Chapter 487: 447 Code and Organization
If Maya only awakened when someone approached the city and slept the rest of the time, then she naturally wouldn’t know about the ancient magic civilization.
Because she didn’t know that the world outside had already passed ten thousand one hundred years.
Because she didn’t know that her own era had passed.
To her, she might have only slept for a night, waking only a sparse few times in-between, once when those deceivers came here and now.
She had no idea what time it was now, neither did she know how many years she passed in her slumber, nor even when she was deceived, knowing only that her mission was to guard this city.
These thoughts instantly came to Reiger.
Of course, this was just Reiger’s guess, whether it was true or not, perhaps it still needed verification.
"What about the Magic Guided Doll?" Reiger tentatively asked Maya this question, "Is the technology to create Magic Guided Dolls stored in the stolen temple?"
"...I do not know about this," Maya shook her head, saying, "From what you’ve just said, those so-called Magic Guided Dolls are made with living people as materials, right? Such an evil magic technology could definitely not appear in the temple!"
"However, when the city was still inhabited in the past, divine servants like me serving the gods had more than once crusaded against evil magicians who abused magic and researched magic technologies that violated human ethics."
"And when the divine servants successfully defeated those evil magicians, they would often send the spoils acquired into the temple’s Sealed Room."
In other words, the technology to create Magic Guided Dolls could very possibly be one of the spoils sent by the divine servants to the temple’s Sealed Room during that time, and those who deceived Maya might have broken into that Sealed Room and taken out this forbidden magic technology.
"So, the technology to make those artifacts with eerie and cold energy, was it also obtained from the Sealed Room in the temple?"
Very likely.
Whether it was the technology to create Magic Guided Dolls or the technology to make those odd artifacts, one could tell at a glance that these two technologies weren’t the sort of things that would see the light of day.
That such taboo-laden technology would be sealed by divine servants who worshipped gods was quite a normal occurrence.
As the Guardian of the city, Maya might have an intricate understanding of the city, but a Sealed Room that contained evil Forbidden Techniques, she, as a follower of the gods, would definitely be averse to it.
Thus, it was very normal for Maya not to know what specific evil things were sealed in the Sealed Room.
Considering this, Reiger felt he had unraveled much of the mystery behind the group orchestrating events from behind the scenes.
Now, the only thing he was still uncertain about was the identities of those people.
This question was pointless to ask of Maya.
After all, Maya had been here for so long, she didn’t even know that a dynastic change had occurred outside, how could she possibly know the identities of those people?
"Can you tell me what they looked like?"
Reiger could only ask such a question.
"Their appearance?"
This time, Maya faced a difficulty.
How should this be put?
After struggling for a while, Maya simply said this.
"I only know they were five men and two women."
"Among the men, two were elderly in their fifties or sixties, two were middle-aged in their thirties or forties, and one was a young man in his twenties."
"Among the women, one was a beautiful matron in her thirties and the other was a pretty girl around the age of twenty."
"Their names were also strange, not seeming real names but more like code names."
Upon hearing this, Reiger couldn’t help but perk up.
With his further questioning, Maya told him the names of the seven individuals that she knew.
"The one who talked with me most was the beautiful matron in her thirties, she called herself ’Fire Lady’."
"That pretty girl around the age of twenty didn’t talk much, had an icy demeanor, and kept following ’Fire Lady’, calling herself ’Ice Lady’."
"The two elderly men were very curious about the city, especially one of them who eyed the city with crazed enthusiasm, being referred to by that group as ’Giant Soldier’, the other one called ’Sky Hunter’."
"As for the two middle-aged men, they sometimes vanished suddenly but most of the time they would follow the two elders, the names, I remember, one was called ’Tyrant’ and the other ’Ba Serpent’."
"The last, that young man in his twenties, he was always smiling, seeming frivolous, and his behavior was also quite flippant, referred to by those people as ’Trillion’."
Maya also told Reiger that among these seven people, the one called ’Sky Hunter’ seemed to be the leader.
This could be subtly discerned because everyone was basically revolving around him, and their attitude towards him was the most respectful.
Reiger silently took note of these individuals’ information and aliases.
"’Sky Hunter’, ’Giant Soldier’, ’Tyrant’, ’Ba Serpent’, ’Trillion’, ’Fire Lady’, and ’Ice Lady’..."
