Arcane Journey

Chapter 328 Shadow Valley

The sea roared, and the ghost city of Sultanza stood amidst the foam of the Sea of ​​Shadows.

Directly below them, the spray smashed against the walls of the High King's palace.

The obsidian-studded Tower of Karthus towered high above, pitch black and lifeless.

"The golden age of Netheril." High King Telamante followed Brenas' gaze, and then said: "Every ten years, the great arcanists of the High Council of Mages will wear traditional attire and come to Go to the tower in Karthusland, and then enter a well-prepared room to discuss the matter."

"This is a dangerous tradition, and it is meaningless." Breners looked away from the dark tower, looked at his father, and made an evaluation.

As if he came out of the void, his personal mark——on a blood-red background, depicted in a black outline like a majestic lion with bat wings, was conspicuously worn on his chest.

"Indeed. Although this tradition has a long history and is entirely out of practical considerations, as you said, there is nothing to discuss." The High King stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the rough Sea of ​​Shadows.

"Every member of the Council of Supreme Mages knows that a gathering of grand arcanists is very dangerous. When the two parties communicate, they often hesitate to speak because of a dispute. Ball lightning blew up Owo's cloak and top hat, and Owo's death sphere corroded Laroch's coat and staff. So Karthus strengthened the walls of the tower with powerful magical auras and set up anti-magic barriers. The arrangement took him a full five years, and from that day on, all spells would be disabled in the Tower of Karthus, and the conversation would be more peaceful."

"I understand. You floated the floating city on the surface of the Shadow Sea and brought me to the Tower of Karthus. Obviously, you want me to witness something, right?" Brenners looked thoughtfully. The Sea of ​​Shadows was clearly darker than the night, but when the waves hit the floating city, white foam appeared.

In the past, this place was called 'Thirsty Sandbar'. Just like its name, it was originally a basin extending several kilometers in all directions.

But with their return, powerful magic was released here, creating a clear and icy lake stretching thousands of square kilometers on the most barren land in Toril's history.

The dark clouds and mists that linger all year round are suspended in the sky above the Shadow Sea, blocking the hot and high temperature evaporation from the sky, as well as the death absorption of the ancient monster buried deep in the ground——Ferrin's magic sunflower.

"But obviously, this tower you named 'The Tower of Karthus' is just a fake building." Brenas expressed his guess and asked: "Or, is it really a building?" Is it an important building?"

"According to our agreement, if the mage lord of Mokou Town can really prevent Guangze's tragedy from happening, I will tell you everything." The soft voice could not hear the slightest emotional fluctuation, "The real Tower of Karthus is now in ruins. As for whether it is important? Maybe."

"Maybe?" Breners wondered.

"When Karthus cast the twelve-ring spell, he made a prophecy in his tower, and hid the result of the prophecy in the tower in the form of a magic painting."

"You found the ruins of this tower?" Brenners asked, "It just so happens that magic paintings are stored in this ruins, isn't that true?"

"You're right, I found the ruins of the tower in the Sea of ​​Shadows, but I closed it again. After all, everyone wants to predict the future, everyone wants to be as strong as Karthus, and even claimed that It hides the secret of the twelve-ring spell."

The High King waved his hand, the dragon-winged cloak on his shoulders fluttered in the sea breeze, and the blood-winged lion on the badge seemed to be galloping in the dark, "Let's go, Brenners, the mission of the secret existence is to always I long for one day to meet someone who wants to uncover it."

With the wave of the High King, Brenas noticed that the terrace under their feet disappeared instantly. They stood on the edge of the cliff, and below was the abyss, with rocks intertwined among the foamy waves.

His father led him down a narrow path of black flagstones that stretched like taut ropes between the ledge of the tower of Karthus and the columns supporting the terrace.

Breners almost lost his balance. If he was not a legendary professional, but an ordinary person, he would even fall directly into the abyss.

"be ready."

The sudden body shaking of the little prince failed to escape the eyes of the High King. They were on the narrow bridge, blown by the wind, the waves were roaring, and the abyss below was calling for Braines.

A whirlwind.

