Only a few hundred meters away from the place where everyone was attacked, Gawain found the cabin that had been reduced to ruins.
It fell among the trees, and judging from the scorched marks that it was destroyed by a fire from the inside out, but the fire did not spread to farther places—perhaps it was a rain that saved the forest in time. Knight Byron checked the remaining traces around the wooden house and judged that the fire should have happened more than half a month ago.
Hetty detected the already very thin magic power reaction at the scene.
"What we saw in the Shadow Realm should be a reflection," Gawain said as he looked at the ruined wooden house in the clearing, "This wild mage has lived in seclusion in this place for many years. This place is outside the territory, and even Orion will not come here, so no one knows that there was a hermit living here."
"The question is...how did the accident happen?" Hetty frowned, "There is only one weak magic focus here, and the strength of the wild mage living here is also very low, even if one of his magic experiments got out of control and burned down It is impossible for this house to create a long-term projection in the shadow world, and it also generates such a powerful mist of wraiths... All the magic power required for this cannot be provided by a mere wild mage."
"Perhaps this notebook can answer your doubts." Gawain said, handing a dilapidated notebook to Hetty.
That was the note I got from Betty in the Shadow Realm. It was not only the diary of the unknown wild mage, but also a research note.
Heidi opened the second half of the notes according to Gawain's instructions, and read carefully.
"...Ansu 729, Fire Moon, XX day. It has been half a year since I moved to this place, and I found a magic power focus on the edge of the Cecil family's territory, although the intensity is not at all comparable to the public magic power focus of the City of Thousand Towers Than, but it is enough to support my laboratory. The elemental power here is single and stable, and Annie's condition should be relieved.
"Ansu 729, Harvest Moon, XX day. Annie's condition seems to have improved, and she hasn't had a seizure for a long time—but I don't know if it's the environment here that has an effect, or my rituals and potions. Effective. The magic focus here is too weak. Even with the help of the augmentation circle, the effect of my ritual will be greatly reduced. Maybe I should reconsider the formulas I have deduced before... Although those people in the secret society always mock me calculations, but anyway, I have already left the secret society, they can't control here...
"Ansu 730, Brumaire, XX day. Those formulas and derivations are completely in line with expectations! No, it should be said that the development of the facts is as I calculated—under the new way of increasing, the power of the magic focus is greatly enhanced Already! With the help of extra magic power, I can finally start the next stage of treatment for Annie. Although she has hardly relapsed in the past few months, the treatment must continue, because she can no longer stand any more troubles...
"Anzu 731, cold moon, XX day. After the treatment, Anne was able to get up and walk around, and even made a meal! There were fried sausages and vegetable soup. I feel like I haven't had such a meal in a hundred years. Delicious food—although the sausage is mushy, and I forgot to put salt in the vegetable soup... As it turns out, my treatment plan is effective, and as long as the magic focus here can continue to supply magic power steadily, Annie's recovery will be just around the corner... "
After that, the content of the diary was more about the daily life of the writer and her daughter. Hetty quickly skipped this part of the content until a messy record appeared on the last few pages:
"Ansu 734, Frost Moon, XX day. Annie is ill. Damn it!!
"I don't know what's wrong, all the treatments are going according to plan, every step of the ritual is perfect, and the potions are—have been used for several years, never had a problem! But Annie still has the disease, and it's very sick Terrible... Worse than every time before. I must find out the cause as soon as possible. I need to write down all the details, all... I need to find out the reason. Anne will be fine...
"Ansu 734, Frost Moon, XX day. Annie still hasn't improved, the new potion has no effect, she is still getting weaker, and... is gradually moving away from this world. I saw her hands this morning like The mist has become transparent like that, and there are many blisters on her face. The world is rejecting her, pushing her to the shadow world, what should I do...
"Ansu 734, Brumaire, XX day. That damned sun, its dark red pattern seems to be mocking my weakness! I finally found the problem, but I can't solve it at all... Elements are enriching, It is abnormally enriched, and the magic power is surging. This weak magic power focus can't hold the excess magic power at all. Even if I withdraw those boosting circles, it won't help. At this time, it is wise to keep Anne away from the place where the elements are enriched. But she's been in this place for too long, and her body resonates with the elemental environment here, and this resonance has continued her life... but it will kill her again!
