Chapter 116: Doubts

“No!” Morgan Le Fay screamed in agony, stretching out her skeletal hand in a desperate attempt to grasp the Book of Darkness.

But it was all decided—this sinister grimoire, radiating malevolent power, firmly landed in Gu Zhongyan’s hands.

Watching Morgan Le Fay suffer from the magical backlash, Gu Zhongyan raised his wand once more.

“Shatter to dust!”

A dazzling red light tore through the void with a sharp crack, poised to reduce Morgan Le Fay to fragments. Yet, in that instant, a thick black mist surged forth, enveloping her completely.

Bang!

Under the onslaught of the red light, the swirling black mist dissolved into ash, and Morgan Le Fay’s figure vanished without trace.

At the same moment, a voice filled with bitter hatred echoed through the shattered dimension.

“Mage of Karmathegi, I remember you. This time I concede defeat, but just wait—one day I will return to claim vengeance for every humiliation inflicted upon me.”

As the voice faded, the entire dimensional shard began to collapse.

One by one, black spatial fissures appeared at the boundary of time and space, and a tidal wave of dark energy surged inward, threatening to engulf the shard completely.

Within the broken space, Morgan Le Fay seemed never to have existed, leaving no trace behind.

“True Manifestation!”

Frowning, Gu Zhongyan instinctively cast a spell. Invisible ripples spread like a gentle breeze through the fractured space.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Under True Manifestation, he found no sign of anomaly.

“She escaped? How is that possible?”

Gu Zhongyan’s brow furrowed deeply, disbelief etched across his face.

Morgan Le Fay’s soul was bound within the Yuan One Staff by the Chains of the Wraith Knight. Unless the Wraith Knight released her or she was slain, no matter her powers, escape was impossible.

Yet somehow, she had disappeared.

Watching the dimensional shard tremble violently, no matter his doubts, Gu Zhongyan knew he could not linger.

If the dark force fully penetrated, Dormam would surely emerge—and then, escape would be impossible.

Once more, he opened the Void Gate, vanishing from the space before the dimensional shard collapsed entirely.

Within the Mirror Space, a blue portal opened, and Gu Zhongyan emerged with a solemn expression.

Seeing this, the Wraith Knight approached, asking, “You’re back quickly. By the way, since that witch is dead, can I retract the chains now?”

“??? Who’s dead?” Gu Zhongyan looked at the Wraith Knight in bewilderment.

“The witch whose soul you asked me to bind within the Yuan One Staff. Didn’t the feather representing her soul dissipate? You must have killed her,” the Wraith Knight said, equally puzzled.

Hearing this, Gu Zhongyan hurriedly turned and saw the twelve magical pillars still standing firm in the space.

Between the pillars, the Yuan One Staff was wrapped in chains burning with hellfire. But the raven feather bound to it had vanished without a trace at some unknown time.

“How did that feather break free?” Gu Zhongyan asked, frowning.

The Wraith Knight grew more perplexed, waving his hands. “Break free? No soul can break free from my chains. It only dissipates naturally upon death.”

“Impossible,” Gu Zhongyan said without hesitation.

The Wraith Knight was somewhat displeased. “How is it impossible? Though I haven’t been the Wraith Knight long, I can tell if a soul breaks free or dissipates.”

“That soul clearly dissipated after death, not broke free.”

“What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you kill that witch?”

Gu Zhongyan was stunned by the Wraith Knight’s words.

How could it be? He had witnessed Morgan Le Fay’s disappearance himself and was certain that the final shattering blow did not land on her.

Especially the spiteful words she uttered upon vanishing confirmed this.

But as the Wraith Knight said, no soul can escape his watch or break his chains.

If Morgan Le Fay hadn’t truly died, the feather wouldn’t have disappeared.

Could it be that Morgan Le Fay, unwilling to accept death, deliberately played a trick to keep him unsettled?

Yet the vanished black mist and resentful message suggested the matter was more complicated.

Unable to shake his doubts, Gu Zhongyan asked the Wraith Knight to sense deeply, to search thoroughly.

But the result was the same—neither on Nico, the Yuan One Staff, nor the Book of Darkness he had seized was there any trace of Morgan Le Fay.

It was as if, truly, as the Wraith Knight said, she was dead.

After fruitless searching, no matter how uneasy Gu Zhongyan felt, he had no choice but to give up.

Meanwhile, in a certain region of the earth’s realm, a black-haired witch clad in a celestial blue mage’s robe suddenly sensed something.

She looked up into the endless void, extending her pale hand to grasp a black-purple raven feather emerging from the void.

The fragile feather seemed weathered by time. The moment it appeared, it turned into a swirl of ash and dissipated, leaving behind only a faint magical aura.

“Hm? The power of the Vishanti, the scent of Hell, and even the strength of an ancient Earth deity... interesting.”

The witch lightly clapped her hands, dispersing the residual magical aura. Her eyes, like starry skies, gazed deep into the void, as if countless worlds flickered and vanished within.

But all this was too distant, unknown to a puzzled Gu Zhongyan.

Having abandoned probing Morgan Le Fay’s death, he focused all his attention on the Yuan One Staff.

The Yuan One Staff, a supreme artifact of Karmathegi, possessed magical depths that even Gu Zhongyan could not fully comprehend.

However, he had roughly grasped its principle.

The Yuan One Staff was a magical weapon drawing power from darkness, its core strength distilled into two words: “Planning.”

Each time a spell was cast, it was equivalent to adding a rule within the dark dimension, which then, through the staff’s connection to that dimension, generated the power to alter reality.

The dark dimension was chaotic, filled with countless dimensional shards, allowing any strange rule to operate within, transforming into the staff’s power.

Rules were the foundation of the world’s operation; thus, using the Yuan One Staff consumed only the mental and magical energy needed to communicate with the staff, with almost no other cost.

Yet, because rules were unique, each spell could be used only once.