Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 274 273 The Taste of a Witch~
When Klein woke up again, it was already bright outside the window.

"Last night was Christmas Eve."

After confirming that it was safe above the gray fog, Klein had no intention of exploring that dream realm again. He simply stayed above the gray fog for the night and passed the night peacefully.

After confirming that he was back in the real world, Klein breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems that it is possible to actively break free from the dream, because the night itself is a mystical symbol strongly associated with dreams, so when the sun rises and the red moon sets, the dream naturally dissipates."

"This is lucky. If it were a nightmare caused by various reasons... well, after all, I am the King of Yellow and Black who controls good fortune, right? It's inevitable that I would have some good luck."

After finding some amusement amidst the hardship, Klein got out of bed, went into the bathroom, washed up, and put on his usual clothes, preparing to return to Blackthorn Security Company at 32 Red Rose Street today.

"Whatever the reason I had that dream again, I just can't stay at St. Peter's Hospital anymore..."

Klein thought to himself that the three nights in the hospital had left him with indelible psychological trauma, and he dared not stay any longer, otherwise he didn't know what kind of weird things would appear in his dreams next.

"Go straight back to Blackthorn Security Company, and have Captain Pedigris and the others check it again... We don't know how long these lingering effects will last. We can't just stay on the gray fog every night, can we?"

Thinking about it, it's not a bad idea. Hospitals are places where you hear too many ghost stories, and Klein is a bit of a coward.

After packing his things, Klein told the doctor at St. Peter's Hospital that he wanted to be discharged.

The doctor didn't try to persuade him to stay. He carefully examined Klein's physical and mental condition again and determined that although he was somewhat tired, there was no obvious physical or mental damage. The doctor quickly approved his discharge application.

Carrying a suitcase full of clothes, Klein quickly completed the discharge procedures, picked up the not-too-heavy suitcase, and strode away from St. Peter's Hospital.

"Let's go to Blackthorn Security Company first. Hmm, I also need to talk to the captain about this. I don't know if we can go back to 47 Golden Rose Street right now..."

Of course, Klein rationally believed that after confirming that there were other extraordinary individuals lurking in Tingen City, not meeting with his family was the best way to protect them.

As Klein walked out of the hospital and into the bustling lobby, carrying his suitcase, he saw a woman with black hair and blue eyes, dressed in a simple, pristine white robe. She seemed unexpected, breathtaking, and impossible to look away from, walking past him.

When this woman entered the lobby of St. Peter's Hospital, her simple and unpretentious demeanor immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the lobby.

Klein was startled, but quickly recovered from the strange feeling he had just experienced.

"This abnormal allure response—an extraordinary individual with the Witch Path? And a witch of considerable rank at that?"

Klein looked at the high-ranking witch who had just passed by him and whose image of pure white and holiness remained in his mind. He touched the bridge of his nose, picked up his suitcase, and prepared to find a carriage to return to Blackthorn Security Company.

Klein knew that there were witches in Tingen, but he never expected to see such a woman in public... a woman who made him want to follow her.

"Lust is a knife above one's head, Zhou Mingrui."

Klein silently chanted in his mind, "The witch will change sex, the witch will change sex," "Whether it's a woman or a man is still up for debate," "Men on top of men, this is bad news," and then forcibly banished the inappropriate images in his mind of seeing that witch.

-

A woman dressed in a simple, pristine white robe rode the elevator to the top floor of St. Peter's Hospital, amidst the astonished, infatuated, and all-too-familiar gazes of a group of people.

From the top floor of St. Peter's Hospital, one can see almost the entire city of Tingen. Standing here, one can see the streets, buildings, and pedestrians arranged in a seemingly orderly fashion.

Tingen, an earthly realm belonging to the gods...

The woman, dressed in a simple, pristine white robe, smiled slightly, revealing a breathtaking smile that was both incredibly holy and alluringly corrupting. She gently knocked on the door of the "Dean's Office."

The door opened with a knock from the witch.

The furnishings in the director's office of St. Peter's Hospital are quite different from those in other duty offices in the hospital; the layout is rather simple and appears rather primitive.

Rather than an office, this place is more like a giant greenhouse where some unusual plants are cultivated. It's hard to imagine that the director's office, the most central area of ​​St. Peter's Hospital, looks like this.

Numerous flowers, plants, and trees of various colors and shapes are spread across the floor, walls, and ceiling of the dean's office. They are blooming and growing vigorously, striving to cover the entire room with their branches and stems.

The White Saintess, Katarina Pelle, with a calm, gentle, and seemingly alluring power that even the plants seemed to possess, slowly stepped into the Dean's office.

Good morning, Dean.

A woman with a gentle face, long brown hair cascading to her waist, wearing a simple and smart linen dress and a brown bark belt, stood up from her office chair in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

Good morning, Ms. Katerina.

The director of St. Peter's Hospital seemed unsurprised by the blatant presence of the Witch Cult's high-ranking members. She looked at the White Saintess with her light brown eyes and greeted her with a smile.

After glancing past the obviously angelic director of St. Peter's Hospital, the White Saintess Katarina asked softly:
“Mr. Flamel told me to come here to meet him… Mr. Flamel, have you arrived?”

The director of St. Peter's Hospital nodded, and the White Saintess Katarina, as if she had foreseen it, looked at the figure that suddenly appeared in front of the French windows.

She bowed slightly to the figure, performing a perfectly standard and endearing ladylike gesture favored by the Loen nobles:

"Good morning, Monsieur Flamel."

Wearing a black silk top hat and a matching tailcoat, Nicolas Flamel looked at the witch and smiled. "Good morning."

