Chapter 127: The Wrong Way

Chapter 127

A pair of lovers who seemed to truly love one another had only just confirmed their feelings and experienced an enviable confession. Before they could enjoy even a single moment of life as a couple, they were parted forever.

The scene had come far too suddenly, leaving no room for the slightest preparation. Katos still wore a sweet, blissful smile, yet utter bewilderment had already engulfed him. His eyes had clearly witnessed what lay before them, but his mind refused to believe it was real. He stretched out his arms and futilely embraced the space within the light screen, as though he could gather the countless points of light into his arms and reassemble them into Miseya.

He continued mechanically reaching forward.

One second. Two seconds...

At last, he realized that his actions were utterly futile. He understood that his little sister had truly vanished without a trace. Her body, her soul—everything had completely dissipated from this world.

Katos raised his arms, his fingers trembling. It took him three attempts to remove the glasses from the bridge of his nose. Then he threw back his head and stared at the sky, letting out a howl like that of a wounded wild wolf.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

On the other side of the light screen, Vise had already fallen into complete disorder. She reached out, trying to catch the scattered points of light in her hands, but they possessed no substance whatsoever, and her efforts were entirely useless.

Terrifying ice-blue energy surged around her like a roaring tide, freezing everything in the surrounding area. Enormous ice flowers bloomed across the rainforest floor. At their center, Vise muttered in utter panic:

“No... It shouldn’t have happened this way! After hearing Katos’s confession, Miseya should have found a new attachment and become a guardian spirit attached to Katos! Why did she disappear outright? Why did she vanish completely, just like those ghosts who were purified?! This isn’t right! This can’t be real! That’s it! Those cats—those two cats deceived me! They tricked me!”

As she spoke, Vise fixed an exceptionally savage gaze upon Zorro and Arctic, the two peculiar white cats.

The full power of an Archmage’s mental force erupted. In the empty space, a colossal magic circle flickered in and out of existence. Countless ice spikes, glittering with blue light and filled with horrifying cold, emerged from the void, locking onto the two poor white cats from every direction and every angle.

“It was you! This is all your fault! You gave us incorrect information, causing Miseya to dissipate like this! I’m going to kill you! No—killing you would be too merciful. I’ll turn you into ice sculptures and freeze you forever before Miseya’s grave, so you can spend the rest of eternity repenting to her!”

As she spoke, the terrifying ice spikes slowly advanced upon Zorro and Arctic.

Zorro had already removed the hat from his head and positioned himself protectively in front of the Arctic cat. Retreating step by step, he shouted:

“That’s not right! Our information was completely accurate! You two simply misunderstood it! You got it wrong!”

The wall of ice spikes gradually came to a halt. Vise stared at Zorro, her voice carrying a strange, shrill undertone as she said slowly, “What did we get wrong? Don’t try to deceive me, or you’ll become an ice sculpture in the very next instant!”

With his life hanging in the balance, Zorro’s mind began racing madly. Thinking as he spoke, he said, “Something went wrong somewhere! The way this lady—er, Miss Miseya—dissipated... I’ve seen it before. Let me think... That’s right! I remember now! After the Countess Bloody Mary, mistress of the Forgotten Tower in the Rotten Lands, fulfilled her lifelong wish and successfully turned her husband into a zombie, she disappeared in exactly the same way. She was purified as though by the highest form of blessing magic and turned directly into specks of light!”

Vise frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, “That’s true... Countess Bloody Mary’s presence did completely vanish six months ago. You aren’t lying. But why bring this up now? What does it have to do with Miseya’s disappearance?”

At that moment, Zorro’s little brain was clearer than it had ever been. Never before had his thoughts felt so sharp. After organizing his words, he said, “It has everything to do with it! Although the way she came into being resembles the accidental formation of a spirit—like the sort of spirit that does not realize it has died—think about your conversation with Miss Miseya. She knew perfectly well that she was dead. She clearly understood that she was a spirit, a ghost!”

At this point, an expression of profound anguish appeared on Zorro’s face.

“In other words, Miss Miseya was actually a vengeful spirit carrying an obsession in her heart! Because she had an unresolved attachment before her death—because she could not let go of her brother Katos—she refused to die and became a ghost!”

Vise’s face turned deathly pale. She already knew what Zorro was about to say, and her voice came out hoarse and trembling.

“You mean... we got the entire method wrong?”

“Wrong? We didn’t merely get it wrong—we did everything in reverse!” Zorro slapped his thigh, speaking with tremendous excitement. “You should have strengthened Miss Miseya’s obsession! The moment Mr. Katos appeared, he should have cursed her viciously! Mocked her! Told her she was a useless little sister! Told her he hated her more than anything and never wanted to see her again! With such a powerful attachment to Mr. Katos already in her heart, Miss Miseya would inevitably have transformed that attachment into resentment! That might have allowed her to break through the restrictions imposed by the power of Chen Xuliu and cease being an earthbound spirit!”

“But what did you do? You actually fulfilled Miss Miseya’s wish! You erased her obsession! As a ghost, she then had no foundation to sustain her existence in this world, so naturally she dissipated! There’s an ancient term in the Chana Empire that describes exactly what you did to Miss Miseya. You... you actually ‘sent her on to the next life’!”

Zorro’s words left Vise utterly speechless. In her heart, she knew perfectly well that his logic was clear and sound. This was almost certainly the truth.

But...

Had her little sister really vanished just like that? Had she died because of her own misunderstanding, because of this absurd blunder?

Unable to accept the reality, Vise covered her face and slowly crouched down, silently sobbing. The ice spikes around her lost their control and clattered one after another onto the ground.

Only after realizing that the danger had passed did Zorro finally breathe a sigh of relief. As his nerves relaxed, cold sweat erupted all over his body, soaking through his fur until the entire cat looked as though he had just been fished out of water.

His vision went dark, and he toppled backward—only to fall into the soft embrace of the Arctic cat.

Zorro’s performance had been flawless. Arctic was completely enamored. She held him tenderly, her face filled with affection, and gently wiped the sweat from his brow. After a few strokes, she discovered that it would not come off at all. So she simply leaned forward and began licking it away, bit by bit.

Zorro pushed her aside and slowly stood up again. Facing Vise, he said, “Esteemed Archmage, every word I’ve spoken is true. I’m sure you can reach your own judgment. I deeply regret what happened, but it truly wasn’t our fault! So, could you let us leave... Hmm? You don’t seem to be the Archmage?”

The girl who stood up with tears still clinging to her face was naturally Vayne. She wiped away her tears and ignored Zorro, addressing Katos within the light screen instead.

“Father, Sister couldn’t accept what happened and ran away. I tried to bring her back just now, but I failed. She seems to have sunk into a very deep state of isolation.”

Katos remained silent in the light screen for a long time. Finally, he forced a smile onto his young face and said in a calm voice tinged with tremors, “Tell Sisi that Father doesn’t blame her.”

After saying this, he did not wait for Vayne to reply. He directly cut off the communication.