661 Bird of Death

In such pure light, Buck couldn't help but close his eyes, but the dark red eyes of the monster of guts which contained infinite hatred and desperation still lingered in his head. His back was also soaked with cold sweat.

Then, he felt that an overwhelming, terrifying will brush his body, paralyzing both his mind and his body. He wasn't back to himself until a long time later, but the will was already long gone. The brilliance before him that looked like an arriving sun had also disappeared, and so did the monster of guts and his many child monsters.

Looking at the street around that had been basically ruined, Buck trembled. If he had investigated the area with a common officer, they would have certainly been among the people who went missing.

"My lady, has the monster been destroyed by you?" Asked Buck carefully, not just because he was worried about the monster making a come back, but also because he was deeply awed by the lady before him who smiled all the time.

Looking at the pieces of the silver badge on the ground regretfully, Heidi replied, "Theoretically speaking, it is impossible for the monster to come back to life."

Nor was it impossible to restore the silver badge…

Summoning the power of a legendary demiplane required complicated and expensive magic rituals. Even though she asked for the help of her teacher's 'Atomic Universe', the necessary process of communication was still mandatory. Therefore, in order to prepare most of the procedures of the ritual that could be modularized, one would need extremely expensive materials to make the special alchemical items. Even though she had worked for years in the Atom Institution and published a lot of papers, and she had a part-time job in the Holt Magic College, she could only afford one or two of such items.

She was simply crushing the enemy with money!

Hearing Heidi's reply, Buck took a long breath in relief. He reminded himself that he must not get involved in similar incidents in the future, or he wouldn't know how he got killed after he died!

Looking at the shaking two-floored house, he proposed, "There should be clues inside."

Heidi nodded in agreement. She was about to walk in, when she suddenly had a strong feeling of dizziness. It was obvious that her spiritual power had been exhausted. She evaluated his status and thought to himself, "Even if 'Spell Trigger' can be simplified into a fifth-circle spell later, I'm afraid that the standard for the senior-rank sorcerers will still be the sixth circle. The people whose cognitive world is not substantiated cannot be called senior-rank, because they can only afford one quasi-advanced spell under the help of external devices."

Seeing that Heidi was pale and breathing fast, Buck asked concernedly, "My lady, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine after a rest." Heidi took out a dosage of 'Water Song' and drank it. She immediately felt coolness in her stomach.

Heidi needed to rest. Not having the courage to enter the shabby building on his own, Buck thought of random topics. "My lady, was the spell you used just now a simplified version of 'Eternal Blaze'?"

The battle in the sky of Rentato between the Congress of Magic and the South Church were witnessed by most of the ordinary people because of 'Paradise on Earth'. As a result, 'Eternal Blaze' became a synonym of the most powerful magic for people like Buck.

Heidi smiled. "Not exactly. I simply borrowed the power of fusion simulated in my teacher's 'Atomic Universe' in order to build up my 'Arcana Light'. It sort of contains the qualities of 'Eternal Blaze'."

If it were really a simplified and minimized version of 'Eternal Blaze', it would've been impossible for them to resist the explosion which took place not far away. They would've been burnt up by the storm energy and the high temperature.

After a while, Heidi's face was back to normal. She enhanced herself and Buck with plenty of magic effects, before the two of them entered the second floor prudently.

The scorched interior of the hall was the last evidence that proved the existence of the monster of guts. At the center of the hall was a weird, illogical magic circle. Even though it had been destroyed, Heidi felt obvious dizziness when she saw it, like the recoil of a failed hypnotization. Buck, on the other hand, was so enthralled that he almost failed to come back to himself.

"Don't stare at it. Something is wrong with this magic circle." Heidi patted Buck's shoulder.

Buck trembled hard and moved his eyes away. He thought in fear, "Magic is really terrifying…"

He was even more determined to let his son study magic, because those who did not know magic would certainly suffer setbacks in a magic society!

The two of them searched every room in the building carefully and found a middle-aged man in a black robe inside a secret chamber. His body was intact, but his bulging eyes were utterly lifeless, as if even his soul had been completely annihilated by Heidi's magic attack just now.

Heidi examined the body with magic. She suddenly exclaimed in astonishment and opened the black robe of the leader of murderers, before she cut the abdomen of the body.

Inside the abdomen was utterly empty. There were no entrails at all!

"This is…?" Buck stepped back in shock. The man was alive without guts and could even perform magic? Was he one of the liches in the tales? Or maybe, was he a victim himself?

Heidi frowned and searched for all experiment records. However, the black-robed, middle-aged man was very prudent. Few clues were left behind.

"It seems that he was a fifth-circle sorcerer who couldn't keep up with the development of arcana. Due to the fear of being abandoned by the age and the hate for being surpassed by his peers, he embarked on the path of improving his strength through foul magic rituals under the enchantment of a mysterious person named 'Bird of Death'. The beginning of the ritual seems to be transforming himself into a living corpse that does not have guts, after which he will be able to extend his life by depriving others of their internal organs…"

"Since then, his magic strength had advanced into the senior rank, and he was capable of the talented quasi-spell abilities such as devils and other magic creatures, like 'Finger of Death'…"

Examining the clues she had found comprehensively, Heidi restored the black-robed, middle-aged man's experience.

Buck's forehead was soaked with cold sweat as he listened on. When Heidi looked at him and asked for his opinion, he blurted out, "The Bird of Death must be a night watcher. They corrupt the few undetermined sorcerers in order to undermine the Congress' image among the people. We have to strike their crime and clarify the misunderstanding!"

If such a case of evil magic rituals spread out, the ordinary people would inevitably associate sorcerers with gore and ferocity. Although it was only a bias, nobody would be able to consider carefully now that such a terrible thing had happened. Therefore, they had to find a scapegoat to shoulder the criticism!

"It is possible…" Heidi did not say anything, because that was indeed a possible answer. Then, she comforted Buck, trying to relieve his concerns. "Don't be scared. Those sorcerers are the minority. Most of the sorcerers are normal. It's like there are murderers and thieves among the citizens of Rentato, but you cannot consider the citizens of Rentato to be murderers and thieves. It is not mathematically correct."

Buck nodded his head quickly, not having any objection at all.

"I'm going to bring the files and items in this place back to the Congress and ask the senior-rank astrologers to deal with them. I'll try to find more clues and find out who the Bird of Death is." Heidi pointed at the crime spot and said.

"Thank you for your trouble, my lady. Even if you hadn't mentioned it, we would still send the files and items to the Congress. Nobody is better than dealing with such problems than the sorcerers of the school of astrology are." Buck rubbed his hands and said eagerly.

After collecting the files and items, Heidi and Buck left the two-floored building. When they passed the hall, she looked back at the second floor and frowned, before she said in a low voice, "Is it the Church?"