Flames burned near where Gwen's lightning struck, and the dried bark of the surrounding blue gum burned, bathing the entire area in a hazy glow. The coral ash juxtaposes perfectly with the blue arcs that continue to ionize, drowning in the mage's turban, engulfed by a barrage of plasma.

Eat this you shit!Gwen grunted, feeling visibly exhausted in relation to mana drain. Her energetic passage lasted for half a minute, attracting as many as 30 attacks from positive energy, increasing in intensity until the final explosive bolt almost turned into a beam of red-hot solid electricity.

The light is dim.

The ground is a mixture of charcoal and molten silicon.

Gwen's eyes adjusted. She saw a dark dome emerge from beneath her impact point. Inside, the turbaned mage was barely visible, one hand raised above his head, revealing a shield made of swirling black dust.

Her chest spasmed.

The turbaned mage dispersed his shield. She could tell he hadn't weathered her attacks well. Smoke billowed from the arm that cast the shield, dripping thin streaks of blood from the shadow of the turban.

"Now you do. The mage chanted, his voice no longer a mocking pleasure, but a deep annoyance. "Why is it so hard to talk to you people?"

"Dust Storm!" the man's voice became hollow. Gwen watched in horror as a puff of black dust swept past her place. She tried to put up a shield, but even her best attempt failed in a burst of sparks. The storm enveloped her, as if it had a life of its own, carrying her off the ground and throwing her into the air. The next moment, she flew up, overwhelmed by the feeling of free fall, and then fell heavily to the ground, her jaw clucking.

Gwen groaned, her bones touched by the mage's brutality. She couldn't breathe and the pain in her chest was excruciating.

But the magician hadn't killed her yet. She felt the dusty tendrils wrap around her wrists, pulling her body upwards and nailing her to an invisible cross. Where the dust touched her tracksuit, it completely dispersed. Particles of sand of dark energy sliced through her skin, unleashing hot blood.

Gwen fainted at the sight of blood.

And that's not even the worst. In that terrible cloak, an unseen gaze licked all over her body, the sensation she felt from strangers, whose eyes lingered, magnified a hundredfold on her way home.

Oh. Oh. Oh,,. She panicked. Maybe there's a coach who survived and can come to her aid? Where is Alexia? She's so powerful, so incomparable, she's certainly not going to die in something as mundane as a collapsed building! Maybe Elvia can help? No! Gwen wants them to stay at camp. The number of people is safe.

She needs to buy time and stall for time.

"What...... What do you want from us?"

"Do you want to talk now?" the magician pointed his black turban at her.

He looked at his prey and studied her for the first time. The Lightning Girl possessed the corpse of an elderly man, even though she was apparently only fifteen or sixteen years old. The spell she casts on him is glorious, beautiful, and has great affinity. What impressed him even more was that after all that had happened, the girl was still so calm. Maybe it's the same reason she's rebelling against his domination? What strange secrets, what memories, are hidden in her cracks?

He ordered the Dust Demon to reach out one more tendril, pick Deborah up, and use his torso to lift her up. Where the dusty tendrils caressed, Deborah's clothes shredded, and a small string of blood flowed out.

"It's alive, it's good. The mage nodded approvingly. "We'll talk as we go......"

The trio began to walk through the woods. Gwen noticed in tears of pain that the man was floating. Gwen herself was lifted a few inches off the ground in agony, her arms and collarbones burning under the weight of her body.

"Who...... Who are you?, Gwen gritted her teeth and spoke. She could feel a sense of insanity. She had lost a lot of blood.

"I'm Edgar. To her surprise, the man was completely self-motivated.

Gwen winced. You're Edgar's Edgar, and your plan is to go to Edgar?

They were walking fast now, and Gwen felt the bottom of her stomach sink in. More rumbling could be heard in the distance. The few branches that fell on them turned to dust.

"Why...... Why are you doing that?"

"Why would anyone do something?" the man laughed.

"What?"

