Raven coughed up two mouthfuls of foul blood, the blood flowing along the grooves of his raven mask. He stared blankly at the Con Artist who blocked all the damage in front of him. He wasn’t surprised that soone ca to save him; he was surprised that the person who ca was Igor, the one he least got along with.
Suddenly, he rembered sothing and quickly turned to observe his surroundings.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Ashe didn’t co back with us,” Igor said calmly. “After I told him the necessary intelligence, I let him continue with Gwen to find Silver Lantern…”
“But Mr. Ashe knew Mr. Igor was coming back to protect you, so he let co back too,” Gwen quickly finished bandaging Raven. Raven’s body couldn’t be directly affected by spirits, so she could only treat the wound this way. “He said he could handle Silver Lantern on his own.”
“In every sense, I believe he has that confidence,” Igor said. “In fact, I think we would only be obstacles in his ‘subduing’ of Silver Lantern, so it’s better to co back and save you, this raven eager to court death.”
“But why did you co back?” Raven couldn’t help but ask. “I clearly said I would hold my ground with Tanomoo-“
“You think that by not showing your face, not showing your eyes, and distorting your voice, you can hide your thoughts from , a Con Artist from the Blood Moon, a sanctuary sorcerer of the ntal Sect?” Igor sneered. “You hid so well, but these days, haven’t I made you cry when I wanted you to cry, and laugh when I wanted you to laugh?”
“So you want to die, how could I not know?”
Blood flowed from the Con Artist’s pupils, and in his vision appeared the illusion of God-slayer Ashe, swiftly killing the Black Feather sorcerers not sheltered by the Sanctuary in the distance. “When you said goodbye to Ashe, you didn’t even say goodbye.”
“Many tis, it’s because there’s no agreed ti to et again that parting becos eternal.”
Raven said despondently, “I just didn’t want… I just…”
Igor: “You just didn’t want to drag us into your grudge with the rcury Trojan Horse? I don’t want you to drag us into Silver Lantern’s conspiracy either. It’s strange, I’ve only heard of people taking on big responsibilities themselves and letting friends take on small ones. How co when it cos to you, it turns into making us take on big responsibilities while you take on small ones?”
Raven remained silent, but the wound that had just stopped bleeding split open again. Clearly, his mood was not calm, and his shoulders trembled slightly, as if there was another liquid flowing inside the mask. Gwen quickly used ergency blood-stopping patches to treat Raven’s chest wound, her expression showing a hint of peculiarity.
“Do you know your mistake?”
“I know.” Raven’s distorted voice carried a hint of sobbing.
“What was the mistake?”
“The mistake was arrogantly entrusting the task of stopping Silver Lantern to you, while I hid here fighting desperately with Tanomoo, using death to evade responsibility…”
“No.” Igor said, “Your mistake was not trusting Ashe.”
Raven was stunned.
“To deal with Silver Lantern, indeed, only he is needed. Secondly, your mistake was not trusting .”
Igor stepped back, and Gwen imdiately helped Raven up, the three of them leaning together.
Awooo!-
The Con Artist opened his mouth, and a silent scream echoed in the hall, the damage increasing with distance. Even though the Black Feather sorcerers were all hiding in the Sanctuary, they were still affected to so extent-while the Sanctuary could shield high and low frequency infrasound and ultrasound, after Igor’s ascension to three wings, his ntal Scream could cause damage even in the normal sound range!
The Black Feather sorcerer closest to the rcury Trojan Horse imdiately turned and hugged the rcury Trojan Horse’s head, and the rcury Trojan Horse crouched down, opened her mouth, and covered her ears with her hands. Even so, she still bled a little from her nose.
“You are the best killing tool,” Igor said, patting Raven’s shoulder, “and I am the best at using tools.”
He glanced at Raven’s injury. “Gwen has fixed you up, right?”
“Still a few ribs not healed,” Raven gripped the grey fox blade, “but it doesn’t matter.”
