"Yes, I remember it clearly. That meat vendor wore a black hood, his dishevelled hair covering half his face. There was a metal hook on his left hand..."
The housekeeper vividly recalled the memory of the meat vendor.
"This is really strange!" Fayle shook his head and looked at the little girl beside him.
"How is the construction of your mind runes coming on?"
"I have already constructed three but I can't seem to construct the fourth! Also, inside the
AD
"So it's like this?" Fayle interlaced his fingers.
"Your progress is too slow. Tonight you must come to my room, I'll be personally 'coaching' you!"
"Yes, Mentor!" The little girl replied softly.
*Dang Dang Dang!*
The copper grandfather clock in the hall gave a resounding boom and the clock struck 12 times. The sky outside had already darkened and one could slightly see some visible blue stars.
"It's already so late, why isn't Nida here yet!"
Fayle slammed opened the door with a loud bang, annoyance evidently seen on his face.
AD
"Nida! Nida!" Fayle began to shout.
His voice echoed throughout the silent hallway, reverberating for a long distance.
The surroundings were in dead silence. Fayle could even hear his own breathing and the flow of his blood.
"Housekeeper! Housekeeper! Maids! Where are they?!"
Impatience began to show on his face, as he hurriedly put on his outer garments and stepped outside of the door.
*Dong Dong Dong!* The sound of leather boots striking the floor was heard.
A black figure walked slowly towards Fayle.
"Who? Who's there?" Fayle called out warily, a silver short sword appearing in his hands.
No matter how Fayle shouted, the footsteps maintained a constant pace that was neither too fast nor slow and walked towards him.
When the black figure drew closer, Fayle could almost see the full appearance of the figure.
It was a middle-aged man who wore black robes. On his chest hung the trademark apron that butchers wore. On his head was a black hood, his dishevelled hair covering most of his face. What was especially attracting was his empty left sleeves. Instead, only a rusty metal hook was seen at the end of the sleeve.
This description perfectly fit the one that the housekeeper mentioned earlier.
AD
*Weng!*
The silver short sword glinted and flew directly to the man with a whistling sound.
*Pu!* As if piercing through an illusion, ripples appeared on the meat vendor's body and the silver short sword went through it.
"Illusory spell?!" Fayle's lips started to move as he chanted a high pitched incantation.
*Xiu Xiu!*
A mixture of the sound of a quick panting on a metallic flute and like the sound of a rusty knife scraping against a metal continuously sounded, causing ripples in the air.
After the whistling sound ended, it was still absolute silence in the tall tower, as if the world only had Fayle and the meat vendor in it.
The black robed man immediately raised his left hook and swung it at Fayle.
*Bubble!* From Fayle's body, a layer of fluid formed transparent water shield, blocking the metal hook's assault.
This was Fayle's innate spell which was finally activated in crucial moments!
Seizing this opportunity, Fayle hurriedly chanted and multiple frost spikes were shot towards the man.
*Pu!* *Pu!*
The frost spikes entered the body and countless blood was spurted out. However, the man in the robes seemed not to be conscious about it, even his expression did not change, like that of a zombie who did not know pain. He continuously brandished his metal hook, causing ripples after ripples on the water shield.
"F*ck, what is this damned thing?"
Fayle struck at the man in the robes for several more times before his mental fortitude seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
No matter if it was physical or magical attacks, it all amounted to nothing when they landed on this man's body.
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Instead, every strike from this metal hook continuously consumed the energy needed to maintain the innate spell. Fayle could clearly feel that if the opponent were to attack several more times, his innate spell would completely shatter.
"Run!"
Under the life or death crisis, Fayle felt as though he returned back to his acolyte days where he had to greet every Magus respectfully, before turning around and running away.
*Dong Dong Dong Dong!*
Hearing the approaching footsteps of the man wearing the black robes resounding in his ears, it made Fayle run even faster.
20 metres!
10 metres!
5 metres!
1 metres!
AD
Fayle grabbed hold of the large main doors of the tall tower and dashed outside.
*Peng!* The door behind was closed shut. To Fayle's utter dismay, he actually appeared inside his bedroom once again. Also, there was only a 3 metres distance between him and the man now!
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! What's happening?"
Fayle gritted his teeth and continued to run, yet returning to his room every time.
Finally, tears and mucus ran down Fayle's face as he returned yet again to his room and closing the door shut tightly.
*Dong! Dong!* The knocking sounds that were the footsteps of the death god. Fayle felt that every step was stepping directly on his heart.
"Mentor! Papa! Mama! Save me!"
Fayle crouched behind the door, crying like a little child.
