Cindy nodded helplessly.
The two of them arrived at an uninhabited place.
The Dragonkin Priest gathered her thoughts before speaking slowly.
"Before I tell you the most crucial part, you need to know one thing.
"In Mystra, there was once a very ancient kingdom.
"Its name was 'Taron.'"
Roger said calmly:
"I already know that."
Cindy wasn't surprised.
She merely nodded, then asked with a smile in her eyes, "Then do you know if there were any other prehistoric civilizations besides 'Taron'?"
Roger shook his head honestly.
The Dragonkin Priest's exotic-looking eyes stared straight at Roger, and her tone gradually turned serious. "'Ether Society.'"
"That was another name for a prehistoric civilization."
Roger raised his eyebrows slightly. "A magical civilization?"
In Mystra, aether was the old name for the elements.
Cindy confirmed it. "That's right."
"According to the records we have, Taron was once the ruler of Mystra. The king of Taron possessed every inch of this planet's territory.
"Until that disaster descended—
"You've probably heard about it from somewhere else. It was an extremely terrifying 'World-Ending Forbidden Spell.'
"The forbidden spell destroyed Taron.
"From then on, Mystra was plagued by magical pollution, and only a very small number of people survived that disaster.
"The terrible magical pollution made the planet's environment uninhabitable.
"But at the same time, it rapidly gave birth to an even more prosperous magical civilization.
"And the leader of this magical civilization was the 'Ether Society' I just mentioned.
"Before long,
"the 'Ether Society' replaced Taron's rule and became the supreme authority in Mystra.
"But..."
At this point, Roger, who had long since sensed that something was wrong, slowly picked up the thread: "But the 'Ether Society' also became a prehistoric civilization."
Cindy pressed her lips together and nodded unconsciously. "That's right."
"The 'Ether Society' was also destroyed by the World-Ending Forbidden Spell."
"That is the secret I wanted to tell you—the World-Ending Forbidden Spell only happened once."
Roger drew a deep breath.
Following Cindy's account, his thoughts began leaping rapidly.
"Taron and the Ether Society were each destroyed by the 'World-Ending Forbidden Spell' at two different points in time."
"If there was a first and a second, then naturally there would be..."
"A third!"
At that moment,
Roger's expression became extremely grim.
What a terrible secret!
If what Cindy said was true, then Mystra's situation was ten thousand times worse than he had imagined! "When will the third World-Ending Forbidden Spell happen?"
After a while, he finally calmed down enough to ask.
Cindy's long eyelashes trembled faintly.
"After killing Hanfulan, I'll tell you the exact time."
"If you're interested, we can also discuss some rumors."
Roger was silent for a while before saying in a somewhat hoarse voice, "All right."
"The value of this secret... is indeed enough."
From Cindy,
Roger obtained three pieces of secret information about the "World-Ending Forbidden Spell."
The first concerned the World-Ending Forbidden Spell itself.
The two World-Ending Forbidden Spells that destroyed Taron and the Ether Society
were actually manifestations of the same spell at two different points in time.
In other words,
the forbidden spell released by the gods had not only thoroughly purged Mystra across space,
but had done the same across time.
The second and third pieces of information were both related to the "Ether Society."
After Taron was destroyed,
the "Ether Society" had conducted in-depth research on the World-Ending Forbidden Spell.
Their leader had recorded the precious research in a manuscript.
Unfortunately, the second forbidden spell had arrived too suddenly, causing the manuscript to be buried in the Dust of History.
Sitaroya Muse's mother had been a powerful Emerald Dragon lord.
She had once visited the leader of the Ether Society.
According to her memories,
the manuscript had been kept in a floating laboratory guarded by a large number of arcane constructs.
After the Ether Society was destroyed, the Emerald Dragon lord had gone to the ruins to search for the manuscript.
Unfortunately, she had returned empty-handed.
And before the second World-Ending Forbidden Spell arrived,
some highly vigilant mages had foreseen its coming in advance.
They had planned to join forces to build a "Golden House" immune to magic, hoping to survive the calamity that way.
But an accident occurred during the construction of the Golden House.
The project was eventually abandoned.
The Emerald Dragon lord had also searched for traces of the Golden House.
But for some special reason, she had been forced to leave the Ether Society's ruins.
After finally laying the clutch of dragon eggs that included Muse, she left Mystra.
And the Ether Society's ruins were now known as—
Gem City.
Taron. Clear Spring Sect headquarters. Ether Society.
All the clues pointed toward Gem City.
This made Roger itch to uncover the truth.
That night,
he did not sleep at all.
Every brain cell was active, repeatedly analyzing the deeper logic hidden behind this information.
Why did the gods want to destroy the world? The Ether Society's mages had encountered an accident while building the Golden House, but had it really been only an accident? Where had the Golden House and that secret manuscript ended up?
How had Sitaroya Muse's mother survived the World-Ending Forbidden Spell? Had she endured it with her physical body? Cindy had said that she left Mystra for another planet.
How had she managed that?...
Roger felt as if there were a hundred thousand questions racing through his mind with Full Firepower.
There were far too many things he wanted to know! He repeatedly forced himself to calm down and stop thinking about them, and only managed to drift off at dawn.
The following evening.
Having temporarily put those questions out of his mind, Roger set out to assassinate Hanfulan.
He headed north along Lettuce Avenue.
Then, following Cindy's instructions, he turned east.
After walking for more than ten li, Roger spotted some low buildings among the reeds.
This was a settlement of the Marshland Refugees.
After the Gray Dwarves flooded into Yellowstone Island, they had clashed violently with the refugees.
Hanfulan had originally wanted to ally with the Gray Dwarves.
Who could have expected the hot-tempered Gray Dwarves to drive away the Marshland Refugees first instead?
Now,
Hanfulan had built a village in the eastern part of Yellowstone Island to absorb the countless refugees from the marshlands.
After leaving Yellowstone Island,
his influence seemed to be flourishing instead.
The sky gradually darkened.
Using the reeds as cover, Roger slowly approached the Marshland Refugees' village.
Along the way, he saw many Marshland Refugees.
These people looked extremely unkempt.
Although their appearance was similar to that of humans, the aura they gave off was no different from that of monsters.
Like the Gray Dwarves, the Marshland Refugees also had fleshy growths of various sizes sprouting from their necks.
They seemed to have great difficulty controlling their emotions.
Roger had already seen the Marshland Refugees violently grappling with one another more than once.
Their eyes were dull, and their faces were numb.
Sometimes they simply stood motionless, like statues.
But at other times, they would tear into any creature that approached them like zombies.
Roger silently tested them with the Sin Mark.
Sure enough.
According to the Sin Mark's judgment, the Marshland Refugees fell within the category of "monsters."
However, he did not attack them. Instead, he quietly went around them.
At night,
outside the Marshland village, in a heavily guarded orchard,
using the Ladder Cloud Steps technique, Roger easily scaled the five-meter-high wall and entered the orchard.
A rich, blazing magical aura rushed toward him.
"What high Magic Abundance."
Roger pinched his nose and reached toward one of the fruit trees.
The tree bore sparse yellow fruits.
He casually picked one and placed it in his palm to examine.
Foul Fire Orange (Magic Abundance 13): A highly mutated magical plant. Consume with caution
Before you continue