Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems

Chapter 645: The Black Sun Tower's Curse and the Lich King!

Locke and the other three exchanged glances, and it was clear that all four of them had gained a great deal from their dealings with the founding wizard of archaeology.Each of them had received a wish they were satisfied with.

Wizard Warwick smiled broadly. "From the look of things, everyone asked the founding ancestor questions related to Grand Magic? The founding ancestor truly is remarkable, able to work out spell models related to Grand Magic in such a short time and resolve our problems."

"Archaeology magic really is profound and far-reaching. There is still so much for us to learn."

McKinley said, "Indeed."

"We made a tremendous gain this time."

Witch Shirley let out a cold snort and ignored the two of them.

She looked toward Locke and said, "Locke, I asked the founding ancestor how to integrate my own archaeology magic with divine magic, and he answered my question."

"It was genuinely a great gain."

"What about you? What wish did you make?"

Locke looked at Witch Shirley in surprise. If that was the case, it seemed Witch Shirley intended to abandon her pursuit of botany magic at the Second Circle stage. The core focus of the entire Second Circle stage lay in Grand Magic, and if she did not wish to pursue a botanical Grand Magic, it meant her ambitions lay elsewhere.

Locke said, "The founding ancestor is indeed formidable. I had him show me the model of the sun and moon's dual motion from seventy thousand years ago."

Witch Shirley looked at Locke with surprise. "Only that?"

Locke said, "That was enough."

Warwick frowned. "Then you truly wasted a perfectly good wish. The founding ancestor's Historical Reconstruction can simulate the various details of whichever Grand Magic we desire, and I was completely absorbed in what I saw."

Wizard McKinley said, "Why are you so concerned with what he does? All right, let us think about what we should do now."

At that moment, the young wizard's voice appeared in Locke's ear. "Locke, you are only First Circle archaeology wizards, so when mapping the past, you cannot map presences at the Second Circle level. However, with me controlling it, you can see Second Circle presences. That said, the total strength of the historical records within your four Suzerain's Books is still insufficient, and combined with the Expungement Curse, this section of the past may become somewhat unstable and prone to flashbacks."

"Tell the others to be prepared."

"What you are about to see is not the truth of seventy thousand years ago in its entirety. It is a chapter of love belonging to someone I cared for from seventy thousand years ago. But then, what else is the work of an archaeology wizard for? Watch carefully."

In the next instant, the four of them found themselves at a coronation ceremony. But all four of them froze, because the coronation grounds were covered in mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.

A First Circle wizard roared, "He is not the king! He is the former king! Heavens, how can you still be alive, your former majesty!"

In the next instant, his head was crushed beneath the cold foot of a lich.

Locke and the others stared in shock at the figure on the ceremonial platform of the city, at the figure wearing the crown. He was half ashen and half bare bone.

This person's magical pressure was at the First Circle limit.

Locke frowned. "This should be the Nameless King's first coronation, not his second. A flashback must have occurred, which is fairly common in Historical Reconstruction. Our power was insufficient, causing a spatial and temporal distortion in the reconstruction."

Wizard Warwick said with certainty, "Yes. And how could the Nameless King have been only at the First Circle crystallization stage? And how could his coronation have been so sparse and modest?"

The group looked around and found that this coronation ceremony was far from the grandeur they had initially glimpsed within that magnificent city. It resembled a simplified coronation held in a small town.

Everything about the ceremony was exceedingly plain.

Wizard Warwick was somewhat taken aback. "But what on earth happened here? Why would something like this occur at the Nameless King's first coronation?"

The seven flower-language wizards of the Rose Council and the wizards of the Thunder Demon Society were also present, and they glared at Locke and the others with hostile eyes.

"What is going on?"

"Why are we here? What are all these undead creatures, and what is with these people in their absurdly styled clothing?"

Locke glanced at them and immediately looked away, because what mattered most right now was what lay before his eyes.

This was a Historical Reconstruction controlled by the founding ancestor, doing its best to present the past. Even if it was only a small fragment, the value to an archaeology wizard was extraordinary. Vast quantities of precious historical records were being gathered by his Historical Projection spell model and converted into records that streamed into his Suzerain's Book.

A wizard-priest, as though oblivious to the cold slaughter around him, continued dancing a ritual dance while simultaneously using two sacrificial magic spells as offerings to two recipients.

The first was "Heaven."

The second was "the Dark Sun."

Locke looked at the altar carved with these two identities and fell into thought.

Witch Yekaterina had once said that in the wizard world, only the "Mystic Heaven" could call itself Heaven. So could it be that this elderly wizard of the Era of Stars, using such ancient, primitive, and savage sacrificial magic, was offering prayers to the Mystic Heaven?

And what did the Dark Sun refer to?

