They had been in this stinking hell for hours, with few clues to follow, but Stelgi seemed to be in the least enthusiastic about carrying out the orders of the leather robes. If it hadn't been in vain, Cabell would have fled. He relied entirely on the monster's guidance, as he was lost without her. Even if a miracle happens, he escapes alive, and the royal family is watching him, so he may not be able to escape far before he is caught. Therefore, although the chances of this adventure in his favor are slimmer than parchment, this is his only real chance of survival.

Suddenly, Stelgi froze and turned into a statue, then she lowered her head and slowly lifted her long legs, which were covered with bones dragging a strand of filament.

Cabell hurriedly walked over to her, looked at the path, and found that it led to a side tunnel, and thanks to the Eight Sages, this tunnel was sloping upward. His enthusiasm was rekindled, and he jumped up the slope, leaving the pointy-legged Stelgi to chase after him.

"There's more," he shouted to her, excitement contagioning his voice.

Then, another thing also responded to his call, its guttural voice shaking the stone beneath his feet.

"Dead end? Is that you?"

Where the tunnel ahead turned to the right, a huge thing stumbled into view. The first thing Cabell noticed was a pair of large, dark, wet eyes, the size of a dinner plate, covered in rubbery skin, that seemed to be barely able to squeeze into this narrow, filthy place. It has three strange round fingers on each of its six legs, and the claws on the fingers are as long as its forearms.

"I don't think that's Locke......" he said, his body froze in fright.

Sturge walked past him, the air filled with static electricity, and she fired a bolt of lightning at the giant frog-like demon. Crimson lightning crossed the floor of the tunnel in a swift zigzag pattern, and then connected to one of the monster's legs, and a bolt of lightning passed through the monster's body like a waterfall, shooting into the ceiling, spreading out on the ceiling, forming a red serpentine ripple.

When the frog was cooked from the inside, it almost exploded, throwing steaming rubber skin and blubber through the tunnel. Small pieces splashed on his legs, but he didn't bother to wipe them off considering how many things he had already waded through in this stinking hell.

"I love you, Stelgi," he declared sincerely.

Suddenly, the air began to shake, and the Lightning Girl turned around and glared at him with her eyeless helmet.

He raised his arms and pretended to surrender. "Obviously a joke."

The weather was damp, and the stones were cold and rough. They gagged him and blindfolded him, but what was even more distressing was that they took his robes and undoubtedly confiscated his priceless tome.

He was quite sure that he was locked up underground because he could not hear the wind, and the temperature remained the same despite the passing of the sun. For some reason, he is still alive, although he suspects that it is only because of the delay of his arresters in preparing his torture chamber, which he will no doubt get acquainted with soon.

The barely imperceptible tremor of the stone caused him to turn his head in the direction of the doorway. A peephole was opened, and the unseen eyes scrutinized him, then the lock was opened, and three pairs of boots walked into the cell.

"Wait outside." The leader sternly ordered his companions (probably bodyguards), and after the sound of their retreat, the door was slammed shut again. Judging by the way the voice of the man in front of him echoed through the room, he seemed to be in a tall circular room, which Jacob found strange. But then again, he was not familiar with the architecture of the Novarosia prison.

Although the hood obscured most of his vision, he could still make out the vague outline of the man in front of him. He looks tall and skinny, both too much, which makes his silhouette look unflattering.

"You're probably wondering why you're still alive," he began, his voice stiff as stone. Surprisingly, he speaks Lemanian.

Jacob shrugged, it's hard to do with your hands and feet tied.

The figure sighed loudly.

"These Guards are so rude. However, they got the job done. ”

He distinctly heard the man's clothes moving as he knelt down and took off his hood. Although the light was dim, Jacob couldn't see clearly for a while. He blinked, dispelling the blur in his vision, and finally saw the full picture of the person who had captured him. He immediately found himself wearing a flawless off-white robe with purple accents and a long necklace with an eagle with amethyst eyes. Secondly, he noticed the age of the man, perhaps in his sixties, which was not discernible from his voice.

Jacob stared up at the man from where he was sitting, and he muttered some incantation, a translucent, misty claw-like hand reached out from his right elbow and moved towards him, cutting Jacob's restraints as he passed, and then pulling out the cloth that gagged his mouth.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Jacob asked in Lemania, the language he was proficient in seemed to delight the scarecrow.

"Oh, of course they're clamoring for your blood, and they may still have your blood, depending on how we meet."

Jacob twisted his chin and grimaced with exasperation, where he had been hit or kicked. It was also bitterly cold in the room, as he wore only a pair of frayed trousers to maintain his modesty, which was ironic given that he was deprived of all other possessions.

