Chapter 80: True Goal

A second later, a thumb-sized red gem came out from Eve's chest area and then fell on the blue carpeted floor.

"The 'Miracle' worked, Your Highness." A grin appeared on Saron's face as she bent down and took the red gem from the floor.

Meanwhile, Xander suddenly blinked his oceanic blue eyes twice and then nullified the paralysis effect placed on his body through some unusual method.

After that, he stood up from his seat, went near Saron, and took the reddish gem from her hand.

"This is our 20 years of hard work. Hmm, I finally got the Rank-4 [Fate Warden] Class gem." He said with a nod and then added,

"Martin, you can stop your acting now."

A second later, a cracking noise was heard from Martin's neck area, and soon his tilted head rose.

Then, the wound on his face began to heal, and soon Martin's body was restored to his former state in seconds!

Then, an eerie smile appeared on Martin's face as he stood up from the ladder back chair and made a suggestion.

"We should escape before the Head Deacon returns, Your Highness. Even If we attacked her together, it will be very difficult to defeat her."

Upon hearing those words, Xander Nightwind nodded his head and said in an affirmative tone.

"Yes, we also need to get the Holem's Crown and kill Charles before he becomes a real threat."

He deliberated for a moment and then added.

"You guys should wait for a month or two and then proceed further. Be careful of that Lady Deacon, though. I have a feeling that she will definitely chase us from now on."

This time, Saron raised her eyebrows and asked in puzzlement.

"I already told you guys about their whole plan, right? Why is Charles still alive?"

A heavy sigh leaked out of Martin's face as he arrived near the paralyzed Anderson and shook his head.

"Something went wrong when they executed our plan and most of them died in the Unexplored Forest. We did expect that Archbishop Abel would accompany them, so we even asked the fake Eddie to intervene if something went wrong with the plan." He stopped for a moment as he squatted down, took out a short sword from his space ring, and continued in a grave tone.

"But the other irregular Max seemed to have found out about it and screwed everything up. That powerful fake Eddie Nightwind also died in the final battle."

Saying so, Martin raised his sword and slashed it towards Anderson's neck region.

In a second, the sword cleaved his head and even made a deep scratch on the carpeted floor.

Anderson's headless body twitched for a few seconds, splattering blood in all directions, and then went motionless.

Meanwhile, Xander turned his gaze towards the motionless Eve and spoke in an impressed tone.

"She is indeed a good mother. After knowing her upcoming death, not only did she bribe Bishop to say a fake prophecy, she even manipulated her own son to go to the Unexplored Forest with the power of 'Fate' and made many plans to save him. In the end, she did succeed in saving him and give us huge trouble."

"Well, we also leaked information about the Holem's Crown to Charles in many ways. Otherwise, she wouldn't have succeeded at all." Saron paused for a moment and then added.

"That Bishop's acting is the one that made everything possible. If he hadn't used some drug to make his tone monotonous and said that eerie prophecy, the Life Church members wouldn't have believed his words and led Charles directly to the City Ruin. If I am not a core member of Devil's Lair, even I would have believed his prophecy. Also, Charles seems to have some good luck."

Xander shook his head and spoke in a calm tone.

"It must be the Holem's Crown's doing. Although I got the class gem, I did lose many things. Even after her death, she won the real battle."

He then turned his gaze towards the entrance and went out of the reception room.

Martin and Saron also glanced at each other and soon followed after him, leaving Charles alone in the reception hall.

Meanwhile, Charles went near Eve's motionless body, sat in front of the ornate sofa, and muttered with a complicated expression on his face.

'She knew about her death; otherwise, she wouldn't have gifted me that silver bracelet and summoned my consciousness through it at this exact time. She must have anticipated such an outcome. Why am I feeling angry? Is it my own emotions? Or, Charles? I haven't done anything for her, but she even gave her life for me.' He bit his lips in anger. He then closed his eyes for a moment and then calmed down. He knew that emotions would only get in his way and steeled his heart to move further.

'Haa, no use in thinking deeply about the past. I should focus on how to deal with the current situation.' He shook his head and then started to think about her past actions.

'Eve even showed her wariness towards Saron White when she asked me about the Holem's Crown and even gave thumps up for evading Saron's question, right? Did she really foresee this incident?' He pondered for a moment and soon shook his head.

'Then about the Life Church's main goal. From the looks of it, they indeed after the Divinity of Morality and they also used Eve's offer as an opportunity to gain more.'

'Next is the Bishop's prophecy. Was that a complete lie? That indeed surprised me… Wait…Now that I think about it, Bishop Reynolds even refuted Eve's words when she warned him about something, right? At that time, he even asked her coldly that he should take those words as advice from a predictor. I should have noticed that earlier. He never believed in prophecies. Damn, he even used an unemotional voice… No, wait… That prophecy might be real. Yes, he revealed some confidential information about the Unexplored Forest at that time… Could it be that he revealed that confidential information to make me believe his words completely?'

Charles got more confused.

'No, that's not the main thing. That sly fox might have gotten something from Eve, otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to join in this plot-' At that moment, he suddenly recalled Eve's earlier words.