Were these seven people the ones behind all these incidents?
Cold light flickered in Reiger’s eyes.
Regardless, the die has been cast, and given the chance, Reiger would not let those people off the hook.
"Right."
At this moment, it seemed as if Maya suddenly remembered something, and she clapped her hands sharply.
"I recall they also mentioned a name quite frequently, something like ’Heretic Assassins,’ wasn’t it?"
This statement made Reiger freeze on the spot.
"Heretic Assassins?"
Wasn’t that the assassination organization Yuri had told him about—the one that specialized in killing those who could potentially become Tactical Level Magicians or Strategic Level Magicians?
For a while, Reiger and Yuri had even thought that organization was responsible for the severe injuries of the original owner of the body, which led to Reiger sustaining near-fatal wounds and recuperating in the Franzel household for a month. Later, they found out it had nothing to do with them, and the real culprit was the mad dog Prince from the Ginas Kingdom, the current Third Prince.
Because of this, Reiger had not thought about this organization for a long time, nearly forgetting its existence completely.
And now, the organization had cropped up again?
"Are you sure those people frequently mentioned the name ’Heretic Assassins’?"
Reiger asked with a frown.
"Positive," Maya said without hesitation. "Especially that woman ’Fire Princess’; sometimes, while talking to me, she would blurt out that name."
Reiger immediately closed his eyes.
It looked like he had to start paying attention to this assassination organization he had once forgotten.
"Alright, I’ve told you everything I know," said Maya, moving on from the topic and staring at Reiger. "What do you plan to do now? Are you going to continue targeting this city?"
Obviously, Maya’s slight cooperation in divulging some information to Reiger might involve a desire to probe his intentions, possibly to dissuade him from any covetous thoughts towards the city.
Reiger too suppressed the various thoughts in his heart and spread his hands in front of Maya.
"Even if I don’t target this city, the people who came with me will," Reiger said. "They are already trying to break the temple’s barrier, and I don’t think they will give up easily."
At the very least, it was clear that Revin and the people from the Meipros family would definitely not give up.
However, Maya did not seem to see Revin and the others as a threat.
"They think that they can break the temple’s barrier?" Maya said disdainfully. "That’s just wishful thinking!"
"Oh?" Reiger raised an eyebrow and said casually, "You’re so confident in your temple’s barrier magic?"
"Do you know what that barrier is?" Maya boasted with pride. "It’s a multi-layered compound barrier constructed by the Archbishop along with three High Priests. It not only completely suppresses the actions of magic, unaffected by any interference or influence from magic, but it also has the physical resilience to withstand a direct meteor strike without a scratch and the ability to repair itself automatically. It’s the highest-grade barrier magic on the continent."
"There is only one magic in the whole world that can surpass this barrier."
"And as far as I know, there is only one person, or rather, one being, capable of breaking this barrier."
Maya spoke leisurely and contently, showing no concern whatsoever about the possibility of the barrier being breached.
"When this city was still on the ground, the temple’s barrier was only breached once."
"Besides that time, the temple’s barrier has never been broken."
"And there’s no way you can break this barrier like on that occasion."
"I can guarantee that."
Reiger did not refute Maya’s words.
At least, so far, the temple’s barrier had indeed not been breached.
Reiger then turned his gaze towards the towering temple in the city center.
The fluctuations of magic power around that temple had never changed, only a faint rumbling could be heard, seemingly Revin persistently attacking the temple’s barrier, yet having no success up to now.
Maya thus said.
"It’s still not too late, leave this city now," Maya said bluntly to Reiger. "Otherwise, once I activate the great magic hidden beneath this city, even if you want to escape, you won’t be able to."
On hearing this, Reiger again turned his gaze towards the watchtower where the conflict between the two had initially arisen.
At the top of that watchtower, there indeed was an Array.
Initially, Maya was prepared to activate that Array to deal with the outsiders invading the city.
That Array must be the switch to activate the great magic hidden beneath this city that Maya was referring to, right?
"Scared now?" Maya suddenly said in a coaxing manner. "If you’re scared, take the chance now, and hurry——"
Before she could finish her sentence, Maya’s expression changed drastically.
"No! Impossible!"
Suddenly, without any warning, Maya shouted out.