Magnan’s expression stiffened.
A few seconds later, the corner of his mouth twitched: "Isn’t this a journey of vulgarity?"
"Yes," Yuri nodded calmly, "and suddenly I feel like it’s not too bad."
Magnan: "..."
Finally, it was Semyr standing beside him who reacted. The solemn and serious archbishop looked at Magnan, who was clearly appearing in the hall as an illusion, and nodded: "So now you ’exist’ in a state similar to Archbishop Selena?"
"I don’t know," Magnan then looked down at himself in confusion, and saw Selena standing beside him, "I was in a daze before, and when I regained consciousness, I found myself locked in a space full of dim light. I still don’t know what happened..."
"You executed the Brain Servant transformation without adequate preparation, which led to your soul being completely extracted. I gathered those fragnts," Selena briefly explained, giving Magnan a quick grasp of the current situation, "Currently, you and I are both ghosts in the network. No problem in the coming years, but afterwards, you need to consider looking for a ’ntal calibration point’ in the real world."
Magnan blinked, using a short ti to digest the fact, and finally sighed with complex emotions: "This is really different from what I imagined at first..."
Semyr nodded and looked at Selena: "So, he and his body are completely disconnected and can’t return?"
"Indeed so—this is not a simple soul separation, but involves the shattering and reassembly of the soul, as well as a ’death’, and currently, no technology can restore him under such circumstances."
Magnan suddenly sensed so crisis from Semyr’s words, and instinctively asked: "Archbishop Semyr, why do you ask?"
Semyr looked at Magnan very seriously and calmly said: "Your body is useless to you now, I’ll arrange for soone to burn it later."
"Ah! Wait a minute! Don’t burn it!" Magnan exclaid in shock, shouting imdiately after realizing it, "What if it can still be saved?!"
"We’re going to transfer the headquarters of the cult next, and all the Brain Servants need to be relocated. Our manpower and ti are limited, transferring one less body ans we can take more materials," Semyr said very frankly, showing no sign of joking or mischievousness, which only made Magnan’s expression more twisted, "After all, your soul now survives alone, the body is no longer useful. As for saving, didn’t you hear Archbishop Selena’s words just now? This is currently impossible with technology..."
"It is useful! What if there’s a breakthrough in technology in the future!" Despite being in soul form, Magnan had a loud voice that echoed through the hall, "Besides, you’re transferring so many bodies anyway, what’s one more of mine?"
"Archbishop Semyr," Wendy suddenly broke the silence and spoke actively from the side, "Let’s respect Archbishop Magnan’s opinion. We certainly aren’t short on that bit of ’expense’. And considering Archbishop Magnan’s recent contribution, it’s not a good choice to discard his body now."
"I was only starting from a point of efficiency and pragmatism," Semyr replied with a stern face, "but what you said makes a lot of sense. I’ll allow it."
"Ah, Lady Wendy, you’re genuinely righteous!" Magnan instantly showed an expression of great gratitude, "Thank you very much for your help, but I’d like to correct sothing, my body shouldn’t be considered a corpse yet, despite losing the soul, it still has breathing and a heartbeat..."
Apparently, no one cared about this detail, nor did anyone respond to Magnan, who shrugged in embarrassnt, and then suddenly seed to rember sothing: "By the way, while wandering in that dim light space, I vaguely heard so voices ntioning canonization as a saint or sothing... I wonder if this is about ?"
Semyr and Yuri seed not to hear it, Wendy subtly shifted her gaze to the side, and Selena quietly looked at a slightly distant place, as if she had been detached from the whole situation.
Magnan blinked, glanced around, shrugged awkwardly yet indifferently, and decided to ask again in a few days.
...
Cecil Empire, a few hours later.
The dawn sunlight entered the bedroom, bringing a sliver of warmth at the end of winter. Gawain suddenly opened his eyes, and upon seeing the familiar ceiling, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
He knew that only a short night should have passed in the real world, but for soone who confronted the "historical mory" of the Supre Narrator, it felt as though he had just broken away from thousands of years of history. A sense of ti and era separation lingered in his heart, requiring quite a bit of effort to slowly recover—originally he should have awakened earlier, but he slept until now, needing to organize his mories and ntal state.
This sense of separation might cause worse results for ordinary people, potentially leading to irreversible psychological trauma, but fortunately, for Gawain, all this wasn’t a problem—he was already familiar with this experience of being imrsed in the river of ti, occasionally reliving it felt like ho.
Once the information storm in his mind gradually subsided and all kinds of mories returned to their original positions, Gawain sat up from the bed and glanced around the room.
Amber hadn’t left throughout the night, at present sitting on a nearby armchair, deeply asleep, drooling due to her awkward sleeping position.
Tiel was still curled up in a corner, her tail entangled in a manner difficult to describe.
Gawain couldn’t even deduce for a mont how the tip of Tiel’s tail managed to poke out from that tangled mass...
Apparently with keen senses, Amber quickly woke up after Gawain, abruptly opening her amber eyes, first glancing at Gawain sitting on the bed sowhat dazedly, then hurriedly wiped away the drool beside her cheek, standing up imdiately: "Ah, you’re back? Is everything resolved on that side?"
"Resolved," Gawain stood on the ground, deeply inhaling in the increasingly bright morning sun, and slowly exhaled, as if to rid his body of all the depression, "No gods descended into the real world, everyone can still sleep peacefully after today."
Amber widened her eyes at Gawain, then suddenly laughed: "Oh, I knew you’d handle it."
Gawain nodded, "We need to notify the others; there are still many things to handle later."
