Chapter 311 — Let's Do Two Big Questions
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
At last all the magic runes were set in place, and the brazier and ritual implements stood in their proper positions and states. The old mage glanced over the laboratory, then waved his hand irritably: "Get out, all of you!"
The apprentices, as if granted a great pardon, hurried out of the laboratory one after another.
"Mary! You stay!" The old mage's vicious voice came from behind.
The young low-ranking mage's body trembled involuntarily, but she dared not defy her master's command. She could only strive to steady her heartbeat, then slowly turned her head and came meekly before the old mage.
"You—hold out your hand!"
Mary obeyed almost numbly, raising her left hand and holding it out. Then she watched helplessly as the old mage seized her arm and casually stabbed a dagger into it.
For an instant she nearly snatched her hand back, but in the end she forcibly checked the movement—a movement that might bring terrible punishment.
After the sharp pain, the young mage's blood flowed from the wound and eerily floated in midair.
Daniel casually traced several runes in the air with the bloody dagger. Mary's blood was drawn along in their wake, drifting toward the brazier at the center of the room, where it was swiftly devoured by the flames.
"Good… good…" the old mage muttered nervously under his breath. "Mix the sacrificial blood into the ritual process, and this should transfer the outsider wanderer onto the sacrifice… and with these misleading, defensive runes all around, I'll be safe, I'll be safe…"
Before Mary could make sense of the old mage's meaning, he shoved her hard from behind: "Go on—stand in the middle of the array, quick!"
Mary looked at the array, judged it by the occult knowledge she possessed, and then, recalling her master's earlier words, finally understood with a shock of horror what this dreadful old mage intended to do.
The old man meant to deceive that terrible being with whom he had struck his bargain—he meant to use her as the sacrifice, as the scapegoat!
But it was too late for her to resist; she had already stepped into the magic array, and a mighty force held her fast where she stood!
And even had the array not held her, she knew the outcome would have been no different. She simply did not dare—and had not the strength—to resist…
Daniel watched the dark-red runes light up one by one, with the normally most silent of his apprentices standing obediently within the bounds of the array, and he could not help but breathe a little easier.
The time he had agreed upon with the outsider wanderer was almost at hand, but he still meant to make one last struggle. He had already laid dozens of layers of protective arrays throughout this mage tower and cast a great many defensive spells upon himself—so much protection, perhaps enough to withstand the outsider wanderer's descent…
And he had also pushed Mary into the array as a misleading medium; that, too, was a layer of insurance.
What if the outsider wanderer saw through this "fake"?
Then he would lay all the blame on this female apprentice—say that she had trespassed into the array at the crucial moment of the ritual, and so had troubled the great outsider wanderer…
Daniel felt his head swelling, his thoughts slowly growing disordered. He looked at the female apprentice in the array and suddenly felt perplexed—perplexed as to when she had become his apprentice, perplexed as to why he was standing here, perplexed as to why he should hurt an innocent child…
Several jumbled, fragmented images suddenly flashed through his mind: he saw a somewhat younger version of himself standing in a dilapidated mage tower, saw a little girl of about ten running rashly up to him, saw himself preparing food for the little girl…
Daniel froze for a moment, then at once rushed forward to rescue Mary—but in the very instant he moved to act, his mind sank once more into confusion.