Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Watching the two children leave, Gilbert waved his hand and lowered layer after layer of thick curtains... Being very familiar with Defensive Spells, he was extremely good at using simple basic Formations to construct complex defenses.

It was just that he rarely ever used all of the curtains.

Although this might cause a bit of... misunderstanding from those who had been observing him all along, in fact the truly important few had already given up on getting anything special from him; as for the others, they were not worth fearing at all.

When there were newcomers entering his household, and it was also obvious that he was about to go to a life-and-death appointment, he had to do some inheritance distribution; those people would not overthink it.

”So, who are you?” Gilbert looked seriously toward a certain invisible figure.

Although West was somewhat inferior to him in certain aspects, it was not to the extent that something Gilbert could perceive would be completely unnoticed by West.

And the reason why, in the area where he lived, only some nobodies of no status ever thought of coming to rob him while the true Legitimate Line of the Tower of Dark Enigma avoided it like the plague, was of course because the surveillance on outsiders here was extremely strong.

These past few years, Gilbert had not been completely ignorant of all information... Contrary to the outside world’s speculations about this matter, his teacher was actually the one among the three Tower Masters whose desire for power was the weakest.

Those who wanted to obtain more—how would they dare, in the face of the Defense Tower’s annihilating catastrophe, to still show a pursuit of Protection Spells?

Even knowing that whatever the Hainarson Clan could bring out must have been scrutinized by Sia Tower, the other two still hoped that the Tower of Dark Enigma could become a Legitimate Line of Sia Tower!

How would they dare to reach out recklessly.

On the contrary, his teacher Ruth cared only about knowledge and not power... The reason he could become one of the three Tower Masters was because he was the strongest in the Tower of Dark Enigma.

Having such a teacher naturally had its advantages—that was, he had little interest in constantly probing whether Gilbert had any secrets. He was extremely confident in himself, and did not believe that a child like Gilbert could hide anything under his suppression.

So, although Gilbert was not his favorite kind of student, he still fulfilled his responsibilities as a teacher and fought to get him the best treatment.

The other two were not the same.

They were dissatisfied that they had to go through Ruth to obtain the exclusive Casting methods of some Defense Tower Spells... Among Mages of the same Level,利益交换 was inevitable; yet Gilbert behaved as though he obeyed his teacher’s every word, and no matter how they tried to sow discord, he never intended to seek any other backing for himself... They were also dissatisfied with Ruth’s absolute protection, which prevented them from doing certain Soul-based explorations on this child.

Ruth did not particularly appreciate Gilbert either, but he absolutely would not allow a student under his name to be toyed with.

Not to mention Gilbert’s chaotic Mental Sea... If a student he had accepted suddenly died because of someone else’s methods, where would he put his face?

In any case, during that period Ruth was the one who kicked up the biggest fuss, and in that chaotic situation Gilbert gained a brief chance to catch his breath.

In fact, he later figured it out as well.

In the eyes of great houses like the Tower of Despair, Gilbert was nothing more than a craftsman who might have a bit of skill—if they could take him under their wing that would be good; if not, at most they would look at him with a touch of regret... a single glance really was the limit, any more was impossible.

But the Tower of Dark Enigma, which was on the brink of destruction, was different. They would swarm toward any opportunity like hyenas.

And if he had not gone mad back then, the final outcome might well have been that he entered the Tower of Dark Enigma.

After all, aside from this Magic Tower, no other Magic Tower would lose enough face to go scavenging in someone else’s small town.

But at that time, the intact version of him would not only have little chance of being taken in under Ruth’s command, his Mental Sea might even have been tormented until it directly collapsed.

The efforts he made for his family, in a certain sense, also saved himself.

And that was one of the reasons he was willing to do many things for his family.

But he could not deny that this area where he lived ran very strict detection on certain foreign Souls... otherwise West would not have come to register the two children so quickly.

If outsiders stayed in his place beyond a certain length of time, then the alarm in a certain Tower Master’s room would go off.

Heh~

So Gilbert had never cared about those fools who were stupid enough to want to inherit his estate... Those people never stopped to think, what gave a Junior Mage like him the courage to so casually set up a Side Tower?

Could it be that Ruth, who had given him a pile of Magic notes yet could only meet him once a year, was the one?

Of course not. It was because he knew that those who had the ability would not dare come, and those who dared come would not have the ability.

