Morphey got to her feet with some difficulty.

She was covered in blood and her elegant nun gown was now tattered and revealed the outlines of her curvaceous body.

She stood expressionlessly in the center of the wreckage and surveyed the surrounding destruction, as well as the massive crater around her.

A black coffin buried within the earth had appeared in the central point of the crater where the altar had been. On it, several pale skeletons with outstretched hands seemed as though they were fighting to grasp the red gemstone embedded in the middle of the coffin.

‘Coffin of Eternal Rest’.

This was the iconic sorcery artifact used by the Destructive-rank black magician, ‘Precant’ Morphey.

In general, most magician’s sorcery tools were merely items that provided assistance or simplified processes. In the end, the power of a spell lay in the amount of aether mustered as well as one’s combat abilities.

For example, when using blaze incantations, low-level magicians would employ tools such as gunpowder and sulfur, whereas high-level magicians only needed to chant a curse.

Therefore, the impression most people had of black magicians were secretive dark-robed beings that carried all sorts of strange magical tools on them like the ignition materials when using blaze incantations.

All of these were simply supplementary and could slightly increase the strength of a spell. However, such tools wouldn’t have a great effect.

However, when it came to a sorcery tool possessing extraordinary power, the uses of such a tool would far exceed being just supplementary.

On the other hand, the Coffin of Eternal Rest was a powerful sorcery tool with the capacity of ‘resurrection’. It was an extremely dangerous taboo article.

Morphey had used the Coffin of Eternal Rest to resurrect Wilde’s disciple Charles and turned him into her own puppet with the aim of getting close to Wilde and killing him.

This wasn’t a plan that had been concocted overnight.

The entire procedure of this plan had been conceived back when Wilde’s other disciple Uri was still alive.

According to what Uri had said, his teacher’s favoritism towards Charles was like a father’s love and not how a teacher treated a disciple.

As a more talented fellow disciple, Uri ultimately killed Charles out of envy one day and then defected.

Although Wilde was a Destructive-rank black magician, he had once been defeated by Joseph and possessed such a mortal weakness.

Thus, he would be the best nourishment for the Magic Ovum Mirror.

As a black magician of similar rank, Morphey had past interactions with Wilde before. From her judgment, she was rather certain that Wilde, who didn’t dare show himself after the battle two years ago, was no longer as powerful as before.

Yet surprisingly, despite harboring this line of thought and proceeding carefully and using Wilde’s weakness in this attempted assassination, the entire plan had actually failed?!

Everything had been going very smoothly.

Up until just a while ago…

Wilde merely stepped out for half an hour but upon returning, he stabbed Charles whom he treated as his own son to death without the slightest bit of hesitation.

What exactly happened in between?

How did he suddenly discover the truth and how was he able to have that much resolve?!

From how he was before, he shouldn’t have been able to act so decisively even if he discovered the truth!

“Damn it, what exactly did he get up to?”

Morphey took deep breaths and waved her arms vigorously, once again arranging the formless and chaotic aether.

Swoosh!

Rain falling from the heavens was stopped outside of an invisible barrier, forming an odd waterfall-like phenomenon.

The collapsed chambers were reconstructed once more and the cratered ground returned to its original state.

Threads of blood extended from the corpses of black magicians that had been killed in this accident as they were resurrected by the Coffin of Eternal Rest, becoming new puppets that got to their feet shakily.

Other black magicians at the side were accustomed to such sights and continued to carry on cleaning up the mess.

A black magician stepped out from the crowd and did a half kneel. “Madam Morphey.”

Cough cough…

Morphey coughed lightly and wiped away the blood on the corner of her mouth. She asked icily, “What is it?”

Pain was coursing throughout her entire body and she had lost a small portion of her soul that made her increasingly infuriated.

The risk factor for curses involving a soul was extremely huge, and it was no exception even for Destructive-rank black magicians.

Moreover, the one that broke this curse and causing the backlash had also been a Destructive-rank black magician.

Even though the other party was merely probing about and hadn’t brought about any truly substantial damage, Morphey felt utterly humiliated just based on this.

This represented being the loser when they crossed swords.

However, Morphey still believed that it wasn’t a disparity in their strength but rather a reversal caused by misinformation.

Originally, she was the one working in the shadows with a firm grasp on Wilde’s weakness and waiting to catch him off guard

Wilde’s sudden reversal had caused their positions to swap.

Wilde was the one who had caught Morphey off guard and she had become the victim.

The half-kneeling black magician answered respectfully. “White Wolf’s leader Heris has come to visit. He wishes to meet you.”

“Heris?” Morphey raised a hand, causing the blood on her body and the surroundings to converge into a glossy blood orb which she kept in her gown. “What is he here for?”

Her subordinate replied at once, “He says that he knows the reason for why you failed.”

Morphey’s bitter grin froze. “… Let him in.”

“At once.”

——

Heris bowed politely to Morphey and said, “Madam Morphey, I’m honored to be able to meet you for the very first time… My previous visits never got the desired outcome. But at least I’ve finally gotten my wish today.”

Morphey had already changed into new nun’s robes.

Before she became a black magician, Morphey had been a nun in the Church of Pestilence, and had the responsibility of praying for the deceased. She only became a black magician after obtaining the Coffin of Eternal Rest as well as the previous owner’s teachings.

The abandoned Church of Pestilence chapel that Ji Zhixiu previously attacked had been a venue provided by her.

Morphey had an arrogant character and viewed the cooperating hunters with disdain.

Heris’ requests to meet had been rejected on his many visits and Morphey hadn’t revealed herself to him before.

Morphey’s gaze was both inquiring and menacing as she got straight to the point. “What gives you the confidence to know the reason behind my failure… Moreover, what makes you come scurrying over from hunter territory before it even happened?

“If you aren’t able to convince me, I would have a reason to suspect that you are involved.”

The pressurizing gaze of a Destructive-rank made Heris break out in cold sweat. His face had gone rigid but he was still able to force out a slight smile. “Forgive my bluntness, but I believe that the reason for this failure was… yourself.”

“Me?” Morphey’s eyes narrowed.

Heris replied calmly, “Do you still remember… the report of Uri’s death?”

Morphey hesitated for a slight moment before she spoke, “Of course I do. That decaying flesh was the remains of some sort of dream realm parasite. Although it could kill a Pandemonium-rank, it has a short lifespan and wouldn’t pose much threat.”

“And so you gave the order to give up investigating the bookstore and focus all efforts to protecting the Magic Ovum Mirror.” A cold glint flashed across Heris’ eyes as he continued, “But did you know that Wilde had just visited that bookstore half an hour ago?

“The one that caused Wilde to have such a sudden change and made your plan fail is the owner of that bookstore.”