The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 806

Chapter 806: The Relics of the Witch

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

 

Bonia was a short, little girl, and completely different from the Witch of Fire Hao Ren had imagined. She had long brown hair, braided with colored silk threads, and was wearing a dark-red robe that was too large for her size. The little girl hid behind the adults as she watched Vivian and Hao Ren’s actions with her big, shiny eyes. When Gezer called her out, she greeted Vivian. She was not at all like the saintess one would imagine.

“Bonia was chosen as saintess last year,” the elder of Fire tribe, a strong middle-aged man who looked like a warrior, explained a little embarrassedly. “The last saintess died suddenly, so Bonia did not even have time to learn the knowledge of the mantra and the ritual and was rushed to take the role. However, she has no problem in the belief of the Goddess and her talents as a saintess. She will be able to be your guide.”

Vivian looked curiously at the shy little girl. The little girl’s eyes met her eyes, and then the little girl said with a soft voice, “Goddess, praise… praise to you, your coming to the earth… the earth fears…”

She almost like crying out already.

“Take us to the witch’s burial site,” Vivian said directly, not letting the little girl continue to be nervous. “The others need not follow.”

No one objected to Vivian’s order. Gezer retreated with the warriors of Fire tribe. Hao Ren overheard the tribal people’s conversations as they left, talking about the coming of the goddess and how Gezer arrived here instantaneously from Wind tribal settlement. The tribal men left Bonia alone here. She looked at Vivian nervously and raised her finger pointing at the root of the Heaven’s Pillar. “There. It’s far. You must enter the Pillar of Eternity.”

The Heaven’s Pillar was so huge that an aerial root was as large as a mountain range, and a small hole in the trunk was as large as a tunnel. Fire tribe lived at the foot of this giant tree, but relatively speaking, their territory was no wider than an ant colony under a tree. The ‘temple’ that Bonia referred to was a sacred place of the tribe in the center of Heaven’s Pillar. How far was it from the nearest root to the center of the trunk?

Not very far, just a dozen kilometers.

The miracle plants that the First Born created were so magnificent and amazing.

Hao Ren took Bonia and drove directly towards the sacred place.

This Heaven’s Pillar was similar to the one they passed through earlier; it was hollow. They entered through a triangular opening in the root of the trunk, wherein it was a vast, dark space. But the difference was that there were human activities here because it was the base of the Fire tribe. There were torches placed on the ground inside the giant tree, and a path that led straight to the center of the trunk. At the end of the track, Hao Ren could already see the so-called ‘temple.’ Unlike the other temples he had seen, the construction before his eyes was much more basic than imagined. It was a house of worship of wood and stones, mimicking the Dorasil’s pyramids, not magnificent, not even stylish.

Of course, even then, it was still much better than the tribal yurts outside.

“The witch and the saintess of four hundred years ago were buried behind the temple.” Bonia seemed to feel a lot more at ease here. She began to show Vivian around. “It is quiet here. The warriors only come here during the ceremony.”

Lily looked up at the darkness above; she was sure the surface of the planet Inferno was right above her head. “Wouldn’t things fall from above hit the temple down here?”

Bonia paused for a while and then whispered, “Sometimes… things will fall here.”

Lily almost broke out in a cold sweat. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Bonia did not turn a hair, as if she had never thought about this problem. “Goddess is looking after us. No problem.”

Lily felt it incredible. “What if it hit you? You could have died!”

“That… will be the will of the Goddess. If I die, then I would be with the Goddess,” Bonia said. She quickly glanced up at Vivian. “Is it?”

Vivian had already freaked out looking at the darkness hanging above her head, let alone protecting other. But before Bonia, she could only nod her head and said, “I will look after you. But I still suggest that you don’t come into the trunk anymore. If you must, you can hold the ritual outside. This pillar leads to the surface. If something falls, it won’t just as simple as making a bump on your head.”

Bonia just nodded her head repeatedly, but it made people wonder whether she had understood what Vivian said. Bonia later took them to see the witch’s grave.

The grave was a large space surrounded by round stones behind the ‘temple.’ There were piles of rocks neatly arranged on the ground. There was nothing special about the rocks, but each pile had a stone column erected on top as a headstone. The headstone had simple information such as the name of the deceased written in hieroglyphic symbols. The body of the witch from Earth who had explored the inside layer of Inferno and an extraordinary life was resting in this graveyard. Her grave was sharing the space with others, and there was nothing special about it.

