223 A black square? Danger!
Chapter 223
What Oliver did was simply perform a brute exorcism without any basic technique, just dragging out the dark espera from the man and purifying it. It was a straightforward, raw process—effective but lacking the finesse of more refined techniques.
He was able to do so only because the man had not been completely corrupted by the dark espera. A full transformation into a heretic hadn’t taken place yet.
In fact, while there were many heretics here and there, a majority of them weren’t as corrupted or brainwashed by demons as some of the extreme ones.
Jetia and his comrades were examples of heretics who had completely submitted to demons and could not be saved anymore.
This man, however, was different. The dark espera hadn’t taken over the man’s mind and soul yet. It was possible that the woman, the dark alchemist, had tainted and brainwashed this man, turning him into a heretic.
Thanks to [Cosmic Void Gaze], he caught a glimpse of the level of corruption inside the man’s body and felt it was not at a level where he could be forsaken.
For now, this one could be saved. The woman had a deeper level of corruption; however, it wasn’t that deeply intertwined yet. Her situation would need a more careful approach. He didn’t exorcise her due to its complexity. A proper exorcist with standard techniques could help her out.
Once they woke up, they shouldn’t remember much of their time as heretics, in the worst case. But it was fine; there were all sorts of treatment and aftercare available.
It was better to leave the details to those more specialized in rehabilitative exorcism. Now that the exorcists had been contacted, it was not ideal for him to stay any longer.
“Sigh…”
The clan would know by now where he was. The network and influence the clan had on the Exorcist Union were just too strong.
He wondered if he should use the black hair dye he had in his storage artifact to change his features… he hadn’t used it so far since he liked his silky white hair a lot. It was part of his identity, something familiar in a world full of uncertainty. Almost elf-like…
If he didn’t hurry up, he would be caught before he had the chance to explore further.
As for the mission given by the Black Codex Federation? The chimera’s body should serve as enough proof to justify it. Not to mention, he had also taken some pictures in advance.
Although all of this was definitely unnecessary, evidence like this could easily be faked, and such a huge hidden organization had its own ways of finding out whether the mission was completed or not.
They probably wouldn’t even need the little proof he had recorded.
“Now then, let’s quickly go through what we have here…”
Oliver didn’t waste time and started collecting whatever he felt was worth it.
There were some jewels, containers of beast blood, and some special array ink.
He stored all of it in his storage artifact. Only the most important things were stored in his mindspace; the rest belonged to his bracelet.
Everything was organized, methodical. “Hmm, let me get this off of you…” He walked up to the woman and swiftly removed the storage ring on her index finger.
The ring was without any locks, unlike the storage artifact of the demonic ghost, so he easily accessed the contents of the storage ring.
“Woah… that’s something.”
He was immediately met with the stunning sight of multiple thick, dark-covered books with various information on them.
“These are books on dark alchemy!”
His heart skipped a beat. His eyes started to shine as he looked at the content of the books—it was a fortune.
Although dark alchemy was a forbidden concept to the world, it was not a harm to learn about such things beforehand because it might come in handy in dire situations in the future.
Not to mention, dark alchemy was inherently derived from alchemy itself, so most of the concepts held similar meanings as well. It would not be a problem for him to delve into the concepts now.
Forbidden knowledge had its allure, especially in a world where survival often meant understanding every threat. “Hmm, a decent find.” There were some thick bundles of cash, a weird-looking black pendant, and some other materials in the ring apart from the books.
“Now then, what is this?”
He glanced at the ominous book lying on the floor—it was the same book the man was tinkering with earlier. From his confidence, he seemed sure that it would be able to harm him despite the difference in their strengths.
He couldn’t help but be curious about it at the same time. The book was indeed very ominous and gave him a sinking feeling, even just lying idly on the floor.
“Should I leave this book for others to handle?”
He pondered; it was indeed very risky to touch this obvious red flag of a book. His intuition and experience of reading countless novels told him that touching the book would not be any good for him.
‘But…’
It was often at times like this that the protagonist who gets into such situations becomes even stronger… with great danger comes great opportunities, too.
This could be one of those moments. He didn’t know whether to take the risk by opening that unknown heretical book or just be on his way to stay far from his clan.
“Ah, damn it.”
In the end, he made up his mind and moved closer to the book.
Deploying and reinforcing himself with espera, he double-checked his defenses. Even if something breached them, there was abyss energy guarding him at the deepest levels.
Being the Circuit of Abyss, he could never run out of abyss energy no matter what. His reserves might become low at times, but they would never be completely depleted.
He had made up his mind.
His hand touched the book as a prickling sensation spread through his palm. He didn’t waver and slowly, steadily opened the book.
The page he viewed had a large black square—it was dark, as if painted by the world’s darkest blackest of paints.
Not a single ray of light was reflected from it.
He flipped the page, and the following pages had the same figure of the dark square. However, he noticed that each page seemed to have a square larger than its predecessor.
As he flipped through the pages, the square became bigger and bigger, seeming to cover the entire page. The sensation in his palms grew more vivid as he reached the book’s end.
It was the final page, and when he flipped it, all he saw was a black page, completely void of white. It was dark and blank.
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