Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 378: Secret Puppet Master?

Adele waited until all the noise in the warehouse died down before she cautiously stepped out from her hiding place.

There is a world of difference in combat effectiveness between a prepared witch and an unprepared witch.

After all, this path is called "Witch", and its signature ability should naturally be black magic. However, compared to the two abilities of black fire and frost that witches often use, black magic requires longer preparation time, and some spells also require specific casting materials, which is not very useful in encounters.

Even Tracy, the pirate general who is feared throughout the five seas, uses black fire, frost, and silk thread, the three witch-exclusive weapons, as her main means of combat, with the addition of the plague aura added by Sequence Five.

In the civil war of the same sequence, black magic was used even less. The reason is that the witch's black fire is too powerful, so powerful that when the witch encounters a mysterious event, she can basically throw a ball of black fire without thinking.

Black fire will only burn spiritual objects and will not ignite flammable materials in the environment, so it is difficult for people to use it in return. This feature also means that the witch does not need to deliberately choose the target to use black fire on. As long as there is spirituality, she can just roll a ball of black fire and throw it over.

Therefore, according to Gagran's description, most witches will specialize in the skill of Black Fire, which can be used for both offense and defense and is convenient and quick to use.

Why would I bother to prepare a black magic spell when I can solve the problem with a ball of black fire? Every witch who is asked why she doesn't use black magic can answer this question with confidence.

Blackfire can easily burn away magic used to maintain ritual formations, or act directly on itself, burning away negative effects such as curses and plagues that have not yet completely taken effect on itself.

This is also the reason why Adele and several other low-sequence witches were able to hold their own against Tracy when the Honeysuckle Queen just rushed out from under the sea. Due to the existence of the universal skill Blackfire, the strength leap of witches in the middle and low sequences is not as obvious as that of the fortune teller's sequence five.

However, as long as witches are given time, their black magic is definitely one of the most mysterious and terrifying abilities, because the type of black magic that each witch can use is not fixed. In this regard, different witch families have different inheritances, which also makes it difficult for the enemy to make a general target of this ability.

Adele's black magic was inherited from the witch Gagran who had lived for hundreds of years. Those witches who changed their careers naturally couldn't compare with her. So far, the abilities she had mastered included not only basic curses such as deceleration, corrosion, and poisoning, but also more advanced ones, such as the mirror curse she had just attached to the gate.

This mirror curse was achieved by combining the witch's control over mirror magic. Adele had previously frozen a crude mirror inside the gate, allowing Esdeath's figure to be reflected in the mirror, and then let him destroy the mirror himself, causing similar damage to the shadow in the mirror.

Adele also used this ability when dealing with the strange stitched monster that crawled out of the Nebuchadnezzar, but this time the mirror was larger and directly reflected the entire Esdeath.

In fact, if Cassian, who was beside Esdeath, reacted in time and used the purification ability of the Sun Priest to cover Esdeath's body before the mirror shattered, then the curse would not be able to affect Esdeath. In addition, the abilities of the sacred system and the abilities of the rules can effectively limit this kind of black magic.

But the problem was that Cassian had no idea that the witch had this kind of magic, and he had no experience in dealing with it before, nor did he take any precautions in advance. By the time he saw cracks appearing on Esdeath's body, it was already too late.

Adele carried Blackfire and walked carefully into the warehouse.

She did not turn on her clairvoyance because she knew that the air was now almost entirely filled with spores left by Frank's mushrooms. If she turned on her clairvoyance, she would only be able to see those tiny powders that were flashing with a strange luster.

It might be more convenient to burn down the entire warehouse...

Adele suppressed her psychological discomfort and walked into the room. The black flames formed two screens around her.

In the warehouse, she saw the herbs in boxes, which were clearly marked with poisonous signs. But now, these things have been mixed with Frank's mushrooms, and they must be handled by professionals.

Adele walked over to Santana's body. He was the first person to fall, which surprised Adele.

When she was controlling the blood mist, she deliberately avoided Santana's direction. Logically, Santana shouldn't be the first person to be infected with the fungus, but just now he became the first victim. Adele always felt that there was another reason behind this.

"I remember Frank telling me about the growing conditions for these mushrooms..."

Adele frowned and began to think hard.

Even though Frank had only told her about this less than three months ago, her memory had been ravaged by the Veil of Night and the Soul Summoning Bracelet during this period of time. When she was suddenly asked to think about this matter, she was still a little overwhelmed.

Frank seemed to have told her at the time that these mushrooms had very low requirements for growth conditions, almost to zero, and could grow freely in the temperature range of -20 degrees Celsius to +80 degrees Celsius. The growth rate of these mushrooms could also be accelerated through the spells of the Mother Earth and the abilities of the "Harvest Priest".

In addition, there are some common characteristics of mushrooms, such as liking dark and humid environments, growing on dead trees or corpses of animals and plants...

Wait, on dead plants and animals?

Adele's eyelids twitched nervously. This supplement reminded her of what Gagran said to her before leaving:
"…Moreover, this kind of manipulation is fatal. Once the manipulation is complete, even if the puppet master later removes the spiritual thread, the person being manipulated will have already died. To some extent, this is one of the most powerful abilities below demigod."

In other words, there is a "secret puppet master" hidden among these people, and he made Santana his own secret puppet?
Adele's mind suddenly emerged with the image of the middle-aged gentleman who was giving orders to the crowd and was called "Mr. Sotos".

In the chaos just now, Sothoth never left the ten meters around Santana, and was always inseparable from the secret doll Santana until Santana died completely!
(Today's schedule is a bit tight, so the second update will most likely be a little later. I may post a placeholder for Chapter 88.5 later. Please pay attention when you subscribe to the latest two chapters. The chapter names with 0.5 are placeholders, and the main text will be updated later.)
(End of this chapter)