Bonia pointed to the grave of the witch, where there was only a simple sentence on the headstone: witch, friends, foreigners who are sleeping here; may your soul return to your hometown in your dream.

“That’s it,” Bonia said, bending slightly over in front of the headstone and making some complicated and strange gestures with her hands to perform a simple prayer.

Vivian looked curiously at the graves around her. “Do all these graves belong to the saintesses of Fire tribe?”

Bonia nodded her head. “Yup.”

“Your tribe allowed a foreigner, possibly a ‘cursed’ foreigner, buried in the same graveyard with the saintesses?” Hessiana cut in. “Your people don’t see it as a taboo?”

“The saintess back then allowed it. Legend has it that the saintess and the witch were good friends. They were curing the black-spot plague together,” said Bonia who suddenly glanced at Vivian nervously. “Is… is it not right?”

Vivian quickly waved her hand. “Oh no, no. It’s fine, it’s fine.”

“Besides the grave, what else did the witch leave behind?” Hao Ren was not satisfied with just seeing a grave. “Any relics, messages, or legends? Or did you guys bury everything together with her?”

As he spoke, he glanced at Lily instinctively, as if he was telling her that if the relics of the witch were in the grave, then she had better get ready to dig. After all, she was a tunneling expert. Lily understood what that glance meant, she tucked away her claws and hid behind Nangong Wuyue. “Don’t you look at me! Digging a hole isn’t the same as digging a grave!”

Fortunately, it turned out that the relics were not in the grave. As Hao Ren expected, people who fell into this place would invariably want to leave behind something so that those who came after them would be able to find their bodies. The witch had left behind many things and entrusted them to her tribal friends.

Bonia brought them into the temple, which mainly was just a stone building. She found some old parchment scrolls and slates with inscriptions, and other bits and pieces from an old stone box. “These are what the witch left behind.”

It was a treasure; these things were what Hao Ren after. Vivian could not wait to examine the relics. She saw the scrolls and scraps of paper made of black goatskin, ritual knives carved from obsidian, glass bottles that used to contain potions, some pieces of cloth, and a pair of old, special gloves that witches wore when they made herbal soups. These things were undoubtedly from Earth. She even found a coin from eight centuries ago. Her eyes were out on stalk staring at this rusted little piece of metal coin. “It has been ten thousand years; this is the first time I ever found money in a grave…”

Hao Ren smacked the coin off Vivian’s hand. “Knock it off; it’s not something that you found on the street, it’s a relic.”

“It means almost the same thing,” Vivian said. “I used to dig graves but had never found money.”

“*Cough cough*,” Hao Ren quickly stayed away from the topic by saying, “Hey, let’s look at these parchments.”

Chapter 807: A Pile of Old Papers

 

The ancient parchments had faded somewhat. After eight centuries, the weathering process had left mottled marks on them despite the magic protection to prevent decay. As Hao Ren had imagined, the witch left behind this record when she knew she had no hope of returning home. The blackened papers told the story of an ordinary witch from Earth. It was about her short life and experience of being stranded in this strange world.

“Anyone who reads these letters, if you can understand what they mean, I give you my most sincere blessings. May the light of knowledge and mystery bless you not to be stranded as I did. My name is Beatrice. I am from another world, and I believe you too.

“I came to this place in search of knowledge and mystery. A hellish misadventure landed me into the abyss and eventually stuck here. In a sense, I have gotten what I wanted. What I learned and encountered were miracles that I could have never imagined in the past thousands of years. I believe that even the gods of ancient times do not know about the mysteries of this world. It renders all my ideas and knowledge systems obsolete. No words could describe the surprises I saw in this underground world, but I hope to share the joy of this discovery with you. Unfortunately, I can’t go back. I can only write it down in the parchment.”

Hao Ren skipped the less important paragraphs, only took a cursory glance at Beatrice’s early record of her time in this world. The witch had received help from the locals. The fire tribe was hospitable and not hostile towards foreigners. Because Beatrice was skilled in a kind of magic flame, the tribe people saw it as evidence of her closeness to natural elements. In this world, the intimacy with the natural elements was proof of one’s ‘good quality.’ So, Beatrice could easily befriend with the locals.

