Chapter 468: A War Without Suspense (V)
"Dark-magician!"
Mrs. Carter's body was split into two, but she strangely remained alive. Her head, with only her neck and left shoulder left, let out a shrill scream of misery and resentment.
Most of the body "remained" on the ground, with a small amount of blood leaking out of the right side of the neck and the severed left shoulder, but... it was still strangely alive and not dead.
She even moved on her own - she rotated half of her body, raised her remaining right arm, and quickly stretched her five fingers to over half a meter, grabbing fiercely at the headless knight who had cut her in half.
The head flying in the air and the left arm remaining on the left shoulder were not idle either. As a shrill and miserable cry sounded, a foul smell with a faint gray-brown and purple light came out from the severed surfaces, fiercely rolling towards Yang Qiu who had just landed.
This foul odor, a mixture of the breath of life and death, would be a serious blow to an ordinary person if they were unfortunate enough to be contaminated by it.
Although Yang Qiu was not afraid of this low-level spiritual pollution, he did not want to be touched by such a disgusting thing. His mental power turned into a translucent big hand, which waved away the foul air and took the opportunity to grab Mrs. Carter's head.
"Hand of the Mage" is just a low-level magic trick commonly used by spellcasters, but when used by a legendary spellcaster like Yang Qiu, its power is not inferior to the full-strength attack of a high-level warrior. Mrs. Carter, who was ferocious and as cruel as a demon, had no way to avoid it. Her head, half of her left shoulder, and her entire left arm were easily crushed by the mage's hand as big as a wheel.
Just like crushing a fat and explosive insect, Mrs. Carter's head and left arm were crushed while she howled miserably, splashing out a large amount of sticky and turbid black liquid.
This was obviously not the blood of a living person, nor did it look like the bodily fluid of a monster. The amount was too large to match the size of Mrs. Carter's crushed limbs.
The thick black and sticky liquid that burst out after being squeezed splashed onto the grass and trees on both sides of the promenade, instantly causing the green plants and flowers that were contaminated to wither and decay strangely...
Using the magic trick "Mage's Hand" that even magic apprentices can use, Yang Qiu easily crushed Mrs. Carter's head. After his feet landed on the ground, he did not stop.
The "senior" worshippers of the "Fallen Whisperers" and the core believers who possess the complete favor of the Whisperers will not be killed so easily.
When Yang Qiu crushed Mrs. Carter's head... the headless knight he summoned had been turned into black mist by the headless body of Mrs. Carter.
The Headless Horseman is a common, intelligent, low-level lord-level monster.
The Dual Knight in the 2D Demon Realm is extremely powerful, and is an indispensable low-level combat force in the army of every demon king in the Tenth Layer Demon Realm. However, the Dual Knight who accepted the summoning contract from the black magician and was summoned to the material plane is just a projection of this lord-level monster who is happy to deal with humans... Its strength is less than one percent of the original body.
It can be used for assault or stealth attacks, but don't expect it to be useful in frontal combat - as one of the main fighting forces under the Demon King's army, no matter how generous the Dullahan is, he won't lend too much power.
Of course... even if the Dullahan's projection has less than one percent of its original strength, it's not so mediocre that anyone can defeat it.
And this is also the reason why Yang Qiu attacked Mrs. Carter first after arriving - this Whisperer cultist with the shell of a noble lady is stronger than the other two!
The black fog from the disintegration of the Headless Horseman's projection had not yet dissipated, and another black fog as thick as a solid entity had already attacked from behind, covering the headless body of Mrs. Carter.
"The dead return to the world."
After landing, Yang Qiu made the last spell-casting gesture, and the black mist that enveloped Mrs. Carter's body disappeared with a whoosh.
There wasn't even a process of dissipation, as if it was wiped out directly from the material plane, leaving no trace.
Completely wiped out along with the black fog... was also the breath of death on Mrs. Carter's body, which shouldn't have lingered in the material plane and shouldn't have lingered with the breath of the living.
The worshippers of the "Fallen Whisperers" have been wreaking havoc on the world for thousands of years. Be it spellcasters or righteous religious sects, there must be people who are working on countermeasures.
The solution that the Orthodox Sect found was "imprisonment" - sealing the immortal Whisperer fanatics in a specific space, making it impossible for them to resort to sacrifice to obtain new divine favors to stabilize the breath of death in their bodies, until they were devoured by the impure "breath of the curse of death".
The other method is that devised by black magicians and illusionists who are good at using mental attacks - to violently break the integrity of the Whisperer's fanatics' carrier (crippling them), and then remove the "breath of the curse of death" from their souls and bodies and transfer them to another space.
It is rather troublesome for an illusionist to use this trick, as he can only transfer the "breath of death" to an uninhabited place and wait for it to dissipate on its own. It is easier for a black magician, as he can use his own magic power to locate a familiar dimension of the demon world and transfer the "breath of death" there together.
Apart from the above two methods, other methods cannot completely kill the believers with complete Whisperer favor - even if they are chopped into meat paste, these damn things still have life, and larger pieces of "meat" still have a chance to regenerate.
The death aura belonging to the "Curse of Death" was transferred away, and Mrs. Carter's plump arms, torso, and legs quickly shrank and dried up.
Even the close-fitting lady's long skirt and the girdle that was tightly tied around the waist became loose and fell to the ground.