Then he glanced at Tiel in the corner of the room, "Besides, we need to find a way to wake her up—notify the sea demons deep in the sea that they need not wait any longer."
"That’s your problem, I’ll go notify Aunt Heidi and Kal!" Amber said without a word and dashed towards the door, "They’ve all been waiting for your news; they must have been awake really early..."
Before Gawain could say anything more, Amber had already rushed out like a gust of wind, leaving him and the deeply sleeping sea demon in the room.
Evidently, Amber was very aware of how difficult it was to wake a sleeping Tiel; she’d rather run across the entire central district early in the morning than try to wake Tiel...
Gawain looked at the doorway, a bit stunned, then turned to look at the sea demon lady, who appeared to be sleeping in an even more abstract position than before, and shook his head helplessly.
They had tried boiling water, throwing her out the window might not work either, sprinkling salt would make it feel like ho, and even if they slashed her with a sword, she’d just resurrect in her room and continue sleeping...
After pondering, Gawain bent down and whispered into Tiel’s ear (assuming her auditory organs were indeed ears), "Your little cookie is gone."
Tiel awoke with a start, her ssy tail rolling on the ground, and ended up sprawled clumsily on the floor, flailing as she shouted, "What? Who said that? I haven’t... eh?"
Tiel finally awoke, turning her upper body 180 degrees to look at Gawain standing beside her, realizing it was morning, and recalling why she had been sleeping there: "You... you’re back? How is the situation over there?"
"Unfortunately," Gawain shook his head with a faint smile, "you all waited in vain."
Tiel was stunned for a mont, then understood the aning behind Gawain’s words. However, this sea demon laughed suddenly with contentnt, "Isn’t that a good thing?"
She then propped her upper body up, her long, snake-like tail stretching as she slowly slithered towards the door, waving her hand, "I’ll go notify my sisters first; the sooner we’re done, the sooner I can co back and catch up on so sleep..."
The sea demon lady left, leaving Gawain alone in the room. The sunrise gradually beca bright, turning into radiant sunlight, streaming through the large floor-to-ceiling windows into the room. Gawain turned, squinting slightly in the light from the giant sun.
Cecil was in pre-dawn, while Orlandeau Region should already be in the morning. If everything went according to plan, the transfer of the Eternal Sleepers should have already begun.
Next, the massive machine that was Cecil would operate in secrecy. The Intelligence Agency established in Typhon over the past two years would also beco active. The Railway Investnt Company, "Track Plan" informants, and "Number Twenty-five" groups would cooperate, using the cover of recent increased trade orders, to transfer the core technology personnel and technical data of the Eternal Sleepers to Cecil before Emperor Rosetta Augustus noticed, and then continue to transfer lower-priority priests in a slower and more covert manner over the following year, until the transfer was complete or the operation had to be halted.
Everything was already planned. The Intelligence Agency led by Amber and the overseas railway agency personally controlled by Aunt Heidi had prepared everything for this. Next, it would depend on whether the Eternal Sleepers could cooperate perfectly.
Hopefully, they will perform well enough in the upcoming reintegration and reformation process... Selena and gal III are smart people; they know what to do.
"A good thing..." Gawain squinted, looking at the brilliant sunlight illuminating the world, softly murmuring to himself.
So stories have ended, while others... must continue.
...
Emperor Rosetta Augustus ca to the highest spire of the Obsidian Palace. He pushed open a door engraved with nurous magic symbols, inlaid with gems and mage tal, and entered the magic laboratory at the top of the tower.
The laboratory was spacious and bright, with neat alchemy experint tables and arcane experint tables for inscribing arrays, while various profound and precious books and scrolls were organized on large bookshelves against the walls. Two magic artificial intelligences assembled from rune armor plates and bronze torsos were busily organizing so miscellaneous items, moving lightly and silently.
Upon seeing Rosetta enter, the two magic intelligences imdiately bowed in greeting and then returned to work.
Rosetta looked directly into the depths of the room, where a dignified and steady woman, wearing a light purple magic robe, was walking from. She was the current president of the Typhon Royal Mage Association, as well as Emperor Rosetta’s Chief Mage Counselor, the Legendary Mage Lady Windsor Maple.
This magic laboratory within the Obsidian Palace belonged to her, serving as one of her workplaces and symbolizing her special status and treatnt as a rare prodigious talent in the Empire in recent years.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," Lady Windsor Maple bowed respectfully before Rosetta, "What are your instructions?"
Rosetta nodded, "I feel the curse’s power has waned; it has cald down."
The "madness" curse of the Typhon royal family was a semi-public secret, and the presidents of the Royal Mage Association throughout the generations, being the Empire’s finest experts in the mystical field, would naturally be privy to this secret. For two centuries, these outstanding spellcasters had been tasked with analyzing the curse and attempting to find counterasures. Although no notable progress had been made to date, the royal family continued to trust them.
In non-public settings, mbers of the Typhon Royal Family often discussed the "madness curse" with Lady Windsor Maple.
"It has waned?" Windsor looked at Emperor Rosetta in surprise, "Did this just happen?"
"After waking up this morning, I felt it diminishing bit by bit, and a few hours later, it restored to its previous ’normal’ state, without rebounding or continuing to diminish," Rosetta explained his sensations in detail. In Lady Windsor Maple’s presence, he considered himself just an ordinary patient, which helped the Legendary Mage to better assess the situation, "I believe there must be a reason behind this change in the realm of mysticism, and I would like you to investigate."
"Of course... we can start right away."
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