"You wanted magic? It's right here."
Loren and the others now stood in a grand hall. At the center of the hall was a statue of the Dawn Princess, wearing a gentle smile and holding a stone tablet in her hands.
"Congratulations on passing my trial. Your friendship is strong. Please cherish this hard-won bond, and accept the magic that will make you invincible under the heavens."
Suddenly, a voice emanated from the statue of the Dawn Princess. The voice was gentle, and its soft tone felt vaguely familiar to Loren.
Mara's one remaining hand trembled. She had already planned her future.
Once she obtained the magic, she would imdiately go out and capture Loren's children, then use them to threaten him.
Then, they would first capture an island not governed by any god to serve as a base. After that, she would have Loren help her exterminate the rfolk race, preferably subjugating their military forces in the process. Using this, she would unify all pirates and beco the Pirate King.
Finally, she would lead all pirates to attack the Church of the God of Vows and Wind, force Loren to reveal the Wind ssengers' weaknesses, and utterly destroy the Church...
No... that wasn't enough... She wanted to kill all humans... every single human except her father...
The mont her hand grasped the stone tablet, Mara felt as if she had seized her future.
With a heart pounding with excitent, she looked at the tablet. On it was only a single, short sentence:
"Friendship is magic."
"What... what does this an?"
A simple sentence, yet in Mara's eyes at this mont, it seed more profound than so super-tier spells. She refused to believe this was human writing;
perhaps it was a script uniquely created by so Outer God.
In an instant, Mara considered many possibilities, but the one she absolutely refused to accept was that this was just an ordinary sentence.
"Let see."
Hearing Loren's voice, Mara felt as if she had grabbed her last lifeline. Trembling, she handed the stone tablet to Loren.
Loren was the renowned Master ntor;
he knew everything. He would definitely understand these twisted, insane characters and tell her the true magic.
"I understand."
Loren's words made Mara's eyes light up. She waited with anticipation bordering on piety for his next words, like a fanatic awaiting a divine oracle.
"If everyone under heaven is your friend, then wouldn't you have no enemies?"
As he spoke, Loren even clapped his hands once, looking as if he had just had a sudden realization.
Mara's expression instantly froze, but a final shred of desperate hope remained in her heart:
"I don't understand what you an..."
Perhaps she already knew, but was simply unwilling to accept reality. The Loren before her suddenly smiled with an innocent, childlike expression, like the male lead in a children's play.
"It's a simple principle. Whichever enemy you want to defeat, just go make friends with them. Then, you're no longer enemies.
"Using this thod, you can solve any enemy. Truly a powerful magic."
Loren actually continued explaining for Mara. Watching her expression rapidly shift, Loren's smile grew even brighter.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
For a very long ti, Mara had dread of finding this legendary treasure. At first, she only wanted to use it to gain the rfolk's recognition. But after discovering her mother's death, her goal beca exterminating the rfolk.
For this secret treasure, Mara had expended imnse effort. One could even say her entire life had been building towards this mont.
Whether it was going to sea or forming a pirate crew, it was all to search for the Dawn Princess's great secret treasure.
And now she had found it. Under Loren's guidance, she had found it with shocking ease, making everything feel unreal.
"This can't be... it can't be real...
"This is a nightmare... yes... this is a nightmare..."
Mara let out a deranged laugh. She began tearing at her already sparse hair, ripping it out along with patches of scalp.
The searing pain undeniably told her this was no nightmare.
She knew the disparity. The highest peak she could ever reach was being a pirate. And the reason pirates were pirates was precisely because they could never defeat the Churches on land.
Their faiths were not tolerated by the Churches, forcing them to drift upon the seas.
If given a choice, who would willingly stay forever in the maddening Endless Ocean?
Mara's only chance to oppose the Church was the great secret treasure, and the Outer Gods. But the power of the Outer Gods wasn't easily obtained either, especially power sufficient to rival the Church.
That was nearly impossible. Otherwise, Outer God believers wouldn't be forced into hiding by the Orthodox God Churches.
So now, Mara's one and only chance had shattered.
"Impossible! I must not have found the real treasure!"
Like a madwoman, Mara began hacking at the Dawn Princess's statue with her dagger. Her dagger wasn't ordinary either, but a dagger was ultimately not a pickaxe. By the ti she had destroyed the statue, the dagger had already shattered.
Her hand was worn raw, bone visible beneath, yet Mara acted as if she felt no pain. She knelt amidst the statue's fragnts, gazing around the empty secret chamber.
"The exit is here. The chanisms are all gone. Let's get out first, then talk."
Loren pocketed the stone tablet and pointed towards the path they ca from. He knew the Strength card was inside the tablet.
Seeing Loren, Mara seed to see a new hope. She imdiately stepped forward and grabbed Loren by the collar.
"Master ntor, you must tell how to destroy the Church."
"How would I know that..."
Loren actually did know, but that didn't an he would tell Mara. Moreover, he felt Mara had lost any remaining value.
"You must tell ! Otherwise, I'll kill your children!"
The mont these words left her mouth, Mara sensed Loren's aura undergo a heaven-and-earth transformation.
If the original Loren was a warm little sun, the current Loren was a blazing inferno capable of incinerating everything.
"You're the first to dare threaten like this. I was originally planning to let you die quickly, considering your tragic background is sowhat pitiable."
Fear. That was Mara's only thought now. She hadn't even felt this way when facing the deep-sea leviathan.
Requiem left its sheath. Mara suddenly felt sothing hamr the back of her skull. Her very soul trembled, her body shivering instinctively. It was in this mont that Mara released her grip on Loren's collar.
"I'm usually very reasonable. Even if I kill you, I'll make it clean and swift. But the prerequisite is not to touch my bottom line. They are my bottom line."
Mara had just raised her dagger when Requiem severed her hand.
Mara only felt a cold sensation at her wrist, then her entire hand vanished. Simultaneously, an overwhelming wave of despair surged within her heart.
"Oh, right. Let tell you a secret. Your parents had no love. Your father raped your mother. After giving birth to you, it was your mother who cut off part of your body.
"It was because she gave birth to you that your mother died in despair. And your father? You already killed him. Not long ago."
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