Chapter 314: Memories and Decryption |
In the dim morgue, a series of tools—scalpel, tweezers, scissors, syringe—danced one after another across the cold corpse. By the time they returned to their original positions, the body was already in disarray, torn to shreds.
From the skull to the ankles, every inch of skin had been meticulously sliced open, revealing either muscle tissue or cloudy, pus-like fluid beneath.
Yet these viscous substances did not ooze out due to the ruptured skin. They remained still in place, like a motionless painting.
And the one orchestrating all of this—Mentor Kaz—had kept his eyes closed the entire time.
He merely moved his fingers slightly, and the tools flew and returned by themselves, like a bloody performance enacted by stringed puppets.
When the autopsy was complete, Kaz clapped his hands lightly, shattering the “frozen time” that had settled over the body. Blood mixed with pus surged forth from bone and muscle, spilled from the laid-flat skin, and slowly dripped down the black leather table onto the morgue floor.
“Kurum, come here,” Kaz’s voice rang out.
A short-statured boy appeared above the corpse. Looking at the vivid red mess, he showed no discomfort. In fact, he even let out a fascinated, “Whoa.”
“Fill in the brain tissue, clean up the blood and pus, re-infuse the embalming gel. Once you’re done, call Hayden—oh wait, he’s not around—call the person from next door to come patch up the wounds. I’ll have someone come and move the body later.”
His slightly clouded eyes reflected everything on the conveyor belt with clarity, yet not a single emotion flickered within them.
He had been doing this kind of work for years—dissecting friends, students, enemies. He’d once thought that unless it was Gorsa himself lying on the belt, no death would ever shock him again.
Having given his orders to the young apprentice, Kaz turned and left the morgue.
As he departed, a few small objects in the room gently swayed, as if tugged by an invisible string.
But soon, this unsettling movement ceased with the closing of the crimson door.
Kurum respectfully watched Kaz leave, then rolled up his sleeves and began to clean up with visible excitement.
The cleanup went smoothly. He began injecting the gel into Nick’s remains—a substance that replaced blood and other bodily fluids, restoring the body’s form.
Then came a critical step: placing the brain back into Nick’s split skull.
However, when he pulled out a piece of artificial cranial bone from a box, he appeared noticeably tense.
He tried to keep a straight face, but the tremble in his eyes betrayed his true emotions.
He inserted the artificial bone, closed the skull, and stitched it up with simple sutures.
The entire process was only slightly more sluggish than the earlier steps.
Not long after, a stranger with a completely disinterested expression entered, cast a few healing spells on the reassembled corpse, then nodded listlessly at Kurum to indicate he was done, and left the morgue just as dispiritedly.
Kurum, who had been observing from the side, suddenly let out a silent, relieved breath once the stranger was gone.
…
The vision halted. Saul began struggling to break free from Nick’s body.
But the moment he exerted any force, the connection between him and Nick snapped.
Ever since locking onto the locator, everything had changed—what used to be difficult movement, powerful enemies, terrifying mental interference—was now far more manageable.
Once the veil obscuring the knowledge of wizardry was lifted by divine power, all that remained were principles and rules.
Saul smoothly withdrew from Nick’s corpse and returned to his own body.
As he got up from the ground, he asked the four soul, “How did things go on your side?”
Before entering Nick’s body, he had intentionally prevented the diary from transmitting what he saw to the others. Instead, he’d let them analyze and discuss the mental signal in an isolated space.
This time, the first to speak was Herman.
[Herman: I couldn’t decipher anything…]
Well, Saul thought, Herman had always been a man of action, not one for studying mental wave patterns and deep-level information. It was unfair to expect more from him.
But the next updates weren’t any better—both Morden and Agu reported that the information was too brief to yield meaningful results.
Saul didn’t press further. The last member, An, was a newly formed composite consciousness with incomplete self-awareness. Saul wasn’t expecting her to think anything.
“I did manage to catch one lead on my end, but tracking down the true mastermind will still take a lot of work,” Saul sighed.
After all, Kurum was still only a First Rank apprentice. Judging by his demeanor, he’d been nervous, but not afraid.
Most likely, someone had bribed him into helping.
Still, Saul could track down who had contacted Kurum. As long as he mentioned Master Gorsa’s name, if Kurum hesitated even for a moment—Saul would admire the boy’s courage.
But regardless, the mastermind’s caution was unnerving.
Each phase of the plot involved two or three people—possibly more.
Saul had once wondered if he was the actual target.
But after all this chasing and probing, he could only chuckle bitterly. “I’m not worthy.”
Just then, the last one Saul had any hope for—An—suddenly spoke up.
[An: Master~ I think I deciphered what the mental wave meant.]
[Agu: !]
[Morden: !]
[Herman: ?]
Each soul dropped a punctuation mark—perfectly expressing their astonishment.
Even Saul hadn’t expected An to succeed. Her tone wasn’t very certain, but after witnessing the power of the Wraith Hand, Saul now took that uncertainty as a form of bragging.
His eyes lit up with interest. “Let’s hear it.”
[An: ‘Smash it.’ That’s what it said.]
A simple message.
Saul rubbed his chin—a habitual gesture whenever he was deep in thought.
[Herman: Smash it? That’s supposed to be a control command?]
[Morden: No, actually… now that she says it, it does seem to fit.]
[Agu: Yeah. It’s hard to deduce the unknown, but once you’re given the answer and work backwards, it’s simple. Reverse-calculating with this info… it checks out.]
[An: Heehee~]
Saul didn’t bother running the math himself—he trusted Morden and Agu’s experience and analytical ability. What puzzled him was how An had arrived at the answer.
“How did you do it?”
Faced with Saul’s question, An hesitated a bit.
[An: Uhh… If I say the memory came to me on its own, would you believe me?]
She thought Saul would at least pause to consider it. But he raised an eyebrow and countered immediately:
“I do! Was it from the Wraith Hand, or that fragmented wraith?”
An instantly confessed.
[An: The fragmented wraith.]
(End of Chapter)
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