Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1567 The Fox of Lake Nemi

“No, Shangluo, this isn’t good.” After going inside and handing 200 drachmas to Karin, Fahrenheit came out. The more she thought about it, the stranger things seemed.

"what happened?"

“Come with me. Victoria, do you want to come? To see my father.”

"I think it's unnecessary. I don't usually go to see gods."

"Alright, please wait here for a moment. Shangluo, come with me."

"Huh?" Before Shang Luo could react, she grabbed Shang Luo's hand, quickly walked down the steps in front of the library, and opened a phone booth.

The phone booth was rather small, and theoretically only one person should be able to enter at a time, but we couldn't worry about that now.

She inserted a drachma coin, then typed a string of characters into the dial pad, and the space outside the phone shifted—they were transported to the elevator floor on the first floor of the Pharos Lighthouse (the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria).

"So you can teleport here?"

"This is a newly added feature, and I just found out about it myself. I'll send you the phone book in a bit, and you can use it to send messages directly, saving you from having to walk everywhere—but let's not worry about that for now, come in first."

Upon entering, they went straight into the elevator, swiped their card, and went directly to the top floor.

The Pharos Lighthouse is a magnificent megastructure. However, its interior also contains usable spaces similar to those in a skyscraper.

Although most of the lighthouse's internal structure is not accessible, some capillary maintenance channels have been reserved to allow the deployment of intelligent control equipment for operation and maintenance.

The higher you go, the less passage you have.

After the elevator they were in passed the 192nd floor, the floor buttons disappeared, and it went directly to the 242nd floor.

This is the temple of Helios—

A ritualistic temple. It possesses all the elements of a temple. However, when the elevator doors opened, Shangluo could only see an empty, single-level floor.

In the center of the flat floor, a king with a human body and a white lion's head stands with his back to the elevator, overlooking Cybernia.

This is what Helios looks like now. He can no longer maintain his human form, but he is not limited to the appearance of a lion either.

This half-human, half-lion appearance was more suited to the land of Egypt—Sabriania—where the foundations were laid. Resembling Egyptian gods would have been beneficial for ruling the region.

Why did you go and then come back?

“Father, your guess has been confirmed. I just received the latest news from Shangluo, and I brought it with me.”

"Lord Helios," Shangluo bowed to the person before him, "I wonder what brings you here?"

“Although I don’t know the specific details either, the fact that Phaethon summoned you means that she has found some information about you that no one else has discovered. So, Phaethon, first compare the information with her from before.”

“Understood—Shangluo, the situation here is a bit different from what I expected. At first, I thought that after I met my father, we would discuss family issues or something. But we didn’t talk much because there is a very important matter to deal with right now. And, first of all, I must clarify one thing: my father is now the God of Magic.”

"Who is the God of Magic?"

The title was so broad that Shangluo had no idea what this "God of Magic" actually was.

First and foremost, it can be confirmed that Helios did indeed hold the divine office of god of magic. In ancient Greece, many rituals, including alchemy, were performed under Helios's command.

But today, Rome has become a magical nation. If Helios is still this kind of "god of magic," then placing him in the East would be like the divine being descending to earth in a personified form, which is rather absurd. Therefore, Shangluo guessed that this god of magic might be somewhat different from what he thought.

For example, a god of demons could be a god who controls magical rituals, a god who controls the magic network, or a god of magic spells.

In the Roman Empire, Helios primarily appeared as "Mithras Helios." This lion image is the result of the fusion of Mithras and Helios, namely, the "Invincible Sun."

Shangluo didn't need to understand the intricate religious rituals within Rome. What he did know was that Helios had provided some safeguards for Roman magic in many ways.

In other words, he is not the god of magic who created magic, but a deity who provides guardianship for the old magic. When using magic in the name of the invincible sun, as long as the ritual steps are performed properly, one can be invincible.

However, things seem to have changed recently.

"Shangluo, we have discovered some very bad omens—numerous spiritual disasters have occurred in many parts of Romania and Eastern Europe."

Let me explain. A spiritual disaster is exactly what it sounds like: a natural calamity caused by problems in the spirit world manifesting in the mortal realm. Spiritual disasters come in many types, including but not limited to forests growing wildly and swallowing roads, instantly withering and turning into deserts; rivers flowing backward, moonlight freezing, and seasonal disruptions. Generally speaking, the causes of spiritual disasters are basically the same: the barrier between the spirit world and the mortal world is broken, causing the spirit world to overflow or the mortal world to collapse into it.

"So what kind of spiritual disaster is occurring now?"

“It’s all of it,” Phaethon said in a deep voice. “Everything Apollonia told you about—it’s all happened. All sorts of disasters have occurred widely. Although they can be dealt with quickly by the emergency response teams that rush to the scene, there are still some problems that cannot be solved. For example, some places have lost their color, which is the result of things in the mortal world collapsing directly into the spirit world.”

Things that overflow from the spirit world can be swept up and put back in, but things that collapse into the spirit world are not so easy to deal with. At least the collapsed parts must be retrieved before the problem can be resolved.

"Were there any casualties?" "I can only say yes," Phaethon replied, "but because the place where the calamity occurred was not within the actual control of the Roman Empire, we cannot count the exact number of casualties."

[Even within the controlled area, it's impossible to get accurate statistics, since the administrative departments have moved to Cybernia. The focus of the work has shifted here. Many parts of the mortal world have already entered a state of anarchy.]

There was no other way. Everything about Rome in the world was about to perish, and the administrative system needed to be filled. When people moved here directly, the original framework naturally couldn't function.