The lich king stepped through the flames burning before the old wizard-priest. Wherever his foot fell, temperature drained away and all things ceased to be.

The flames extinguished in an instant.

The old wizard-priest's pupils contracted slightly. "Your former majesty, you should no longer be among the living. The Black Sun Tower transmits the message of truth to the mortal world through me, that the dead may not serve as Wizard King, and that magical kingdoms may only be ruled by the living."

The lich king laughed with contempt. "A first-class wizard apprentice may live four hundred years. A First Circle wizard may live a thousand years. A Second Circle wizard may live five thousand years. A Third Circle wizard may live ten thousand years."

"It seems a little longer than the mortals who are born at dawn and die at dusk. But after a thousand years, what remains but a pile of bones? I find this unjust."

"There is clearly technology now that allows wizards to never die, and yet the Black Sun Tower warns the three hundred million magical kingdoms of the mortal world, telling us that wizards are forbidden from using necromancy to transform themselves and live forever!"

"Why? What gives them the right to dictate that we, as magnificent as we are, cannot use necromancy to keep ourselves alive forever? To allow wise wizards to live forever, to rule forever, all the way to the end of time, what harm could that possibly do to the Black Sun Tower, to the Era of Stars?"

The old wizard-priest foamed at the mouth, his eyes vacant and lost. "Your former majesty, this is the message of truth, this is the message of the Black Sun Tower. The undead are forbidden from serving as king."

"Should the undead serve as king, divine punishment shall be visited upon them!"

The lich king's soul fire blazed within his eye sockets. "Ha! Divine punishment? Right here, right now, I stand before you. Where is the Black Sun Tower?"

"Where is Heaven?"

"Where is the Era of Stars?"

The terror vanished entirely from the old man's face. He seemed to become expressionless, and then he looked toward Locke and the others who were standing nearby observing the scene, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

Then the old man looked back at the lich king and said, "I hereby convey the judgment of the Black Sun Tower upon your Heliothos Magical Kingdom."

"From this day forth, your kingdom shall see no new human infant born into the world."

"Until a new king ascends the throne of the Heliothos Magical Kingdom. The prophecy of the Black Sun Tower is truth, and is hereby made eternal."

"Unless the parched earth yields grain once more; unless the dried sacred springs flow with water once more; unless the locusts retreat; unless the endless summer passes."

"Otherwise, this judgment shall never be lifted."

The soul fire within the lich king's eye sockets erupted in a sudden blaze. With a sharp crack, he completely wrung the neck of the old wizard-priest in his grasp.

"Despicable. Hateful!"

The lich king descended into complete madness. "Damn the Black Sun Tower, damn the prophet! Damn the birthplace of sacrificial magic, damn the Era of Stars. Damn the living, damn my son."

"Everything, all of it, can go to hell."

"Since I am Wizard King, my rule shall last ten thousand times ten thousand years, until the end of time. Necromancy clearly exists, so why must the dead not be allowed to rise? This era already has so many problems, so why must I be forbidden from existing? Black Sun Tower, I tell you, I refuse to accept this!"

The lich king planted his skeletal foot atop the old priest-wizard's corpse, raised his bony finger toward the sky, and said, "O source of sacrificial magic, O Black Sun Tower that holds dominion over the prophet, O keeper of order in the Era of Stars, I swear here and now, I shall not allow your prophecy to come true!"

"The parched earth cannot grow grain? Then I will have people research botanical magic!"

"The dried sacred springs have not a drop of water? Then I will have people research water magic from the Evocation School."

"The locusts will not retreat? Then I will use Insect Curse School magic to curse every last one of them to death. The summer will not end? Then I will command earth wizards to remake the land itself!"

"My court has countless wizards. Black Sun Tower, your designs will not succeed!"

The lich king raved on. "I, here and now, make a solemn vow. Every wizard who enters my court may enjoy the transformation of necromantic lichdom. The soul vessel shall remain unbroken, and the lich shall endure forever. Even after a thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, our court shall persist."

"Wizards shall have the privilege of living forever!"

Standing to the side, Locke listened with a growing sense of alarm.

So this was what had transpired in the Era of Stars.

The four exchanged glances, all of them realizing that the origins of necromancy were likely rooted in the Era of Stars.

Though how it had first originated remained unclear.

After all, what they were seeing here was only a partial fragment of the past, recalled by four First Circle archaeology wizards with the assistance of the founding ancestor, and it was genuinely difficult to see the full picture.

But even this small amount of information was enormously valuable. It could almost serve as corroboration that necromancy's origins lay in the Era of Stars.

In the Era of Stars, the emergence of necromancy appeared to have produced something with a profound impact on the political landscape, namely that rulers could extend their lifespans indefinitely through its use.

And this had prompted a direct prohibition from the Black Sun Tower, the invisible hegemon of that era.