She became a friend with the Witch of Fire, who was the tribal saintess. The friendship had been beautiful. The people practiced superficial elemental magic, but the more in-depth knowledge of it had disappeared. Saintesses and tribal warriors could only attain advanced magic by relying on the help of blood or celestial objects. The warriors learned the magic just for battle use; it was the saintesses and their apprentices who delve into advanced magic skills. The arrival of Beatrice had brought new knowledge that this world lacked. At the same time, the saintess of the Fire tribe had found a like-minded partner in Beatrice. They studied ancient expertise together ever since.

They were into the ancient symbols and memory inscribed in the blood. In just a few years, the two became good friends. They even restored many old magic creations. Beatrice was the one who made the phlogistic lamp and cracked the methods of producing ancient artifacts from the totem of the Fire tribe.

The curing of the black-spot plague was another achievement. The incident had exalted the position of Beatrice in the hearts of the locals. They no longer treated Beatrice as a foreigner but people of the goddess just like them. But Beatrice was also unusual in that she was the only people of the goddess that fell from the Pillar of Eternity.

“…I have spent many years here. It was a bit difficult at first. I have to learn strange words, language, customs and even eating habits. There was once a plant favorite among the locals eating as food almost killed me. That was the first time I truly learned about the alien world. Since then, things have been getting better. It is a place where I can settle down and begin like it. I was an outcast in my homeworld where magic practitioners were in decline. When the racial war was coming to an end, a witch like me became the ultimate loser. I don’t miss my homeworld, as living in fugitive was not something to be cherished. Maybe staying here is not too bad. At least, I have this thought sometimes in my life.

“…I observe the lives of the local people during my free time. I am very interested in their religion and way of life. And more importantly, this world fascinates me. What kind of power could create another layer of earth on top of the original layer? It is out of this world. But it has happened here. According to the legend of the local people, it seemed that this world was unlike what it is today. Something has changed it.

“…the locals believe that the pillars that support the heaven and the earth are the giants_’ arms. In their religious beliefs, except for the goddess, shadows of the ‘great creature’ are everywhere. The giant supports the sky, and the clouds are the air that the giant exhales. The wind on the grassland is the yawning of a giant beast called Haku; and the world is built on the back of a stooped old man named Toka, who was the gardener of the goddess. There are many such legends, full of unusual colors, which remind me of the strange deities of my homeworld during ancient times. But I could not shrug these legends off. They have clear and surprising logic though appear grotesque. They seem to be real, but history has obscured them._

“Yes, it is a heritage. The historical legacy of the locals is a more exciting topic. I found out that these people once were a brilliant civilization, one that was even more advanced than those in my homeworld. But the closure of heaven had interrupted the development of this civilization. I could see the relics of this ancient civilization on murals and slates: a vehicle that drives by itself, flying craft, magic-driven rock guards and iron giants, and even Moro Tosh, the magical city that floated in the air. But these things have disappeared, buried deep in earth’s fissures.

“…there is another fascinating phenomenon. The closure of heaven reduced the population by more than half. The remaining population also gradually declined. But disaster was not the sole cause of the reduction; it was a deliberate act. I found many records on ancient slates that contained detailed plans of population control. The tribes scattered around the world were following a strict timetable to control their population in the period when communication was cut off. About 3,000 years ago, in Inferno-term, they had managed to reduce the population down to the current level. And, this number has never changed since then.

“…The birth rate is strictly controlled. They use a kind of drug to dictate when one would produce offspring. The newborns would go through a ritual-like training to ensure the children could fully assume work in the tribe and would not die prematurely. There are indications that these natives are aware of the fragility and scarce resources of this world, and consciously limiting the population to conserve resources. This concept has been handed down from ancient times. No one knows why they have to do this, but they still follow the teaching strictly. So who taught them the resource conservation? Maybe it was the goddess.