"What do you want from me," Jacob guessed, switching to Oktef, the language of the Eight Holy Priests.

The man casually followed the language change and replied, "Of course." You are an accomplished young man, despite your propensity for blasphemy. ”

"You don't know anything." He replied arrogantly, switching to Heim.

"Nobody knows everything," the man replied, and followed the switch again, not missing a word.

"Then tell me what you want from me," Jacob continued, then switched to the demon's song.

The man paused, then replied with a smug smile, not a normal answer, but a direct quote from an obscure demonic poem: "In one name contains a thousand bonds of truth and control, but I am free to exchange mine for yours."

He switched back to the neighboring Stoic language, Lemania. "My name is Jacob, but you know that for sure."

"You can be sure that I know much more about you than that. You can call me Sirelius. Most people know me as a soothsayer, chief advisor to King Ubrik of Helmsgarten. ”

A pleasurable power filled him as Cabell stretched out his gloved hands and tore apart the beasts and terrifying creatures that had sprung up from the many tunnels leading to the cesspool.

Stergi carefully used her devastating lightning attack to vaporize most of the creatures that dared to look at her. However, he barely had time to appreciate her destruction, as the hordes of monsters seemed endless. Even with the robe's powerful bone gauntlet, he didn't seem ready to stop the wave.

After killing the toad beast, the couple ventured down a long windy path for several kilometers before they found traces of spider silk again, which seemed to indicate that Locke had passed. He was still unsure what exactly Locke was, however, when he reconsidered the summoner's description, it seemed obvious now.

When he realizes what he was sent to retrieve, he lets his guard down, and a large rat like a bear rushes towards him, knocking him straight into a high pillar that supports the ceiling. He collapsed to the ground with a disgusting crack, his right arm elbowed wrong, but despite the injury, he continued to slash with his left hand, the magic gauntlet allowing him to tear anything he focused on to shreds, as if the claws of an invisible demon were under his control, turning the monster's own blood into a weapon to destroy them.

The bear rat turned around again and knocked him into the post, and Cabell struggled to dodge. The moment its massive body thinned its abdomen, a massive object landed on the rat monster's skull along with its eight legs, crushing it against the stone floor, stopping its momentum.

However, Cabell doesn't think he's saved, as the monster in front of him resembles a fiction of hallucinations caused by his worst fever. Its skeleton was longer than its height, eight three-segmented bony legs, each with three fingers, a thick silk thread connecting it to the vaulted ceiling, and the jaws in front of its eyeless face cooed to dwarf all the animals that rushed into the pool.

The hunter screamed in horror, and the spider approached him, its grunting jaw almost touching his ears, and the sound of the jaw plunged him into a drunken numbness. He desperately tried to fight back with his left fist, but the magic seemed unwilling to obey, as if spiders were impenetrable.

Suddenly, one of its eight legs grabbed the silk thread on its back, the same thread that had attached it to the ceiling, and then it picked up the thread, wrapped it around Cabel's torso, and threw him on his back, his broken arm striking against its hard bone armor, force strong enough to make him faint temporarily.

When Cabell regained consciousness, the Spider Demon was scurrying back along the tunnel where he and Sturgy had entered the cistern.

In the distance, he could still hear the roar of battle, which was suppressed by the tremendous impact of thunder at even intervals.

He held his breath and screamed into the pool, hoping the Lightning Girl would hear.

"Stelji! Save me! I don't want to be food for spiders!"

"If you know my work in your city, why doesn't anyone touch me?"

"Oh, of course I didn't know about your job, and I didn't know you existed. I suspect that despite our agreement, the king returned. ”

Hearing Grandpa's other name, Jacob's eyes narrowed. In fact, his mentors have many names, though most are different historical villains, like Lilibes's Evil Doctor, Lemania's Widowmaker, and the more local Helmsgarten's U

de

ki

g。 It seemed inevitable that a long-lived monster like him, in the course of his trade, would move from one place to another, receiving many different names.

Although Jacob knew his grandfather better than most, he had never heard of any agreement with the royal family of Novarosia. This thought disgusted him. This may seem contrary to his grandfather's self-styled ideals, but then again, Jacob is well aware of his grandfather's duplicity. He didn't know if Heskeel knew.

"How did you know about me?"

"Through the Adventurer's Guild. We certainly keep a close eye on their members. After all, they enjoy considerable freedom within our field. You rose through their ranks quickly, and your mannerisms and unknown origins immediately caught our attention. Then I started putting together a lot of scattered events that seemed to have a clear connection with your coming to our beautiful city. ”

"But you wait."

