The Wizard World - Replacement and Reason (2)

What remained on the floor after about five seconds’ time was merely the skin of the scorpion woman.     

Angele remained calm as he stood up and wiped the white blood off from his mouth. He then quickly twisted the handle of the cursed scimitar.     

Countless green energy strings connected to Angele’s wrist which helped him absorb the life essence into his body.     

‘Attributes are increasing quickly…’ Zero’s mechanical voice echoed in his ears.     

Angele slowly closed his eyes and stood in the bedroom quietly.     

The skin of the scorpion woman turned into green smoke and disappeared into the air.     

*KA*     

Like small pieces of mirrors, the cursed scimitar shattered into pieces and fell onto the floor while reflecting the image of Angele.     

Countless red branch-like lines crept around his body like blood veins as it gathered toward the center of his chest.     

These bloody veins gradually disappeared in the span of several minutes. What was left on his chest was a symbol of a red musical note.     

*CHI*     

Angele opened both of his eyes. This time, they were as dark as a starless sky as if his eye’s pupil never existed but only showed two empty holes.     

‘This is the change?’ He raised his left hand only to see the illusion signet of the Great Harpy Bloodline slowly fading away.     

‘Affinity with illusion energy is increasing quickly…’     

‘Collecting information…’     

‘Finished. Do you need to see the affinity chart?’ Zero reported back right away.     

Angele was looking at the reflection of his own self on the broken fragments of the scimitar’s blade.     

‘Show me the chart,’ he ordered.     

A well-organized bar chart was displayed in front of his eyes.     

Angele’s highest affinity was still with Fire energy, and the second highest was with Illusion energy which had now surpassed the bar representing Metal energy.     

‘I wish I could keep the illusion signet.’ Angele shook his head slightly. He, for one, barely knew any illusion spell and the illusion signet was one of his strongest in his arsenal. But now, it was completely gone.     

Moreover, he had yet to discover the method of activating the musical note in the center of his chest.     

‘Check if there’s anything related to the scorpion woman in the database.’     

‘Task created…Searching…’     

‘No match was found.’     

Angele pursed his lips.     

‘I’m on my own then.’ He thought for several minutes.     

‘Check for any changes that might have occurred in my body.’     

Zero scanned his body quickly and reported back.     

‘Your vocal folds have been modified. Your voice now contains a possible seductive effect and your blood has now been infused with the Illusion Pollution ability.’     

‘Illusion Pollution: Special ability. Anything within your body will be infused with illusion energy after a certain amount of time.’     

Angele learned about several detailed changes that happened to his body immediately.     

The chip created the report based on the information from the database.     

Angele lightly sighed. The black shadow had disappeared from his eyes, revealing its former blue pupils. The golden glow around his eyes had also disappeared.     

He inspected his bedroom for any possible damage that had been inflicted and collected all the broken pieces of the scimitar. The corpse of the scorpion woman disappeared by itself so there was not much cleaning left to do.     

Angele walked to the table and sat down after everything was done. He took out the black box and opened it.     

Henn’s voice was transmitted to his ears right away.     

“Damn it! Damn it! What did you do, kid? There were several times that I felt like I was dying or something!” Henn was enraged.     

“Well, there was an accident during my experiment,” Angele lied calmly. “Everything has been dealt with now.”     

“I don’t even know why I picked you. I should have waited for several more years in the White Mist Town!” Henn did not even question his excuse but was just complaining now.     

“I have already finished the thing you asked me to do. What else do you want me to do? I want to go back to Bass River.’ Angele ignored her complaints.     

“Bass River? Why do you want to go back? Just stay here. You can get free knowledge and a rank 4 wizard as the teacher. The place is also safe…Wait, never mind. Well, it’s a great place!”     

“First of all, it is not my territory. Second, I do not feel comfortable here. I still do not understand why you asked me to come here, and what is your real purpose? We are wizards. If you want me to do something else for you, you must compensate me with something else.” Angele shook his head.     

“You cannot run away from me now.” Henn chuckled. “I lied about the soul pattern of Vivian’s son. It has already become a part of your soul and for the process to be completed, I waited for days. You are now the one and only inheritor of Vivian whether you want this title or not. I have put a lot of effort into modifying that soul pattern. She will not let you escape the ruin as you are the only person who is related to her by blood in this world.”     

“What else do you want from me?” Angele frowned.     

“Ha, what do I want you to do?” Henn sneered. “I want you to drag Vivian into the abyss! I want her to live a life of peril, pain, and suffering!”     

“You…” Angele narrowed his eyes. “What did she do to you?”     

