Mage Manual
Chapter 421 - 351 You Are Just a Technique Spirit

Chapter 421: Chapter 351 You Are Just a Technique Spirit

"Ahh!"

In the instant the chandelier came crashing down, the Substitute yanked Liss back. The square hallway chandelier shattered with a snap just in front of Liss, slicing her small feet encased in white silk stockings.

Liss wasn’t concerned about the minor injury and anxiously looked at the Substitute. "Are you alright?"

Unlike her, the Substitute would dissipate immediately upon sustaining even minor damage. If she could be considered a powerless puppet now, then the Substitute was truly like a bubble.

The Substitute didn’t respond, only carrying Liss over the shattered glass on the floor, silently and loyally fleeing down the corridor.

Behind them, the cold Black Knight pursued their figures at a leisurely pace.

It was clad in finely linked fish scale mail, its ebony helmet extended into crow-feather-colored helmet tassels, and its dark-silver steel boots made a heavy tread on the carpet, pressing down like an ink stain on a page as it moved.

It wasn’t actually very tall, nor did it become formidable with armor on, but its silent oppressive aura was enough to suffocate any prey. It didn’t draw any weapon, only holding a book with a black and silver cover—the Gospel Book.

When the Substitute and Liss passed by a window, the Black Knight flicked a finger and the glass window suddenly shattered into countless fragments. If the Substitute hadn’t lunged forward with Liss in time, they would have undoubtedly experienced a downpour of glass shards.

It was the 13th time.

This was the 13th time Liss had encountered such an "accident".

The moment Liss saw the Black Knight in the bedroom, the Substitute had immediately picked her up and bolted outside. Surprisingly, the Black Knight didn’t immediately attack and even allowed them to run a bit further, like a doctor gauging a patient’s capacity.

As they got a sufficient distance away, just when Liss was wondering if the Black Knight had entered the wrong door, the "accident" occurred.

And it came as a full-blown family outing with children in tow.

Shattered chandeliers, exploding fire extinguishers, broken windows, falling plaster, crumbling doors... The mansion, home to key members of the Senheiser clan, suddenly became a dangerous building, filled with surprises that could scare anyone at any moment.

Just now, as Liss tried to run towards the staircase fire exit, she watched the stable, heavy walls collapse with a roar, turning into a heap of rubble that blocked the fire passage, which instantly became the biggest hazard of all. Compared to the fire exit, the elevator fared much better—only smoking from aging prematurely.

Clearly, the Black Knight did not intend to kill her, but neither did it plan to let her escape this floor. Liss had only two choices: to hide in another room and play hide-and-seek with the Black Knight or to leap out of the window.

Not to mention that the Black Knight had just shown its exceptional ability in hide-and-seek, playing the game with someone holding the Gospel Book was something Liss had painfully experienced a few days ago—Ash was inhuman, even resorting to using Gospel Points to cheat in a game with children.

Now, Liss didn’t know what to do. Although she wanted to discuss it with her sister, when she had seen the Black Knight, her sisters hadn’t appeared in the mirror. At that moment, the little witch understood her sisters’ intent.

If she wasn’t mistaken, this Black Knight had come for her sisters, who couldn’t show themselves easily!

Now it was her turn to protect them!

"Why are you chasing after me!" Liss climbed onto the Substitute’s shoulder and shouted at the Black Knight, "I don’t know you, and I haven’t done anything wrong, why are you doing this!"

"My foot hurts from the cut, and my hand hurts from bumping into something just now, woo..."

Speaking of which, Liss’s tears began to fall pitter-patter, biting her lip in grievance and rubbing her eyes messily until her face was blotchy. Her hairband had been pulled off as she ran, her pure white hair falling onto her trembling shoulders, her nose feeling sour—she grew more aggrieved the more she spoke, and even balled up a fist and waved it at the Black Knight from a distance.

She had to act super innocent; it was a task only she could fulfill—her sisters couldn’t!

In response to Liss’s questioning and crying, the Black Knight seemed to ponder for a moment, pulling out a pen and scribbling in the Gospel Book.

Suddenly, the corner of the corridor’s speaker emitted an emotionlessly mechanical voice, "The Beauty Mist is gone, you are unaffected."

Liss was startled and glanced outside the window, only then noticing that the fog that had enshrouded Vatican Mura for centuries had quietly concealed itself, and the alluring night was attempting to seek it out.

These days, although they had been focused on searching for information on the incarnations of the Gospel, this was after all the Vatican Mura, and inevitably they had gathered quite a bit of information about it.

