Potato chips spilled with a rustle onto the floor.
Iphatia did not have the slightest luxury to worry about her snack.
She must have gotten up too fast.
Otherwise, why would she run right into General Yabo, whom she hadn't seen in a century, knocking at her door?
"Yabo? And Big Sis, Brother-in-law, why are you two here as well...?"
Iphatia focused her gaze and realized that across the spatial arc, standing in the quarters of the mansion, were Talia and Lanqi, whom she had parted ways with only hours ago.
As well as... Abigail, the Imperial Royal Magic Crafter?
On the other side.
"She called you brother-in-law?"
Toliado sucked in a sharp breath and nudged Lanqi with his elbow.
"I told her not to call me that, but I couldn't convince her."
Lanqi could do nothing with Iphatia; her logic was completely rogue.
In that regard, she was not one bit inferior to her sister.
"After Barton introduced us to the Brillda Opera House to look for Director Abigail, we ran into Cardinal of Dimensions Toliado. And then Tata discovered that he was General Yabo," Lanqi explained to Iphatia.
Iphatia's brain stalled for a brief moment.
"Yabo, you managed to make yourself a cardinal in the Resurrection Church?" she asked, looking at Toliado.
"Yeah, my field of study matched, after all. Besides, there happened to be an opening for a cardinal back then. One hard requirement for joining the Resurrection Church and stepping directly into a cardinal seat is being a bearer of an Original Slate. I just happened to qualify, plus my attribute is quite unique. I reached out to the Pope back then, and before long, I was smoothly installed."
Toliado produced a translucent slate and spun it between his fingertips. It radiated the same silver-white arc of fiery brilliance as the spatial portal, dazzling and pure, like an incandescent meteor from the Age of the Gods.
Sometimes in the Resurrection Church, when a cardinal died in battle without a successor emerging or another cardinal obtaining a secondary Cardinal's Mark, the authority to appoint a new cardinal would revert to the Pope.
Talia felt no surprise at the slate.
With "Space" and "Divination"—two attributes located on the very last row of the Periodic Table of Attributes—if someone lacked aptitude, they could not master them in the slightest. The only one capable of comprehending spatial magical engineering from it was probably Abigail.
The only way to possess spatial abilities was by obtaining spatial magic cards, but because they were exceedingly rare, they might be harder to find than the vast majority of Sacred cards.
Hardly anyone ever fought over the Space Slate, as virtually no living beings could learn that attribute; soul-binding it amounted to wasting five mana cost for nothing. It was not surprising that Yabo had obtained it.
By contrast, the Fire Slate she currently possessed was a universally useful slate contested by powerhouses throughout history.
"Don't look down on rare slates, okay? The Sealing Slate counts as an unpopular series too," Lanqi remarked to Talia in his thoughts as he observed the new slate with great curiosity.
[Original Slate - Space]
[Card Category: Equipment]
[Quality: Epic Orange]
[Attribute: Space]
[Tier: 5]
[Passive Effect: The Original Slate cannot be destroyed. Only living beings of the mortal realm may soul-bind it, with a maximum of one slate bound at a time. Comprehensively empowers all Space-attribute spells, martial arts, equipment, and summons. The slate unbinds upon the soul-bound user's death.]
[Note: The world that has ceased breathing keeps its eternal beauty sealed tight.]
He stared at the slate for a while.
He couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Lanqi shook his head in regret.
"It really is you, Yabo! What is going on today? First Big Sis, now Yabo—could it be that our loving demon family is about to be completely reunited?"
Once she clearly felt Yabo's familiar demonic mana, Iphatia began cheering and hopping about on the spot.
"We're still far from that," Toliado said with a slight shrug, a helpless smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Even if, as Lanqi said, Antanas and the others were all in Ikerite protecting Iphatia's daughter, it would still be a very long time before the few great demons here in Brillda could travel to the Hutton Kingdom to reunite with their old friends.
"At least there's hope now! My adorable daughter is still waiting for me!"
