Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

Darkness was dispelled by light, and radiance spread all around.

Just as the laws of nature have revealed, the dark space was filled with scattered and surging light, which spread and rippled, relentlessly devouring everything in its path.

This dazzling power is undoubtedly formed by starlight.

This was the magic of the largest emerging base, which should have been devastating. This blow was not purification, nor forced ascension, but rather sending the kobolds back to the world they came from.

In Cialis's eyes, the evidence was that although the battle for library access had not yet reached a final conclusion, Novia and the divine body Osiris had already withdrawn from the mentally damaging battlefield.

And there lay expressionless on the ground, the disintegrating body of the divine being Osiris.

"The age of gods has ended. From now on, the human world will no longer need the immense power of the age of gods."

He smiled proudly.

"However, that statement is not entirely accurate. There is nothing that is unnecessary. As long as such threats to stability and peace still exist, they are still necessary from time to time, just like now."

"Oh, and I think that no matter what, it's fine, because the choice is yours. So as long as you don't regret it or suffer, that's all that matters."

Novia swung both hands down, and red blood dripped from his arms onto the ground. Did his expression change as he watched the blood gushing out?

Xia Li couldn't tell because the silver-haired boy's face showed no subtle changes whatsoever.

He just kept walking forward, letting the blood drip down his face.

Just as the dark miasma finally began to dissipate from sight, Novia stood outside the coffin and reached out to completely shatter the disintegrating divine body.

"Novia!"

Xia Li ran up to him.

"The contract is complete... Cialis."

Then, as if all his strength had been exhausted, his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.

012: Dean Atlas: My troublesome daughter is finally saved!

The air in Alexandria was filled with a bit of dust, and the central square was bustling with crowds.

All of this changed with the arrival of a silver-haired boy. The atmosphere became very lively, and passersby stopped and gathered in twos and threes, gradually forming a semicircle around him.

Hmm, what's with this atmosphere...?

"Everyone, it's better not to crowd around, it's easy for something to happen."

The boy's words were very effective. No one said anything more and they dispersed, but the atmosphere had become lively.

And I don't have that qualification.

After reflecting on this, 'Novia' began a strategic retreat, gradually distancing herself from the others, a departure completely different from her usual demeanor, as if she wanted to leave this place.

Novia, with just words... so easily attracted these ordinary people, and in just over ten days, she transformed this place into a completely different space.

Using magic to disguise herself as Novia, Cialis quietly glanced at the crowd in the square behind her.

Five days have passed since they left the Library of Alexandria at the bottom of the sea. Since Novia has not yet woken up, Shiary thought for a moment and decided to wait until she woke up before reporting to the Atlas Institute that they had found the forgotten lost item.

Then he remembered that Novia would wander around Alexandria almost every day, so in order not to cause him any trouble, he disguised himself as Novia.

Therefore, these past few days have been experiences she desperately wants to forget. Although she had observed them before, experiencing them firsthand felt completely different.

It's very different from memories obtained through ethereal threads. I always feel like I'm closer to others in this situation.

It was a pure warmth from people, completely different from the heat of the climate.

In short, it was lively, filled with a strong sense of joy.

"This is food, please accept it, sir."

Snapping out of her reverie, Xia Li looked at the woman before her. She vaguely remembered her; this was the mother of the little boy from five days ago.

".......I see."

Xia Li held the handmade food in her palm, and because the woman was staring at her the whole time, she could only take a small bite carefully.

"I'm sorry, sir, this took my child and me several days to make, so it may not suit your taste..."

Indeed, just looking at its appearance, it was not very interesting, and the taste was extremely ordinary, too plain. But when you see the woman's travel-worn appearance, you can tell that she has traveled a long way and suffered a lot to bring this simple thing to you.

"No, it's delicious, really delicious, I love it."

That was how Xia Li answered; she couldn't come up with anything more clever, but she felt she had conveyed the message nonetheless.

Is learning magic ultimately about escaping the fate of becoming an ordinary person, or about helping those ordinary people?

She didn't know the details, only that the research was to prevent the end of the world.

The current Dean of the Atlas Institute once told Cialis, "You are an invisible entity that extracts memories from others. You cannot perceive the ugliness of memories, nor can you resist the urge to continue extracting them. This is how you have lived your life until now. Although you are undoubtedly the next Dean, I am somewhat worried about your future."

The dean was mostly right, and Xia Li thought so too. Her previous observation of Novia was just to try to obtain his memories using the ethereal threads at the right time, since it was a reasonable ability and there was no need to doubt it.

