Chapter 921: Flying Head

"Document-grade relic 【Curse of Charles II's Severed Head】. A mortal king of the previous epoch who ruled through tyranny, after his subjects launched a coup and had him beheaded at the guillotine, his wrathful and hideous soul—influenced by the bizarre evil god he had worshipped in life—transformed into a parasitic curse. The relic's true form is a parasite; once its curse attaches to you, you gain the ability to safely detach your head from your neck. In the early stage it's merely head separation; in the later stage the head gains powerful abilities like flight, invisibility, and breathing fire. Such infected creatures feed on the brains of intelligent beings."

Mr. Madison explained:

"But don't worry—this lady was directly parasitized by the curse, while we were merely infected. Every time this relic appears, it must grow from its larval form before it can unleash its full power. Right now the 'parasite' is still in its juvenile state; it can curse ordinary people, but because it parasitized the four of us ring-sorcerers, the consumption was too great and left it malnourished—so even she herself can't move now."

Both Xia De and Doctor Shi Nai De breathed a sigh of relief. Princess Margaret, disguised as "Young Lady Mary," was somewhat puzzled:

"According to the containment materials provided by the Academy, even a juvenile parasite would need to infect multiple high-ring sorcerers to become this malnourished. How did it become this weak after infecting just the four of us?"

Both Xia De and Doctor Shi Nai De were startled, each thinking it was because of himself:

"Malnourished?"

The doctor asked immediately.

"Yes. After all, it's only document-grade. The parasite's curse follows instinct, wanting to infect the strongest individuals possible. Fortunately there are no ordinary people here—otherwise not only would they be instantly infected and die, the parasite would even breed into two, and things would get far more troublesome."

Hearing the word "death," Xia De and the doctor both looked toward Mr. James sleeping on the other table. That gentleman was sleeping soundly now—the doctor's hypnosis was quite professional.

"What do we do now?"

Xia De asked.

"Subdue her."

Mr. Madison pointed at the woman frozen in place:

"She only has some instincts left now, but she still possesses powerful attack capability. We need to work together to subdue her, then perform containment."

"Is she very powerful?"

Doctor Shi Nai De asked.

"No. The key is that we can't attract the attention of ordinary people."

Princess Margaret said softly. Though her appearance was disguised, her voice was not, so she deliberately lowered her voice to make it sound as though her lungs had been injured.

The doctor nodded:

"Then let's discuss a plan now, shall we? I'll—"

"No, no. Since we weren't able to subdue her immediately just now, the situation is probably going to be a bit troublesome."

Mr. Madison spoke faster:

"In a moment I'll strike first. When it receives a lethal threat, the head will abandon the body and separate. I'll stay here to guard the body and prepare containment measures; you go chase the separated head. After you capture the head, bring it back as soon as possible. Be careful—don't make too much noise."

"How strong is a single head on its own?"

Xia De asked. Mr. Madison shook his head slightly and looked toward Young Lady Margaret, who said:

"Roughly equivalent to a mid-ring sorcerer, but in its current state only instinct remains, so there's almost no intelligence. The only thing to watch out for is that we're also infected by the parasite—it possesses the power to detach our heads, so we mustn't let the head itself touch our heads."

"Understood. I don't think there's a problem."

The doctor nodded. If it was only mid-ring, he considered it no problem:

"But Alan, Xia De and I were dragged into this by accident. After this is over, you have to pay us."

"This is a commission I took from the Academy. After it's done, I can pay each of you twenty pounds."

Princess Margaret said. Xia De nodded to the doctor, and the doctor also considered it acceptable.

"Move in three seconds—"

Mr. Madison said, somewhat tense, holding a brass metal rod in each hand, the metal surfaces covered in dense engraved patterns:

"3, 2, 1!"

The two metal rods, like fired bullets, instantly pierced both shoulders of the motionless woman. The rods remained inside her body, and copper-colored runes surged from the wounds like water, spreading toward the neck region.

The woman's previously frozen expression immediately came alive, fixing the four of them with a look brimming with malice, but the ring-sorcerers were unmoved. With the fluctuation of whispered elements, just as Mr. Madison had said, that head horrifyingly flew up from the woman's neck.

But the four of them saw a blur before their eyes—the single head in the air split into two, then both dove downward at once, flying rapidly along the floor toward different places.

"What?"

Doctor Shi Nai De was startled, but he was very experienced:

"Xia De, split up."

Saying so, he hurried off to chase the head flying low toward the stairwell. The scene was extraordinarily horrifying—fortunately the second floor was already empty, and a head flying close to the ground was even harder to spot.

Mr. Madison took off his coat and lunged at the headless woman; this body also carried the relic's power. Xia De didn't hesitate either, immediately chasing after the other head. Princess Margaret knew Doctor Shi Nai De was the team leader with the highest rank, so she followed behind Xia De.

That horrifying "flying head" was extremely fast. It didn't choose to go up or down the stairs, but flew straight toward an empty wall, then shot out through a high window.

"Quick, chase it!"

