His original plan was to kidnap Nancy, the captain of the Executioner Squad, while her family was traveling, so as to blackmail Nancy and tamper with the headquarters' defense mechanism to create loopholes.
However, the defeat of the Life Church in Loen City made this plan fail.
But he was not discouraged, and immediately launched the contingency plan.
That is to send the Church of Life to attack Stoner Orphanage, kill all employees and managers, force the orphanage to disband, and make those little kids homeless.
In this case, the government will definitely find someone to adopt them.
That was exactly what happened afterwards, so he arranged for Viscount Mossante to be used as a pawn, and while adopting those little devils he deliberately revealed some flaws to attract the attention of the Super Management Bureau and the executors.
When the time is right, he will detonate the "pollution" implanted in Viscount Mosante's spirit, causing him to mutate into a monster in the heart of a busy city.
Thus leading away the main force of the Executioner Team and the old dog Victor.
If everything goes well, he can take advantage of the opportunity when the defense of the Executioner Squad headquarters is empty and Victor is lured away, personally raid the headquarters building, and steal the "Red Moon" fragments placed in the underground storage room!
He was very satisfied with this plan, as it would not only allow him to obtain the key "Red Moon" fragments for the promotion ceremony, but also allow him to collect the "seven pure souls" by the way.
However, when this plan was implemented, some deviations occurred.
At the beginning, when Burton and his men were massacring the Stoner Orphanage, a mysterious and powerful female supernatural being broke in halfway.
However, although this change was beyond his expectations, it was not a big deal. After all, he had achieved his goal of killing the orphanage staff and managers.
Then, the executors actually discovered Viscount Mossante's abnormality in advance.
This surprised Bona, but he had no choice but to adjust his plan and let Viscount Mossante mutate earlier.
The consequence of this deviation was that the monster transformed by Viscount Mosent failed to appear in the best location and failed to lead the main force of the Executioner Squad and Victor far enough away.
As a result, when he attacked the Executioner Squad headquarters, he was attacked by Victor who arrived, forcing him to activate the "Mirror of Red Mormon" that he had stolen from the military earlier, and successfully escaped.
Although in the end, the plan was perfectly achieved after many twists and turns, there was one thing that he still cared about.
Looking back, he realized...
All the variables in his plan, whether it was the annihilation of the Church of Life in Loen City, the mysterious female supernatural being who killed Burton's companions during the orphanage operation, or the informant who informed the Executioner Team of Viscount Mosante's abnormality...
All seem to point to the same person:
"A young girl wearing a cloak, petite figure, childish but extremely beautiful."
——This is the description Bona came up with after compiling reports from his subordinates.
And at the last moment of his promotion ceremony, this mysterious girl, the "only variable", finally showed up.
Right in front of you!
"No matter what power you rely on or what your purpose is, I admire your insight from the bottom of my heart. Every time you take action, you almost ruin my plan...
"As a token of my admiration, after I reach the level of a smelter, I can consider refining you into my living puppet..."
Bona opened his arms, feeling the sharp rise of the spiritual power in his body; feeling his soul and body gradually merge into one; feeling the limit and bottleneck loosening...
Slowly, closed his eyes:
"Unfortunately, you are still a step late."
"Ah……"
Suddenly, he heard a chuckle.
Very relaxed, comfortable and not nervous at all, yet with a hint of sarcasm and teasing in his laughter.
It was sent by that girl.
What does that mean? What is she laughing at?
Bona subconsciously opened his eyes and cast his gaze at the girl under the setting sun through the thick red mist.
I saw that she had raised her right hand slightly at some point and pinched her slender, white and tender fingers like green onions into a gesture that looked like snapping her fingers.
"To be honest, I didn't expect you to swallow that man in a suit."
She tilted her head slightly, with an interested smile on her flawless face:
"That makes things easier and more fun, doesn't it?"
"Snapped!"
With that pleasant and ethereal voice, she snapped her fingers.
=========================
The second volume will be finished tomorrow, and I have roughly sorted out the outline and context of the third volume. I feel it should be acceptable.
There will be an end-of-volume summary after the second volume is finished tomorrow. If you are interested, you can take a look.
Chapter 227: Master of Fire, Master of Diversion
"Snapped--"
The crisp and loud crackling sound of the air suddenly echoed in the empty and peaceful sea of melting dusk, and echoed in the lazy and timeless sky of the setting sun.
Bona's eyes suddenly widened. This top-level mage, half-step to the smelting light master, suddenly felt a strong sense of foreboding in his heart.
"……What?!"
When the sound of the snapping fingers completely died down, he discovered with horror—
There was suddenly a gap in the spirituality within me.
As if it had been annihilated, it disappeared without any warning and silently.
That was the spirit that originally belonged to Burton, the deacon of the Church of Life.
"I always feel a little weird."
Qi Ji floated in the air, stepping on the twilight, smiling and saying slowly:
"If you think I'm a magician, then why do you think that the man in the suit can escape from me?"
The suit man Burton and his companion the bearded man attacked an orphanage, but were stopped by a mysterious female magician. The bearded man died, and Burton barely escaped using secret techniques.
This should be the information that Bona learned that day.
