Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Capítulo 1261: Chapter 1052: Candlekeep in Collapse

Celene tilted her head, her long silver hair drawing a beautiful arc in the breeze: “Don’t know? Who are you trying to fool!

You don’t know why you accepted him?

If you don’t skin him and pull out his bones, you’re doing yourself a disservice.”

“Sigh!” Shaer gently sighed, “Actually, it’s nothing major, it’s just his guilty conscience that made him so scared and seek an escape route.

It’s just that when this gets exposed, Oghma might cause trouble for me, at least he’ll want to reason with me, tch, that guy is so long-winded, it’s a bit annoying.”

“What do you mean?” Celene’s reaction in this regard was quick, “Could it be that Ullant, compared to Mystra, is actually more inclined towards Oghma? How is it possible? How could Black Eye fancy a mage who could be enticed by Oghma!”

“Knowledge can easily intoxicate one.

Moreover, a prophecy mage who loves books would naturally find a deity bringing knowledge worth more attention… Of course, he might also just prefer those uninvolved sages in the Oghma Monastery.” Shaer said flatly, “The true Black Eye, who made Candlekeep bow down, is dead, Midnight doesn’t care, handing Candlekeep over to Safras… Prophecy mages are quite different from others, they don’t really favor this God of Prophecy.

In their minds, whether Arando or Agatha, they fit more the image of the God of Prophecy… Safras knows many things, yet he likes to keep them to himself, unless he receives some kind of revelation concerning the world, then he would speak up… Although it’s more likely fate requiring him to speak out.

Ullant is also the type who believes prophecies should be made public, increasingly leaning towards the God of Knowledge, even many times harming Mystra’s interests.

Then he was discovered by Safras… That guy was probably just preparing for this Path of Destiny, looking for a way to bring down Kelben, maybe got Ullant to do a bit of work.

No matter how useless, he’s still a prophecy mage, Ullant prophesied multiple times for himself, feeling he might be scapegoated by Safras… To be honest, a little brain would reach this conclusion without the need for prophecy.

Openly, Oghma couldn’t do much for him, at most after his death, even if he is a polytheistic follower, Oghma would accept him into his Divine Kingdom, granting him a good ending.

But for someone as arrogantly self-assured and lustful as Ullant to accept and recognize he can only obtain this outcome, how could he stand it?

After struggling for a while, as one of Mystra’s two biggest enemies… Between Cyric and me, he chose me.

I reckon… it’s because I’m more hidden?

He pledged loyalty, so of course, I’d be willing to accept… Candlekeep’s position, how useful it is!

To keep him more concealed, I even took out Aishdo’s Shadow! You should know, the power of the shadow giant that can prevent all prophecy, I have only this one!

After all, as a demigod, Aishdo couldn’t split too much power.”

Celene coldly laughed, hitting the nail on the head: “Come off it!

To think you’d fancy Ullant! You’re just trying to use him to bolster Aishdo’s strength and incidentally bring downfall to Mystra, aren’t you?”

As a creation of shadow and evil, Aishdo’s growth is based on the glorious, courageous, noble beings’ destruction and subversion.

He once very high-profile propagated his ability: to make the once brave and fearless become timid and cowardly, make the once respectable and honorable become cunning and shameless, make the once noble and solemn become selfish and greedy.

The mages and scholars in Candlekeep have gone from proud to vain within a few decades, and Ullant from a proud and self-reliant leader to this arrogant foolishness… Shaer is truly instrumental!

It’s no wonder the only normal one is that Specter Dragon, those things, whether dragons or ghosts, there’s none to be found.

Moreover, even without Edna’s appearance and the help of the Undead Tribe, Candlekeep was later ruined by pirates… Tch, sometimes the pirates of Toril are so overwhelmingly strong… Normally can’t even handle an Ancient White Dragon, yet when push comes to shove, they could even take down an Ancient Ghost Dragon!

Not to mention those mages and priests whose spell-casting abilities got downgraded due to the Magicplague, just look at Mirimum… A Specter Dragon capable of hiding Milko’s Horned Crown so securely, the strong person capable of defeating her to regroup, must be a demigod, wouldn’t they?

Tsk, the pirates of the Ferun Great Land, they are truly too formidable… Accompanied by a Mercury Dragon, sweeping the Sword Bay sea clean of the Undead Tribe, even more unbelievably strong!

Hill silently glanced at the Lady of the Night, again raising this lady’s danger level a notch… Tch, the petite woman image she put on earlier to impress William, isn’t the real her!

Now this Goddess of the Night, who effortlessly plotted Candlekeep’s demise, is the true Shaer.

But, hold on… Hill suddenly came to realize… Shaer hopes the most that Candlekeep wouldn’t be destroyed, so that Aishdo could always devour the energy provided by those mages and scholars to grow!

