Night.
The capital prison.
With a clanging rattle, the iron door inside the cell was opened, followed by someone's voice.
"This is your dinner for today."
The guard casually set a simple meal on the floor, then shut the iron door again and left the cell.
Sylas looked at the dinner before him. Three pieces of dark bread, a bowl of thick porridge, and an apple.
The quality of his recent dinners seemed to have improved a little.
In the past, it was usually one or two pieces of dark bread and thin porridge. Sometimes, there was simply no dinner at all.
He did not know the reason, but it did not matter.
Being able to eat a little more was always a good thing.
Sylas stood up, dragging his exhausted body after a full day, and walked toward his dinner.
The light in the cell was dim. Only on the wall at the other end hung a burning torch, its flame flickering faintly.
That torch could burn for an hour at most. After an hour, it would go out, and by then the entire cell would fall into a deathly darkness.
Sylas had already endured days like this for a very long time.
Expressionless, he bit into the hardened dark bread and felt the sensation of swallowing food. In the prison cell, the only sound was Sylas chewing.
Rustle.
Suddenly, a faint sound rang out clearly.
At first, Sylas thought it was a rat and paid it no mind. But then his gaze casually swept to the side, and he suddenly caught sight of something.
Uncertain, he looked again and noticed something strange.
After that, he quickened his pace and finished his food, placed the utensils outside the bars, then stood up and walked toward the wall in the corner.
The light here was even darker, but he could still vaguely see a little.
Sylas raised his hand. Accompanied by the sound of chains rattling, he brushed away the plaster on the wall.
Immediately after, rustling sounds came one after another. More and more plaster fell away, revealing several wall bricks fitted seamlessly together.
But on closer inspection, it was clear that something was wrong with those bricks.
Thanks to that damned prince, Sylas now even understood a bit about architecture and knew how to build a proper house.
After all this time, the small library outside had already been built halfway.
So Sylas could tell at a glance that something was off about those bricks.
They looked like they hid a secret compartment.
Sylas fumbled around for a while. Time passed, minute by minute and second by second. Suddenly, with a soft click, one of the wall bricks made a faint shifting sound.
There was definitely some space inside. At the very least, it was not as seamless as it looked.
Realizing this, Sylas looked around, casually picked up a piece of straw from the cell, and carefully crushed it thin and flat.
Then he tried to see whether he could slip the straw into the gap. He managed it easily.
He pushed the straw all the way inside, as if filling the gap within, then pulled it back out.
After repeating this several times, the wall brick finally began to loosen from the wall through the friction of the straw.
After some effort, he finally pulled the brick out of the wall.
A hidden space inside was revealed. It was not large and could only hold a few things, so the few yellowed sheets of paper within were not difficult to spot.
Sylas's gaze flickered. He reached out and took out the papers, then looked them over and saw many passages of writing and diagrams.
The writing was old, unlike modern script, and the diagrams were somewhat messy. For the moment, he could not tell what they depicted.
They had probably been written with something like charcoal or wall ash.
Some time ago, Sylas had read many books, so he could still recognize these words.
"This is..."
Sylas stood up and walked to a place where the light was slightly brighter, examining the contents of the papers.
"I have been imprisoned here for more than forty years. Feeling the life drain from my body, I know that I will likely never see the light of day again. Perhaps I should never have studied it in the first place... and I should never have wanted to reveal the truth to the public."
"I paid the price for it, spending the rest of my life in this sunless dungeon."
"Before my death, I do not wish to take this secret with me. Therefore, I have tried every possible way to leave it behind, hoping that my descendants and fellow mages might find inspiration from it and break free from their shackles."
Sylas's eyes moved across line after line of text, and very quickly, he realized that this was something written by a mage who had once been imprisoned in this dungeon. It should have been from more than two hundred years ago.
And what he wanted to explain was none other than petricite.
The very thing currently fastened around Sylas's wrists, the thing that had sealed away all his gifts for a full fifteen years.
Sylas was extremely curious about this, so he made use of the limited time and began quickly flipping through the pages.
Half an hour later, with a sudden whoosh, the torch went out. The entire cell instantly sank into darkness.
However, at that moment, Sylas's eyes were shining more intensely than ever.
He was shocked by what he had just learned.
He lowered his head. Although he could not see them, he could feel the heaviness of the petricite around his wrists.
