I will be crowned king

The moment he heard the excited shouts of the black mage, Anson immediately realized that something serious was going to happen - the thing he least wanted to see and least expected to happen happened.

Countless shadows rushed toward the petite figure from the spiral corridor. Lisa, who was yelling and running wildly, was like a sword cutting through all the darkness and illusion, tearing all the weirdness in front of her into pieces.

No, it wasn't torn apart... Anson's wide-open eyes flashed with astonishment, and those illusions were fragmented and disintegrated as they approached her.

Crazy wails and shrill screams echoed in the air, and the endless spiral corridor returned to its original appearance around her.

At that moment, the stunned Ansen suddenly thought of a lot and figured out a lot.

But he no longer cared about thinking of a perfect plan - the moment he turned back, Anson suddenly discovered that Mace Honnard had disappeared.

Lawrence, who was forced back by the sound of mental shock, knelt down on one knee in pain. The blood vessels in his head and neck bulged one by one, and blood overflowed from his nostrils and ear holes. But the moment he lowered his head, the black mage in front of him did not No trace.

The hallucination that flashed before my eyes like it didn't exist at all...disappeared.

not good!

“Lisa—get out of the way!”

The running girl didn't think at all. She jumped up on the spot, turned around and fell forward on her back. The Bolny rifle in her hand made a crisp and elegant bolt sound.

"boom!"

The screaming lead bullet penetrated the suddenly flashing Mace Honard, leaving a scar deeply visible on his shoulder; but there was no pain or anger on the black mage's face, only excitement to the point of madness. of joy.

"Sure enough, only the blood of the apostles can resist mental control from low-level people..." Mace Hornard, who was still murmuring with an excited expression, stretched out his right hand towards Lisa with a hideous blood hole still left. :

"You're not Lisa Bach, you're Lisa August!"

"You...you are the blood magic apostle who died three hundred years ago in the saints' calendar, the last blood descendant of 'August'!"

The girl with big frightened eyes looked at the hand reaching towards her; while she moved her body back in panic, she dropped the Borni rifle and pulled out the revolver from her arms.

"Ahhhhhhhhh...die!"

The revolver gushing out of the gunfire roared in fear, and the lead bullets penetrated Mace Honnard's body one after another. Countless shadows were like demons caught in the torrent, gathering and hovering at his feet. .

The endless spiral corridor gradually collapsed, and the flickering kerosene lamps were constantly swallowed up by shadows, replaced by invisible darkness.

Darkness...is the original and deepest fear.

The frightened Lisa screamed loudly and fired the last round of ammunition in the magazine with her eyes closed.

Gun flames exuding a scorching breath surged out of the smoke, and the whirling lead bullets spread their golden-red wings in the air, like a nirvana phoenix, turning into a spiral storm of flames and rushing towards the oncoming black tide.

Cursed magic, [Rising Fire]!

"boom--!"

The flames burst, and all the shadows and darkness turned into dissipated ashes in the light of distorted reality, leaving only the blazing sea of ​​fire.

At that moment, Lisa, who felt the light, immediately opened her eyes wide and turned to look behind her; the pale Anson stood there with his open right hand stretched forward.

As an advanced magic of [Concentrated Flame], the biggest advantage of [Rising Fire] is that it can directly create and control a ball of flame within the casting distance without rubbing or touching it. Its power is linked to the preparation time.

The only pity is that I got this spell too late. After spending a day and a half to master it, I didn't have time to prepare too much. Otherwise, I wouldn't be so passive.

Anson, who broke free from the shackles of the shadow, barely stood still and looked at Mace Honnard who was trapped in the fire; behind the monocle under the top hat, a pair of blood-red pupils passed through the sea of ​​fire and darkness, and met his own eyes. See.

boom--

Almost as soon as they looked at each other, Anson felt obvious dizziness, as if a sharp blade had pierced his mind, and his head felt as painful as if it was about to explode.

If he hadn't experienced countless painful experiences when his "power" was activated, and if there was at least twenty steps between the two of them, he would have been in pain to the point of losing consciousness.

"Don't look away!"

The moment Anson subconsciously dodged, Lawrence's shout came from behind:

"Look into his eyes and bear the pain!"

"Look at him so that he can hide in front of you and not be confused by false illusions!"