"We can't lock a person up just because he's suspected of committing a crime against our kingdom."

"Yes, you can."

The old man smiled and said, "Our king believes in justice, so we try to avoid exposing the illusion he has created. Either way, we only waited a few days to know that you were the one I suspected. After all, there hasn't been such magic in Helms Gardens for more than a decade. ”

Jacob rubbed the soles of his feet. When he was dragged into the cell, they were scratched by rough stones.

"We want to make a deal with you."

"What are the conditions?" He asked, rubbing his feet.

"You fulfilled a request for us, and in return, you can live. Of course, you will be expelled from Helmsgarten. After all, we can't let the public know about our kindness. ”

"These are acceptable conditions, but what do you want?" Jakob was curious.

Sirelius was about to answer when he was interrupted by a sharp knock on the cell door. He turned to the informant and let the man in. After a while, a messenger was brought into the circular cell, and he paused for a moment, staring at Jacob, who was sitting almost naked on the ground, at his thin, balding, deathly pale face, before regaining his professional composure.

"The whole southern part of the city is full of monsters, Your Majesty! He blurted out in Novarosian.

Sirelius turned to look at Jacob, who just shrugged.

"What kind of monster?" The old advisor asked.

"A mouse the size of a bear!" Six-legged frogmon!4-headed snake! There are many more, I simply can't describe in words! The Major is requesting deployment commands. ”

"And rightfully so. Tell her the following: the Adventurers' Guild will focus on civilian evacuations; The Royal Guard will curb the tide and find the source; The district guard will cordon off the affected areas and block the bridge. ”

He saluted with both hands, which seemed to Jacob to imitate the kingdom's eagle emblem, and the messenger hurried out of his cell.

"Grandfather has finally taken action." He told the consultant.

Sirelius looked at him carefully for a moment, then nodded to himself, as if to come to some conclusion. "You're not on a friendly relationship now, are you?"

"I don't owe him any loyalty. He himself taught me that only the strongest can survive. ”

"Can you give us some advice?"

"If you give me back my book, I'll tell you his purpose."

The old man thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement. He held out a hand, the fingers themselves longer than Jacob's entire hand. He reluctantly let someone else pick him up.

"Follow me." Sirelius said to him.

They left their cells and climbed a spiral staircase for several minutes to escape the abyss, and finally reached the lower floor of Helmsgarten Castle. For a moment, Jacob considered how much damage and lasting damage he could do, but he wasn't a vindictive man, and his focus was on the horizon of the future rather than the meager loot of the present. After all, a temporary loss or setback doesn't make any sense if the end result is favorable.

Sirelius eventually led them to the third floor, where he had a study next to what resembled a command center. The room was packed with lieutenants and officers of the Royal Guard, and the advisor seemed to be in charge of coordinating them. In addition, there is a large group of clerks and their messengers, who deliver information as efficiently as possible.

At the sight of the old man, many of them stopped what they were doing and saluted him with their hands crossed over their chests, just like the courier Jacob had seen earlier.

"Has my order been delivered?"

"Yes, Your Majesty! They said in unison.

"And what are you doing standing here?" Let's do it!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! They replied that the commanders had immediately evacuated the room, no doubt to wake up their men to action, while the scribes handed the letters and notes to the lightly dressed young men, who had taken them from the room.

The two and their escort continued into the study next door, and Sirelius closed the door behind them. Jacob noticed that there was another door leading from the hallway to the study, but he knew that the old advisor had deliberately shown him the power he had.

Sirelius gestured to Jacob to show him a soft couch, but Jacob rejected his offer. He smiled happily, then sat down on the couch opposite, leaned forward, grabbed a small bell, and shook it gently.

After a while, the door to the hallway opened, and a red-haired, dimple-smiling servant walked in.

"Your Majesty?"

"Get me and my guests a plate of candy and cake, and tea."

"Of course, Your Majesty." The servant replied meekly, and then departed, hurrying through the hall, and as he ran to obey the order, footsteps sounded on the carpet outside.

"Now. You say you know U

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ki

G's purpose is also to know why he chose to ravage our beautiful city with his beast now. ”

"Give me back my book, and I will show you."

Sirelius' amused smile froze, and an irritated expression swept over his face. Then he stood up and walked over to a large metal cabinet next to a bookshelf, filled with historical memoirs and records, seemingly dating back centuries. He took a small wooden box from the large box, placed it on the table between the two soft sofas, and returned to his seat.

Jacob immediately unbuckled and took out three large books, carefully examining them to make sure they were intact. Then he thought about how they were stuffed into the same box, and he realized something. His face contorted into a contemptuous grimace. The spell book was glued to the ground, and he immediately recognized the spell.

