Mage Manual
Chapter 676 - 535 Please Listen to My Command

Chapter 676: Chapter 535 Please Listen to My Command

"Divine Treasure?"

The Mercury Wooden Horse suddenly pulled out a small knife. When Tamasi looked over, she cut off her own palm and threw it into the bonfire. The flesh melted in the flame like snow, and as the tongues of fire rose, the march of the night seemed to come to a halt.

"It’s the treasure of the Divine Beings," she said calmly. "You’ve only been here for one day; what are your impressions of Senluo?"

Harvey said, "Rotting corpses sprouting a host of maggots. To put it nicely, it’s like old, withered branches sprouting new buds."

Igula said, "The environment here is extremely harsh, with threats from the outside—green-severing black night; and internal strife—collisions of different Great Skill ideologies."

"A chaotic wasteland," Ash spoke. "It seems you once had a glorious era. I completely don’t understand how you managed to get to this state; it’s already 1668, and you’re still in an era of endless wars."

"A very accurate assessment," said the Mercury Wooden Horse. "For the Senluoians, sectarian holy wars are inevitable, because the ideals of the Great Skills are often immense, with some even targeting all Senluoians, like Fire Cat’s ’allowing ordinary people to command Technique Spirits.’ Therefore, the factions must first unify Senluo and then gather the strength of everyone to tackle the difficult challenges."

"Senluo once had four Divine Eras, starting with the Fire Cat Era. Mages then realized that holy wars were a cruel and inefficient form of competition. To solve this problem, they used the Silent Spiral to create a new competitive system: Divine Fire."

"Using the Divine Fire System, one can select the Great Skill of the next era with the least intensity of conflict. Thus, the Fire Cat Era transitioned smoothly to the Gray Fox Era until the ’Cataclysm’ of the Gray Fox Era shattered the Divine Fire System, which is why Senluo fell back to the time of sectarian holy wars."

She paused: "The new sensation that is being sought after is the Divine Treasure, precisely the Divine Fire System."

Ash blinked, "But wasn’t the Divine Fire System scattered?"

"Scattered means it can be picked up and reassembled. Many factions are secretly collecting information about the Divine Fire System, but the technology of the system is too esoteric; even if a faction picks up the parts, they don’t know how to reassemble it," the Mercury Wooden Horse explained. "The Holy Temple of the Tribulation Fire is the faction that has collected the most parts. When the new sensation destroyed the Holy Temple, they also took those parts."

"Besides, no matter how complex the system, it is still created by Mages. Descendants are not necessarily inferior to the ancients; she believes she has the ability to recreate the Divine Fire System."

Igula said, "But she is not a Great Skill... Even if she reassembles the Divine Fire System and then commits suicide to become a Great Skill immediately, what good does that do her?"

"First of all, every candle-dignitary values their ideals more than their lives. If they are convinced that their ideals will be realized after their death, not a single one will hesitate," said the Mercury Wooden Horse. "Secondly... it is said that the ’Cataclysm’ of the Gray Fox Era was caused by a Great Skill."

Igula frowned, "The ideals of a Great Skill led to the Cataclysm?"

"No," she corrected, "it was a Great Skill, just a Great Skill."

Harvey spoke, "Did the Great Skill develop self-awareness?"

"A Great Skill always has self-awareness; otherwise, it wouldn’t have ideals," the Mercury Wooden Horse explained. "But ordinary Great Skills have more of what could be called ’instincts,’ while those recognized by the Divine Fire System seem to retain the memories and thoughts from their lives, that is, they have personality... or rather, Divine Status."

"So that woman wants to use the Divine Fire System to transform herself into a Great Skill with personality?" Ash spoke. "Although it’s frustrating to see someone who has caused us so much distress succeed, this doesn’t seem to harm us, except for raising our blood pressure."

"Firstly, once any Great Skill is recognized by the Divine Fire System, all other Great Skills within Senluo will cease to exist," the Mercury Wooden Horse said. "No one knows how many miracles of destruction were sealed in the Void Realm by the Mages of the Fire Cat Era."

"Secondly," she smiled, "do you know what her ideal is?"

Ash said, "I don’t think it can be worse than turning the whole world into Necromancy."

"I’m not interested in turning the whole world into Necromancy," Harvey stated flatly. "I’ll emphasize it again; the goal of the Necromancy Faction is not to create death but to make things that living people value into the undying."

"It might be even worse," the Mercury Wooden Horse said. "Simply put, she believes that all realms are just a dream of the Divine Lord. What we call reality is just an illusion we experience while imprisoned by the Divine Lord; the Void Realm is our true Eternal Life."

A dream?

Ash and his companions stared dumbfounded, even Tamasi couldn’t help but turn her head to look at her, but she quickly turned back, her head slightly tilted, using only peripheral vision to observe their movements.

"Her superficial ideal is to puncture all illusions, end all pain, stop all Fate, and free all ’prisoners,’" said the Mercury Wooden Horse. "There’s probably a deeper level to her ideals, but I don’t know it."

"... I didn’t expect to hear two different types of Frenzy from a pair of Evil Crows in one night," Tamasi scoffed. "Rotten thinking indeed spawns tedious excrement."

Igula spoke, "... Would the Divine Fire System acknowledge such an inevitably doomed ideal?"

"Do you think Fire Cat’s ’allowing ordinary people to command Technique Spirits,’ Fangyuan Cicada’s ’Eternal Life,’ or Chasing Light’s ’Resurrection of the Dead,’ which one of these ideals is bound to succeed?" the Mercury Wooden Horse challenged. "And moreover..."