"Mole's Modus Opera!"

Gwen said, "Big talk. This person does not lack education.

"We're just students going on field trips......" she barely did. For a person who has never broken a bone in his life, the pain is simply too great.

"If you want to know, I'll tell you everything," Edgar continued alone. "You see, we are

But Gwen didn't listen anymore.

"What a terrible audience. Edgar snorted and patted Gwen's wet cheek. "I guess bloodletting is a bit too much. I need our little lamb to be in a state of proper gentleness. ”

She must have lost consciousness, Gwen realized.

She was quick to self-assess. Her tracksuit was tattered, barely even together. The ghost pinned her waist and torso with tendrils, and another tendrils wrapped around her ankles, supporting her weight, spreading out like a cheerleader doing a cross. Noticing her surroundings, she was shocked to find that Deborah was still unconscious, dangling like a humanoid fruit a few feet behind them, also hanging in the air.

They now deep into the bushes, where the terrain had become rugged and littered with sand and low bushes, with only the occasional blood gum rotting in the waterless crevices. They soon came to a place that looked like a crack and had been hacked into a sandstone cliff like an axe.

"Sleeping Beauty, are you up?" Edgar asked in a sarcastic voice. "I know you're ~, or do you want Dusty to wake you up like Prince Charming?

"Where are you taking me?" Gwen reluctantly opened her eyes. She had better do something before they entered that cave. God knows what's inside.

"Where the hell is it?" Edgar seemed to regain that contemptuous composure. "You should be happy. We're going to a safe place, away from there. ”

He pointed to his right: in the distance, through the sparse foliage, Gwen could see a huge object wandering through the landscape. Or rather, she could see the landscape itself as if it were a creature moving. Every now and then, she saw crimson explosions.

Gwen blinked.

The color! the mana mark! must have been her teacher. It must be Alessia! she's still alive! she's fighting with that thing! trying to stop it from moving towards the city!

Gwen gritted her teeth and fought against the Dust Storm's control.

"Thunderbolt!"

She recharges her spell minor with every drop of mana she regenerates. Her spell lifted into the air, emitting a cacophony of sound and color, blooming with a blue-purple electric lotus.

The mage's faceless cloak awaited her underneath.

"Applause. Applaud. Applaud. ”

Even the man's applause was sarcastic.

"Do you think the Red Witch has time for you at a time like this?" Edgar snorted. "What, are you her apprentice?"

Gwen shifts her gaze.

"Smack!"

A slap in the face hit her back.

Gwen didn't make a sound except for her mother.

They moved again. The trio slowly hovered over a ledge overlooking the Holocaust rituals.

Oh, God. Gwen felt her spine turn jelly. Does Edgar intend to sacrifice her Doomsday Temple style?

To Gwen, this magic circle is meaningless, it consists of dozens of carvings and carvings of concentric circles, with an egg-shaped object in the center, similar to the stone of Menhill.

Regrettably, they did make their way to the place of the ceremony. With each meter of descent, the flavor of bile becomes stronger. She's a consultant! Not Indiana Jones! There's no way she can expect to get out of the fucking dark ritual!

"Don't strangle me now," Edgar said in a friendly tone. "If you cooperate, it doesn't hurt you at all. ”

The depths of the cavern glow with an amber light. By this time, they had reached the bottom, to a stone table converted from the black stone of the cave. Edgar carelessly places Deborah's unconscious body on the ground, leaving her rag doll floating on the water. He then examines the deformer, tearing at the torn uniform until Deborah leaves without any modestion. Gwen noted that the man's actions lacked some kind of passion. Instead, Edgar gives the impression of a butcher examining a finely cut wound. Finally, the mage put his fingers against Deborah's neck and felt her pulse.

"It's a pity, Gwen. "You're so ruthless," Edgar mocked his captive. "Your friend screwed up. ”

"Will she ......," Gwen had to ask.

"Who knows?" she watched as he reached out a hand and found a syringe that appeared to be healing, then placed it next to Deborah.