Bouncing on cheerful steps, Iphatia leaped right through the spatial portal and pounced onto Talia, wrapping her arms around her sister and rubbing against her cheek.
"Big Sis! I've missed you to death!"
Iphatia could not wait to come over to this spatial barrier in the second-floor residence of Brillda.
Such an isolated space was exceptionally safe, and it was also a rare opportunity for her to step away from the Silver Palace.
"Didn't we just see each other a few hours ago?"
Talia, looking completely baffled, allowed Iphatia to hug her, occasionally patting her back the way she cared for Hyperion.
"A few hours is a very long time, okay?" Iphatia said without seeing anything wrong with it.
"I don't get you..."
Talia realized her younger sister might have truly become like a human, whereas she herself was the one who had yet to fully assimilate, like an outsider.
"Let's go over there and sit down to talk."
Abigail pointed toward the sofa area in the room.
She realized she had more and more guests in her home.
Although her place was indeed well-suited to serve as a secret meeting base, it had rarely ever been this lively; usually, it was just her private library where she stayed alone.
"Actually, besides Abigail's second floor of the opera house and the Silver Palace beneath the Brillda mafia headquarters, I have an even more concealed spatial barrier. But the safest approach is to come to Abigail's place first, and then I open the passageway," Toliado said.
He had long considered the dangers within the heart of the Creti Empire; if an unpredictable disaster struck one day, he would at least have a retreat route to bring Abigail along.
"I didn't expect you to be so cautious," Talia remarked, casting a strange glance at Toliado as she walked toward the sofa with Iphatia draped over her.
"It's actually to build in fault tolerance," Toliado replied.
"..."
Talia sat down on the sofa.
She had no further questions.
Toliado might do the exact same things as Pranay, but their motives were utterly different.
Inside the Brillda Opera House, towering ceilings and pillars framed an open vantage, where dark wooden furniture intertwined with thick, substantial walls of bookshelves.
The group took their seats in the central meeting area of the hall. The floor lamps beside the sofas and low coffee table brought an extra touch of warmth to this late hour of eleven at night.
"Are you Number 1 of the Silver Moon Restoration Society?" Lanqi asked Toliado across from him.
This was currently the most important business at hand:
The matter of the Silver Moon Restoration Society alliance.
If they wanted to storm Blood Moon City, they would need far more assistance.
Even if Iphatia could purge the burning of the Blood King Divine Fire from her body, relying solely on the two primary combatants, Toliado and Iphatia, would still be far from enough.
Toliado could, at most, tie down one Blood Clan Marquis.
Furthermore, at level 87, no matter which level 88 Blood Clan Progenitor Toliado faced, he would be at a disadvantage and could only stall them, with little hope of defeating them.
According to the mechanics of Blood Moon City, all three teams had to clear the zones guarded by the marquises before the immunity barrier around the Blood King Palace would briefly drop.
For Iphatia, fighting a Blood Clan Marquis was even more of a stretch.
Beyond Lanqi needing to reach Tier 7 as soon as possible to ensure he could withstand Duke Rasheal's normal magical attacks, and finding a way to heal Iphatia, every additional companion at Tier 7 or above they could find within the empire would be a massive weight on the scales of victory.
"Of course. The one you private-messaged that day asking to help find your fiancée was me."
Toliado brought out his Sacred magic card and openly displayed it to Lanqi and Talia.
[Ultra-Long-Range Communication Program - 1]
[Card Category: Spell]
[Quality: Sacred Pink]
[Attribute: Link]
[Tier: 6]
[Effect: Possesses greater communication range and anti-interference capability compared to ordinary ultra-long-range communication magic.]
[Note: Imperial friendship beckons the adherents of royal power to assemble.]
"This series of communication magic was crafted by Abigail. Modeling it on a fraction of the principles behind the ancient divine artifact, the Mark of Resurrection, she developed a new type of communication magic that allows us to discard the Mark of Resurrection and achieve a safer link. As for the few first-generation finished products currently made, she named them after the ancient imperial poem 'Ode to Seros,'" he explained, a note of pride for his disciple unmistakable in his voice.
