"Well, this is getting a bit too convenient..."
Mohg narrowed his eyes, peering down at the rafters atop the Church of the Cuckoo, his mind filling with suspicion.
Along the way, he hadn't encountered a single meaningful obstacle. Neither the magical wards nor the marionette puppets patrolling the rooftops had detected a trace of him. In fact, on the path leading here, he had even noticed glaring gaps and obvious vulnerabilities in the puppets' defensive rotations.
It was almost as if... as if someone had dug a pit specifically for someone to fall into.
Becoming alert, Mohg peered downward with a sense of trepidation.
Sure enough, the walkways on either side were much more heavily manned than they would be in the era following the Shattering. Not only were there four sorcerers from the Lazuli Conspectus, but a sorcerer from the Haima Conspectus sat right in the center, seemingly engrossed in a magical tome.
However, Mohg didn't actually need to confront them head-on. He could fly.
He just needed to be careful about the noise he made. He also wondered if there were any additional guards stationed further down the corridor leading to the classroom.
Shifting his gaze away from the mages below, Mohg allowed a pair of black wings to slowly emerge from his back. Unlike his usual aggressive transformations, he was extremely cautious this time, letting the wings unfurl inch by inch and strictly limiting their size.
After scanning his surroundings, he spotted the unique, spire-like structure. Mohg knew that was the location where Azur's Glintstone Staff and a massive Graven-Mass were kept.
In a sense, that area was perfectly suited for magical research and the refinement of mana. The Graven-Mass was often referred to as a "Seed of the Stars," and the room was filled with glintstones and a dense aura of magic, even simulating a map of the starry firmament.
In the terms of a cultivation novel, that place was practically a sacred land for training.
Unfortunately, these remnants of the Primeval Current were no longer tolerated by the current Academy. Not everyone was willing, like those of the Primeval faction, to abandon everything in pursuit of the source and mysteries of glintstone sorcery—even at the cost of discarding their physical bodies and worldly desires to become a stationary "sorcerer ball," their souls trapped forever within.
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, was a prime example. She sought the power of magic and studied the Primeval Current, but she would never choose to abandon her flesh. Mohg surmised this was related to the nature of the Moon magic she pursued; there was, after all, a fundamental difference between the sorcery of the Stars and that of the Moon.
After a period of painstaking, low-altitude flight, Mohg reached the top of the spire. He found an angle to observe the figures in the corridor.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that only a single Page was standing guard. He didn't want to have to retreat empty-handed and humiliated.
Once he had confirmed the positions of the others, Mohg didn't hesitate. The wings on his back surged with speed as he reached out toward the attendant standing by the door.
In an instant, blood erupted from his palm, forming a slender rope that tightly bound the attendant's mouth and body.
Glintstone Pebble!
Thud!
In a flash, the head of the attendant, who wore a tattered burlap hood, burst like a ripened melon, spraying red and white matter everywhere. Mohg calmly reached out, and the splattering blood obeyed his command, condensing into a single sphere of gore. Thanks to this, the scent of blood didn't waft outward.
The Haima sorcerer inside seemed to hear a faint noise. He stood up and scanned the area, but after seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he sat back down with a hint of confusion.
After laying the attendant's corpse aside, Mohg gripped the railing.
Suddenly, the blood in his body began to churn and surge. As his spiritual power spread through his frame, Mohg's entire being dissolved into a pool of blood. A second later, he passed through the gaps in the railing and coalesced back into human form inside the long gallery.
"Ugh... that felt incredibly strange..."
Mohg shuddered, a wave of revulsion washing over him as he recalled the sensation. Turning his entire body into blood felt like being stripped naked and exposed to the raw air; the feeling of the wind blowing against liquid blood was entirely different from how it felt on skin.
Shaking his head to clear the sensation, Mohg walked to the large doors. After checking for magical wards and finding none, he pushed the doors open.
Whoosh—!
The mana inside had been compressed so tightly it had turned into a literal mist. The moment the doors opened, the energy reacted like a water barrel with the plug pulled out. Countless waves of mana came roaring out of the room. Mohg had no way to stop it.
However, his mind and body didn't miss a beat.
He knew that under these circumstances, concealment was no longer possible. He had to take Azur's Glintstone Staff and leave immediately. Only then could he hope to maintain his secret identity.
He finally understood why the defense wasn't that strong. It wasn't because they thought no one would come. It was because the moment someone pushed these doors, the mana inside could no longer be contained. The resulting eruption would alert even the dullest mage. It was the perfect automatic alarm system.
Clearly, someone had intentionally set up a magical array to lock the mana inside.
Mohg could only sigh—the hearts of those who played with magic were truly devious.
Outside, the Lazuli sorcerers and the Haima mage immediately realized something was wrong. The Haima sorcerer led the charge, gripping his heavy, "bludgeon-like" glintstone staff.
But when they reached the room, they found nothing but the corpse of the Page. The most important treasure, Azur's Glintstone Staff, had vanished without a trace.
Their faces turned grim. This was a catastrophic failure of duty.
"Quick! Spread the word! Put the Academy on total lockdown!! No one enters or leaves! The only people who could know about this place are insiders... or remnants of the Primeval Current!!!"
"Understood!!"
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Elden Ring: As the Consort, I Reject Miquella (369 Chapters – Ongoing)
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