Asura in Arknights

Chapter Seventy: Sarkaz Ritual

On the other side, at the temporary residence of the three apostles.

After dealing with the pursuers from the Unarmored Alliance, they finally had a relatively peaceful period.

During this time, Margaret took her sister with her to investigate intelligence. Since they were going to contact some former employees of Pol Pharmaceuticals, it was not a problem to bring Maria along.

Shining stayed in the room with Liz to rest, waiting for the next opportunity to infiltrate Paul's Pharmaceuticals. She had left in a hurry last time, and if she could go in and investigate again, she might find something else.

As for Adele… unfortunately, she's been temporarily 'confined' by Shining, because no one can say for sure whether the Hurricane Knight will interfere with their plans… Shining plans to apologize to her properly later.

Although she was under house arrest, Adele didn't receive any special treatment; she was simply not allowed to leave Shining's sight at will. Naturally, her work at Nearl Manor could not continue.

Therefore, during this period of time, Adele could only slowly repair the notebook left behind by her father.

Adele had already completed the most difficult task at Lightside Manor. All that remained was to use a few specially formulated potions to clean the various stains off the notebook so that she could find out what her father had left in it.

During this process, Shining also helped Adele a lot.

When the contents of the notebook were fully displayed before Adele, she was plunged into even greater confusion—nearly half of the contents were written in a script Adele had never seen before.

Adele had come into contact with the world's major language systems to varying degrees, but she was completely unfamiliar with these letters and could only barely make out that it was a very ancient hieroglyphic script.

A few days ago, accompanied by Shining, Adele went back to her room and carefully went through the notes left by her father. It was then that Adele made an amazing discovery.

A large portion of her father’s previously unpublished private notes were written in this script, something Adele had never known before.

After organizing these notes, Adele discovered that this shift had likely begun about ten years ago.

Ten years ago, Professor Nauman's notes had a gap of about three months, and since then, this kind of writing has appeared more frequently in the notes.

Professor Nauman seemed to be on guard against something; aside from the trivialities of daily life, he recorded a lot of important information in this script.

To Adele's dismay, she couldn't find a dictionary among these notes to translate them, so she had no way of deciphering what message Professor Nauman had left for her.

Just when Adele was at her wits' end, she received unexpected help from Shining.

"funeral oration?"

After accidentally seeing the notebook in Adele's hand, Shining revealed the true name of the script with a surprised expression.

“Sister Shining, do you recognize this script?” Adele pleaded with Shining as if she had grasped at a straw. “Please! This is a notebook my father left me before he passed away. I want to know what he wrote.”

Shining didn't think for long before agreeing to Adele's request.

"...This is a ritual inscription, a very ancient Sarkaz script, generally used only in important sacrificial ceremonies. This script is said to contain special power; long, long ago, only wizards, priests, and a very small portion of the Sarkaz royal family were qualified to master it." Shining's eyes flickered. "I never expected to see this script here. What exactly did your father do?"

“My father… he was just an ordinary volcanologist.”

After learning about the peculiarities of this script, Adele became somewhat uncertain.

When they lived in Letania, they hardly ever saw any Sarkaz people, let alone came into contact with this ancient script that existed only in legends.

"Then... Sister Shining, do you recognize this script?" Adele asked, somewhat unwillingly.

“I only recognize a small portion of it. After all, it’s not a ritual, so there’s no reason for me to specifically learn this script,” Shining replied.

She was just a soldier, and perhaps half a doctor. Because of her identity, Shining had come into contact with some of these kinds of texts, but she had never studied them in depth.

"Forget it, let me take a look for you, but I can't guarantee how many I can recognize."

Adele obediently handed the notebook to Shining, but Shining had only been looking at it for a short while when her eyebrows furrowed.

The eulogy written in the notebook wasn't complicated; over 90% of the Shining recognized it. However, when she translated it, it turned out to be a jumble of incoherent words, making it impossible to understand what it was trying to express.

At this point, Shining understood that Adele's father had used at least two encryption methods. She could translate the Sarkaz inscriptions, but she was unaware of the second encryption method.

Adele appeared extremely frustrated after learning this conclusion.

Perhaps out of a sense of compensation, Shining spent several days writing down all the sacrificial texts she knew, compiling them into a simple dictionary, and then gave it to Adele.

"This dictionary should be enough for you for a while. It's unbelievable... that there are other people who can master this level of Sarkaz incantation." Shining's tone was somewhat complicated.