But there's only one thing I'm wrong about: her future is absolutely without any problems, impossible, and there's no reason to believe it.

The candidate for the next dean has always held this view.

"Congratulations, you've woken up after five days."

The girl who returned to Alexander the Lamp removed her disguise, her purple hair swaying in the sea breeze.

Novia, who had woken up for some unknown reason, looked at her. Her Mediterranean blue crystal eyes reflected the azure sky and the girl before her.

"Thank you for taking care of me these past few days."

“It’s alright. Although it was a temporary contract established to conquer the Library of Alexandria, your contribution is greater than mine, so taking care of you is a must.”

"Ill-Kee said expressionlessly, her purple braids swaying in the wind against the backdrop of the lighthouse, but the way they swayed made it seem like a geometric shape," she said.

"Now that you're awake, I'll contact the Atlas Institute now to retrieve the Library of Alexandria from the seabed. As for your contributions, aside from the divine body Osiris, I will report everything else truthfully."

"You're only contacting me now? I thought you contacted me after I got out. Why did you have to wait until I woke up?"

Novia asked, somewhat puzzled. He thought that in the past five days, Cialis would have already reported the intelligence to the Atlas Institute.

“Once the contract is signed, we become allies. Although it’s temporary, I have an obligation to prioritize your life. Besides, I’ve already taken control of the Library of Alexandria’s system; it can’t escape.” A few seconds after she finished speaking, Cialis suddenly frowned her cute brows. “Please rest assured, I did not use any etheric threads on you while you were unconscious, nor did I extract any knowledge from you.”

"Okay, thank you."

"Ah."

The two then fell silent and stopped talking.

Novia listened to the sound of the tides, sometimes near, sometimes far, and saw the rhythm of the waves, rising and falling, while the masts in the distance swayed in the dazzling sea breeze of the Mediterranean.

At that moment, he overheard a conversation between Cialis and someone from Atlas Academy, who seemed to be a relative.

"Dean, I've already written the details in the report. You can just take a look. There's no need to spend so many resources on long-distance communication; the losses are too severe."

The girl said coldly.

"Ha, it's just a pharaoh's ruins. Let's not talk about that for now. Tell me properly, what are the rules of the institute? Someone who has gone out on his own initiative for more than half a year without reporting to the institute once a month, how are you doing? Tell me."

“I have already been granted the status and rights of an instructor! In short, whether it was my own decision or not has nothing to do with you. Even if you are my adoptive father, you have no right to do this.”

"Um......"

Seeing the girl's attitude suddenly change from being like a machine, Novia nodded. Although she was a magician, this was the kind of person she could be approached normally.

Seeing the silver-haired boy's appearance, Xia Li seemed to realize that she had lost control of her emotions, coughed, and continued speaking.

"I'm sorry, but this is not the original target Pharaoh Leopolda's ruins. It is the Library of Alexandria, which was built by the Atlas branch and Pharaoh Ptolemy and is located on the seabed. I and a magician conquered it together. The details are written in the report."

"Wait!" The dean seemed to have heard something extraordinary and shouted immediately, "You mean, you didn't take this place by yourself? You reached the agreement with others, and without using the ethereal connection for normal communication?!"

"Yes."

Although she couldn't understand why the dean was so excited, Xia Li still spoke earnestly.

"Good, good, good! Quickly bring that person to the Atlas Academy. I want to meet this person who has been such a great help to our academy!"

013: The old dean of the Atlas Academy, in charge of opening back doors

The Atlas Academy, a group of alchemists that existed before the Common Era and was located at the foot of the Atlas Mountains in Egypt.

"Welcome, Your Excellency Novia from the Anatolia province of the Roman Empire."

At its center lies a space nearly the size of a city, and although it is underground, it features an artificial sky.

Judging from the environment Novia observed, this place was indeed an academy, with everything a person needed and that was essential for life.

A few days ago, after hearing the dean's words, Novia thought about it and returned with Cialis, who was going back to report on the situation.

It has to be said that if it weren't for the special guidance, Novia would have been trapped here long ago, since going down only leads to two paths, but going back leads to three paths.

This is normal. The Atlas Institute is more afraid of internal personnel leaving than external personnel entering. Things made here must never be taken outside. This is a fundamental principle of the Atlas Institute, unless there is a contract.

Novia has something to be proud of in order to have entered a place that is jokingly called a "living hell" where there is absolutely no communication with the outside world and it is said that not even light can escape.

