Ch. 39 - Destruction

This vast and boundless underground city turned out to be the headquarters of the very mysterious Freemasons’ Association. These madmen, devoted to alchemy and the pursuit of truth, had expanded the headquarters into an enormous city. Right behind the stone statue, there stood a castle without walls.

There were stairs leading to the castle in all directions. Vaguely, it could be seen that all kinds of alchemists were carrying documents or potions, walking on the magnificent corridors. What was truly amazing about this castle was the huge tower suspended right above the castle’s roofs. Beneath the tower, there was a large crystal ball that was emanating a magical luster and thousands of rune sequences enchanted with alchemy. This huge thing was suspended in mid-air.

On the top floor of this suspended magic tower, suddenly a ball of white light lit up in the center of a dark hall, above the round table. What was inside the hall was immediately visible, illuminated by the white light. Around the round table, sat eight masked people. They were staring silently at the huge crystal ball in the middle, which was glowing white.

What was shocking was that this crystal ball showed the situation in which the Freemasons’ Association branch was invaded and searched by various forces from the past half month until the past ten days. The crystal ball only flickered, showing the events from half a month ago in less than a minute. After, the light dimmed until no more light was emitted. The entire hall was plunged into darkness once more.

Such an uncomfortable atmosphere, yet none of these eight weird people spoke. The silence persisted, making the atmosphere feel torturous. It was overwhelming until a man on the west side of the table spoke up. His voice sounded old.

"Willis, you are in charge of Branch No. 22. Please report your situation and the gravity of the situation."

As soon as he said that, a man who was sitting on the east side sighed faintly. The tiny magic light streaming in from the window shone on the plain gold mask worn by the man called Willis. The outline of the mask was exactly the same as the face of the man who appeared in the branch's mirror that day.

"The lunar eclipse appeared and the scroll surfaced. It is identical as written in the Prophet's Letter. Illuminati and other major forces mixed in and searched extensively. I'm pleased that the great seal of Emmonik was discovered. Even if it is, it is unlikely that the seal can be broken in less than a month," Willis slowly said.

The other seven remained silent. Willis kept talking, but his words were vaguely reproachful, "Frodo, the Divination Bureau's failure to predict the date of the lunar eclipse in advance is unquestionably a dereliction of duty. You are in charge of the divination bureau, so this also falls upon your responsibility."

The old man named Frodo, who spoke earlier, nodded. He didn’t care whether the others could see it or not. He said, "I’ll take responsibility. After the meeting, I will voluntarily go to the Disciplinary Department to receive punishment. According to what we deciphered from the Prophet's Letter, the scroll is most likely to have been burned. Our mission had been accomplished. What about the major forces who have infiltrated the branch?"

Frodo had just finished speaking when the huge crystal ball suddenly lit up again. The crystal ball showed a strange man wearing a wooden mask on his head. When Frodo, Willis, and the others saw it, they pushed their stools aside and stood up. They proceeded to respectfully bow and salute the man.

"President."

"Sit down, I'm late on some news, I need to understand the specifics."

Willis and the others smiled and sat down.

"Today is the day the scroll will completely disappear. We, the association, are following the prophecy written in the Prophet's Letter. Thus, we have given the truth of the scroll for the world to destroy. I have confirmed that President Uruk's ten thousand-year-old magic mark has been destroyed. The scroll has vanished from the face of the earth," the president said in a low voice.

Willis and the others were relieved, but there was still some reluctance. After all, they were talking about the highest achievement of alchemy. Although the method used should be classified as dark alchemy, no matter what, it was still alchemy. Willis was relieved because what the president said reduced his own responsibility significantly.

After a moment of silence, the president suddenly turned his head and asked Willis, "The Branch’s Dean, I remember his name is Ryan, the naughty boy. How is he doing?"

Willis' body trembled. Somewhat with a heavy heart, he said, "After seeing the lunar eclipse, Ryan became extremely anxious, knowing that the Prophet’s Letter is referring to him. To avoid him being seized by people from other forces, I intimidated and lured him to self-destruct. As his last wish, he only hoped the president could take care of his family that is staying at headquarters."

"Hey, Ryan, this kid. I watched him grow up. Okay, allocate three hundred gold coins to his family, enough for them to live."

