stonecrandall Page 109
Page 109
Chapter 155 It's all the fault of that evil Terra brat!
Back at his lodgings, Isaac casually placed the two spellbooks on the table, sat down in a chair, and fell into deep thought. Smith and Rona, who followed Isaac in, exchanged a glance but did not speak, simply watching him silently.
"Smith, do you know what conflict we have with Prince Norns?" After a long pause, Isaac frowned and asked Smith behind him.
Isaac asked this because at the end of their conversation today, he asked that question, and Philo's answer was...
The technology to resurrect Remington was indeed given to her by her, derived from forbidden knowledge of the Eternal Star God, but Remington was resurrected by Prince Norns!
Because Philo didn't really think much of Remington; he wasn't very bright.
However, she didn't know why Prince Norns resurrected Remington, because Philo had no interest in the Empire's internal affairs, and that position was unlikely to fall into the hands of a mad witch like her.
“We have no conflict with Prince Norns,” Smith stated directly.
After all, he hadn't kept his conversation with Philo a secret from anyone else, so Smith had already figured out how to answer Isaac on his way back.
"But among nobles, there are some things that they won't do without conflict."
"for example?"
“For example, factional competition!” Smith paused for a moment, then continued, “Prince Norn is on the Second Prince’s side. Although we haven’t taken sides, most of the border nobles we’re in are on the First Prince’s side. Perhaps that’s why.”
"Factional infighting?" Isaac rubbed his temples and sighed. "Alright, then give your brother a general report on this matter."
“Yes, I’ll go right away.” Smith nodded and left the room, leaving Lorna alone.
"Huh?" Rona stared blankly at Smith's departing figure, a strange sense of embarrassment rising in her heart. You're gone, so what about me?
Just as Lorna was about to quietly leave, Isaac suddenly turned around and looked at her, asking with a smile, "Well? After today, you should have a general idea of what kind of person I am, right? Want to leave?"
"Hmm? Ah~ this..." Rona trembled slightly, feeling inexplicably flustered, but quickly relaxed because of Isaac's question. She looked at Isaac curiously, "Why should I leave? It's fine with you."
"I am a mad witch, aren't you afraid?" Hearing this, Isaac looked at Rona with some curiosity. "A mad witch is a wizard who makes deals with the Outer Gods, don't you know that?"
"And then what? So what if I'm a mad witch? Would you sacrifice me to an outer god?" Rona retorted.
“No, not at all.” Isaac chuckled.
“Isn’t that it? If we’re just talking about status, I’m still a witch.” After a pause, Rona said, “At least so far, I haven’t found anything about you that would make me leave. Take this sacrifice, for example. I think if it were a real person or a slave, that eldest princess would definitely not have shown any mercy, but you certainly wouldn’t have done it!”
“Although we haven’t known each other for long, I have confidence in you!” Lorna waved her small, white fist. “Besides, Daenerys said that to judge a man’s character, don’t look at what others say or what he says, but look at what he does! At least for now, you don’t give me the impression of being a bad person.”
Isaac raised an eyebrow. This witch... is surprisingly open-minded.
To be honest, after becoming the Mad Witch, Lorna was the first person Isaac had met who was so open-minded. Others, even his older brother, only didn't distance themselves from him because they cared about family ties. But in reality, Caesar's behavior was generally called indulgence or cover-up.
Because his own views on mad witches were heavily stereotyped, not only Caesar, but even Smith, who was by his side, held this view.
Ultimately, this is a matter of ideology. In their worldview, making deals with Outer Gods is an insane thing to do, which is why they are called mad witches.
But Lorna clearly doesn't think so.
"Okay, I understand. Go back and rest."
"?" Looking at Isaac, who seemed much happier, Rona scratched her head in confusion and turned to leave.
Since you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it and go back to rest!
She stood and watched Isaac and the others chat all day, and she's very tired now!
The spiritual kind!
After Lorna left, Isaac sat in his chair and grinned foolishly for a while. He didn't know what he was laughing about, but he was just happy!
However, this silly joy didn't last long, because there were still important things to do...
Isaac's gaze fell on the two newly acquired spellbooks on the table. One of them, given to him by Philo, contained their sacrifice plan, which he hadn't read in detail yet. He needed to study it carefully. Besides finding the most suitable cushion, he also wanted to learn how the archmages designed the evil god's trade ritual.
The other book, however, is unnecessary to read, because strictly speaking, it is not a magic book but a spellbook, something similar to a magic scroll. It contains some spells, and you can cast spells directly by holding this book, but you cannot learn the spells on it.
Whether it's a legendary wizard or an arcane mage, they can only use it, not learn it.
However, grimoires have a huge advantage over magic scrolls—they can be reused, and this is used as a distinguishing feature.
This grimoire was given to me by Angel. It contains time magic, specifically time stop, time rewind, and time loop.
While you can't launch an attack while time is paused, you can set traps or escape. Time reversal has even more uses; it can be used to heal injuries, repair items, or even to see what happened in the past in a certain place.
However, if we're talking about practicality, then for Isaac, it has to be the last time loop!
This spell can affect his physical dimension, freezing his time for a certain period, making him unable to move forward or backward.
That's where it comes in handy!
This means that the duration of Isaac's infinite magic will no longer be limited by the dimension itself, but will be linked to the duration of the time loop!
According to Angel, the duration of a time loop is not tied to the spellbook or the caster, but rather to the length of the loop and the scope of its influence.
That is to say!
An endless stream of magic that lasts for a whole month!