As if hearing his pants, the booming footsteps halted. Finally, when it was just one step away from the door, it disappeared....
Fayle was pale stricken as he waited for a good half hour before his trembling hands opened the door, only to see no one there.
"Hu...."
Fayle exhaled a large breath and collapsed to the ground as if all the bones had been removed from his body.
"It's finally gone! I must write a letter to Mentor tomorrow and let him check what had transpired..."
Fayle closed the door.
Suddenly, just when he had turned around, a dishevelled face appeared right before him.
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What came closely following it was a black metal hook!
*Pu!* This time, the black metal hook directly broke through Fayle's defensive forcefield and gouged his right eyeball out.
The moment his eye was hooked out, black and red viscous liquid mixture flowed out.
The man seemed to be unsatisfied as his sent his hook at Fayle's head again!
*Bang!* Fayle's body was sent to the ground from the force. The metal hook bore through his brains deeply. Fayle was still unconsciously writhing before he lost all signs of life.
*Brush!*
Following wipe, the man in black robes immediately withdrew a greasy bone saw and began to expertly dissect Fayle's corpse.
After the dissection, Fayle's muscles had been completely stripped clean. The colour of it too turned even redder, revealing the veins of blood, similar to that found in the beef tenderloin!
Winding the time back to yesterday morning.
The black robed man knocked on the kitchen's door of the tall tower, revealing a hideous smile. "Do you want to buy meat? I have good tenderloin steak for sale..."
AD
...
Several li away from Fayle's tall tower, Leylin looked at a spell formation with a solemn expression.
In the centre of the formation, a black flame was flickering, in the heart of it was the scene of Fayle's ending.
With the images continuously flashing by, Leylin stared at the image without blinking, mysteriously chanting at the same time.
Finally, after the black robed man killed Fayle and scoured his flesh clean, Leylin's expression loosened.
*Pa!* The black coloured spell formation collapsed.
The surroundings immediately quietened down and a dead silence followed after.
*Dong Dong!*
The black robed man inside the image earlier appeared in front of Leylin.
"You're here now?" Leylin seemed to have expected it, with no shocked expression on his face.
AD
"Shihiohj" The black robed man let off several indiscernible words and charged towards Leylin.
*Bang!* The black metal hook was grabbed by a scaly palm.
Leylin faced the black robed man and could even see the crude construction of his facial features.
"Look into my eyes!" Leylin spoke gently with a hissing voice like that of a snake's.
The black robed man unconsciously looked into Leylin's eyes.
At this moment, there were some phenomenal changes in Leylin's eyes — both his eyes turned into vertical pupils, letting off the crystal glow like amber!
Innate spell—Eye of Petrification!
*Ka-Cha!* *Ka-Cha!* A grey-white colour extended from the man's face to his whole body.
Several seconds later, the black-robed man completely turned into a grey-white statue.
"Seize the chance!" Leylin picked up the grey statue and tossed it into the heart of the black formation!
*Crash!* The stone statue shattered in pieces, from it grayish-white gases appeared as if wanting to form into a human figure.
"Dust to dust, earth to earth, return to where you came from!"
Leylin chanted in the ancient Byron language.
A black circular whirlpool suddenly appeared in the middle of the formation. With a huge suction force, it sucked in the grey-white gas in.
After the whirlpool disappeared, Leylin then heaved a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground.
"Such a curse cannot be easily activated by anyone!" Leylin smiled wryly.
After destroying all traces of Clayde, Leylin hurried along the way as he brewed the Serenity Potion, finally suppressing the emotional fluctuations that Warlocks had.
However after some thought, he wanted to see things come to an end. So he decided to kill Fayle before escaping the area.
The Lilytell family would definitely have a wanted list on him through the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, so what if he were to add another pursuer, the Purple-Gold Flower family to it? Anyway, it was the wanted list put up by Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, so having one or two families chasing after him had no difference.
Furthermore, Leylin saw a rank 1 curse spell inside the Book of Giant Serpent. It could completely kill Fayle with no one the wiser, and no trouble would come after him.
However, Leylin did not think that this curse was this malicious, it would even reverse the sorcery on the spell caster!
This left him with some lingering fear, especially after seeing the monstrous way Fayle was killed.
These rank 1 spell requirements were extremely harsh.
First of all, he had to cast a Darkness body and use the opponent's trace of scent, if not it could not be casted.
Afterwards, it required one to know the basics of spirit bodies. Fortunately, Leylin had amassed some experience in Extreme Night City, so he picked it up rather quickly.
Finally, this curse had a limitation which was the distance. Moreover, it could only attack a target that had lower stats than the spell caster.