“Then, before Ashe returns,” Igor said leisurely, “let’s twist off the rcury Trojan Horse’s head and kick it around like a ball.”
“Is it necessary?”
The rcury Trojan Horse’s voice echoed in the hall: “Mr. Igor, do you think you, a sanctuary sorcerer, plus a crippled judgnt warrior, and… hmm, my most capable subordinate, Miss Gwen, can pose a threat to ?”
“I’m not denying your abilities. Tamashi barely counts as one sanctuary combat power, Miss Gwen counts as 0.5, but adding you, it’s only 2.5 sanctuaries.”
“And I.” The rcury Trojan Horse slightly raised her head, four young sorcerers forming a human wall in front of her, each displaying their Sanctuary: “I have four sanctuary sorcerers I rely on most: Dao Qiong, Mokilon, Coneva, and Nanda Tuo. Not to ntion, my ticulously trained Black Feather Guard.”
The Black Feather sanctuaries she nad all stared fiercely at Igor and Raven. Without the rcury Trojan Horse’s orders, they would have already rushed over like mad dogs to bite these disrespectful lunatics to death.
“On the surface, you don’t have the advantage.” The rcury Trojan Horse said leisurely, “Since that’s the case, why should we continue fighting? Our little misunderstanding, is it bigger than Senlo’s fate, your lives?”
Little misunderstanding… Igor raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, “Since you have the nurical advantage, why not eradicate us?”
“I never engage in fights of passion. What good does killing you do ? Anyway, I’m going to other Kingdoms, and it’s basically impossible to et you again. Why not resolve the misunderstanding and go our separate ways?” The rcury Trojan Horse said, “We can retreat to the upper level, you can stay here or go down to find Mr. Ashe, we absolutely won’t disturb you, and will leave imdiately once a new Void Gate passage opens.”
Although Tamashi destroyed an almost perfect Void Gate passage, which indeed angered the rcury Trojan Horse. But she had been facing too much anger recently-the Wishflux Inheritance was stolen, her power was usurped, the Kingdom of Senlo she was about to unify was about to turn into an infernal purgatory… failed investnts, company bankruptcy, industry downturn, almost all unlucky things happened to her, and the rcury Trojan Horse’s heart had beco numb.
Because she had endured so much hardship and loss, it instead further tempered her ntal fortitude. The trouble Tamashi caused her was quickly digested, and she made the wisest choice: endure.
If it were only Tamashi, the rcury Trojan Horse would naturally be too lazy to waste words-she would just kill Raven outright. But Igor not only had the qualification to negotiate with her, but also the wisdom for it.
Though the Con Artist had a grudge against her, it was by no ans to the extent that only one could survive; more importantly, the Con Artist’s side was currently at a disadvantage, or at least didn’t have a guaranteed victory. If forced, that would be one thing, but since she was now voluntarily conceding, would the Con Artist really want to fight a losing battle with slim chances?
Igor seed tempted as well. “But how do I know you’re not secretly calling for reinforcents? If we get trapped in the Silent Spiral, we won’t even be able to run.”
Hearing that Igor was truly willing to negotiate, Raven’s body trembled slightly, but in the end, he said nothing, only focusing harder on recovering from his injuries. Gwen gently stroked his back, growing much closer to him.
“Those upper layers of Trials aren’t sothing ordinary sorcerers can get through,” the rcury Trojan Horse said. “If you’re really worried, you can switch places-your group goes up a level, we stay here, that way we’re trapped below by you, unable to reach the surface or call for backup.”
“As for whether we’d go down to hinder Lord Ashe, you really don’t need to worry about that. We’ve already shown enough sincerity-we haven’t stopped you from seeking out Silver Lantern.”
“It’s true, you even seem to welco us seeking out Silver Lantern.” Igor frowned. “So I’m very curious-if you’re not interfering with Silver Lantern, and not interfering with us, just what exactly are you after? If you only wanted to enter the Silent Spiral and open the Void Gate, you could’ve occupied the Silent Spiral in advance. Why let Silver Lantern go first?”