“Ha…what she did to me was unforgivable,” Henn responded in a cold tone. “She was one of the most talented students I had…But it’s none of your business, I’ll pay you good anyway.”     

“You already lied to me once.” Angele narrowed his eyes. “To be honest, I do not really want to help you this time. I’d rather fight her face to face. I’m not a filthy rat that lives in the sewers. I have never trusted you but what you just said regarding the soul patterns just made the situation worse.     

“Machinations may work sometimes but I believe that combining wisdom and pure power is the right way to go,” he continued.     

“You can decline my offer all you want but I can reveal your true identity to Vivian. Maybe you are confident enough to win a fight against a rank 4 wizard,” Henn responded in a cold tone.     

“You will die too if I’m killed.” Angele gritted his teeth.     

“I have died once already. I have nothing else to lose.” Henn did not seem concerned.     

The two remained silent for a while and the atmosphere was heavy.     

“You know what, I’ll make it easier for you. Just do three things for me and I’ll keep my promise. I’ll give you the reward and keep your identity a secret.”     

“Three things, huh?” Angele knew that she just wanted to finish exacting her revenge. “I won’t do it unless you tell me what happened exactly. I have my reasons.”     

“You really want to know?” Henn sounded nervous.     

Angele did not say anything but waited patiently for Henn’s response.     

“Fine, I’ll tell you what happened. Vivian is just a b*tch who seduced my partner!” Henn was almost shouting.     

“What…?” Angele was surprised. He would be speechless if the truth was so simple.     

“Vivian seduced my partner and hired someone to assassinate me while I was doing an important experiment, resulting my body to become permanently damaged. That is why I died during the final fight against Arisma. Otherwise, I would have survived the ambush for sure…Also…” Henn continued and she was furious.     

Several minutes later, Angele finally understood the situation.     

Henn was injured after the assassination and for that reason, she failed to survive the ambush. However, it seemed she herself was the reason why Vivian’s son died. There was one thing Angele still did not understand, however. He wanted to know why Vivian never sounded angry while talking about her master.     

He could not get to reach a conclusion just by listening to Henn’s words.     

She was just cursing most of the time while explaining the incident. Henn emphasized on how innocent she was many times during the conversation.     

Angele had almost lost his patience.     

However, there was one thing that made Angele angry.     

Henn said she could easily destroy her soul form and if she did that, Angele would die too.     

Angele had no other choice but to accept Henn’s offer. There was nothing he could do as he knew so little about soul relationship.     

They talked for a while and Angele insisted that he needed to leave the ruin.     

Angele never called Vivian his mother, but he himself knew Vivian had already considered him as her son.     

However, Vivian never talked to him about the situation face to face. At present, their relationship was a bit strange.     

The reason why Angele wanted to leave the ruin was that Henn could easily force him to speed up the process of her revenge, something he did not like.     

He wanted to the expel Henn from his body. Although Henn was a legendary wizard, he did not want to carry a bomb that could explode at any time with him.     

Angele checked all the books he could read in Vivian’s library, but he found nothing valuable. Information related to soul separation was highly confidential and those books required high mentality levels to unlock.     

He still did not discover a method on how he could expel Henn from his body.     

Angele stayed in the ruin for several more days and told Vivian that he wanted to go back to his home as the environment in of ruin was making him uncomfortable.     

Vivian did not force him to stay with her but told Angele to stay safe and let him leave. She sent him a female wizard as an escort.     

Angele talked to the escort and learned a lot about the current situation of the organization.     

The first elder Harris and the second elder Melo were fighting against the lords. They formed two factions inside the organization and the situation was getting worse.     

The fight started when the first lord Effie decided to make his ungifted child the inheritor. The council was stronger than the lords in power and they used the inheritor as an excuse to question the future of the Thousand Waterfall City. Also, Effie was dying and barely had any time to attend the meetings.     

The other lords were trying their best to help Effie and they were trying to modify the inheritor’s body. The problem could be easily solved if Effie was able to have another talented child, but both plans were hard to accomplish.     

Some people were suggesting that the elders should solve the problem in a violent way. There was a rumor spreading that the radicals kidnapped several relatives of the elders which made the situation worsen every day.     

Vivian was the third elder and she supported the first elder’s plan. Although she did not have a lot of right in the organization, her only son could still become the target of the radicals which was her only worry.     

To deal with the problem and fight back, the council had already taken action. They gathered the army and the fifth elder was chosen as the captain. They wanted to pressure the Thousand Waterfall City before the hostages could be executed.     

Angele had no idea that completing Henn’s task would be so difficult.