"Kaifeng."

"It's not part of the deal."

Jacob laughed, realizing that the advisor hadn't actually violated their agreement. Sirelius seemed upset by his answer, but Jacob didn't care. At last he sat down across from the man, three large books clutched engravedly on his chest.

"That's what he's seeking."

"Books?" Sirelius asked, fooled, a flash of anger on his face. If Jacob really cared, he might find some joy in turning the tide.

"He's looking for my lifebuoy, too."

"The one called Heskel, right?"

Jakob nodded. "He may also be trying to retrieve the core of one of his pet demons, which was killed in the Western Market." Although Jacob doubts that it can be restored, as it has been devoured by Maxima, and her ship has been petrified by the stone plague he unleashed. However, the core of a demon is only as strong as the will of the entity within it, so this is never a sure thing, especially when this demon is Raleigh, grandfather's extremely loyal executioner.

"That's what he did!?"

Jacob neither admits nor denies. If this old fool did not know that Jacob was the culprit in the release of Messira, then he had no reason to tell him about it. After all, their agreement doesn't include this kind of information.

"If he still likes to feint and distract from the hordes of monsters he unleashes in the south, his more powerful servants will cross the sewers, past your cordons and lookouts, and attack further north. If he had known where I was hiding in the North Market, he would most likely have raided there as well. ”

"This is a very useful insight. Thank you. ”

The sincerity with which the old man said this caught Jacob off guard.

"What's wrong with my robes?"

Sirelius had already made his way to the door to the command center, probably to update his orders to include this newfound information. Without looking back, he said, "We have burned your filthy clothes, and you can take a robe of mine instead."

The advisor was busy ordering his scribe to write it down and pass it on by messenger, the two guards at the door looked at him with open contempt and contempt, and Jacob looked at the closet next to a medium-sized bed. Inside there are hangers for hanging robes, vests, pants, etc. In the end, he simply took a crimson governor's robe, knowing that this would allow him to pass the inspection without question. He was very frustrated by the loss of his handmade tail, as it proved to be a very useful tool, both in his work and when defending against attacks.

Si

Ellius returns to his study and finds Jakob sitting cross-legged on the couch in his robe, studying one of the books. Despite Tchi

and his magic were sealed, but the Necronomicon and the tome of Demonology were still as lifeless as ever. Sirelius seems to see the Haematology Spells as the greatest threat, despite the fact that other tomes are more dangerous on the pages for those who can read their Chinese characters. The knowledge in the blood tome eventually led to Messira's summoning, but Sirelius does not seem to be a scholar of the art of summoning, otherwise he would have known not to return them to Jacob.

"It's a little too big for you."

"Until I make another robe, that's enough."

"You know that's impossible. I told you that you would live, but in good conscience, I cannot sit idly by and watch you kill innocent people. ”

"Would you object to me taking material from the demon?"

Si

Ellius pauses. It was clear that he couldn't quite tell if Jacob was joking or not. "Well, no, I don't think there'......"

"Now. The real reason I'm still alive," Jacob began.

"You're not wasting time, are you?"

"I'd rather sign the contract as soon as possible so that my real career can begin."

Sirelius raised an eyebrow curiously, but Jacob was expressionless in the hood.

"There's one thing we seem to be best suited to solve."

"Tell the prayer."

After two knocks on the door, the guard let in the red-haired servant, who was carrying a plate of sugar-coated dried fruits, small pieces of cake and pie, empty cups on the plate, and fragrant tea served in porcelain. The man went to where they were sitting and placed the cup on the table between them, and the cup clinked. As soon as he put down his plate and left the study.

Sirelius pointed to one of the cakes. "I recommend the gooseberry custard tart."

Jacob picked up the fragile pastry, avoided the plate, and took a bite. It is both sweet and sour, and the puff pastry is thick and crispy, balancing the sweet and sour taste. He took a bite and took another sip of hot tea.

The soothsayer looked at his expression with satisfaction and said, "This is calendula tea." I had the leaves shipped here yesterday from Libu. "As far as Jacob knows, Lib is a small vineyard and farming town northeast of Leman. It is located more than 200 km from Helmsgarten. Once again, the old man seems to like to show off his power. How ironic that such a powerful man should need Jacob's help.

"I'm not used to the smell," he told his captors.

"What do you usually eat?"

“Co

pse-meal。 It's light, but it's nutritious. ”

"...... eating corpses?"

"What is dry and processed on my subjects, I am of no use to them."

Both guards looked like they were about to eat all the contents of their stomachs, but Sirelius was calm. "They must have kept them strong in the sewers."

