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Thump~
Watching the headless, heartless body fall, Noah waited a full ten minutes to confirm that Zero was irrevocably dead, with no risk of "playing dead" again.
First Brain, then Zero's Thought Projection appeared, and finally Zero himself transformed. Noah was tired of this nesting doll game.
But even as Noah relaxed, his heart remained troubled by the existence behind Zero.
The Eighteen Demon Fighting Gods—just one of them with the "Soul Scale" Curse Power had the effect of weakening an opponent's Magic. It was likely that the other seventeen Demon Gods of War also had their own special abilities.
Furthermore, the true strength of the Black Magic Cult hidden beneath the surface, and how many Black Wizard Bishops like Zero operated under different identities, were all still unknown.
It wasn't that Noah was overly concerned about the nation and its people—it was just that he encountered members of the Black Magic Cult every time he went out, whether they were Demon Gods of War or Black Wizard Bishops. He would inevitably face them sooner or later.
"Troublesome, truly unlucky. Why did I get stuck with these things... Black Wizard Zeref, you're truly a heinous criminal."
After greeting the Black Wizard and his family, a relieved Noah finally had time to survey this underground space, or rather, this underground cemetery, which was a more fitting description.
In the center of the cemetery was a huge stone tablet, seemingly carved with some characters.
As Noah approached the stone tablet, he noticed that all the surrounding gravestones, regardless of the name, shared a common surname: Nirvit.
It seemed to be a tribal clan, like Redfox.
But unlike the Nirvit Tribe, which vanished from history, the Redfox Tribe not only developed into a family of Mage blacksmiths but also had a twenty-year-old "ancestor," Gajeel, still alive.
The stone tablet was inscribed with obscure and difficult-to-understand ancient characters, but fortunately, this script had been deciphered by the History Guild.
When Noah had nothing to do, he would read some publications issued by the History Guild, which included comparative translations of the Nirvit Tribe's script.
Following his memory, Noah managed to translate the ancient characters on the stone tablet.
In the era over four hundred years ago, the world's main theme was war: war between humans and Dragons, war between nations, war between Mages and magical beasts... The Nirvit Tribe, a peace-loving magical tribe, lived in a magical mobile city with powerful firepower. At the same time, the numerous powerful Mages of this tribe allowed them to remain neutral in a chaotic world.
Lamenting the chaos of the world and grieving the loss of life, the peace-loving Nirvit Tribe decided to stop the conflict.
However, they were just a small tribe. Although powerful among humans, they couldn't persuade all factions to turn their swords into plowshares.
Thus, the super Magic capable of switching light and darkness—"Nirvana"—was created by the Nirvit Tribe.
However, the much-hoped-for Nirvana still went wrong. It twisted the kind hearts of the Nirvit Tribe, whose inner selves were occupied by an unprecedented darkness. The Nirvit Tribe thus perished in mutual slaughter.
Stumbling through the contents of the stone tablet, Noah marveled at the tribe's naivety.
Nirvana could forcibly twist thoughts—this alone made it impossible to bring peace to the world. Instead, it would attract greater conflict.
Besides this, Noah had two other questions.
Since the Nirvit Tribe perished in mutual slaughter due to the influence of Nirvana, who buried them here?
And who sealed Nirvana?
Noah shook his head. After four hundred years, the answers to all of this might never be found.
Circling the stone tablet, Noah, engrossed in reading, suddenly felt himself kick something over. Looking down, he saw it was a small, emaciated skeleton sitting cross-legged behind the stone tablet.
"My apologies, my apologies."
Although Noah didn't agree with the naive ideas of the Nirvit Tribe, he still held a respectful attitude toward their efforts to strive for a better world, so he quickly helped the skeleton upright.
Perhaps because he was a powerful Mage in life, the corpse, protected by Magic Power, hadn't turned to bone. Instead, its shriveled skin still retained a bit of elasticity.
If not for the several fatal wounds on the skeleton, some might even believe it was a person in a vegetative state.
As he propped up the skeleton and saw its face clearly, Noah froze.
Because this person was someone Noah had seen not long ago at Cait Shelter.
Looking closely, this skeleton was almost identical to Roubaul, the master of Cait Shelter! Even the clothing was exactly the same!
Just as Noah was puzzled, a sound rang out that could answer his questions.
[Ding~ You have a new local Wish commission]
[Roubaul Nirvit (Thought Projection) has been waiting for someone to appear who can destroy the Nirvana he created. Please fulfill his Wish]
[Reward: Magic "Myriad Phenomena"]
"A Thought Projection, actually..."
Noah put away his shocked expression. The reason he hadn't considered this earlier was entirely due to the passage of time.
More than four hundred years had passed since the Nirvit Tribe's demise. Who could've imagined that someone's Thought Projection could last for centuries!
How powerful must Roubaul have been in life to achieve such an incredible feat.