Chapter 28: The Mist Dissipates
At the Wizard Guild branch in Kiel City.
White light suddenly flickered on the ancient teleportation array, and Su Xiao appeared out of thin air, with Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Kaisa all standing behind him.
Diagonally across from the teleportation array, behind a wooden lattice window set into a stone wall, a mass of tangled tree roots was gathered.
Creak, creak~
Like wood moving, a pair of dull, lusterless eyes opened within the roots.
"You're here."
The old wizard sitting in the wooden wheelchair spoke with a hoarse voice. The surrounding roots writhed as he pushed his wheelchair forward, breaking free from them. His upper body was no different from an ordinary person, though his gray-white hair was somewhat sparse. As for his legs, they were broken off from the thigh down.
From the jagged, uneven stumps near the wounds, it was clear the old wizard's legs hadn't been severed by a sharp blade, but rather smashed repeatedly by some long, blunt instrument.
The wooden wheelchair beneath the old wizard rolled over a mechanism on the floor. The wooden lattice in front of him rapidly decayed and shattered, along with the meter-high stone wall below it.
"So, Hunter, was the mission smooth?"
The old wizard pushed his wheelchair forward into the depths of the Wizard Guild branch.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're the 'Vessel' from the previous generation."
Su Xiao signaled Amu to 'help.' Amu understood and went behind the old wizard to push the wheelchair.
The old wizard was silent for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face.
"'Vessel'... an apt description. Yes, I am the previous generation's Vessel. If nothing had gone wrong, Nia would have been the new generation's Vessel. She was far more perfect than me, closer to 'Its' expectations. It even left Ancient God blood within Nia's body to make her a more suitable container. Unfortunately, Laurent was too clever."
The old wizard tilted his head forward, signaling Amu to continue pushing him along.
After moving forward more than ten meters, the old wizard slapped his hand against the wall, and a hidden door rose up.
Amu looked at Su Xiao. Receiving Su Xiao's nod of approval, he pushed the old wizard through the hidden door.
This was a secret room about a hundred square meters in size. Inside were several rows of wooden shelves, thick with dust, holding over a hundred crystal hearts.
Su Xiao casually picked up a crystal heart. It was covered in fine cracks, clearly a failed product.
Sitting down on a wooden crate, Su Xiao lit a cigarette. The old wizard stared at the crystal hearts, his eyes somewhat vacant.
"How did you figure it out?"
Old Wizard Hughes Archard voiced the question in his mind. A bottle of wine suddenly flew towards him. His eyes lit up with joy as he caught it, bit off the cork, and tilted his head back to take several large gulps.
"Ahh~ This is the good stuff."
Hughes Archard exhaled a breath of alcohol, a trace of color returning to his face.
"I'll talk, you fill in the gaps. If you disagree, I'll twist your head off and use it as a stool."
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of smoke. Hughes Archard was not the final boss; he was merely a Vessel, and an abandoned one at that.
"I don't know the name of that Ancient God yet, but I can confirm that..."
Just as Su Xiao began, the old wizard gestured that he had something to say. Su Xiao slightly raised his chin, signaling him to speak.
"He is Azathoth, a deity from an unknown domain. When he first arrived in this world, he was severely wounded, nearly dying. It is said that in the vast world he originally came from, he was merely a 'concept,' operating purely on instinct. But that vast world collapsed. He and other Ancient Gods left that world. Due to the stripping of the 'Realm,' he degenerated from a Conceptual God to an Ancient God. The Dominator, Sothoth, was the same."
The old wizard took another few gulps of wine, looking satisfied.
"I see."
Su Xiao had now fully verified the conjecture in his mind.
"If my deduction is correct, Azathoth 'split' due to his severe injuries, separating his consciousness from his body."
"Correct."
The old wizard took a few more gulps of wine to calm himself. He knew full well that this old schemer talking to him so much meant he was definitely going to die here today.
Su Xiao hadn't killed the old wizard outright, mainly because he was no longer a threat. He had come here to confirm where Azathoth's consciousness was housed.
According to Su Xiao's speculation, Azathoth's consciousness had been housed in a human body many years ago, a man named Hughes Alexander. The old wizard's name was Hughes Archard.
'Guardians of the world, we are willing to bask in your glory... Hughes Alexander (Divine Calendar Year 1157).'
This was the inscription below the statue of the Ancient God Sothoth. Hughes Alexander was the ancestor of the old wizard, Hughes Archard. His 'worship' of Sothoth was merely to lull Sothoth into a false sense of security; it wasn't genuine.
Furthermore, the Hughes family had actually continued to exist to this day, splitting into two branches. One branch still bore the surname Hughes, while the other had changed its surname to Moen.