"If you hadn't provoked the Cardinal of Destruction and skipped town, would I have been terrified enough to throw away my Saint's Mark overnight and develop a whole new communication device?!"
Veins throbbed on the back of Abigail's hand. If not for the crowd present, she probably would have thrown hands already.
"Then is Mr. Barton Hall Number 3?"
Lanqi recalled that night's exchange in the Silver Moon Restoration Society's group chat.
Number 3, codenamed Mercy, had asked everyone who could help him acquire materials on the principles of mana fission from Saint Creti Monastery, saying his boss was interested and offering a favor in exchange.
Thinking about it, Number 3 was an acquaintance of Number 2 Abigail, couldn't reveal special communication means in public, and had a boss—it was undoubtedly the mafia leader Barton.
"Strictly speaking, even if I know the identities of other members in the Silver Moon Restoration Society, I can't just casually disclose them. You can guess, or let him tell you in person."
Though Toliado spoke thus, he knew Lanqi already had the answer.
As an anonymous organization, safeguarding the members' information security had been Toliado's promise when he recruited them into the alliance, as well as a guarantee for their safety.
"Small matter."
Hearing this, Iphatia sat up, ran back to the spatial portal connecting the residence to the Silver Palace, and ducked through.
"Iphatia! You're not a little girl anymore! That consumes a ton of mana, stop going back and forth!" Toliado said, feeling his mana drop by a sharp chunk all at once.
Whenever a living being passed through this spatial portal constructed upon a special spatial barrier, it consumed the caster's mana proportional to the traveler's tier.
Even if its energy consumption was vastly lower than normal teleportation magic, it couldn't withstand a Tier 8 treating it like a bedroom door.
Although Toliado's base stats favored high spirit with medium-to-low mana, Iphatia had grown far stronger over the years they hadn't seen each other.
"Oops, sorry! I'll be careful next time!"
Iphatia placed a hand to her forehead in an apologetic gesture toward Toliado.
She hurried to one side of the palace.
"Barton, Barton, come down to the basement for a moment!"
Connecting to the communication device on the Silver Palace wall, Iphatia called out.
At any rate, they would definitely need Barton's help for Blood Moon City. Among Tier 7s, Barton was quite a formidable combatant, and he could command a large cohort of armed subordinates.
Before long, Barton rode the elevator down to the basement from the Port Hassel building of the Brillda mafia headquarters.
After the doors to the Silver Palace opened,
Barton, the mafia boss, stared in utter disbelief at the spatial portal.
Across from it was none other than the second floor of Abigail's opera house.
Spatial magic had actually linked two spatial barriers together temporarily.
The only person capable of pulling off such a feat was undoubtedly Cardinal of Dimensions Toliado.
"Toliado, Abigail? How did you find the Boss?"
Barton was originally prepared to take Toliado and Abigail to task for overstepping their boundaries against their promises.
However, seeing that the Boss had no objections, he decided against pressing the matter.
"She and I are old friends. If I'd known earlier that the boss you were hiding was Iphatia, my Dimensions branch would have allied with you guys straight away," Toliado explained.
"It's fine, Barton, they're all our own people," Iphatia said as she led Barton over to the opera house's second floor.
"Look, isn't this portal so convenient?"
She didn't forget to show it off to Barton.
Iphatia had never imagined before that the Cardinal of Dimensions was General Yabo from their old Demon Realm.
She had constantly remained on guard against this cardinal of the Resurrection Church.
Had it not been for today's opportune turn of events, the two great demons concealed within the human society of the Creti Empire would never have had the chance to see through each other's human disguise to the identity abandoned a century ago.
"Could you guys do this later: take the bus back? Take Route 737, transfer to Route 901 to Jones River Port, then walk a few kilometers, and you'll be home."
Toliado's mana dropped two chunks in succession.
The worst thing back in the Demon Realm had been that once everyone discovered how convenient his magic was, they assumed the mana consumption was negligible and treated him like a doorman ushering people in front of a department store.