"Could it really be like this..."
Sylas murmured to himself, while his heart still surged like a stormy sea.
The true function of petricite was not to seal magic, but to absorb and store it!
More than two hundred years ago, the predecessor who had been imprisoned here wanted to reveal this truth to the public.
However, before he could even speak, Demacia had already noticed and quickly imprisoned him.
This truth clearly could not be made public. Otherwise, even Sylas could imagine what would be waiting for Demacia.
At that moment, Sylas's heart grew increasingly restless.
He now needed an opportunity to test this truth.
Otherwise, relying on himself alone, he could not confirm whether this information was true or false.
Although he was likewise a mage, there was no magic within his own body. His special ability was merely being able to see magic.
Until fifteen years ago, when he came into contact with that young mage, and the runaway magic exploded with a boom.
After putting the wall brick back in place, Sylas lay down, staring at the pitch-black ceiling, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
The next day.
Luke's estate.
Luke, who had risen early in the morning, was full of energy as he practiced Vitality Arts in the courtyard, the corner of his mouth curled into a delighted smile.
Katarina, who had gotten up early to water the flowers, glanced at this guy's face and, for some reason, even though it was clearly just a simple smile, she somehow saw in it the smug, arrogant look of a petty man who had gotten his way.
It really was not Luke's fault that his mood was so wonderful today, wonderful enough that he was not even willing to sleep in a little longer.
At this moment, his heart could be described as utterly pleased.
So what if she was first on the sword rankings?
In the end, she still could not even get out of bed.
The reason was that after last night's practical experiment, Luke suddenly discovered that with every one of his charges, he could actually trigger the effect of Conqueror.
What kind of concept was that?
It meant that every advance Luke made would make him stronger!
Relying on Conqueror's stacking effect, Luke had restored his masculine pride and properly punished that arrogant little Duelist.
Naturally, his mood was quite lovely right now.
By the time he finished one round of Vitality Arts, it was still early. Lux and the others had not arrived yet.
Luke raised his head and looked around. He felt that today's weather was quite nice. The sky was clear for miles, without a single cloud, and there was not even any wind.
With weather this good, simply lying around seemed like a bit of a waste.
So he thought to himself that he might as well find something to do. As for painting, he had not had much interest in that recently.
While strolling around, he pondered to himself.
When he reached the backyard and looked at the spacious courtyard, Luke suddenly thought of something, and his eyes lit up.
Half an hour later.
Lux hummed a tune as she walked into the courtyard in a good mood. At a glance, she saw Luke sitting there, and also saw the thing this guy was fiddling with in his hands.
"What are you making?"
A hint of curiosity flashed in her eyes as she leaned closer.
She found that it was an oval-shaped net, with a handle connected to the bottom.
"A racket," Luke casually replied.
"And what is this?"
Lux picked up a strange-looking object. Its tail was made of feathers, while the front end was round and had a decent weight to it.
Just from its shape, it looked quite like a small bird.
Luke replied, "A shuttlecock."
At this point, Lux more or less understood. "Is this another new game?"
"More or less. Move aside first. Don't bother me."
Luke was weaving the strings of the racket, so he started shooing away the little blonde.
Lux did not mind. She obediently sat to the side, propped her chin on her hand, and stared intently with her big eyes as Luke worked.
But before long, she lost patience. She picked up one of the finished rackets that Luke had placed on the other side, walked a little farther away, and began playing with it.
She tried swinging it twice and unexpectedly found that it felt pretty good in her hand.
At this point, she had basically figured out what kind of game this shuttlecock game was, and she felt a little eager to try it.
Another ten-odd minutes passed.
Luke finally finished the second racket. He tested the tension of the racket strings and confirmed that there was no problem.
"Is it done?"
Seeing that, Lux immediately cast him an expectant look.
"Still missing one thing. Don't rush."
Luke walked toward the backyard.
Lux followed along as well.
In the backyard, Katarina and Yurna were following Luke's instructions, setting up a net that divided the open space into two sides.
Seeing that it was almost done, Luke began explaining the rules. "If the shuttlecock touches the ground on your side of the court, you lose. Understand?"
"Got it, got it. Hurry up and start!"
Lux eagerly chose one side of the court and got ready.