Breners seemed to feel that he had really fallen into an abyss. When he opened his eyes, the roaring waves disappeared, and he found himself in a closed room without windows.

The ceiling of the room was conical, with a magic stone emitting milky white light embedded at the apex. Under the dim light, Brenas could faintly see the four walls engraved with arcane runes and the hard floor.

Other than that, there is nothing in it.

"What is it called here? I haven't researched it yet." The High King's voice echoed in his ears, as if he couldn't hear it clearly if he was distracted a little bit. He had to improve his concentration and listen carefully. , "Close your eyes and feel it quietly. Remember, everyone can only see the prophecy once, and the prophecies they see are also different... unique."

So Breners closed his eyes.

Gradually, changes appeared in the pitch-black world, as if something jumped into his mind, and directly unfolded the image in his consciousness.

He knew that this was definitely not his imagination, but some unimaginable scenes constructed in his mind by a powerful prophecy ability.

When the twisted lines of arcane runes subsided, a huge painting slowly unfolded in this dark and endless world.

This is the power of prophecy left over from the great arcanists of Netheril's time.

It is a very strange feeling to feel something in his mind. Breners suppressed the shock in his heart and kept calm. He knew that once he opened his eyes, all the scenes would disappear in an instant. He could only use his own consciousness to feel this. all the details of the painting.

When his attention was focused on the scroll, he still had the illusion that his own soul was being sucked into it.

He seemed to have stepped into the picture scroll, and seemed to be an outsider.

In the picture scroll, he saw a throne made of bones and steel, with blood-red long windows behind it and an obsidian statue vacated by a dragon, which looked like a part of a certain temple.

However, when he fully put his consciousness into it, the temple disappeared, and what appeared in front of his eyes turned into a barren world. A depressing blood-red sun bathed the whole world in scorching heat. In high temperature and harsh sunlight.

What was even more unbelievable was that he saw groups of meteorites appearing in the blood-red sky, and the largest meteorite was like a teardrop. It seemed to have been standing still in the sky for countless centuries, and then suddenly split into five pieces. Each piece draws a flame trail that runs through the sky.

These large stray meteorites broke into thousands of smaller fragments, raining spectacular fire on this barren world.

Suddenly, the screen vibrated violently, Breners felt a tremor under his feet, and almost fell to the ground.

He subconsciously wanted to open his eyes, but he held back at the last moment. He saw two chaotic meteorites colliding with each other suddenly, dragging a long trail, and the moment they fell, there was The barren world has set off a terrible chaotic storm...

Brenners took a breath and struggled to break free from the screen. At the moment when the chaos storm covered his vision, he felt as if he was about to suffocate.

Unfortunately, he didn't see any useful information in it. He could only deeply remember all the pictures he saw in his mind for future reference or research.

He rested for a while, then closed his eyes again, trying to check the new prophecy.

However, as his father said, a person can only watch it once, and there is nothing in his sight... Just like the world outside the scroll, it is dark and dead.

After leaving the chamber, Braines followed his father towards the High Palace.

The High King didn't say anything, didn't ask any questions, or inquired about the prophecy, his face didn't show any joy or anger.

They sat across from each other at a Netheril chess table. It was a warm and calm afternoon, with the scent of flowers and plants in the air, and everything seemed peaceful and peaceful except for the buzzing of bees and large beetles.

After a long silence, the High King finally spoke, but his eyes did not focus on Braines, but drifted away into the distance.

"Remember the story I told you?" he said slowly.

"Impressive," Breners replied.

After he received the news about Brian's successful destruction of Guangze's dark ritual, he got his wish and learned from his father many secrets that he could not dig out from the ruins.

When he asked about the root cause of Netheril's demise, his father did not answer directly, but told him a simple story.

When a young man carrying water by the river was about to go home, he happened to meet a familiar friend, so the two sat on a mound of soil and chatted.

At the same time, under the boy's feet was a black army delivering food to the headquarters, and his feet happened to break their transportation route.

The leader of the ants was extremely angry and called on all the ants to fight back. They organized an elite expeditionary force and climbed up the boy's shoes. Since the boy was squatting, the ant climbed onto his calf and bit him hard.