Willis nodded. The president in the crystal ball abruptly raised his hand, his face solemn. In an instant, dense runes appeared throughout the entire dark hall. Like water currents, it formed a complex and huge alchemical array floating on everyone's table. The eight people immediately stopped making noise.

"Vote, those who agree to destroy the 22nd branch of the Freemasons’ Association, stand up,” the president said softly.

"Agree."

"I agree."

"I also agree."

One by one, seven people expressed their opinions until Willis was the only one left. Frodo sighed and said, "Willis, let him destroy what needs to be destroyed. We are sorry for the innocent children who will die in vain. We'll have to pay this debt eventually. The branch can only be destroyed to thwart the selfishness of the major forces in their pursuit of the scroll."

Willis remained silent when he heard these words. Finally, he nodded slightly and said, hoarsely, "Agreed."

The president looked deeply at Willis through the crystal ball. Flowing with charisma, the president then said, "Eight people agreed. In my position as the president, according to the agreement of the Freemasons, I’ll destroy the 22nd branch!"

As soon as he said that, the huge and complicated alchemy array on the round table suddenly changed. Its numerous runes shifted and deformed. Surprisingly, it converged into thousands of alchemical formations, both small and large. Willis' eyes caught sight of one of the small alchemical arrays floating in front of him. In the center of the alchemical array, ‘Freemasons Federation, Branch Number 22’ was written in ancient language.

Numbers such as No. 23, No. 25, No. 76, No. 450, and so on were written in these thousands of alchemical formations of various sizes. In other words, two pieces of information could be gained from this. Not only did this terrifying alchemical formation have an indirect grip on all the branches, but there were thousands of branches, enough to cover the entire continent.

At that moment, the president in the crystal ball nodded slightly. Eight people, including Willis, immediately stretched out their palms and pressed on the huge alchemical array floating on the table. In unison, they said, "Start the 22nd Branch's decomposition spell!"

The Freemasons’ Association's alchemical array marked with No. 22 immediately burst into a dazzling light. Its encircling runes dispersed one by one in all directions. This phantom almost brought the entire alchemical formation to life!

Right now, at the Freemasons’ Association Branch No. 22, the black-haired man and the dragon Odovic’s expressions suddenly changed dramatically. The two exchanged a look. Odovic immediately jumped up, opened his mouth towards the city gate to mutter a few incomprehensible syllables. From his mouth, a huge ball of searing hot fire erupted. The blast blew up the gates. The black-haired man, not wanting to be outdone, opened his voice and shouted. "Everyone run away! Damn alchemists! How dare they attack so hard!"

Morris, Windsor, and the others exchanged looks. Wondering what was wrong because they had no idea what had happened. From the ground outside the exploded gate, a dazzling light suddenly burst out, spreading to Morris and the others’ feet at an extremely fast speed. When he saw the dense runes that had covered the ground beneath his feet, the mage of Heillitt from the Forest of Towers dropped his wand in fear. Thousands of them were floating on the stone floor. So dense if one didn’t look closely, it was akin to a knee-deep river.

TThe barbarians who were about to say they were staying to explore the search scrolls immediately swallowed their words. After exchanging glances to the left and right, a young magic swordsman who didn't know what to do or what was important yelled excitedly, "Ow ow ow! These alchemists must be scared! Chief, let's rush inside the castle and find the scroll now! The dawn for us, magic swordsmen is coming!"

Who knew that the stunned leader of the Brotherhood of Magic Swordsmen would crack his hands and slap him. His face was full of fear as he shouted, "If you want to die, you stay! We're leaving! If you find the scroll and don’t die, you can take my position!"

At this point, everyone understood that the countless runes on the ground were absolutely no laughing matter. Unsurprisingly, these five forces of people immediately scattered wildly towards the exploded city gate. The old mage, who was physically shy and weak, yelled in frustration while holding his breath, "Damn alchemist! How dare they paint the entire castle with decomposition alchemy formations! If I, Philip, did not die, I would definitely…."

"Hey, don't be so sure. Run for your life first!" A barbarian beside him lifted the old Philip and ran towards the city gate with big strides.

"Let go of me, you savage and rude guy! Can’t you be gentler?!" In the distance, old Philip's angry curses could be heard faintly.

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