The sun sets in the west, shining on the watchtower with its peaceful afterglow.
On a rocking chair that recorded the years, an old man sat. He had a kind face, and his eyes were cloudy but still a little sharp. In his arms is a glass ball, which contains the treasure at the top of the entire Evar Gallery.
"That was...a long time ago."
The old man sighed.
"Hey, old guy, I thought you would take this opportunity to kill me."
Behind him, at the entrance to the observatory, White Rose held a simple healing spell in her hand and slowly restored her twisted arm, but her face still had a look of unruliness. Hyakuki Hiro, who caused the wound, was sitting less than five meters away, sitting cross-legged on the ground with three poison darts stuck in his abdomen. His face was bruised and he was using magic to detoxify.
After the two people met, they just killed each other without even saying hello. In a sense, if it weren't for White Rose, someone else might not be able to handle it.
"Ghost Face, step back." The old man slowly turned his chair and turned towards White Rose.
"I originally thought that some people I knew well would come, but I didn't expect that the first one to arrive here would be you."
"It's not like you don't recognize me based on your tone." Bai Rose dispersed the spell in her hand and squeezed her shoulders, where the bones were making slight noises.
"I know a lot of people, including some of your actions. But it has no impact on me, so I don't care." The old man smiled, "Your soul is not pure, but you can still stand firm. Being on the 'right' side, it's amazing. So even though it's different than expected, I'm still happy."
"Wonderful?" White Rose moved her eyebrows. She had already seen the ghost face in her peripheral vision - that is, Bai Guihong had removed the toxin from the poison dart and retreated to the wall. It was true that he did not continue to attack. But the old man in front of her was the Talisman Emperor Saint Liszt. She had no chance of winning if he looked at him, even if he looked old enough to die.
"As people get older, they will gradually lose interest in new things because of their own experiences." Liszt touched the ball in his hand, "Many people and many things cannot bring me any surprises. And you are a small gift, not too extraordinary, but enough."
The old man laughed, as if he recalled something happy. Looking at such a person, White Rose is actually a little difficult to understand. No matter whether she analyzed it from the right path or the evil path, she could not guess what kind of person Liszt was or what he was doing.
"Many people died." Slowly, the laughter ended, and the old man continued to talk in his old tone, "I have lived a long time, young man, and death can hardly touch me. Tell me, what do you think? Can Heinz succeed?"
"He will not succeed. Although he seems to have some advantages outside the library, he is actually isolated from the key battlefield here. And inside the library, your rebellion has long been expected. , I am afraid that the main force of the Magic Council did not suffer much damage at all, they just did not directly deal with you due to some reasons."
"Yes, yes... Heinz has skill, ambition, and courage, but he lacks the judgment of the entire situation. Maybe in another thirty to fifty years, he can submit his ideas as a proposal to the Parliament, but not necessarily It's not feasible. But he was too impatient, and that's why today happened." Liszt nodded, "And in the library, I really can't find out where the group of people headed by Dulemond went. The magic of time and space is really It’s too powerful. Perhaps only Percival in the world can say that he can stabilize Dulmonde. Although we people are nominally equal to him in status, we are actually not as good as him.”
"Since you know this, you still want to do such a thing?" White Rose glanced behind Liszt. Under the setting sun, magic flashes still appeared occasionally in various parts of the Evar Gallery, indicating that the battle outside was still going on.
"Because I don't have much time, young man." Liszt said calmly, "The Magic Emperor is still a person, and people have their lifespan to come to an end one day. What's even more unfortunate is that my own strength makes I am becoming more and more aware of the coming of death. When you watch the God of Death approaching you step by step, you will let go of many things, except for the past... no, a lifetime of obsessions."
"Obsession? You? As far as I know, your life is more perfect than most people."
"Yes, so what I am doing now is also very ordinary."
"Ordinary?" White Rose couldn't help but sneered.
At this moment, Lu Ning's voice came from the door behind him.
"He was indeed doing an ordinary thing, something someone like him would do."
"Oh, new guests." Liszt raised his hand to stop the ghost face who was about to move again, "Lillian, Garcia, Juno, very good..."
"You seem to know us very well." Lu Ning was the first to come out of the exit and naturally took over the conversation, "Good afternoon, Mr. Liszt."
"I know a lot of people, sudden rises, talents, changes in personality... I will pay a little attention to these more interesting things. Besides, you have all participated in my 'collection' work."
"Sure enough, those murderers were all made by you for Heinz." Lu Ning nodded, "But he has destroyed the magic book where the murderer resides. After today's most powerful time has passed, Evarang can To retake the reins of order, if Heinz’s seizure of power cannot be realized today, he has lost.”
"You're right. So...what about me?"
"This is the conclusion we finally reached unanimously." Lu Ning turned to look at Garcia and Juno behind her, who smiled and nodded slightly at her.
"Putting aside all the superficial arrangements, your true purpose is the same as that of every Magic Emperor Saint who is similar to you. You are writing your own Magic Book. Am I right?"
"Hahahahaha..."
Liszt laughed while tapping the ball in his arms. He laughed and coughed twice, then calmed down and said appreciatively: "Very good, very good."
"I'm afraid the collection of magic books started very early. Even many years ago, you arranged many suitable people. But the ones I saw included the royal magician of Catherine's country and Professor Abel Self. I originally thought that the person who made it was just one person, but if it were you, it would not be difficult to find several such people." Lu Ning said.
"The second is my inference based on everything that happened in the city from the beginning to the present." Juno followed up, "There have been more than a hundred incidents similar to what Lu Ning encountered in the city. This Such a concentrated outbreak is not normal even in such a grand event. The most important thing is that these events are interconnected. If you list all the people involved in the event in their relationship network, you will find that they have mutual connections. The direct or indirect connection even exceeds the closeness of the six-dimensional relationship network, and this kind of thing can be defined as a large-scale case as a whole in case inference."