Feeling something was wrong, the boy looked down, raised his leg and stomped hard, shaking off all the ants on his leg, and then continued to focus on the topic just now.

Due to the boy's stomping, many ants on the ground were trampled to death, and the leaders of the ants were unwilling to give up, and they organized an expeditionary force to charge him repeatedly. I stepped on all the ants I could see, and then continued chatting with my friends.

The leader of the ant held an oath meeting at the end, calling on all the soldiers of the empire to deal with the invaders. Since the young man caused them to lose a large number of members and cut off the transport routes of the empire, the leader of the ant decided to send a large number of dead soldiers to use the pliers on his mouth. Calf, make a massive attack, preferably destroying his calf.

At this moment, the teenager finished chatting with his friend. He said goodbye to his friend with a smile, and then looked down at the army of ants that was charging towards him. He picked up a bucket and poured water on the ants' formation. In an instant, the entire ground was swept by the flood, the mighty army of ants was destroyed, countless excellent soldiers of the empire were swept away by the huge waves, and the flood even rushed into the capital of the empire, causing a large area of ​​death there.

In the end, at the cost of the countless casualties of the Ant Empire's soldiers and the complete destruction of the transportation and supply lines, in exchange for the boy's bucket of water and the skin of the calf being bitten.

The Ant Emperor finally announced that this was a great victory. Countless excellent soldiers of the empire exchanged their lives for the compromise of the powerful invaders, and the evil invaders finally retreated.

This battle was recorded in the history books of ant civilization, and the ants who participated in the war and survived were all sung as heroic epics.

And that afternoon, the boy's friend told him that how many gold coins his father had obtained in an adventure had already saved enough to go to the Magic Academy to learn spells, and the boy's father was a farmer, so he couldn't save much wealth throughout the year. It is even less likely to have the opportunity to learn magic.

He is worrying about his future. The first battle in the ant world did not attract his attention. He does not know the cause, development and process of this war. Water splashed over.

From this story, he concluded that mortals are as vulnerable as ants in front of the gods, but they don't know it.

But today is different from the past. The current world rules have already undergone tremendous changes under the impact of the turbulent years of the Saints' catastrophe and the last century's Arcane catastrophe. The rules among the gods have begun to be subtly influenced. Change.

He believes that if this balance is broken, earth-shaking changes may really take place.

"Since you understand everything, go and set up your own chessboard." The High King's deep eyes seemed empty, but in Breners' eyes, they were as clear as fire.

His father said to him, "But don't count me in, because I'm as small as dust to your game, and it's not my game. You say I have to make a choice? I say you're wrong. , I don’t choose, I just react to what happens, I adapt to what other people choose, and that’s what I’ve always done.”

"You're a fatalist," Breners said.

He never expected his father to stand by him, or join his game, all he needed was for him to set himself free.

He is grateful for Brian's efforts, allowing him to win the bet with his father, which means that it is not far from his freedom.

"Fatalist?" the High King repeated in a slightly self-deprecating tone, his voice soft and calm, "you are right. Although this is another word I should not know, I repeat it: it is not mine. Chess game."

"Really?" Breners gradually became more courageous. He leaned forward, pointed at the re-arranged chess pieces on the table, and tried to show what he thought was the most confident smile.

"In this chess game, father, on this chessboard, stands a dark horse whose fate is connecting with the fate of the Ennook Desert. For us, this can be a good thing, or it can be a Bad thing. You know who I'm talking about, right? I'm sure you'll never lose the slightest bit of interest in him, right? But you know, right now, for us to fulfill our dreams, there's no one but Miss Lost In addition, new methods have emerged.”

The High King narrowed his eyes with interest.

"The new method is also the method that I think is the most suitable. This is my choice, father." Brenas stood up, tidied his cloak and the final scroll behind his back, "I hope you are looking up at the sky, When appreciating the stars, you can think about this problem."

After saying this, he turned around and left without looking back.

Right now, he has only one goal, which is to go to Shadow Valley.

…………

The floating city of Sacross.

