Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Ralph remained expressionless. "Yes, I dragged him into the dream and killed him there."

"Can dreams kill people?"

"Thoughts can die, souls can die, and dreams can certainly die too."

"As long as the Blood Angel believes that his existence is dead, then his existence will be denied by himself."

Ralph put his hands in his pockets and looked at the collapsing chapel.

"You can understand it as..."

"I scared the angel to death."

When Ralf took control of the mystical power of Drogonris, his manipulation of this power far exceeded Galaron's expectations.

He dragged the battlefield into a dream world, where he became an enemy of the Dream Walkers. The Blood Angel thus fell deeper and deeper into Ralf's trap, killed by the psychological suggestion of oppression, a desperate struggle, a miscalculation, and utter defeat. The Blood Angel witnessed Ralf's annihilation of the four monsters; he understood the concept of the Philosopher's Stone. This detailed intelligence about the enemy ultimately became his death warrant.

Sylvie and Ralf stood in the collapsed center of Drogonris, ignoring Violet's anxious cries.

"Is it all over, Mr. Ralph?"

"There's one more small matter, and that should be the end of it."

“Degonris… It’s over. Everything I needed to protect is over…” Sylvie looked into the wolf’s eyes, those beautiful purple pupils filled with blankness, like a puppet that had lost its value and been abandoned. Sylvie instinctively relied on the strongest person, hoping that he would give her a direction, a goal.

“What should I do, Mr. Ralph?”

“You are free, Silvette.”

"free?"

Ralph took off his hat and pressed it onto the girl's head.

"This land imprisons those five prisoners; they hold the keys, yet they cannot leave their own prison."

"Where did the keys to these powers come from? And where does the power beneath this land come from?"

Sylvie pulled up the brim of her hat and looked at Ralph with a puzzled expression.

“I don’t know, Mr. Ralph, I can’t solve riddles.”

Ralph shook his head in disappointment, then spread his arms wide and made his final pronouncement over the collapsing Drogonris.

“I, the current wielder of the buried power of Degonris, have decided to return this miraculous power to its master.”

“Sylveth”.

A dazzling burst of light erupted from Ralf's body, and the light transformed into a torrent that flowed to the girl.

"This is the last thing I want to do."

“Return this power that saved us to the original warden of this prison. That stupid girl whose power was taken away by the prisoners.”

“Silvet, Degonris was your prison, now you are free.”

Chapter 493 The Great Deception

Sylvie looked at her hands; the firefly-like lights disappeared after touching her skin.

Confused and bewildered, her purple eyes were filled with confusion.

"Ralph, will you hand over this power to me?"

"It's back to you."

“I don’t understand.” Sylvie clutched her head, pain surging through the girl’s mind, a pain that felt like it was tearing her consciousness apart, just like the disintegrating Dagonis.

“I didn’t expect to easily enlighten you.” Ralph sighed in exasperation and patted Sylvie’s blockhead.

Ralph rattled off a series of questions.

"Would the Loshutal family allow their bloodline to choose their own way of life? To allow one of their own bloodlines to live as a human alongside a group of outcasts?"

"They will ignore you, let your hatred for vampires grow unchecked, and make you the key to cursing the Loshutar bloodline?"

"Why would a monster from Degonris coexist peacefully with a human like you?"

"Why does your sacrifice need to be part of the Blood Angel Galaron's plan?"

"What exactly is the power beneath Degonris?"

Sylvie raised her hand.

“I don’t know about the others, but about the buried power, didn’t you mention it, Ralph? It’s the prison code, a well-established set of bureaucratic rules. You revealed it yourself, and I’m impressed that you could find a way to break the deadlock in such a short time.”

Ralph tilted his head and spoke calmly.

"Oh, prison rules, that's a lie."

"???"

"Everything that happened in Dagonris, from the moment Violet and I arrived in Dagonris until just now, was a deception I set up."

"I deceived the enemy, I deceived you, I deceived Violet, and even I myself."

Sylvie was stunned by Ralph's words.

"But...but...what did you lie to us about?"

Ralf crouched down and took out the small sandalwood box containing the Philosopher's Stone bullets.

He took out an ordinary alchemical silver bullet from the box. "A silver bullet soaked in garlic oil, capable of causing great damage to vampires." Ralf planted the bullet into the mud of Dagonris, the black sludge covering it.

What did you see?

"...A bullet stained with black mud?"

"Error, look at it again carefully."

Sylvie squinted, staring intently at the bullet in Ralph's hand. The black mud on it slid off due to gravity, creating a twisting sensation that evoked a sense of familiarity with a substance from the girl's memories.

