CHAPTER 66: ELEMENTAL COLLAPSE, ANTI-MAGIC DOMAIN

Philip had been missing for six months, and Timmy had been suffering from insomnia just as long.

Although many thought the worst about Philip’s disappearance, six months weren’t long enough to declare him dead legally. He could’ve taken on a secret mission for the police, or perhaps a classified governmental agency had recruited him and was currently training him behind closed doors.

There were many possibilities that would prevent him from contacting the outside world, and they were what had been keeping Timmy going, preventing her from breaking down completely. She was willing to wait for her boyfriend’s return.

But it had been half a year.

Sleep eluded her. She was drowsy during the day but couldn’t sleep at night. Her deteriorating mental state led to her company suggesting she resign. She lived alone in her rented room, refusing to contact the outside world.

Her prolonged insomnia made her extremely sensitive, and even the slightest disturbance could wake her. She called out twice. When no one answered from outside the window, she grabbed a baseball bat beside her bed and cautiously approached the floor-to-ceiling window.

Nothing. No one stood on either side of the window. There was only a puddle on the floor. She stood there, frozen in place. Her heart ached for some reason. She retreated to sit on her bed, thinking

Her mental state had become so poor that she couldn’t tell dreams and hallucinations from reality. After thinking for a moment, she called Perry.

Perry was Philip’s close friend and her childhood friend. Over the past six months, he had been busy looking for Philip with the promise to do his best. If not for him, she doubted she would’ve been able to stay strong. He thus became the person she trusted the most, more so than the friends who hadn’t visited her in ages.

It became a habit of hers to turn to Perry for help whenever she encountered troubles she couldn’t solve.

***

Rooftop.

Bo knelt on one knee before Wayne, who remained on the undead warhorse’s back with half of his body shrouded in mist. Wayne tilted his head, listening, then he said in a sarcastic tone, “Your girlfriend is calling your enemy in the middle of the night. It seems that Little Perry has hidden the truth very well. He’s gained her complete trust...”

“He’ll confess tonight, won’t he?”

Bo said nothing, his expression tense with angry flames flickering in his grey eyes. Just then, he felt a surge of powerful mana flowing into his body, immediately moistening his drying form.

He looked up in confusion.

“What are you waiting for? Deal with him!” Wayne scoffed. “Don’t tell me you’re going to let him into the house. Or are you willing to set aside your hatred for love? You think your enemy can take good care of your girlfriend, so you’re going to help them get together?”

Bo shook his head and replied concisely, “He doesn’t deserve it.”

“I’m starting to like you. Keep it up and bring me his head.” Wayne held his fingers together like a sword, conjuring a grey longsword wreathed in deathly energy. “I don’t like dogs who drag their feet. Go and return quickly. Do will assist you.”

Bo looked at the sword and reached out to grasp it, but he saw his police uniform peeking out from the sleeve of his coat and withdrew.

“Master, I wish to have him judged in court.”

“I see...” Wayne nodded. “That’s fine, but you should prepare to be disappointed. He was willing to kill his close friend for his master. Such a loyal dog isn’t easy to come by, and his master won’t just give up on him. Are you sure you want to go through the legal procedures?”

“I am. I’ll get to the bottom of it and send both him and the councilor to prison,” Bo declared.

“Then go. Don’t keep me waiting for too long.”

Wayne nodded. With Do leading the way, he rode the undead horse into the mist.

Only after his departure did Bo let out a sigh of relief. In his master’s presence, he had to endure enormous pressure constantly, feeling that one misstep would lead to the destruction of his soul.

He knew that mysterious power existed in Londan, and that the urban legends weren’t completely baseless. However, he never expected the mysteries to be so powerful. Given that he had been walking the streets every night, it was a miracle that he had survived until six months ago.

He stood motionless on the rooftop, watching a car approach from a distance. Focusing on the driver’s face hundreds of meters away, he jumped down from the roof.

***

The headlights drew closer. Inside the car, Perry gripped the steering wheel with a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

The councilor had warned him not to wander Londan at night. He could stay in Inner Londan, but it was best to avoid the Western and Northern Districts and never under any condition step into the Eastern and Southern Districts. The less economically developed an area was, the more dangerous it would be.

The councilor served someone powerful and was well informed. Her intel had to be good. Perry took her warnings to heart and rarely went out at night after his good friend’s disappearance. But tonight was different. Timmy had called for help. His opportunity had come. Besides, Timmy lived in the Western District, which wasn’t an impoverished area. It didn’t count as violating the councilor’s order.