"For your friends," he said. "If you are obedient. ”

She felt the tendrils of power around her body relax. The ghost disappeared into a cloud of gray dust and floated down from her clothes. Edgar walked over to another table and patted the surface of the table in a friendly manner, and a man beckoned to a reluctant cat.

Gwen caressed her delicate wrists, her eyes darling between the man, the table, and the therapeutic syringe. In that moment, she imagined that she had taken it, injected herself, and given her a better chance to escape this place.

Edgar laughed at her for being indecisive.

Now, with shame and guilt, Gwen dignified herself towards the "check" table, the opposite of where she could feel comfortable.

Edgar pulled his hands back, as if to show his kindness.

"Let's stop being rough with you, okay?"

Gwen swallowed hard. Maybe she could self-destruct and take him away? She wondered what would happen if she allowed the pipes to be overloaded. Is it possible?

Slowly, painfully, she took off her tattered jacket and put it over her head along with her tattered T-shirt. When she heard Edgar snickering, she was hunched down to put on her panties.

"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to suppress his laughter.

Gwen's face was on fire. "You said ......"

"I'm not interested in that kind of thing," Edgar replied with a laugh. "You're so lucky. We're going to eat you alive. ”

To her surprise, he took out a robe that was different from the one he was wearing and threw it at her.

"Cover yourself. Don't catch a cold now. ”

Gwen began to get confused.

What the hell is he doing, and why is Edgar playing so well?

She covered herself. The robe was velvety and warm, hanging like the softest silk on her body. This scoundrel has at least a good taste in textiles, if not style.

"Well, Gwen ......" A cloud of dust seemed to appear underneath the man, and he made himself a stool made of compressed dust particles. "Tell me about yourself. ”

She looked at him blankly. Her mind was a mess. Why are you asking me this? Aren't you terrorists? You attacked us! Release that thing! Why did we have a cordial conversation in the first place?

"Don't want to answer?" he asked, then looked at Deborah, her chest barely motionless.

"My name is Gwen Song......" Gwen began to talk about her school, her life in the city, her divorced parents, and said that he would inject Deborah with healing drugs as long as he could satisfy the man.

Edgar concluded, "It's all fascinating, but what's your modus operandi? What's your reasoning?"

"My... My reason for being?" Gwen wondered. It's hard to think, she wants to sleep.

"That's right, tell me what you want, what you want. Why are you a mage? What do you think mages are born to do?"

"I ...... I do not know. A litany of questions made her dizzy. She didn't know the answer, she was telling the truth.

"Come on," Edgar asked. "You certainly don't think that you are one of all, that your talents are more than 100,000 souls, that you are born ... Wage slave? Think about it. Ask yourself. ”

Gwen finds herself in a state of deep introspection, much easier than she had imagined. What the hell did she want? Gwen wanted a comfortable life. She wants prestige and great wealth, as well as those parents who fell in love with her at first sight, as well as a house by the sea and two cats and a dog

Edgar's voice filled her hollowness. "You can have them effortlessly with your talents. ”

"Yes......" Gwen realizes that her goal is indeed superficial. She easily found them with her talent and drive.

"You should go for something bigger, greater, more suitable for yourself, your own legend. ”

Her surroundings now seem to be nothing. Gwen seems to be alone with this friendly man, and he is so lovely to her that even Deborah's unconscious body disappears from her consciousness.

"What could that be?"

"Firepower!firepower!more firepower!" the man's voice had the strange tone that Yue Ai used, the kind of childish passion that Gwen liked so much. "You can be like the Alician instructor, the goddess of destruction, revered and worshipped ......"

"That's great," Gwen replied dreamily, a look of satisfaction on her face. She thought to herself, how curious. The man's voice was stereo!

"That will make you happy," the voice continued. "You should do it. ”

"I can ......," Gwen repeated.