"If you want to defeat the nightmare, you must look directly at it!"

Anson was shocked and his eyes widened immediately, Mace Honnard's crazy smile was reflected in his pupils; dozens of steps away, the fear that penetrated into the bone marrow seemed to make all this very close.

Lawrence, dressed in black, rushed out from behind him, aiming the ax gun in his right hand at the figure in the sea of ​​fire.

Without any hesitation, Anson, who controlled the flame with one hand, snapped his fingers and imprinted another [Rising Fire] directly on the lead bullet in the muzzle of the ax gun.

"boom--!"

The roaring barrages rushed toward the Black Mage in the sea of ​​fire, exploding large swaths of blood mist on his chest, and his slender body was instantly shattered.

His shoulders were shattered, and large areas of flesh and blood either evaporated or turned into pitch-black charcoal in the flames...but Anson's eyes always reflected his crazy smile until his body was completely engulfed in flames.

Among the soaring sparks, only a top hat stained with ashes remained, slowly falling down.

When the fire light dissipated, everything around them returned to its original state - three people standing back to back in an empty secret room, with nothing left.

Looking at the secret room door in front of him that had obviously been knocked open, Anson's face showed a "Sure enough" expression.

From the moment they stepped into the door, they and Lawrence had fallen into the mental manipulation of the black mage. From the beginning to the end, they had never touched the door again; Lisa did not rush in from the corridor, but directly knocked it open. door.

Because the blood of the apostle can resist mental control from lower levels; Lisa's appearance inhibited the black mage to a certain extent, causing all the illusions he created to collapse.

In other words, as long as Lisa is here, he can't hypnotize the three of them, but at the same time, she has completely exposed her target in front of the black mage... I really don't know whether to call it good news or bad news.

In a panic, Lisa got up from the ground and turned to look at Anson with big frightened eyes.

"Is...he dead?"

"I don't know, probably not."

Anson's expression was calmer than ever before, not that he knew, but that the Black Mage's expression at that time left such a deep impression on him that it was really hard to imagine that he was dead.

The next second, with his heartstrings tense, his hair suddenly stood up - the mechanical box that contained the memory card of "The Great Magic Book" on his body was missing!

"Dear Anson, I assume... you are looking for this?"

An extremely gentle voice sounded, causing three people with different expressions to look back at the same time.

The dim light and shadow in the secret room outlined a slender figure. Almost at the moment of "seeing" it, Lisa's face lost all color in an instant.

If it was just "weird" before, then Mace Hornard has completely lost his "human" shape now.

The muscles on his face have completely melted, and the gorgeous long tuxedo on his body has disappeared. His torso is like a mass of flesh composed of countless heads squeezed together, suspended in the air by shadows and purple monster flames.

The mechanical box that contained the "Great Magic Book" was also floating next to the huge piece of flesh, and was opened and empty.

In the dead silent chamber, the sound of the steam differential engine running echoed, and the memory card had been inserted into the card slot of the differential engine.

Is this Mace Hornard’s true face? Anson looked confused.

Why...are you planning to stop acting altogether and show your cards?

It was indeed mentioned in "Research on the Three Old Gods" that becoming a blasphemous mage's spell caster would become "another form of life". He also speculated that Mace Honard's current body was probably made by him. An illusion, but I never imagined that his real body would be like this...

shape.

"Dear Anson, I see confusion on your face...and confusion."

The black mage spoke calmly, and while speaking, all the mouths all over his body opened at the same time, saying the same words in unison.

"Why? As an Old God believer who pursues truth and truth, shouldn't this be the ideal state shared by all of us?"

"A weak body is of no use at all. All we need is knowledge and truth. All we need is more eyes that can discover wisdom, and a brain that can think about it all!"

"Now I have surpassed all spell casters,"

"That's all!"

"That's everything!"

"That is the ambition of all true believers in the Old Gods!"

"Abandon everything superfluous, keep only the most perfect self, and embark on the road to becoming a god; replace the fallen three old gods!"

Every face on the head squeezed into a ball of flesh became extremely crazy, and ecstatic shouts echoed in the secret room over and over again.

The sharp sound stung the spirits of Anson and Lawrence, making their faces extremely ugly. Under their red and purple complexions, the veins on their foreheads popped out one by one as if they were about to explode.