“I even suspect that they have a way to control the intelligence and thinking of the newborns. I have found substances that could affect the brain in their every-day spices. These spices only slightly inhibit brain activity and are not very harmful. But it is this just-right inhibition that has stalled their civilization. It has been thousands of years since the closure of heaven, the length of time is enough for them to rebuild their civilization. So it should be the result of an intentional or unintentional intervention. It is a pity that I don’t have much time. I can’t verify my conjectures. And even if I could, I could not reverse their religious traditions. Religion is vital to them. Thousands of years of drug prescription and traditional teaching are flowing in their blood veins. As an outsider, I had better not to interfere…”

Hao Ren suddenly looked up at Beatrice who was in a daze. “Show me the spices that you have used to baptize the newborns.”

Chapter 808: Beatrice and Baptiste

 

Bonia was sitting next to Hao Ren. She almost jumped out of her skin when out of the blue, Hao Ren spoke to her. The mind of the immature, little saintess’ easily wandered off just like the mind of any child at her age would. After Hao Ren repeated his request, Bonia quickly got to her feet, ran into a small room at the back of the temple, and rummaged for a while before she came back out with a little ceramic jar.

As said before, spices were part and parcel of the people’s lives in this world. Spices were not only a living necessity but also used in religion, customs and etiquette. Different types of spices for separate occasions. Some for worshiping the gods, some for cleansing themselves, and some for the christening of newborns. The small jar that Bonia took out was filled with some greyish white powder, which she made by herself, baked with various herbs and magic. Hao Ren took some of this powder. A strong licorice-like smell drifted into his nostrils. He took the MDT out. “Analyze it,” he said.

“A small amount could affect the development of the brain’s nerves, influence the early development of the brain, reduce the ability of creative,” the MDT said, flying a circle around Bonia to scan the physiological details of human of this world, “independent and critical thinking. But it does not affect intellectual and genetic factors. In short, this is something that makes people ‘obedient’, but if applied in high dosage to everyone, it could almost guarantee the stagnation of the entire civilization. Of course, it is not enough to have this drug; it also needs a complete education system. I believe the tribes here have already done it.”

Hao Ren’s brows knit together. “Is this a protective measure?”

“It would be a crime if this happened in the normal world. But here, it is a kind of protection.” The MDT hovered up and down. “This underground space is not rich in resources, and the entire planet has no sources of energy. There is no sun. The planet has a limited energy reserve. You should know how fast the highly developed human society consumes the planet, so the human civilization here is stagnant, and the purpose should be to extend the life of the ecosystem.”

“Did the Goddess teach you to make this?” Hao Ren pointed to the small jar. Bonia quickly looked at Vivian and nodded her head a few times. Vivian groaned inwardly and said, “…just assume I did.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment, put the spices aside and continued to read the diaries of Beatrice. The witch was a scholar with a spirit of exploration. She was very different from her peers who only knew the game of power struggle and antiquities in her time. The record she left behind told the many findings of her research in this world. She even left behind drawings, which depicted the history of the Fire tribe and the Mountain tribe drew on slates. Beatrice believed that these things should not be buried. She had also mentioned some adventure plans he had yet to carry out:

“… There should be many more relics in the earth. I found some abnormal cracks around the Pillars of Eternity. These fissures leading to the underground seem like tunnels that were left behind deliberately. But the Pillars of Eternity are a miracle of the world. The locals think that these pillars are the arms of the giants, going to the roots of them will disturb the giants and cause the sky to collapse. So I have no choice but give up…

“Fire tribe seems to be called Erbisius, a magical race in the ancient times. They were good at making flame-driven machines and magical devices. I have restored some of those things recorded in their lithographs. The drawings are at…”

Many latter parchments contained the archaeological discoveries of Beatrice. She also mentioned some of the ancient relics that the tribal people retained until today. As Hao Ren randomly flipped through the records, Bonia was dozing off next to him, snoring like a bear while her body swung around like a kite. The round pendant hanging from her neck glowed in gold as it reflected the light of the phlogistic lamp. The oval pendant had caught Hessiana’s eyes. She woke Bonia up. “Hey, little girl. Could I see your pendant?” she asked.

The little saintess quickly untied the pendant on her neck and handed it to Hessiana.

Hessiana first thought it was a decorative metal pendant, but when she held it in her hand, it felt like a very sophisticated item. The perfectly round pendant was roughly the size of a pocket watch. The surface had a complex and delicate pattern as if it were laser-etched. There were beautiful inlaid crystals on the patterns, but some had worn out. While Hessiana fiddled with the pendant, she accidentally pressed a button on the side, and the pendant popped open, revealing the delicate structure and wiring inside, and engraved symbols and text on the inside of the cover. Vivian poked her head to take a gander and let the translation plug-in do its job.