"You...... Want me to help you?" the voice pleaded. Edgar is gone, and Gwen is in a place she knows very well. It was the cognitive room! Oh, thank goodness, she was safe, and the field trip was just an illusion.

She floated freely in that absolutely free space, and she could see the flashes of her reminiscent signals and the nebula of lightning.

"I'll help you. ”

"I want you to help me," Gwen repeated behind him.

"Let me in," the voice whispered.

"Come in...... Come in......" Gwen said dreamily.

"Invite me..."

"I want you," she repeated more forcefully this time. "I want you to be by my side. ”

Suddenly, she could feel Edgar beside her, his own astral body swirling in the evil dark light, shimmering with the dust of elemental dust. In contrast, her own astral body was long and light, a work of art, a beautiful crystal sculpture swirling in bottled lightning.

"Pretty," Edgar said in a tone that bordered on reverence. "You should be proud of your potential. You're special. ”

"I'm special. Gwen chuckled.

He moved to touch her, and although Gwen knew something was wrong with the intimacy, she still wanted to accept Edgar as her partner. She closed her eyes, ashamed of being touched for the first time. Edgar's hand moved from the Admiralty to her left chest, where the heart was, and the astral body shone brightest. Her self-esteem became blurred.

Even though the magician's fingers were resting on the orb on Gwen's chest, there was nothing to suppress and nothing to touch or stimulate. Instead, his fingers reached into the fabric of her soul, through the membranes of her astral body.

"Oh my God......" Edgar's voice shouted in ecstasy. "What is this? There are two kinds of existence here!"

A wild burst of excitement made Edgar shiver. It was a phenomenon he had never seen before. The girl is a priceless prize!

Edgar paused.

He suddenly felt a sense of mortal danger suddenly hit him. His astral form surprisingly experienced a sense of vertigo, a sensation that was impossible in the immaterial world of the spirit. He quickly withdrew his hand from the girl's astral body, but found himself stuck.

"What?"

Edgar gave a push, determined to manifest through the third eye to see what was really going on. To his shock and horror, his astral body had been overwhelmed by dozens of leech-like slugs, blacker than black, snaking hungrily and thirstily, looking for their way in.

"What the fuck is that?!" Edgar stammered.

He was sweating profusely.

Before the magician could react, Gwen's unconscious anima entered into something formless, formless. Tens of thousands of black, writhing worms poured into her astral form.

How could her body withstand it?

But now is not the time to be lazy. Whatever manifests itself here, it will definitely happen there. He collected his will, then pulled, feeling the stuck hand slide freely, sending out a spark of lightning that had pierced him before. Although Edgar doesn't care, his pain is very intense, and his component is antithetical to hers and can withstand anything she throws at him. His concern was the black pipe that was manifesting inside her - a mystery he didn't want to play with.

“!“

His world was dark. After a while, Edgar returned to his body.

"Ahh

His wrist seemed to be pushed backwards by a charming hand. A stream of arterial blood spurted onto Gwen and the table she was sitting on.

His hand, his right hand, unlucky, unlucky! fucked!

Edgar held the stump up to his face.

It's gone.

No, it's not just gone. It's gone.

His right hand seemed to exist at all, neither in matter nor in invisible. Edgar gritted his teeth and stumbled towards Deborah, grabbing the therapeutic syringe and slamming it on his wrist.

"Shhhh

The flesh healed, and the bleeding stopped. Edgar looked at a completely sealed stump, its tissue plane as smooth as unscratched flesh, as natural as the day he was born.

Edgar suddenly burst into a rage. He felt so much hatred for the girl in front of him, like he had never felt for anyone or anything in his life. Not the babysitter who refused to videotape him. Not his father, who found him disgusting and lacking. Not even his poor mother, who they say died when he was born, inheriting the wrath of his father and his inheritance.

He pointed at Gwen with his other hand.

"Ashes turn to ashes, dust turns to dust......" he began to recite the most powerful incantation he had. A spell that, due to his inability to fully control its power, causes terrible damage to his own body.

"Terrible!"