Rhys believed that if his three old friends were standing here, they would make the same choice.
Regardless of the Prophet's attitude toward him, as long as Vassago truly entered the state of divination, anything he revealed would necessarily be true.
That was rooted in the very nature of divination.
Vassago could not tamper with that.
He was using an open scheme.
"You've convinced me. Go ahead."
Rhys made his decision.
Even if Vassago used this opportunity to injure him through some hidden trick, he still wanted to hear the man's divination once.
A delighted smile appeared on Vassago's face.
"That's excellent. But before we begin, please clear away those troublesome people."
"Of course."
Vassago was referring to the inn's waiters, the diners, and the prominent figures from the town who had hurried over after hearing the news.
The Prophet of the Stars, Vassago, had appeared here. Naturally, these people wanted to rush over and curry favour with him.
But Rhys had no intention of letting anyone interfere with the Prophet's divination.
He lightly waved his wand, and one person after another inside the inn collapsed to the floor. He also placed a barrier around the outside.
With Vassago right in front of him, Rhys did not kill any of them. He merely put them to sleep.
These ordinary people were not his targets anyway, so there was no harm in sparing their lives.
Watching Rhys work, Vassago said nothing. He simply began drawing a magic circle on the floor.
As Vassago traced out the formation, Rhys watched his movements with complete concentration, trying to learn something from them.
"There's no need to waste your effort," Vassago said while continuing to draw. "Prophecy requires talent. Without that talent, it doesn't matter how perfectly you reproduce the magic circle."
Rhys naturally understood that principle, but it did not stop him from memorising every detail of the formation.
If he had no talent for divination, he could always take it back and give it to someone who did.
This was also one of the precious treasures of this world.
If the contestants had any sense, they should not devote all their energy to accumulating points. They should gather as much knowledge from this world as possible and take it back with them to study.
That was also the great gift that he, Rowena, and Helga had prepared for the wizarding world.
The children only needed to learn the knowledge of another world.
Salazar, on the other hand, had much more work to do.
Seeing that Rhys ignored his advice, Vassago did not try to stop him.
If he wanted to watch, then let him watch. Vassago did not care.
At that moment, Vassago was as steady as an old German engineer.
Go ahead and copy it!
You might imitate the form, but you could never imitate its essence!
Vassago's magic circle was divided into three parts.
The outermost layer formed an eight-pointed star. Inside it was a square cross, and within that was a triangle.
Vassago himself stood at the exact centre of the triangle, which was also the centre of both the eight-pointed star and the square cross.
He took eight candles from his robes and placed one at each point of the eight-pointed star.
Then he took out four opaque bottles and placed them at the four points of the square cross.
Finally, he produced a pitch-black meteorite, a handful of greyish-white soil, and a device resembling a convex lens.
Vassago placed the meteorite and the grey-white soil at two corners of the triangle, then used the convex lens to focus sunlight onto the final corner.
Only then did he seem to have completed all his preparations.
He sat down cross-legged and began arranging jars filled with ointments and unfamiliar herbs around himself.
'Sun, moon, stars. Water, fire, earth, wind. The outermost layer represents the eight directions? Then there are these supplementary materials...'
Rhys felt that he was beginning to understand some of it.
Vassago had not lied.
The scale of this divination was absurdly high.
As the diviner, the price Vassago would have to pay was equally astonishing.
As several ointments and herbs were ignited, smoke began to curl through the air.
Before long, Vassago entered the divination state.
His eyes rolled upward until only the whites remained visible. Several veins bulged on his forehead as he began muttering in a low, hoarse voice.
[A snake, a lion, a raven, and a badger set out on a journey together.
They overcame one difficulty after another, but in the end, they parted ways during the journey.
Even after going their separate ways, their lives remained turbulent, magnificent, and filled with countless events.
The snake hatched two eggs.
A snake emerged from one.
The other was strange indeed. A lion actually sprang out of it!
All four animal companions fell ill, each more seriously than the last.
The snake continued to shed its skin, but in the end, it still could not escape death...]
As Vassago spoke with his eyes rolled back, smoke began rising from the various objects he had arranged around him.
More and more veins bulged across his forehead.
By the time he reached the latter part of the prophecy, his face was already covered in beads of sweat the size of beans, while the whites of his eyes had turned blood-red.
Finally, after uttering the prophecy that "the snake still could not escape death," he could no longer endure it.
His entire body toppled sideways, knocking over the small smoking objects around him.
Vassago instantly regained consciousness.
At the same time, his life force began weakening at a visibly rapid rate.
"I never expected it... never expected... that you were actually..."
His voice was weak.
"Hm?"
Vassago's words pulled Rhys out of his thoughts about the prophecy.
"You do not belong to this world... ha..."
The light in Vassago's eyes rapidly faded, while his body slowly began crumbling into ash.
At the same time, the roof of the little inn inexplicably collapsed.
A beam of sunlight streamed through the opening and fell directly across Rhys's face.
In that instant, every hair on Rhys's body stood on end.
It felt as though something had locked its gaze onto him.
And at that exact moment, Vassago completely disintegrated, leaving behind only a small pile of ashes on the floor.
Rhys raised his head and stared into the sky.
Ever since Vassago vanished, he could feel something watching him.
The gaze came from every direction.
It was everywhere, yet impossible to trace.
Rhys understood.
He lowered his head, looked at the powder before him, and laughed.
His laughter grew louder and louder until, in the end, he was almost doubled over.
"What a Prophet of the Stars. What a Vassago! So this was your plan!"
Rhys had expected Vassago to place some kind of curse on him.
He had never imagined that the man's true goal would be to make the will of this world notice him.
A curse could be broken.
But there was no way to undo being targeted by the consciousness of the world itself, unless he voluntarily left this world.
It was equivalent to placing shackles around him.
From now on, every battle he fought would inevitably place him at a disadvantage.
If he fought an opponent who specialised in lightning, then the sky would undoubtedly fill with dark clouds.
If he fought someone who specialised in wind, a storm would surely rise from nowhere.
And his own luck would worsen as well.
There was no doubt about any of it.
This was what the legendary phrase "the whole world is against me" truly meant.
It was nothing like the minor interference he had experienced when he first entered the alchemical world.
This would genuinely affect how much of his strength he could bring to bear.
Rhys gradually straightened himself.
He understood that the battles ahead against the natives of the alchemical world would be difficult ones.
"Come on!"
A light ignited in Rhys's eyes.
"Let me see just how many exceptional talents the alchemical world has produced in these six hundred years!"
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI