harleyscars Page 190
Page 190
He didn't treat the Gentleman of the Abyss as a living person at all; his gaze was entirely focused on appraising the handy tool that was about to be obtained.
His eyes gleamed as he leaned in to pinch the Abyss Gentleman's cheek: "No bad habits, abundant magic, and excellent attributes—the most wonderful man I've ever seen..."
The Gentleman of the Abyss slapped away his outstretched hand, his face turning completely black.
He has indeed been cultivating his character in recent years. He is no longer as impulsive as before, and he no longer dabbles in things. He has become much more composed.
But this does not mean that his anger will lessen in the slightest.
The Abyss Gentleman is an eccentric. He knows the hardships eccentrics face in this world and tries his best to protect those eccentrics who are willing to change with him.
Although he decided to stop interfering with the actions of other freaks and withdraw from the once-active stage, this does not mean that the Gentleman of the Abyss can stand by and watch his fellow citizens be humiliated.
Making a spellcasting tool from the core of a monster to suppress its original personality, and then throwing it away like trash after use... Such behavior undoubtedly steps into the Abyss Gentleman's minefield.
The reason he hasn't immediately torn the dark wizard to pieces is thanks to his high moral standards; he never considered that he could kill the wizard however he wanted with his own abilities.
Right now, all he can think about is sending the other person into the dungeon of fear.
That was his thought, and that's why he acted immediately.
Given the current situation, no matter how much the Abyss Gentleman attacks, it wouldn't be considered excessive, and even the former magical girls around him wouldn't object.
In fact, Sugiyama Rika and the other two had no reason to object. They were all filled with the same anger, and when the Gentleman of the Abyss made his move, they tacitly blocked the Black Wizard's escape route, preparing to arrest him.
just.
【Om—】
The black wizard raised his hand and placed the monsters' fragile cores directly in front of him, causing the Abyss Gentleman to hesitate briefly.
It was in that moment of hesitation that he seized the opportunity and used the core directly.
Countless cores appeared around the black wizard and began to slowly rotate.
This tactic is utterly shameless; it's like tying all the hostages' hearts to yourself, so that any movement will randomly crush a few of them.
Even more cheating is the way the Dark Wizard uses the core.
"Hehehe... I've studied the ways strange people use tools for decades and discovered something." The black wizard chuckled.
His long-nails-covered fingers scraped across the fragile core surface, emitting a satisfied sigh.
Eccentric, magical creature.
These strange beings possess a variety of attributes and magic, all stored within their cores.
If we can obtain the monster's core, we might be able to control this magical creature.
With the help of a black magic society, he hunted down several monster cores and conducted extensive research on them.
At first, the Black Wizard found that a single monster core was basically useless, since he couldn't expect a monster that wasn't very powerful to begin with to become an unparalleled weapon once it only had one core left.
Moreover, there are many useless oddballs in this world, and he mostly acquires the cores of these insignificant oddballs. Powerful oddballs attract too much attention, and making a rash move would draw the attention of magical girls and the Tower of Stars.
But one day, he suddenly discovered that the core of the strange people could resonate with each other.
A select few eccentric core combinations are able to unleash new and powerful magic under resonance, which is more than just 1+1>2.
This is an increase of hundreds or thousands of times, or even exponentially... The consumption is merely the core of a useless freak.
The black wizard believed he had found the monster's true purpose.
The weirdo is just a tool.
Even without exceptional talent, a spellcaster like him could still reach the level of a prodigy he once couldn't even touch by hunting enough monster cores.
Even surpassing them.
Even with his pitifully low innate magical power, he could easily unleash magic powerful enough to crush everyone.
The black wizard let out a hearty laugh, and he tapped on a core that appeared before him, which shone brightly.
That is the core of the future monster Kazuna.
Text: 305. No, I have truly turned over a new leaf.
A black goat's head icon flashed through the air, followed by the prankster puppet icon lighting up.
The icons that light up when using the monster's core skills all bear some of the monster's physical characteristics, making them easily recognizable to those familiar with the monster.
Perhaps because it was magic used by a black wizard, the magic of this strange person, who originally did not have any attributes of light or darkness, was tainted with an ominous dark color.