But it seemed Wizard King of the Heliothos Magical Kingdom intended to defy the Black Sun Tower's ban.

At the same time, this scene also revealed how the Black Sun Tower, at least in the region of the Heliothos Kingdom, appeared to exercise its influence, apparently by using priest-wizards to deliver some kind of ancient prophecy.

The Black Sun Tower used prophecy to issue its commands.

But the precise details of how this all worked could not be fully understood from this single scene alone.

The lich king seemed to think of something. "Is it not that the Black Sun Tower simply wants my son to take the throne? This time I disguised myself as him to ascend in his place, and the Black Sun Tower had the audacity to refuse my sacrifice. Very well then. I will kill my son and ensure that the Heliothos Kingdom has only one Wizard King forever."

"Hahaha... indeed... since I am already an immortal lich, why do I even need descendants?"

"The Heliothos Kingdom has no new human infants? What of it? I can rule over the dead. As long as every person in the Heliothos Kingdom becomes an undead..."

"Even if mortals become undead and lose their consciousness, reduced to puppets, I still have the wizards of Heliothos."

The lich king's soul fire blazed wildly within his eye sockets as he moved to go kill the prince in the dungeon, but at that moment, a number of the ancient court wizards of Heliothos stood in his way.

"Your former majesty, please reconsider. He is your only son."

"If the prince dies, you will have no descendants at all!"

The soul fire in the lich king's eye sockets leapt wildly. "Out of my way! I possess necromancy. Wizards should not die, they should become eternal rulers."

"So get out of my way! I am going to kill that useless heir of mine!"

At that moment, some of the wizards began to waver. They were beguiled by the former king's words, and began to wonder whether, if every wizard could master necromancy and transform themselves into a lich, halting time and freezing civilization in place forever, then...

Would they still need descendants?

Were descendants in fact nothing but a burden?

Some wizards began to question whether everything they had done and thought up to this point had been constrained by the limits of their technology.

Perhaps the former king was not extreme at all.

Perhaps it was simply the thinking of an immortal!

One wizard stopped his colleague. "Perhaps the former king truly has no need of descendants. The one we pledge our loyalty to is a powerful Wizard King, not a young man who cannot protect himself."

"If we have necromancy, our king never needs to be replaced, and the court wizards never need to be replaced. Mortals are like chives, cut one batch down and another grows. So what?"

Another colleague raised a doubt. "But what if the mortals grow weary of our rule and want to rebel? New wizards can also arise from among the mortals. What do we do if those new wizards want us to step aside?"

The lich king let out a great laugh. "Kill them."

"Keep mortal civilization frozen forever so it can never threaten us."

The lich king glared savagely at the wizards still standing in his path. "Since that is the case, all of you can go ahead and die."

In the next instant, the lich king began chanting, and a Domain of Death descended.

The flower-language wizards of the Rose Council froze in bewilderment. "What is happening?"

They all produced various magical bouquets, only to watch as the bouquets of magical plants began to wither rapidly, wilting at a terrifying pace.

The nature of a magical kingdom's domain was determined by its Wizard King.

When the Wizard King became a lich and was master of this kingdom, and after persuading a considerable number of wizards to transform into liches themselves, the entire domain of the magical kingdom became a Domain of the Laws of Death.

Within this Domain of the Laws of Death, the power of the undead was amplified, while the power of the living diminished accordingly.

Even more alarming was that the seven wizards of the Rose Council and the wizards of the Thunder Demon Society found that their magical power was being rendered useless under the descent of the kingdom's domain.

The Thunder Demon Society's leader hurled a bolt of lightning at the ground, only to find that his magic could not inflict the slightest damage on this kingdom's domain.

Instead, a skeletal hand seized him by the ankle and gave a violent yank, and he was dragged straight down into the ground and disappeared.

The wizards of the Thunder Demon Society cried out one by one in fear and panic.

Without their leader at the First Circle limit, the Thunder Demon Society's wizards were rudderless, at a complete loss for what to do.

"What is happening? We only entered a wild secret realm. How did we end up here? Where is this place?"

"What kind of magic is that? Why is everything we cast simply swallowed up, with no effect whatsoever?"

Black mist swept across the ground, and hands made of white bone reached up out of the darkness, grasping for their ankles.

One Thunder Demon Society wizard stepped backward to retreat, only to feel a skeletal hand settle on his shoulder. The moment he turned to look, it gave a savage yank.

An instant later, that wizard was dragged in.

On the other side, the female flower-language wizard Suela Sharp stared at the skeletal hands lunging toward her and went pale with fright. "How revolting! What are these things?"

She cast one botanical spell after another at the skeletal hands, but every last one of them was inexplicably swallowed whole.

An instant later, unable to dodge in time, she herself was swallowed up as well.

At the same time, the other flower-language wizards of the Rose Council suffered the same fate.