“National Grand Library—Erbisius Archives Administrator Key—Transferable Universal Identity Card”

“This is an anciently sacred object,” Bonia wiped the snivel off her nose and said with a poker face. “The saintesses handed it down from generation to generation. It is the embodiment of the spirit of knowledge and the will of the Goddess.”

“A delicate alchemy prop, a hybrid of principles of mechanics and magic,” Hessiana said as she gently stroked the lines inside the old key with her finger. The internal was perfectly fine, but the exterior had worn. “Is there any other relic with it?”

Meanwhile, Hao Ren had flipped to the last few manuscripts, and that were pretty much all the records of Beatrice. She left behind these things in the final year of her life when she was suffering from strange illnesses. She realized that she had not much time left, and felt death was approaching as she wrote the last few manuscripts.

“…I don’t have much time. The more I use magic and herbs to suppress the pain, the more intense it becomes. My body couldn’t adapt to the many elements in this world. Now the accumulated ‘toxins’ are catching up with me. I have already said goodbye to Mobeka (the tribal saintess back then), but she could not accept it. Life is uncertain, but death is inevitable; who can go against it?

“… Interestingly, when I am nearing my death, I begin to miss my hometown. It feels miserable to die alone in a distant, foreign land though I know back home, the world is still in its most challenging period where witches and wizards are suffering from indescribable horrifying pressure. I have recently recalled things and acquaintances in my hometown in my mind so frequently so that it has stalled my work of deciphering the ancient documents. I may have become vulnerable, but in the last days of my life, no one would expect a dying witch to remain strong…

“…Baptiste, please forgive me for only mentioning your name during my final moment. But I miss you; I miss you so much that I don’t even dare to write your name down in any place or tell anyone about you, because every time I hear your name, I would be conscious of how far apart we are. Maybe you are still looking for me, how I wish I could see you now. But the only one thing I want to tell you right now is—stay away from this place.

“There is no hope here. There is nothing here. This world is a chaotic dimension of no return. The knowledge that you have taught me is far from enough to deal with the danger here. So please don’t come for me.”

That was the end of the manuscript.

In the last few chapters of the parchment, Beatrice’s words seemed a little disorganized, even a bit of disoriented. She did not write these words in just one go but spent a year of looking back on her experiences for the past ten years. So the last few parchments should reflect the worst state of Beatrice’s mind. No matter how disoriented her words were its meaning was clear:

Beatrice was the reason Baptiste coming to the second level of Inferno at all costs.

At this time, the sound of footsteps came from outside the temple. A tribal warrior with red paint on his face came in. “Goddess, Saintess, the sentinel caught a stranger in the wilderness.”

Chapter 809: Forgotten

 

They came out from the temple and saw several tribal warriors waiting with their horses outside. It was more than 10 kilometers from the tribal village to the temple, so they had to have traveled on horses.

It seemed that Gezer had told these tribal warriors about the goddess looking for a foreigner. Hence they came so hurriedly.

Hessiana stepped out. “Take us to meet the guy,” she said.

They returned to Fire tribe and came to a yurt on the fringe of the village. Several soldiers and warriors seemed to be guarding a man in the yurt. The man was wearing a linen robe that did not look like his, and he was restless. He was pacing back and forth under the watch of the soldiers. The man was Baptiste who had disappeared earlier.

His state of mind was very different from the last time they met him. He seemed to be quite unsettled this time.

Baptiste was shocked when they entered the yurt. He quickly scanned them, and he was cautious as well as confused. A holy blade warrior of Fire tribe came behind Vivian explaining to her the situation where they captured this foreigner. “Our night patrol squadron found this person on the nearby wasteland. He was naked, wandering around aimlessly as if he wasn’t in a clear state of mind. He injured two of our men with his magic, but the great warrior arrived in time and subdued him.”

“Did you hit your head when you fell?” Hessiana frowned as she looked at Baptiste. Never did she expect to capture the wizard this way. She could not believe the cunning fellow had fallen into the hands of the indigenous warrior! “Baptiste, you look like shit now!”

