Chapter 253: Master

This Herman looked exactly the same as the one they had seen in Hanging Hand Valley—his body, along with his clothes, was nearly transparent. One could easily see through him to the stone platform on the other side.

He looked a little dumb as well.

Completely unlike the living Herman in temperament.

“Herman?” Saul called his name.

Herman did respond to his name, but only in the form of a blank stare in Saul’s direction.

“Although he still retains some consciousness, it’s already extremely faint—almost completely dissipated.”

“So it’s just as I thought. If I’d kept speaking to the black page with Herman’s consciousness back then, it would’ve vanished just like Bill’s.”

Looking at the walking corpse that was Herman, Saul thought of the other page. He quickly tore off the second black page.

As soon as the page hit the ground, it transformed into Morden.

But Morden’s appearance was even stranger.

He too was nearly transparent, only slightly more solid than Herman—clearly on the verge of running out of energy and fading away.

But what truly shocked Saul was his body.

Morden’s upper half appeared normal, but his lower half had five human legs!

Each leg was a different thickness and size.

Clearly taken from different people.

“Master Morden?” Saul asked tentatively.

Morden seemed dazed for a moment, but quickly snapped to awareness. Looking at Saul, he said with some surprise, “You? You’re Saul? So it was you!”

He recognized the boy who had once been possessed by him. But after a brief moment of astonishment, he didn’t seem angry, “Although I was communicating with you back then, my consciousness was muddled. I didn’t remember dying, nor the experience of turning into a wraith.”

Morden looked down at his hand, “Even now, I can feel that I’m being controlled—only granted a moment of mental freedom.”

He looked at Saul, eyes filled with complicated emotion. Then, all of a sudden, he changed the way he addressed him. “Your power… is even stronger than I imagined.”

“I’m just a Second Rank apprentice right now. I’m not as strong as you think.” Saul didn’t elaborate. The contents of the diary were better kept to himself.

Seeing that Saul didn’t want to say more, Morden didn’t pry. After all, he was at someone else’s mercy—whether he lived or died was entirely up to Saul’s will.

Morden made a deliberate effort to conceal the fear in his heart.

He didn’t even want to consider the possibility: If Saul’s power had no limits, then could he control all souls?

What would that make him?

Lord of Death?

Or to use the ignorant term a layman might say—God of Death?

The moment that thought surfaced, Morden instantly felt his condition destabilizing.

The quiet, starlit lights surrounding the stone platform suddenly erupted with an overwhelming pressure of fear.

That pressure quickly turned tangible, making Morden feel as though his internal organs were about to be crushed.

Saul narrowed his eyes as Morden’s face contorted in that brief instant. “Master Morden?”

Morden jolted violently, as if pulled out of a nightmare, and immediately suppressed his thoughts.

He understood now—this wasn’t the ordinary world. Even one stray thought could summon unspeakable terror.

“I’m a little more lucid now than I was before. Is there something you need me to do?” Morden asked, sounding a bit nervous.

“Not for now.” Saul smiled and lowered his head, tearing off the page that belonged to Agu.

Agu materialized even faster than Morden.

“The clearer their consciousness, the faster they manifest,” Saul mentally concluded.

Once Agu appeared, he didn’t speak immediately. Instead, he cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

Looking at the enormous stone platform beneath his feet, the pitch-black void, and the light sources that resembled stars within it, he couldn’t hide his astonishment, “Is this… the World Side?”

“The World Side?” Saul’s heart stirred. He’d heard Billy mention that term before as well, but that had seemed to be related to the elves.

Hearing Saul’s voice, Agu turned at once and bowed respectfully.

“Forgive my rudeness, Master.”

He had noticed that his own body was semi-transparent, while Saul’s appeared fully solid and lifelike.

As a Second Rank wizard with centuries of life experience, and once a longtime librarian for the Gorsa family, he instantly understood his current situation.

He didn’t even dare entertain thoughts of rebellion despite his temporary mobility.

Because he knew all too well—sometimes, the more freedom one appeared to have, the tighter the invisible shackles became.

When Agu saw the five-legged old man beside Saul, he immediately grew wary and moved in front of Saul, positioning himself closer than Morden.

“Master, are these the soul bodies you’ve subdued?”

“Master?” Saul hadn’t said a word yet, but Morden was the first to respond. “Indeed… I too should be calling you Master.”

He didn’t care about the disparity in strength between them, and respectfully bowed his head.

Then, the dazed Herman standing off to the side suddenly followed suit and said, “Master.”

Saul opened his mouth, originally intending to tell them the title wasn’t necessary. But the words caught in his throat.

There was no need to correct them. Let them imagine whatever they want.

From his past life experience, he knew—self-suggestion was the most terrifying thing of all.

Agu and Morden, the two most conscious ones, met each other’s gaze. A subtle spark flared between them.

Noticing this, Saul’s lips curled slightly upward and thought, ‘Master’ isn’t wrong. After all, their survival or demise lies in the palm of my hand.

Ignoring the silent rivalry between the two beside him, Saul turned toward the vacant-eyed Herman. “I have a bad feeling that if I don’t do something now, he’ll be gone before I get the chance to ask anything.”

It seemed as if a humanoid soul also consumed energy. Herman was even more transparent now than when he first appeared.

His hands were almost invisible.

And just from saying that one word earlier, his body had already started showing signs of collapse.

In the mental realm, once an awareness body ran out of energy, it would disintegrate into snow-like fragments—either drifting into the endless starry void or being absorbed into the diary.

“Let’s see if I can help Herman replenish his energy. He can be the test subject. I won’t feel bad if he disappears.”

Saul walked toward Herman.

The two soul bodies behind him quickly followed.

It did look quite a bit like a master’s procession now.

Standing in front of Herman, Saul raised his right hand. “In this mental realm, my actions directly reflect my mental intentions. So if I want to transmit energy to Herman—then I just do it!”

His right hand suddenly softened and deformed—within the blink of an eye, it transformed into an octopus tentacle.

But the dazed Herman, upon seeing Saul’s tentacle, turned deathly pale—despite being translucent, and his entire body trembled violently.

His instinctive fear made Saul stop immediately.

“This isn’t right.” Saul retracted the tentacle, “In my mind, tentacles are used for devouring. If I make contact with Herman like this, I might end up eating him by default.”

He needed another method.

“If I can transform into an octopus for accelerated absorption, then I should be able to take on other forms for energy transmission.”

“But what form represents giving energy to others? It has to align with my understanding, otherwise I might get a mismatched effect.”

Saul’s first thought was a battery or generator, but those devices were too complex in structure. He couldn’t transform into them with imagination alone.

“Providing energy to someone else… saving Herman…” Saul fell into thought.

Behind him, both Agu and Morden looked at the soon-to-vanish Herman with anxious expressions, not daring to interrupt Saul’s train of thought.

Suddenly, Saul flung out his arm, and when he extended it again, the end had turned into a syringe.

Inside the syringe shimmered flecks of starlight, swirling like snowflakes in the wind.

The needlepoint had contracted into a fine, slender tip.

Watching Saul’s arm morph twice, Morden and Agu exchanged a glance, hearts in turmoil.

The Master can alter his soul form at will—doesn’t he fear alienation or contamination?

Alongside their disbelief came a deep, soul-level dread.

Agu glanced curiously at Morden’s five-legged lower half, but Morden only offered a bitter smile and shook his head, indicating that his case was entirely different.

(End of Chapter)

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