Chapter 252: Hatred
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
When Lucien activated his monocle, before he could try to contact Mr. Gaston again, he suddenly sensed a great magic power and subconsciously cast Maskelyne’s Star. The crystal ball that Lucien had just picked up from the floor rose to the air again above his head, surrounded by twelve shining light spheres.
Charlie was slower than Lucien, but not by much. The giant palm made of force covered him again.
Susan, however, was completely lost. Without Sandra’s protection, she had no idea what she could do, but only watched the electric sparks in front of Sandra’s chest fighting against the cluster of black smoke. Very quickly, the black smoke was driven away from Sandra.
As soon as the black smoke left Sandra’s body, the several metal pieces on the floor in front of Sandra turned burned black.
“The thing’s still around!!” Sandra’s voice was sharp with fear, “I almost got controlled by it!”
The collar of her magic robe had partly burst from some kind of great power, and a deformed amulet that Sandra was wearing dropped on the floor with a crisp sound.
The sorcerers had killed the demon twice, and they had revealed all their strongest spell, but the demon was still around! Experienced as Sandra was, her back was still covered in cold sweat.
With star-like spheres spinning above his head, Lucien looked around cautiously, and he tried to call Gaston through the monocle. However, it still did not work.
Charlie cast Lesser Mind Connection, connecting the four of them together.
“We should leave this place!” Susan was experiencing another nervous breakdown again, “It never dies!”
Lucien remained calm, and he made a quick analysis, “We thought the demon summoned by Bertren needed the brazier as a medium to keep coming back, and now we know that’s not true. Mr. Bertren understood arcana, and it is very unlikely that an arcanist would try such a ridiculous rite. It must be someone else who summoned the demons!”
“Bill..?!” Charlie responded quickly, although he still felt very tired. “He’s the only one who’s still alive in this castle.”
“Impossible,” said Sandra. “I’ve checked him with Charm Person. Wait… unless…”
“What?” asked Charlie.
“Unless the demon helped Bill… Unless the demon erased part of his memory!” Sandra murmured.
Hearing that, Susan suddenly stopped crying. She was shocked.
“Susan mentioned that Bill was often bullied by other apprentices, and the kid’s mind was probably filled with anger and hatred. He wanted to take revenge, but he did not know much about arcana, so he decided to try that vicious rite, no matter how ridiculous it was in other apprentices’ eyes.” Lucien nodded, then he turned to Susan and asked her through their telepathic bond, “Did Bill ever read Pain Fable?”
Susan frowned, trying to search the answer from her memory, and then her eyes suddenly opened wide, “Yes! Bill… Bill told me reading Pain Fable made him more determined to put more effort in learning arcana!”
“Let’s go,” said Lucien decisively. This time, they must completely kill the demon before it regained its power again from Bill.
Bill just lied. He misled them to the summoning room to buy more time for the demon!
In the battle formation, the three sorcerers headed for the apprentice hall. Susan took all of her courage and followed Sandra.
Lucien, as usual, still felt something suspicious. He wondered why when they entered the summoning room, they indeed saw the demon getting out from the brazier. However, he had no time to figure it out right now.
To leave no time for the demon, they moved really fast. On their way back, there was no creepy, pale arms or disgusting, bloody tongues, which meant that the demon was still recovering!
When they got back to the chamber, they saw the eyes of the copper statue were swelling, and many eyes, with black eyeballs but white pupils, covered the doors and nearby walls.
Seeing the Wall of Evil Eyes was not even completely formed yet, the three sorcerers were slightly relieved, as they knew that they came back in time. Right now, the demon must be very weak!
This was a great opportunity!
Quickly exchanging their thoughts through the telepathic bond, they figured out a battle tactic within a few seconds. Then, Lucien fiercely threw a powerful fireball right at the gate of the chamber.
An instant before that, Charlie had cast Staring in front of the forming Wall of Evil Eyes. As soon as the eyes saw themselves in the mirror, the creepy eye wall collapsed together with the mirror screen.
So, Lucien’s great fireball directly hit the chamber gate.
The defensive magic circles on the chamber got destroyed layer by layer from the great explosion, and the stone gate was exploded into pieces and stone dust. Following that, Sandra’s purple magic staff illuminated the whole chamber with Arcana Light.