By now, even the slowest person should have realized why they noticed the prankster's magical fluctuations were strange.
The Abyss Gentleman's doubts were resolved when he saw the Black Wizard openly wearing the cores of his friends on his body.
It turned out to be the case.
If a living person uses magic, there will definitely be a certain degree of harmless error. Such error is not considered a "mistake," but rather living proof that "magic is breathing."
But if the physical body has been erased, and magic is used only through the core, like a tool, then the unusually cold magical fluctuations would make sense.
So... when exactly were the pranksters captured by the dark wizard in front of them?
Based on the timeline, it is very likely that it occurred before the start of the festival.
The Abyss Gentleman, with a somber expression, erected a barrier in front of himself and began to ponder the question.
He received the news from Strange City shortly before the festival opened.
The Abyss Gentleman hadn't paid attention to the situation in Strange City for a long time. After returning from the Otherworld, he had many things to deal with and was extremely busy.
During his absence, Miracle City was overwhelmed with problems. Even small matters like mediating disputes between neighbors were listed as long blocks of text, each thirty centimeters long.
After briefly taking a break from his busy schedule, the Gentleman of the Abyss received an invitation to the festival.
Before this year, the Gentleman of the Abyss would sometimes pay attention to the festival. He would receive invitations to the festival in previous years, but he didn't accept them because his younger siblings were not yet fully independent.
This unexpected turn of events so soon after the start of the year is unlikely to be a coincidence.
The person who sent me the invitation might not be one of my familiar friends, but a dark wizard who has tricked me into coming under false pretenses.
After all, to smoothly take over the festival work in just a few days without anyone noticing a problem, and even the event organizers' subordinates didn't notice anything unusual, must have made ample plans beforehand.
The Gentleman of the Abyss did not believe that the black wizard in front of him was the mastermind behind everything, after all, judging from the other party's words and actions just now, he did not seem to have any cunning.
He's the kind of guy whose mind is only focused on collecting monster cores. He has no patience for long-term planning, nor does he have the wisdom to control the monster landscape of Monster City in a short period of time.
They're probably just thugs.
They're just puppets of a dark magic society.
The Gentleman of the Abyss pondered and came to a conclusion, a sense of curiosity rising within him.
Putting himself aside, the others are not characters who can be defeated by simple combinations of weirdo techniques.
Has this dark wizard never heard of Sugiyama Rika's name? Doesn't he know that a magical girl chosen by a Jewel Beast is already a living miracle?
Someone capable of developing tools to represent freaks should also be intellectually sound.
In other words, the other side does believe that they are capable of fighting against the group on their side.
If the Abyss Gentleman had real eyebrows, he should be raising them now.
Did he really think that mastering a few strange magic spells would be enough to deal with him?
Although the Gentleman of the Abyss didn't think of himself as some kind of extraordinary weirdo, he was still a little displeased to be looked down upon like this.
He understands freaks far better than the black wizard in front of him.
For example, the future monster Kazuna, while possessing formidable abilities, requires being touched by that beam of light to activate them.
Before developing this strange, tool-like technology, the black wizard in front of me was at most an ordinary magician with mediocre talent, pitifully little combat experience, and a very slow reaction speed.
The beam of light emitted from the opponent's hand doesn't require any strenuous effort to dodge; it can be easily blocked with a barrier.
Looking at Sugiyama Rika and the others, it's all a bit baffling.
Indeed, the skills used with the monster core are more powerful than before, but no matter how powerful they are, they are not troublesome for the girls.
Sugiyama Rika didn't even need to lift a finger; she simply crossed her arms and effortlessly dodged the attack. Hoshino Yui, who was standing beside her, couldn't hold back any longer and flashed behind the black wizard, grabbing his arm.
Terasaki Ayasa simply flicked her finger, and a strange shriek filled the air, shattering even the barrier that the other party had secretly set up around them.
The black wizard was pinned to the ground by Hoshino Yui's twisted arm. He was covered in cold sweat, trembling all over, and his face turned red from holding his breath.
But he didn't seem flustered.
After all, no discerning person would entrust the task of defeating the old Five Colors members to such an unknown guy. His purpose in coming here was simply to delay them.