You see, one of Safras’ most vital prophecies back then was that the reason Toril faces doomsday in hundreds of thousands of years is because one of the ancient evil beings and Wild God, the ‘Dark Night Serpent’ Dandell, breaks out from his seal and swallows Toril’s sun.

The reason Dinosaur God Utao became the sole True God of Chult is that he was tasked with guarding the seal.

However, Utao’s dark aspect towards Aishdo, for some reasons, independently deified… He desires a world without a sun more.

And his strength growth indicates Utao’s weakening… Hence everyone in Chult is eagerly hunting him down.

But this Aishdo is a timid and cowardly demigod who only dared to walk in the shadows even in the barren forest… In the end, he was devoured by Shaer, who also knew about the prophecy.

Hill didn’t even need to ask the Lady of the Night why she wanted to make Aishdo’s aspect stronger… to prevent Utao from fulfilling his mission and make Toril’s sun disappear, wasn’t that Shaer’s eternal goal!

However, the ending was quite… speechless for the bystanders.

Hill quietly glanced at Shaer, who was standing there coldly: no matter how the world changes, no matter how perfect the plan… why does the Lady of the Night always fail in such a baffling way?

On the giant screen, Jason, upon seeing the clawing shadows, instantly jumped back… the excessive force resulted in him crashing into the door of the Sunshine Hall.

“Damn it!” Jason cursed, “I thought it was that troublemaking Safras! How did I provoke Shaer?

Let’s get out of here quickly! The Goddess of the Night on this Path of Destiny has collected quite a few evil artifacts, maybe she’s interested in you too!

Even if Bane knew you were with me, he wouldn’t have the guts to ask me for the artifact with Milko’s divinity, instead, it’s a bit safer with him.

Shaer doesn’t fear you.”

The silver ring spinning around Ullant’s head turned several times, with gray-black smoke vortices swirling around the black diamond.

“Are you crazy! Competing with Shaer for energy?” Jason shouted in disbelief, “Agleya could be here in less than a minute!”

The Horned Crown hesitated for a moment, then with a final bounce, it leaped up in Ullant’s scream, landing directly on Jason’s arm guard and transforming into a silver ring pattern.

Hill cautiously glanced at the indifferent Shaer.

Celene burst into laughter: “Ahaha! My goodness! There’s a day when Milko actually takes advantage!

Shaer, you seem pretty unlucky this time, eh?

Luckily, you gave up this Path of Destiny early on.”

Shaer snorted coldly: “Foolish! The bit of death energy taken by the Horned Crown amounts to nothing.

That thing is not important for Aishdo’s growth at all.

What displeases me is Ullant’s failure.

But it doesn’t matter, there are so many Prophecy Mages in Candlekeep! There will always be someone who tries to take a look at the Sunshine Hall.

Finding someone with a bit of ambition who doesn’t mind siding with darkness is quite simple!”

“Eh?” Lansendel said curiously, “Ullant didn’t die immediately? Isn’t he bound to die once the Horned Crown is removed?”

“No way!” Shaer stared at the giant screen, “That’s not Ullant… the colorless, transparent threads, a puppet?

It’s Safras!”

Ullant’s body stiffened, with strange threads appearing all over him as he slowly edged into a corner of the Sunshine Hall.

He reached out his hand, and a pedestal with a shimmering Crystal Ball rose directly from the ground.

“Damn it! That bastard Safras!” Shaer cursed and suddenly froze.

“Tsk, heh heh~ I knew it, Candlekeep surely had an incarnation of Shaer… she would never rest easy placing her things within someone else’s power!” Celene laughed smugly.

Hill blinked and quickly understood why Shaer was in such a hurry…as Ullant roared spells with a voice that seemed to shake the sky, Candlekeep didn’t just tremble slightly this time; not only the main fortress that housed the Great Library, but even several adjacent buildings were collapsing!

The giant screen was also shaking, indicating that the place where the broadcast reporter was located was no longer safe, but he merely cursed softly and preferred to keep filming… After finishing the spell, Ullant was directly sliced into countless pieces by those threads!

However, these threads seemed to be transformed from Ullant’s blood, making the scene terrifying without being bloody.

Hill exhaled lightly… although he wasn’t afraid of such scenes, people with a cleanliness fetish always disliked seeing dirty things.

As soon as Ullant was done, the scene on the giant screen quickly switched… it seemed the Undead Tribe really disliked him, obviously eager to see something else, yet they had to first witness the fate of this Prophecy Mage.

The image showed Candlekeep’s underground crypt.

The luxurious decor, the countless used Crystal Balls on the shelves, and the thick books all testified to the identity of the crypt’s owner.