The Arrays were all integrated into the Magic Tower’s bricks and walls.

However, Gilbert now fell into self-doubt... Could it be that the Magic Tower’s Soul-capturing Array was not as powerful as he had imagined?

But that did not seem to be the case... Because of the Tower of Dark Enigma’s so-called ”great” contribution back then, the vast majority of Arrays in this Magic Tower had been set up by a certain incomparably powerful Archmage of Sia Tower.

That was the peerless powerhouse who had single-handedly wiped out two Tower Masters of the Defense Tower in those days.

Gilbert felt somewhat lost, somewhat incredulous, yet in his heart there still surfaced a strange thought: the Soul that was curiously observing him right now seemed so powerful that he did not even dare imagine it.

”You know your life has already reached its limit, don’t you?” Hill did not answer his question; instead, he opened his mouth to ask Gilbert.

Gilbert was stunned, then suddenly understood. This Archmage who had followed the two apprentices in obviously knew his plan, and also felt he had no chance of success at all: ”You mean that even if that Mental Power Potion is up to standard, it will be of no use to me at all, Mage?”

”Heh~ Even if this Potion of yours were at a perfect level, it would still be meaningless for you.” Hill replied decisively. ”The reason you’ve lived to this day is because you’ve been using up your Life Force to replenish your Mental Sea, in which a breach has opened up.

You probably don’t feel much yourself, but your Mental Sea has a tiny fracture.

When you advanced to Mage, you used some methods that were a bit too radical, didn’t you?

Although it succeeded, you were injured as well.

If you had tried to mend it back then, there might still have been a sliver of hope; but... it’s been far too long.

I originally thought that... forget it, I have no way here.

Besides, even if you had a way to switch to Necromancy, your Soul Power wouldn’t be enough to see you through the transformation process... Mm, at best you’d only become an undead, the brainless kind.”

Gilbert clenched his fists tightly, then suddenly asked, ”What about my Soul after death? Can it be preserved?”

”Hm?” Hill couldn’t help looking at him in surprise. ”You know? How... did you find out?”

”Although I didn’t know my Mental Sea was damaged, I did know that my Soul was unstable.” Gilbert gave a calm little smile. ”So I went to look up books and notes related to Souls.

The Tower of Dark Enigma once had a period of pretty good relations with Sia Tower; even this Magic Tower where I live was personally repaired by them.

So, there are still some things here.

Me reading them wouldn’t really strike anyone as strange.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find any method to heal myself. Instead, I discovered that I could very easily see the Souls of Humans—mm, of dead Humans.”

He gave a brief smile, his expression icy and mocking. ”At the time, my father had just reached the final stretch of his Life, and my mother clearly wanted to go with him... so I wanted to see them off.

No one knew, no one participated; it was only the three of us communicating with each other.

Yet what I saw... was merely their Souls being sucked away by a vortex.

The door behind that vortex... heh, it was exactly the same as the Goddess’ Gate at the top of the tower that Sia Tower is most proud of.

I don’t know whether my parents’ Souls still exist, but I... am nothing more than a coward, only able to hide everything deep inside and pretend I know nothing.”

”You did nothing wrong.” Hill affirmed. ”Otherwise, the Hainarson Clan would probably have died together with you, and even the Tower of Dark Enigma would not have been spared.”

”May I know why?” Gilbert suddenly turned his head, asking in an extremely serious tone. ”From childhood we were taught that the great Bisozeya sacrificed herself for the world and would need an extremely long time to recover.

So even when Humans suffer and struggle, they still strive to survive for that faint sliver of hope, willing to do anything so their loved ones can live.

But would a Goddess who devours the Souls of her subjects really do something so great?

I can understand that sometimes sacrifice is necessary, but... absolutely not this kind.

Someone who sacrifices the self couldn’t possibly be so cruel.”

Hill curled his lip. ”I don’t know your world’s true name, but it definitely isn’t Bisozeya.”

Gilbert looked at him in sudden realization... He had heard that some time ago the Tower of Despair had summoned the strongest Meteor Shower in a hundred years, though unfortunately they had failed to attract any visitor from the Stellar Realm.

Although he did not care much about outside affairs, the people on the Tower of Dark Enigma’s side had spoken about it very sourly, able only to comfort themselves by saying they lacked that kind of blessing.

As expected, accidents never come alone; they are always accompanied by something else.