Even though Isaac has now achieved a certain degree of magical freedom through arcane arts, this thing is still incredibly tempting to him!
After all, there aren't that many restrictions on this kind of unlimited magic.
"Sigh~" Isaac sighed heavily. If Angel were like Rona, that would be a perfect father figure!
Super invincible magic crutch!
Unfortunately, Angel was deeply hurt by Philo. Although her childhood experiences were not bad, she grew up carrying hatred from a young age, so her mental health may not be very good...
This kind of madman is no good teammate, what a pity...
After stroking the grimoire and feeling a slight regret, Isaac put away the Time Grimoire, then opened the magic book given to him by Philo and began to study it seriously.
If handled properly, the ultimate reward from such a massive ritual may not be inferior to that of the magic of time looping!
Chapter 156 Never Forget the Original Intention!
The next day, the morning sunlight streamed into the room, falling on Isaac, who had been working on revising his plan all night. He slowly put down his pen, looked at the magic book he had revised, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Just as he had guessed, although the ritual was performed by the renowned archmage Mensa, it was not so perfect for Isaac.
Besides the mismatch in professional expertise, there were two other factors that led to a lot of room for adjustment in the entire ceremony. First, the level of the previous host, Philo, had to be taken into account, so many parts were not done with enough refinement. Second, the trading partners were different.
The Archmage Mensa chose nobles and the God of Rites as his trading partners.
Yes, the god of nobility and etiquette—this guy's name sounds respectable, but he's actually an out-and-out evil god!
He was originally a god, whose divine roles were [nobility] and [rituals].
Yes, that's it.
With the rise of the legendary wizard, the power he wielded, "ritual," came under his scrutiny. However, the war to kill the god did not break out, and the matter ended peacefully with the nobles and the god of rituals completely relinquishing their power, "ritual."
However, his misfortune had only just begun...
After abandoning the ritual, His nobles were also targeted...
This time, however, it is the nobles he protects who are targeting him…
Yes, legend has it that after the rise of wizards, knights also rose to prominence. Knights were mostly born into nobility, and this conflict was even greater than the one with the wizards!
Because the power of "nobility" has a very strong binding force on nobles!
It can even directly annihilate nobles below the third rank!
Therefore, compared to the wizards who went directly to the divine kingdom to negotiate, the knights' methods were much more radical. They directly destroyed the relevant beliefs, then violently dismantled the divine kingdom and obtained complete [noble] authority from Him.
Even at this point, He is still a true god. Although He has lost His most important powers, He still has some scattered minor powers, and most importantly, His accumulated divine power over the years is still there!
Because the gods worshipped in this world are different from the gods worshipped in Isaac's previous life novels. For them, faith is just a cultivation buff and a mana regeneration buff. As long as their divine power remains, they still have a chance to turn the tide!
In theory, this is true.
But that's not the case. In secret, whether it was wizards or knights, they had been secretly monitoring Him after taking His power, and would not give Him a chance to turn the tables.
As for why not just get rid of Him...
It wasn't written in the book, but Isaac probably hesitated to act because of the other gods. After all, even in this age of knights and wizards, the power of the gods is still not to be underestimated.
But that's not important. What's important is that, seeing that there was no chance of turning things around on the path of righteous gods, that guy resolutely turned to the evil path and became an immortal and indestructible evil god!
Furthermore, some of the powers of the "nobles" have been restored, allowing them to determine the life and death of humans who possess the concept of "nobility" to a certain extent!
But this completely enraged the knight, and from the moment He became an evil god, He has been repeating the cycle of resurrection—death—resurrection—death...
In the cycle.
In this process, His power is getting weaker and weaker. Each resurrection will cause Him to lose a part of His divine power. According to a report I saw in a paper, He will probably die seven or eight more times and then fall from the rank of God and become an evil spirit instead of an evil god.
Of course, even so, He will not die, and the remaining [noble] power cannot be taken away and will always be under His control!
And this was the last, insignificant act of resistance He could make against those who had taken away His [power]!
What? You mean why not take revenge on the wizards as well?
Stop kidding me, buddy. Knights are just brutes who only know how to fight; they don't know any fancy tricks. Wizards are different.
Immortal?
Good stuff, Korean!
Where can you go to reason?
Getting back to the main point, the power of the nobles and the God of Rites has indeed weakened considerably, but for the Terra Empire, He is the best trading partner. Relying on His power, the Etra royal family can be wiped out without any error!
Perhaps this is one of the core reasons why He still exists today?
Isaac was unaware of this and not particularly interested, as he had no interest in this nobleman and god of rituals. He was a poor wretch, so why would he allow such a massive ceremony to be performed on such a useless person?
Therefore, in addition to optimizing the ritual structure, he also made certain changes to the trading parties.
In fact, Isaac could understand why they chose the god of nobility and etiquette. Firstly, He was experienced in this field and had a good understanding of it. Secondly, there were not many other candidates to choose from.
According to the research of Archmage Mensa and his colleagues, they discovered that these humanoid life forms created using secret artifacts have a huge flaw—they have no soul!
Under normal circumstances, this is not really a drawback, since no one expects them to achieve great success; their biggest advantage is their cost-effectiveness!
However, this is clearly not the normal situation. Without a soul, it means that many Outer Gods will not accept sacrifices. Outer Gods like the Lord of Billions of Flesh and Blood, who are not picky eaters, are actually very, very rare.
After weighing the pros and cons, they chose the nobles and the god of rites.