The Memory Stone

The commotion from Charn’s death, because it was far away, Leon and the others did not see clearly.

This saved Black the trouble of explaining Charn’s situation.

However, a certain complex look was in Leon and Land’s eyes as they glanced at the quietly standing Irena.

In that gaze was an unconscious awe.

They had personally witnessed that mind-bending scene, the mysterious power that had surged from the young woman’s body, one-shotting the Over-Tier Evil Spirit Knight in a few moves.

Although Irena herself did not remember what had happened to her, the terror of that power was deeply etched in their memories.

Leon and Land exchanged a look and tacitly did not bring up the matter.

That power was by no means ordinary. Getting involved, knowing more, was not necessarily a good thing.

There were some boundaries that they should not cross.

“We’re basically done here.”

Black broke the brief silence and said to Leon and Land.

“You guys go back first and get some rest. I’ll do some cleanup and take Irena home.”

Leon looked at Black, then glanced at the silent Irena, and nodded.

“Alright, be careful yourself.”

Land also waved his hand, and he and Leon supported each other as their figures disappeared into the night.

Black turned to Irena, his tone gentle.

“Irena, you wait here for me for a moment. I’m going to get something, and then I’ll take you back.”

The young woman nodded obediently, hugging her arms. Perhaps because she was too weak, she shivered a little in the cool night wind.

Seeing this, Black took off his Dragon-Slaying Guard coat and put it on her.

Irena was startled, then blushed and wrapped the coat tightly around herself, drawing in its warm scent.

“Wait for me to come back.”

“Okay.”

After that, Black, alone, turned and walked towards the orphanage.

He passed through the silent corridor and found the entrance to the basement.

A heavy wooden door hidden behind a storage cabinet.

Pushing open the wooden door, a musty smell washed over him.

The stairs led down into a thick darkness.

Black snapped his fingers, and a stable flame ignited, lighting an old-fashioned oil lamp hanging on the wall.

A dim yellow halo spread out, barely illuminating the entire basement.

It was very messy here, with many abandoned pieces of furniture piled up, all covered in a thick layer of dust.

It was not easy to find what Charn had mentioned in such an environment.

Hidden so secretly, that thing was definitely not simple.

Black held the oil lamp and began to search carefully.

According to what Charn had said, his gaze finally settled on a wooden box in the corner.

He carefully took out the contents of the box and placed them aside.

The box itself looked no different.

He knocked on the bottom and the four walls with his hand. The sound was dull.

After fumbling for a moment, “click.”

With a soft sound, a wooden board was removed, revealing a small compartment underneath.

In the compartment, two things lay quietly.

Black’s breath, the moment he saw one of the things, suddenly caught.

It was an egg-sized stone, entirely black, with a deep luster.

“This is…”

“A Memory Stone?!”

Black’s pupils constricted violently, and a storm raged in his heart.

He had never expected that Charn would have such a thing in his possession.

A Memory Stone, one of the top-tier alchemical items.

The number of these in the entire Servian Empire could probably be counted on two hands.

Its refining difficulty was extremely high. Even for an Emperor-Tier alchemist, the failure rate was astonishingly high.

It could not only completely record the images and sounds of a certain period of time in a certain location.

More importantly, the content it recorded could not be forged or tampered with, and it had absolute evidentiary value.

Charn, a Top-Tier priest living in seclusion in an orphanage, how did he have this?

Black forced down the shock in his heart, reached out, and picked up the black Memory Stone.

A cold sensation came from it.

‘The truth of everything…’

‘Could what Charn said be referring to this Memory Stone?’

A bold guess emerged. Black slowly poured a sliver of magical power into it.

“Voom.”

The deep luster on the surface of the Memory Stone became active, and a black fluid flowed within it.

Immediately after, a hazy beam of light was projected from the stone.

In the dim air of the basement, a clear light screen was formed.

The image began to play.

Two people appeared in the picture. The background was a hidden open space, and the sky was dark.

One of them wore a simple white robe, his hair and beard were white, and his face was kind but majestic.

He looked much younger than he did now.

It was Randolph.

The other person wore noble attire, was handsome, and had sharp eyes.

He was also younger than he was now. It was Alvin.

At this moment, Alvin was holding a swaddled baby in his arms, and the baby was crying nonstop.

At their feet was a huge magic array.

The array was carved on some kind of dark stone slab. Its lines were winding and twisted, and it emitted an ominous, strange black light.

The runes were quite ancient and mysterious. Black had seen many magic arrays, but compared to this one, they all seemed crude and simple.

Like the difference between a child’s doodle and a master’s masterpiece.

What was even more shocking was that around the array were tens of thousands of high-purity magic crystals.

The high-tier magic crystals that were so expensive in the necromancer’s eyes were like pebbles on the roadside here.

Above the magic array, a ball of black mist, so thick it couldn’t be dispersed, was suspended.

The black mist slowly churned and roiled, and a low dragon’s roar could be faintly heard.

And in the very center of the black mist, a pitch-black bead was quietly suspended.

The moment he saw that bead, Black’s scalp went numb. He recognized it at once.

A dragon pearl!

He remembered it too clearly.

Not long ago in the Caribbean Sea, when the Sea Dragon King Jörmungandr and Elizabeth were fighting fiercely, the blue dragon pearl it had brought out, apart from its color, was identical to this black bead!

Without a doubt, this was also a dragon pearl.

It was probably the dragon pearl of the Dragon King of Madness, Demeter.

Its soul was residing within it!

An ancient, forbidden magic array, a crying baby, a suspended Dragon King’s dragon pearl…

What all this meant was already as clear as day.

In the light screen image, Alvin bent down and placed the crying baby in his arms at the very center of the magic array.

Then, Randolph took a step forward and began to chant a difficult, ancient incantation.

He formed complex hand seals, and a vast, ocean-like magical power surged from his body and poured into the array at his feet.

“Voom!”

The entire magic array suddenly lit up, and the strange black light became dazzling.

The mountain of magic crystals around it simultaneously erupted in a brilliant light. A massive amount of magical power was frantically drawn in and converged into the magic array.

Countless ancient runes lifted off the ground and danced in the air, forming a three-dimensional cage that enveloped the baby and the black dragon pearl.

The dragon pearl began to slowly descend.

Little by little, it approached the baby at the center of the array.

Finally, the dragon pearl transformed into a thick stream of black light and drilled into the baby’s forehead.

The baby’s body trembled, and its cries stopped.

On its small body, countless fine black patterns flashed and then disappeared.

The image ended there.

The light screen dissipated, and the Memory Stone returned to its original state.

The basement was dead silent.

Only the faint crackling of the oil lamp’s wick could be heard.

Black stood in place, not moving for a long time.

He completely understood.

He understood why Charn had said this was “the truth of everything.”