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As the silver longsword shook slightly, Rhine suddenly blinked to the behind of the gate that hadn’t been closed, leaving a slowly disappearing shadow behind. He said in both amusement and anger, “You met the monster that could pretend to be someone else, too?”

He sounded more or less relieved, as if he had confirmed that Lucien was authentic.

Lucien looked at him warily. After enhancing himself with Mechanized Mind and Mental Barrier again, he was rational enough to not directly attack Rhine. “Mr. Rhine, how can I confirm that you are authentic?”

You should at least give me an undeniable fact, or it will be better for the both of us if we go separate ways.

Rhine pulled the gate and prevented it from being closed. He said with a smile, “I understand that you cannot tell if I am impersonated by the monster by scent, blood, body or memories. I was injured because of that just now. However, I believe there’s something that the monster absolutely cannot simulate unless he is the God of Truth.”

“What is it?” Lucien vaguely guessed Rhine’s answer.

A pair of enormous bat wings appeared behind Rhine’s red coat, and the vague moonlight glowed, announcing the arrival of the majestic, domineering air of a demigod. A silver moon seemed to be rising in the grey hall. He said, “This is the air of the Primordial Ancestor. That monster cannot fabricate a demigod. The air on your left hand will let me know that you are not fake.”

Sensing the familiar air of Alterna, Lucien was finally relieved. He showed the air of the Silver Moon and the mysterious existence of the World of Souls in his left hand without reserve. “Alright, I’m convinced that you are Mr. Rhine. If the monster can simulate the air of a demigod, I wouldn’t be able to escape even if I was not deceived.”

Rhine coughed, with blood spreading out on his lips. Although internal bleeding was a serious wound for vampires, he simply smiled as if it were nothing important. “It’s a reasonable choice to be cautious. I was hit because I was too reckless.”

“The monster I encountered pretended to be you. What about yours?” Lucien retreated the Sword of Truth and kept the Shield of Truth, retaining his wariness.

Rhine coughed again. “He pretended to be another prince among the vampires who’s very close to me.”

“Oh, so to speak, the monster can simulate both the lives that entered the ‘grey maze’ and the experts outside of this place?” Asked Lucien in confusion. What was the mechanism behind that?

The ‘grey maze’ was the name that Lucien came up with for the grey halls and the black gates.

“Grey maze? Hehe, this place is called ‘Realm of Gates’. At least, the legendary sorcerers who went missing in this place called it that way.” Rhine corrected him. “I suspect that there’s something wrong with this ‘Realm of Gates’. Perhaps, our memories are open in this place. So, the monster pretended to be the prince according to my memories.”

The memories are open? What about the secrets from Earth? What about the spirit library? Lucien considered the problem seriously. Would he see Gundam, Super Saiyans or Starships that are simulated by the monster?

What a spectacular world it would be...

“The Realm of Gates? Mr. Rhine, did you find the things that Viken left behind?” Since he couldn’t discuss the spiritual library with Rhine, Lucien asked another important question.

Rhine shook his head. “I came to this place when I followed the mysterious piece inside Sard’s body. I only found a few fragments before I was attacked. There’s some information on them.”

Instead of keeping it a secret, he tossed a few pieces of grey paper to Lucien.

Picking them up with ‘Mage’s Hand’ carefully, Lucien browsed through them.

“...There are countless black gates in this place. A surprise, and of course, a danger, may be hiding behind every gate. We have named this place ‘Realm of Gates’...”

“...We accidentally found certain weird creatures behind the gates. They are somewhat similar to the research that we conducted before. If we hadn’t already achieved some results, we probably would never have discovered them...”

“...Maybe, we can find a way to get in there by studying those creatures...”

“...Somebody seemed to be here before...”

Lucien recognized the handwriting on two pieces of paper. One of them belonged to McLeod that he learnt just now, and the other was Maskelyne’s.

“Weird creatures? Are there plenty of such creatures?” Lucien said, feeling that his blood was freezing, while he considered the information on the last piece of paper. Somebody was here before Maskelyne and the explorers came?

Rhine closed the black gate and wiped the blood on his lips with a white handkerchief, before he shook his head and said, “That’s impossible. If there were plenty of such monsters, Maskelyne and his lot wouldn’t have discovered them or written those notes in relief at all.”

He meant that Maskelyne and the team should’ve been wiped out soon after they entered. After all, they were not as strong as him, who could summon the Silver Moon. Also, since the team was rather huge, there would’ve been plenty of opportunities for the monsters who were adept at disguise.

“It makes sense. Even you were heavily wounded from the ambush, Mr. Rhine.” Lucien nodded. “Right, Mr. Rhine, how strong was the monster you encountered?”

Rhine folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket. “He was undoubtedly the peak of legendary. I only beat it back after summoning the power of the Primordial Ancestor. However, if I hadn’t been as carefully, I could’ve escaped even if I could not defeat it.”

