Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 352 - 344: Found Something Nobody Wanted...

Chapter 352: Chapter 344: Found Something Nobody Wanted...

"Duke? Duke?"

The emaciated Margas knelt in a frenzy at the edge of the magic array, gently shaking the dazed Sigmund at the center, whose mouth was even drooling, internally praying madly that the Duke wouldn’t completely break down.

"It shouldn’t be happening!"

Margas looked around; the magic array was littered with corpses, the crimson blood and gray brain matter nearly soaking every rune. Yet, three sacrifices still survived.

It wasn’t out of conscience; it was because the sacrifices were depleting too swiftly. To be safe, Margas had slightly prematurely halted the ritual to avoid accidentally exposing Sigmund to the Abyss.

But now it seemed...

"Could it be a mutual destruction?"

Just when Margas thought he encountered the worst situation, the dazed Sigmund suddenly jerked his head up and roared with all his might:

"1+1=3!"

It’s over! His mind’s truly broken! Margas’s heart instantly sank into a bottomless abyss.

However, the next moment, a glimmer of painful clarity suddenly flashed in Sigmund’s scarlet eyes.

He first clutched his head with both hands, letting out a beast-like howl of pain, then violently shook his head and, astonishingly, staggered to his feet.

"It’s... It’s great, Milord! You... You’re alright?" Margas tentatively asked with suspicion.

Sigmund, however, lunged forward, firmly gripping Margas’s bony shoulders with both hands, his speech slightly slurred, but his tone unusually urgent: "Quick! Quick! Cut the soul! Do it now!"

"Why, Milord? You seem so unsteady right now; calm down!" Margas assumed the Duke was still muddled and tried to console him.

Sigmund seemed as though he had finally endured the chaos, urging, "There’s no time! The trap failed! He’s still in my head! I can’t hold on much longer, hurry!"

The urgency in his voice was clear and well-structured. Only then did Margas truly believe this was not the Duke’s incoherent rambling.

But to immediately activate another Abyss Magic Array...

Not to mention whether Sigmund’s soul, freshly wounded, could withstand it, even Margas himself was now exhausted and depleted, likely unable to endure the ritual’s backlash!

"Hurry up! What are you still waiting for?"

Margas steeled himself, fiercely pulled out two bottles of thick, ink-like, foul-smelling potions from his arms, and without a glance, he chugged them down!

Then, he practically dragged Sigmund, placing him in the center of another magic array.

As the black glow of the magic array lit up, Margas let out a wrenching, piercing scream.

His left eyeball and half of his liver seemed instantly erased from both the material and soul levels by an invisible force, dissipating into two strands of ethereal black smoke.

Even if he were to regrow his organs with a regeneration potion in the future, the permanent loss of this part of his soul could never be remedied.

And at the center of the magic array, Sigmund also began to scream in agony as his soul was being torn apart! 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

...

Puki—!

In this increasingly tattered and crumbling dreamscape, Sigmund was mercilessly slapped into a smear of flesh by a massive Puki tentacle.

However, not long after, that filthy mess struggled and reformed into the semblance of the Vampire Duke, though now his outline appeared even more ephemeral than before.

"You won’t... get away so easily..."

Whap—

It wasn’t a battle now; Lin Jun was just playing whack-a-mole.

The other’s willpower was indeed unexpectedly tenacious, still struggling to endure, but its recovery rate and the clarity of its form were steadily diminishing.

Lin Jun wasn’t in a rush at all; a few more hits wouldn’t cost him much, just an outlet for the vexation of being startled by that black void earlier.

Though not particularly dangerous, how dare this guy try to trap him? Lin Jun despised traps the most!

Puki stomped the vampire flat once again.

At that moment, Lin Jun suddenly thought of a question: after battling all this time, he only knew the other was a vampire, unaware of his name or identity.

With such means, managing to craft such a bizarre trap, he surely wouldn’t be an unknown nobody?

If he just smacked him into oblivion like this, without even knowing the extent of his victory, wouldn’t that be unsatisfying?

Maybe... take a moment to ask?

Then, the dreamscape suddenly started to quake violently.

"What, you have another trap?"

Lin Jun wasn’t that afraid; any potent means should have been used at the start.

Whatever they pulled out now was likely for self-preservation.

Crack—

Along with the sound of breaking, behind Puki, the passage representing "Strange Dream" began to shatter like a broken mirror, collapsing in large chunks.

Seizing the distraction of Lin Jun observing the sudden change, Sigmund, just reformed, leaned weakly against a cracked, spidering stone wall, gasping heavily: "Ha... ha... this time... you win, mysterious stranger! But, one day, I’ll find you! One day..."

"Hmm?" Lin Jun paused, "What do you mean? Why does it sound like the story’s about to wrap up?"

"What?" Sigmund panted, a mocking glint flashing in his eyes, "Do you want to stay in my head to perish together? Abandoning even your own body...?"

"Ah! So that’s what it means!" Watching the ever-collapsing, evidently about to sever connection retreat path, Lin Jun finally understood what the opponent was thinking.

He seemed to think this part of Lin Jun was his entire soul power!

Really... Thinking from an ant’s perspective now and again proved quite challenging.

Lin Jun suddenly wasn’t in a hurry to crush him anymore; seeing his state, completely smashing him seemed impossible for the moment.

The enormous Puki instead took a couple of steps forward, thudded down beside him, and even leisurely swayed its enormous short legs.

"Are you... crazy?!" The forced calm and mockery on Sigmund’s face instantly collapsed, replaced by incredulous astonishment, his voice changed entirely.

...

The black glow of the magic array gradually dimmed. The barely alive Margas laboriously lifted his heavy head, with his remaining eye anxiously staring at the Duke standing quietly in the center of the array, fervently praying that the other wouldn’t turn into a murder-crazed, completely frenzied monster and casually slaughter him.

Time seemed to freeze.

It wasn’t until minutes later that Sigmund’s body suddenly twitched as if a marionette, rigidly and slowly standing.

He first looked around in confusion, seemingly not recognizing the ceremonial chamber so familiar to him.

Then he lowered his head, staring fixedly at his trembling hands, as if verifying something.

Next, under Margas’s terrified gaze—

"Ah! 123456789!" Sigmund suddenly blurted out a string of numbers in an extremely bizarre, as if newly learned, awkward tone!

Then, he abruptly looked up, his face breaking into an almost maniacal jubilation: "Ha... ha ha... hahaha! Clear vocal cords! Lively... not-so-lively flesh! This feeling... hahaha!"

Sigmund seemed utterly bewitched, laughing madly with no apparent reason, spreading his arms as if to embrace the entire world.

Yet, in the next moment, his voice abruptly switched to another, filled with urgent anger and fear: "You lunatic! Get out! Get out of my head!"

Then, that jubilant tone came crashing back: "Your head? It’s mine now! You’re the one who should get out!"