Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 617 The shocking truth
Although Pope XIII had his eyes tightly closed, he still managed a self-deprecating expression on his face.

"Your Majesty is right. Facts have proven... the ancient soul-melting ritual is not without flaws. I was completely unaware when I devoured the former Pope, and by the time I realized my soul had been infected, it was already irreversible."

It is precisely because of this that the two originally independent souls of extraordinary beings gradually merged over time, and under the mutual infection, they could no longer distinguish each other, and eventually became a spiritual suture that was highly mixed from thoughts to memories, and even conceptual consciousness.

Pope XIII also completely separated himself from the identity of the founder of the Federation and eventually replaced his predecessor as the successor of his faith.

Harvey shrugged and chuckled, "You probably don't know yet, but the Flesh and Soul Fusion Ritual I taught Lord Sarath ultimately caused the Chief to suffer greatly, nearly trapping him to death in the dark passages of the Demonic Web."

Sarath snorted when he heard this, but did not explain anything further.

The Pope frowned and couldn't help but rebuke him, "When I left, I repeatedly warned you that this ancient ritual of merging flesh and soul is incredibly dangerous... You shouldn't attempt it unless absolutely necessary!"

Sarath shook his head and explained impatiently, "Teacher, how do you know I haven't encountered any difficult problems? If I hadn't been suffering from the Soul Dissociation Syndrome for over a decade, which has drastically shortened my lifespan... I wouldn't have rashly attempted such a dangerous ritual."

Harvey tilted his head and suddenly realized that in the lineage of Chief Sarath, the breakdown of the master-disciple relationship seemed to be a common occurrence - not only did he and his teacher, the current Pope, seem to be on edge, but Mr. Son of Flame, who was also his student, seemed to be at odds with him.

Is this the preserved tradition of love and hatred between master and apprentice in their lineage?

Raising his hand and patting the Chief's shoulder, Harvey immediately changed the subject to the crux of the matter, "Should I address you as His Holiness the Pope, or Mr. Founder of the Federation?"

"That's fine. My real name is Friedrich Calvin. I'm afraid no one in the Union knows it by now. Your Majesty, feel free to call me whatever you want."

Harvey nodded and explained gently, "Sir Calvin, I didn't follow Sir Sarath all the way here... As a mortal with no magical powers at all, you must be relying entirely on something on your person to achieve the cross-dimensional shuttle between the real world and the magical network space, right?"

He paused, his gaze fixed on the old man before him, and continued, "And this thing you carry is of great significance to me. Even in the magic network space, I can sense its presence at any time and anywhere."

Harvey was almost certain that Calvin intended to use the strange properties of this thing and use Sarath to lure him to meet him.

Calvin smiled upon hearing this. "Yes, Your Majesty, your guess is absolutely correct... You should call it a magic core, but for the Church, we prefer to call it a heritage fragment."

Fragments of inheritance?

Harvey raised his eyebrows sharply and pressed, "You mean... it was originally supposed to be a whole?" Calvin curled his lips in interest and quipped, "Of course. When Your Majesty devoured the other fragments of the inheritance, didn't you learn the specific truth from the ancient memories you inherited?"

"After my tribe stole the inheritance from the center of the continent, in order to prevent it from being discovered by other races... we united with 320 dragon chasers to divide it into twelve parts. We then handed them to the twelve remaining human tribal leaders, brought them back to the southern border, and hid them secretly."

Harvey's heart skipped a beat, and he asked in astonishment, "A stolen inheritance?"

He finally understood why the other party had repeatedly mentioned "following the rules and aggregating and completing is the essence" when he devoured the magic core buried deep underground in the Divine Ridge Mountains.

These so-called magic cores were originally fragments split apart by humans. They would naturally attract each other instinctively, actively approach the other fragments and seek to aggregate with each other... No wonder he could clearly sense Calvin's position coordinates in the magic network space.

In essence, it was the other core he carried with him that was causing the trouble.

Calvin, seemingly unaware of the specific events that unfolded after Harvey devoured the magic core, spoke up instead, "Your Majesty may not understand the specific value of the inheritance fragment, but judging by the changes in your own magic patterns... you should understand what they mean to a spellcaster. The power of rules isn't something a short-lived species like us humans can easily control. Blindly devouring it will only cause your spiritual anchor to expand infinitely. Once it reaches its limit... I'm afraid it will trigger a violent collapse, ultimately leading to the annihilation of your soul."

The limit of carrying capacity? Harvey subconsciously turned around to look at the magical pattern floating quietly behind him, which had infinitely expanded to become as huge as a full moon. The surface of the star polyhedron was constantly expanding and bulging, and countless irregular edges and corners emerged. The huge volume squeezed the already sparse magical network pipes around it and distorted them.

After devouring the first magic core, it did begin to slowly expand in size. Whenever Harvey connected to a freshly-baked soul alchemy beast through the Starfire City's huge energy-gathering array network... or completed a mind connection with a new energy-absorbing beetle, the magic pattern would become larger and larger, and could directly squeeze out an artificial space rift in the magic network plane to hide it inside.

But... Harvey didn't feel that he was gradually approaching any limit. Whether it was his mental power or magic power, they were almost always in an inexhaustible and perfect state. The mental anchor in the magic pattern was always as stable as before. It was also a familiar thing for him to connect and control millions of energy-absorbing beetles at the same time.

Forcefully suppressing his doubts, Harvey asked Calvin in a deep voice, "So the Lizardmen are invading the south this time for the inheritance fragments?"

Calvin spread his hands and nodded, "Indeed, once the fragments begin to reassemble, they will immediately sense its presence. Reclaiming the stolen inheritance is naturally urgent."

As soon as these words came out, Harvey was completely stunned.

The arrival of the Demon Lizardmen was not a sudden or long-planned invasion by the powerful race at the center of the continent... It was because he accidentally swallowed the first fragment of inheritance and activated the irreversible aggregation rules, which alarmed the other party.

Are all the crises that threaten the survival of the human species actually caused by ourselves?
(End of this chapter)