Chapter 157: Ancient Secrets (1/3)

The protective staff in Zhao Xu's hand suddenly erupted with a blinding radiance, shooting straight toward the huge fire elemental.

Antodeles, the huge fire elemental who had been looking at Zhao Xu with disdain, possessed extremely fast dodging reflexes. He vaguely sensed the ominous undertone of that spell's energy.

However, "Dismissal" is a spell with a guaranteed hit. As long as the target is within the ten-meter casting range, it hits with absolute certainty, and the range even increases as the caster level rises.

When the spell energy of the "Dismissal" impacted inside its body, the fire elemental didn't think much of it.

He had seen spells cast by wizards who profaned nature before; many of them were even derived from the spell-like abilities of various powerful creatures.

Yet, just a split second later, when the spell's energy exploded outward, Antodeles the fire elemental wore an expression of sheer disbelief. He desperately mustered all his willpower, trying to resist the powerful interplanar attractive force.

However, what he was facing was a protective staff with a caster level of 20, equivalent to a 20th-level wizard casting this spell directly upon him.

The might was incomparable.

"No, impossible. How could you wizards already—"

The voice of the huge fire elemental gradually faded away. His body, composed entirely of dense, roaring flames, slowly shrank until it finally turned into a tiny spark and extinguished completely.

From whence it came, thither it shall return.

Such is the power of Dismissal, a 4th-level divine spell and simultaneously a 5th-level arcane spell.

[Adventurer Midsummer casts 'Dismissal'. The huge fire elemental fails its Will saving throw and has been dismissed.]

The 20th-level caster level of the staff in Zhao Xu's hand was a full 4 points higher than the huge fire elemental's 16 Hit Dice, so this 4-point advantage was directly added to his spell save DC.

Since the fire elemental's Will was not a good saving throw, it instantly failed to resist and was banished away by Zhao Xu.

This is the very problem all outsider creatures must face.

No matter how powerful they are, when facing casters like Zhao Xu who possess spells like Dismissal and Banishment, there is always the possibility of being directly driven away.

The priest watched the fire elemental he had summoned by draining all his strength being destroyed by Zhao Xu in a single, simple blow.

He could not even comprehend what had just happened throughout the entire process.

It was as if the man before him were a demon god.

With a mere flick of his hand, he had resolved a divine emissary of the Elemental Plane of Fire—one summoned at the cost of countless sacrifices.

The firm faith he had built up in his heart began to crumble.

The priest stared at Zhao Xu, opening his mouth to ask how he had managed it, just as the fourth wave of damage from "Word of Balance: Agony" continued to course through his body.

It felt as though someone were carving him with sharp blades; the immense pain instantly plunged him into a state of unconsciousness.

Standing in the distance, Zhao Xu watched the priest—dressed like a primitive shaman—fall to the ground, and slowly walked over.

The opponent's hit points were currently only below zero, not yet reaching the true death threshold of minus ten.

It was just that Zhao Xu couldn't be bothered to strike again.

He quietly gazed at the priest, who had collapsed to his knees and fainted from the pain, and silently began to count down.

A full minute passed.

Zhao Xu was about to step forward to check the other's condition and determine whether he was truly dead.

As a good-aligned cleric, he could not cast "Deathwatch"—a spell that could check whether surrounding creatures were feigning death—because that spell possessed an evil descriptor.

This was also the reason why Zhao Xu had chosen neutral alignment at the very beginning, only to drift away from it later with no other choice.

However, once he became a Archivist, he would be able to cast spells of good or evil descriptors without the slightest hesitation. It was just that Deathwatch occupied a 1st-level spell slot, and Zhao Xu figured he would rather check manually through physical effort.

Yet, before Zhao Xu had even taken two steps forward, he noticed the priest's body suddenly combusting as roaring flames surged into the sky.

Seeing flames of this inexplicable intensity, Zhao Xu immediately understood that supernatural forces had intervened.

Believing in the fire deity, one was enveloped in fire upon death, and perhaps even reincarnated as a fire elemental afterward.

This was likely the reason why the priest was willing to sacrifice living beings at all costs.

Looking at this blood-stained land, Zhao Xu could not help but sigh.

In the era when he served as a magistrate, such acts of evil god worship were extremely rare in Arthur. Whenever one occurred, it was a world-shaking major case, invariably involving countless good deity churches in the region.

Even if it truly happened, high-level adventurers would step in to investigate most of the time, rarely leaving it to a magistrate like him to get involved.

Consequently, in his past life, Zhao Xu had rarely heard the true names of various demon lords or evil deities.

Gradually, as the priest's soul departed, the fiery glow of his body began to dim.

