they will succeed, nor do I think they will fail," Helaphis said. "I just find it interesting."

"The Princess, favored by the Gospel; the Lord of Magic, cherished by Fate. I’m really curious about what it will look like when they meet, too bad we can’t prophesy it."

"Compared to that, I’m more concerned that Roger really wasn’t killed by the Lord of Magic."

"Didn’t we already know this?" another Sea Witch asked. "Although we can’t prophesy it, no matter how you think about it, it appears to be the Yisu royal family trying to imitate the crime scene to maintain the credibility of the Gospel."

"I just feel it’s a bit... overdone," Helaphis said. "And rather than saying it’s about maintaining the Gospel’s credibility, it’s more like establishing the Lord of Magic’s prestige."

"It’s not just now; I’ve had this vague premonition from the very beginning. If you say the ’Art Ranking’ could be a coincidence, then starting from the ’Family Ranking,’ the Gospel has been facilitating for the Lord of Magic. The ’Family Ranking’ and the ’Heresy Ranking’ are actually no different, just that the latter is a bit more radical, as if... something can’t wait."

Helaphis pondered, "Between the ’Art Ranking’ and the ’Family Ranking,’ Ash must have done something that drew the intense scrutiny of the Gospel..."

"According to investigations, he was playing games in Senheiser during that time," a Sea Witch said. "Based on prophetic estimations, he seems to have also flirted with Qinna and Hanna in his dreams."

"I think you are over-worried, Chief," another Sea Witch said. "Even if the Yisu royal family tries to imitate the crime to maintain credibility, we are not Roger. Even if the Yisu royal family sends Secret Guards, they can’t possibly assassinate the Chief in the Mermaid Palace!"

...

The next morning, a dried-up Sea Demon died in the fountain in the square.

As shown in the second entry of the ’Heresy Ranking’.