Rebirth Of The Noble Mage Behind The Scenes
Chapter 205 Fragments and Core

Chapter 205: Chapter 205 Fragments and Core

"I can give it a try, Lord Anvis."

Jom nodded solemnly and took out a purple Secret Array Plate from his ring, infusing it with magic to light it up.

With a slight manipulation, a complete map of the island suddenly appeared in midair above the Array Plate.

At the same time, a faint green light spot suddenly lit up, flickering amongst the blurry shadows between the endless blue ocean and above the island.

"It seems that, five miles off the north side of the island, right over the location of the underwater ruins."

After looking at the map, Jom stated the results of his investigation with a hint of confusion.

"Stop at those underwater ruins? It didn’t leave?"

Anvis looked at the map with doubt, where the bright spot representing the ship was indeed submerged in that deep place, making it stand out in an overt and conspicuous way.

According to the old explorer Baggsen, the underwater ruins were related to the Moon Calling Secret Sect.

Initially, Anvis had no intention of going there due to a vague sense of danger.

But the fact that the Black Ship was able to travel to the Continent and then successfully return more than once indicates that it likely has a guiding magic device on board.

After a moment of hesitation, Anvis finally made up his mind.

"Very well, we’ll bypass it from a distance, find a way to get the guiding device from that ship, and then leave immediately."

.........

At the northernmost end of the island’s mountain range, the mountain peak.

A lonely castle hangs on the edge of a cliff, with a huge iron drawbridge connecting it to the peak of another mountain.

Surrounded by many gray thorns and bizarre roses, the towering walls of the ancient castle are covered with dark green vines, with many vines even part invading the stone arched windows, giving off an ancient and eerie feeling.

The round moon rises, shrouding the castle in pale purple moonlight; as it penetrates the thick arched windows of the castle, it unabashedly radiates a chilling and bone-piercing sensation.

The howling mountain winds sweep across the castle’s sharply rising spires, battlements, and round towers, shuttling back and forth between the narrow windows and semi-circular archways, making a whistling eerie noise.

Deep in the castle, the Half-Elf maiden holding a beautiful, slender one-handed sword in her right hand and carrying a warm yellow lantern in her left, proceeds carefully.

After searching around for a moment, Claire activates a mechanism, opens a secret door, and continues cautiously towards the base of the castle.

Soon, she could feel it, the gentle thing that was calling her, right ahead.

She encountered some dangers during the exploration, but as an explorer with some experience, they were not overly challenging for her.

The most dangerous moment came when a tower on the side of the castle suddenly collapsed due to ’years of neglect’.

Fortunately, she had grown accustomed to escaping from collapsing structures.

The moment before the ancient rocks, weighing thousands of tons, tumbled like the sky falling, the maiden dashed out from the Black Steel Rock tower and narrowly escaped disaster.

A strange power fluctuation pervaded the castle, entirely different from any place on the island, but Claire did not sense any danger; on the contrary, she curiously felt a closeness to it.

As if she had already known it for a long time.

In front of the last secret door, the maiden stopped.

The secret door was made of ancient bluish-black metal, with a strange ancient symbol etched on the surface.

For some reason, she suddenly had an intuition.

Following this intuition, she slowly let go of the lantern in her left hand and gently pressed her delicate palm against the symbol.

The symbol faintly lit up, and the maiden felt a slight numbness at her fingertips, a drop of blood being drawn out from her fingertip and absorbed into the symbol.

Meeting certain conditions, the gate silently slid upwards, revealing behind it a long spiral staircase hidden in the darkness.

The staircase, made of black wood and laid with a red carpet, opened in the middle, and whether up or down, Claire could not see the ends.

Standing at the entrance, the girl distinctly sensed that the source of the attraction lay at the top of the spiral staircase.

The warm yellow light illuminated the murkiness of the spiral staircase space, as the girl, with sword in hand, cautiously climbed towards the top floor.

Even though it might already be the end, Claire was still on high alert.

Having witnessed many explorers meeting with mishaps in the last moments of their expeditions, due to their guard being down, resulting in disability or even death, she deeply understood the principle that "one who has made a journey of a hundred li may still have ninety li to go."

Even though the spiral staircase seemed long, it eventually came to an end as the girl continuously climbed, and the exit at the end appeared before her eyes.

After exiting the staircase, a spacious rock hall came into her view.

The four walls of the hall were adorned with ancient silk banners, the crimson fields with gold borders embroidered with a peculiar symbol, seemingly the emblem of some ancient kingdom long destroyed.

In the center of the hall, on the stone throne, something that radiated light firmly captured the girl’s gaze.

It was a beautiful yet illusory fragment, surrounded by dots of dreamlike luster; the marvelous color was beyond description by any language.

Gazing at the fragment, a sense of indescribable affinity arose from the girl’s heart.

As if, a long time ago, she had been very familiar with it.

"You... have come..."

As her gaze fell upon the fragment, a soft feminine voice, like a clear spring, suddenly flowed in the heart of the Half-Elf girl.

"Are you the one calling me? Can you resolve the trait that brings calamity to my companions that I carry with me?"

Looking doubtfully at the hovering fragment upon the throne, Claire softly spoke and asked.

"Yes... our ’Core’..."

Gentle ripples emanated from the surface of the fragment, brushing the girl’s tender and fair cheeks, as if expressing agreement.

"What do you call me?"

The girl was slightly startled.

"Core..."

The fragment gently undulated.

"No need to be perplexed, you are one of the ’fragments’, and moreover, the most critical, indispensable, the sole Core fragment..."

"The force that causes the ’fragments’ to want to converge will naturally draw you in, and the ’Calamity Trait’ you bear is likely only related to our true form..."

"I am the ’Core’ fragment?"

The girl was somewhat astonished, instinctively lifting her hand to comb through her golden hair as she raised a question.

"Then, before it broke apart... what kind of fragment was it?"

"A shattered mirror cannot reflect its full appearance... just as damaged tissue cannot reveal its former identity, we are of the same principle..."

The illusory fragment gently oscillated, its surface lights scattering and converging intermittently.

"If there truly exists a fragment that might contain the complete visage of its former self... then it could only be you who, as the Core, as the brain, would perhaps remember it..."

"Touch me, absorb me, and you will learn everything that I know..."

"Alright... If I absorb you, will your consciousness vanish?"

Claire nodded lightly, but held back with some hesitation due to that inexplicable sense of intimacy in her heart and asked.

"I am you, and you are me, we were originally one; there is no vanishing to speak of."

The female voice of the fragment resonated for the last time, and at the same moment, an image of a vast Purple Moon in the sky outside the window suddenly appeared in the bottom of the girl’s heart.

"Go, in the depths beneath the castle, lies the inheritance we left for ourselves. Take them and then leave this place, leave this island that is about to meet its end, carrying our shared desire for reunification!"