Princess Margaret caught up from behind Xia De, saw that outside the window was an empty alley, and holding down her skirt, jumped straight down.

Because she knew this outing would involve combat, Princess Gongzhudian wore a pair of flat shoes. Relying on her powerful physical conditioning, she landed steadily in the smog-shrouded alley and straightened up—at the same time, a vast expanse of steam mist had already risen behind Margaret Anjou.

Steam whistles sounded, bells tolled. The four-ring sorcerer's life ring appeared behind the princess within the scorching white fog. As the core spirit rune 【Puppet】 flickered with spiritual light, the female sorcerer unclipped a keychain-like toy puppet from her waist; the puppet floated in the air, and as the index and middle fingers of her right and left hands touched and she chanted softly, the finger-sized keychain, wreathed in spiritual light, kept growing until it became half a person's height—a little boy wearing a black hat.

The wooden structure of the joints was unusually obvious; the hat was glued directly onto the head, and two button-made eyes made the puppet look even more eerie:

"Jack the Ripper."

Princess Margaret spoke the puppet's name. "Jack the Ripper" bowed to the princess, then gripped his dagger and prepared to attack warily.

The smog in the city this afternoon was truly severe. In the windless, remote alleys of the lower city district, visibility didn't even exceed ten meters.

The princess sniffed the alley's nauseating, acrid smell, stepped through the unknown mud underfoot, and together with her puppet tried to capture the human head hidden in the fog.

Just thinking that somewhere in the fog a flying human head was watching her made Margaret Anjou feel goosebumps rising on her arms. Precisely because of this unease, her focus sharpened instead, letting her track the relic's traces as best she could.

"There!"

She suddenly pointed to the right. The "Jack the Ripper" puppet brandished its dagger and rushed in, but after plunging into the fog it found nothing. ωω

Just then, a shadow appeared in the thick fog behind the princess. Margaret Anjou had long anticipated the ambush; her right thumb pressed down on the sapphire ring on her index finger, and she turned, aiming the ring behind her:

"Stillness!"

The spell took effect—the thick fog churned by air currents seemed to freeze in her field of vision. Yet the shadow in the fog was still flying, though its flight had become extremely slow:

"Jack the Ripper!"

The spiritual light projected by the core rune grew even stronger, while at the same time the miracle rune 【Sharp Blade】 also coated the puppet with spiritual light. The dagger in the puppet's hand seemed to writhe and grow a little longer, and it charged into the fog, slashing at the human head, but when the metal dagger collided with the skull, sparks actually flew from the impact.

"What?"

Immediately after, that human head opened its mouth and bit down on the dagger, biting a notch out of it by sheer force.

Princess Margaret frowned slightly, stepped back quickly, and reached again for the other puppet hanging at her waist.

But at that moment, a new black shadow appeared once more in the thick fog behind her. The sorceress immediately abandoned her casting, and as she spun quickly around, she gently blew toward what was in front of her.

A cold current blew out from her lipstick-coated red lips, and the frost spread toward the thick fog, but it only slowed the second human head's speed without stopping it from continuing to approach:

"It can split itself too — which one is the real body?"

Just then—

"Madam, step back!"

Brilliant moonlight cleaved down from the fog above, and for an instant she almost thought she was seeing the moon in broad daylight.

That silver moonlight split open the gray fog and struck the woman's head that was approaching her. The head that even the dagger couldn't pierce actually melted into black mud under that ray of moonlight and fell to the ground.

From the fog-shrouded sky above, Xia De broke through the mist and descended. The instant his feet touched the ground, with almost no deceleration at all, his body, carrying the downward momentum, leaped forward — like a cheetah pouncing on prey, he lunged toward the first human head that was fighting the puppet.

"Mind Blast!"

He threw a punch, and before the fist even reached the human head, that head exploded into fragments. But no strange red or white liquids flew about — inside the bursting head there was still only black mud.

"That head can still split itself!"

Princess Margaret reminded him.

"Yes."

Xia De said — he had seen from above that the situation was wrong, which was why he had jumped down to help.

He snatched the princess's puppet, and over her slight resistance, brought it and the princess together, then looked with a solemn expression at the thick fog before them. Princess Margaret's eyesight was no match for Xia De's, so at first she was still wondering what he was looking at.

But immediately after, she saw dense, dense black shadows wriggling closer from deep within the gray fog. Low murmuring sounds linked into one continuous stream, like corpses groaning in a graveyard at night. She felt an instinctive discomfort, and at the same time the black line on Bai Xi's neck began to itch.

Xia De stepped in front of Princess Margaret, but the princess still saw clearly that those gradually approaching, densely packed black shadows were shockingly hundreds of human heads. Their hair connected into a net within the fog, the ferocious-looking heads overlapping one another, like maggots in rotting food, or like insect eggs in a filthy puddle. Those flying heads, like a dense wall of human heads, surged toward them.

------ Tangent ------

PS: I wonder if everyone has seen the scene at the end of the first A Chinese Ghost Story starring Leslie Cheung, after Black Mountain Demon lifts his robe in the underworld.

This is the extra chapter from last time's prize Q&A.