Chapter 68: Sorcery (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Valentine also saw the woman in the gray-white long dress, his eyes filled with hatred as he coldly opened his arms in a gesture of embracing the sun.

A beam of impossibly pure and brilliant light descended from nowhere, striking the target holding the giant scissors.

The surroundings instantly lit up; the transparent faces pressed against the walls and glass vanished without even a scream.

Yet the woman’s body, though clearly ignited and evaporating, suddenly disappeared.

This scene felt familiar to Lu Mi—he had seen similar behavior from the mouth-monster he had hunted before.

Invisibility!

Of course, the woman might not have truly vanished, but she was certainly not dead, so Lu Mi felt no joy—instead, he moved closer to the much taller Ryan Cos.

Ryan Cos, clad in silver-white full-body armor and wielding a giant sword of light, was the only one among those present whom Lu Mi trusted the most.

He clearly looked incredibly strong and skilled in combat!

At that moment, behind Lyra, on the wall near the tower entrance, one of the pale-faced child visages suddenly emerged, transforming into the woman in the gray-white long dress.

She swung her giant scissors directly around Lyra’s neck.

Snip!

Lyra’s head fell off—but no blood spurted; her body and head rapidly shrank and thinned, becoming a torn paper doll that floated gently to the ground.

Her figure in the plain wool dress materialized in the air nearby.

With a clang, Ryan Cos, his face hidden behind a silver mask, raised his “Dawn Sword,” stepped forward, and brought it down in a diagonal slash toward the woman.

She raised her scissors to block—but was sliced clean through, along with her weapon, driven deep into the wall.

Her form vanished again.

Behind Valentine, who wore a blue tweed coat, a swollen, bluish face instantly replaced itself with the woman’s.

She leaned out and slashed at Valentine’s nape.

“Watch out!” Lyra shouted the moment the woman appeared, warning her companions.

Valentine immediately grunted, drawing his already outstretched arms slightly inward.

Around him, golden, illusory flames leapt from the air, merging into a single expanse that turned the corridor into an ocean radiating the scent of the sun.

The woman was engulfed, her face contorting in pain as her body burned fiercely.

She pulled back into the wall, reverting to the swollen, bluish face.

That transparent face dissolved instantly into wisps of black mist within the golden, illusory flames, then evaporated.

Clang!

Ryan Cos’s “Dawn Sword” struck the same spot again, making the entire castle tremble.

But he was still a fraction too late—he failed to block the woman.

Lu Mi now understood the situation: the woman who had delivered Louis Lund’s baby was linked to the transparent child faces on the walls and glass—she could transform into any one of them, then revert to a ghostly state to evade attacks and redirect harm.

In other words, she could strike from any wall or window on the third floor at any moment, and Ryan Cos and the others’ counterattacks could not truly harm her.

With this realization, Lu Mi immediately moved away from the floor-to-ceiling windows and surrounding walls, stepping into the center of the sunroom.

At that moment, ghostly faces also emerged from the floor and ceiling.

The woman burst forth from behind Lu Mi’s feet, her scissors lashing swiftly toward his thigh.

Lu Mi’s mind flared with intense danger.

He didn’t bother to confirm the direction of the attack—he leapt into the air without hesitation, diving sideways.

A sharp hiss—he was half a beat too slow; a deep gash opened along the lower side of his thigh, blood gushing instantly.

As each drop of blood hit the ground, the woman pointed—and they coalesced, elongating into a thin, blood-red figure.

The blood-red figure immediately turned toward Lu Mi, who had rolled onto the armchair, and lunged at him as he continued bleeding.

Every drop of Lu Mi’s blood became its nourishment, making it clearer and more defined.

At the same time, Lu Mi endured not only searing pain but also the sensation that his entire bloodstream was slipping out of his control.

In an instant, Ryan Cos leapt over.

Mid-air, he raised his sword of light and brought it down hard on the blood-red figure, pinning it to the ground and shattering it along with the surrounding transparent faces.

Lyra had somehow moved beside Lu Mi; she reached out her right hand and pressed it against his thigh wound.

Then, to Lu Mi’s astonishment, his wound magically shifted under her palm, sliding downward to the less vascular side of his calf.

The bleeding slowed immediately.

The woman suddenly thrust her head down from the ceiling, her brown eyes deepening into abysses where fierce, living flames burned within.

The blood dripping from Lu Mi’s calf ignited at once, bursting into bright, spring-sun-like flames that raced swiftly inward along his veins.

In that instant, Lu Mi felt his life draining away at terrifying speed.

With a puff, Ryan Cos plunged his double-handed sword of light into the ground.

