Chapter 311 — Let's Do Two Big Questions
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
The Typhon Empire, southwestern frontier.
A winter rain mixed with fine snowflakes fell without cease, splashing down a chaotic, muddled curtain in the dim evening light. The endless rain, the overcast sky, and the mountain mist tangled and mingled together, making the whole world seem vague and hazy.
And in this vague, hazy world, the poor frontier mountain village had long since sunk into darkness. The mountain folk, who could not afford lamp oil, could only hide in their pitch-black houses in such foul weather, warming themselves by their tiny stoves while watching with a touch of fright the ancient black spire standing atop the mountain.
Several windows at the top of the black spire were radiating an eerie dark-red glow, and ominous dark clouds hung over the tip of the tower. The chaotic, hazy rain seemed to have been summoned by those very lights, making the whole world turn dark and damp.
That mad old mage was at his dreadful business again. One by one the superstitious mountain folk nervously shut their windows, murmuring low to the gods they believed in, praying that the dark mage's curse would not fall upon them.
At the top of the magic tower, Mary and the other apprentices had no idea what those superstitious, ignorant villagers were thinking—and even if they had, they would have had no interest in paying it any mind.
The apprentices were nervously setting up the laboratory, placing the various magical materials in their proper places as their master had instructed. A large brazier burned at the center of the stone-built room, and within it leaped flames of an abnormal red, flames that quivered in the air like fresh blood.
The old mage stood within a certain magic circle beside the brazier, channeling mana into the circle while fixing each apprentice's movements with his gloomy eyes. He was not wearing his black robe; artificial nerve cords extended from his spine, writhing slowly behind him like venomous snakes.
One apprentice's hand slipped as he sprinkled amethyst dust into the brazier, and the sparks that burst forth rippled outward in rings through the air. The apprentice looked at his master in terror at once, but the old mage merely glared at him viciously: "Careful! You worthless fool!"
The apprentice let out a breath of great relief and hurriedly resumed his work with even greater care.
Mary, pouring a liquid mixed with ore powder, monster blood, and mana-grass juice into the runic grooves on the floor with a special tool, stole a glance at her master.
Ever since the last "connection," old Master Daniel's condition had grown more and more strange.
He had always been mad in his conduct—punishing apprentices for no reason, performing all manner of hair-raising experiments—but this time his strangeness was unlike anything before. He seemed like a man who had suffered a tremendous fright, bearing some vast pressure he could not articulate, his whole being unusually neurotic. He drove the apprentices to set up countless mental defense arrays within the magic tower almost without sleep or rest, and carved countless new runes into his own body. He needed long meditation before he could fall asleep, and more than once he had woken from nightmares in a cold sweat…
The other apprentices did not understand, but Mary suspected that this whole series of abnormal behaviors was connected to the "connection" her master had performed last time.
Her master said he had struck a bargain with a terrible being… so all of this was because of that bargain? Was it that "terrible being" that had frightened this powerful mage to such a degree?
What kind of horrifying monster must it be…
Mary did not dare ask her master for details. She could only bow her head and silently do her work, praying that she would make no mistake in the process, that she would not be punished by the old mage—and she knew the others were surely thinking the same.