"It's...it's the Philosopher's Stone Bullet?!"

"Yes."

Ralf turned the box over, and the Philosopher's Stone bullets fell onto the dirty ground. The wolf paid no attention to these final bullets.

“Like I said, I have plenty of this stuff. Degonris has the materials right here. I can make Philosopher’s Stone bullets out of gravel and mud.”

Ralf's Philosopher's Stone bullets were just ordinary bullets that he casually smeared with some mud.

"But... but these bullets did end the lives of those monsters. If they were just mud-covered bullets, why did they have the power of Philosopher's Stone bullets?"

Ralph stared at Sylvie with his dead fish eyes.

"Because I told you that they were the Philosopher's Stones, and you believed they were the Philosopher's Stones."

"I believe you?"

"You believed it was the Philosopher's Stone, so the bullet ended the monster. You believed I could kill the monster, so I killed the monster. You believed I could execute the angel, so I executed the angel. All of this is because you believed."

"The power that envelops this land is not some prison law, but your belief. Within your domain, Sylvie, what you believe will become reality."

"That's why I'm going to such lengths to tell you the story of Ba Jin and the Philosopher's Stone. I need to provide a credible reason for me to possess the Philosopher's Stone. Ba Jin created the Philosopher's Stone and gave it to me."

"The Philosopher's Stone was the first attempt at my deception; it was my first test of the nature of this power."

"That's why I kept repeating to you in the cemetery why I dug up Ba Jin's grave, not to correct your naive ideas. Your naivety is none of my business. Even if you set Degonris on fire, it has nothing to do with me. I want to plant the suggestion in your mind that I have indeed obtained the Philosopher's Stone, to deepen your understanding of the concept that the Philosopher's Stone is possessed by Ralf."

“I was quite nervous when I tried it for the first time. But I succeeded, and I proved my guess, so after that, I started to be unrestrained.”

Ralph covered his face and slowly shook his head. "Roaring like a beast, charging like a warrior, being unruly and intimidating—that's not my style."

“But I played the part well, and I made you believe that I was a wolf that could stand up to angels.”

"As for the fabrication that followed, the prison rules. I'm telling you this so I can use your power to face the angel Galaron head-on."

“This is a scam targeting you, Sylvie. You are so easily fooled that you believe whatever I say. I think those vampires must have committed the same fraud as me a long time ago.”

"To make you believe that you are of the Loshutar family bloodline, to make you believe that you are a human being."

"This also explains why the laws seal power. You are confined to the worldview they instilled in you. In the eyes of an ordinary young lady who only has connections with vampires, this world only consists of humans and vampires. Therefore, you deny other powers."

“The angel covets your power, Sylvie, but he cannot harm you with his own hands. The only way to obtain your power is through your own voluntary sacrifice.”

"You've been completely fooled, you silly girl."

Sylvie's expression was uncertain; she lowered her head, and a deep purple light could be seen through the gaps in her hair.

When did you become aware of this rule?

Ralf took the musket that Violet handed him.

“When I first arrived, I introduced myself and said we were ‘witchers.’ That was originally just a casual remark, meant to help us better integrate into the city.”

"For some reason, I am very sensitive about my body."

"Right after I revealed my disguise, my body became more agile, and the muscles in my arms bulged a bit. I'm not good at head-on combat, so I know my own abilities very well."

"At that time, I realized that the power buried underground was not our enemy; it could be used by me."

"If words become law, then such rules must have a long-eared listener who will transform the true or false information I convey into reality."

"That's you, Sylvie."

Chapter 494 Twilight

Sylvie.

A girl with unusual purple eyes stood before Ralf. The ribbons binding her hair were snapped by an invisible force, causing her jet-black hair to move without wind. In the shadow of her bangs, purple light flickered like flames, making her look noble and mysterious.

Accompanied by Ralf's whispered pronouncements, as if a magician were revealing a secret, Sylvie's aura grew ever stronger. From girl to lady, from lady to queen, from queen to an even higher being.

"I have another question..."

The transformed Sylvie stared intently into those gloomy eyes, meeting Ralf's gaze without blinking.

"Was everything a lie? King Slayer, alchemist, everything I know about you, was just a fabrication to achieve your goals?" Sylvie raised her chin, her expression a mixture of confusion, like a helpless child and a stern judge. Her voice became both soft and cold, alluring and fierce. Though phrased as a question, her tone was hardly more relaxed than the interrogations Ralph was familiar with.

At this moment, Sylvetter's aura surpassed that of anyone Ralf had ever encountered, not even an angel. Her arrogant amethyst eyes seemed to pierce through the darkness within Ralf, like a god looking down upon a crude beast.