'This house! That explains everything. They agreed to help her not because of pity, but because of this house!' He finally understood why Eve signed an agreement to sell this house for 2,300 Arc gold coins.

Shaking his illusionary head, he stood up from the carpeted floor and thought of Red Prince and others.

'Red Prince really outsmarted me. Well, he indeed did a grand scheme for 20 or so years after all. I never thought that his main goal was the Class Gem. That earlier 'Miracle' I cast unknowing appears to have shifted to Saron White and then she seemed to have used that 'Miracle' to get this Class-Gem by killing Eve. But how did they know that they will get a Class-Gem as a reward for killing her?... Moreover, why Saron? Not Xander himself? Wait… Yesterday, Mr. Runeth told me that to create a miracle, some requirements needed to be met. Hmm, Red Prince's strange countdowns...'

'Tsk, I'm gonna let them know the pain of losing something precious.' He glared at the entrance for a second and soon turned his gaze towards his left wrist.

There, he saw a silver bracelet still shining in bright light and zeroed his attention on it.

A moment later, he once again felt the pulling sensation from the bracelet, and soon he found himself lying on the center of the ritual circle in the city ruin.

'Oh? You are back? Kid, your luckiness ended a few minutes ago, so be careful from now on.' Holem's Crown's voice echoed in his head, and soon he saw the red-gem embedded bracelet was hovering above his body.

'My 'Luckiness' ended a few minutes ago?' Charles suddenly thought of the strange countdown and soon widened his eyes.

'Could it be that he waited for my 'Luckiness' to end?' His heart skipped a beat as he thought of such a possibility.

Shaking his head, he then sat up with a solemn look on his face, took the bracelet, and asked while wearing it in his right hand.

'Mr. Runeth, can you able to cast the 'Travel Star' spell now?'

His words startled the Holem's Crown greatly. It went silent for a whole ten seconds and then asked in a solemn tone.

'Where would you want to go? Although I can't pinpoint the exact destination, I can vaguely teleport you near the destined area.'

Charles stood up and soon frowned as he sensed the foul smell coming from the corpses. He hurriedly covered his nose and then walked away from the city center.

Simultaneously, he thought of his current situation and fell into deep thoughts.

'I have two options now. One is to use the Holem's Crown's 'Travel Star' spell and hide from Red Prince and others for the time being. But even if I hide, Red Prince might have some other methods to track me down…'

'The second one is to return to Riverdale City and rank up with Life Church's help… Nah, from Emilia's earlier words, I can tell that those bastards won't give those ritual methods to outsiders that easily. Leaving the Withering Shadow Department is an easy job because they already failed to protect my mother, so I have full rights to walk away anytime. But, where can I get the ritual method to summon the 'Will' of a Fire Elemental Plane? Moreover, where can I get the co-ordination of a Fire-Elemental Plane?' He furrowed his brows for a moment and then turned his gaze towards the red-gem embedded bracelet.

'Mr. Runeth, do you know anything about the 'Traveler Tree's Leaf'?'

He suddenly remembered the hidden quest mission and asked.

'Where did you hear about that leaf, lad?' The Holem's Crown asked in surprise.

Charles thought for a moment and revealed everything he encountered in the Dreamworld.

Upon hearing his explanation, the Holem's Crown went silent for a moment and then spoke,

'Traveler Tree… It's a World Tree of a Higher Plane, lad. This Traveler Tree's leaves always comes in pair and those two leaves always have some connection with one another. Moreover, they are very rare.' It paused for a moment and then added,

'Once we went back to Riverdale City, we can enter the Dreamworld and explore further.'

A troubled expression appeared on his face. Charles then let out a sigh and said in a gloomy tone,

'Red Prince and his lackeys already killed my mother, Mr. Runeth. I witnessed the murder with my own eyes.'

'Oh… I'm sorry for your loss. But why did they kill your mother?' Even the Holem's Crown became puzzled by their action and asked in surprise.

Letting out a deep sigh, Charles explained everything to the Holem's Crown in detail and then added,

'They are also planning to kill me in a month or two. Red Prince appears to be afraid of the Lightning Mage now. But once he ranks up, he will definitely come for you and me. But it will take a month or two for him to completely stabilize his rank. This will be the biggest opportunity. For now, I'm planning to go and meet the powerful Lightning Mage and make a deal with her.'

Upon hearing his words, the Holem's Crown also agreed and said in his mind.

'I think you should disguise yourself as another person before you meet her. That way, even the Red Prince couldn't find out about you.'

Charles also agreed with that idea and said in a solemn tone.

'Cast the 'Travel Star' spell now.'

Meanwhile, the Holem's Crown shifted its attention to its 'Inner-World' and then activated it.

"Travel Leap."

A second later, Charles's figure blurred and soon disappeared from the city ruin.

…

End of the Volume-1

[Hello, Readers! I hope you could give me an honest review or a comment about this volume. It might be very helpful for me to realize what are the mistakes I made in this first arc.]

…