Chapter 413 Academic Exchange

Chapter 413: Academic Exchange
Since leaving the mountaintop, Vanna and Maurice had been fighting with those “fakes” that kept popping up in the mist – they could not remember how many monsters formed by primordial elements they had eliminated on the way, but one thing was obvious, no matter how many they eliminated, these monsters would always be quickly replenished from the mist. But one thing was clear: no matter how many were destroyed, they were quickly replenished from the mist.

It was useless to destroy these copies alone.

Maurice watched the fog, and every now and then a faint silver light flowed under his eyes as he tracked the occasional flashes of thought that appeared in the fog, trying to determine from them where the controllers behind those monsters were.

After a while, he suddenly looked up in a certain direction, “This way.”

Immediately, Vanna reached out and grabbed at the air, condensing a new giant sword out of the ubiquitous fog, stepping in front of Morris.

They traveled through the mist, crossing streets that were already empty and deserted, relying on the dim streetlights around them to barely orient themselves to nearby buildings, and every now and then, distant sounds would come to their ears-sometimes the sounds of the city-state guards battling monsters, sometimes eerie whistling and hissing, and sometimes even distress calls that seemed to be close at hand sound.

But those locations where the cries for help came from were always nothing but gushing black mud.

The fog was flowing, and the outlines of the buildings in the fog seemed to flow along with it, and those hazy and blurred outlines seemed to come to life, and the towers in the fog became giants of flesh and blood, and the roofs spread out huge tentacles and eye stalks, and even the streetlights on both sides of the street gradually began to shake, and the black and heavy lamp posts bent down like soft plants, and the lights turned into clusters of murky yellow eyes.

Just then, a low, soft prayer suddenly came from the front, interrupting Maurice’s thoughts and causing the scene in front of him to quickly return to its original state.

Vanna was praying softly, and layers and layers of watery glow spread outward from her center, disturbing the fog.

“Be careful, there is something in the fog that can interfere with one’s sanity,” Vanna said without looking back after finishing a prayer, “We’ve been in this fog too long.”

“It doesn’t really have much of an effect,” Maurice said casually, “running into the occasional hallucinatory vision is the norm for me, I’m used to it.”

“…… I should talk to Heidi about your healthy attitude next time I correspond with her.”

Maurice’s mouth twitched for a moment, and he wanted to open his mouth to say something, but just at that moment, a flowing mist suddenly drifted from the side, and he only felt his field of vision trance for a moment, and then immediately afterward, he lost sight of Vanna in front of his eyes.

The old scholar immediately stopped in his tracks, alerting his surroundings while calling out, “Vanna?”

The fog was flowing silently, and there was no one here to answer his call.

Maurice’s nerves tightened a little bit while looking around quickly.

I don’t know when, the surroundings have been left with only pale and boundless fog, the buildings that were still barely visible in the fog have already disappeared, even those dim street lights have also disappeared in the field of vision, and in the depths of this pale chaos, he suddenly saw some things.

It was huge shadows, like immense towers, but when he looked closely he could see the thing shaking and writhing slightly, it seemed to be the tentacles of some huge sea monster that was probing the earth from the sky, licking the things on the earth – Maurice was unconsciously attracted by the hazy outline of that huge tentacle, and as he stared at it, he felt as if he could draw truth and mystery from the shadow of its ponderous horror –

In the next instant, Maurice frowned and shook his head.

There was no truth in this thing; it was just some sort of compelling illusion.

“Hmm?”

A voice suddenly came from the fog, as if someone was being surprised, and Morris instantly looked in the direction the voice came from, and he saw that the massive illusion in the distance had disappeared, and a tall, thin figure was stepping out of the fog.

“You were not even affected – how surprising.” That tall and thin silhouette became solidified, and it was a middle-aged male wearing a dark blue jacket and holding a large black leather book in his hands, and behind this middle-aged male, a pitch-black chain extended from his collar bone to mid-air, and at the end of the chain floated out of thin air a jellyfish-like creature that was rising and shrinking like soot.

Morris did not say a word, but only watched the Annihilationist who was symbiotic with the “soot jellyfish”, and was fully alert to all the movements of the other party.

“Don’t be so nervous, old man, I actually don’t mind having a chat with you, anyway, the final day of advent has already arrived, I have a lot of time now,” the middle-aged man smiled, his tone was unexpectedly calm, “I’m really curious about why you weren’t affected after witnessing the Lord’s gesture –You can see those visions, which means that your spiritual vision is indeed sufficient, but you …… are surprisingly not crazy?”

“I’m sorry, my spirit has always been healthy, and I’m not yet ready to fall into chaos just because of some compelling visions,” Morris spoke calmly while reciting the name of the God of Wisdom, Rahm, silently in his mind, “Where have you taken my companion?”