"Ansu 734, Brumaire, XX day. The magic power in the whole area is not right, it is churning violently, and the border of Cecil Territory seems to have fallen into the legendary sea of magic power. I can no longer reverse the changes in Anne , half of her body has left the material world now, and in the morning she even said that she saw the whole room turned into black and white. Maybe... I can only find another way...
"Ansu 735, Fire Moon. The long preparations are finally over, and Anne's weakness has reached its limit.
"This is my only chance, there is no other option.
"Since I can't let Annie survive in the material world, I might as well choose another path.
"The shadow transformation ceremony is recorded in the book, but the magic power required is too huge to imagine, but for me, it may not be impossible. I used the new amplification formula and the magic circle drawing method, and will use the The power of the surging magic power. The magic power in this area is in an abnormally active state. The energy accumulated in the magic power focus has been suppressed by me for several months, and it is finally enough today. Next, just wait until the sun rises to the center, the magic power When I am at my strongest, I can begin to transform.
"Annie, hold on, Dad will save you, and Dad will accompany you to the Shadow Realm, we will live there for a long time, and you will never be hurt again."
The diary ends here.
Hetty was about to close the diary when Gao Wen suddenly pointed to the corner of the last page: "There are actually a few more words here."
Hetty quickly looked intently—there was a group of black ink stains in the corner. At first, she thought it was the dirt caused by knocking over the ink bottle, but after careful identification, she realized that it was actually written with ink on her fingers. The scribbles below:
"The magic is out of control... the sun is red..."
Hetty repeated the words inexplicably: "The sun is red...how could the sun be red?"
"Could it be the last time when the red spots erupted?" Rebecca said as if she suddenly remembered something, "it was more than half a month ago, and there were many more red spots on the surface of the sun than usual. If this wild The mage's mind was not very clear at the time, maybe he would think that the sun is red... "
Hetty blinked, as if she accepted Rebecca's statement, and then she shook the note in her hand: "With this note, it can explain a lot of things clearly. It seems that this unknown mage wanted to give himself To cure his daughter, he set up a large-scale magic array here, and later came up with the crazy idea of transforming himself and his daughter into shadow forms to prolong life, but his transformation ceremony was out of control due to the surge of magic power, and as a result It led to the fire half a month ago, and also led to the formation of the mist of wraiths, and what the ancestors saw in the shadow world... "
"These are not the main points," Gawain suddenly interrupted Hetty, "whether it is the fog of wraiths or the wooden houses in the shadow world, you can find direct explanations in the notes. What I want you to read is the notes mentioned in the notes. The two details we got - one is about the dark red pattern on the surface of the sun, and the other is about the large-scale red spot eruption on the surface of the sun."
Hetty noticed the serious look on Gawain's face, and then became a little nervous: "Ancestor, these two things..."
Gao Wen waved his hand: "In addition, the magic power surge that the wild mage mentioned in his diary, as mages, you two should have felt it too, right?"
Hetty and Rebecca looked at each other, and nodded at the same time: "Recently, there have been a few magic surges in Cecil's territory, but it's normal for magic to surge - all magic in the world comes from the sun, And the sun is changing every moment, and the magic power on the ground will naturally fluctuate. Although the magic power surges in the territory have been frequent recently, they are not to the point of concern."
Gawain looked at the two of them, and said slowly: "In 1736 in the Gondor calendar, large-scale dark red patterns were observed on the surface of the sun from various places in the empire. In 1738, the largest red spot eruption in history was observed. Nearly half of the surface area was covered by red patches. In the same year, twenty-six provinces within the empire reported a large-scale surge of magic power—the scale of the surge was not large, but it covered nearly two-thirds of the country. .In 1739, the bloody day was in the sky, and the whole country was shrouded in a dark red sky, but there was no disaster at that time. Instead, a large number of babies with excellent magical talents were born. According to records, nearly one-third of the newborns born on that day They all have natural affinity for the elements, and the supply of resonance stones in various newborn testing institutions even exceeded the demand, so court scholars declared that day to be called "Magic Dawn". But also in the same year, the largest The magic power supply facility "Deep Blue Well" had a big explosion. The reason for the explosion was that the magic focus of the Deep Blue Well was suddenly filled with chaotic and powerful magic power. The extraction circle could not handle these chaotic forces, which eventually caused the furnace core to melt... "
Gawain stopped, but Hetty continued with a pale face: "... In 1740 in Gondor, the tide of magic broke out, and the most powerful human empire in history was destroyed within a few months..."