Chapter 2311: Richard

The man tucking the notebook took a step forward and appeared directly in front of Xia De, extending his open right hand toward Xia De's chest, but then immediately dodged backward violently.

A scarlet short blade left a light trail in the air, and the red 【Moonlight Greatsword】 cut off the stranger's hem, yet still let him dodge it.

The stranger's retreat was only to make it more convenient for him to grab Xia De's extended hand, and Xia De, remembering the reminders from Luvia and Miss Belinder, immediately flashed away using "Lagley's Leap."

After his figure disappeared, the blood-red mist released by Mr. Albert and Mr. Bernhardt in unison immediately swallowed the place where the stranger had been standing.

This highly toxic mist was of course useless against the notebook, which was the main body of the relic, but amidst the creepy corrosive sounds, the stranger's human skin standing in the red mist was actually dissolving rapidly.

He immediately floated into the air, wanting to ascend to the sky, but Xia De, who appeared above his head, opened his mouth and spat out another mouthful of red mist:

"Corrosive Blood Mist!"

The poisonous mist specifically used to corrode flesh and blood accelerated the decay of that body again, but even with the human skin dissolved and the flesh and blood corrupted, the stranger still extended his hand toward Xia De's chest while Xia De was in the process of falling.

The moment his hand touched Xia De's chest, Xia De only felt the badge worn on his chest "Buzz~" and vibrate. The power of the Death-Telling Angel helped him resist the first instant-death check, and afterward, his heart contracted violently, and the power of the 【Heart of Stone】 also exerted its effect.

Spirit surged into the long sword in his hand; amidst the dispersing blood mist, the phantom of a pure white angel appeared out of thin air behind Xia De. The stranger, who had completely turned into a "blood man" due to corrosion, still relentlessly pressed his hand against Xia De's chest. His empty right hand shattered the red "Moonlight Dagger" in Xia De's right hand, then raised it, and amidst the sound of his own bones shattering, blocked the energy-formed pure white holy sword swung down by the angel.

The black notebook floating beside it shook crazily at this instant, and the spiritual light appearing on it weakened rapidly; this was enough to prove that the power of the Sage-level 【Richard's Notebook】 was far inferior to the Angel-level 【Angel's Right Arm】.

The body of the "blood man" also paused for a moment at this instant, so the silver cross sword in Xia De's right hand pierced directly through his body.

The angel phantom cooperated with Xia De to swing the sword and cut off the "blood man's" right arm, then raised his hand to slash at the "blood man's" head with the light sword.

This time it had to dodge, and the blood mist continuously created by Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Albert had already compressed the visibility in the barn courtyard to a limit.

It couldn't dodge the light sword of the angel phantom and had to raise its left arm to block it again. And the floating notebook also slammed toward Xia De's face at this time; Xia De's hand felt downward and gripped the red dagger again.

The color of the blood mist was too similar to the weapon in Xia De's hand, plus he had already used that red moonlight dagger just now, and the 【Angel's Right Arm】 piercing into the "blood man's" body severely interfered with its perception.

Therefore, it didn't go to block that short blade this time, but focused on using its left hand to block the light sword swung by the angel phantom.

Thus, the red crystal dagger 【Madeleine's Love】 pierced head-on through the notebook that was trying to pounce on Xia De; at that instant, it seemed that even the red mist dispersing around them solidified.

The pink crystals spread rapidly toward the surroundings with the "wound" on the notebook as the center, and in the blink of an eye, they had covered a thin layer of crystals on the notebook's skin.

And the "blood man's" left arm was cut off at this moment by the light sword swung by the angel phantom; the sword continued to swing without stopping, slashing the entire human body in front of Xia De diagonally into two halves.

When the body of this unknown man was occupied by the consciousness within 【Richard's Notebook】, he was actually already dead, so Xia De's action didn't count as murdering an innocent person.

"This weapon... so, you are an assassin sent by her."

The corpse fell to the ground and began to burn with pure white flames. When Xia De withdrew the 【Angel's Right Arm】 from the corpse, a sound actually came from the notebook that had been pierced.

At this moment, 【Madeleine's Love】 had completely dissolved in Xia De's hand, and those crystals clung to the notebook as if wanting to completely transform the notebook into crystals.

The trembling notebook then suddenly shot into the sky like a meteor, flying away from the red mist in the barn courtyard and toward the distant black night.

"It's going to escape!"

Xia De leaped up and turned into a swarm of red butterflies to chase after it, and Mr. Bernhardt, who was outside the mist, just wanted to chase after it, but Mr. Albert had already acted first:

"I'll go help him; you stay here and soothe Mrs. Jude."

"Why me?"

"You are better at socializing than I am."

