I made up magic and taught a world-destroying witch?

Buck initially thought he was seeing things.

After all, when a person is hungry, thirsty, and locked up in a dilapidated place that no one has been around for who knows how long, they won't be surprised to see anything.

He had even begun to doubt whether he was hearing Miss Penny's voice.

But that reddish-gold light was real; it seeped in from the end of the passage, like someone had placed an ever-burning fireplace lamp outside the door.

"Is anyone there?" he shouted at the light with all his might. "Is anyone outside?"

Meanwhile, outside the abandoned portal, two church knights on night patrol stopped in their tracks.

The young knight was carrying an oil lamp; he was simply walking around the stone platform behind the ruined gate, as was his custom.

Grey Pigeon Town is relatively safe at night. The only restless places are around the abandoned portal, where some daring children and drunk workers always try to sneak behind the ruins to see if they can find any old-time treasures.

Of course, what they find is also quite consistent: usually pigeon droppings, a broken leg, and being dragged back by the ear.

But today was different. The young knight suddenly stopped and looked up at the back of the abandoned teleportation portal.

"Did you see that?"

The older knight who was walking in front also stopped. He was about to ask what he saw, but the next moment he also saw that behind the ruined stone platform, where the black wax should have been pitch black, a little red and gold light was shining through the crack in the ground.

"What is that?" The young knight instinctively gripped the knight's sword at his waist.

"Let's go take a look."

The two quickly circled around to the back of the stone platform, near the old diversion well of the abandoned teleportation portal. The outside was originally sealed with a layer of dark, hard membrane, which the Grey Pigeon Town patrolmen usually called Black Wax. Anyway, no one knew what that thing was, only that it had been there for many years.

It is said that the Magic Association and the Church sealed it off a long time ago to prevent children from falling in.

As the young knight approached with his lantern, he discovered that the black wax layer had cracked with many fine fissures, through which the reddish-gold light shone.

As they approached, they could faintly hear someone shouting inside.

"There are people down below!"

The older knight immediately drew his short axe. Church knights were not the kind of noble young masters who only knew how to fight with swords; when they patrolled at night, in addition to their knightly swords, they also carried crowbars, small axes, and short ropes at their waists.

After all, what Grey Pigeon Town really needs to deal with are mostly not monsters, but drunkards, children who have fallen into wells, and unlucky merchants who occasionally lock themselves in warehouses and can't get out.

  

The older knight used the edge of his short axe to wedge the crack in the black wax and tried to pry it open, but the black wax wouldn't budge.

"Someone...help me..."

"There really is someone!"

"Don't just stand there, go and call the patrol," the older knight said in a deep voice. "And the church, call the doctor too."

The young knight turned and ran. Grey Pigeon Town was noisy at night, and there was still clanging and banging coming from Grey Iron Alley. When the patrol heard the church knight calling for help, they thought there was another drunken fight.

But when they ran with their lanterns to the back of the abandoned portal and saw the red and gold light shining through the crack in the ground, and heard cries for help coming from under the black candle, everyone's expression changed.

"How come there are people down there?"

"Wasn't it said that the diversion well was sealed off a long time ago?"

"Don't ask questions yet, come and help!"

The patrol team brought iron hooks and long poles, and several strong porters were called over from nearby. They used the iron hooks to pull the black wax outwards little by little.

The older knight squatted by the crack, his face growing increasingly grim. Inside the crack, there was a ring of thin black lines, which clung to the edge of the diversion well like a spider web. Some of these lines had been burned away by the red-gold light, while others remained attached to the stone wall, occasionally twitching slightly.

The young knight couldn't help but ask in a low voice:

"Captain, what is this?"

The older knight reached into his robes and took out a small badge. He gently touched the broken black line with the edge of the badge, and the black line immediately shrank like a live worm, emitting a burnt smell.

The young knight's expression changed, and the patrolmen involuntarily took a step back. They didn't understand the church's ways, nor did they want to. Seeing the church knight's expression, everyone knew this was no ordinary matter.

After a while, the first piece of black wax was pried open, revealing a section of old stone steps leading downwards.

Several patrol members tied ropes around their waists, held up lanterns, and went down. Soon after, shouts came from below:

"There are people! Several of them!"

"Quickly, bring water and a blanket down!"

Chaos erupted around the abandoned portal.

The church doctor was soon summoned, carrying his medicine kit and jogging along, followed by two sleepy-eyed novice priests.

The patrol guarded the outer circle to prevent onlookers from pushing forward, but the people of Grey Pigeon Town were not so obedient. If they saw a living person being dug out from under the abandoned portal in the middle of the night, even if the patrol stopped them, people would probably want to stand on tiptoe and take a second look, let alone the king standing there.

Buck was carried out, repeatedly muttering, "Light...it was the light that saved us."

A dockworker was also carried out; he was so weak he could barely open his eyes, but he still grabbed the young knight's sleeve and mumbled:

"Are the gods... guiding us?"

The young knight didn't know how to answer for a moment, so he could only look at his captain.

The older knight stared solemnly at the burned black lines and the melted black membrane; someone had cast a blasphemous spell beneath the ruined portal.

If they had arrived any later, the remaining people probably wouldn't have survived either.

The older knight said, "Report this immediately."

After he finished speaking, he looked at the patrol captain next to him.

"The town also needs to block the news; at least until it's confirmed, we can't let people spread rumors."

The patrol captain, realizing the seriousness of the situation, nodded in agreement.

"I see."

However, it turned out that he realized it too late.

In a place like Grey Pigeon Town, the death of a chicken can be spread before breakfast as a dragon stealing eggs, not to mention the discovery of several living people under a ruined portal.

As soon as it was light, the news had already spread from the abandoned stone platform to Tangpu, then from Tangpu to Gray Iron Alley, and then all the way from Gray Iron Alley to Gear and Pigeon Tavern.

"Have you heard? The gods have risen again!"

Joseph woke up to those words.

He lay in bed, his eyes not yet fully open, when a very simple thought popped into his mind.

Who? Who has recovered?

He sat up, stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a while, and then remembered that he hadn't slept in the Academy's Experiment Tower yesterday, but in a tavern called Gears and Pigeons in Grey Pigeon Town.

It was already bright outside the window, and someone was talking loudly downstairs.

"My relative works on patrol! He saw it with his own eyes; the light was reddish-gold, like it was burning in a furnace!"

"Isn't it supposed to be the church's holy light? How come the holy light is the color of a hearth?"

"What do you know? God has mercy on blacksmiths and dockworkers, so the light He gives them must be something they can understand!"

"That makes sense."

Joseph sat on the edge of the bed, listening until he became somewhat more awake.

Where's the logic in that? He hasn't even finished convincing himself with his new magic, how can the gods be resurrected already? Has he triggered some kind of fast-forward mode?

Joseph rubbed his face, put on his coat, washed his face, and went downstairs. There were already quite a few people sitting on the first floor of the tavern.

Several local artisans were gathered around a table, talking animatedly over a bowl of soup.

"Let me tell you, last night when the church knights were on patrol, they discovered a light behind an abandoned teleportation portal. After prying it open, they rescued several missing people."

"Ah, I heard that the altar under the door was actually an altar for a demon from the old era, and last night the gods burned off the demon's claws."

"The church knights have already said it's heresy!"

"That was a miracle?"

"Not necessarily. Maybe it's some important person passing by who doesn't want to reveal their identity."

"What important figures could there be in Grey Pigeon Town?"

Joseph: "..."

Has the security situation in Grey Pigeon Town deteriorated to the point where you can wake up the next day to hear the sound of a nest of people being dug up from under a ruined portal?