Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

"Yes, sir." With trepidation, I began the ceremony.

……

The scholar's precious jade returned to his chest, and chains wrapped around Lyle's limbs, connecting the two. Shui Shui entered the magic circle, while Lyle remained on the other side.

The chanting of the incantation was like scripture, and the chains carried the blue magic.

It stung, but was bearable. Lyle's body swelled slightly; he felt the surging waves of magic. This abundance surpassed everything he had experienced before; compared to it, his own magic was like a grain of sand among stars.

Lyle stared at the black figure, but the fear lessened somewhat; a surge of power gave him confidence that he might be able to resolve the illusion.

"Try to control the illusion's movements, Plague Doctor. Although it is unfamiliar, it is actually just a part of you. Control it and make it get closer to you."

At Lyle's command, the black illusion in his eyeball made a move.

Wave your hands, move left and right, and bend your knees.

Indeed, he obeyed my orders, and this feeling of complete control dispelled my worries. Perhaps I was making a fuss over nothing.

She stopped teasing the black figure, controlled him to approach, and accelerated the completion of the ritual.

The haze finally disappeared.

Lyle saw what he looked like.

Atop the head is a black bud, its layered leaves displaying clear veins, resembling both leaves and blood vessels. Beneath the calyx lies darkness, where black tentacles, coated in a layer of mucus, sway like willow branches. They are alive, each tentacle bearing curled patterns, unsettling even to behold. Though these swaying tentacles are loose, you still cannot see the body hidden within. You realize that this figure has no body, but rather resembles a cephalopod, something like an octopus, possessing only the head of a bud and tentacles. However, the bizarre limbs raise new questions. They resemble withered branches, the limbs of a strange, malevolent, bulbous tree. Where joints should be, deformed nodules appear swollen and unpleasant on the shriveled branches. These branch-like limbs extend into the cluster of tentacles, connecting to an unknown location.

It's really ugly, but I can understand it.

The black flower bud on its head is what Shui Shui looked like when it was first born. As for the tentacles and strange nodules, those are all due to its past life, which was obsessed with similar parts of the Cthulhu Mythos. This can be considered one of Lyle's quirks, and I didn't expect it to be displayed as well.

"Lyle, imagine it, and change it to the way you want it to be."

Lyle gave him one last look, a monster he had created himself. But as for bringing you into existence, I'm sorry, I was just a hypocrite.

Become the way I like.

The tentacles began to fall off, the shriveled limbs began to fill out, the petals on his head began to fall off, revealing a head of black hair. He put on a police uniform, and there was also his own face, which was somewhat naive and gentle.

Lyle created a persona for himself, but is that all there is to it?

A bold idea: to transform Shui Shui into Ariana's appearance.

With a strange sense of anticipation, Lyle once again manipulated the transformation.

I've found you, Lyle.

A sudden sound shattered all my delusions; beauty turned into suffering, and enjoyment into torment.

"That's not what you wanted, this is." The black version of himself smiled, a terrifying and dangerous smile. Black tears streamed from his eyes, blood began to flow from his lips, his body was riddled with holes, and horrific wounds kept appearing on his chest and abdomen. Lyle watched his own self suffer horrific torment, just like the fear overflowing within him.

Skin peels off, petals growing from the facial features reform into flower buds, black tentacles squeeze out from the cracks in the body, tearing the flesh and blood into pieces and throwing them into the dark lake, limbs fall off like parts, and from the black tentacles, nodular branches grow back to support the monster in front of it.

Accompanied by a burst of increasingly manic and distorted laughter, the flower bloomed.

The flipped-up petals resemble a quirky necklace.

Lyle saw it; it was that familiar face.

The spiral bends and the white bone mask with only two hollow holes seemed to contain an emptiness that could devour everything.

Kong stared at Lyle, and an indescribable fear crept up Lyle's spine.

This is definitely not me; something must have gone wrong with the ritual.

This time, no sea of ​​holy light could stop His terror.

He was expressionless, but Lyle knew he was smiling.

Just like yourself, smile.

……

The scholar initially did not pay attention, but the great deformation of the water was one of the manifestations of the law.

He felt the tremor; his chains were shaking. Following the source, he saw the plague doctor's trembling body.

And the strange laughter he made.

There was a problem with the experiment.