The broken limbs severed by the Headless Knight weathered rapidly, and the remaining right arm raised in the air broke in the middle as if it could not bear the weight of five fingers over half a meter long.
The five fingers that had just torn apart the Dullahan projection, along with the wrist and half of the arm, fell onto the cobblestoned promenade, breaking into pieces like extremely crispy cookies. Every crack showed signs of weathering, and large amounts of dust spread out...
And only at this moment, Master Gladstone, who had screamed when he saw Mrs. Carter being cut in two, just blinked.
From the sudden attack of the Headless Horseman, to the landing of the Black Mage from the sky, to Mrs. Carter being completely killed and turned into sand, all of it took no more than four seconds.
Master Gladstone, who had just screamed, took a deep breath again:
“Aaaaaa——!!”
The three people present ignored the frightened old master.
After seeing the black magician falling from the sky, Count Geketan recognized this man. He had no intention of helping Mrs. Carter who was attacked first. He turned around and rushed towards the magic circle that had just been activated by the blood of the lower-level believers.
The middle-aged nobleman also recognized the Nightmare Butcher, but his response was no match for the experienced Earl and Mrs. Carter who fought back in anger because of the attack. His first reaction was... to turn around and run away.
When Mrs. Carter began to turn into a desert, he had already escaped to the gate of the villa.
Amid the old master's screams, Yang Qiu raised his hand and pointed his palm towards Count Geketian who was running into the soil in the garden.
Put your five fingers together.
The invisible spiritual field turned into a sharp blade, cutting towards the old earl's limbs.
As Count Geketian ran, it seemed as if he had eyes on his back. He suddenly jumped sideways and flew more than ten meters, almost hitting the rockery on the side of the garden.
The blade of mental power just grazed the old earl 's left arm, and the part below the elbow separated from the body and fell to the ground.
The old earl with a broken arm had no expression on his face. He quickly raised his broken left arm and pointed it at Yang Qiu.
A huge cloud of foul odor, only slightly less foul than Mrs. Carter's, rolled towards Yang Qiu.
Using the foul air to slightly block Yang Qiu, the old earl also took synchronous action and once again pounced on the sacrificial magic circle buried under the soil of the garden.
Mrs. Carter couldn't hold out for long, so Count Geketian naturally wouldn't expect to repel the Nightmare Butcher on his own.
The pope of the Whisperer sect, who relied on the breath of the curse of death to anchor his own vitality to prolong his life and rarely had too much emotional fluctuations, was rarely angry at this moment.
If he had not listened to the middle-aged noble's lies and if he had activated the eye of the formation immediately after the arrangement was completed, then even if the dozen nodes in the outer city area had not been arranged yet and hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city could not be sacrificed simultaneously; relying on the sacrifices that could be sacrificed, he and his fellow believers would be able to borrow a lot of power and would not be treated like they are now.
One of the church members who jointly activated the array's eye died and one escaped. The old earl had to pour his own blood into it in order to drive the array's eye of this large sacrificial array... Even if he was destined to be killed by the Nightmare Butcher, he had to die in the array's eye so that he could be reborn with the help of the large number of gods' followers after the sacrificial array was activated!
Count Geketian didn't want to die at all - although he had lived for a long time, who would be willing to give up his life just because he lived too long!
The old earl, who was only thinking about surviving death, didn't know that his actions inadvertently exposed the location of the center of the formation.
After all, Yang Qiu was not an illusionist. In this villa filled with the stench of life and death, it was difficult for him to use his mental power to quickly and accurately find the eye of the sacrificial array hidden under the green plants and soil.
Of course, if an illusionist came, he would probably be in a more difficult situation than Yang Qiu... This strong breath of life and death is a high source of mental pollution. Even a court wizard like Weber would have to stay away from it.
Count Geketian desperately moved in the same direction twice. No matter how stupid Yang Qiu was, he knew that there was something wrong with the garden, so he immediately activated a large-scale magic - "Black Magic·Hell Thorns".
The garden, which was half an acre in size, was instantly covered by black thorny vines that grew out of the soil.
Precious or not precious flowers and plants, fertile black soil, and... the eye of the sacrificial array buried under the soil and engraved on the thick stone slab, were lifted into the air by thick and dense black thorn vines.
Count Geketian, who was in the garden, was also "stuck" on one of the blackthorn vines. He waved his hands and feet helplessly and was thrown into the air in horror.
"No--!!"
The old earl, who had not shown any major emotional fluctuations in many years, let out a desperate roar.
Under the horrified gaze of the old earl, who was still alive despite having his chest and abdomen pierced by hell thorns, the marble array plate with a diameter of more than five meters and a thickness of more than one meter, which was buried right under his nose as a trump card many years ago, was lifted high into the air and then fell heavily.
This kind of array eye and array plate that has been reinforced by special means is naturally not so easy to be destroyed. It is impossible for even a crack to appear after falling from such a height.
But——there is a legendary black magician who is eyeing him covetously!
The black magician who stood near the desertified remains of Mrs. Carter and summoned a huge amount of hell thorns without even needing a casting gesture smiled slightly.
Then... he raised his hand and pointed it at the falling marble array plate, clenching his five fingers.
The sharp blade transformed by the invisible spiritual power cut the huge array plate, which was in a state of waiting to be activated and had faint light flashing on the array runes, into scattered pieces of varying sizes.
