Fire Mage

Chapter 489: Myxenta's Gift

"Court Dismissed." Charles's voice ran through the Throne Hall as he raised his hand and signaled everyone to leave.

As the Nobles and others were about to stand up, he turned his gaze on a particular Noble and spoke in an authoritative tone.

"Count Pierce of the Ironhaven! I have some important news to discuss with you. Please stay here for a while."

As the Nobles and others were shocked by Charles's sudden words, they didn't dare to look into his eyes and left the hall in a hurry.

Meanwhile, a slightly obese man walked out of the crowd and soon arrived in front of the Throne Canopy. He was a short man with a dark complexion and a small head, who wore a long cloak that flowed out behind him. He was a man around 50 years old, with short hair that looked like it had been cut with a pair of dull scissors. On his face was a strong but tattered scar, the center of which was about the size of a plum. His face was pockmarked with age, and he could still see the wrinkles on his forehead, yet his expression looked young and sharp.

Once he arrived near the dais, he knelt on the floor with one leg like a true knight and greeted him.

"This servant is waiting for your orders, Your Majesty!" His tone appeared so sincere and polite.

"Stand up, Pierce. Wait over there for a while."

Charles waved his hand as he signaled Count Pierce to stand on the right side, turned towards the nearby soldier, and sent out an order.

"Go and tell Commander Corey to come here."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The nearby soldier nodded his head and hurriedly left the Throne Hall.

Although Count Pierce got puzzled inside, he didn't say anything and waited patiently.

Meanwhile, Charles remained seated on the golden throne in silence and appeared in deep thoughts.

The only disturbance in the Throne Hall was a creaky noise from the loosely fitted Chandelier up in the ceiling.

Because of the wind, it moved to and fro like a swing and disturbed the hall's peacefulness from time to time.

Without minding the noise, Charles focused his full attention on how to get the blue crystal from the Holy See.

He first thought of releasing the Nightmare Being in the Holy See and creating a big mess to achieve his goal.

But due to Bryson's scheme, he decided to abandon that idea.

'There would be many misshapes in my plan if I did that now. There is a high chance that I might get killed by Bryson or the Evil God itself. Although I don't know the real strength of this Evil God, I'm damn sure that it should be a Rank-7 Demon or above.'

Rank-7 was a Demi-God level being!

'If it is a Rank-8, I might get squashed like an ant in an instant!' He knew that even thinking of escaping under such a being's watch would be a foolish idea.

Moreover, he doesn't want this whole world to turn into a chaotic land filled with demons and demonic creatures.

'In the future, I'm planning on returning here and visiting the Magewind city.' After some thought, he decided not to wait any longer.

'But if I want to sneak into the Holy See, I need to find a way to divert the Pope's attention for some time. Then, I also have to fool everyone and enter the secret chamber stealthily to seal the bluish stone. Hmm, there is also the skeletal-faced astral being guarding the Secret Chamber...' Charles knew that it wouldn't be an easy job to sneak inside the Holy See.

'From what Cardinal Smith told earlier, Light Church has more than eight Awakens, and five of them would always stay in the Holy See most of the time. So, confronting all of them at once would be more like a suicidal idea. It's better to need to reduce their numbers or lure them away from the Holy See for some time.'

'Only then I might get an opportunity to even get near the Secret Chamber. But even if I get there, some unexpected accidents might occur. That Mysterious Seer named Victor will also be waiting for me over there.' A grim look appeared on his face.

While he was in muse, Commander Corey entered the Throne Hall, stepped on the red-carpeted floor, and soon arrived in front of him.

"Greetings, Your Majesty!" He bowed his head in respect and greeted Charles before shifting his attention towards Count Pierce.

Charles gave a half-smile, took out a blank paper from his space ring, and started to write something on it.

A few minutes later, he folded the paper, put a royal seal on it, and passed it to Commander Corey.

"I have a job for you, Commander Corey. Go to the Holy See of the Light Kingdom and deliver this letter to Cardinal Ismael in secret. Although it is a dangerous mission, you won't face much problem as long as you accompany Count Pierce." He paused for a moment and then looked at Count Pierce.

"Do you have any problem?" He asked.

"N-No, Your Majesty! I'll take care of everything." Count Pierce said stiffly.

Meanwhile, Charles nodded his head, took out a unique black cloak, and passed it to Commander Corey.

"Take this. Once you deliver the secret letter to Cardinal Smith, stay in the Holy See for the next few days and wait for my signal." He said.

"Your Signal?" Puzzlement appeared on Commander's face.

"Yes, a big fire explosion will happen in the sky like the time we captured this city. That will be my signal. When you see that explosion, wear this Shadow Cloak artifact and activate it."

"As long as you succeed that, no one will be able to enter or leave that place without your permission. That includes me."

