When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Looking at the motionless gear, Horn climbed onto the stage and reached out to touch it, trying to turn it.

No matter how hard Horn tried, the gear remained immobile, as if it were not the same gear that had been motionless when the handle turned just moments ago.

"It's truly fascinating."

No matter how bewildered Horn felt, the phenomenon was right in front of him, and no matter how irrational it seemed, it was part of this world's functioning.

However, he still believed in the conservation of matter; there must be something about this Starrcast gear that he didn't understand.

At this point, Hilov, observing Horn standing in front of the gear deep in thought, gradually started to understand.

Her initial mindset of flaunting a toy gradually faded as she started to seriously explain to Horn.

"Don't look at it as moving out of thin air; it can rotate because I'm also turning the handle." Hilov turned her wheelchair towards him, "When I rotate the handle, you can consider the Starrcast gear as a small gear with a weight only a tenth of its original or even almost none.

As for the other gears in contact with the Starrcast gear, it remains the same fast and heavy gear."

This only left Horn more puzzled; the problem was that the energy input was less than the energy output. Who's going to compensate for the missing energy?

"You have gears running at such high speed, but the input only provides enough energy to turn a small gear, like putting a drop of water into a pool and ending up with a basin full of water..." Horn suddenly stopped speaking.

If placing one drop of water into a pool resulted in a basin full of water, then in such a scenario, either there was another water inlet, or the pool already contained water.

When using the copper rod from the mountain, he encountered a similar question, with Horn diagnosing it as "the potential energy loss of the copper rod from the mountain was considerable, but the user's mana compensated for it."

Could it be that the Starrcast gear shares the same properties?

But when he just turned the handle, he didn't feel any mana loss.

"I'm asking you, does this gear's operation require mana consumption?"

"Yes, and no." Hilov laid the long wolf tail over her thigh, continuing to explain.

This Starrcast gear was one of Hilov's foster mother's great alchemical inventions, originally intended as a water pump to help drain swamps, but for unknown reasons, it was never implemented.

According to Hilov, as an alchemical artifact, the Starrcast gear's alchemical reaction takes place during its rotation.

Although the mana required is slightly higher than fluorite, it indeed requires mana. In other words, if it were an ordinary person, they wouldn't be able to turn this handle at all.

"But our mana is far from adequate to turn it, right?"

"Let me give you an analogy; the mana you provide is merely a spark, but what's truly igniting the flame is the wood beneath."

"Are you saying the gear itself stores energy?"

"Correct." Hilov's tail started wagging, "The wood you refer to, the water in the pool, are known as ether."

"Ether?!" Patrick's suppressed scream came from behind.

Horn quickly turned his head for a brief glance: "Master Chrispa, do you know what ether is?"

To this day, Horn still calls Patrick "Master Chrispa" because if you call him by his real name, he simply won't respond, as though his identity wasn't revealed.

"Ether is a conjecture proposed by the Scales Hermitage, but..."

Seeing Patrick with a hesitant expression, Horn refrained from further questioning, planning to privately inquire later as the most critical matter at present was the Starrcast gear.

"So where does ether come from? How does it enter the Starrcast gear?"

"Ether comes from the astral realm. Our material world exists within the astral realm; we're constantly permeated by ether, but extracting and refining it requires extremely precise timing, location, and conditions.

If you want to know the details, we can have a tea talk, and we can discuss it slowly then."

Turning the hand wheel, Hilov slowly moved towards the door: "As for how it is stored within the Starrcast gear, what do you think the tower outside is used for?"

.........

After confirming that Ah Fu was unharmed, Hilov led Horn and the others to the door of the tower.

At this moment, numerous marks of knife slashes and axe chops had appeared on the door, but regardless of how they attacked it, even using a clockwork gun, they could not breach the iron door.

Curiously, apart from the gargoyle relief in the center, there were no keyholes or mechanisms.

So how to open the door? Horn lowered his head to look at Hilov's erect wolf ears.

"Horn, push me to the door."

