Chapter 395 Felicia <TOC> Chapter 397 Shadow in the Blood Prison
Previous page password is bold portion: w!ucr9tiSTu
Translator: SumTLMan
“How can I let you save Diavolo so easily?” Felicia looked at the scene in the crystal ball, the corner of her mouth curling up into a slight arc. Following this, a deep black ethereal butterfly was born from her hand, fluttering out and flying towards an unknown destination.
Black Castle, third floor.
Angel secretly followed Phineas, feeling more and more frightened as he walked.
Phineas rarely took the obvious paths. For example, if there was a right turn at the end of a corridor, she would not follow it but would turn back and open a hidden space behind the wall, then pass through it and take another path.
In addition to that, Phineas would not enter any doors but would find extraordinary entrances from various strange places, leaving Angel utterly astounded. For instance, opening a book and finding a lever inside that would lead to a path; or, walking into a hall with several entrances and exits but ignoring them all, instead pulling a light cord at a specific frequency, causing the chandelier to slowly descend, revealing a short-distance teleportation formation on its backplate…
There were countless bizarre pathways.
Angel didn’t know what would happen if he took the visible paths, but since Phineas didn’t dare to take them, it indicated that there must be something suspicious.
He now felt more fortunate that he had managed to deceive Phineas, as he might have taken the main paths otherwise.
This was the reason why he felt more frightened as he continued.
If Shadow was caught because of this, Angel could somewhat understand. Even though Shadow’s observation skills were far superior to Angel’s, it would be difficult for an apprentice to break through these highly concealed mechanisms.
The entire Black Castle was filled with expanding magic runes. When Phineas opened a door from a potted plant, Angel was completely convinced. Behind the door was an ordinary bedroom with light pink decorations, princess dresses, and dolls, presumably a girl’s boudoir.
Phineas dragged “Diavolo” and stood in front of a half-human-sized teddy bear.
At that moment, Angel, who was behind her, secretly guessed: could the path be behind the teddy bear?
As it turned out, Angel was still too naive. Phineas picked up the teddy bear, turned it around, and unzipped the zipper on its back. As the zipper opened, a half-human-sized small opening was revealed.
Phineas climbed through the small opening and entered a majestic hall.
At this time, Angel merged with the “Diavolo” on the ground, who she had been dragging, and followed her inside.
Once inside the hall, Angel’s real body slowly retreated to the side.
The hall was empty, with only a statue of a praying goddess in the middle. It closely resembled the appearance of a statue in Ciporak, and if nothing unexpected had occurred, it should be a statue of Isabelle.
Phineas came to the statue, knelt down in devotion, and bowed her head to the ground for a long time without lifting it.
A minute later, a light door suddenly appeared in front of the goddess statue, leading to a dark, gloomy cave. If there were no surprises, the path would be through this light door.
However, Angel didn’t step in, still hiding behind Phineas. Phineas, on the other hand, remained kneeling with her head bowed and did not look up.
After a while, the scene within the light gate changed from a dark cave to a room made of ice and snow, and a cold wind blew in, causing Phineas to shiver.
She still didn’t raise her head.
As time went on, the light gate’s surroundings changed to a long corridor, an exotic flower room, and a narrow space… At this point, Angel gradually realized that it wasn’t that Phineas wouldn’t enter, but the correct path had yet to appear.
Observing the ever-changing pathways, Angel felt a deep admiration for the creator of Black Castle. These riddles and challenges required a certain level of creativity and also involved mental deception. For example, this light gate – if it weren’t for Phineas leading the way, even if Angel managed to open it, he wouldn’t know that behind the gate were numerous wrong paths.
As Angel watched with great interest, suddenly a jet black phantom butterfly fluttered down from the sky.
The phantom butterfly appeared and disappeared, dancing gracefully in mid-air.
Kneeling on the floor, Phineas didn’t notice the phantom butterfly above her, but Angel was startled by its appearance. As soon as the phantom butterfly emerged, the illusion he had created began to show signs of collapse.
With each flap of its wings, the phantom butterfly released shimmering scales.
As the scales fluttered down, the illusion nodes that had been maintaining Diavolo’s form began to break apart on a large scale.
Angel’s heart skipped a beat, guessing that perhaps someone with a “god’s-eye view” had taken action.
Previously, Angel was unsure if someone was watching his every move, but after seeing the phantom butterfly attacking his illusion, he was now certain that since he entered Black Castle, someone with a “god’s-eye view” had been observing him.
Seeing the phantom butterfly’s attack, it was clear that Diavolo’s illusion had been discovered, but had that “being” detected his illusionary double? Angel estimated that it probably had.
But most importantly, had his real self, hidden behind Diavolo and the illusionary double, been discovered by that entity?
Angel decided to conduct a test.