Baptiste stared at Hessiana cautiously. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“Huh?” Lily was wide-eyed. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know us! Did you not use us like a battery before? Now you tell us you have forgotten?”

Still, on his guard, Baptiste replied with a calm and adulterated voice, “I don’t know who you are, but I do have a lot of enemies. If you want to kill me, do it! But don’t expect I will divulge anything!”

Hao Ren was stunned. He looked at Vivian and forced a smile. “He has got amnesia? I can’t believe it comes out this way.”

Vivian looked at Baptiste carefully, but could not tell if he was faking it or indeed had lost his memory. She pointed at the MDT sprawling on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Isn’t this guy having a polygraph function? Test it out.”

“I just happened to have installed such an app, okay? Please don’t confuse me with a lie detector!” The MDT scoffed and then hovered over Baptiste’s head. “Hello, nerd. What is your name?”

“Baptiste.”

“Do you know these people in front of you?”

“No impression.”

“Well, that is true. This guy has lost his memory.”

They were stunned that Baptiste had lost his memory!

“A powerful wizard lost his memory simply because he fell from above?” Nangong Sanba looked at the others with a big question mark on his face. “This is unbelievable!”

At this time, Gezer suddenly cut in. “He doesn’t have any external injury.”

No external injury. That meant Baptiste did not lose his memory by falling.

Vivian circled Baptiste two times and suddenly asked, “Do you still remember why you are coming here?”

“Why should I tell you that?” Baptiste looked back and sneered at Vivian. “I might have lost my memory, but I am not stupid.”

“If you are not stupid, then cooperate.” Kassandra stepped out and pointed to all the people in the yurt. “There is only one of you; we are many…”

Baptiste stood upright, unperturbed. “So that’s what you got? Please try again!”

Kassandra was silent for a moment. She then pointed to the burly male soldiers. “Customarily, they are gays.”

Baptiste said nothing, as if not amused.

“And there are five hundred of them outside; people and horses.”

Baptiste’s face instantly turned green.

Hao Ren pulled Hessiana to a side and said, “What’s wrong with your people? Has she been talking like this all this while?”

“Well, at least when I rescued her from the street, she was half dead,” said Hessiana, shaking Hao Ren’s hand off hers. “And, don’t touch me! We aren’t that friendly.”

Baptiste’s expression changed a couple of times. He caught his breath. “I am here looking for someone.”

Kassandra nodded with satisfaction. “Well, looks like you haven’t lost your entire memory. So tell us, are you looking for a witch named Beatrice?”

Baptiste was stunned and confused but did not seem to fake it. “Beatrice? Who is that? It sounds familiar.”

Nangong Sanba raised his eyebrows. “You forgot about the most crucial part?”

Vivian shook her head. “No really. Maybe it’s something else.”

She had been observing Baptiste quietly from the start. She sensed the energy in him and was unsure whether he was human or a phantom. Now, she finally figured it out. “Did you guy not notice that he has grown back his arm?”

“Arm?” Hao Ren was stunned. It suddenly crossed his mind. Now he remembered that earlier, Lily had severed Baptiste’s arm, but the wizard standing here had all his limbs perfectly intact.

“When he jumped into the abyssal portal, I saw the space storm smashing him into pieces. The soldiers who found him said that he was wandering in the wilderness, naked. So I suspect that…”

While saying, Vivian put her hand on Baptiste’s shoulder. The next moment, a bright light filled everyone’s vision.

Powerful magic rushed into Baptiste’s body that was extremely weak now. An electric light shrouded him, and in an instance of thunder and lightning, the wizard turned into a charred corpse.

But, this charred corpse, which appeared dead, did not fall but stood wobbly. The ashes slowly disappeared as if the body was absorbing it. Just as when they met Baptiste for the first time where he re-agglutinated from ashes and char back into a human, he rose from the dead.

The moment the resurrected wizard opened his eyes he almost fell to the ground, as he was still frail. He looked at the stranger in front of him with horror and quickly braced himself for battle. His voice was full of confusion. “Who are you people?” he asked.

Vivian gestured at Hao Ren so that he would not say anything. She turned to look at the wizard. “You jumped into Inferno. Let me ask you: what are you doing here?”

Baptiste shook his head and replied in a way as if he was sleep talking, “Is this Inferno? I remember I come looking for someone…”

“Do you know who Beatrice is?”