“Better not worry about anyone else yet, old man, you’re …… now.”

Just as the cultist’s words were in mid-sentence, Maurice’s eyes suddenly glazed over and he raised his hand to point across the room, “Lomonsov’s Inequality Group!”

Huge knowledge was compressed into words, a massive amount of information bombarded into the target’s thought process, and that cultist’s figure instantly shook, as if in pain, and lowered his head.

But just at the moment when Morris was about to unleash a second thought bombardment, a strong sense of alarm suddenly resounded in the bottom of his heart, and he snapped his mouth shut while curbing his thoughts with all his might – and almost at the same time, he saw that the cultist suddenly raised his head with a hint of mockery in the bottom of his eyes.

A recoil occurred from the thought bombardment, and Morris instantly felt a wave of dizziness – fortunately, he reacted in time, and the dizziness wasn’t serious. “What a pity,” the cultist spread his hands and looked mockingly at the old scholar whose body was shaking, “I don’t seem to be too afraid of this ……”

“Boom!”

Before the cultist’s words fell, the sooty jellyfish floating behind him had already begun to contract violently, and in the next second, along with that jellyfish’s violent expansion, a huge black fireball then appeared in front of the cultist – the fireball whistled and exploded in the air, and in the next second, it smashed fiercely into the position where Morris was standing!
Black smoke filled the air, even the surrounding fog shook violently, the Annihilation Cultist looked at the smoke that had yet to dissipate, and shook his head regretfully: ”So many ‘shells’ have been wiped out by the thought shock, do you think I would show up unprepared? Unfortunately, knowledge does not equal wisdom.”

“Dang it – click!”

The sound of something falling to the ground came out of nowhere, interrupting the cultist’s self-talk, and he instantly widened his eyes, calling out the power of the gale with his magic spell to blow away the black smoke – a three-pronged mirror that had shattered appeared before his eyes.

A vision of Maurice’s scene remained vaguely on the broken surface of that trigon.

“A prism? The Deception of Optics?!”

The congregant reacted furiously, and in the next second, he looked in a certain direction nearby, and near the same time, Morris’s figure had already surfaced on that originally empty clearing.

The figure raised his right hand towards him, and in a slow and clear tone of voice, he spoke word by word: “Mycafini’s Conjecture and Proof.”

However, this time, the cultist who was symbiotic with the sooty jellyfish didn’t even shake his body, and without any further concealment, he directly reached out and grabbed the chains floating behind his neck, drawing on the power of the Profound Demon while staring dead on at the old scholar not too far away, “I’m really sorry, but I’m actually a graduate of the Mathematics Department of the Central University of the Moksha City State… …”

“Click.”

The crisp ringing sound of the gun’s movement suddenly reached his ears, another figure of Morris appeared directly behind this cultist, a revolver directly against the back of the latter’s head.

“Bang!”

After a gunshot, the cerebral corpse collapsed in response, and the Profound Demon that was symbiotic with it then whistled and flew away to dissipate.

“You didn’t say you graduated from college earlier.”

The old scholar blew out the muzzle of his gun, shaking his head as he put it away, and across from him, the figure of the other “Maurice” dissipated like the morning dew, and where the phantom disappeared, a small crystal tricorder fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Maurice gave the shattered prism a somewhat painful look, and scowled as he poked the cultist’s corpse with his cane in disdain.

“Wasted two of my prisms – and your college degree.”

As he spoke, the fog around him suddenly began to flow once more, and the scenery in the fog changed rapidly, as the outlines of buildings and lights that had once disappeared reappeared in Maurice’s field of vision, and immediately afterward, he saw Vanna darting over the side.

“Are you alright?!” Without waiting to run closer, Vanna nervously spoke, “You just suddenly disappeared ……”

“I thought it was you who disappeared,” Morris waved his hand, “It looks like it was just some sort of temporary illusion …… Wait a minute.”

He suddenly remembered something, and at the same time he opened his mouth, Vanna jerked to a halt a few meters away.

“Let’s make sure it’s not real first.” The two spoke in unison.

Then they looked at each other and in unison again, “The Lost Country!”

“Looks like it’s real,” Morris nodded after confirming that no abnormalities appeared on either man, “No harm in being cautious.”

Vanna, on the other hand, was the first to notice the fallen cultist’s body on the ground, her eyes changing slightly, “Is this the one you tackled?”

“Ran into an educated one,” Morris nodded, “Had a bit of an academic exchange, luckily I had a better idea of how to solve it.”

Vanna: “……?”

(The Sword of Dawn manga being serialized by B-Manga needs your support! It’s the only manga left in existence, and honestly, the most satisfying adaptation project I’ve had so far, so …… Anyone who still has tunes can slaughter!)
(End of chapter)