Perry glanced at the passenger seat, where a blooming rose lay. Its obvious symbolism bolstered his courage. He would express his feelings for Timmy tonight if the time felt right. He had even rehearsed his line: he would love her doubly to make up for his friend’s absence.

He couldn’t stop his smile from widening, already picturing himself spending the night at her place. Six months. He was finally going to take the place—

Bang!

A great crash interrupted his fantasy, dragging him back to reality. The car seemed to have hit something. The resulting splash of water blurred the view through the windshield. He hastily stepped on the brake and got out to check if he had injured someone. This was a crucial point in his career; he absolutely couldn’t let a car accident affect his future.

There was nothing but water in front of the car, and no dent on the hood. He hadn’t hit anything.

Puzzled, he returned to the driver’s seat to restart the vehicle. A chill crept up to him, and an icy palm pressed against his neck. His pupils contracted. Someone had slipped into the back seat without him noticing.

Who was it? Was this impromptu or preplanned?

It couldn’t be planned. He had only come out after receiving the phone call. He had no appointment tonight. Still, the culprit was too skilled to be an ordinary robber.

Many thoughts flashed through his mind in that instant. Using his body as cover, he reached into his pocket and affected a relaxed tone. “I know the rules, mate. I’ll cooperate and hand you the money. Please spare me—I won’t report to the police.”

“It’s me,” said a cool voice tinged with mockery.

Perry’s hair stood on end. His gaze jerked up to check the rearview mirror and saw a lifeless pale face amid the interplay of light and shadow in the back. His good friend, whom he had killed with his own hands, returned.

The terrifying scene was beyond his comprehension, and combined with the icy palm on his neck, Perry was finding it very difficult to breathe. He tried to stay calm but couldn’t. His teeth clattered as he said, “You’re back, Beau. You... you’re alive. That’s great.”

Please, be alive.

“As you can see, I’m dead. The water of the Thames is cold, especially at the bottom. Whether it’s winter or summer, it’s so cold that I can’t rest in peace.”

Bo leaned forward, bringing his face close to Perry’s terror-stricken one. “So I came to find you. Come with me. It may be warmer to have you as company.”

Bang!

Petrified, Perry fired at the head beside him, and to his horror, no blood gushed out of the bullet hole. It simply closed up and mended anew. The dead man’s face remained impassive.

“It’s useless. You poured the cement with your own hands. Don’t you remember?”

An intense suffocation spread through his body. Perry pulled the trigger repeatedly, emptying the entire magazine. Before losing consciousness, he seemed to hear a whisper:

“I’m not you. I won’t kill my childhood memories. The law will find you and punish you...”

“Tell your master that this case isn’t closed. I’ll keep investigating until I bring you all to justice.”

***

Meanwhile, Wayne rode the undead horse through the impenetrable fog with Do’s help. Unless someone was face-to-face with him, no one would see him, not even if they were shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

He was in the Western District of Londan. This was where the base of the Goddess of Sun’s followers was—that fitness center where men wrestled other men. His mind wandered, thinking of those muscly coaches with leering eyes, especially that head trainer called Dick.

The old bastard had taken advantage of young people’s respect for elders and bullied him like he was a pushover. Wayne had let things slide because he didn’t want to embarrass the old man before Vera, but he had a chance to get even. Should he get a gym membership as the Death Knight?

“Wait, why am I thinking about those men rather than Vera?”

Thinking about one-third of the magical girls made his skeletal frame perk up. It had been three months since they last saw each other. He missed them. And he was still wondering whose delicate bounciness he had felt before regaining consciousness back in Klofron. His skeletal hands grasped the air.

Oh, right, there was also that silly snowy owl. He wondered if Veronica had managed to kill it.

Suddenly, he realized a problem.

Death Knight was an agent of the Goddess of Death, and the Goddess of Death was an ally of the Goddess of Darkness, both mortal enemies of Nature, Sun, and Moonlight. By wearing the skin of the Death Knight, he’d essentially made himself an enemy of the magical girls and his master.

(≖ꇴ≖✧)

Which was actually quite fun.

“Wait, stop at the subway station ahead.”

“Why? Does Master prefer the subway over me?”

“Yeah, you don’t have any flesh. Sitting on bones isn’t comfortable.”

“You don’t have any flesh either, master.”

“Shut up. Don’t talk back to me.”