She tied her golden hair into a ponytail. Luke looked up and saw Lux holding the racket with her ponytail swaying behind her, and she instantly had the air of an athletic girl. A lively, energetic aura seemed to rush toward him, making her look youthful and bright.
After getting ready, Lux said confidently, "I will have you know, I am actually a gaming genius."
"Is that so? I will also have you know, my favorite people to crush are gaming geniuses."
Luke chuckled, walked to the other side, and looked at Lux, whose small face was full of confidence as she held the badminton racket in one hand.
Then he tossed the shuttlecock up and slammed it down with a powerful swing.
The shuttlecock instantly shot through the air. In the next second, Lux had already reacted. She took two steps sideways and directly swung her racket, sending the shuttlecock back.
"Well, well."
Luke was surprised and swung it back again. "I didn't expect you to actually catch that."
"Hmph. Who are you looking down on?"
A few traces of smugness immediately rose on Lux's bright face. She hit the shuttlecock back again and had just been about to say something fierce. "I'm still..."
With a smack, the shuttlecock she had just hit over was instantly smashed back onto the ground on her side at an extremely fast speed.
Lux froze at once, her whole body stiffening in place like a wooden figure.
"Heh." Luke laughed mockingly. "Looks like that is all you have."
"Hiss!" Seeing that look on his face, Lux sucked in a breath, and her refusal to admit defeat surged up all at once.
She picked up the shuttlecock, tossed it up, then hit it back with force.
"I got distracted just now. Again!"
That said, to be fair, Miss Crownguard really did have some talent for badminton.
Although she was still no match for Luke, she could at least occasionally hold out for quite a while.
Off the court, Katarina and Yurna watched the two of them play with great interest, feeling that this activity was quite novel.
After a while, Sona, Poppy, and Kahina also arrived.
Hearing the commotion in the backyard, they came over.
Then they saw Luke and Lux locked in a badminton contest, and curiosity flashed in all their eyes.
With another smash from Luke, Lux sat weakly on the ground, drenched in sweat and panting. Then, still very unconvinced, she stood up. "Damn it, again!"
But Luke shook his head and looked at her with pity. "You are too weak. You can no longer spark my interest. Change players. The weak have no right to stand in the arena."
Lux gritted her teeth, feeling deeply humiliated. She left the court and entrusted the racket to her close friend Kahina, as if passing on a mission. "You have to help me get even."
Kahina nodded seriously and walked to the other side. She had already figured out how the game was played and felt it was very simple.
All she had to do was find a way to make the shuttlecock land in the opponent's territory.
"Good luck, Kahina!" After losing more than ten rounds in a row, Lux sat down on a chair that had been moved over outside the court and became Kahina's cheering spectator.
"I won't disappoint you!"
Kahina tossed the shuttlecock up and swung hard, hitting it toward Luke.
The next second, with a smack, the shuttlecock shot straight back and slammed onto the ground.
The girl-crushing fiend Luke curled his lips into a cold smile. Looking at Kahina's stunned little face, he was utterly satisfied.
"Kahina, fight back!"
Lux was extremely anxious outside the court.
Kahina came back to her senses and hurriedly picked up the shuttlecock, feeling that she had to be a little more serious.
However, in the end, the girl still suffered defeat.
"Weak. Next."
Luke clicked his tongue, extremely arrogant.
"I'll do it!"
Like a relay, Poppy raised her hand excitedly and took the racket from Kahina.
The racket was almost as tall as she was.
She swung it twice, felt it out, then looked at Luke, blinked her big eyes, and asked tentatively, "Can I use my hammer?"
Luke smiled. "What do you think?"
"All right, then let's do it."
Poppy had no choice but to use the racket and enter the court.
She really did have a special love for hammers. Once she switched to a racket, no matter how she used it, it just did not feel right. There was also the disadvantage of her height.
Although her strength was extremely great, and sometimes even Luke had to be careful when she hit back with all her might, she was still a little lacking in technique and ultimately lost.
After being defeated by a smash, Poppy pounded the ground unwillingly. "Damn it... If I could use my hammer..."
"That's enough. Next."
Luke glanced at her, already able to imagine exactly how this one would play badminton with a hammer.
The next person to enter the court was Sona.
Lux, Kahina, and Poppy, the three members of the defeated group, sat on small stools and indignantly cheered her on.
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