“Beatrice?” Baptiste’s eyebrows knit together. “I have no impression of the name.”

“He has a magic core in his body. This magic core gives him the ability to resurrect indefinitely. He must have made this modification to himself to cross the gate to Inferno.” Vivian finally answered all the mysteries.” But there’s a problem to this resurrection process; he has lost his memory.”

Lily widened her eyes. “So?”

“So he has forgotten everything about himself from the beginning. All he knows is that he comes to Inferno looking for someone.” Again, Vivian let out a sigh. “He doesn’t even remember the name of the person he is looking for.”

Hao Ren could not believe it. “Since when this happened?”

“Since we first saw him when he came out from the ashes, he was already a wraith. He had forgotten everything,” Vivian said, shaking her head in disappointment. “In the beginning, we only knew that this wizard was hell-bent on going to the second level of Inferno, but he never mentioned why in the manuscripts. Perhaps he has been like this since a few hundred years ago. We should forget about him; we wouldn’t be able to get any more information from him.”

Baptiste listened indifferently to their conversation about himself as if the discussion did not concern him. He did not even remember that he was a captive. Sitting down calmly and wondering why his robe had burn marks, he then sank into his empty memories.

Lily poked the wizard with her claws cautiously. “Do you remember who you are?”

“My name is Baptiste. I am an apprentice wizard.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for someone.”

“Who are you looking for?”

“I don’t know…”

Chapter 810: The Blood-Red Crystal

 

Baptiste had forgotten almost everything, including Beatrice and his past. Except for who he was and that he was looking for someone in Inferno, he knew nothing else. He had engraved the knowledge of wizardry in the magic core within his body and modified himself so extensively that even Hessiana had difficulty in classifying him. Hessiana wondered whether Baptiste was now a human, a ghost, an alchemy creature, or an elemental being. Was he even the real “Baptiste”?

In a sense, Baptiste had died eight centuries ago. He died when he first transformed his life form. Now what everyone saw was just an alchemy-magic core covered in a skin made of ashes and stuffed with an obsession that he was unaware.

Baptiste was still cagey. He was not as naive and harmless as those who lost their memories. Before Baptiste ended up in this condition, he had foreseen he would be the public’s number one enemy. Therefore, he planted a series of combat instinct and distrust of strangers in his magic core, so that in the event he lost his memory, he would not easily fall into enemy’s hand, especially the demon hunters. However, the implanted features had its limitations; he still could not hide from the more observant eyes.

Turcan and Kassandra came up to Baptiste and asked him again about himself. Baptiste still replied albeit muddlingly. The loss of memory had taken a toll on his resistive instinct though he always resented Turcan and Kassandra instinctively.

“He thinks he is an apprentice wizard,” Kassandra said, making sure Hessiana hear the word apprentice. ” He had only sporadic memory of himself as a human and forgotten everything about his eight-hundred-year life after turning into this strange creature. He doesn’t even remember where Domir is except that he learned magic from the witch and shared their experiences.

“Beatrice must be the witch,” Hessiana said as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers instinctively. “Looks like when Beatrice fell into Inferno, Baptiste was just an apprentice. No wonder there is such a severe side effect to his modification. He must have gone off half-cocked. What else have you got?”

“Not much else. Baptiste doesn’t seem to remember what he has done.” Kassandra shook her head apologetically. “But he does know that what he did was not good. Probably it’s the remnant of his memory.”

Hao Ren bent down in front of Baptiste and stared into his eyes. “Do you know what the King of Blood summoning ritual is about?”

“The King of Blood?” Baptiste repeated the word. “What is that?” He seemed confused.

Hao Ren pursed his mouth in disappointment. When he was about to get to his feet, Baptiste reached out his finger and drew a magic circle on the ground and recited, “Two persons are required to perform the ritual, use a magic book, and place bat teeth in these corners and…”

Hao Ren was wide-eyed. “Didn’t you say that you don’t know?”

“I don’t know what it is.” Baptiste frowned. “But isn’t this what you asked me about?”

Vivian patted on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “He had engraved the wizardry knowledge in his body, so even if he has lost his memory, he could still find ways to open the gate to Inferno. However, I’m afraid that he wouldn’t be able to tell you how he came out with the summoning ritual.”

