Glan Natural Science Academy

Shh! 

Kubo walked quietly to the window and the room was once again quiet. There was only the sound of light breathing 

“Get ready.” 

Kubo held his arm out. 

The three quickly came to the window. Among the darkness, they overlooked the swaying figure down below under a streetlight. 

Without anybody noticing, an unknown oppressive atmosphere permeated throughout. 

As though something terrible could, would break this oppressing silence at a moment’s notice!   

Among his unease, Ryger also followed the mentors and looked out the window. But at this moment, Kubo quietly extended his hand out and silently protected Ryger behind his back. 

The unmindful action dazed Ryger. 

Looking at the thin, hunched elderly figure who stood in front of Ryger himself like a mountain, with rough palms protecting him behind his back instinctively, the traces of resentment deep in Ryger’s heart dissolved instantly into nothingness at this moment.

“Mentor…” Ryger felt exceedingly ashamed for his grumblings and resentments earlier. His eyes unconsciously watered.   

His behaviour was like an immature brat who achieved something small then went to show off and wanted to be pampered, but then grumbled and threw a tantrum when he didn’t get what he wanted. Truly unreasonable.

From the point of view of an advanced scholar, what was there to care about regarding his meagre initiate education?

Just as Ryger’s mind was thinking chaotically, the lone figure on the street reached the end of the street. and the target still hadn’t shown up. 

“Didn’t take the bait?”

Brimstone frowned and looked at Kubo.

Just as the two were frowning anxiously, suddenly, 3 silhouettes, as if perfectly hidden in the darkness, lurked soundlessly towards that long figure.

“Hng hng, they came after all!” 

Snorted Kubo. Instantly, his spirit vibrated and, in a flash, vanished silently. 

Ryger’s eyes darted around the room but could not find any traces of his mentor.   

Downstairs! 

The 3 silhouettes were almost in front of the lone figure. 

From the pale white skin revealed under the light, the figure was an albino. At the moment, he was holding a bottle of alcohol and was staggering along.

One of the silhouettes suddenly picked up speed and dashed towards the figure!

“Meow!” 

Just when the silhouette with joyful eyes believed he was going to succeed in a strike, the figure mewed and transformed into a black cat which nimbly escaped.   

At the same time!

To the side of the ambushing silhouette, an old hand reached out and grabbed the silhouette around his nape. 

“Got you, little rat! Hng hng!” Said the voice grimly. 

The silhouette’s pupils suddenly shrunk to the size of a pinpoint. With his body twisting with an unbelievable flexibility, the silhouette’s head violently turned 180-degree. As if split apart, his mouth opened to an unbelievable arc, revealing the white teeth inside. A blood-coloured light appeared deep within the throat, as though an extremely terrifying death blow would shoot out imminently. 

“Let’s die together!” 

Crack. 

However, with the sound of cervical vertebrae twisting and snapping, the monster-like silhouette with a bloody, gigantic mouth crumpled to the floor limply, like a specimen whose central nerves have been severed. 

With a sneer, Kubo casually threw the corpse aside, turned his head and smiled at the other 2 silhouettes.  

The inflexible old scholar has now transformed into a ghastly killer!

The two surprised silhouettes reacted. They stopped their steps and fled backwards without a word. Their movements flowed like water.  

  “Stay.”

  Caw caw caw… 

An astonishing amount of black smoke gushed out of Brimstone’s wide cuffs and rushed up to the sky. The dense smoke then parted and turned into hundreds of black crows. For a moment, the wide sky was covered by these crows which emitted a chaotic cacophony of caws. 

Indescribable cold silence and misfortune instantly spread out in this empty street. 

These crows would sometimes turn into shapeless bodies of smoke and shuttled extremely fast, and sometimes into physical bodies and spit out grey smokeballs. The two silhouettes were completely trapped by the flock of crows with no means of handling it.   

Seeing this, a sneer appeared on Kubo’s old, stern face.

“Hmph, rampaging in the Glan Natural Sciences Academy. No need for the Church’s trial. I’ll send you to the Light God my own self.”   

    Kubo’s body changed into a shadow and floated towards the two swiftly. 

The masked, trapped duo panicked.

Knowing that they have nowhere to run and faced with the floating shadow that was Kubo, one of the silhouettes chopped off their arm. He raised it high with his other arm while chanting silently, carrying out a mysterious ritual of sacrifice. 

The cut-off arm turned into thick blood with an astonishing amount of energy. It flowed down from the top of the silhouette’s head and was going to transform into a coat of blood.

“Humph!” 

Kubo let out a snort and with an unknown method, made the silhouette stop moving instantaneously. Even the coat of blood that was going to fall also stopped.   

Silently, a palm arm grabbed and shredded the incomplete coat of blood as though it was dead leaves. The silhouette made an unhuman-like wail. 

“Aoooo…” 

Immediately after, a bizarre scene occurred! 