"Hmm," Shangluo thought for a moment, "So, on that note, do you know what the reason is?"

"Previously, we couldn't find them—we simply couldn't. Because these spiritual calamities manifested in various forms, lacking any commonality in their forms, and only erupting in concentrated bursts at certain times, it was difficult to speculate on the specific causes. But now, everything seems to be clear. The outbreak of these spiritual calamities may be because the spirits within them died."

"The elf is dead?"

"Yes. The existence of elves is necessary for the spirit world. Elves exist in everything: grass, flowers, trees, mountains, springs. All creatures in the spirit world can be regarded as elves in some sense—the elven royal court we see is a result of coexistence with human civilization."

In some ways, this resembles a nomadic civilization.

Nomadic civilizations emerged quite late, at the earliest only during the Western Zhou Dynasty. The herders before the Western Zhou Dynasty were not nomads in the later sense, but rather the precursors to nomadic civilizations.

True nomadic civilizations only emerge as a companion civilization after agricultural civilizations have become highly developed—nomadic civilizations cannot arise naturally outside of agricultural civilizations, because pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, and horses are all domesticated by agricultural civilizations. Only after these livestock have been domesticated is a nomadic civilization even possible.

Nomadic civilizations themselves do not have the foundation for an independently operating economy, because the characteristic of nomadic peoples is to exchange space for resources.

Many nomadic peoples actually have a very large total population, but because they are scattered across too wide an area, they are unable to concentrate their industries.

Only during their heyday, nomadic tribes such as the Xiongnu established fixed settlements on the grasslands. These settlements, in addition to fulfilling religious ceremonies, were also used to produce essential tools.

However, because nomadic peoples are not geographically concentrated, these cities often do not develop well, and they are incomparable to cities in Han-controlled areas that have the same political significance.

Therefore, nomadic peoples inevitably depend on exchange with agricultural peoples for survival. Moreover, much like karma, the more powerful the agricultural people, the more powerful nomadic peoples will emerge alongside them.

For example, in the history of the Northern Ming (a historical term referring to the Ming Dynasty before the capital moved south again), some very powerful nomadic tribes emerged in the north. They were people who were reassembled after the Mongol Yuan Dynasty collapsed. These nomads obtained the resources they needed from border trade, and also acquired many industrial products such as ironware that could not be manufactured or cultivated on the grasslands.

Similarly, this border trade itself was a way to control nomadic peoples. Because the existence of nomadic peoples necessitates trade, they cannot establish their own economies independently. Since the need for trade is inevitable, it can also be used to control them.

“Elves are all the same,” Phaethon explained. “What an elf is like essentially depends on the nature of the environment it comes into contact with. Elves in the wilderness are usually in the form of plants or wild beasts. But around human civilization, these elves grow up like shadows of humans themselves. Many elves are actually descendants of legendary human emperors. For example, the elf Oberon was Caesar’s illegitimate son, and the Wild Hunt in Germany is usually led by nobles who died in history.”

[In fact, royalty itself is an invention of human civilization. The elven royal court did not exist naturally; it only arose when the surrounding human civilization reached a certain level of development, prompting the local elves to form a corresponding organization.]

"I sensed some combat potential in these elves. I mean, could they come up with the same equipment as the enemy just by thinking about it?"

This situation is uncommon. At least it's not very common with the Grand Spirit of the Spring.

"So, what does the death of the elf mean?"

Phaethon replied, “If it is an elf in the royal court who dies—that is not really important. Because like human society itself, the elven royal court is a huge organization, and the death of a single elf will certainly not affect the overall operation of the royal court. But if those non-humanoid, other spirit beings die, it means that there is a dangerous presence in the area, systematically destroying these spirits of nature. If they succeed, then the void left by the death of the elves will generate a spiritual calamity.”

"So, someone is massacring elves? Why would they do that?" Shang Luo was taken aback. "Wait, is it to make them drop gold coins?"

[Dracomas are silver coins, but they're pretty much the same. It seems everyone's trying to extract currency from their deaths.]

"Good heavens!" Shang Luo exclaimed in astonishment, "Who on earth would do such a thing?"

“Shangluo.” Faetong looked at him. “Actually, I have a guess—perhaps it’s that ‘Mr. Fox’.”

"Is he that powerful?" Shang Luo remembered that the fox wasn't very big, just a small one.

Phaethon shook his head: "Never underestimate an elf who wields magic. Because each elf corresponds to a fragment of magic. No one knows what kind of power that Mr. Fox possesses. But his influence on the spirit world has probably already crossed a certain threshold. Perhaps the recent unusual behavior of the elves is related to that fox's actions. Especially the Grand Elf of the Spring. Irodias's actions were very unusual before."

"Does Karin know about this?" Fahrenheit asked.

Fahrenheit herself was not involved in the incident; her knowledge of it came from Shangluo and others. Therefore, she also did not know the specific details about the fox.

Since the fox met Han Xingzhi directly, she had even less way of knowing.

Shangluo shook his head: "Karin probably doesn't know this. Because Karin only returned right after the incident at Inner Lake."

“Well, Shangluo, I think this problem really does need to be solved by going to Lake Nemi—it’s a big problem, it concerns another aspect of the elves. And, Shangluo, I think our desire to solve this problem is not an isolated one.”

"what do you mean?"

"Werewolves. I suspect the werewolves have already made their move. This fox's behavior is beyond reason; one of the werewolf tribes must have started their operation long ago, before we even got there. I think we can try to get some information from the werewolves."

"Anyway, let's go to Karin's house first. It seems that the matter of Lake Nemi still needs to be resolved there."

(End of this chapter)