***

At the entrance to the subway station, Wayne slipped into the tunnel with Do concealing him with mist. The subway had stopped running at this time. The tunnel was pitch black and unusually quiet. Though there was no light, there was also no fog, so a large number of four elements had fled here seeking refuge.

“Wonderful!”

A perfect training ground!

Wayne sat in a maintenance passage and opened his arms to welcome the four elements that came to him voluntarily. A sudden thought struck him: if four elements had gathered in subway tunnels, would the sewers be in a similar situation?

With the Lando family’s wealth, had they built secret sewers for family members just like in Enrod?

“I miss Veryl. If only he were here.”

***

Dawn broke. The sun rose as usual, and the fog dispersed. At the port, cargo ships came to shore with seagulls accompanying them. The city bustled with activity once again.

The ordinary people weren’t the only ones bustling about; so were the mages. Although the Death Knight’s appearance hadn’t made headlines and become a new urban legend, it had spread throughout Londan’s magic community.

Silvia felt a headache brewing. She had only been speaking in the hypothetical, never expecting the Death Knight to actually be in the city. The phone call that came in last night kept her in the office. She had pulled an all-nighter.

Good news: no need to remove her makeup and reapply it, which saved a lot of time.

Bad news: eyewitnesses spoke with certainty that the Death Knight was here, so she wouldn’t be removing her makeup today, either.

Silvia was going crazy. She had a feeling that sleep would be a luxury for many days to come. The investigation into the Darkness Knight hadn’t yielded any leads, and now the Death Knight made his appearance. Had the two bastards agreed to stir up a great fuss in Londan?

She immediately contacted the headquarters of the Church of Nature, describing the crisis Londan faced. They took it seriously, dispatching elite members of the surgical strike unit to investigate the underground catacombs in Palis and verify the Death Knight’s whereabouts.

They concluded that the Death Knight was still in Palis and asked her to confirm whether the sightings in Londan were reliable.

“Why is this happening? Two Death Knights?”

Silvia didn’t think she’d received false intelligence since one of the witnesses was her bastard husband. While he was mediocre at best in magic, his wealth and connections gave him incredible insight. Even if he had made a mistake, Megan couldn’t have. The Death Knight had indeed appeared in Londan.

She didn’t doubt the intelligence coming from Palis, either. She had once led the surgical strike unit and trusted her subordinates completely. Those she had trained wouldn’t make such egregious mistakes.

Death Knight was supposed to be an exclusive servant of the Goddess of Death. There could only be one at a time.

Which of the two Death Knights was fake?

Silvia was inclined to believe the one in Palis to be the real deal. The underground catacomb was the Death Knight’s lair. Without the Goddess of Death’s order, the Death Knight wouldn’t leave home.

And from a strategic standpoint, it made more sense for Darkness and Death to each occupy Palis and Londan. It would be a waste of resources to have both in the same place. That was unless something important to the Goddess of Death was in Londan, and it was worth encroaching on an ally’s territory for.

Ring, ring, ring—

The telephone rang, making Silvia jump. She had recently developed a phobia of telephone rings. Every time, her heart would speed up with panic, accompanied by a tightness in her chest and other symptoms. She wanted nothing more than to smash the phone.

But she shouldn’t!

She unbuttoned one button of her shirt and fanned herself. After three to five seconds, she finally picked up with an expressionless face. If she wasn’t wrong, something had probably gone wrong again. How fun. She loved work! Work made her happy!

A moment later, she put down the phone and lay back, slumping in her chair and letting out a sigh. Just as she’d expected, something bad had happened. There was an elemental collapse at a subway station in the Western District, affecting four connected stations. The mage responsible for the investigation broke out in cold sweat as soon as they entered the scene, withdrawing with the team decisively. The site was thus labeled a No Element Zone.

It was terrible. They almost thought they had walked into an anti-magic domain.

Silvia stared blankly at the ceiling, her mind empty. She didn’t understand why things were happening one after another in Windsor as soon as she became High Reverend, when it had been peaceful before her term. Was it the curse of her dragonblood?

When unhappy, think of someone even more unlucky to cheer you up. Silvia’s thoughts went to her recent source of joy, Wayne. She would be relying on him for laughs for the rest of her life. She summoned her messenger bird to deliver a message:

Londan was unsafe recently. What with the Death Knight and the No Element Zone. It was dangerous to a novice mage like Wayne. He should stay indoors and not go anywhere.

If possible, it wasn’t too late to return to Enrod. Veryl would happily take care of him for another three months.