Hao Ren stared at Baptiste for a while, and then got back to his feet and exhaled. “Take him to Beatrice’s tomb,” he said.

Two tribal warriors escorted Baptiste to the temple inside the Pillar of Eternity. They stopped in front of the tomb of the saintesses. Hao Ren took Baptiste to the grave of Beatrice and pointed at the pile of stones. “She is one you are looking for.”

Baptiste bent down slowly in front of the grave and reached out his hand to touch the strange text on the headstone, looking confused. He did not have a particular feeling toward the cemetery, because he could not remember she was the one whom he was searching. Slowly, an inexplicable sense of peace rising within him as if he had finished his mission. He let out a long sigh.

The confused, bizarre, mysterious, elusive wizard sat down in front of the grave as a black flame began to ignite and consume his body, but he seemed to be unaware. Very quickly, the black flame reduced him into a pile of ash while everyone watched. It was the last time they saw Baptiste, he never returned.

Suddenly, there was a thud. A solid, ugly obsidian object resembling a human heart engraved with runes and magic circles was rolling out of Baptiste’s ash. This solid piece of obsidian was the heart of the wizard. The black flame that consumed Baptiste was heatless; so the obsidian heart was cold, just like the headstone of Beatrice.

Lily pulled Hao Ren by his sleeve and whispered, “Is he dead this time?”

“I guess so,” Hao Ren said as he stepped forward to pick up the cold obsidian heart. He could not believe that Baptiste had been relying on the obsidian and surviving for eight centuries. He looked at Gezer and Bonia. “I know it sounds uncustomary, but could you please place this heart into Beatrice’s grave?”

Vivian also said, “This is what I mean it to be.”

Gezer immediately bowed at Vivian. “As your wish.”

Bonia and several tribal warriors came up to open up Beatrice’s tomb. She untied a small pouch from her waist, from which she took some strange green powder out and sprinkled it in the air before reciting a prayer of solace. The green powder glowed like fireflies and slowly gathered on the headstone until it thoroughly covered Beatrice’s name. After Bonia completed the ritual, only the tribal warriors began to remove the massive stones that covered Beatrice tomb. It was the customary ritual people of this world performed before opening up the tomb of the dead.

The burial method in this world was straightforward. Whether it was a commoner, saintess, or elder, their tombs were always a pile of stones. Soon, the warriors had removed the rocks, revealing the dark grave below. After hundreds of years, the witch’s body and her coffin had decomposed entirely, leaving only white bones and other remnants in the cemetery. The tribal warriors made a prayer of solace in a whisper. When they finished, Bonia tossed Baptiste’s obsidian heart into the grave. Just when they were about to close the tomb, Vivian suddenly saw something in the grave in her peripheral vision.

“Wait a second! There seems to be something down there.”

Vivian summoned a few tiny bats to remove the stones and white bones in the grave and came back out with a strange blood-red crystal.

Vivian took the crystal from the mouth of the bat and checked it carefully. It felt a little familiar. Nangong Wuyue, who was beside, asked curiously, “What is this?”

“Looks like a piece of jewelry that the witch wore,” Bonia whispered. “I saw it in ancient books; the witch always wore a red-crystal pendant from which she obtained her magic power to heal the people. Unfortunately, she couldn’t heal herself.”

“Pendant? This crystal looks familiar…” Vivian’s brow knit together as she rummaged through her memory trying to recall something. Suddenly, she felt a vitality that was about to dissipate from the crystal. Her eyes brightened up. “Ahh! Now I remembered it! The same thing was in the box that Pavel gave me!”

Pavel was one of Vivian’s servants who kept the items, including diaries and a red, strange crystal that Vivian handed over to him before she hibernated a few hundred years ago.

No one knew what the crystal was at that time. Vivian who had been carrying the crystal with her for some time but found it was nothing special. So, she handed it to Hao Ren because she thought Hao Ren’s dimensional pocket would be a better safety box.

Now, Hao Ren quickly took the crystal out from his dimensional pocket and compared it with the crystal taken out from Beatrice’s grave. It turned out that both crystals were made of identical materials though they were different in shape and size,

“This crystal should be mine…” Vivian looked at the grave of Beatrice with surprise. “Do I know this witch named Beatrice?”