Chapter 68: He Is My Student

The moment the black crystal was forcibly ripped from the chest of the Star Devouring Shadow Beast, the silver black patterns covering its body seemed to lose their source.

Large patches of gray silver light quickly faded between its bone spikes and fur, and the Level 34, Second Tier magical beast, which had still been raging moments earlier, finally lost its balance. Its enormous body crashed heavily into the ground, crushing several already broken trees beneath it.

BOOM!

A dust storm rose into the air.

But Victor didn’t look at it because the thing in his palm was moving.

More precisely, it was struggling.

The thumb sized [Abyss Induction Crystal] had clearly already been removed from the Star Devouring Shadow Beast’s body, yet extremely regular mana pulses continued to come from within it. Every vibration released an invisible wave of chaotic energy, as though it were still trying to reconnect with Leah’s Astral Core in the distance.

[High concentration Abyssal Contamination Energy detected.]

[Artificial Astral Induction Structure detected.]

[Current structure has lost its primary host.]

[Decomposition available.]

Seeing that last string of text, Victor didn’t bother with anything else as his five fingers clasped around the crystal.

[Mana Devour!]

BZZZT!

Numerous cracks rapidly spread across the surface of the black crystal.

The two forces originally intertwined within it were dragged out at the same time. One was pitch black and viscous, carrying an unmistakable aura of Abyssal corrosion.

The other was an extremely faint silver gray, its structure highly similar to Leah’s Astral mana, yet it seemed to have been artificially distorted countless times, long since stripped of the purity it should have possessed.

Both energies entered his body simultaneously.

Mana Devour quickly began doing its thing.

[High quality special energy confirmed.]

[Type: Abyssal Induction Energy.]

[Mana Devour evolution condition updated.]

[High quality special energy types absorbed: 2/3.]

The second one! Victor’s eyes glistened. The first was the Soul Curse Energy he had obtained from the fake Ron, which counted as one.

Now, Abyssal Induction Energy counted as another.

Only one more high quality special energy remained before Mana Devour met the requirement for its next stage.

But the thought lasted only an instant before he pushed it aside.

Now wasn’t the time to think about skill evolution.

...Because the Zero Vessel ahead had completely lost control.

"Kill him!"

A shrill voice suddenly rang out.

All warmth disappeared from the woman’s eyes as silver gray Astral mana erupted wildly from within her body. Albert raised his staff and bound her again with six golden chains. They instantly pulled taut, and fine cracks even began appearing across them.

"The core cannot fall into his hands!"

This time, the words coming from her mouth clearly no longer belonged to Elena.

They sounded more like the highest priority command programmed into a second personality.

Albert’s expression darkened. His staff pressed downward.

BOOM!

The six golden chains abruptly thickened.

The Astral power that had just erupted from the woman was forcibly crushed back toward the ground.

But she didn’t stop. The artificial Astral structures inside her began overloading wildly. Streak after streak of silver light appeared beneath her skin, while the wound on her shoulder that had been torn open by the Star Devouring Shadow Beast split apart completely. Countless tiny silver threads emerged from within like blood vessels, desperately trying to reconnect the damaged tissue.

"She’s destroying herself," Albert suddenly said.

Victor could see it too. The second personality didn’t care whether this body survived.

Or rather, from the moment it was designed, the concept of "survival" had never existed.

The mission came first. The vessel was nothing more than a consumable.

A troubled look appeared on Victor’s face.

If this continued, even if Albert didn’t kill her, the internal Astral structures would overload until the entire body collapsed. When that happened, the clue they had finally found would end up exactly like the attackers who had gone after Evelyn.

"Hold her down for three seconds," Victor suddenly said.

Albert glanced at him. "What are you going to do this time?!"

"See if I can remove the second personality."

"You know soul magic?"

"No."

"..."

For a moment, Albert thought he’d misheard him.

"Then how are you going to remove it?!!"

Victor was already walking forward, calm and measured. "Not knowing how it works doesn’t mean I can’t take it apart."

He truly didn’t understand soul techniques.

But he had just done something similar.

The high level soul binding structure inside the fake Ron had been partially stripped away by Mana Devour.

Zero’s condition was more complicated, but since the second personality had been implanted afterward, there had to be some kind of energy structure maintaining it.

As long as he could find that structure, the rest would be simple.

"Don’t let her touch me," Victor added.

The corner of Albert’s mouth twitched.

"You sure have a lot of demands."

But in the next second, the vice dean finally released his true power.

All three golden crystals at the top of his staff lit up simultaneously.

BOOM!

The original six golden chains were divided into dozens more chains.

Within moments, the entire area was almost completely covered in dense golden magical patterns.

The woman’s body suddenly sank. Her knees slammed directly into the ground.

"Albert!"

The second personality roared. "Do you know what you’re protecting?!"

"Someone who should never have existed in the first place!"

"I don’t know." Albert’s voice was extraordinarily calm. "But I do know one thing."

"...Right now, he’s my student."

Victor’s footsteps paused slightly for the briefest moment when he heard this. Then he continued forward.

The woman stared at him.

"You can’t touch me."

"Why?"

"You’ll regret it."

"I’ve been hearing that a lot lately."

Victor had already reached her.

"Try another line."

He extended his hand. Silver light erupted from the woman’s eyes. But before any of her attacks could fully form, Albert crushed them apart.

Victor’s palm descended directly onto her forehead.

The instant they made contact...

Victor finally felt just how chaotic the inside of this body truly was.

Astral energy. Fragments of consciousness. Artificial soul structures. Large numbers of mana circuits that didn’t belong in any normal human body.

And...

Two conflicting consciousness cores.

One was extremely weak but warm, chaotic, and filled with countless shattered emotions.

The other was so cold that it was almost mechanical.

Countless command structures extended outward from it like chains, tightly wrapping around the entire body. Some had even penetrated deep into the first consciousness core.

No wonder Elena’s residual consciousness had been unable to completely break free of its control.

The second personality didn’t exist independently.

It was like a parasite.

From the very beginning, it had been designed as the primary control center of this vessel.

[Complex artificial mental structure detected.]

[Large number of external control nodes detected.]

[Mana Devour cannot directly devour a complete personality.]

At least it wasn’t ridiculous enough to directly eat an entire personality.

[External energy maintaining personality control structure can be decomposed.]

This was enough.

"Begin."

BOOM!

Mana Devour activated.

...

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