It sounds reasonable, but it doesn't stand up to deep thought:
A righteous warrior and a righteous mage facing off against a magician, how could anyone escape?
No matter how taboo the secret technique is, or how high-level the spiritual equipment is, the gap in strength is insurmountable in the face of the gap in realm.
But Burton still escaped.
This doesn't mean that his methods are cunning and cruel, it only means that...
That magician let it go.
Or maybe she did it on purpose and did something to Burton.
At this moment, Bona finally understood the hidden meaning of the girl's words before she snapped her fingers:
How dare you devour Burton's spirit and use the spirit of this man whom I had a backup plan for to restore yourself!
And now, at the critical moment when she completed the promotion ceremony and was about to reach the realm of "Metallurgist", she detonated that back-up plan.
The effect is to instantly annihilate the spirit that originally belonged to Burton!
In the red mist, Bona stared at Qi Ji, using all his strength to squeeze out the words from his throat:
"you……"
The sacrifice of seven pure souls, the perfection of one's own state, and the blessing bestowed by the gods.
These are the three main elements of the "Moon" realm "Metallurgist" promotion ceremony, and none of them can be missing.
However, at this last moment, the spirit of Burton, which was used to complete his own state, disappeared.
It's like having a core part knocked out of a heavy machine while it's running at full speed.
There is no doubt that this will lead to the complete loss of control of the entire instrument, resulting in its collapse and destruction.
“Uooa ...
Bona only had time to utter one syllable before his face was suddenly stained with a layer of dirty dark gray. His facial features were distorted in an extremely exaggerated way, like a clay figure that had been randomly kneaded.
The inhumane howls that were not human but more like beasts burst out from every corner of his body.
At the same time, the jet-black robe with red paint began to flutter violently, as if a large number of slimy long creatures were moving restlessly underneath.
"Snap! Snap! ..."
Gray-black tentacles stretched out from under the robe, flapping and twisting wildly like a wounded and mad poisonous snake.
And his body completely lost its human appearance and became extremely deformed and grotesque.
"You said before that if I had come a few seconds earlier, you would have failed."
Qi Ji looked at the figure in the red mist that was rapidly deforming, and said with a slightly mocking smile:
"You got it wrong. If I had arrived a few seconds earlier, you could have lived a little longer."
If she had arrived a few seconds earlier, before Bona's ascension ceremony was completed, she could have activated the "mark" left in the spirit of Burton and caused it to disappear...
Well, although Bona will still have a strong tendency to lose control, the ritual has not been completed after all. He still has a chance to interrupt the ritual immediately, adjust his own state, stabilize his spirituality and spirit, and thus barely recover.
However, once the ceremony is completed, as he himself said, "it will be completed under the watchful eyes and blessings of the gods, and no one can interrupt it."
Including himself!
He will forcibly be promoted to "Metallurgist" even though the necessary conditions are not met!
The result of this is...
"boom!--"
The jet-black robe painted red shattered into pieces.
Countless tentacles with gray and black colors and complex patterns on the surface burst out from it.
But it is not completely dispersed.
Instead, they were all connected together from the root, turning into a deformed creature that was so weird and blasphemous that it was impossible to look directly at it!
Regardless of whether all three requirements have been met, the promotion ceremony has been completed.
Under the watchful eyes and blessings of the gods, once the ceremony is completed, a "metallurgist" will be born.
In any form.
The diffused red mist suddenly became agitated, then shrank inwards rapidly, and instantly all gathered into the body of the deformed monster composed of countless gray and black patterned tentacles!
A dazzling scarlet light burst out from the patterns on its body, then quickly converged to become a large red light flowing across its surface.
Bona, the magician of the "Moon" realm, successfully promoted to "Light Smelter", and was one step closer to becoming a true mythical creature.
— in the form of an out-of-control monster.
"Tsk tsk, high energy ahead, irrelevant personnel, please evacuate~~"
At the same time as the red mist was shrinking, Qi Ji reached out his hand and touched the ground.
A bright starlight appeared out of thin air beneath the children, then carried them upwards and quickly moved away from the crumbling yacht.
Claire, who was dizzy from the huge force before, barely opened her eyes and looked around while gasping for breath.
She saw the brilliant and dreamy starlight filling her vision, slowly blending and flowing like an overturned palette.
But this dreamlike and unreal scene only lasted for a few seconds. Soon, the bright and vivid colors suddenly disappeared, and at the same moment she felt the touch of the ground beneath her.
The noise of pedestrians and carriages passing by reached my ears.
"Where is...where?"
It took her a long moment to realize that she was back in Sunset Harbor and was now sitting on the sidewalk in front of a shabby building.
Turning around, he found six other unconscious children lying around, groaning faintly, as if they were about to wake up.
In just a few seconds, they had traveled across the ocean from who knows how far away to the headquarters of the Sunset Harbor Executioner Squad.
This is a miracle.
Using a power gained from the "Mysterious Form in the Starry Sky", he sent the seven children back to a safe area.
While Qi Ji was admiring the guy's ability, which was so useful as if it was tailor-made for him, he cast his gaze towards the hideous gray-black monster on the yacht that was almost sunk.