Chapter 125: Who Says the Dead Can’t Speak?
The stone door was coated with a potion!
Boom!
That was the last thought that crossed Abyss’s mind before he was engulfed in a fiery explosion.
The moment his hand touched the surface of the stone door, the applied magical coating reacted violently, unleashing a wave of intense heat and concussive force. The blinding flash momentarily blinded Titus.
“Damn it!” Titus exclaimed, realizing he had forgotten to warn Abyss about Lannis’s heightened vigilance. Now, even Mr. Abyss had fallen victim to her trap!
He wouldn’t be angry about this, would he?
The flames quickly died down, leaving a thick cloud of black smoke billowing from where Abyss had stood. A small figure emerged from behind the partially shattered stone door, laughing maniacally at the figure still hidden within the smoke.
“Ahahahaha! Explosion! Explosion! You ill-mannered brat, trying to steal my Spatiotemporal Solvent Machine! One intrusion wasn’t enough, so you brought backup?” the figure cackled, her wrinkled face contorted in a gleeful grin. “Now you know my power! I warn you, take another step, and my other explosives will teach you a more memorable lesson!”
“Impressive concentrated potion. Did you create it? It seems to contain several unstable substances, quite difficult to concentrate,” a calm voice suddenly emerged from the black smoke, interrupting Lannis’s laughter.
“Hmm?” Lannis was taken aback. The concentration process for her potion was indeed complex, but the intruder should be coughing and choking on the smoke, unable to speak, let alone ask such a composed question.
“Oh, my apologies. I forgot that conversing without making eye contact is considered rude,” the voice said. A gentle breeze swept through the basement, dispelling the smoke, revealing Abyss, completely unharmed.
His clothes weren’t even singed, and his hand, the one that had touched the explosive potion, was pristine. His face showed no anger, only boundless curiosity as he looked at Lannis.
Lannis had a typical halfling appearance, with short blonde hair, a round face, short, slender legs, and wide, bare feet. Halflings lived about one and a half times longer than humans. At over seventy years old, Lannis’s face only bore a few wrinkles, suggesting her age. She was about 1.2 meters tall, her frame thin and seemingly frail.
The most striking aspect of her appearance was the multitude of bottles and vials hanging from her body. Some were transparent, others made of brown, light-blocking glass. Alarmingly, many of them seemed unstable, some even trembling slightly. Even Titus, accustomed to dealing with eccentrics, was hesitant to approach her—if she fell, it would be disastrous.
He hoped she wasn’t as fragile as she appeared.
One of her eyes wasn’t her original. Unlike the typical blue eyes of halflings, it was black and lifeless, likely a prosthetic made of magic crystal. It couldn’t see, but it could detect things beyond the perception of ordinary humans, such as heat and strong magical fluctuations.
“Aah! You cunning brat! How did you escape my explosion unharmed? I intended to roast you into a charcoal briquette!” Lannis exclaimed, her voice raspy but surprisingly loud.
“Oh, I’m a mage. I happen to know a few spells that can withstand your explosions,” Abyss said with a smile. “You don’t mind, do you? Oh, and I heard you call that machine that produces alchemical solvents the ‘Spatiotemporal Solvent Machine.’ You seem to know a lot about it. Would you mind telling me more?”
“Aah! Damn it! That’s my treasure! It’s the only way to find the most precious treasure in the world! I won’t let you steal it!” Lannis suddenly became agitated. “You gangsters might rule this city, but you won’t take advantage of me!”
“My god, lady, you’re currently in the Goat Eyes Gang’s territory. This thing belongs to them. Why are you so worked up?” Titus said, annoyed.
“You rotten-toothed brat! I’ll blow your backside to kingdom come!” Lannis threatened, then burst into laughter. “You’re telling the second funniest joke in the world! Since when did this belong to the Goat Eyes Gang? They stole it from my mistress!”
Titus knew nothing about Lannis’s past, but Abyss instantly recognized the “mistress” she was referring to: Rebecca Viper, the genius alchemist who had once monopolized the continent’s adult entertainment industry, the very person he had come to the Eastern Empire to resurrect.
It all made sense now… This machine was the creation of that extraordinary genius. But had alchemy truly advanced to the point of creating matter out of thin air? And what kind of “spatiotemporal” manipulation was involved?
“Miss Lannis, what would it take for us to take this marvelous machine?” Abyss asked suddenly. “I’m very interested in it. I would be delighted to study it.”
“Take this machine? Ha!” Lannis scoffed. “Don’t even dream of it. If you want this machine, have my mistress order me to hand it over! Can you do that?!”
To an ordinary person, this would sound like a hopeless situation. But Abyss’s eyes lit up. He knew why Lannis had said that. Her mistress, Miss Rebecca, had died over forty years ago. It was her way of saying “absolutely not.”
But who said the dead couldn’t speak?
“Titus, I need to speak with Miss Lannis privately. Would you mind excusing us for a moment?” Abyss said, turning to Titus.
Titus shrugged. Abyss clearly wasn’t afraid of the crazy halfling’s explosives. He had no concerns about leaving them alone. “Of course, I’ll head upstairs. Call me when you two reach an agreement.”
“You’ll never reach an agreement! Give up, brat!” Lannis shouted.
Titus ignored her, shaking his head, and climbed the stairs, leaving the basement.
“Well, it’s just the two of us now. I asked him to leave because I didn’t want to frighten him. You, on the other hand, are not easily frightened, are you?” Abyss said, smiling gently at Lannis. “I’m a necromancer. I came to the Eastern Empire specifically to resurrect your mistress. I’d like to ask you, where is her grave?”
Abyss expected Lannis to regret her previous statement, but she only seemed surprised for a moment before chuckling softly. “Hehehehehe… So you’re a necromancer. What of it? You want to resurrect my mistress? I won’t stop you, but do you truly have the ability? Her grave… It’s not in this world! No one can reach it, except for her!”
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