Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A breathless man was sitting in the corner at the end of the ballroom. He was covered with a black robe, almost blending into the darkness around him. As there was no decoration on the plain black robe, no one would have believed that this person was one of the highest leaders of the demon hunter organization. He was wearing a weird mask, which was as vivid as the golden mask of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs but it was made of black iron and had a solemn-looking facial contour. If not mistaken, this appearance should be how the sage looked like before he was eroded by the forbidden knowledge.
Teuton had recognized this person even with the mask on. He called out quietly, “Sage Beetholis!”
This was Sage Beetholis. After all the trouble coming into the Coldpath dimension, finally taking down the defense of the Council of Elders, and going deep into the Netherrealm Clock Tower, they finally met the sage. But the sage was dead.
Beetholis was not breathing. After a simple scan, the MDT announced that he had no signs of life. Hao Ren reached out his hand and carefully took off the iron mask on Beetholis’ face.
Everyone’s jaw dropped to the ground.
There was nobody there, not even any physical form under the mask; only a grayish smog slowly swelled in Beetholis’ robe. There was nothing inside that could be regarded as a core or skeleton. As the mask was removed, the smog seemed to have lost its restraint. It rushed out into the air and disappeared into the surroundings in the blink of an eye. The black robe of Beetholis dropped to the ground.
“He’s dead,” Hao Ren said, holding the weird iron mask in his hand. “And he disappeared into thin air.”
“Was he already like that since the beginning, or mutating into this form after their death?” Vivian asked, turning her head to look at Teuton. She felt that this question was vital as it could lead to the clues of Beetholis’ death.
“Since the sages put on their masks, no one has ever seen their true faces,” Teuton said. His expression was weird as if he still could not believe that a sage would disappear into thin air just like that. “What I’m sure is that they still had a physical body when they first wore the masks though their bodies had been distorted to an indescribable degree.”
“Then we will assume that it was the terrible way of dying that turned Beetholis into smog,” Vivian said with her brows pulled together. “Can you figure out the time of death?” she asked.
The MDT hovered around the clothes left behind by Beetholis. “The time of death cannot be determined, but according to the dust deposit on the clothes and the density of dust suspended in the surrounding air, he must have come here and ceased to move about eight days ago,” the MDT reported.
“Eight days?” Hao Ren suddenly remembered the dusty table that he had seen on the lower floor. The weird time stream in the Netherrealm Clock Tower had caught his attention again. Until yesterday, the Netherrealm Clock Tower still retained contact with the outside world, and there was evidence that the sages were personally commanding the frontline defense. But Beetholis had died eight days ago. “Something is wrong with the time stream here,” Hao Ren said.
“I too have noticed this problem, but the current time stream rate is normal,” the MDT said. Apparently, it had got the data. “I have checked against the time on the Data Network, the relative time distortion is nil.”
“But before this, space and time here was definitely abnormal, and until now it’s still not quite normal,” Hao Ren said, straightening up his body and looking at the ballroom which had faded in color. The ballroom looked like a banquet hall of another world. “The time stream has indeed returned to normal. Maybe that was before we entered the clock tower.”
Y’lisabet was going around, scanning with her red eyes, which were unique to flame demons. This strange little girl seemed to be in thought. She came up to the clothes left behind by Beetholis, asking, “Is this one of the highest leaders of the demon hunters?”
White Flame and Teuton nodded and said in unison, “Yes.”
“How could such an important figure die alone in the ballroom?” Y’lisabet pointed at the Beetholis’s body.” “What was he doing here?”
Y’lisabet’s words had hit home: the Thirteen Sages had been living as hermits in the Netherrealm Clock Tower for thousands of years. They had never left the tower and even rarely ventured outside their respective chambers except to appear in conventions or seminars in the organization. They only summoned the demon hunters in some specific venues. So, the reason Beetholis died in a ballroom became a mystery. It was at odds with the life of a hermit.
“What is this ballroom for?” Vivian asked curiously.
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Teuton spread out his hand. “It’s just an ordinary ballroom. We usually relax here, but the sages would never come here because they wouldn’t want to see too many people. They carefully selected who they wanted to meet,” he said.
Lily then mumbled, “It sounds like these sages had been infected with a plague to me.”
“Forbidden knowledge is no different from the plague,” Teuton said, shaking his head gently. “Those who don’t belong to this world, even those who don’t belong to mortals will distort the reality. They lure the ignorant to study the darkest and the most bizarre world. The deeper one understands it, the more one will fall into that world. People who fall into it will become weird beings in the real world. After all, some things are not what we should know. Our puny brains can’t handle those things. The sages voluntarily learned the forbidden knowledge to defeat the ancient otherworldling gods, and they paid a huge price for it.”
Everyone, except Hao Ren, felt this obscure and incomprehensible. Hao Ren had felt deeply for Teuton. He even had more profound insights than Teuton’s; he had encountered those mysteries that were beyond the mortal understanding and that by merely looking at them, the mortals would be twisted becoming monsters.
Raven 12345 once took Hao Ren to a super-dimensional perspective to see the universe. He had seen every corner of the universe in the vicinity of billions of light years. He had also entered the spiritual world of the brain monsters and the nightmare of the First Borns. Every thought of the semi-divine creations was enough to burn the mortal brain into coke. Even reading the minds of ordinary otherworldling races would overload the nerves. Such super-experiential knowledge could not be handled by the human mind. If not for the blessing of Raven 12345, who had given him a god-like physique, he would have met the same—or even worse—fate as the Thirteen Sages.
The Thirteen Sages forced the knowledge of the ancient exotic species into their demon hunter’s mind. Hao Ren could imagine how distorted the sages would be.
“Beetholis must have first been injured in other places, then he died here while fleeing,” Vivian said, telling what was in her mind. “There are still twelve other sages. I think they all look suspicious,” she said.
Lily was going around happily with her Flamejoy like she was looking for evidence of Beetholis’ struggle. Instead, she found something else. “Hey, look, there’s something on the wall!” she called out.
Hao Ren went over. Not far from the spot where Beetholis died, some scratchy text was on the wall. Judging from how bad the writing was, the author must be very weak when writing the message, which only contained one line:
“We have released the monster in the nightmare. It is at the top of the tower.”
“Did Beetholis write this?” Vivian asked Teuton.
Teuton carefully examined it. “It is indeed the writing of Sage Beetholis,” he said.
“Monster in the nightmare?” Hao Ren had a bad hunch. When relating it with the true nature of the Coldpath dimension, his bad premonition went from bad to worse. “Holy moly! Let’s hope this thing has got nothing to do with the true God. I’m only a few days away from getting my year-end bonus!” he said.
Then, hurried footsteps were heard outside the ballroom. It sounded like there were many people outside.
Everyone became nervous spontaneously. Y’zaks waved his hand and said, “It’s the main forces.”
As it turned out, it was the “normal” commanders of the demon hunters and the demonic army officers whom Lanina was leading—the elite soldiers of the coalition.
It felt good to see friendly forces in this gloomy and strange place. Even poker-faced Teuton was letting out a sigh of relief. Lanina walked up quickly to Y’zaks and said, ‘My king, I apologize for the delay. The Council of Elders has blown up the last defense device, causing turbulence in the dimension.”
Then she waved to the men behind her, and the soldiers of the demonic army immediately gave way. Three elven magicians escorted a demon hunter belonging to the Council of Elders in. It was Claude, who had been captured earlier.
Hao Ren was a little surprised. “He can talk nicely now?” he asked.
Lanina nodded. “Although I don’t know how, he seems to be awake now.”