The Sarkaz race is in decline. Few of them are literate, let alone able to read the obscure Sarkaz incantations. Now, someone from another race has mastered this script. I wonder where he learned it.

"Then, Sister Shining, where should we look if we want to find someone who understands this kind of writing?"

“It’s getting late.” Shining shook his head and replied in a very complicated tone, “A few years ago, there were still a few people in Kazdel who understood this script, but now the Kazdel Royal Court has disintegrated, and who knows where those people have ended up.”

"If you really want to find it, you can try to look for those ancient Sarkaz bloodlines scattered in the corners of this world: Carrion Eaters, Blood Demons, Leshens, Banshees, Enchanters, Wraiths... The older the bloodline, the more likely it is to preserve related knowledge."

“And…” Shining suddenly stopped speaking.

Under Adele's expectant gaze, Shining continued somewhat helplessly, "You could also try to find an organization called 'Tower of Babel'."

"If they hadn't fallen apart, you could have found the right people there."

Chapter 71 The Actions of the Apostles

For the next period of time, while her teacher Shining was still by her side, Adele worked overtime to learn about Sarkaz incantations. After parting ways with Shining, it wouldn't be easy to find someone who understood this script, so Adele wouldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Their relentless drive was something that would make anyone envious.

Although Professor Nauman combined the two methods to encrypt the notes, this method was not absolutely secure. After some time, Adele finally made some progress—

From Professor Nauman's last notebook, Adele discovered a place name: Sami.

And from the Sarkaz incantations, she also found a corresponding adjective: the land of extreme cold.

If nothing unexpected happens, Professor Nauman's last stop before he is assassinated will be this country located at the far corner of the world map.

"Father, Mother... what are you going to that place for?"

It was then that Adele realized she knew very little about her parents’ activities in recent years. She only knew that they were traveling all over the world conducting very important research, but she had no idea where they had gone or what they had investigated.

Sami is a small country located at the far north of Terra, bordering the Ursus Empire. It is not even too far from Kazimir; one can reach the border of Sami by crossing the vast red pine forest north of Kazimir.

Adele had absolutely no idea why her parents went there.

The environment there is appallingly harsh, with temperatures remaining below zero year-round, sometimes reaching as low as minus seventy degrees Celsius. Blizzards can last for weeks on end, making it completely unsuitable for long-term human habitation. It is so harsh that even Ursus abandoned its plans to invade, and only the Sami people would live in such a hellish place.

Simply put, it should have been a place completely unrelated to 'volcanoes', but according to the notes, Professor Nauman did stay there for a long time.

Should she tell Leon about this? Adele suddenly hesitated, two completely opposite thoughts clashing fiercely in her mind.

Just as Adele was struggling with her inner turmoil, the door to the house was suddenly flung open, and someone's loud shouting completely interrupted her thoughts.

"I'm back!"

“Maria, be quiet,” Margaret snapped from the side.

Maria stuck out her tongue, completely ignoring her sister's scolding, and turned to run to Adele's side.

Seeing this, Margaret could only shake her head helplessly.

Maria ran to Adele's side and gave Margaret a sly look. Seeing that Margaret wasn't paying attention to her, she lowered her voice and said, "Eyjafjalla, are you really okay here? Maybe I should ask my sister to talk to you and let you go back."

Maria wanted to spend more time with her sister, so it was fine, but Adele was an outsider who had been completely dragged into this, and she had felt a little guilty these past few days.

“It’s alright, Shining took good care of me,” Adele shook her head and replied with a smile.

"Shining? When did you two become so close?" Maria looked at Adele with some surprise.

"Hehe..." Adele smiled a little shyly, "Anyway, thank you for your kindness. I still have some things I want to ask Sister Shining, so I don't plan to go back for the time being."

"...Alright, since you insist."

……

While Maria and Adele were whispering to each other, Margaret found Shining and reported on her day's events.

"So, what did you learn?"

“I’m sorry… to be honest, no.” Margaret said with a wry smile, “Maria and I visited everyone else on the list, but none of them had any relevant information.”

In fact, Margaret's part of the mission was completed a long time ago. She was unwilling to accept this result, so she took Maria and visited everyone on the list again.

It was precisely because of Margaret's unnecessary actions that they gained something new. However, this was also closely related to the sisters' image; for most people, a pair of energetic Kuranta sisters were easier to approach than a Sarkaz woman with a perpetually gloomy face.