On the other side, Locke and his group fared no better. All their magic was swallowed by the skeletal hands and black mist as well.

In the next instant, Locke felt a pair of skeletal hands seize him by the shoulders and drag him violently inward.

Witch Shirley saw this and immediately followed, diving straight in after him.

Warwick and McKinley, for their part, were dragged in by force.

The lich king stood at the center of the courtyard, laughing heartily.

Every last one of those who resisted had been swallowed by his kingdom's domain.

…

Inside the kingdom's domain, Locke found that Witch Shirley, Wizard Warwick, and Wizard McKinley had all appeared alongside him.

No wonder nothing they had done could resist it.

All their magic had simply been sent into another world. It had not lost its effect at all.

Locke looked at the other world behind the kingdom's domain, his eyes flickering as he took it in. It was an illusory world, formed from the convergence of the undead imagery of the entire magical kingdom.

'The kingdom's domain... this is fundamentally another space belonging to this kingdom, another world conjured entirely by magical power. All of our previous attacks simply fell into this world.'

'This world appears to have the qualities of Grand Magic.'

'That is why we were at such a disadvantage.'

The founding ancestor's reminder reached Locke's ears once more. "Locke, even though this is only a fragment of the past, if you are suppressed within this magic domain, you will be refined into a part of this magical kingdom."

"Your strength, your everything, all your magic, will be claimed by this magical kingdom. Get out as quickly as you can."

"Locke, you have this ability."

"In the six months we spent together, you already acquired the ability to break the cycle of a kingdom's domain."

Locke immediately fell into thought. 'This magical kingdom's domain appears to be a special phase space. It coexists with the physical magical kingdom in the same mountains and rivers and geographic territory, the same physical space, yet occupies a different phase of existence.'

'The question is, in such an ancient era, how did something like a kingdom's domain come to exist? How exactly did it arise, and what does it depend upon?'

'The founding ancestor said that in the six months we spent together, I already mastered a way to leave. What have I mastered? This place is so strange. This scent... wait...'

At this moment, Warwick, McKinley, and Witch Shirley were all breaking out in cold sweats, having immediately realized that this strange domain was eroding their magical pressure and consuming their magic.

At the same time, what had appeared to be a mountain peak in the distance suddenly stood up. It was a massive skeletal giant, soul fire blazing in its eyes, and it was walking toward them.

Every mountain peak in the surrounding area rose up in the same way and began advancing toward them.

Warwick said, "Everyone think of something fast. What in the world is this place? Damn it all, we are four archaeology wizards. We cannot die here without understanding what is happening!"

Wizard McKinley said, "Historical Reconstruction is inherently dangerous. This is a power we have never encountered before, far too strange."

"Does anyone have a way to deal with it?"

Wizard Warwick said, "Let us try the Abjuration School's dimensional banishment and see if it still works. If all else fails, we will escape using dimensional banishment. We have already obtained a portion of what we came for!"

Witch Shirley looked toward Locke. "Junior fellow apprentice, what are you thinking?"

Locke sniffed at the scent in the air. "It is osmanthus."

"Think about it. A kingdom's domain is a form of Grand Magic-level magic. So what of it? I have been worried about not understanding Grand Magic. This is a perfect opportunity to practice."

"Where there is the scent of osmanthus, there must be an osmanthus tree." Locke used the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow to fly up into the air and survey the domain from above, and sure enough, in one corner of the domain he spotted a laurel tree.

He flew straight toward it.

Witch Shirley was startled. "Junior fellow apprentice?"

She immediately cast a First Circle divine magic, Summon Seat Angel, and a pair of angel wings grew from her back as she followed after him.

Warwick looked over in that direction, paused for a moment, and said, "Locke seems to have an idea. Let us not banish ourselves just yet. Come on, let us go see."

By this point, Locke had flown up to the osmanthus tree. "Oh? It is a Golden Flower Small Laurel. This is indeed a fairly ancient magical plant. I did not expect it to exist in this era. It has certain differences from its later descendants."

"The Golden Flower Small Laurel can connect to the moon."

"I was right. The anchor point of the kingdom's domain lies in the moon. The kingdom's domain of a Wizard King in the Era of Stars, though I do not yet fully understand it, and the only one I have seen so far is this undead kingdom's domain, its core point is genuinely the moon of this era."

"Because the sun is dim, the stars shine bright, and so the moon was used as the anchor point of the magic domain? Or perhaps creating a magic domain is itself a property of the moon in the wizard world, something that for some unknown reason was not passed down to later generations."

Locke retrieved the Porcelain Moon from his astral ring. "I do not know if this will work."

"But it has to work. Otherwise we will not be able to continue exploring. I will use the moon's gravitational pull to temporarily open a gate in this magic domain and then leave."

"If my guess is right, I should be able to do it."