Fire Mage

Chapter 573: Blood Marionette

Meanwhile, Mateo bit his tongue and muttered in a grave tone.

"Cloak of the Void!" A second later, a mysterious force appeared around his body and completely nullified the blood-curse ability in his body.

"Oh? You aren't bad. A Void Dragon's unique spell, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" He asked while taking a step back. Although he looked calm on the outside, he suddenly sensed that his spiritual imprint in the Wizard's Cube broke all of a sudden and got panicked inside.

Meanwhile, the young woman shook her head and spoke.

"You are still nothing without this artifact's abilities. As for my origin, I've been called Blood Queen once, but now I'm only a heartbroken woman." Saying so, she suddenly disappeared from where she stood before and reappeared in his Inner World.

Before Mateo could locate her in his Inner World, she disappeared again, causing him to be more surprised.

'She is still in my Inner World but why can't I locate her?-'

Before he could even think, a strange rumbling noise came out of nowhere and shook the whole surroundings! It appeared more like an earthquake and caused the darkness-filled barren land to split into many places.

But what shocked him most was that his whole Inner World started to change from barren land filled with complete darkness to a new one. Blood rivers started appearing from different parts of the Inner World, followed by three strange scarlet moons in the sky. All those blood rivers split further into multiple channels, forming a web in his Inner World.

At that moment, he also saw bony skeletons of humans, beasts, and marine creatures like mermaids, sharks, fishes, and strange beings appearing here and there, ultimately turning his Inner World into some hellish domain.

Upon seeing the strange moons, blood rivers, and creepy bones, he couldn't help but get shocked inside.

'The scarlet moons almost look similar to the ones we see in Edhen World's sky! Although I don't know what these blood rivers are, I can clearly see that they are trying to take over my soul from the inside. But how did my Inner World change into a different one in mere seconds? What the hell is happening?' As he stood rooted on the blood-stained barren land, one of his consciousnesses suddenly flew from the front while holding a unique crystalline core in its hand and bowed its head.

'Thank god! My soul core is still safe in my hands-' His face abruptly froze as he noticed that his consciousness's appearance started to change and formed into an auburn-haired young woman.

Before he could even mutter a take a step forward, she calmly raised her hand towards her mouth, bit her forefinger, and spat a small amount of blood on Mateo's soul core.

Then, she let out a chuckle and spoke.

"Blood Marionette!"

Meanwhile, Mateo felt a strange reverence upon looking at the young woman and instantly lowered his head.

His previous hostility completely disappeared and was replaced with reverence, loyalty, and respect!

"Good! You stay hidden until everything is over and do me a little favor for me later. For now, you should go back to your mansion and rest."

The young woman spoke like a divine being and disappeared from there.

A few seconds went by quietly in the Real World.

All of a sudden, Mateo opened his eyes and looked around cautiously. But unlike before, his eyes appeared soulless, and his face showed no sign of emotion.

After confirming no one was nearby, he moved his body stiffy and walked hastily towards the right side alley road.

But as he continued to walk, his walk became steady, and his face and eyes also started to show Mateo's original emotions.

At that moment, another figure appeared where Mateo stood before and looked in the direction he went in.

The figure was around 25 years old, with deep-blue hair, deep-set jade eyes, short eyebrows, a fleshy nose, and an oval face. At that moment, that young man wore the same trench coat as before and covered his head with a fez hat.

He was none other than Charles!

A few seconds ago, Charles's rebirth Domain spell pulled his soul shard hidden in the astral realm into the Physical World and started reconstructing his existence.

Before long, his physical body and consciousness also returned to their original state and became good as new.

But what shocked him most was that he found himself sealed deep inside a mysterious sun-like existence when his existence got destroyed earlier, and he felt puzzled!

'I shouldn't have seen such a strange scene, right? Could it be whenever I die in this Rebirth Domain, I'll not actually die but be transported into that mysterious Rebirth star? So, that's how this rebirth spell works, huh?' He couldn't help but be amazed inside.

After that, he turned his gaze towards the direction where Mateo went and furrowed.

'He should've long fled from this street, but why did he stand there in a daze? He seems a little strange.' He also noticed the disappearance of the 'Wizard's Cube' in his neck and felt something was wrong.

After glancing briefly at the surroundings, he quietly raised his hand while thinking of Mateo and spoke.

"Past Touch!"

A moment later, the surroundings started to break like glasses and were soon replaced with the scene where Mateo faced off against the mysterious young woman.

But the moment Charles saw her face, he couldn't help but freeze in shock.

She was none other than Hayley, the air hostess!

'What the heck? How come she is here? Moreover, who is she? Did she manipulate me from the very beginning?' Countless questions whirled in his mind.

'From the looks of it, she seems to have some ability to control blood. Also, she waited for a few millenniums to get her hands on Wizard's Cube... Wait! Child of Myxenta? I think I have heard of this name before. Yes, Goddess Myxenta is the one who created my DIce of Disaster!' He paused for a moment and soon asked.

'Genesis, Show me the information about the 'Dice of Disaster.''

[Yes, Host.] A swift response came from Genesis, followed by a row of information.

...

[Dice of Disasters:

Description: It is one of the hundred Miracle Gold Coins created by Goddess Myxenta to break the balance of the Universe. Each coin contains the soul shard of the Goddess of Luck and can exhibit mysterious luck abilities.

Ability: Chaotic Disasters.

When the user rolls the active Golden Dice, it will produce the power of 'Misfortune' without relying on any outside force and cause countless disasters to your surroundings. The power of the disasters will depend on the dice's face with a total number of dots faced upward after rolling. The more the dots face upward, the more disasters you and your enemies will experience.

Caution: Trying to manipulate the Die will result in a backfire.

Side Effects: As long as the user survives the Disaster, there will be no side effects.

Usage: 1/Year.]

...

'So, Wizard's Cube is actually one of the hundred Miracle Gold Coins, huh? But why didn't that artifact use its luck-based ability a while ago? Is it because of the cooldown time? Hmm, the [Wizard's Cube] might also be similar to my Genesis artifact.'

[Correct, Host. After comparing my abilities with Wizard's Cube's, I concluded that it must have already become a Z-Series Intellectual Artifact. The reason why it did not activate its Miracle ability even after its master was about to die could be because he was only a carrier.] Genesis said calmly in his head.

'Carrier?' Charles asked in puzzlement.

[Yes, My Host. Unlike normal artifacts, most intellectual artifacts choose its owner themselves. If I'm not wrong, even your 'Dice of Disaster' did the same when you were in the Faith Realm. But what's more interesting is that all Intellectual artifacts have a habit of always choosing an anomaly as its next owner. But Mateo appears to be very normal in every way.]

'You mean this Wizard's Cube actually used him as a carrier to stay hidden from others? Could it be? It was waiting for its successor all this time?' Charles asked.

[It is possible, Host.] A short reply came from Genesis.

Charles nodded his head and went silent for a while. Although he didn't understand how he didn't notice Hayley's scheme or even a clue, he was sure of one thing.

'Even though I'm grown powerful, there will always be someone who is much smarter and stronger than me. I actually didn't expect that Wizard's Cube artifact to be a very powerful one like my own.' He heaved a deep breath and soon muttered.

'Is it possible for me to get my hands on the Wizard's Cube?'

[I advise you not to make any reckless moves, Host. Even if you get your hands on that artifact, it will not choose you as its next successor and escape. If you try to stop its escape forcefully, it might even sacrifice the whole World's luck to retaliate against you.] Genesis said in the same cold tone, causing his eyebrows to rise.

'Oh? Can you explain in detail?' Charles got more curious about this successor thing and asked further.