Liss was too lazy to remember the various social changes caused by the Beauty Mist; she only remembered one thing—if you stayed in Vatican Mura for more than six hours, you had to undergo special treatment before leaving the foggy area, or else you would trigger the most severe withdrawal reaction. Note, it’s not about leaving Vatican Mura, but just leaving the foggy area. Areas like the new intercity area under development were considered out-of-bounds for Vatican Mura’s citizens due to the thin Mist.

Conversely, even if you did not leave Vatican Mura, a decrease in the density of the Beauty Mist would still have the withdrawal reaction grasp you by the throat!

Liss felt horrified while reading the materials; ordinary people suffering from withdrawal symptoms almost always fell into a stupor, with vacant eyes and dissipating consciousness, even wetting or soiling themselves. She had once asked Ash how to solve this issue, and Ash’s proposed solution was to prepare diapers, which was when Liss profoundly realized the limitations of a single-parent family—the need for a stepmother to be arranged as soon as possible.

At that moment, Liss suddenly remembered that she had just seen several maids lying on the corridor floor. She had thought they were beaten by the Black Knight, but the maids bore no wounds, and they all had the vacant gaze and drooling that matched the symptoms of withdrawal!

No wonder Senheiser was so quiet, perhaps everyone except her had already had an accident, hopefully, they had prepared diapers.

...So why was she unaffected?

"What of it!" the little witch spat out, neck tense, "Is it wrong that I’m in good health and not affected! Is there a problem with being healthy! You’re also unaffected!"

The Black Knight continued writing and drawing and spoke through the corridor’s loudspeakers, "You said earlier that you were injured and in pain, is that true?"

"Could it be false?" Liss retorted angrily, waving her fists, "My hand is still bleeding!"

Boom!

Suddenly, the Black Knight gestured from a distance, and the ceiling above Liss and the Substitute cracked open, collapsing massively, bringing down stones and dust that threatened to crush Liss and shatter the Substitute!

"Get down!"

The Substitute couldn’t speak; it only obeyed.

It immediately curled into a ball on the ground, myriad rubble pattering down beside it, without a single pebble touching it.

But it wasn’t truly unharmed.

Droplets of blood fell onto its face, mixing with the dust into a filthy, thick paint. It tilted its head upward, and in its gaze was the fragile, carved image of a small figure.

Liss spread her arms above the Substitute, taking a stone larger than herself on her back. It seemed her head had been struck, and drops of red trickled down, drawn by gravity across the dusty plains of her white hair, breaking through her delicate eyebrows and dripping onto the Substitute’s face. Her knees bent slightly, her silk stockings ragged and torn, as the rust-red blood seeped out from her wounds, spreading across the white silk, blooming like roses on a snowy field.

This seemingly fragile crystal child, easily shattered, now stood immovable like a mighty wall, bearing all the harm alone, just to protect a bubble.

"Take me away," she said.

The Substitute immediately picked up Liss to escape, narrowly avoiding the secondary collapse of stones. Liss held tightly to the Substitute, gazing at the Black Knight with eyes full of hatred.

"You’re actually not in pain at all. With your current injuries, you should have fainted," continued the Black Knight, unperturbed.

Hatred overwhelmed reason at that moment, and Liss screamed, "Die, die, die! I’m not afraid of someone like you! I won’t faint! Waaah, I’ll call Daddy over to kill you later!"

The Black Knight ignored Liss, methodically analyzing on his own, "I was just suspicious at first, but now I’m more or less certain. Your so-called ’pain’ is merely a figment of your imagination, your hormones and neurons can’t truly affect you."

"Why aren’t you affected by the Beauty Mist? Because you can’t imagine the effects of withdrawal."

"Why haven’t you fainted despite serious injuries? Because you don’t want to faint."

"If you don’t care or think about it, then nothing exists."

For some reason, listening to the Black Knight’s step-by-step analysis instilled an indescribable panic in Liss. She resisted the urge to pull out a hand mirror, instead gripping the Substitute’s neck tightly, her nails almost piercing through, as if afraid the Black Knight’s next words would cause her to lose everything.

"What... what are you trying to say?!"

Crack!

Another window shattered nearby, and the Substitute, holding Liss, dodged the shower of glass shards.

Amid the chaotic rain of fragments, Liss saw the Black Knight write a sentence in the Gospel Book, and the overhead loudspeaker echoed with his cold verdict:

"You are not the master of this body; hence the body cannot affect you."

"You are not even human."

"You are just a Technique Spirit."