The White Saintess, Katarina, opened her mouth, about to say something, but Nikolai's gaze casually swept over the ageless witch.

"You look sick?"

Get ill?

The White Saintess Katarina was about to shake her head and smile in denial when the ageless witch's body shattered into countless fragments of mirror the instant it came into Nicholas's sight.

The witch, skilled in divination, seemed to realize something and proactively used a mirror substitute to avoid the fatal blow that was about to be suffered! One after another, transparent insects with twelve segments flew out from the shattered mirror fragments of the White Saintess, flying towards Nicolas Flamel, who stood calmly in front of the French windows, and merged into his body.

In their first encounter, the White Saintess was nearly parasitized by the Time Worm.

"To parasitize a primordial child who comes with sincerity without a greeting, I don't think that's a particularly noteworthy or novel way to greet someone, Mr. Flamel?"

The figure of the White Saintess, Katarina Pelle, reappeared where the mirror had shattered.

Her gaze remained gentle, filled with a youthful and radiant beauty.

Even though she was an ageless witch from the late Fourth Age, and an ancient being roughly the same generation as Azik Eggers.

An ageless witch, forever young.

"This is just a test to see if the visiting high-ranking members of the witch cult have the ability to negotiate with me."

Nikolai straightened his black silk hat, as if it wasn't him, the King of Angels, who had just attacked the witch who was only Sequence 3.

"So, did I pass the test?"

The White Saintess, Katarina Pelle, was not angry; she asked with a smile.

“No, not at all.” Nikolai gave a somewhat strange smile. “After all, wasn’t it the Primal One who was negotiating with me?”

Before the White Saintess Katarina could react, her mind instantly went blank, sluggish as if it were a rusty gear.

"Master... Secret Marionette..."

The next moment, the witch's body shattered once again into countless fragments of mirror.

She once again activated her mirror double, attempting to escape the test posed to her by the King of Angels.

But in the floor-to-ceiling window of the dean's office, the male figure of the White Saintess Katarina, which had just been reflected in the mirror, was now suspended by thin, illusory black threads. His body swayed, revealing expressions of resentment, pain, stiffness, satisfaction, and pleasure.

The person reflected in the mirror as the White Saintess has been secretly transformed into a puppet by a high-ranking diviner hidden in the shadows.

Under the authority of "error," the mystification of the person in the mirror can, to some extent, be equated with the mystification of the original.

The figure of the White Saintess Katarina appeared once again in the Dean's office, but this time her expression instantly turned numb, blank, painful, and struggling.

She didn't use a single one of the various dark magics of the ageless witch, the despair witch, or any other witch—black flames, frost, curses, pathogens—and was easily defeated in just two exchanges.

The director of St. Peter's Hospital, a woman who was also an angel, maintained a gentle expression throughout, saying nothing and offering no assistance to Mr. Nicolas Flamel.

This is the Angel King. Even if the opponent is just an avatar, it is enough to kill her, a Sequence 3 Saint, a thousand times over.

"This...is...despair..."

The White Saintess, after a long absence, recalled her time as the Witch of Despair, and everything she had experienced during those moments of despair.

This high-ranking member of the Witch Cult appears to have completed his Mystic Transformation, becoming one of the many Mystics in Tingen City.

Nikolai looked at the White Saintess Katarina, who was about to be completely transformed into a puppet by Tang, and sighed silently, "The Primordial..."

The hair of Katarina, the White Saintess who was about to become a Mystic Doll, suddenly floated up.

Having almost completed her transformation into a puppet, with only the final step remaining, she shouldn't have resisted the puppet master's orders, as she had no power to do so. However, the abnormally floating hair seemed to be beyond the control of the White Saintess Katarina. All her hair had turned into thick, black snakes, with petrified, half-open, half-closed eyes growing from the ends of each strand.

“Ah, it seems I was mistaken.” Nikolai removed his hat and bowed to the witch who was clearly favored by the Primal Chaos. “You are qualified to discuss terms with me.”

The puppet master who was manipulating the puppets also stopped the puppetization process at the last minute, giving Katarina a chance to catch her breath and regain her ability to move.

Nikolai looked at the ageless witch who had collapsed on the ground, his face still bearing the same smirk that seemed to be etched into his very bones from the very beginning.

He nodded, seemingly quite satisfied with the state of the White Saintess.

But the White Saintess Katarina no longer had the somewhat carefree attitude she had when she first stepped into the city.

Even with the primordial blessing and the primordial gaze, in that state just now, even the mirror image she had stored in a very secret place, which had almost nothing to do with her and was used for resurrection, was almost turned into a puppet!
This is the Angel King of Sequence 1, the one who killed Amon, replaced Him, and became the embodiment of error! The ruler of Tingen City! The highest-ranking being of the Thief's Path!
This is the power of the King of Angels.

The expression of the White Saintess, Katarina, gradually changed from initial astonishment, panic, and fear to a somewhat bewildered and reverent one, but Nikolai paid no attention to the lady's thoughts.

He spoke gently with a smile: "You have the blessing of the Primordial One, and I believe the Primordial One has already given you divine pronouncements."

"Yes." The voice of the White Saintess Katarina was somewhat hoarse after what had just happened. Her tone was low and her voice was faint, as if it revealed a weak, pitiful, and boneless voice that could make any man feel sorry for her.

“The Primal has given me a task; He wants me to help you, Mr. Flamel. Anything you want to do, I can do for you, even…”

She looked at Nikolai.

Nikolai blinked.

Tang, looking this way through the secret puppet's gaze: ...

For some reason, these two angel kings recalled a quote once spoken by Emperor Roselle:

"The taste of a witch is really good~"

(End of this chapter)