"I'm crazy."
"I know. The crazy person is me. I turned into a monster ..."
"Monica was right. The Mindseed changed the plague, and it changed the villagers and me. It warped our souls so that neither I nor the villagers could realize our own mortality, turning us into ghosts. And the plague manipulated our bodies. No, or rather, that was supposed to be the essence of the terrible magic that is the Mindseed."
"The Mindseed is a magical parasite, each spell is a parasite that lives permanently in the recipient's body, constantly influencing and remodeling the recipient's mind and body to make it more suitable for its own survival."
"Under its influence, we automatically rationalize some of the anomalies, we ignore the warnings, and we even actively destroy the things that warn us. Our consciousness is turned upside down by it."
"This magic is not supposed to be there, it should be destroyed. I no longer sympathize with my ancestors. This sinful bloodline should be severed."
"Now this parasite has an even more terrible tool, it controls the plague. Due to my arrogant thoughts as I was dying, I used the Mindseed on myself, and it fused with the plagues to prevent me from being killed by them, and took control of them."
"Now it was able to spread through the plague. It became the most terrible curse of all."
"I should be glad I built the wall and opened the barrier early. The village is now closed off so that no one can easily come in, much less go out. I should be glad that even at the height of my madness, I did not try to open the barrier."
"That may have been what was left of my sanity warning me."
"But my sanity won't last long."
"Monica's death woke me up, I couldn't let her sacrifice be in vain, I had to find a way to change all that ..."
"Maybe I should destroy my mindseed."
"Forcing two contradictory Mind Seed spells on a person destroys their brain and turns them into a schizophrenic lunatic. But I'm already dead, and so are the villagers, and destroying the Mind Seed would simultaneously shatter the very thing that holds our souls together, and I should probably use this method to make everyone rest in peace ..."
"For Monica ..."
...
"Monica?"
"For a moment, I couldn't remember why Monica died."
"Who killed her?"
"... The pain is waning ... I'm forgetting Monica's death ..."
...
"January 1st. Another day!"
"January 2nd. I'm working hard to heal my villagers."
"January 4th. Everyone is happy."
"January 9th. I'm starting to miss Monica, is she doing well at school?"
...
"I should have stopped the plague!"
"We should be destroyed ..."
...
"January 1st, it's a new day."
...
The diary entries that followed were confusing and kept repeating themselves, as if Joachim's memories were on a constant loop.
There were also a lot of symbols drawn in places as well as a jumble of words of unknown meaning.
As Celica looked at the diary in her hand, she only felt an unspeakable chill in her heart, its horror even better than the darkness in front of her.
The Mind Seed was too terrifying!
She put the diary away, although the diary was obviously not the "soul weapon" that Murphy said it was, it at least recorded how to destroy the barrier, and it could also alert Murphy to the horrors of the Mind Seed.
She was about to leave this horrible place and look for clues about the Horcruxes elsewhere when she looked up and saw the wall covered in ghostly drawings.
The writing and drawing on the wall was very similar to what she had seen on the back of her journal, and she suddenly realized that it was a spell.
"Notam servitutis (brand of servitude)."
This couldn't be the ... Mind Seed?
But at that moment, "Boom!" of a loud bang came, and a lot of dust fell above the cellar, as if there was a big explosion outside.
Celica didn't dare to stay any longer, memorized the spell and hurriedly ran out of the cellar.
However, the scene outside startled her.
The original hut had been blown down, only a small half of it remained, and in the air two figures were flying in a staggered pattern, with flashes of incantations constantly exploding in the air.
A large number of villagers were holding all kinds of weapons in their hands, surging towards the location of the hut.
There were even people using flintlock rifles they got from somewhere to shoot towards Murphy in the air, although they were inaccurate, they still made Celica's heart skip a beat as she watched.
Murphy's condition was quite bad, continuously using Phantom Shift and Flying greatly consumed his magic power, at the same time, he had to deal with every attack from the Joachim's Ghost with all his might, but the other party didn't have to think about defense in the slightest, they just needed to keep on outputting, bringing a great deal of defensive pressure on him.
"Flying Sand!"
Murphy blocked with an armor spell, but the latter's next attack arrived immediately.
"Vadivasi!"
The debris in front of Murphy's flight path was hit over by Joachim with a magic spell.
No longer having much magic power for high-frequency phantom shifting, Murphy hurriedly turned, but was still hit by a few stones, one of which was sharp enough to cut across his forehead, leaving him with a not-so-shallow wound.
The blood flowed into his eyes, making him involuntarily close his right eye, so he didn't see that above a two-story building on the right side, a zombie with a rotting scalp exposing his skull and a medallion hanging from his chest pulled the bolt.
"Bang!"
A sharp pain in his abdomen caused Murphy, who was barely holding on, to suddenly stall and fall through the air.
"Murphy!" Celica watched Murphy smash into a small building, and her heart raced as she rushed over.
Joachim's ghost also landed on the ground, and with a wave of his wand, he dislodged the debris, revealing Murphy lying on the ground.
Although the latter used the armor spell to counteract the impact the moment he landed, he was still quite injured, and at this moment, looking at the specter that was closing in on him, he struggled to climb up.
His magic power was nearly depleted and he had no means to cause real damage to the enemy, but Murphy was unexpectedly not afraid.
At this point in time, there is no point in thinking too much.
Let's fight!
He raised his wand.
"Flying Sand!"
"Armor Protection!"
Joachim's ghost still had the advantage, he used seven or eight spells in a row, and Murphy could not move well, so he could only use the armor spell to block it just right each time.
Joachim kept disappearing and reappearing around Murphy, only to distract Murphy and disrupt his rhythm.
Gradually a few more ghosts appeared out of nowhere and joined the scene, they couldn't do any damage to Murphy but they could confuse him. There were even a few walkers with muskets and other things that started target practice on Murphy.
Armor spell, armor spell, armor spell ...
The only thing that could help him now was this spell.
But defense had its limits, and a projectile hit Murphy's shoulder in the gap between the two armor spells.
He didn't even have the effort to cry out in pain, and used an armor spell again to block another attack from Joachim.
He was already in a desperate situation.
Yet the mind was still calculating calmly.
It's nothing, this is just another spell practice.
Forget everything else and focus on the task at hand.
Then just defeat him.
A certainty that came from nowhere made him stand up straight.
He estimated where Joachim would next appear, when he would attack, estimated, tested, corrected, re-estimated, tested again, corrected again ...
The frequency of Joachim's and the villagers' attacks grew higher and higher, and it became more and more difficult for him to cope with them, but in his heart, he became more and more calm.
Suddenly, Joachim once again flashed and disappeared from the right side of his vision.
Murphy's eyes stared, the same attack method Joachim had repeated three times, Murphy had 90% certainty that the other party would appear behind him to the left.
He suddenly turned around, his wand pointed in that direction, and at the moment the opponent's Phantom Shift appeared, he recited the incantation, "Except for your weapon!"
The moment Joachim appeared out of nowhere, the wand was knocked away.
Almost at the same time, another voice came to mind from outside the field, "Enslaving Brand!"
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