Stripped City Adra: Angels and Spirits

A violent tremor.

The gates of the main city suddenly opened. From the great hall within and the countless angel statues in the courtyard, some invisible entities continuously flew out.

These beings had a translucent texture and all manner of bizarre forms, but without exception, these invisible entities were spirits.

However, spirits were different from what ordinary people believed souls to be. A spirit was merely energy that recorded patterns of personality from the past—the lingering shadow of a living being's existence in this world, recording the fact that it had once wandered this land.

"So that was what angels meant."

El-Melloi II raised his head and gazed up at the countless spirits, murmuring unconsciously.

Ever since arriving at Stripped City, the magi had felt that they were constantly being watched by angels, yet they had never discovered the specific observers.

Now the truth had come to light. In fact, the entire Stripped City had been watching them; countless angel statues had been possessed by spirits.

Just as modern thaumaturgical theory stated, angels in modern magecraft were names given to uncertain magical energy. Stripped City processed spirits by bestowing upon them the concept of angels, using them as the driving force behind the workshop's operation.

So-called angels were gravestones in equal number.

I had always trusted Grivank, that old friend of mine. Before coming here, I had explained Grivank's fragmented account and frankly admitted that I had treated that child as my own, intending to make him the heir of the Abhscion Family.

It was not until the very end, when Lin Haiyan and I were jointly developing a magecraft, that Grivank accidentally learned why Glanid's wife had been unable to bear children since her youth: the problem lay with Glanid himself.

"No, no, no. If we were being serious