Saying this, the coroner also turned into a swarm of bats and chased after them, leaving only Mr. Bernhardt standing in place watching those three red lights being swallowed by the black night.

Although the 【Red Butterfly Incarnation】 state had been mastered very proficiently by Xia De, in reality, the flight speed of the red butterflies at the current stage, although it could exceed the speed of human running and carriages, was still quite a bit behind the speed of true "traveling as light."

But fortunately, the target Xia De was chasing this time wasn't flying very fast either; although 【Madeleine's Love】 hadn't achieved the one-hit kill Xia De had imagined, that notebook was clearly also at the end of its rope.

They chased and fled, leaving two trails of light above the fields in the black night. But soon the notebook flying in front couldn't hold on anymore and crashed beside a rural river not far from the barn and the orphanage.

When the notebook, whose surface had completely crystallized, slammed heavily onto the ground, the swarm of red butterflies Xia De had turned into also appeared beside it.

Before his feet landed, he threw the 【Great Sin Chain】 at the notebook, which was trembling constantly as if it were about to explode. He didn't expect the notebook to be able to barely dodge it, and when the chain, like a long snake, tried to attack it again, it tried to fly toward the night sky once more.

A blood-red ray of light abruptly flew in from afar; Mr. Albert reached out and slashed, knocking down the notebook, which was already wobbling.

This time it had no chance; the 【Great Sin Chain】 immediately wrapped around it, but Xia De unexpectedly discovered that the sin of this thing was pitifully small:

"So how exactly is sin judged?"

Immediately afterward, Xia De held the sword with both hands and used the silver cross sword in his hand to firmly nail the crystallized notebook onto the river beach. The characteristic of being difficult to destroy, which most relics originally possessed, had now completely disappeared on 【Richard's Notebook】, which also meant it was really coming to an end.

Amidst the clanking sound of flowing water, the notebook trembled twice more and then became completely motionless.

The swarm of bats landed behind Xia De, and the coroner wearing a cowl also revealed his human form. The two stood together watching an unstable white light rise from the notebook, and then a tall man wearing a robe appeared in the white light.

His body was very unstable, and that kind of scholar's attire didn't look like the attire of the current era of the Sixth Era.

"Richard?"

Xia De asked vigilantly; the phantom-like man nodded, then looked down at the notebook that was gradually completely crystallizing, his face devoid of any expression:

"I lost. After experiencing such a long time, the ending came so abruptly... Finally, I want to have a private talk with you, about her."

"Why should I have a private talk with you?"

Xia De asked, feigning surprise; Richard spat out a word:

"Mermaid."

Xia De then took a deep breath and looked at Mr. Albert beside him; the latter nodded sensibly:

"I'll go to the side and wait for you."

Afterward, he turned and walked toward the rice paddies by the river very neatly.

Xia De didn't object to talking with the other party; after all, he was truly curious about what had happened in the past:

"The 'her' you want to talk to me about—are you referring to Madeleine, or that mermaid?"

"Richard's" height was about the same as Xia De's, and his build was medium. He only had very short hair stubble on his head, so Xia De couldn't even determine his specific hair color in the night. His nose was small, but the eyes deeply recessed into his eye sockets were very spirited.

What he was manifesting at this moment was not a physical entity; "Richard," whose whole body was shrouded in whisper elements that were gradually fading, was actually just a phantom, a phantom projected by an consciousness that was about to disappear.

"Both."

The man answered Xia De's question. Xia De hesitated for a moment and released the long sword in his hand. Five pebbles flew around the notebook following his extended fingers, and then silver moonlight thorns drilled out from underground and wrapped around the five pebbles, completely shrouding the notebook.

Only then did Xia De take a few steps back, sit on a large rock by the river while supporting his knees, and watch this man dressed as a scholar talk to him under the moonlight.

The flowing river water matched this tranquil night very well, and Xia De, who had been ambushing and busy all night, could finally rest a little:

"Do you want to tell me your own story? Before this, I only knew you were 'a fool who wore a mask for too long that he couldn't take it off, a fool who thought he was righteous but always brought disaster.'"

Richard stood with his back to the river, his slightly glowing body not very conspicuous in the long night:

"Did the mermaid say that?"

He paused slightly before continuing to speak:

"My story happened in the distant past, the chaotic era of the Fourth Era. Madeleine and I were both believers of the Love God Church. We only got to know each other after joining the church, and we fell in love with each other. After receiving the blessings of our Lord and other fellow believers, we should have walked into the hall of marriage."

Xia De didn't interrupt, listening quietly to this lost story from long ago.

"The situation in that distant era was completely different from today. Perhaps you think this city was chaotic enough last Sunday night, but that night last week was quieter than most nights I spent when I was still alive."

Xia De didn't show any expression; the Fourth Era, known as the era of darkness and chaos, was of course not a joke.