Although the shadow cloak wasn't strong enough to stop Pope, Charles knew that this artifact would be more than enough to stop Awaken from leaving or entering the Holy See for some time.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Commander nodded his head and waited for his further orders.

On the other hand, Charles tapped his finger on the golden throne and then spoke.

"That's it. You guys can go back and start your mission."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Both Commander Corey and Count Pierce bowed their heads and hurriedly left the Throne Hall.

In the meantime, Charles looked up at the noisy Chandelier for a moment and continued to think.

'But how should I lure Pope away from the Holy See first? Should I go there personally and cause some trouble like a random Demon Sorcerer? But will he come after me? No, only one or two Awakens will chase after me. Even they would give up their chase as long as I move away from the Holy See.' In truth, it was a normal response of any powerhouse. Although they would investigate him later, they wouldn't leave their post recklessly to kill a random Demon Sorcerer.

While he was racking his brain, a few armored soldiers entered the throne hall and soon took the charred body away in a stretcher.

'Hmm? Wait, I haven't checked Jace's artifact yet.'

Charles hurriedly took out a golden amulet from his space ring and checked it carefully.

'Only an extraordinary artifact?' After analyzing it, he shook his head in disappointment and stored it inside his space ring.

Then, he took out the wooden chest, used his wisdom power to make it float in the air, and opened it.

The next instant, a total of six silver crowns with unique greyish-black gems appeared in front of his eyes.

'I should store them in a safer place.' He nodded while analyzing them one by one and then conjured a ball of reddish flame before enveloping the whole chest with it.

Then, he sealed the wooden chest with the Rebirth Flame and sent it into his pocket dimension.

But just as he was about to check whether Melody was still staying in the Pocket Dimension or not, the Chandelier suddenly fell from the ceiling and smashed just 3 meters away from the throne!

'What the hell was that?'

At that moment, he suddenly saw the candles and the fire torches attached to the walls start to extinguish one by one!

'An enemy?' He instantly released his wisdom power and checked the whole palace but found nothing abnormal around him.

But strangely, an ill feeling started to sprout in the deepest part of his heart.

It was as if something was warning him about the impending danger!

'Omen?'

At that moment, Charles's eyes widened all of a sudden.

'Bryson?'

As that name surfaced in his mind, he hurriedly took out the Star Constellation Book and started doing divinations.

Within a few minutes, he learned a few pieces of information and got startled deeply.

"As I thought, Bryson already knew about my action, huh? That's troublesome. Wait. He appears... Silent? No, he looks like a maniac in another vision?"

The more Charles does divination, the more he gets confused inside.

'Something is affecting him from inside? Split personality? It looks like three consciousnesses are staying in a single body!'

In truth, Charles saw one outcome that repeated most of the time among those future visions.

'My imprisonment. If I remain here, Bryson's maniac personality will take over the cautious one within the next few hours and come here to capture my soul using a strange gauntlet...'

'And if I leave this place, he will still come here and destroy this city before moving to the Holy See...'

'He isn't affected by the curse? No, from the looks of it, those split personalities might be the side effects of the curse. Now that I think about it, Bryson isn't an original entity but an avatar with a soul shard! So, he also doesn't have an Inner World to hide away from the curse! His consciousness might be a replicated one like my other consciousnesses.'

'Then, he is facing the 'Nightmare Curse' all along? That's impossible. I guess he managed to suppress that curse using some unique method or the book artifact, but that's led to this split personality disorder. As for the personalities, the first personality seems to be a reckless and maniac one, the second one looks like a cautious and shy one, and the third one looks like a silent type who only shows interest in drawing. And, the cautious one and the silent one seem to be acting together and suppressing the maniac one. It must be the reason why he was staying hidden in his headquarters all along.'

'But What I did earlier seems to have completely caught him off guard and caused the maniac personality to take over the body. Well, if my incarnation hasn't cast the [Burning Consciousness] spell on Luis, even I wouldn't have made such a rash decision to kill Jace. Luckily-' He suddenly paused for a moment and soon noticed an odd phenomenon.

'There is nothing wrong in Bryson's plan to make me his pawn... But what's odd is the right timing when my incarnation cast [Burning Consciousness] spell on Luis and sent more information about Bryson to my Inner World. Moreover, the earlier omen-like warning. Another power is helping me?'

Although it might be a pure coincidence, Charles decided to check whether any 'foreign' power was involved in this small scheme.

After all, he had seen similar types of manipulated enemies before and decided to act more cautiously.

To his surprise, a simple sentence appeared on the mysterious page, which gave him a little goosebump!

'Myxenta's Gift has chosen you as its next successor!'

'Myxenta's Gift? Who is Myxenta? It kinda looks like a Girl's name, though.' A frown appeared on his forehead.

Just as he was about to do another divination, his eyes turned blurry all of a sudden and showed him an image of a golden dice.