Scholars began calling for a doctor to treat the epidemic, but he remained unmoved by the scholars who were right next to him, like a puppet being manipulated and tossed about at will.

Tick, tick.

Black liquid dripped onto the floor; it came from the plague doctor's robes.

No longer adhering to Andrei's requirement for disguise, the scholar removed the mask of the plague doctor.

A human being?

Black liquid dripped from the corner of his eye, Lyle smiled, and the blackness gradually seeped into it.

The water in the magic circle also transformed into his shape, like the two sides of a mirror.

Lyle muttered madness.

"We will become what we want to become, we will become Him."

Chapter 124 Abnormal Talent

The black mud on Lyle's face was still spreading, as if it were about to devour him.

"Lyle, hold on!" The scholar's silver chains began to dance, and the flow of magic engaged in a tug-of-war between the chains and the black mud on Lyle's body. The scholar controlled the magic as if wielding a precise scalpel to cut away the black mud that had contaminated Lyle.

But those strange substances kept flowing, and Lyle's facial features were like a spring.

This only addresses the symptoms, not the root cause.

“His soul is being corrupted, and he needs comforting.”

“But my strength is not enough.” Medusa’s body emerged from behind Lyle’s neck and lay prostrate on his face.

"I will lend you magic, Medusa. You remember the structure of the human soul, don't you?"

“I remember that it was only slightly different from the structure of a ghost.”

The scholar relaxed his input of magic, and the black mud once again took over his territory.

The chains connecting Lyle's legs were removed, and her legs, beneath the black clothes, began to change, like melted caramel.

Lyle is gradually separating from humanity; the skin on his body surface, from bottom to top, begins to peel back, turning into a rubber-like tissue.

Like tiny tides forming on her skin, they surged toward Laird's brow.

Just as Lyle's skin was completely transformed, and the subtle undulations were about to merge at the center of her brow.

"Now, Medusa!" Silver chains intertwined with Medusa's slender waist, like a swarm of snakes dancing wildly. Deep blue magic enveloped her body.

Two beams of light shot out from the blue magic, and Medusa let out a shriek, like a madwoman.

"This soul is mine!"

In areas illuminated by light, the black mud resembles a peeled eggshell, revealing the human skin beneath.

A soft laugh.

The black mud crumbled into fragments and dissipated into the air.

Lyle returned to normal, as if he had taken a nap.

"Success."

“Partially successful.” The scholar turned his head back to look at the former talent orb in the magic circle, which was darker than the deepest abyss.

"May the law be more powerful than corruption."

……

Lyle felt completely exhausted, as if he had attended Uncle Ralph's sheriff training.

When I woke up, I found myself floating in mid-air. The only thing connecting me was the scholar's chain. He was standing not far away, watching me, holding my bird-beak mask in his hand.

It seemed like she remembered something.

Lyle swayed slightly.

"I'm so sorry, teacher, I think I fell asleep." Lyle reached out his hand towards the bird-beak mask. "Did the mask accidentally fall off?"

The scholar seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"You need to be careful about disguising yourself in the future, you epidemic doctor."

"Okay, teacher."

"Pandemic doctor, what do you think of Andre?"

Although he didn't understand why the scholars had raised this question, Lyle still voiced his thoughts.

"Although everyone at Andre is a bit eccentric in some ways, the school's atmosphere is eerily frightening, and there is always the risk of death, it is undoubtedly the best platform for me to look out for the world. I have my friends and beloved teachers here. Andre is my home."

"Plague Doctor, if one day Andrei were forced to confront this world, forced to become an adversary of it, what would you do?"

“Then I’ll defy the world.” Lyle tilted his head. “Has Mr. Raymond already started wreaking havoc on other forces?”

The scholar seemed to have made a decision.

"Plague Doctor, where is your ring, the Ring of Andrei?"

Lyle extended the finger adorned with the ring.

The scholar placed his fingers on the blue mask on his face, and as his fingers slid, a strand of cyan energy was peeled off.

“In the name of Moroki, I share my wisdom with this child.”

The thin thread wrapped around Lyle's ring, eventually turning into a blue pattern.

"If you encounter a major problem that you can't solve, Doctor of Epidemic Diseases, maybe my knowledge can help you."

Similar to Ms. Elian's pager, it also gained the ability to call for reinforcements.

"Thank you, teacher. But shouldn't we begin to perform the ritual?"

The scholar fell silent for a moment.