In the light, Bill half knelt on the floor of the chamber, where dust and smoke was everywhere.
Bill’s eyes, staring at the sorcerers, were filled with great hatred and anger. However, there was the same creepy smile on his distorted face. His muscles kept bulking and his skin together with his apprentice uniform was torn up. His whole body was covered with swollen muscle and blood, and even his veins could be seen. Among his muscles and veins, white maggots were crawling. Some even came out from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears!
“Bill? You…” Susan was shocked. She thought that it was Bill who summoned the demon, but now, seeing that, she realized that the demon was Bill himself!
A transparent wall showed up in front of Bill, in which countless black, weird magic symbols were floating. He burst out laughing, “They slapped me in my face! They mocked me! But when I saw how terrified and desperate they were when I killed them, I realized that they were just timid, filthy dirty mice! Look, only a strong will can bring you power, and power derives from pain! Pain has awakened me!”
His words were sharp.
Two streaks of white light directly hit the transparent wall, and some magic symbols started to disappear. Neither of them wasted their time having any kind of chicken soup conversation with Bill, but directly used a third-circle Force Field spell called Dispel Magic, which had a chance to remove a magic buff or a defensive force field from the target.
At the same time, three Maskelyne’s stars above Lucien’s head collided with the other three, and dazzling light burst out, which improved Charlie and Sandra’s Luck to maximize the power of Dispel Magic.
“This is not power! This is evil!” Susan cried.
Bill laughed, “No, this is not evil. This is ourselves! Hatred, jealous, greed, anger… We all have it!”
As he was laughing, his lips fell off, revealing his teeth, and his eyes became scarlet.
The transparent wall had been destroyed. Obviously, its power was not back yet, not even a small part of it.
As soon as the wall disappeared, both Charlie and Sandra activated their magic items and recast Dispel Magic again!
The layer of black smoke on Bill disappeared with Charlie’s casting, and then clusters of smoke started to come out after Sandra’s spell hit him!
Lucien’s right hand was now covered with purple light, as if he was holding a small, purple sun. Instantly, colourful light spots in golden, silver, black, white, purple and more, surrounded Bill, and they started spinning at great speed around him, like a crazy swirl. The swirl was tearing Bill’s body apart!
The monster might be pure spiritual, but Bill was not! Bill was still made up from elements!
This was the right time for the last strike!
The swirl was getting bigger and bigger, and the light brighter and brighter. The whole place was filled with dazzling light.
Lucien felt great pain in his heart and head. His soul was very weak and his spiritual power was scattered. He could not even open his mouth to speak, but leaned his body against the bookshelf.
At this time, Charlie came to his aid. Using Mage Hand, Charlie made Lucien take the magic potion called Water Song.
Sandra, in the front, stared at Bill intently, protecting Lucien and Charlie.
When the swirl slowly disappeared, the chamber was completely destroyed. Through the several huge holes on the floor, they could see the hall downstairs.
Except for a burned mark on the floor, there was nothing left of Bill.
“Did we… kill it?” Sandra was a bit hesitant. When she looked out of the window, the mist was completely gone, and the sunset was quite nice.
“Not sure, but now that the mist is gone, we should contact Mr. Gaston,” said Lucien. He felt much better after the potion, although he could still feel pain in his soul. Trying his best, he activated Electromagnetic Message.
Water Song was definitely the ideal healing potion for middle-rank sorcerers. However, right now Lucien could only activate magic items, but not cast any spells.
“Mr. Gaston?”
After several seconds, Gaston’s elderly voice came to them through the monocle, “Any trouble there, Lucien?”
“Yeah. A demon.” Lucien briefly told Gaston what happened there. During that time, he relaxed a little bit.
After a moment of silence, Gaston said, “You four find a safe room. Go in there and cast defensive magic circles around it. Stay in the room and wait for the nearby senior-rank sorcerers to get there.”
Hearing that, all of them felt a little more relieved. They started to head for the power room through the other corridor of the apprentice hall to wait there.
“Yes, Mr. Evans?” Seeing Lucien frowning, Charlie asked, “Is there anything wrong again?”
Lucien nodded, “Yes, something… I’m just thinking, why the thing attacked Sandra and alerted us before it was fully recovered?”
