“And what about Master Artificer Parntheos?”

At Rhegnight’s mention of that name, the Iudex did not answer but only frowned ever so slightly before going silent.

And seeing this, the armored man cleverly decided not to poke.

The silence was enough of a clue.

Parntheos was the boy’s maternal grandfather and his love for his youngest daughter was very well known.

So it was obvious he was not going to take what they were about to do to his grandson lying about.

And it was very apparent he had already caused quite a bit of commotion, something the Iudex was unwilling to openly talk about.

So Rhegnight quickly switched topics after a few seconds of pause.

“Can you still see that prophecy when you read the boy’s fate again?” He posed.

“No.” Instantly came the grave reply, the man’s fair face turning overcast.

“After that first time, in all subsequent tries, I got normal readings.”

“No, as a matter of fact, I saw a fantastic fate for him.”

“The fate said that the boy would become a great, powerful mage, a savior of our world, and even pioneer humanity to a brand new age.”

“Honestly I had never read such good fate. His fate was almost as blessed as our race’s Origin Ancestor.”

“*Sigh*, our empire would have been blessed to have him as the crown prince… if it was only true!”

The more the Grand Iudex revealed the new fate, the more distressed he sounded, ending it with that rueful voice.

“The original reading was hidden?” And Rhegnight too noticed the problem, quickly pointing it out, his voice filled with alarm.

The amount of shock the man had received in just these last few minutes was more than he had in the last thousand years of life combined.

“Yes. it would seem so. Whatever entity I saw must have noticed my scrying and quickly hid itself, even creating a new, fake destiny for the boy.”

“Heh! It even made such a grand fate. Like it was compensating for something…” The Iudex confirmed Rhegnight’s fears with a disdainful scoff, then further added,

“After failing to see it again, I then invited a few of my peers from other realms to have a go. I thought looking at it for the first time, they would be able to see what I saw at first.”

“But they failed. All their readings were the new, good one.”

“Then to clear my doubt I even activated the Pentagrammic Prism of Perpetual Prescience, to try and pry further. But even that omniscient structure failed to show me the original fate I had read.”

“That entity has hidden itself too well.”

As the Iudex said this, he sounded very troubled, his immaculate face turning dark like the rainy clouds.

“You did what?”

But got really got a reaction out of Rhegnight was the Iudex’s mention of that particular name, as he let out a small cry of incredulity, his tone of address turning very rude, not all the formal tone the two men had been talking in.

But the Iudex did not chide him or appear offended.

He only nodded curtly, very much understanding the intense reaction.

The Pentagrammic Prism of Perpetual Prescience was their realm’s most prized possession, the one thing that enabled them to attach the title- ‘Exalted Power’ to their ‘Stosleria Empire’ name, the one that got them a seat on that small table belonging to the highest echelon of rulers.

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It was a magical treasure of the highest level possible- a Level 9 magical construct, and the greatest treasure a Scyer could have- for using it, he was able to see, track, predict, and even tamper with the fate of a myriad of men and beasts.

Though currently it was classified as a lower- Level 8 construct, for it was severely damaged during The Great War of Extinction.

But even still, its preciousness could not be overstated.

But also, because it was so precious and so damaged, each activation required an unimaginable amount of resources as well as the fact each use would make it break down that ever so slightly more.

Hence it was only ever used to find the empire’s greatest enemies or to occasionally keep tabs on its regional peers.

Using it to read a defenseless child’s fate who had no way to hide his destiny was like using a nuclear bomb to kill a mosquito.

Overkill did not even begin to describe it.

But as Rhegnight calmed down from his shocked stupor, and had a chance to think about the act for a second, he actually found it to be reasonable.

To condemn the infant crown prince of The Exalted Stosleria Empire to death just because of a prophecy, it was not enough to simply take the reader’s words at face value, even if that reader was the greatest clairvoyant alive.

To do so, one needed to seek the opinion of the supreme Pentagrammic Prism of Perpetual Prescience.

But then the problem became the fact that according to that magic construct, there was nothing wrong with the boy.

In fact, it could be said the boy’s fate predicted he would at least be a Paragon Mage.

“Are you trying to say that not only you, even the Prism was interfered with? But how? The highest ranked mages are all at best Rank 8! They can’t do that.” Rhegnight by now was past being shocked and became completely flabbergasted.

The Prism was a Level 9 construct at its core, even if it was badly damaged.

It was not comparable to any ordinary Level 8 precious treasures.

And as evidence of his deep bewilderment, he began to almost ramble,

“Although we can’t pry too deeply into Rank 7s or even some Rank 6 mage’s personal fates, there was no way we could be fooled by a fake destiny they might create. Never mind the place where this particular child lives- the Palace of Absceria.”

As the abode of an Exalted Power’s king and his family, naturally, the entire place was warded against such prying and manipulative techniques.

And it was among the most formidable layers of defense of its type in the entire dimension, arguably perhaps even ‘the’ most formidable one, personally created by the Grand Iudex, the foremost expert in his field.

So do be able to exert influence even through the numerous layers of warding, and leave none the wiser, even hoodwinking the revered expert the Iudex who had not moved his eye off the matter for even a second, only two words came to Rhegnight’s mind- Rank 9!

Or even the impossible Rank 10!

And just that realization alone made his heart pound and his palms sweat.

Rhegnight himself stood very close to the pinnacle of the current limit for Mages.

But in front of a Rank 9 entity, he would be little more than a stopgap.

As for Rank 10, forget about that.

By that level, Rhegnight lost all sense of scale.

Perhaps he would be like an atom against a galaxy or the entire universe, he had no idea.

But Rank 10s were only a theorized concept even during the heyday of the Primordial Magic Age.

So that entity that the Iudex saw was probably Rank 9 and at best half step into 10.

And then the natural question rose- what could it be?

And why did it want to seemingly destroy the world?

Thus with a thumping heart, and with almost a whisper as if he was afraid to truly know, he posed exactly this, asking, “Do you have any idea how even the Prism could have been fooled?”

Though Rhegnight could easily guess the answer.

“No!” Came the crisp, straightforward answer with a shake of the head, the hair slightly waving in the process.

And then as if to vent his frustration, the usually taciturn Iudex said this long piece,

“We tried to think of every possible beast and horror. The Abysal Phantom Beast was the first one that came to mind. But even its soul-devouring ability has its limits.”

“Then we thought of the Time Eating Worm, the Interdimensional Abomination, and even The Tome Traversing Tarrasque.”

“But though very formidable, even those Tier 8 and Tier 9 natural disaster-like entities can not illicit that kind of overwhelming fear in me.”

“I even assumed it was a metaphor for an invasion by the other realms. Such as the heavens warning humanity that we will be devoured by the other races.”

“But that was quickly ruled out. None of us are strong enough to completely destroy one another.”

“And even if by some miracle one of them did become so powerful, it would certainly not mean death to all of us.”

“But more likely subjugation and enslavement.” The Iudex finished with a very furrowed brow, the frown by now eternally hanging on his forehead.

It even appeared that this grim fate would have brought the man more comfort than the current state where he was left completely in the dark.

But there was still one other possibility he had not explored.

A name Rhegnight felt his heart palpitate even just thinking about.