Lisa was the only one who seemed unaffected... The girl with fear written all over her face squatted on the ground and covered her ears with her hands.

The black mage ignored the three people with painful expressions.

In a few minutes, the "Great Magic Book" will appear in front of you;

The incomparably noble blood of the apostle is already in his possession;

Having these two selves at the same time, you will find the key to the next level of evolution in the desolate northern ice field, and become the first new apostle after the first year of the Saints Calendar.

In the eyes of the black mage, all this has become a foregone conclusion; not to mention Anson and Lawrence, even if the Inquisition directly under the Holy Capital comes in person, there is no way to save it!

Everything seemed so perfect, until the extremely precise steam difference engine behind him, which was rapidly reading and calculating, made a crisp, subtle "click" sound...

its stuck.

The smile on the black mage's face suddenly became stiff, and there was a trace of panic in his originally crazy eyes.

what happened?

From the first moment he stepped into this secret room, everyone in the entire Clovis Cathedral was under his surveillance. It was impossible for anyone to tamper with the memory card!

As for Anson Bach...if this was his preset trap, even if he only thought about it for a moment, he would be exposed to the sight of the black mage; but precisely because he didn't, Mace Honard never Have considered going in this direction.

The scarlet pupils all over his body turned rapidly, and the panicked black mage began to subconsciously read the thoughts and micro-expressions of the people around him.

In the next second, he quickly caught the flash of confusion in Anson's eyes, as well as the slightly raised corners of his mouth.

The relics of Oliver who died in Renai Welfare Home...

Karin Jacques’ underground dealings…

In the seventy-fifth year of the Apostolic Calendar, the secret theft of Clovis Cathedral...

The impoverished Andier Bogner, and the three white cards he sold whose material could not be distinguished...

These flashbacks in Anson's memory quickly poured into Mace Honnard's consciousness, and gradually combined in his mind into the truth that could explain everything that happened at this moment.

Anson Bach... He had obtained the other three lost memory cards very early, but because he was always "uncertain", this matter never appeared in his mind, and he had no way of knowing.

"Dear Professor Mace Honnard, that's not all."

Anson's slightly sarcastic words sounded in the black mage's consciousness, which was his own "self-talk" in his own mind.

"In the "Research on the Three Old Gods" you gave me, it was mentioned that the blasphemous mage is the evolution of a spellcaster to another life form after reaching a stage, but this evolution is incomplete and becomes another life form. The blasphemous mage who is a living being will have weaknesses that would not exist as a 'human being' originally."

"What weakness would that be?"

"As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of another person, a long-time friend who you have been caring for."

"Professor Horst."

"He became a madman and you became a black mage thirty years ago while studying St. Isaac's texts with you; all this was told to me by Bloun, who presumably tried and tested for your orders. Approaching me was a deliberate act of kindness, but it made me think of a very interesting possibility."

"Is it possible that both of you actually succeeded?"

"As a person who also has the same incomparable thirst for knowledge and truth, Professor Horst may have gone more extreme and crazier than you on the road of evolution. As a result, he failed to withstand the side effects of evolution, and ultimately failed and became A madman who speaks of prophecies.”

"And you only need to think about this kind of side effect... You gave up everything and got more eyes that seek wisdom and a brain that can think. Coupled with your identity as a black mage, I'm afraid it will have a mental and emotional impact on you. More intense than ordinary people.”

"It's so intense that... just the emotion alone will have a substantial impact on you."

"Of course this is all just my baseless speculation, but...if this is true..."

"Dear Professor Mace Honnard, the reason why you can be the only one of the two to survive is not because your willpower is strong enough, but because you have retreated from the path of evolution. You have no desire for knowledge and truth. His desire is far less than that of Professor Horst, and he is not as decisive and courageous in the pursuit of truth."

"you……"

"He is a self-righteous, self-talking, self-contradictory coward who is also very good at deceiving himself and others."

"A fearful, weak, timid...coward."

boom--

The trembling black mage suddenly opened all his eyes, and in his crazy eyes, another emotion was rising rapidly, impacting, and erupting.

Mace Honnard, who couldn't bear it anymore, screamed hysterically.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah--!!!!!"