Pushing the wheelchair to the door, Hilov nonchalantly extended her hand into the gargoyle's mouth.

In the deep stone mouth, Horn seemed to catch a cold light flash briefly, and as Hilov withdrew her hand, red droplets of blood appeared on the fingertip of her index finger.

Grasping the gargoyle's chin, Hilov gave a gentle push, and the heavy, tall iron door slowly rose with the turning of chains.

It was as easy as pushing a rolling door.

She extended a slender tongue, licked away the blood droplet, and the slight cut on her fingertip quickly healed: "Only my mother and I can open this door. Hmm, I wonder how those Demon Hunters opened it back then, perhaps they used my mother's blood?"

Before Hilov and Horn entered, a group of soldiers entered first, thoroughly searching inside and out.

However, this time Victor didn't dare to guarantee anything. If a vampire suddenly jumped out halfway, he'd have to say goodbye to his position as Legion Commander.

He still wanted to advance further.

Confirming that the first floor was safe, Horn and his group entered the tall, slender spire.

The entire spire appeared to be constructed of marble, and the first floor was about a hundred square meters, but without shared spaces, it didn't seem small.

In the center of the black, red, and white granite floor was a pool with a radius of around two meters.

Since there were no windows on the first floor, everything was shrouded in fog-like darkness, the only light being the vertical light beams from tiny holes in the ceiling.

Sitting at the center of the floor, that slender light beam seemed to support the entire level.

The pool water reflected shimmering ripples, rolling over the vaulted structure of the walls, tapestries, and Gothic columns.

However, Horn and the others did not linger long but pushed Hilov up the spiral ramp to the second floor.

The second floor no longer had elaborately decorated walls, only a circular arc of bookshelves along the walls, with few books inside, some even bearing burn marks.

"Those Demon Hunters did this." Hilov said coldly, her tail straightened and lowered, "I've memorized all those books. If there were enough paper, the shelves here could be half-full."

Pushing Hilov up to the third floor, unlike the light beams of the first and second levels, the third floor to the top of the tower no longer had any other floors.

Though it was daytime outside, there was still a pale light falling from the top of the tower and the tall windows beside it.

Horn estimated the distance; from the third to the top floor was about fifty to sixty meters, and there seemed to be an astronomical observatory made of brass and iron frames and transparent glass.

From the third floor to the top, there were rows of fluorite descending in a spiral, and in the center of the third floor was a black base not made of iron or wood.

"There was originally an Obsidian Pyramid here, but the Demon Hunters took it away."

Grasping the hand wheel circle and pushing hard, Hilov reached the vicinity of the pyramid's base.

She looked up, sunlight filtered through gray clouds, turning into transparent white light that sprinkled on her face.

"When I was little, I saw them refining aether to forge star-casting gears.

But since the pyramid was taken and ritual data was erased and burned, how to forge these gears became an unsolved mystery. I have not been able to replicate it to this day."

Walking around the room, Horn's fingers brushed the smooth wall, which bore mottled scorch marks—not so much burn marks as they were laser-like burns.

"How do these star-casting gears get infused with aether?"

"Hmm..." Hilov lowered her head, finger pointing to the observatory above, "You need to first calculate the time and position of the alignment of stars, then adjust the telescope to the correct position.

If starlight can pass through the telescope and shine on the pyramid unobstructed, you then proceed with the [Aether Pump] alchemical ritual. The aether from the astral realm will pour into the material realm via starlight as the conduit.

The aether enters through the Obsidian Pyramid, and even this base can work, reaching the lunar pool below. The star-casting gears placed in the moon well will gradually absorb the formless aether."

Aether, truly fascinating.

Running his hand over the pyramid base, Horn suddenly felt a bit wistful; if only star-casting gears could be mass-produced.

Jeanne leaned up to the base, turning her head upward: "Then can these star-casting gears be used continuously like this?"

"Of course not." Hilov caressed the wolf tail on her thigh, "This aether depletes after some time, so the star-casting gears must be recharged in the moon well at regular intervals.

The next alignment of stars is in ten days; I'll demonstrate for you then."