Chapter 456: When You See Me, It Is the End of the Final Curtain

Zuo Bai held his breath, cold blue light flickering in his one eye as he stared fixedly at the experiment's result.

He saw within the dazzling silver radiance that 【Mask】's charming smile was beginning to crumble.

Silver light shone, and the gold-rimmed glasses frame melted first into golden droplets, which slid down the bridge of his nose and turned black as they fell, staining his entire cold-white face into ink.

【Mask】's cheeks gradually blurred, his features twisted and deformed, like wax being baked by high temperature, beginning to melt rapidly.

Finally the entire face collapsed into a vortex shape, black sludge of asphalt texture gushing out from the vortex, trailing down from his chin, neck, all the way down.

In the blink of an eye, his entire suit, the playing cards on his chest, the cape on his back, down to his trouser legs and leather shoes, visibly writhed into sticky black liquid.

Then, with a "pa da" sound, the sludge fell toward the sewage.

Under the water surface, the winding "Sheying" was likewise swallowed by the strong light.

The "Sheying" that had originally circled 【Mask】 endlessly seemed to stutter, becoming dim and thin, growing finer and shorter bit by bit, and under the silver light it actually rippled with shimmering light, like dried ink stains.

The black sludge fallen into the sewage seemed to want to repeat its old trick, burrowing back into the shadow to hide from this deadly light.

However, the silver shimmer isolated contact.

Instantly, the black sludge like a fish out of water writhed madly on the sewage surface, yet could not burrow back in for a long time.

It kept shrinking and narrowing, trying to re-condense into form, but could only struggle in vain.

Then, its color grew ever lighter, its volume ever smaller, wisps of black smoke steamed from its surface, like a monster being burned in an incinerator.

Although still struggling, the 【Blood Bar】 symbolizing life was continuously losing HP, and complete annihilation was merely a matter of time... right?!!

"Correct, this 【Mask】 is the true body; the others are all phantoms he copied."

Zuo Bai observed and determined this.

Accompanying 【Mask】's true body melting, accompanying the "Sheying" beneath his feet being dispelled, the surrounding 【Masks】 one after another, like bubbles being popped, dissipated and vanished.

The only regret was that Zuo Bai had never heard 【Mask】's wail from beginning to end, giving him a sense of loss as if watching a silent play.

"The end of the experiment is ultimately not perfect enough."

Zuo Bai's heart inevitably felt some regret; in this experiment, he still had some doubts he couldn't resolve.

And on his retina, a circle of 【Masks】 was dissipating from before his eyes toward both sides, turning into air one by one.

According to this order of dissipation, the last one to dissipate should be the 【Mask】 on his back vest, which is precisely the 【Mask】 true body facing the light cover and currently melting.

According to this order of disappearance, the last one to vanish should be the 【Mask】 phantom behind him facing the light cover.

"Five left!"

Zuo Bai silently counted in his heart, the blue light in his one eye flicking ever more rapidly.

"Three left!"

In the sewer shrouded in silver light, the speed of phantom dissipation grew faster and faster.

"The last 【Mask】 phantom, follow your true body and vanish from the air together!"

Just as the last remaining 【Mask】 phantom behind him was about to dissipate, as if timed by precise calculation, the 【Mask】 true body before Zuo Bai was finally burned to ashes, vanishing into nothingness under the silver light.

However, the certain smile on Zuo Bai's face suddenly froze, and the blue light flickering on his retina seemed to freeze and solidify.

He horrifiedly saw that the 【Mask】 phantom behind him not only did not disappear, but instead took another step forward.

One step, three meters, ghostly appearing behind him.

A cold, eerie touch seeped through his clothes into his spine, making his spine instantly crawl with dense goosebumps.

That touch was so real—not an illusory projection, nor a drifting shadow, but a flesh-and-blood "person"?

Tap—

Then, Zuo Bai's ears slowly caught up, capturing the footsteps of the God of Death that had disappeared for a while and sounded again!!!

Zuo Bai's heart pounded in terror, crystal yuan overflowing with a burnt smell from within his skull, his heart surging with shocking waves:

"So the footsteps weren't the shadow's, but his?"

"The shadow's true body isn't a shadow, so 【Mask】 can be a shadow, but a shadow isn't entirely 【Mask】?"

Zuo Bai's brain matter spun rapidly; some details he had ignored or left unresolved doubts about were re-woven in his Nao Hai:

"No wonder the shadow could revive after being eaten—because the shadow was never the true body! Since it wasn't the true body, dying ten thousand times naturally allows reviving ten thousand times!"

"No wonder the first shadow used ventriloquism—the shadow itself is soundless, and the speaker had always been hiding in the dark. That shadow probably hid a walkie-talkie or such device?"

"And... no wonder footsteps appeared after the shadow 'revived'... no wonder the second shadow felt subtly different to me..."

"This is because... what appeared the second time was not the shadow at all, but 【Mask】's true body! It was the true body copying and controlling the phantoms!"

"So... the true 【Mask】 isn't just one, but one real and one shadow, two?!"

This conclusion made Zuo Bai feel like he had fallen into an ice cellar.

He suddenly realized he had made a fatal mistake—from the beginning, from start to finish, the one who performed with him was Shadow Mask, while True Mask had never appeared.

No, more accurately speaking... True Mask had always been on stage, merely like a strange magician turning invisible before his eyes.

And now, he finally saw the magician's true face, yet it was also the terminus of this magic show's final curtain!

"You..."

Zuo Bai's throat went dry, thousands of words stuck in his throat, yet he didn't know where to begin asking.

And as if to confirm his final guess, he clearly saw—on the sewage surface beneath 【Mask】's feet, where there had originally been only ripples, a shadow was re-condensing.

The shadow writhed, gradually emerging into a human outline.

When the outline fully formed, suddenly another identical 【Mask】 rose from the shadow.

Two 【Masks】 stood side by side, the only subtle difference lying in their eyes.

One was pitch black like an abyss, without a glint of luster, as if born to devour all light;

the other's pupil held a strange, faintly visible crimson magatama, slowly rotating, emanating a soul-capturing evil.

Two 【Masks】 simultaneously raised their palms, movements perfectly synchronized.

One palm suddenly split open, revealing forest-white ferocious bone blades, gleaming with the cold hardness of metal under the silver light;

The other palm turned into pitch-black silk, winding around silently and sinuously, covering the surface of the bone blade with a spiral pattern of dark markings.

The two palms merged into one in a strange posture, piercing together into Zuo Bai's back heart—precisely following the first penetrating wound that had been torn open.

"You said earlier, the same trick doesn't work on scientists, I don't believe it."

At the same time, the two 【Masks】 grinned like mirrors, the arcs of their lips moving exactly alike, yet only faintly uttering a single voice.

That voice was vastly different from the one Zuo Bai had heard before, lacking some of the strange heaviness from another dimension, and adding some cold ruthlessness like steel emanating from the bones:

"Also, the way you wave bones is too crude; let me teach you the correct use of bones!!!"

End of Chapter