Felix looked at the crystal shard at his feet, puzzled. It was a multi-faceted piece, tending towards grey, about the size of a thumbnail, lying there inconspicuously on the ground. If Felix hadn't seen a glint of light as it fell, he would likely have never noticed such an insignificant thing.
Driven by curiosity, Felix reached to pick up the shard, but unexpectedly, as soon as it touched his palm, it rapidly dissolved, leaving nothing but a bit of dust in less than a second.
“What did you find?” The person who approached him was a middle-aged nun, who appeared to be slightly injured. The wound on her left arm had reopened, and there was a new gash at her waist.
Her deep black ceremonial robe was marked with several scratches from gargoyles, with tatters revealing patches of ivory-white skin.
Felix averted his eyes and presented the dust to the nun, saying lightly, “It seems the soul was forcibly separated from the body. According to the laws of energy operation, such an imbalance in elemental forces should cause a massive explosion, not turn to dust like this.”
Perhaps because the nun had saved him once, Felix was much gentler towards her. At least there was no longer a sharp sense of hostility. The nun was speechless, turning away to check on the injuries of the two attendant knights.
Such scholarly questions were something she would never discuss with Felix. He was an oddity, with knowledge in various magical disciplines that was frighteningly extensive. She once discussed with Felix about the workings of ice energy. When he explained the dynamics of elemental energy, she looked so clueless that his gaze seemed to say “fool,” a look she would never forget.
Letting the ashes scatter in the night wind, Felix shook his head in confusion and turned to ascend to the second level of the altar.
The crystal shard he had just seen felt like an illusion, but Felix was certain it had existed and dissolved into dust within a second of reaching his hand.
After all the effort and judgment against evil, there should be some reward.
After the battle, griffin knights had already begun to clean up the battlefield. Felix didn’t want to fall behind and hurried forward, but he faced a choice: should he first deal with the corpse of the bone dragon or grab the piles of gold first?
Felix hesitated only for a few seconds before rushing towards where the bone dragon had fallen. Gold he could find a way to obtain, but the corpse of an adult dragon wasn’t something he could come across often. His hopes for a magnificent frost dragon all hinged on that.
In the forest, Felix found the fallen bone dragon, a massive corpse about eighteen meters in length, with a wingspan of roughly fourteen meters and standing five meters tall.
With a heavy heart, Felix had to dismember the bone dragon, breaking it into dozens of pieces before storing them in his space ring. Fortunately, the space ring given by the mysterious Gamma was high-grade, barely able to accommodate such a colossal discovery, though it meant discarding his personal items to make room.
After securing the bone dragon, Felix quickly returned to the valley, but what he saw upon his return made him curse.
As he had expected, the eight piles of gold had already been packed up by the griffin knights.
Resigned to his loss, Felix had hoped they would leave something else of value, but the knights were like robbers. They hadn’t left a single gold piece, not even the small gemstones embedded in the altar.
By the time Felix finished with the bone dragon and returned to the valley, the knights were scraping off the last bits of gold-threaded magical runes from the altar with rune spears.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Biting his lip, Felix pretended not to notice. The griffin knights had contributed significantly to the battle and also suffered casualties. He decided to let it go. The thought of casualties made Felix suddenly remember his ogre battle servant.
Without further thought for valuable items, he hurried to the base of the altar, and after shifting through layers of ash left by the clashing energies, he finally found the body of his ogre battle servant.
It was barely recognizable, its brain a mangled mess of blood and tissue. Aside from its humanoid form, nothing else indicated that it had once been an ogre.
Felix shook his head, ultimately placing the corpse of the ogre battle servant into the Blue Crystal. After all, it had served him well. If possible, Felix would try to transform it into an undead creature or a dark species.
The formidable physical attack power of the ogre puppet had left a significant impression on him. If possible, he would continue experimenting.
"Let's go back," said the middle-aged nun, a hint of weariness in her voice. Her gains were far greater than Felix's.
It seemed they had already discussed the division of the spoils while Felix was away.
"What's that in your hand?" Felix eyed the ancient scroll in the nun's hand covetously, sneaking closer and asking nonchalantly, "Can I have a look?"
The nun stepped back half a step in a guarded manner, then glared at Felix resentfully. It seemed she remembered the time Felix had borrowed her 'Bible - Old Testament' by dubious means.
"Stingy," Felix said, a hint of embarrassment on his face, then he smirked. Since the nun had saved him once, he wouldn't use those tactics again.
He was just curious about the text on the ritual scroll. Besides, he couldn't understand the words, let alone the nun, who was a complete novice in theoretical knowledge. He felt he had seen similar text on the scroll before – if his memory served right, in the 'Dead Sea Scrolls.'
"Dead Sea Scrolls."
"When you decide to become a deity, it will guide you," Felix remembered the ambiguous words of Mrs. Ireland.
He had examined the book carefully. Without elemental power or magical runes, apart from its unusual texture and the incomprehensible text, it had no other function.
He had no idea if the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' were meant for battle or study.
Like a magic book, yet not quite one.
As if hearing Felix's mutterings, the nun turned and glared at him upon hearing him say 'stingy.'
However, this expression made Felix laugh; the expressive nun felt more alive, not as cold as before, not like a piece of ice, or an undead.
Looking around, Felix finally found something valuable again – the corpses of the gargoyles.
Gargoyle creation required obsidian, a valuable magical material. Simply put, it could be exchanged for a decent amount of Caesar coins!
If Felix remembered correctly, the obsidian was located in the gargoyle's head, about an inch inside the forehead.
Taking a steel dagger from the Blue Crystal, Felix stabbed it into the forehead of a gargoyle corpse and then extracted a thumb-sized pure black gem, somewhat like a diamond but harder.
As Felix extracted the third piece of obsidian, the surrounding griffin knights finally realized what he was doing. Several spellcasters who had entered the Golden Domain also recognized what Felix was digging for. Suddenly, those knights, who were cleaning up, turned to search for gargoyle corpses.
"Robbers!"
Felix looked up, then was stunned.
These griffin knights were just like robbers. He had only extracted the fourth piece of obsidian when they had already collected all the gargoyle corpses, and then one by one, they started searching for obsidian by splitting open the gargoyle heads with their heavy swords.
"Is this the quality of the Empire's soldiers?" Felix was heartbroken!
Now he understood why the Titans Empire could sustain wars for so long. With such a money-making army, it wouldn't be a problem to wage war every day, not just every three years! Glancing back at the Silver Hand, Felix made an incomprehensible gesture at him – yes, raising a middle finger.
Then, Felix sneakily glanced at Princess Helen, who was conversing with two holy priests, preparing to slip away quietly.
He would have been better off not looking, for as soon as he did, Princess Helen seemed to sense something and turned her head, catching sight of Felix trying to sneak away.
"Stop!" Princess Helen spotted Felix attempting to flee.
For some reason, Felix did not want to see this commanding princess at all. This kind of woman, radiating brilliance, always made him look up.
Look up – Mrs. Ireland alone was enough.
So, instead of stopping, Felix quickened his pace.
However, just as he was about to leave the valley, a beautiful melody echoed from the sky, followed by a door shimmering with holy light slowly opening in the night sky.
A four-meter-tall male angel clad in silver armor slowly flew out from the door, flapping his snow-white wings, heading towards the deceased Holiness Euripides.
Felix, looking at the door filled with a holy aura in the night sky, suddenly felt a weighty phrase come to mind.
Heaven's Door!