After hearing this deduction, everyone looked enlightened, but another question followed immediately.
"And then?"
"Even if we know this, what can we actually do?"
The conclusion is right at the tip of my tongue, and I actually have to spell it out for them?!
Descartes suddenly felt the powerlessness of a top student dealing with failing ones. "Once we know this, our operational goals become simple. We can plan from at least two angles!"
Brain asked, "Which two angles?"
Descartes didn't answer directly. Instead, he strode to the office desk, scanned it, picked up a blank piece of draft paper and a pen, and turned back to the large tea table.
Seeing this, the others crowded around.
Descartes wrote the words "Seize the Sacrifice" on the left side of the blank paper.
"We take the sacrifice so the R-Organization has no one to use for the ritual."
"The identity of the sacrifice is easy to narrow down. Since they are to be used to resurrect the dead, the selection criteria must be strict. The person sacrificed must be strong enough—at least at the level of the Wizard Saints."
"If I were in the R-Organization, I would definitely keep this person under heavy guard in a dungeon, or brainwash them into being my most obedient subordinate, so that at the final moment, they would be willing to self-sacrifice!"
Hearing this, Chris and Brain nodded simultaneously, agreeing with Descartes' logic. Layla turned pale, while Ur and the others clicked their tongues in disgust.
"How cruel!"
"According to your theory, that 'sacrifice' has likely been raised by the R-Organization since they were children? That's no different from raising one's own child!"
"To resurrect a guy who has been dead for who knows how many years, they'd make their own 'child' sacrifice themselves... it's utterly insane and inhumane!"
Descartes looked up and scanned the group. "If those people still had any humanity left, they wouldn't have started this plan in the first place."
"That... that's a fair point..."
Serena's focus, however, was elsewhere: "By the way, does Fairy Academy actually allow the study of Dark Magic?"
Chris explained, "As long as one doesn't use Dark Magic for evil and only conducts legitimate research, we allow it! After all, sometimes you have to understand the darkness deeply to defeat it!"
Hearing this, the group from the Royal Capital Magic Academy looked at Chris with surprise. They hadn't expected this old lady to be so open-minded. Or rather, maybe it wasn't her—maybe it was the founder of Fairy Academy?
"Raising someone from a child to the level of a Wizard Saint isn't easy. It would be difficult for them to find a replacement in a short time, so we just need to take their sacrifice away. Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that they have more than one sacrifice."
Having finished that point, Descartes wrote "Destroy the Container" on the right side of the paper.
Layla looked at Descartes curiously. "The container... is what you mentioned earlier, the thing used to store the massive magic power?"
"Exactly! Since it costs a huge amount of labor to build, the largest object in the enemy's stronghold should be the container! If we destroy it, we'll buy a lot of time to dismantle the R-Organization. They won't have the resources to build another resurrection container in the same region in a short period!"
Descartes' long explanation made everyone see the light, feeling the relief of a long-awaited breakthrough. At the same time, they realized that his title as Fairy Academy's top student wasn't just for show.
Chris, looking at the confident young man, caught a glimpse of her father's shadow and felt a wave of emotion.
"The largest thing in the stronghold is the container? That's a novel idea! So, what do you think the container actually is?"
Descartes already had an answer for that as well.
"While I have a guess, it might only be confirmed once we're on-site. The Council's data says every R-Organization stronghold is built to be massive, which completely defies normal logic! Usually, if a Dark Organization wants to grow, the first thing they do is hide to evade the Council. Strongholds should be small, elite, and mobile. But the R-Organization does the opposite, building them high and large."
"If it were just one stronghold, that would be one thing, but they are all like this. That means they have a reason for it. Combined with my deduction... perhaps the container is the building itself!"
The building itself?
For a moment, it was as if fireworks were exploding in everyone's minds. The R-Organization's structures certainly fit the description of requiring vast labor, resources, and time.
Most importantly, even if someone guessed there was a "resurrection device," it would be hard to imagine a "magic container" was also needed; and even then, it would be harder to link it to the architecture. Most people would assume such a vital object was hidden deep in a core, secret room.
This way, even if a stronghold was discovered and the members captured, as long as the fact that "The building is the container" remained hidden, the structure might be preserved. Future successors of the R-Organization could then continue the work with minimal cost!
It made sense. It made perfect sense!
"I'll report this hypothesis to the Council. You all continue planning the operation to wipe out the R-Organization!" Chris returned to her desk and began tapping away furiously on her Magic Phone.
Decades had passed, but the Magic Phone had not become a widespread product. It was part technology and part magic. The tech wasn't hard to replicate with the right materials, but the magic part was the hurdle. No one could decipher the "code" Weston wrote using Super Archive, so no one could replicate it or add new features.
Thus, since Weston went into seclusion years ago, the Magic Phone had completely stopped receiving version updates. Eventually, even the factory closed down. As a result, the Magic Phone became a "limited edition" mystical item found only in the hands of a few wizards—and once one broke, there was one less in the world.