Abel haphazardly packed all the ancient scriptures before exiting the s.p.a.ce. Following which he reunited with a worried Reina and the duo immediately departed for Northanc.
They had been on holiday, so they were very leisurely in the initial portion of their travels, but due to unforeseen circ.u.mstances, they were no longer ent.i.tled to such leisure.
Just like that, Abel arrived in Sellion and was having a serious conversation with Kyle on the 89th floor of the tower.
"So you're saying that the black mages have become active in the Kreuz Empire, and their ultimate objective is the advent of the 2nd apocalypse?"
The black mage hating archmage, Kyle, was unable to hide his shock at Abel's news.
"Yes! And the reason for the ancient 'Apocalypse' seems to stem from black magic as well. A gateway to the demon realm was opened, and that was probably the black mages' doing."
"Huh… I've been overly focused on the Hela Empire……."
2 years ago, he had tried to look into the stolen goods merchant known as Kurt, but the suspect had already died. After that, he had used all of his connections to sniff out any residuals of black magic within the Empire…
But nothing was found, as though the group of perpetrators had vaporized into thin air.
To think they would be found in the Kreuz Empire instead . They did say the darkest spots lie beneath the lamp, but wasn't he seemingly too focused on looking under the lamp?
"I need to relay this to the Kreuz Empire's Magic a.s.sociation! The fact that the black mages have shown themselves means that they've come prepared…. I wonder if the Kreuz Empire is already past the point of no return…."
If war erupted again, the damage to the Hela Empire wouldn't be anything to scoff at.
"What should I do then?"
"There's still a year until your graduation, so you just focus on that. We don't know when the black mages will appear again, so learn those ancient magic spells quickly as well. If anything happens to the Imperial Capital, then you can come back to Northanc immediately."
Although Abel's magic prowess was unmatched amongst his peers, the black mages would stop at nothing. He still needed ample time to consolidate his powers.
'I'll talk to the royals and have them swap out the intelligence agents in the Kreuz Empire completely.'
They couldn't be more incompetent. Abel had only taken a few days to find out what they couldn't for an entire 2 years.
After the serious talk with Kyle, Abel had returned to his own room.
'My head feels more refreshed than ever!'
An unknown sense of refreshedness pervaded his mind. This had been the case ever since Thrandriel's white mana upgraded his brain. He felt as if his mind had been cleared out. And then, he came to a realization…
…about how dang stupid he had been all this while!
'I was a frog in a well! d.a.m.n birdbrain.'
The s.p.a.ce-time magic he had developed until now felt insignificant. At the same time, all the knowledge in his brain felt like they were renewed. Especially the prior knowledge pertaining to his college major, mathematics!
Algebra, a.n.a.lytics, geometry, discrete mathematics, probability, statistics, and even topology!
All the knowledge that he had less than half of an understanding of, he could now comprehend in their entirety.
'With this!'
He felt that he could solve the 7 Millennium Problems of Mathematics.
However…
"Haa… I stole it unintentionally.'
Abel took out a crumpled piece of sheepskin scroll, and a key fragment from his pouch.
Due to the sudden earthquake, he had completely forgotten to hand it over to Hollander.
'Let's see. I can read it now, so….'
Ever since the residual body was absorbed into his brain, he gained the ability to read ancient texts. He was very surprised to find out when he smoothly deciphered the ancient scriptures.
Abel unfurled the sheepskin scroll in his hand.
However, our only worry is that the holy artifact, and the only celestial artifact remaining in existence, 'Sorole', will fall in the hands of evil. As such, we have decided to seal it with holy magic and split the key in two – one kept by the Zesus Church, and one by the Gaia Church.
If you came into possession of this key, then you must have unlocked the vault. It shall also mean that you must require Sorole to fight the dark forces!
However, even if you find both halves of the key, only the chosen one can open the final seal. I hope the dark forces will not taint Srole, O savior of the future…….>
'It was a vault?'
He didn't unlock the vault at all! It was a complete coincidence that he found the key. Perhaps the vault was sealed away or something.
From the tone of the words recorded in the scripture, it sounded incredibly important… after all, a 'chosen one' would supposedly be the one to use it.
'I should take it back to the Gaia Church.'
The Zesus Church was not something he had heard of before, so it seemed like they faded out of existence after the apocalypse.
And this 'Sorole'.
It seemed to be some celestial artifact that he had never heard of before..
Even if he did return it later, he decided to look for it first out of a sense of curiosity.
There were books about artifacts in the 100 ancient tomes he received, so maybe he would be able to glean some information on it.
Abel then rummaged through the magic pouch for a book about artifacts. As he had simply dumped all the books inside, it was a little difficult to look through all of them.
"Found it!"
Abel shouted while taking out a thick book.
<summary>It seemed like an abridged, all in one version. Left behind for the easy perusal of the successor.</summary>
<summary>Swipe-</summary>
<summary>Abel turned over the pages and started looking for an entry about 'Sorole'.</summary>
<summary>'Let's see…..'</summary>
<summary>He flipped through page by page. Eventually, his hands stopped flipping… and his eyes popped out as though he had seen a ghost.</summary>