"You're wrong. It's not that those who live in the sewers are inherently strong, it's that those who survive overcome natural environmental adversity and evolve into stronger creatures. ”

Sirelius finished his pastry and placed the cup on the empty plate in front of him. "I don't delay any longer. I ask you to resurrect a person who is very important to our beautiful city. ”

Jacob drank one last of them, the liquid running hot down his esophagus, and he got up from the comfort of the couch.

"Take me to the corpse."

Led by the guards, they left the study and descended to the castle's entrance hall before diving deep into the castle's belly and into an easily recognizable family mausoleum where royalty, wealthy nobles, and national heroes were buried.

When they descended to the catacombs, the shiny steel brazier was licked clean by the flames by the wall. For hundreds of years, the footsteps of thousands of boots have smoothed the stone steps, and the air is filled with a faint smell of dry bones and dust.

As he walked up the stone steps, Jacob said, "It is impossible for me to resurrect a long-dead body without having a significant impact on the state of the soul of the occupant."

He had been thinking about how to bring the dead back to life. Grandfather himself seems to have solved the problem of death centuries ago, but Jacob is well aware of the inherent problems that come with this exact method of lifelessness.

Jacob also doubts that he will be able to escape punishment with a simple resurrection. After all, when people say bring life back to the body, what they really mean is to send the soul back to the prison of mortals. A person's personality resides in the soul, and their physical body is just a vessel that is best suited to it. There are several ways to overcome a ruined ship, but none can overcome a ruined soul, and, depending on the manner of death and the length of time the soul has been out of the world, the resurrected person may also be a mindless servant, as time has eroded their personality, just as wind and water have eaten away at stones.

They came to a set of ornate but rusty steel doors, which were pushed open by two guards and let them in. Sirelius paused at the door, pulled something from his robes and handed it to Jacob. That's his scent mask.

He inspected it thoroughly, but found it largely intact, with only minor cosmetic damage. His handmade ball of hazy memories is still in the tip of its beak.

"I don't know what anesthetic is inside, but I think it's important for your attention."

"It's not an anesthetic," Jacob said, then put a crimson mask on his face. He thought it would be a good match for the governor's robes, for they were almost identical in red. He took a deep breath, exhaled an indulgent puff of exhaust gas, and said in detail: "Without such a mask, the depths of the sewers are uninhabitable. The smell will make you unconscious, and you will pass out and never wake up again. ”

Judging by the consultant's expression in the light of the flashlight, he didn't seem to believe his words.

After a short break, a bodyguard picked up the torch and they passed through the gate and along a long string of narrow tunnels, through which everyone except Jacob had to keep their heads down to pass. They seem to linger for a long time, but Jacopo soon realizes that Sirelius is deliberately taking them down a confusingly tortuous road to their destination, perhaps hoping to trap Jacob in the grave after his work is done. But one doesn't live in a labyrinth of sewers and doesn't develop a supernatural sense of direction.

Finally, they came to a room about ten meters wide and three meters high, with many stone slabs inside. This appears to be the room of the funeral home, where there are many containers of harvested organs, and tables with wheels are littered with funeral home tools. Jacob took off his mask and briefly tasted the air, which was filled with the smell of death and a disgustingly sweet embalming liquid. The smell is nostalgic for him; Grandfather's lab all smelled foul because no amount of perfume or abrasive cleaning method could completely eliminate it.

There was only one stone slab where there were people, and two people stood on it, muttering something quietly. The pale corpse was visibly slightly frostbitten.

"Tell them to stop this primitive attempt at preservation," Jacob said to Sirelius.

“Why?”

"They are destroying the ship and cannot repair it." He had seen that if the resurrection was successful, the limbs of the body would need to be amputated to prevent gangrene.

"Can you bring him back to life?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Jacob looked around, wondering if the guards and wizards would hesitate at his words.

"They are loyal and will obey my commands." Sirelius told him, seemingly guessing what he was thinking.

Jacob grinned and exhaled through the vent of the mask. "The best thing to do is to turn him into a lich. But I had to prepare the container and tie up the soul with the help of the elves. ”

Everyone around him, except for the advisor, seemed to be inhaling together.

"What must be done?"

Jacob pointed to the two wizards who had defiled the corpses. "I need their bodies."

Sirelius nodded, and before the two men could move, his bodyguards tied them up and gagged them, and the two men protested vehemently, but to no avail.

"What else?"

"I need you to open my spell book."

Sirelius took a step back.

"The watchman is my witness, and I will fulfill your request. Now, open the book and I'm good to get to work. The more time passes, the worse the condition of the soul that returns. ”

The advisor held out his hand, and Jacob gave him chin.

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