Even if it's just a few seconds, that's enough.
With an even crisper cracking sound, the interior of the house began to distort. Ayaka Terasaki's eyes finally lit up with interest: "[Binding], [Concealment], [Expansion], [Amplification], [Reversal]... They really added a lot of binding conditions."
To place such a complex thing in this room, a lot of time must be spent preparing beforehand.
Moreover, in order to prevent Terasaki Ayasa, who has done considerable research on this, from recognizing it, the Eye of the Barrier must be activated again at a crucial moment.
But this thing isn't on the dark wizard, it's on...
Terasaki Ayasa's gaze fell upon the stunned Abyss Gentleman's cuffs.
On the sleeve of the Abyss Gentleman's robe, a dark green cufflink was now emitting a soft glow.
His expression froze for a moment.
……ah?
This cufflink was given to him by the jealous weirdo. So he had already planned to assassinate his own older brother back then?
Although he was pleased that his younger sister had managed to scheme to this extent, the gentleman of the abyss still quietly shattered.
No, no. It's fine to cheat others, but why do you start cheating your own family as soon as you come back?
Especially when the Abyss Gentleman realized that the barrier had been activated and that his old enemies, with whom he had previously eased tensions, were now displaying dangerous expressions that seemed to convey the message, "Looks like you still have ill intentions," he just wanted to cry out that he was innocent.
Although he used this trick a lot when he was young, hasn't he already turned over a new leaf?
In the midst of this chaos, the black wizard's magic was finally successfully activated.
Text: 306. Time Travel
The Future Monster's magic from ten years in the future, combined with the Prankster Monster's game space rules and the powerful binding of the barrier, should theoretically make them invincible.
The dark wizard thought so too.
Before setting off, he had already laid out his trump cards clearly. All he needed to do was find a way to send all the threatening mages into the chaotic time, and they would need at least ten days to half a month to return.
The remaining magical girls and monsters are no longer a threat.
By then, obtaining the seeds of the new world will be a piece of cake.
However, the former magical girl and the retired monster in front of him were indeed stronger than he had expected.
In the dark wizard's mind, no matter how powerful the being was, it was impossible to escape the layers of traps set by him and that person. He had little chance of winning in a direct confrontation, and he didn't want to overdraw his precious monster cores. It would be best to just take them down like this.
But in just a moment of astonishment, Terasaki Ayasa managed to dismantle what should have been an unbreakable barrier.
Black Wizard: ...
Are you kidding me! This barrier took almost half a month to set up! It uses ancient script for encryption, and then translates and converts it layer by layer through coded language and self-created runes. It's a completely complex system, unlike modern magic!
How could it be cracked in such a short time?
If Terasaki Ayasa had forcibly dismantled the barrier, the dark wizard might have found it somewhat understandable. But it was clear that she had instantly deciphered the underlying logic of the barrier and dismantled it layer by layer.
If ordinary barrier encryption is like a tangled headphone cord, then this barrier, specifically designed to deal with these guys, is like tens of thousands of lines, thousands of meters long, endlessly tangled and knotted...
To solve the puzzle quickly, most people would choose brute force, but if they choose to solve it head-on, they must possess extraordinary wisdom.
Can the human brain do that?
The black wizard hadn't believed it before, but now he had no choice but to.
After all, Terasaki Ayasa was standing right in front of him, and even when she was doing such an exaggerated thing, her expression didn't change at all, as if she didn't think that she was being exaggerated or scary.
A bead of sweat the size of a bean slid down the black wizard's forehead.
If this can't be controlled, then you'll have to make a decision.
Terasaki Ayasa was still frantically dismantling the barrier beneath her feet; the incessant cracking sounds were like a black wizard's death knell.
While the barrier still existed, he could stand before these once world-renowned figures without his legs trembling. Thanks to that great man's strategy and the core he had seized, he was confident he could keep these powerful figures here.
But once he loses his greatest asset, he himself is not sure if he can use the Monster Core to suppress these monsters here.
Damn it... I thought that the core I just got could accumulate magic power for a while longer to extend the research period, but now I have no choice but to use it for now.