Throughout the entire process, Zhao Xu remained on high alert, guarding against any sudden anomalies at any moment.

Pondering for a moment, Zhao Xu felt that lingering here any longer invited complications. He stepped directly over the corpse and walked up to the stone monument.

The towering Morin Monument stood before him. Zhao Xu reached out tentatively, running his fingers along the textures on the monument's surface, and felt a piercing chill emanating from it.

It was completely opposite to the scorching environment all around.

It was as if this monument existed in another dimension altogether.

Why had that priest chosen to drive the villagers to this place, and what did all of this have to do with the monument?

Zhao Xu knew that in ancient times, many sacrifices to the gods were conducted in such barbaric ways.

It wasn't until later, when true deities emerged and the entire pantheon began to be standardized and unified, that these primitive and barbaric sacrificial practices were outlawed, surviving only among some remote ancient tribes or certain evil deities.

Yet, looking at this monument, Zhao Xu also felt a slight headache. The monument he had encountered previously in the Whispering Forest at least possessed some mysterious text that could be deciphered via knowledge checks.

This monument, however, was entirely blank.

Could it be that some kind of command phrase was required to activate it?

If he were to shout "Althea," the other party would know to use magic to pull him back into the real world.

As for this monument, what was the word one had to shout?

"Antodeles," whom the priest had just summoned, was merely a Challenge Rating 7 huge elemental; above it were the greater, elder, and noble tiers.

In the grand scheme of fire elementals, it was thoroughly a minnow, able to put on airs only because it was summoned to a primeval era where the adventurers' levels were not yet high enough to stand out.

Yet, no matter how much Zhao Xu looked down upon that fire elemental, trying to summon one in later eras would demand the cost of a 7th-level Summon Monster spell.

This also meant that the priest had just used his own blood alone to cast a spell equivalent to a 7th-level arcane spell.

This was the power possessed only by a 13th-level wizard.

While much of it was related to the sacrifices, it perhaps also proved that it was connected to this monument.

Was the key the true name?

Gazing at the monument, Zhao Xu began to recall the true names of elemental deities during the Dark Ages.

Records of the Dark Ages were mostly incomplete, and since the gods were unwilling to see the elemental pantheon resurrected, this period of history had always remained shrouded in secrecy.

Zhao Xu had read Althea's book *The Path of Arcane* and encountered related materials while raising his knowledge skills, so he had managed to capture a few traces of clues.

"Merselin," Zhao Xu murmured inquisitively.

He did not know the names of the deities in this era, but he knew that "Merselin" was a name of profound significance to the Elemental Plane of Fire.

The name even appeared in certain related spells.

Suddenly, the entire monument began to tremble.

The deep, chilling sensation within the monument turned searingly hot, as if the entire structure were being rapidly heated.

Zhao Xu instantly took a step back.

Gradually, a pair of eyes filled with burning flames emerged upon the monument, accompanied by a faint, shifting outline.

"Who calls us hither?"

Zhao Xu looked at the entity while thinking to himself.

At this moment, Althea's name was already stuck in his throat, ready to be uttered at a moment's notice.

"Traveler of time, was it you who just slaughtered my people?"

Zhao Xu was slightly taken aback, not expecting the entity to pierce through his identity so quickly.

Besides, how could it be called slaughter? He had merely dismissed the fire elemental.

He immediately realized, however, that the entity was referring to the priest. It seemed he had still underestimated the connection between them.

Sure enough, in this primeval era, the gods could still clearly perceive the condition of every single one of their clerics and priests.

Therefore, sometimes killing a priest could not be brushed aside so easily.

"I would like to ask, what is inscribed on the monument?"

Certain that he could leave at any time, Zhao Xu calmed down and inquired.

"This is not your era. Go back!"

The projection on the monument seemed provoked, roaring angrily at Zhao Xu.

Endless flames instantly permeated the air, sweeping toward Zhao Xu.

Extremely scorching and high-temperature fire blanketed the sky like countless empowered fireballs, bombarding the land and consuming everything in their path.

"Minor Sudden Burst!"

At this critical juncture, the thought of casting flashed through Zhao Xu's mind, and he cast the spell instantly.

In an instant, the flames filling the sky slowed down like frames of an animation, surging toward Zhao Xu with extreme sluggishness.

Before Zhao Xu completed his brief movement, even if the roaring blaze was separated from him by less than half an arm's length, it still could not deal any damage to him.

Until the duration expired, he was invincible.

Perplexed, Zhao Xu looked ahead toward the monument, now entirely obscured by flames, and spoke in a low voice: "Althea!"