The dark sky cast a thick shadow, covering the floating city standing on the wilderness, and the trees beside the road blurred into black shadows, swaying wantonly in the night wind, making rustling sounds, as if there was something terrible things are slowly approaching.

Inside a ghost tower surrounded by black mist.

In the dark room, there was a strange smell, and the air was filled with a suffocating depression.

Standing in front of the window, Egrila, Prince of Ghosts, stared in the direction of Guangze. After a long, long time, he sighed, turned around, and sat back on his chair.

Hirosawa's dark ritual fails.

The whole incident was completely beyond his expectations. He thought that at the moment the magic net was torn apart, no matter whether it was any spellcaster on the mainland or the priests of the gods, they would instinctively believe that the source of the problem was in the Shadow Valley .

After all, the distorted tower there hides the space node leading to the realm of the magic net.

The fact is exactly the same, whether it is the Arcane Brotherhood or the red-robed wizards, they have sent spies to the Valley of Shadows to find out.

The mage group of Waterdeep City stepped into the sunken space swallowed by death in Tivanton without hesitation, in order to investigate the root cause of the problem.

However, there will always be people who make unexpected moves.

Agrela still couldn't figure out how the mage lord in Mokou Town knew the secret hidden in Guangze.

In less than half a day, he eradicated the secret stronghold of the Church of the Lost Ladies hidden in Huailun City, and took away the shadow stone fragments stored in the temple with a clear goal.

This artifact fragment is the key item for the Shadow Demon Net to replace the Magic Net in the Kingdom of Cormyr, and the efficiency of the mage lord almost makes him think that his inner ghost is hidden among the core staff of the church.

Originally, he thought that it was just a coincidence that the removal of the stronghold of the temple was just a coincidence, but the next move of the other party shocked him so much that his heart almost jumped out of his hollow chest.

Not only did he find the twilight gate leading to the shadow plane in Guangze, he even killed the black dragon Despier who presided over the ceremony in the heavily guarded dark canyon.

Agrela is still at a loss as to how the other party managed to kill the ancient black dragon.

Although he couldn't figure out how this mage lord named Bryan did it, at least he could keep his head clear and deeply understand that the other party will definitely go to the Shadow Valley in order to repair the scars of the magic net .

Wanting this, the corner of Agrela's mouth couldn't help but sneer.

He immediately took out a sheepskin scroll and began to write furiously:
To the deepest dark priest, Lord Elsweil:

I hope this letter reaches you, and that we have made a sacrifice for what the Lost Lady has asked us to do.

The Lord of Shadows has recognized the great generosity of your sending us The Dark Chronicle.

You know, there are very few copies of this book left.

But I still think it would be better if you let us know in advance that some chapters in the book are missing.

Well, as you point out, there's a lot to dig into in the gibberish written by the mad mage Algathra.

What's more, the things hinted at in "The Chronicle of Darkness" drove the dark prophet to write the book "One Night with Thousand Petals".

We all know that the One Night with a Thousand Petals is the key to the success of the Great Ritual, and it has been borne out in the capital of Sembia and the city of Tivanton in Cormyr.

But until now, I just realized that there is another way to replace the magic net.

Praise to the Lost Lady, you are commendable for your astute discovery, Errigal of the Zhentarim, of the true purpose of the ring he inadvertently acquired.

As you say, Erigor's poor wit prevented him from understanding what it was and what it meant.

However, we know that this ring is not worth enough to risk breaking our covenant with the Dark Intelligence Network, at least for now.

After all, 'Black Veil' Elyriel has her own method, she can enter the 'echo' of the Windsong Tower, and explore the secrets of the Cormran family.

However, don't worry, the mission of Myth Draenor has been entrusted to 'Black Veil' Illyrel, and what we need to do now is to prevent the mysterious lady's voters and reinforcements from destroying our efforts in the Valley of Shadows .

For the great plan of the Lost Lady, besides Lamorak, I will lead the remaining three princes of Sacross to the Valley of Shadows to assist your plan to proceed smoothly.

please keep your secret
Agrela
…………

(End of this chapter)