Mage Manual

Chapter 1659 - 1220: Fortunately, Silver Lamp Helped Me Remember

Although Sonia displayed remarkable prowess in the battle against the Angel of Law, with ’Sword Opening Heaven’ and ’One Sword Making Angel Kneel’, embodying the spirit of ’Invincible on Earth’, she fell unconscious again after chatting with Ash for a while.

To prevent the Sword Maiden’s mother from worrying, Ash had no choice but to carry her back to the Sevi household to say goodbye to Martha. Honestly, the atmosphere was so awkward that Ash wished he could dig a hole three meters deep to hide in — Martha knew that Ash was the scoundrel who hurt her daughter, Ash knew she knew, yet Ash was here to tell her, "Your daughter was recovering well, but after seeking me out, she fell unconscious again, and now I have to take her away." Just piecing together the clues felt like witnessing a college girl nearly escape a pit of fire, only to be caught by the Cult Leader once more.

However, Martha didn’t make it difficult for him. She just asked him to wait a moment while she prepared some snacks Sonia liked. When Ash swore he would protect Sonia, Martha merely smiled helplessly and said that as long as Sonia was happy, it was fine.

It was then that Ash noticed the faint smile on Sonia’s sleeping face as she rested in his arms.

But until they returned to the Gospel, the Sword Maiden did not awaken.

Not only her, but even the Witch, who theoretically had completed the Six-winged Trial, remained in a coma. Ash faintly guessed that Vishi might be the reason — the Drama Poet had mentioned that the trials of the three were interconnected, meaning the trial was valid only if all three completed it.

It was as if they had a shared project performance goal; now that the Sword Witch had completed their parts, they couldn’t leave the project as long as Vishi hadn’t completed her part, and the Sword Witch had to shoulder Vishi’s performance pressure.

If Ash’s guess was right, the difficulty of Vishi’s trial should be reduced due to the Sword Witch sharing it. Honestly, he was somewhat displeased by this; if Vishi had let him participate in the trial instead of insisting on completing it alone, the Sword Witch wouldn’t have to suffer much; but on the other hand, he understood Vishi’s persistence. Even someone as cunning and unscrupulous as her must have some seemingly foolish pursuits because only such foolishness can sustain a dream for thousands of years unwaveringly.

In fact, Ash had suspected whether he himself might be part of Vishi’s Six-winged Trial, such as facing his innermost self and being forthright with his feelings...but such matters weren’t easy for the Sword Witch, let alone Vishi.

Perhaps Vishi would never open up to him for her whole life, unrelated to emotions; it’s just that everyone prefers different levels of intimacy. The Witch likes a clingy zero distance, Silver Lamp prefers near proximity in the same room, the Sword Maiden enjoys separately busy days with togetherness at night, whereas Vishi...if Ash allowed her freedom, she’d absolutely prefer to stay far away and only occasionally return to negotiate trades rather than join them in action.

The trio of Sword Maiden stayed at the Imperial Palace under Dedarose’s care, while Ash and Weiser toured around the Gospel, Vatican Mura, Memphis, Nabistin Underground City... They walked against time, scouring for traces left by Igula and Harvey at the Gospel.

Weiser faintly seemed to guess something, seizing various opportunities to reminisce about her past with Ash, while Ash echoed her attempt to recall. He only lost the memories concerning Weiser, but retained others; for instance, he remembered visiting the Transcend Building, undergoing the Divine Fire Trial, and venturing to a Dead City where time nearly stood still.

He merely forgot that he fell for Silver Lamp at first sight in the Transcend Building;

Passionately pursued Silver Lamp during the Divine Fire Trial;

In the Dead City, he confessed proactively and spent some deeply intertwined moments with Silver Lamp...

He hadn’t realized so many crucial memories were lost, luckily Silver Lamp helped him recall.

Yet Ash found it odd, he remembered being quite upright during those times; considering his struggle to choose between the Sword Witch, how could he still have entangled with Silver Lamp in reality? Could it be that his integrity was merely a hallucination caused by his memory loss, and he was already an irredeemable mess at that point?

Once Ash finished scavenging traces within the Gospel, Vishi finally completed her trial, and the three awoke simultaneously. When they regrouped, before the Sword Witch could inquire into the travel escapades of Ash and Weiser, Ash pulled a stunning move — he had Vishi lie over his lap and spanked the Elf maid’s butt several times, resounding with flesh echo.

Vishi didn’t say much, expecting that Ash wouldn’t forgive her after knowing the Sword Witch was delayed unconscious by her. Ash then joined Vishi in apologizing, as it was his permission for Vishi to complete the trial herself, he must naturally bear the resultant consequences together.

Actually, Sonia and Diya hardly had complaints, although they harbored numerous prejudices against Vishi (correct prejudices), having accepted Vishi as a companion after experiencing the Star Bridge Divine War and Senluo Divine War, sharing a bit of curse wasn’t a big deal. Instead, after Ash’s maneuver, they felt slightly dissatisfied — apologize if you must, but why reward her?

Nonetheless, when Ash mentioned entering Level Six of Hell again, the team immediately entered the tense preparation phase. Then, something incredibly awkward happened: the team’s most precious war assets, three World Secret Domains, couldn’t be transferred to Ash.

It wasn’t impossible, just at an immense cost.

Following the Six-winged Trial completion, Sonia’s Magic Temple began merging with the World Secret Domains; put simply, they were devouring the domains to grow the Magic Temple itself.

Given that World Secret Domains naturally recover slowly, essentially the Magic Temple could theoretically grow infinitely. But realistically, such benefits aren’t feasible as the recovery rate of World Secret Domains is much slower than the devouring rate. Before they are ’consumed’, Sonia must refrain from devouring to prevent the domains’ absolute eradication, later spending hundreds of years nurturing them back.

Yet even a single devour could expand Sonia’s spiritual territory by thousands of palaces.

It was then that everyone understood how the Divine Lord could exalt the ’Heavenly Kingdom’ — merely completing the Six-winged Trial allows any demigod’s Magic Temple to expand into a kingdom size!

Plundering the cosmos for oneself, pilfering the world to form one’s realm, this exemplifies the path of Divine Lord’s growth. No wonder the Void Realm is so antagonistic towards the Divine Lord; if demigods only sneaked goods from the Void Realm’s house, the Divine Lord practically steals bricks and tiles to build his estate.

For this reason, Sonia couldn’t transfer the World Secret Domains to Ash either: not every domain is devourable, only those bound by the Six-winged Trial can merge with their Magic Temple.

Once Sonia transfers the Ancient Battlefield/Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon/Sky Garden to Ash, the bond breaks; even if later reverted, they can’t devour the domains.

Even if they reach Heaven afterward, they’d be the smallest, weakest Divine Lord in the Heavenly Kingdom.