"Then finally..." Garcia gave a slight salute to Liszt, "It is my daily work of counting the dead since the exchange meeting started. Although the soul cannot share too many memories about life, as long as the number is enough, it can be counted. Some problems. For example, some special souls did not flow in the normal direction, but disappeared at a certain time or place. After comparing Juno's and I's information, I can roughly determine the direction of these souls. "
"Of course, what you want is not a soul, but an adapter for the Magic Book." Lu Ning concluded, "It was an experiment at first. I found in a Magic Book verification list that all those who had failed general verification In the case, your name must be among the next emperor-sage-level verifiers. What makes you so enthusiastic about verifying the magic book? In the kind of rules that will be postponed as long as one person has a problem, you probably use this The method intercepted a lot of 'usable' magic books, right?"
"Yes. I must admit that dead souls are failures. Although they have powerful power, they lack flexibility and humanity. It just so happened that Heinz took a fancy to this, so I found an opportunity to give this method to I gave it to him and promised to help him make more similar items, on condition that he promote the execution of his plans."
"Heinz was also part of your arrangement, wasn't he?"
"Yes, he is a passage in my magic book." Liszt nodded, "I even used some of my connections to help him find a way to contact powerful helpers, just for this moment."
"To kill more people?" White Rose shook her head, "Old man, I know what you want to say."
"You are very smart. After this incident, the biggest unstable threat inside and outside Evarang will be eradicated, and the power here will no longer be shaken. After my magic book is written, it will also become a precious treasure of Evarang. The treasure, unlike those ordinary magic books, contains the wisdom of countless people, not just myself. I don’t mind the little tricks your friends do in their own backyards, because the life and death of these people does not matter.”
Liszt slowly stood up, and the sun gradually sank below the horizon, leaving only a glow.
"Really? Do you think everything will be peaceful in this way? Even when you are about to die, you still plan to hide some facts?" Lu Ning said.
"Concealing the truth? I've said everything I need to say."
"You said that the biggest difference in your grimoire is that it contains the wisdom of countless people. However, if you really have that pursuit, your ultimate goal should be all the wisdom in the world, otherwise it will not have that absolute specialness."
"I'm old and not that naive."
"Really?" Lu Ning raised her finger, "Then why did you begin to think that you wanted to write such a magic book?"
Liszt was silent.
"Inherited." Lu Ning answered for him, "The myth of Karui, the magic from Karui, has been passed down for countless generations and has come into your hands. Are you the only one? It's hard to say, but I know that you personally taught it You have more than a thousand disciples, how many of them have received your true teachings?"
This time, Liszt sighed slightly.
"Not many... maybe one out of ten."
"These crazy ideas of yours have actually started to spread?" White Rose immediately stared.
"If you want to collect the wisdom of the world, you must rely on more people and more generations. If you want to get rid of my disciples, it is already too late. The first student to receive my inheritance was a hundred years ago He graduated years ago. How many disciples do you think he will teach? Where are his disciples? But... don't worry, just like there are hundreds of magic books, people also have various appearances, and not everyone will have the same thoughts as me. , and not everyone will take such action. After all, this is a tacit understanding passed down by word of mouth between master and disciple, just like the magic in the oldest period."
Liszt raised the ball in his hand with his aging arms, and then let go of his hands.
In the crisp crackling sound, the ball shattered, and the stone of eternity inside fell out, igniting the magic light on the watchtower again. The last ray of residual sunlight was replaced by this ray of light, flawlessly.
"It will exist in the mind of everyone who carries my concept, and its true appearance will be scattered in every corner of the world, waiting for one day, when the world is unified, someone can piece them together Back to its original appearance. It may not start with me, nor will it end with me, but I am willing to do my part for that day to come. At this time, it is a lost magic book. "
Following Liszt's words, the fragments on the ground flew up again. The total amount of magic given by the Stone of Eternity was extremely huge. Those crystals slowly merged back into a spherical shape, but the broken lines turned into strange magic symbols, embedded deeply in the Within the spherical shell. Liszt opened his eyes suddenly and exhaled his last breath. The breath passed through the sphere and turned into a cloud inside, slowly condensing into a colorless and transparent water droplet. The old man fell back into his chair, and the ball landed between his knees, bouncing slightly before stopping.
The rocking chair was still shaking slightly due to the final impact. In the magical light transmitted through the window, the old man turned into a dark silhouette, with only the sphere still emitting the faint light of runes.
At this time, a man approached Liszt's body and held the magic book in both hands.
"Hakkihiro, it seems we have some accounts that we haven't settled yet." Lu Ning said.
"You can't beat me... none of you combined can beat me." Hyakuki Hiro glanced at a few people, "That woman has some abilities, but after Liszt's death, we can freely use the full power of the magic book, and she will You'll be killed by me within three moves."
"Are you crazy?" Bai Meigui immediately raised her eyebrows, "Don't think that just because you are famous in your circle, you think you are great!"
"No, if we go back to the distribution center and fight again, we may not be able to tell the winner, but in the scene, I have the advantage of force."
Hyakki Hiro took out a piece of flannel and carefully wrapped the sphere.
"You need to find a suitable opponent for a fight. You don't have enough right now."
"Oh, what about the one at the back?" Lu Ning asked with a smile.
Hearing these words, Bai Guihong suddenly turned around, and at the same time he raised his arm to hold a dark silent blade. With a soft sound, his arm was cut off from the elbow.