As more and more scales fell, Diavolo’s form was on the verge of collapse. A surge of magical power transmitted new nodes to Diavolo’s body, barely maintaining its shape to prevent destruction.
As the phantom butterfly scattered its scales, Angel continued to create nodes. If it came down to it, they’d exhaust each other. Angel felt that the place where the shadow was imprisoned was not far away. As long as Phineas led the person to the blood cell, it would be his victory. As for whether Phineas would notice the phantom butterfly, Angel didn’t care, as he would never let her see it.
So, the standoff between the person and the butterfly continued.
Phineas had no idea that while she was kneeling and worshiping the statue of Isabelle, a silent battle was taking place behind her.
In the main hall on the first floor, Felicia, using a crystal ball, also discovered the scene. She sneered coldly and flicked her finger, as if plucking an invisible string, influencing the phantom butterfly at the other end.
As she plucked, the phantom butterfly in the hall suddenly split into two.
The black phantom butterfly continued to scatter its scales, but from its body, a bright white light suddenly emerged, which reassembled in the air into a white light butterfly.
The luminous butterfly didn’t pay attention to the illusion of Diavolo on the ground, but flapped its wings, flying towards a concealed location.
When it reached its destination, it circled in the air several times, followed by a sudden dive, crashing straight into it.
The space rippled, and Angel screamed in pain, coughing up blood as he was knocked out of invisibility, rolling several times before crashing into a wall.
Angel coughed up blood, lying on the ground.
As Angel was knocked out of his invisible state, no one maintained the illusionary nodes on Diavolo’s body. Under the torrential onslaught of the phantom butterfly’s scales, Diavolo’s illusion slowly crumbled and dissipated.
The rope that had been binding Diavolo also fell to the ground.
Felicia revealed a cold smile: “Overestimating your abilities.”
At the same time, it seemed that Phineas had completed her kneeling ritual, and the light gate in front of her changed, revealing a winding staircase leading downward to an unknown destination.
“Alright, now we’re at the Blood Prison. If I can get Diavolo back into the Blood Prison, I’m sure Lady Butterfly will appreciate it, and maybe even receive her gift of wine!” Phineas was ecstatic, turning around to pick up the rope on the ground, dragging a bundle of air, and slowly entering the light gate.
When Phineas entered the light gate, a trace of doubt appeared on Felicia’s face in the main hall on the first floor.
What was going on? Why didn’t Phineas notice that she was pulling a rope with nothing attached? Didn’t she see that the person she had tied up had disappeared?
And… despite the loud fight earlier, and the apprentice being knocked out of invisibility, why hadn’t Phineas turned around to look?
Felicia didn’t believe that Phineas hadn’t heard!
At this point, Felicia shifted her gaze back to the apprentice who had been injured by the luminous butterfly earlier…
However, the apprentice was gone?!
“He actually disappeared?” Felicia muttered to herself, finding the situation too strange. Phineas appeared to be oblivious, not hearing the sounds of the fight, not noticing that there was no one tied to the rope, and still happily entering the Blood Prison.
On the other hand, how could the apprentice, who had been attacked by the luminous butterfly and was coughing up blood, disappear while being severely injured? Felicia was all too familiar with the force of the luminous butterfly’s attack; even though it had been restrained and wouldn’t result in death, it was also absolutely impossible for the apprentice to vanish without a trace.
A hint of confusion flashed in Felicia’s eyes as she once again extended her finger and flicked it through the air.
Another black and white butterfly emerged from the phantom butterfly.
Newly emerged butterflies danced gracefully and landed on the floor. There was a pool of bright red blood, and the butterflies gently circled around it. Soon, a surge of magic emanated from the butterflies. In a short while, a white vortex appeared above the bloodstain.
At the same time the white vortex appeared, another white vortex appeared in front of Felicia.
Felicia reached out with her smooth and slender hand, probing into the vortex.
Just like a spatial teleportation formation, Felicia’s hand emerged from the other side’s white vortex. She gently wiped the bloodstain on the floor and withdrew her hand.
She thought the apprentice was too strange, and Felicia wanted to use the blood to find out information about the second-level apprentice.
But when Felicia was about to analyze the fresh blood on her fingertips, she suddenly smelled a sour and sweet scent.
As a gourmet witch, Felicia immediately recognized what this sour and sweet scent meant.
—Sour tomatoes.
The blood on her fingertips was not real blood, but just the juice of a mundane ingredient!
Felicia’s expression gradually darkened, not expecting to be played by a mere apprentice.
After a while, Felicia suddenly laughed.
“Interesting, since you have passed my test, I’ll let you save Diavolo. However, daring to trick me, you’ll have to pay a price.”
Chapter 395 Felicia <TOC> Chapter 397 Shadow in the Blood Prison