Eastern Plains

Odovish suddenly thought of something. "You're the disciple of the dark mage McVey."

"Yes. So you were right before—I was indeed taught by an Undead," Eugene said.

"The reason I went to the Circle Assembly was because my teacher had been discovered. The Holy See sent three archbishops to besiege him. They used the same Black Crystal, driving my teacher into a berserk state. To ensure my escape, my teacher shattered his own soul, and the curse on me was cast by one of those bishops."

"Do you know who those three were?" Odovish asked.

Eugene shook his head again. "They were all wrapped in white robes. I only saw the Saint Insignia on the corners of their garments."

"It was the Judgement Tribunal of the Inquisition," Odovish said. "The iris-shaped Saint Insignia means they belong to the Holy See's upper ranks, perhaps even directly under the Pope."

"So we're setting out with someone being hunted? Sounds exciting." Elufiel looked at Odovish, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Odovish had Eugene put away the Rose Ring. "Do you need to say goodbye to your little lover? I think we'll have to leave early."

Eugene considered it for a while before finally shaking his head with difficulty. "Better... not. I was an accident in her life, and accidents usually don't need to know how they end."

"What a heartless man." Elufiel shook her head and headed up the stairs first. "Od, will you wake me tomorrow morning? I need to say goodbye to Goliath first."

"Go on." Odovish watched the elf disappear around the bend in the stairs.

"Since you're not saying goodbye to your lover, rest here for now. I'll have the butler make up a bed for you." Odovish went down to the basement, and Gabriel cleared out the storage room for Eugene, barely making it into a guest room. The silent arcanist sat alone on the bedframe, tightly clutching the amulet Gwendolyn had pressed into his hand before she left.

If the arcanist could return to the days of living under the sun, he would surely be like Lord Darren, scattering romantic rose petals for the girl he loved before presenting her with a ring that represented all his feelings.

He hoped to give her everlasting happiness.

Odovish pushed open Goliath's door. Elufiel was saying goodbye to the little girl. They wore similar dresses and embraced each other. Smiling, the elf whispered something into Goliath's ear before kissing her forehead.

Odovish walked over and stroked Goliath's hair without speaking any words of farewell. The little girl already understood the reason behind her uncle's every hurried visit, and obediently said goodbye to him.

Tomorrow morning, she would be alone again. But Sharon and Gabriel would keep her company. And now, her uncle had someone to keep him company too.

Eastern Plains

The Eastern Plains were the broadest and flattest stretch of land in the entire east, fertile and prosperous. The Halor Kingdom lay in the southwest of the Eastern Plains, near the Green Forest. Further east stretched endless woodlands. From spring to autumn, vast forests deepened from tender emerald green to dark green, then shifted into the reds and yellows that heralded the harvest season. In winter, aside from evergreen species, plants gradually withered, sealed and frozen amid wind and snow, waiting to bloom anew the following spring.

Yet now, she saw the familiar "door," and also understood why Odovish's little tricks had not included this before. Unlike the mages of Azeroth, who only needed to prepare some materials and recite a spell to open a door, the mages of Kanado required a far more complicated process.

First, they needed to draw a complex magic formation on the ground. These formations were made from special alchemical materials—usually an extremely tiny spatial magical beast called a Voidling. During the golden age of Arcane, this was an alchemical material one could buy at any general store on any street. Voidlings were easy to catch. They lived in the cold north, feeding on plant roots and dissipated Arcane energy. Weak but highly prolific, they moved by leaping, instantly shifting from one point to another, like swaths of snowflakes weaving through a freezing wind. Usually, mages could freeze two or three with a single ice spell.

But now, they too had become rare materials. Divine casters would not use them, and arcanists had no chance to use them. After Alchemy City fell, these spatial magical beasts gradually faded from view.

"Voidlings are rarely seen in the north now. It seems they went to sleep in Lake Es along with Pandor." As Odovish drew the magic formation, he explained this piece of "continental common knowledge," now known only to arcanists, to Elufiel.

Eugene silently helped at the side. He now knew that the divine caster named Elufiel was an elf. Though the other two had revealed no further information, Eugene had still deduced the elf's origins—a lost traveler from another world. That neatly explained the elf's incomplete understanding of the continent and her affinity for Arcane.

The magic formation on the ground was slowly completed. It could probably hold three people standing at once. Against the withered yellow grass, the white materials clung tightly to the ground like paint. Elufiel watched as Odovish and Eugene began chanting obscure spells together. A distorted shadow appeared over the magic formation. The pale gray shadow gradually expanded until it became the size of a door. Its outer edges were square, vastly different from the oval shape Elufiel knew.