"However, they mentioned that on the top floor of the Pol Pharmaceuticals R&D Center, there is a dedicated office for the director of the R&D center, where most of the information should be available."

After saying that, Margaret described the exact location of the office to Shining.

Shining recalled that when she infiltrated, time was of the essence, and she only had time to loot the main control computers of several large laboratories. She didn't have time to search each office one by one, and that happened to be one of the many offices she missed.

"It seems... we have no choice but to try to get there again," Shining said with a hint of helplessness. "At least this time we have a clear goal, and we don't have to run around like headless flies."

After saying this, the two looked at each other and sighed in unison.

This time, the intrusion was truly a forced entry. They would likely face the entire security force of a commercial company. Even with confidence in their abilities, they couldn't help but feel apprehensive.

"I'll contact my informant and see if there's a suitable opportunity recently."

"Is this person reliable?" Margaret frowned. She had never heard Shining mention anything about informants before.

“There shouldn’t be any problem,” Shining replied. “He was the one who provided the route I first used to infiltrate Paul’s Pharmaceuticals.”

After hearing what Shining said, Margaret didn't press the matter further. Since Shining had succeeded once, it meant that this informant could be trusted for the time being.

Shining then took out her phone and dialed a number. After the phone rang once, she quickly hung up and waited quietly for the other party to call back.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, a call came back.

As soon as the call connected, Shining said, "Hello, it's me. I'd like to know if there's a suitable opportunity recently."

The person spoke very softly, and even Margaret, who was standing right next to him, couldn't tell what the other person was saying. She could only see a clear change in emotion on Shining's expressionless face.

"What did you say? Are you sure?"

"...I understand, thank you for the news."

After Shining hung up the phone, Margaret hurriedly asked, "What happened? What's wrong?"

"An accident occurred at the research and development center of Boll Pharmaceuticals, and the data was very likely stolen."

Chapter Seventy-Two: Swords Drawn and Bows Extended

"Wait, what happened?" Margaret asked, completely bewildered.

Margaret had no idea what had happened based on Shining's brief two sentences alone.

"There's no time to explain. Come with me now, and I'll explain in detail on the way," Shining said quickly. "Also, remember to bring your weapons."

Upon hearing what Shining said, Margaret understood the seriousness of the situation. Without asking any further questions, she took off her camouflage plastic armor and put on her well-worn metal armor.

After organizing the equipment, Margaret glanced at Maria and Adele beside her. "What are we going to do with those two?"

Shining hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Take them with you. A conflict... that's the worst outcome, and we should try to avoid that."

“Alright.” Margaret nodded, then called out to Maria on the other side, “Maria! Stop playing around and pack your gear. We have things to do. If you’re slow, I might not wait for you.”

"Okay, sister, I'll be right there!" Upon hearing that there was something she needed to do with her, Maria didn't ask what it was, and cheerfully went to pack her things.

As Maria ran off to change her gear, Margaret turned to Adele and said, "And Miss Eyjafjalla, you're coming with us this time too."

"Huh? Am I going too?" Adele pointed to herself, somewhat surprised.

"Yes, that's what Shining means."

Adele glanced at Shining, who was adjusting Liz's clothes, and seemed to understand something, so she nodded silently.

-------------------------------------

"Okay, now can you tell me what happened?"

Because Liz was unable to move easily, Shining simply carried her on her back and led the way ahead of everyone else. Margaret followed beside Shining, while Maria and Adele trailed a little further behind them.

Shining silently processed the information he had just received and said, "My informant told me that a major accident occurred at the research center. The equipment in the core laboratory was almost completely destroyed, and more than thirty researchers died."

“This incident has caused quite a stir, and my informant was just one person,”

"After that, someone saw a survivor hurriedly leaving the industrial park of Bohr Pharmaceuticals. It is very likely that he took something out secretly during the experimental accident."

"Are you so sure that the person brought out the information we're looking for?" Margaret asked.

"Whatever he takes away, we cannot miss this opportunity."

Shining said these words with a heavy heart. If they didn't succeed this time, they might never be able to completely cure Liz's chronic illness.

"Liz, how are you feeling right now? Should we slow down a bit?" Shining asked Liz, who was clinging to his back.

"I'm fine," Liz replied softly.

"If you feel unwell, please be sure to tell me," Shining instructed. "We may need to rely on Liz's power next, so please don't push yourself too hard."

Liz nodded slightly.

At this moment, Margaret interjected, "Shining, tell me honestly, do you know who took the data?"