"Your Excellency Dean, I wish you good health."

At this moment, the silver-haired boy was facing the dean of the Atlas Academy alone.

Theoretically speaking, the Atlas Academy is a group of magicians with poor magic circuits, but the feeling that the dean gave Novia was no less than that of the god Osiris whom she had encountered before. Indeed, as the leader of the academy, who is constantly destroying and forging weapons, he cannot be ordinary.

"No need for formalities." The dean's gaze first fell on Novia, then shifted to the books beside her. "I am very grateful for your help with Cialis. To be honest, what kind of person do you think she is?"

"My understanding of her can be divided into two stages. The first stage was that she was a good person, but not a human being."

Novia believed that treating such elderly people with sincerity was far better than hiding them with superficial gentleness, and the dean probably understood this much better than Novia.

"You're absolutely right about that."

On that very first day, Novia thought that Cialis was a thorough rationalist who held the belief that 'the result of calculation is everything,' and that her serious and logical thinking was actually just a summary of information obtained by using alchemical ether threads to pierce other people's brains. She always acted in the manner of an average human and regarded this information as common sense in human society.

She would do good in a broad sense, but she would never do evil in a broad sense. Although she was subconsciously aware of her abnormality, she never confronted it.

This is also why the dean is worried about her future. Xia Li is too prone to extremes. Her common sense is nothing more than information plundered using the Ether Thread. Once exposed under certain circumstances, the impact could be enormous.

"In the second phase, she is a good person who is facing the truth."

“That’s absolutely right.” The dean turned the pages of the book with his aged fingers. “It’s precisely because you were able to make a difference to her that I’m grateful to you.”

Otherwise, how could you have gotten in here? You made a mess of the underwater Library of Alexandria and even got Cialis to lie to you.

The dean remained expressionless, but inwardly he clicked his tongue. With Hermes the Three-Pointed, concealing the truth was simply impossible for him.

However, although he regretted the destruction of Osiris's divine body, he also had a slight appreciation for Novia's rejection of powerful forces. Although she was not from the Atlas Academy and was a believer in God, he admired her spirit of disdain for external power!

Although the divine body has many problems, it is enough to allow a magic family to continue for more than a thousand years, just because it can briefly obtain the incomplete power of the gods after the end of the Age of Gods.

Novia had initially considered using Osiris's divine body to feign divine intervention, but then she thought that since she was outwardly a Christian, even if using the power of the Egyptian gods might not be entirely appropriate, she could still use the story of being defeated by the "Ten Plagues" and turning into fermented bean curd to justify it.

However, he abandoned the idea after seeing that Osiris's divine body had developed an independent consciousness. He didn't want any crisis to arise because of him. If it weren't for the fact that the divine body Osiris was too eager to seize the library's system and his soul had entered it, Novia and Cialis would never have been able to deal with it so easily.

"Oh, right, as a reward for finding the lost item for our institute, I will allow you to use the Trident Hermes once." Then, the dean stood up and walked to a room with deep shadows extending to the side. "Ah, I'm getting old. How could I forget where I put the bottle? There's a drop of healing water in there. How strange. I'll go find it. Go ahead and use it. After you use it, something will guide you out."

"this........"

Just as the silver-haired boy was about to say something, he discovered that the dean had vanished in a flash, leaving only the bottle on the table.

Dean, I think I will never forget your kindness in my life.

Novia casually swiped the trident Hermes and headed straight for it. This was the largest recording medium in the Atlas Institute, collecting, distinguishing, and recording a great deal of information on Earth. You could get an answer simply by entering a question.

"Successfully executing the Dean's authority once. Inquire now."

"Bird that flies through the underworld, please answer my question—"

Suddenly, Novia didn't know what she wanted to ask, so she stood there for more than ten minutes, hesitating as if she were thinking about what to eat for lunch.

Finally, the silver-haired boy sighed, smiled, asked the three-pointed Hermes a question, and even used his dean's authority to leave a comment on that question.

"Well, see you next time."

After shouting into the empty square, Novia left the Atlas Court without hesitation, preparing to return to Rome.

.......

"He really only asked one question? Isn't that a bit too honest? Are all believers like this?" The old dean glanced at the record, both pleased and somewhat displeased. "Let me see what question this kid asked..."

However, just one glance left the dean speechless, because the problem was—

Who is Novia?

To be honest, the old dean had never seen such a wasteful fellow, using such an opportunity to ask irrelevant questions, so he couldn't help but sigh repeatedly.