Around him—in the area where Lu Mi and Lyra stood—tiny glimmers of dawn-like light emerged, filling every corner of space.

Within this dawnlight, the remaining blood-red figure dissolved rapidly, and the bright, beautiful flames on Lu Mi’s calf vanished just as quickly.

Yet that single second of burning had sealed his wound shut, partially stopping the bleeding.

Ryan Cos pulled his sword free and growled:

“This environment is wrong—we must leave!”

He meant the woman wasn’t nearly as powerful as she seemed, nearly unkillable and impossible to lock onto—her strength came primarily from the unique properties of the third floor of the castle.

Without waiting for a reply, Ryan Cos began chasing the woman.

Though slower than the enemy who could leap between transparent faces, he spared no energy—swinging, slashing, thrusting relentlessly—forcing her to retreat every time she emerged, never daring to linger after an attack.

Combined with Valentine’s summoned holy light and golden flames, the two briefly suppressed the woman, giving Lyra and Lu Mi little chance to be attacked.

Seizing the opportunity, Lyra leapt onto the armchair and ran back and forth across the sofas, tables, chairs, and ornaments—avoiding contact with the ground entirely.

During this, the silver bells on her veil and boots rang continuously, sometimes violently, sometimes frantically.

Lu Mi no longer dared stand on the ground—he stood on the table, watching both ceiling and floor while observing Lyra’s movements.

Drawing on prior experience, he judged she was testing escape routes.

Soon, Lyra halted her acrobatic sprint:

“The tower—go to the tower!”

The moment she spoke, the woman thrust her body out from the ceiling and shrieked:

“You damned fools!”

She spat each word slowly, each one echoing directly in Lu Mi’s mind, accelerating their heartbeats, causing dizziness and nausea.

Valentine gritted his teeth and opened his arms again.

A brilliant, pure beam of light swallowed the ceiling whole.

“Go!” Ryan Cos ordered.

Lu Mi leapt off the table, gritting his teeth against the pain in his calf, stepping on the transparent faces, and sprinted ahead toward the tower; Lyra and Valentine followed close behind, while Ryan Cos, still clad in silver-white full-body armor, did not flee immediately—he raised his “Dawn Sword” and slashed back the woman each time she emerged, preventing her from blocking his companions’ escape.

Only after Lyra and the others entered the tower stairs did he turn, leap, and follow.

The woman thrust her head out from a transparent face on the side wall and let out a piercing scream.

Accompanying that scream, black, evil flames ignited across the surface of Ryan Cos’s silver-white armor.

Ryan Cos instantly felt his strength draining away.

Without hesitation, he dispelled his “Dawn Armor.”

Dots of dawn-like light mingled with the black flames and scattered into the air, vanishing.

Ryan Cos, gripping his sword of light, seized the moment to leap fully out of the third floor and into the stairs.

At this point, Lu Mi, aware of his own weakness and inability to exploit the environment, ran second, just behind Lyra, whose silver bells chimed softly.

As they ran, Lyra suddenly stopped.

Lu Mi skidded to a halt, hearing a chorus of chittering sounds.

He looked ahead—and froze.

The tower was small, even cramped, with stairs leading to various firing slits.

And the walls were crawling with children, densely packed.

They wore different clothes—some looked newborn, others like three or four-year-olds—all with limbs like bird claws, their tips unnaturally sharp.

Using these “bird claws,” the children clung to the walls like forest birds, filling nearly every surface.

The combination of normal human children’s faces and bodies, the grotesque, razor-sharp “bird claws,” the sheer number—over a hundred—and their unnatural posture made Lu Mi’s scalp crawl; he felt again the same spiritual, visual, and emotional contamination he had experienced when witnessing Louis Lund give birth.

The “children” had not yet noticed the intruders; a few were happily exchanging topics:

“The sky outside is so blue.”

“I want to go out.”

“No.”

“Mother said we must learn to retract our claws, to look like normal humans, before we can leave…”

At that moment, Ryan Cos reached the trio’s rear and shouted urgently:

“Get back!”

He turned, raised his “Dawn Sword,” and stood like a giant at the tower entrance.

Lyra and Valentine didn’t ask why—they sprinted immediately, finding stairs and obstacles to hide behind; Lu Mi didn’t understand, but his survival instincts told him to obey.

“Get down here!”

The woman’s voice shrieked.

Each word drilled into Lu Mi’s ears, sapping their strength instantly.

Then, the woman in the gray-white long dress appeared at the stair landing—and the entire tower pulsed with life, no transparent bluish faces emerging.

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(End of chapter)