In the darkness, he felt two hands grab him simultaneously, and Nightingale's alert voice also rang out, "What's going on?"
"The illusions generated by this sigil directly affect the eyes," Agatha explained, "On the surface, it looks like everyone has disappeared, but it doesn't actually affect reality. We are still standing in our original positions."
"If you don't want to watch, you can simply step backward out of the range of the sigil's effect," Isabella added.
Sure enough, before long, the darkness gradually faded, revealing the transparent glass dome, marble floor, and spacious round conference table. Then came the witches wearing Federation-style robes, with the fiery red-haired Starfall Queen prominently among them—even though more than four hundred years had passed, everyone's image was so lifelike, even the teacups on the table were steaming, as if that moment in history had been fixed and was now being replayed.
If such a thing existed in his previous life, those historians who stared at the dirt, turning it over and over just to find one or two fragments of inscribed text, would surely have cried with emotion.
Seeing that there was no danger, one hand released him, while the other not only didn't let go but instead slid downward, interlocking his fingers tightly.
Roland immediately knew who it was.
He raised the corners of his mouth, squeezed the soft hand, and shifted his gaze to the center of the illusion.
Isabella's activation sequence was clearly from near to far, and the locations displayed in the illusion changed from the escape route to Taqila, and then from Taqila to Fallen Star City. Apart from Akaliss getting younger and younger, the witches who appeared changed batch after batch, and even a few familiar faces were hard to see—undoubtedly, in this protracted and cruel war, the Federation suffered extreme losses, and few high-ranking officials survived until the eve of the escape.
This was also a flaw in the Witch Empire's own system. The more powerful one was, the higher the status they obtained. It sounded like there was nothing wrong, but when the war broke out, these high-ranking officials had to personally face the enemy on the battlefield, rather than sitting in the rear commanding the overall situation. Roland had heard Agatha say that Akaliss advanced to become extraordinary in an extremely dangerous battle, and she had experienced many such battles in her life as ruler. In other words, if she wasn't careful, the history of the Federation...even all of humanity would have to be rewritten.
Even the head of the Three Chiefs was like this, let alone other high-ranking officials?
But in fact, this was very detrimental to cultivating leaders—a new soldier only needed to survive one or two battles and lick a few mouthfuls of blood to transform into a veteran, but a general needed several battles and the deaths of tens of millions of people to truly mature. Leading the charge was indeed the best way to boost morale, but that was only a choice to be considered when it was absolutely necessary. If everything went smoothly, even without boosting morale, the soldiers would still fight with high morale.
Generals and soldiers were not equivalent—when facing a total war that required people to be treated as consumables, such a practice was really undesirable.
Roland didn't expect to find any earth-shattering secrets from the sigil. The successive Popes should have repeatedly examined the contents of these illusions. If there were really records about the origin of Divine Will or the essence of Divine Artifacts, the Church wouldn't have fallen to its current state. His purpose this time, apart from satisfying his curiosity, was to learn from history and see if he could gain some experience for himself.
And the actual situation was about the same as he had thought. The pictures recorded mostly major meetings, festivals, and wartime mobilizations. Only at such times was it worth using magic stone sigils.
According to Agatha, sigils that could maintain their effect for a long time were all very valuable.
The illusion quickly played to the last one—whether it was Akaliss or the other two Chiefs, they had all disappeared from the image, replaced by a group of older witches wearing colorful costumes, and the picture was no longer as clear as before.
Agatha let out a soft "Eh," "Who are these people..."
"The early founders of the Federation?" Phyllis continued.
"Who's that?" Roland raised his eyebrows.
"The extraordinary witches who survived after the First Battle of Divine Will. They were the ones who established the predecessor of the Federation. Look at the table, could this scene be..." Phyllis said in surprise.
"It should be right," Agatha's voice was also filled with joy, "I never thought I would be able to see the famous Three Kings Oath with my own eyes!"
Roland suddenly felt confused. He also tried to look closely, but found that what was written were magic characters, and only witches could understand their meaning.
"Can someone explain what this oath is for?"
"Let me," Agatha's voice came from the front, "It can be regarded as a landmark event in the Federation's transition from loose to unified, and it's something that almost every awakened witch has to learn. After the First Battle of Divine Will, the Federation, which was controlled by witches, was declared established, but at that time there were still many voices within, whether it was about the way to rule ordinary people or the strategy to fight against demons. Such disputes lasted for many years, until three forces stood out, becoming more and more powerful, and finally overwhelmed the other lords and city-states, constructing an organizational structure proposed by many people and adjudicated by the Three Chiefs."
"Are they Fallen Star City, Taqila, and Annelise?" Nightingale asked.
"That's right. Due to the special nature of these three holy cities, their lords are often crowned with the title of Queen," Agatha replied, "For example, Meteor Queen Akaliss, Sun Chaser Queen Nataya, and Moonlight Queen Eleanor were the last Three Chiefs of the Federation."
So that's how it is, Roland thought. To the witches of that era, the Three Kings Oath was probably as important as the founding of a nation, meaning that the Federation had transformed from a pan-alliance organization into a political entity. No wonder Agatha and Phyllis were so excited. From a historical point of view, it was equally significant. Although the Federation ultimately ended in failure, without the Three Chiefs system, I'm afraid the Second Battle of Divine Will would have been lost even faster, and there wouldn't have been so many witches who took "Resisting Demons, Restoring Taqila" as their lifelong belief.
But these weren't so attractive to him. While lost in thought, Roland shifted his attention to the details of the projection—such as the witches' clothing, the cups and pens they used, and the decorations in the hall. Since it was separated from the Akaliss era by hundreds of years, the furnishings were obviously much more shabby. It was clear that after the failure of the First Battle of Divine Will, these witches' territories were still in a state of disrepair.
On the walls of the conference hall, he also saw more than a dozen portraits, and there were actually two men among them, probably outstanding heroes of the war era.
It could be seen that at that time, the Federation had not completely regarded ordinary people as inferior people. Even in such an important meeting, the figures of male compatriots could still be seen.
Just as Roland was about to ask Agatha if she knew the names of these people, he suddenly felt all the blood in his body freeze.
An indescribable chill rose from the soles of his feet, instantly piercing through his spine. Because the horror came too intensely, a series of goosebumps even appeared on his arms, and his fingertips trembled slightly.
"What's wrong?" Anna immediately noticed his abnormality.
"That...that painting..." Roland swallowed hard and said with difficulty.
"Painting?"
"The person in the painting...I've seen him."
It took him a long time to say this sentence completely—although the clarity of the illusion was not as good as before, he could still distinguish the outline of the person in the second-to-last painting. It was a young woman with unremarkable appearance, black hair tied on top of her head, one eye covered with an eye patch, and sitting upright on a high-backed chair with her hands crossed.
Her appearance was exactly the same as Lan, Garcia's master in the dream world!