Diary of a Dead Wizard

Chapter 998: Showdown

He shook the beaker in his hand. The liquid inside instantly turned red, then quickly became transparent again.

Gorsa walked over and took the beaker from Douglas's right hand, giving it a gentle shake himself. The liquid in the beaker also turned red for an instant, then quickly returned to transparent.

"Are you helping to weaken the worm queen's consciousness? Is this also giving it an illusion?"

"Yes. For pure consciousness entities, this is the simplest and most effective method."

"It's just a pity that no matter how powerful the worm queen is, it can't directly eliminate the abyss."

Douglas suddenly put down the beaker in his hands as well, adjusted his wizard robe, leaned against the experimental table, and looked at Gorsa with leisure, "You know who I am now? How did you find out?"

Gorsa was startled, not expecting the other to be so direct, "I thought you would continue pretending until you gave an answer."

Douglas showed no panic at having his disguise exposed, "The disguise was only to prevent you from completely relying on me and stop thinking for yourselves, coming to me for answers. I'm just a fifth-rank wizard with no path to advancement. How could I have a hundred percent certainty of solving a sixth-rank?"

This sounded like he was mocking Gorsa for directly asking him for answers. But Gorsa felt no shame whatsoever.

"You want to guide us to follow your line of thinking step by step, but now you say you don't want us to completely rely on you. Only Shaya would believe such a lame lie," Gorsa thought to himself, his bandaged face hiding all his expressions.

"Oh, I know," Douglas remembered something, "You know Floco, don't you?"

"Met him once."

As long as it didn't connect to Saul, Floco could be sold out.

Douglas shook his head helplessly, "When I appeared back then, I originally wanted to kill him, but there was a problem and I didn't get the chance to strike. At that time I thought you might discover my identity because of this. I just didn't expect it to be so soon."

When Douglas mentioned wanting to kill Floco, his tone was casual, as if he wasn't talking about killing a fifth-rank but eating an apple.

Gorsa pressed forward, "If you really wanted to solve the Abyssal Eye, why would you want to kill Floco? He's still a fifth-rank existence. Wouldn't it be good to keep him around to help you?"

Douglas chuckled lightly, "Because I don't necessarily have to solve the Abyssal Eye. If killing Floco brought greater benefits than the Abyssal Eye, I would naturally strike at him. The reason I ultimately spared his life was precisely to solve the abyss problem."

"Then what exactly do you want to do? Surely you didn't suddenly develop a kind heart and want to save your homeland?"

"Of course not." Douglas admitted readily, "I just want to observe a sixth-rank's death. Since you've met Floco, you should know I've been trapped at fifth-rank peak for a very, very long time. If I can closely observe a sixth-rank's annihilation and fall, the knowledge gained in the process might help me advance. Being stuck at sixth-rank's threshold, I finally realized that power and such are all illusions—only knowledge is eternal."

"Knowledge is power."

"Unfortunately, it took me a long time and many failed experiments to realize this."

Douglas looked at Gorsa, his smile having disappeared.

"Now you should understand why I stayed to help you, right?"

"My understanding is that you want us to directly confront the abyss and prevent its resurrection, while you observe the sixth-rank's annihilation from a third-person perspective to gain knowledge from it. To obtain secrets about sixth-rank essence through observation, you naturally can't be distracted, so you can't act directly—you can only guide us." Gorsa said lazily, "But I still hope you'll guide us more clearly, since we don't have much time left. Although this is a matter of life and death for us, for you, closely observing a sixth-rank's death is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Since there was demand, cooperation could be negotiated.

Facing a veteran fifth-rank, Gorsa showed no fear at all.

"You're right, but haven't we been cooperating all along?" Douglas walked to Gorsa's side and gently patted his shoulder, "As for the guidance progress, don't trouble yourself with that. Just be my good little lab rats. I'll try my best to keep you alive."

After saying this, Douglas left the laboratory, while Gorsa remained standing in place without moving.

Until a second-rank wizard saw Gorsa standing alone in the laboratory and approached with confusion to ask for instructions.

"Council Chairman, do you have any orders?"

However, the next second, Gorsa's figure suddenly disappeared, completely ignoring the second-rank wizard.

The second-rank wizard awkwardly touched his nose, but didn't take Gorsa's sudden disappearance to heart.

The new chairman could teleport and had a famously strange temper—if he didn't acknowledge people, so be it.

But what this second-rank wizard didn't know was that as soon as Gorsa teleported back to the exclusive spherical room of the Stargate Council Chairman, he violently spat out a mouthful of black blood.

When that mouthful of black blood hit the ground, it was still rolling and boiling, as if something was fighting inside it.

Gorsa collapsed to the ground and slowly closed his eyes.

Just now when Douglas patted him twice, the cells in his body began launching suicidal attacks on each other.

Until he used resurrection magic to quickly reconstruct the flesh under his bandages did he isolate those cells that were still killing each other and spit them out.

The black blood on the ground was still fighting—you bite me, I devour you. That mass of blood became smaller and smaller until only a pile of shriveled black powder remained.

"Extremely powerful death force." Only then did Gorsa slowly open his eyes, "No wonder he's so interested in a sixth-rank's death."

A few days later, Gorsa privately discussed this matter with Saul in the Prismatic Channel.

Through the Symphony of Fate, Saul had already discovered that Gorsa had survived a life-and-death crisis and provided him with a massive surge of destiny power.

He had only waited a few days before actively contacting him, worried about affecting Gorsa's recovery.

Learning that Douglas had directly revealed his cards to Gorsa also surprised Saul.

After pondering for a moment, Saul asked, "Master, do you think what Douglas said is true?"

Gorsa: [Heh, I think it's ninety percent believable, but the ten percent he's hiding is what's most crucial for us.]

What would a fifth-rank wizard who had long since left the wizard world and had no need to wade into these muddy waters have to hide?

Unless what he was hiding would seriously damage Saul and the others' interests... or their lives.

"Could Douglas be treating us like another type of red worm, preparing to drag us along to die?" Saul speculated.

Gorsa: [If that's the case, then it's not unacceptable.]

Huh? Was Master Gorsa so selfless?

After thinking about it, Saul shook his head again.

No! It should be that Master Gorsa simply believed he wouldn't die.

He was the tough guy who personally entered the abyss believing he could return!

(End of Chapter)