Soul of Negary

Standing in the underground sewers, ‘Negary’ was in no hurry to find the others, as he perfectly understood that there were many dangers in this place.

While Michael had gotten old and resorted to using unique Life magic that led to his mind becoming a bit jumpy and his rationality to also occasionally be absent, but it was still undeniable that he was a powerful mage.

At the same time, a mage whose rationality wasn’t present could sometimes be even more dangerous, as this represented the fact that they were becoming close to their source of mana.

An excellent mage knew to obtain their mana from as many sources as possible, rather than growing closer to a particular Evil God, only to ultimately become an incarnation or clone, despite knowing that mixing mana would greatly reduce the power of their spells.

For that reason, there was a well-known saying within the House of Mages: ‘An excellent mage isn’t necessarily powerful, and a powerful mage isn’t necessarily excellent’

For example, Isrig, by relying on the Book of Snakes and certain comparatively precious magical ingredients, he was able to speedily improve his power, but if he had continued that way, it wouldn’t have been too long before he was turned into a puppet of his source of mana, the Evil God Lord of Snakes.

Michael had already gone insane. While being under the constant plague of his own fear of death as well as the radiation of Mequik’s existence, it would have been a miracle for someone like that not to go insane. While he might appear rational right now, a truly rational person would not have allowed so many unusual things to occur on campus.

〖 Those mages are also a bunch of hyenas; they would definitely never discard any possible mana 〗

‘Negary’ understood the mages’ tough circumstances. Clean and harmless mana was their eternal pursuit, but due to the Seven Gods having a tight grasp on the world’s Source Energy, the source of mana for these mages could only be an Evil God or certain eerie magic rituals.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that there wasn’t a single bit of clean mana in the hands of any mages, with one relatively clean source of mana being those taken from the corpse of their previous compatriots.

Although, while the mana that was expelled during the Mana Banquet also originated from an Evil God, this Evil God had already lost their consciousness, so it was the relatively cleanest source of mana. Even while that was the case, they still had to be careful not to be lured to certain dangerous knowledge within the mana.

All in all, the abnormalities in Michael’s academy would definitely draw the attention of other members of the House of Mages. There was actually a high possibility of one of the members of the Abnormality Elimination Squad to be a spy or investigator sent by the House of Mages.

‘Negary’s’ current body was that of a mortal, so if the other party used one of many specialized methods to disguise their mana, there was a possibility of him not realizing it.

‘Negary’ first put various small bottles into the gaps on his belt, facilitating convenient access for him at a moment’s notice. At the same time, he also checked his own nails to ensure the powder he had prepared was still lodged there.

After making the appropriate preparations, ‘Negary’ took a red flower out of somewhere and began to investigate the sewers with it.

Part of ‘Negary’s’ attention was constantly placed on the red flower, as ‘Negary’ slowly approached a certain place, the pistil of the flower slowly spread, some of the stamens and pistils began to slightly wiggle.

Seeing that, ‘Negary’ raised his caution while slowly moving forward. A faint, almost nonexistent foul stench could be detected, ‘Negary’ then noticed a lot of traces of fleeing and a mass of shit piled up in the corner.

〖 So Roger’s group ran into danger at this place? 〗’Negary’ was not at all surprised about this. An amateur and a few normal people venturing into a Mystic’s trap, it was perfectly normal for at least a few of them to die.

Seemingly recognizing the presence of another living person, the monster inside the pile of shit jumped out once again, landing in the dirty sewage water, then turned into a white mass as it leapt out of the dirty water to attack ‘Negary’.

〖 What a short-termed memory 〗with a flick of his hand, ‘Negary’ tossed a bottle from his waist towards the white monster’s body. The normal glass bottle instantly broke, scattering the white powder inside all over.

The monster uttered a fierce shriek and fell in front of ‘Negary’s’ feet, splitting back into numerous writhing maggots and several teeth that hadn’t been fully digested.

〖 As expected, maggots 〗watching the maggots that slowly stopped moving, ‘Negary’ confirmed his conjecture.

The mage called Michael Mobis, at the end of his life span, for the sake of prolonging it, had devised a plan to change the state of his existence. He wanted to transform into another creature with the fly being his creature of choice. He planned to undergo metamorphosis through the entire process of egg to larvae to maggot to cocoon to matured fly; using this process to obtain his second life.

〖 The Michael from before is most likely just an empty shell now, the majority of his body has already turned into these maggots 〗’Negary’ squished these maggots to death, then used his spirit sense to look at the vision that created.

Michael broke his own body apart, taking out his heart and innards, then secured them at certain locations in the underground sewers. Due to them being secured, the liquid and solid excrements of the students were unable to flow away, being piled up here into a huge pile, which became the hotbed for Michael’s rejuvenation.

〖 Then, from the looks of it, there is a small chance for Roger to still be alive 〗’Negary’ scowled.

Michael’s state was much worse than he had imagined. The majority of his body had been converted into maggots, and so was his power, most of which were being used to maintain this magic ritual.

If Roger was a bit smart, or if one of the mages who coveted Michael’s mana were to be among the members of the Abnormality Elimination Squad, then there was a very real chance of them surviving at Michael’s hands.

…

“Dean Mobis?” Roger was a bit startled as he looked at the person approaching him.

He had asked for a meeting with Michael out of his concerns about the abnormalities of the campus but wasn’t approved. And because he wanted to prove himself, he didn’t bother Michael any further; but never did he think that the mastermind behind everything was the venerable Dean of the institute.

“What naughty students you are, snooping around the school like this” Michael seemed to be scolding them as he lightly tapped his cane on the ground.

Suddenly, all the pipelines around them popped open, several white threads shot out from within, coiling around the two’s bodies.

As soon as he came into contact with these white threads, Roger’s spirit sense was passively activated. In a brief trance, he saw how Michael sliced off the flesh under his own skin and placed them inside these pipes. Under the influence of mana, they eventually took this thread-like form.

Although they currently looked like threads, the force that these threads could apply was immense. The cylinder of flesh that Roger’s group found inside the pipelines a few days ago was in fact made by these threads, as they were strong enough to forcefully pull a living breathing person into the pipelines and squeezed them into a mass of pulp.

The two of them were already restrained by the white threads, but Michael didn’t seem to be in any hurry to attack. He loved games of cat-and-mouse, which he also played with the dead security guard from before, who was purposely allowed to flee until he reached the surface and was about to call for help. At that point, he reached his white threads out from the pipelines and pulled him in.

This could be attributed to Michael’s own actions, where he stuck a hook up his nose into his brain and twirled it into a mass of sticky pulp, which he then extracted to use as another node in his magic ritual.

Although Michael could still use his soul to think, it was very unfortunate that his soul had already also been infected by certain impurities in his mana, turning him into his current state.

“Let us play a game, youngster” Michael approached Roger, his hands perversely stroking the young and supple flesh, then spoke with an eerie moan: “If you lose, I’ll have you hand this flesh bag to me”