“Secrets make people more alluring,” said the rcury Trojan Horse. “I’m sure Lord Igor understands that.”
“…Wait.”
At this mont, Raven held his head and murmured softly, “It feels like there’s soone else… Tanomoo isn’t the true leader here. Above her, there’s a mastermind…”
Hearing this, the Black Feather sorcerers looked confused, so even showing signs of a headache. The rcury Trojan Horse was montarily stunned, then recalled at once-yes, she had never wanted Silver Lantern to activate the World Destruction Procedure, so why had she let the Four Pillars Cult protect the Silent Spiral and let Silver Lantern reach the bottom to build the procedure?
She rembered now, she had lost the supre authority-the Four Pillars had parachuted in soone to seize her power. All this ti, she’d been acting under that person’s orders.
That person… who was that person!?
“Vichy!” Raven finally dredged up the na from the muddy depths of mory. “He went to the bottom level as well! The Four Pillars Cult has its own designs on Silver Lantern!”
“rcury Trojan Horse!” Igor shouted, “Did you set up an ambush below!?”
“That’s not -“
Miracle: ntal Thrust!
In the instant the rcury Trojan Horse instinctively replied, Igor let out a soft whistle. His voice condensed into a blow dart, piercing the Sanctuary, streaking toward the rcury Trojan Horse’s head in the crowd!
Crack!
A massive electric current exploded in the air. The rcury Trojan Horse was so startled she fell to the ground, staring at the veil of lightning before her, now riddled with spiderweb-like cracks.
“There’s even a Defensive Miracle in your Sanctuary.” Igor said calmly. “You really are the most craven person I’ve ever t.”
“Lord Igor.” The rcury Trojan Horse took Dao Qiong’s hand and stood up, speaking coldly. “I have already shown enough goodwill.”
“Not just now, but from the very first night we arrived in Senlo, from the mont we started hunting Silver Lantern, from the afternoon we reached Dead City-you’ve shown plenty of goodwill every single ti,” Igor said. “That’s why I know your goodwill is flimsier than toilet paper.”
“To deal with people like you, there’s no room for negotiation or compromise-only blood and fire to tear that face of yours to shreds!” Igor said with utter disgust. “Resolve misunderstandings? Voluntary concession? I can’t be bothered to guess your intentions, but you’d never give up so easily. You’ll just keep brewing Sches to damn us eternally! Since we’ll end up fighting anyway, why beat around the bush?”
Raven nodded vigorously in wholehearted agreent.
The rcury Trojan Horse was so angry in that mont she nearly burst into tears.
This ti, she truly wanted to run away. She had no wish to get further entangled with Igor, Ashe, Tamashi, or the rest! She just wanted to escape the crumbling Senlo, start fresh in another Kingdom, and had no intention of wasting her wits to harm anyone!
Yet none of them were willing to believe her!
Tamashi insisted on killing Charlyn and collapsing the Void Gate, even though letting them leave would be the greatest gift to Senlo; she herself had voluntarily conceded, offering multiple proposals, but Igor refused them all and insisted on fighting to the end!
To the rcury Trojan Horse, she and Igor should have been the sa kind of people-the type who enjoy pitting wits, who see “battle” as a last resort for truly rational people! Only with overwhelming odds or no alternative would they ever stoop to such a brutish asure!
But even the Con Artist, who loved playing Sches the most, refused to sit at her table, choosing instead to flip it for an all-out brawl!
“I hate,” the rcury Trojan Horse said, both furious and anxious, gnashing her teeth, “idiots like you who think you know it all!”
“And I’m the opposite,” Igor replied languidly. “I love arrogant clients like you the most.”
With a thunderous stomp, Raven once again began to dance across the hall of wine, blood, and corpses. But this ti, not only did starlight swirl at his side, there was a Wandering Phantom blazing a path ahead!
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