Fire Mage (Web Novel)

Chapter 247: Burning Consciousness

As Charles ended his talking, Oswald suddenly thought of something else and asked.

"What do you think about 'Ivy'? Why aren't you asking that artifact's help?"

"It's not that I'm not asking her help, I'm just that I'm still wary of her dream-related abilities. Although she is an ally, I can't blindly trust her, can I? But there are few things she knew more about me than the Divine. For example, she seems to have long aware of my shape-shifting skill. She is also a Goddess Rodia's creation… I have a vague feeling that this Ivy girl might know about my' secret artifact' and its creator." Charles said in a grave tone.

"Isn't this more than enough to trust her?" Oswald said with a frown.

On the other hand, Charles shook his head and spoke.

"My secret artifact's 'Creator' definitely wants me to find him for some odd reasons. That's why he manipulated the space-time, placed one Twin Leaf in the Dreamworld, and linked me with the fire-elemental plane. He seemed to have prepared everything long ago. But why is he using a tricky measure to contact me? Is he wary of his enemies? Possible…"

"Otherwise, he could have directly contacted me using various means. I think he wants to conceal the fact that I'm his pawn from others. That must be the reason why he is using this neutral Goddess Rodia as a middleman." He paused for a moment to take a deep breath and continued.

"When we visited the Day and Night Church, Goddess Rodia used her 'Time-Stop' ability and relayed a message to me. She said 'Find it… sooner.' The meanings behind those words are 'Find her 'Gem' sooner.' But how could she know that my main consciousness won't be affected by this 'Time-Stop' ability?-"

"Your main consciousness won't be affected by the 'Time-Stop' ability?" Oswald stared at him in shock.

Meanwhile, Charles clicked his tongue as he realized a slip of the tongue and sighed.

"It's due to the secret artifact. Anyway, this Goddess seems to have aware of the 'artifact' hidden in my Inner World. Then, my other question is, why does she want me to find 'Ivy' sooner? Don't you find something odd about this? From my understanding, Ivy also seems to be aware of my secret artifact, sub-class skills, and so on. She even helped me in many ways."

"For example, she gave me the soul orb to improve my current disguise as Vivian, and also replaced the red gem with a bluish-green one when Eric tried to infiltrate into my Inner World… I think Goddess Rodia deliberately sent 'Ivy' to Edhen and seemed to be plotting something while also helping me in the sides."

"Wow… So, what's their aim?" Oswald was indeed stunned by his hypothesis and asked.

"The first possibility is the hiding 'Divine.' Ivy also told me to find out the origin of this 'Divine.' Do they want to stop the Divine's scheme? Only they know the answer. The second possibility is the legacy. What if this 'Divine' is the 'Rodia' herself? She might be trying to fool all other Gods…"

"No, that still doesn't explain why she has a connection with Red Prince and Amber Church… But, we can't rule out this possibility. The third possibility is 'me.' Is she trying to help me save this kingdom as the mission says? For what purpose? Is she a righteous Goddess?" Charles shook his head as he thought of their goal.

"There are too many possibilities," Oswald said with a gloomy look on his face.

A silence appeared in the hall.

"You also feel the frustration, right? I feel like we are being toyed with by these higher beings. They just tossed some clues and make us find out the real truth. Although I'm controlling my own fate now, I still feel helpless." Charles clenched his fist for a moment and finally heaved a heavy sigh.

At that moment, the whole underground hall turned gloomier.

Anger appeared on Charles's face, causing two eerie black wings to materialize for a split second before disappearing.

"I want to do something unpredictable and make everyone realize I'm not to be messed with." A bone-chilling aura appeared around him.

Meanwhile, Oswald got stunned by his words and soon frowned.

"Unpredictable?"

An uneasy feeling appeared in his heart.

"Yes," Charles nodded his head but didn't explain anything in detail in fear of alerting the Divine.

"You are not even powerful enough to hunt a peak level Rank-4 existence on your own, lad. I hope you won't do something reckless." Oswald wore a confused look on his face.

"Yes, I'm not strong enough. But we are." Charles paused for a moment and soon furrowed his brows.

"Is Destiny Lady awake?" He asked.

"Yes, she woke up two days ago and is still staying in the mansion. She also asked me about your whereabouts, but I told her that it would take one or two weeks for you to return." Oswald didn't find anything odd about his question and responded solemnly.

Upon hearing those words, a smile appeared on Charles's face.

'I have 5 days to complete Louise's new mission. Hmm, thanks to my [Flame Teleportation] spell, I saved more than 12 hrs of flying journey… I have to act quicker.' He muttered inwardly.

"Mr. Runeth, I'm going to construct the next spell model. Meanwhile, you go and tell Destiny Lady to take care of the kids for the next two weeks." He said.

"But your soul power isn't strong enough to construct the next spell model." Oswald pointed it out.

On the other hand, Charles smiled mysteriously and waved his hand.

Without waiting for Oswald to ask more questions, he sat on the concrete floor in a cross-legged position and entered his Inner World.

A moment later, he found himself standing in front of a lava pool and looked around.

Then, he flew up towards the dark sky and soon appeared in front of the seven spell models.

After that, he opened the game interface, poured all eleven free attribute points into wisdom power, and raised it to 70!

Although he planned to use these free attribute points to increase his body strength, his current situation forced him to use them now.

Once again, his Inner World trembled for a moment and started to expand a little.

At that moment, he also perceived two clear forewarnings about his future.

'I may be safer till Rhea's coronation ceremony. But I will face two threats shortly. The first one is not much of a problem… That should be my battle against the 'Divine.' But the second one is unavoidable. I will definitely die. Unlike the previous warning, this one seems clear… Exactly 3 years from now on, my soul will start to wither. My death will be inevitable if I didn't Rank up further.' His expression turned grim.

'It seems I made the right choice to increase my wisdom power.' He nodded his illusionary head and soon focused his attention on the [Knowledge Absorber] spell model.

…

[Mind Burst (189,000 Exp), Burning Consciousness (210,400 Exp), Purple Web (200,490 Exp), Knowledge Burner (184,500 Exp), Thought Disrupter (192,000 Exp), Purple Eye (199,999 Exp), etc…,]

…

Charles checked the spells one by one and soon zeroed his focus on the [Burning Consciousness].

'Burning Consciousness?' He furrowed his brows and then read the description.

'Hmm? This spell model won't burn the opponent's consciousness… Instead, it creates a replica of the user's consciousness using purple fire, sent it to the opponent's Inner World, and lets this consciousness fight against the opponent's consciousnesses…'

'This 'Burning Consciousness' can also use fire seed, knowledge absorber, and burning thoughts spells constantly and erase opponent's memories… But there is a long cool-down of 1 week for this spell to replicate the user's original consciousness. There is another name for this spell: Nemesis of the Mind…'

Charles didn't hesitate for a moment as he focused his gaze on the spell name and spent 210,400 Exp points.