After pausing for a moment, he smiled and said, “I am now a level-three legendary vampire.”

“Why was the monster I encountered only level two of legendary?” Lucien was rather puzzled about that. “Did we meet different monsters?”

“If they were different monsters, why did they happen to be one level above ourselves?” Rhine captured the problem keenly. “Apart from the ability to summon the Primordial Ancestor, I am level three of legendary. Without the improvement of your equipment, you should only be level one of legendary, right?”

Being in this place, he didn’t know how much time had passed in the outside world, so he wasn’t so sure whether or not Lucien, who had been advancing crazily, had already advanced into level two of legendary.

Lucien had the weird familiar feeling again, as if he had encountered the situation before, but he couldn’t find the experience that matched. So, he could only ponder for a moment and reply, “Yes, I’m level one of level-one legendary. Perhaps, due to certain special restraints, the monsters can only carry out the strength one level higher than that of the target?”

“That’s a possibility.” Wearing his usual smile, Rhine encouraged Lucien to go on.

An idea suddenly occurred to Lucien. He looked at Mr. Rhine with a smile, “Mr. Rhine, if my speculation is true, do you think we will run into one monster or two monsters if we move together? Will they be level two of legendary or the peak of legendary?”

“It should be one monster at the peak of legendary.” Pondering for a moment, Rhine answered.

Lucien turned away his head ‘coldly’. “Then, I think we should go separately.”

“Forgive me, but I happen to be going the same way as you all the time.” Rhine replied humorously. “Also, an experienced, well-informed Observer can be very useful in this place. Besides, everything we said was just a speculation.”

Lucien smiled. “I was also worried that I might encounter a top legendary monster when I act alone, so it will be better if Mr. Rhine deals with them with me. I don’t think we will encounter a monster in the level of demigod, right? About that, Mr. Rhine, I’m planning to abort the exploration and return. This place is not too far away from the entrance. There are only a dozen gates in between at most. Are you coming with me?”

“Due to my heavy wound, it’s obviously unsuitable for me to stay any longer.” Rhine took out a bright green arm of a puppet. “I’m quite lucky to meet you who knows the pattern of coordinate changes. It would’ve taken me forever if I tried to find a way out on my own. This is my advance payment. It’s a part of the puppet created by McLeod in his unique ways. You will benefit a lot by analyzing it.”

Observation and summarization were the strong suits of sorcerers, and arcanists among sorcerers were even better at them. Rhine knew what he was and wasn’t capable of very well.

Lucien’s face immediately became awful. Alarmed, he said warily, “Mr. Rhine, put the arm of the puppet on the ground.”

“Why? Were you tricked by the arm of the puppet as a gift just now?” Amused, Rhine threw the arm of the puppet to the ground and watched Lucien pick it up with ‘Mage’s Hand’.

After he picked it up, Lucien recognized that it was the other arm of the puppet, and they made a set perfectly.

Slightly relieved, Lucien opened the black gate behind him. Appearing before his eyes was a familiar grey hall, with the silver residue of magic patterns on the ground.

“No, this isn’t the previous one.” Lucien soon recognized that the complicated magic patterns constituted a different part of the hexagram.

“Huh, a paper fragment?” Rhine discovered a shallow grey piece and showed it to Lucien:

“NO!”

It was similar to the fragment that had ‘devil’ on it. Hysterical craziness and fear could be sensed from it. While memorizing the complicated magic patterns, Lucien found the right leg of the puppet.

Having collected three parts of the puppet, Lucien was not delighted. Instead, he said solemnly in confusion, “Why are the fragments and parts of the puppet waiting to be discovered by us?”

“There are too many halls in the Realm of Gates. The monster might be unable to find all of them.” Rhine speculated.

Lucien shook his head. “Then, why can the monster find us accurately?”

......

Inside the grey hall, Douglas and Fernando, surrounded by countless alarm spells, walked steadily.

“There’s nothing but halls and gates in this place?” Fernando looked around. There weren’t any dangers or monsters? That only called for more wariness. This was the deepest part of the World of Souls where many legendary sorcerers had gone missing!

Douglas observed the surroundings and said, “The coordinates are changing fast, but they match the pattern left by Maskelyne. However, as a result, it will be barely possible for us to encounter Lucien. We can only leave marks to tell him to go out on his own and leave the same marks for us.”

“He must be planning to hide for a while before he returns to the entrance. We will return after the time is probably enough.” After discovering that the coordinates of the halls were changing fast, Fernando vaguely guessed what his student had in mind.

As he spoke, he opened a black gate with magic.

......

“Life sensation?” Rhine speculated again.

Hardly had he concluded his sentence when both of them raised their heads and looked at a black gate warily, which was being opened slowly.