Death Wizard Diary.

Chapter 333 Utterly Useless?

After spending the entire night questioning Nightmare Butterfly and intermittently reading his notes, Thor managed to piece together a rough picture of Nightmare Butterfly's current situation.

Heywood's notes state that each Nightmare Butterfly's egg is not its child, but rather its new body. If all goes well, the Nightmare Butterfly can be reborn by transferring its consciousness into its egg.

Thus, they can also inherit memories from the past, which is what they call history.

However, this approach also seems to have problems.

Heywood had learned from the tower master that the Nightmare Butterflies' transfer process was also their most vulnerable moment.

It is said that some formal wizards—Here, Haywood notes "at least second-tier wizards"—would specifically watch this process to capture Nightmare Butterflies.

Of course, the Nightmare Butterfly's final burst of power is terrifying. There have been high-ranking wizards who have died from it.

At the same time, the notebook records that the Nightmare Butterfly's transfer often requires the help of dreams, and the stronger a person's spiritual body, the better their dreams.

This can greatly shorten their period of decline.

"So Penny originally wanted to be reborn through my dream?"

"Yes, and in order to draw power from your history, she also kept an eye on you."

Thor: "...No wonder she apologized to me back then."

His history involves traversing between worlds. And not just the ordinary kind of traversal from a large world to a smaller one. Rather, it involves traversing between worlds with many different underlying rules.

He himself almost got caught up in his own history while trying to observe it, so how could he possibly have the energy to save others?

"Do you remember what you observed?"

The little butterfly fluttered its wings, thinking, "If I remember, I am the one who doesn't exist."

"All right."

Thor felt a little regretful. If he could have taken this opportunity to know what happened when he passed through, would he have had a chance to understand if any abnormalities had occurred in his soul?

However, after experiencing an inexplicable crisis, Thor still couldn't figure out whether he had experienced any special events during his time travel.

The observer, Penny, only peeked a little bit, and as a result, she lost part of her own history and became a proud little butterfly.

"Why do I feel like I've turned into a bomb?" Thor shook his head, realizing that exploring the mysteries of the journey was more dangerous than he had imagined.

"Therefore, I should still focus my resurrection experiment on overcoming the container's rejection of the soul. Studying the unique characteristics of my own soul might not yield any results. Perhaps if I were to have Instructor Gorsa conduct the research in the end..."

Thor knew all too well the consequences of becoming someone else's experimental subject. Hayden and Herman were living examples.

Life and death are beyond our control, and so is gender.

Thinking of this, Thor looked at the Nightmare Butterfly.

"Do we still have the ability to observe history?"

"No!" Little Butterfly answered readily.

"The ability to alter other people's memories?"

"No, not at all!"

Thor crossed his arms. In the past, he would never have wanted the Nightmare Butterfly to have this ability to alter perceptions.

But now that it has become a bookmark, Thor naturally hopes that his pet can become stronger.

But on the other hand, if the Nightmare Butterfly's abilities were still as powerful as before, Thor's current strength would probably not be enough to subdue it.

He went straight to the point and asked, "So what abilities do you still have?"

"I don't know!"

Thor sighed, preparing to retract the Nightmare Butterfly, when the little butterfly seemed to sense his intention, suddenly flying up and pitifully saying, "Brother Thor, could you please not put me in that dark place?"

"Not going back? Can you stay outside for long?"

"Why not? I've always been outside."

Thor pondered for a moment, realizing that the Nightmare Butterfly was originally a special life form existing between a witch's body and consciousness.

Perhaps her soul is different from that of the wizard apprentice, allowing her to act independently outside.

With that in mind, Thor agreed to Nightmare Butterfly's request, "Then you can stay outside for now. If you feel anything unusual and want to go back, you can call me anytime."

"Thank you, Brother Thor, you're so kind!"

The Nightmare Butterfly circled in the air before landing on Thor's cheek, its antennae gently touching his face.

Thor only felt a slight chill.

"Nightmare Butterfly... Never mind, I'll still call you Penny from now on. Even though you've forgotten your past, you should still be her."

"Okay, I like the name Penny!" The Nightmare Butterfly, which had lost part of its history, had no objection to the name and readily accepted it.

"Penny, why can your consciousness exist independently of your body? Consciousness should be very fragile; without a body, it's difficult to resist the pollution and alienation that can happen at any time."

"Because I have history, knowing history allows me to confirm my existence, and the more history I know, the more solid my power becomes. Even if I am occasionally hurt, I can find myself again by reviewing history."

"But you've already lost most of your memory, won't that be dangerous?"

"Normally it would, but my situation is special now."

"You mean your connection to the diary can protect you?"

"So that dark place was called a diary? What a strange name."

Saul didn't explain, and Penny didn't need to know the diary.

In short, the way Nightmare Butterfly independent consciousnesses survive is not applicable to wizards.

Saul temporarily stopped studying Penny, put his notes back in the sealed lead box, and returned to the experimental area to clean up the mess.

He has not yet discovered why Herman suddenly acted strangely when he entered the female corpse.

That afternoon, when Hayden came to see Saul as usual, he found that the tall man who followed him was gone.

Before he could even ask a question, he saw Herman standing with his eyes closed in the middle of the horde of corpses at the very outside of the second warehouse.

He immediately showed a hint of fear, "Lord Thor, Hel...!"

Thor followed Hayden's gaze and looked over, understanding the situation, but only said calmly, "There's been a problem with the experiment."

A sense of unease rose in Hayden's heart. He followed Saul anxiously.

Hel's "death" made Hayden nervous; he hadn't expected Thor to consume an experimental subject so quickly.

Although Hayden had risked participating in the spirit infusion experiment, he was mentally prepared for all sorts of research. Before coming to Thor, he knew that Thor would already be studying him; after all, even normal wizarding apprentices would become test subjects for their mentors, whether willingly or unwillingly.

But when he actually saw test subjects being consumed, a tremendous fear rose in his heart.

When Hayden walked to the experimental area at a much slower pace than usual, he was stunned by the instruments that appeared before him.

"An electric chair?"

In an instant, the time he had just become a test subject flashed back into Hayden's mind. The dull, unresponsive sensations of his new body and the endless, agonizing experiments filled him with dread.

Hayden stood rooted to the spot, unable to take another step forward.

An imagined electric current surged through his body, making him think that every hair on his body was standing on end, but in reality, only his eyelashes trembled slightly.

Hayden knew he couldn't disobey Thor's orders, and even if he were to die the next second, he had no choice but to comply.

But even though she knew it, her body remained firmly rooted to the spot.

Thor went over and turned on the inductor. He noticed Hayden's fear and explained the experiment beforehand to reassure him.

"Today we'll be studying the repulsive force of a corpse on the soul. In a moment, you'll sit on it, and your consciousness will try to break free from your body. I'll record the reactions throughout your body."

Saul adjusted his chair and turned to look at Hayden.

See, it won't shock you.

But Hayden remained standing there, motionless, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Thor frowned. "What are you worried about?"

Hayden's trembling eyes slowly moved from the inductor to Thor. She opened her mouth, but could not utter a word.

However, just as Saul was about to forcefully order him to begin the experiment, Hayden suddenly shuddered.

The aura of fear emanating from her receded like the tide, and when she looked up again, her eyes were filled with determination and a hint of madness.

"He wouldn't dare, but I would, sir." Hayden's second personality slowly forced a stiff smile onto his face.

(End of this chapter)