"Aiya, these are special circumstances, I can't just casually leave the spatial barrier. You can't charge me per trip, can you? Would you really have the heart to charge an old friend?"
Iphatia pressed her hands together and bowed her head apologetically.
"How about this: I buy a monthly pass and swipe it every time I pass through?"
She opened one eye to size up Toliado.
"You really are a dreamer. Why don't you ask for a student pass while you're at it?" Toliado retorted.
"Tsk, tsk."
Iphatia skipped right back to her sister's side.
Meanwhile, Barton walked over to take a seat at the end of the long sofa near Toliado.
"What's the situation now?" Barton asked, glancing at the people gathered here.
He was acquainted with both Abigail and Toliado, and now also with Professor Landry's side, but he hadn't imagined Toliado would appear so familiar with them.
"Let me explain..."
Toliado gave Barton a concise summary of what had happened tonight.
"I see. I indeed am Number 3 of the Silver Moon Restoration Society," Barton acknowledged once he grasped the situation.
"Huh? Wait, what? That opera just now was performed by Big Sis and Lanqi?"
Iphatia seized upon another key point in Toliado's recounting and cried out in astonishment,
"Big Sis, let me tell you, your acting was incredible! I really couldn't tell it was you! Just how did you portray that gluttonous, slightly airheaded girl so vividly? Especially the way her heart fluttered for the Governor—even through the screen, I could feel her brain, her heart, every single cell in her entire body screaming—!"
Agitated and ecstatic, she launched into a scene-by-scene breakdown for Talia.
"..."
Both Lanqi and Talia fell deathly silent, a gloom so suffocating it practically tainted the air around them.
Never in their wildest dreams had they expected tonight's performance to be broadcast publicly!
It turned out the very thing Iphatia had been giggling at earlier was their own performance on stage!
Having acquaintances witness something like this was worse than death...
"Well, at this juncture, ask whatever questions you have," Toliado said straightforwardly.
When it came to the Silver Moon Restoration Society, he would hold nothing back.
"Then what are the identities of the others?" Talia asked unceremoniously, steering the topic back.
She had cared about the truth of this matter for a long time.
Other than the confirmed Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 7:
Number 4, Ardor, was the only one among the nine members who had yet to return to Brillda; Number 5, Struggle, was very popular and easy to talk to; Number 6, Loyalty, could obtain firsthand intel from Saint Creti Monastery regarding mana fission; Number 8, Purity, simply hadn't spoken on the day they inquired about mana fission intel, seemingly avoiding suspicion; and Number 9, Hope, could procure any intelligence so long as extra money was paid.
"Uh, I don't know the true identities of half the Silver Moon Restoration Society's members either. They were all recruited by Number 5," Toliado answered, looking somewhat sheepish.
"Back then, the Sacred communication magic cards for Number 4 and Number 5 were crafted together and given to her. She used Number 5 herself and gave Number 4 to her confidant," Abigail explained to the three across from her.
Later, Number 5 asked for the Number 6 Sacred communication card and gave it to a suitable candidate she had selected.
After that, Abigail sent Number 7 to her junior disciple Landry through the Dimensions branch's channels.
Numbers 8 and 9 were crafted last, and Number 5 had taken both of those as well.
"Then who is Number 5?"
Iphatia chimed in drowsily from the side. From those few brief exchanges, she had grasped the general picture regarding the Silver Moon Restoration Society.
While the identities of 4, 6, 8, and 9 were mysteries, Number 5, being the linking thread, should at least be known to Toliado and Abigail.
This organization was strangely fair; truly not a single person knew the identities of all the others.
"Her situation is rather unique. Even under normal circumstances, she might not be able to use the Sacred communication magic, and we have no way to actively contact her. She is like a caged bird—she will only contact us or others when she deems it safe."
Abigail spoke in a low voice, recalling someone she knew well and worried for:
"Alexia. The bearer of the fifth Sacred communication magic card, 'Struggle,' is Her Highness Princess Alexia, the Third Imperial Princess of Creti."
Chapter 760