The Immortal Wizard, Moen Laurent, was a descendant of the Hughes family, though he himself was unaware of this.
The Hughes family had two branches. One was Laurent's family, the Moen family. The other was the old wizard Archard's family, the Hughes family.
Both branches were controlled by Azathoth's consciousness. The Hughes family was responsible for 'passing on' Azathoth's consciousness and openly flattering the Dominator Sothoth, but in reality, they were trying to use him.
The Moen family was a pawn. All of Moen Laurent's actions, including gathering Dawn, Gus, and launching the campaign against the Dominator Sothoth, were orchestrated by Azathoth's consciousness from behind the scenes.
Azathoth's goal was simple. His body and consciousness were separated. His original body was too powerful and had developed 'bestial instincts,' making it unwilling to easily accept his original consciousness.
So Azathoth used the Moen family to 'oppose' the Dominator Sothoth.
The Immortal Wizard Laurent's first campaign against the Dominator Sothoth was destined to fail. This was all pre-arranged. The real point was to have them nurture Nia.
From beginning to end, Azathoth never believed the Moen family could defeat the Dominator Sothoth. He just needed them to fight the Ancient God. The goal wasn't victory, but to have the Moen family, in the course of their struggle, cultivate someone capable of directly confronting an Ancient God. That was the key.
Once this person capable of confronting an Ancient God appeared, Azathoth would inhabit their body to fight his own original body. He didn't need to win; he just needed to fight for a while, long enough to return to his original body and recover to the strength he had when he first entered this world.
When Dawn had nurtured Nia, Azathoth saw hope. 'Nia, the Light of Hope'—hearing this title now took on a different meaning.
Just as Azathoth was about to take over Nia's body, Laurent, who had been used all along, stepped forward. He had been pretending all this time, waiting for this moment. He was practically the MVP of the losing side.
The mastermind, Azathoth, had his plans overturned. Nia successfully left the Wizard Guild to confront the Dominator Sothoth. Even though she was born from a web of conspiracies, she fulfilled her mission.
Nia fought until the very end. This clever young woman also sensed something was amiss, so she left behind a string of small words: 'Mission is destiny.'
Azathoth didn't fly into a rage. He chose to wait, to wait for the next Nia to appear.
However, before the second Nia could appear, the Law Destroyer arrived. Azathoth's mindset underwent some changes, which could be inferred from another matter.
It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple. Due to his severe injuries, Azathoth's consciousness and body split. Because his body had developed bestial instincts, he needed to inhabit a relatively powerful container, one qualified to fight an Ancient God, in order to battle his own body and reclaim it.
In other words, without the protection of Azathoth's consciousness, Nia would never have grown to that level; she would have been detected by the Dominator Sothoth long ago.
The Hughes family knew this secret, but they could never speak of it. The Moen family was unaware, struggling in vain as they were used.
Laurent, Dawn, and Gus were all used. Their resistance was already pre-arranged. In other words, the White Goat, Sothoth, and the Bestial Azathoth were on one side, while Azathoth's consciousness was a separate faction.
The heart of the Maiden of Sorrow was created by the old wizard, Hughes Archard. During that period, he was being controlled by Azathoth. That crystal heart was actually an emergency device. Unfortunately, it had already been destroyed by Su Xiao.
After the Maiden of Sorrow was fitted with the crystal heart, she would lie. That was only natural, because at that point, the puppet was being manipulated.
The resistance of Laurent, Dawn, Gus, and Nia was not meaningless. The state this world had fallen into had nothing to do with Azathoth's consciousness. It was indeed caused by the Dominator Sothoth and the 'White Goat.'
"You managed to become the guide for Reincarnation Paradise in this world, Hughes Archard."
After his brief narration, Su Xiao looked at Hughes Archard with a broad smile.
The old wizard, Hughes Archard's, face twitched. He felt that this time, someone even more terrifying than Azathoth's consciousness had arrived.
"I'm just a decrepit old man now. It's not strange that I became a guide without violating Reincarnation Paradise's regulations. But... why does this wine have a strange taste?"
The old wizard glanced at the empty bottle in his hand, then back at Su Xiao.
"That wasn't wine. I call it T49_37 Solution. In layman's terms, it's an 'Energy-Type Lethal Toxin Manifestation Solution.'"
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the old wizard was stunned. He had actually considered the possibility of Su Xiao poisoning the wine, but now he realized that the bastard hadn't even given him wine at all. He had given him a bottle of pure poison that tasted exactly like strong liquor.
Poisoning the wine? That was too inefficient. Giving the enemy pure poison to drink directly was the reliable method.