Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1204

He saw Dolores again that evening. At the manor, the princess was huddled on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, looking as if she were frozen to the bone. In truth, everyone had been in the same condition when the rescue team from the Church of Earth and Harvest drilled through the earth beneath the square to pull them out.

The primary symptom was an inability to perceive temperature correctly. Regardless of their surroundings, they felt as if they were standing naked on a snowy plain amidst howling winds.

The Church had them sign confidentiality pacts before examining their health. It wasn't a permanent affliction; the symptoms were expected to last two or three days. Until then, they were advised to stay in a warm place and take care to keep warm. By doing so, they could avoid any aftereffects beyond the psychological.

"So, what in the world happened in the end?"

Dolores asked, shivering as she cupped her hands around a teacup, the rising steam blurring the air before her. She was young to begin with, and in her current state, she looked exactly like a sick little girl.

Julia was not there; she was upstairs resting in bed. That left Alexia, her tutor, and the servants to look after the princess for the time being.

"We don't know what happened either. A being... I don't even know how to describe it... answered the summons and briefly turned its gaze upon Ruen. In that instant, the entire city froze. Every living creature in Ruen, aside from us, experienced a moment of memory loss. But only those of you beneath the square developed these strange symptoms."

Alexia answered, then glanced at Jenkins, prompting him to add something.

Jenkins had already guessed that some unknown Sovereign had answered the call. Only a being of that magnitude could possess such awesome power, capable of causing such an impact with its mere gaze. But he didn't know how to explain it. After all, the very word 'Sovereign'—a term denoting its status and power—could cause visceral discomfort in anyone who heard it.

"But everything outside the square is still encased in ice."

Alexia remarked, rising to her feet and pushing open the massive doors behind the sofa. They were on the second floor, and an ornate terrace lay beyond the living room. The manor's elevated position on the city outskirts offered a sweeping view of the distant urban landscape.

The sun had set, yet the distant city, now a landscape of ice sculptures, still shimmered with a captivating light in the twilight glow.

"I suppose the Ice and Snow Festival is truly living up to its name now."

Alexia remarked, gazing at the crystalline city.

"But at least no one died. That great being is truly merciful. To wield such power of absolute cold, yet possess such a gentle heart."

Jenkins added his praise. After all, flattery cost nothing, and a few extra compliments might just improve his own luck.

And so the incident sparked by Lack Stuart, after unleashing an apocalyptic scene, came to a rather anticlimactic end—at least for now.

That same evening, Dolores's intelligence network delivered a transcript of a private letter from Lack Stuart's residence, copied at great risk just before the Church cordoned off and searched the property. The correspondence between Lack and the Tree House revealed that the incident had not been long in the planning. In fact, its origins could be traced back to the previous winter.

At the time, a member of the Tree House named Osiris Alexander was operating in Bel Diran, the capital of the Fidektri Kingdom, searching for a mystical lamp.

He had later discovered some piece of information, left Bel Diran alone on a steam train, and vanished without a trace. When the Tree House used divination to find him, two of their diviners dropped dead on the spot, their bodies transformed into ice that no mortal flame could melt. It was through this incident that the Tree House first learned of the existence of a particular Sovereign.

Later, while plotting a conspiracy in Ruen, within the Hamparvo Kingdom, they happened to learn about the parchment scroll from Lack Stuart. From that scroll, they discovered the 'Contact the Void' ritual, and the audacious group decided they had to try it. Fınd the newest release on novęlfire.net

They must have realized somewhere along the way that their translation of the parchment's text, provided by Lack Stuart, was wrong. That would explain why no one else appeared after Jenkins and Alexia defeated their two inferior demigods.

In the end, the ritual had indeed summoned the great being responsible for Osiris Alexander's disappearance, but it hadn't resulted in a world-ending catastrophe.

To a certain extent, this suggested the Tree House's understanding of the end-of-epoch calamity and of Sovereigns was perhaps even less than Jenkins's own. Yet, it was precisely this ignorance that made the madmen so dangerous, and that was what worried Jenkins the most.

They had been lucky this time. The Sovereign who had turned its gaze upon the material world was a merciful one. If, next time, they found a way to summon a Sovereign with a less forgiving temperament, the entire city might be annihilated.

Dolores, still wrapped in her blanket, shivered instinctively. Jenkins leaned forward and gently placed the back of his hand on her forehead. A flame separated into a thousand gossamer threads, attempting to warm her, but it offered little more than psychological comfort. Even Jenkins was powerless to cure these strange aftereffects.

The Stuart family had truly suffered a catastrophe. In addition to the death of the main instigator, Lack Stuart, King Salsi II was gravely wounded, the eldest prince had lost an arm, and the other princes and princesses had all sustained injuries of varying severity.

Dolores wouldn't have been able to leave the palace this evening if there hadn't been a power vacuum. According to her, with King Salsi II still unconscious, her siblings were already at each other's throats. While no one had yet dared to speak of the throne, their true intentions were painfully obvious.

Jenkins had just returned from the church. As Nolan's finest healer, he had discovered that even in Ruen—a city with resident clerics from the Church of All Things and Nature and the Church of Earth and Harvest—he was still the most capable.

With other healers assisting, Jenkins only needed to tend to the followers of the Sage. He used the downtime to learn a great deal about the Stuart royal family from the local bishop. While Dolores had already told him much of it, hearing the stories from a different perspective proved quite enlightening.

Furthermore, he and the other healers had examined King Salsi II and confirmed that his injuries were not fatal. This was why Dolores was not at the palace with her siblings; she had chosen to leave, ostensibly to "avoid suspicion."