As if ignited by a layer of invisible flame, the masked man’s body began to spontaneously combust from the inside. Starting from where Kubo touched, the body evaporated swiftly and turned into ash a swift second later. However, the black clothes of the silhouette were not damaged at all. It gently dropped down onto a pair of footwear on the ground.    

In the darkness, the peepers who were roused awake by sounds  let out a horrified cry.

The other side.

A black crow spit out a ball of smoke in the shape of a skeleton. The ball landed on the face of the last silhouette who was struggling to resist. Immediately his facial veins become exposed and black blood vessels quickly spread out. The body, like a block of ice, fell down stiff.

From the silhouette attacking the disguised Cayleigh, to Kubo and Brimstone showing up, they used merely a few breaths’ worth of time to finish things up and catch one alive. 

In a good mood, Kubo reverted back to his human form.

“Hng hng, let’s look at what thing is under that mask. It’s been more than 10 years since the Glan Principality has publicly executed a sorcerer!” 

Step by step. Kubo looked at the masked silhouette paralyzed by the crow’s will-o-wisp. The old face smiled smugly and was about to unmask him.

Suddenly! 

“Mentor, watch out!” 

The third floor’s Ryger – who seemed to have noticed something – threw caution to the wind and shouted panickily to warn his mentor. The hoarse voice was so, so clear in this silent and empty night. 

Kubo reacted and once again changed into a shadow. He instantly appeared 10 meters away from where he stood. 

At some point, a silhouette who leaned on a staff1 made from white spinal bones had appeared next to the corpse whose neck was broken by Kubo. Without looking at the silhouette, it was almost impossible to sense his presence at all. After collecting the corpse silently, the silhouette looked at Kubo with his blood-coloured eyes, snorted grimly and waved his staff. 

At the same time, atop Kubo, a skeletal hand of more than ten meters appeared and locked down the space below. Soundlessly, it slapped down like it was slapping a mosquito. 

Boom!

The previous moment was soundless. The current moment was ear-splitting and earth-shattering. 

Sound waves that were almost corporeal blasted out from the skeletal hand and the ground shattered. Even though the old street was quite wide, a building was still affected. Cracks spread along the way and terrified screams came from the building. Thereafter, with a boom, the four-storey dangerous building collapsed immediately. 

“Help…” 

The sound of distress. The sound of cries. Chaos. 

This sound of battle was obviously long beyond the control of Kubo and Brimstone. 

  Kubo, who instantly changed into his shadow form when he heard Ryger’s cries, only barely managed to avoid the attack. The only living captive was turned into minced meat that mixed with the rubbles by that skeletal hand.

The illusory hand of bone faded. 

Kubo took a deep breath and looked intently at the silhouette who suddenly appeared, the person behind the scenes who destroyed all traces. If it weren’t for Ryger’s warning, he was close to being had. 

“Nosy.” 

Suddenly, the pair of red eyes eyed the three-story small building. A pale and withered index finger pointed along. With a ghastly, low voice, the silhouette said, “Touch of Death.” 

    Hair-raising! 

This was a fear that Ryger had never felt before. 

It was as if under the feet was a bottomless dark abyss. Coldness spread over to him, completely locked him down and wanted to crush and consume him. The only thing left in his eyes was a darkness that was gradually approaching. His back was completely wet because of cold sweats.   

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump! 

At this moment, Ryger seemed to hear the beatings of his heart and his thoughts became extraordinarily clear at this moment. Fear, together with adrenaline spread instantly all over his body. His heart seemed to be roaring. 

“Move! Run! RUN!” 

    The person behind the scenes who had suddenly appeared designated Ryger as his target.

Kubo was surprised and outraged. He used his shadow form to flash over. But it was too late. The black spot of light was a black nail which immediately shot towards Ryger’s chest! 

“Hmm?” 

At the same time, the scarlet-eyed sorcerer seemed to sense something and let out a sound of suspicion. 

The Touch of Death, a sacrificial nail, wasn’t a consumptive spell. Rather, it was a spell of death that was gradually refined and upgraded by letting the nail absorb and sacrifice the souls of living beings. 

This nail of his had already sacrificed countless souls and had already completed spiritualisation. But just a moment ago when he was going to casually sacrifice that squeaking thing up there, he actually lost connection to the nail? 

“Ah! Aah! AHHH…” 

A brief shock was followed by endless pain. Ryger cried out a heart-breaking wail. 

At Ryger’s chest, the starcore necklace shattered and a bizarre white light emerged from it. Under the white light’s influence, the pitch black nail of the Touch of Death dissolved at breakneck speed. Countless opaque, wailing skulls lost their restraint and scattered in all directions, wailing in pain instinctively. 

“No!” 

“No!” 

Two unthinking roars came from the red-eyed sorcerer and Kubo at the same time. One of them was because of the pain from the scattered souls while the other was because of Ryger. 

With a burst of dazzling white light, the scattered souls did not manage to make a sound before they were swallowed up by the white light. 

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With the replenishment of souls, the white light entered the Ryger’s bloody chest and disappeared. Everything went back to normal.