Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

“A pair of intact Soul Eater eyeballs can only be bought with Soul Coins at the market, while a complete Soul Eater spine costs almost three times as much, because the latter is harder to obtain and preserve. If I really wanted to be completely selfish, I could just stand here and wait for ten minutes, then leave with them. But now, I’m going to solve this problem for you.”

Zhengling's words were half true and half false. Of course, she did this not of her own volition. In fact, it was another being who wanted to explore what would happen next. He could not act personally. The last time he showed himself in shock and anger, he was almost scared to death by a glance from a truly powerful and ancient deity.

“We don’t need you to do any more!” Brandon shouted hastily. “If you really mean it, then do as you say! The anesthesia will wear off in ten minutes at most, and Lord Raslaufer will wake up on his own!”

"Oh? You seem quite confident." "Of course, it's determined by the dosage..."

The devil covered his mouth and laughed: "Oh, look at you, little fellow, how naive, how adorable. Do you really think that the logic of the material world can be applied to other planes? Purgatory? The Abyss? Even a demi-plane where the rules are not complete?"

"Alright, alright, since you're so confident, let's wait and see, ten minutes?"

The devil seemed to have complete confidence in victory. She remained silent, simply leaving her projection there for Raslaufer to attack. However, as time passed, nothing changed except that Raslaufer's attack frequency began to slow down due to exhaustion.

Doplet did not "wake up," or rather, he was always clear-headed, only his rationality was temporarily abandoned.

"This... how is this possible?" Brandon stared at the scene in disbelief. Although Heinrich was very knowledgeable, as his disciple, Brandon had learned far too little.

“He is very lucid, but… he has given up thinking, hopefully only temporarily,” the scholar murmured. “As long as his rationality doesn’t return, he will remain in this state. But where can he find his rationality?”

He had some knowledge of souls, but this was no longer a matter of souls—according to the results he had just read, Raslaufer's soul was very complete and strong, even stronger than that of an ordinary spellcaster, to the point that it could suppress the spirits around it, making them appear numb and obedient.

“Well, that’s what these things are all about,” Zheng Ling’s projection, which was idly fiddling with its slender fingers, looked up at this. “You’re not wrong about that. Raslaufer is conscious, just like he always is. He can easily return to normal if he wants to. But the question is—does he want to? Or does he know?”

Leslaufer neither wanted to nor knew about it.

His feet trod across countless still stars, through countless floating rocks and mountains, and his hands twisted the neck of a humanoid spirit that had just reformed, strangling it once more.

But it wouldn't die. Raslaufer had figured everything out: these spirits that had inexplicably started to go berserk and attack him would "resurrect" in this world again and again. Therefore, after escaping the initial siege, his greatest pleasure was to search for and kill these things that he had killed once before outside.

They weren't alive, there was no blood, and no screams, but he himself wasn't made of flesh and blood either, so... who cares?

Perhaps, to him at this moment, these spirits are what he calls "reality." He enjoys it and has no desire to extricate himself from it.

"Whoa—" The whole world began to shake again. Raslaufer immediately turned around and sped toward the source of the sound. He knew that the guy had "come back to life" for the third time.

That land shark. Even outside, he needed to be fully armed to deal with it, but here, he was unarmed, yet he still won, and won twice.

Now, he's going to win for the third time!

"No, I've always known about the insane experiments and modifications you devils do. I won't agree to this!" Heinrich resolutely rejected Zhengling's temptation. "There must be other ways, as long as—"

"As long as I leave here?" the devil sneered. "Wake up, old man. I'm not your nanny. Why should I let my projection remain here? His body will tirelessly hunt for prey, perhaps just as his rational side does in another dimension. What are you going to do? Do you think you can bind him here until you come back with a solution?"

"Or do you want to abandon him and kill Reislaufer here in order to maintain... ah, world peace? That seems like a more feasible option for you."

Zhengling's projected gaze quietly shifted to Reslaufer's companions.

Chapter 460 The Unknown Past

Heinrich and Brandon fell silent. If it were anyone else, they might have chosen this path without hesitation, but Reislaufer…

His current situation is because of them, not to mention that he twice fought demons and saved the entire Ironforge—regardless of his motives.

Brandon's mind flashed back to that banquet hall. What did his and his teacher Heinrich's misjudgment ultimately lead to? Perhaps no one would blame Brandon for Ursula and her family's deaths, after all, it couldn't be more indirect.

But if this happens again... how will he spend the rest of his life?

Is it that I always wake up from nightmares, remembering that I am an executioner disguised as a "scholar" and a "priest"?

Or, as Raslaufer said at the time... there are only two kinds of mistakes: zero times and... countless times?

“This decision is not easy,” Heinrich noticed the student’s unusual mood. He gritted his teeth, pulled out another scroll, and stepped forward. “So, let me do it.”

This is a scroll of dissociation magic; it should allow Lord Reslaufer to leave without any pain...

"You madman!" The heavy hilt of the longsword struck the demonologist's forehead instantly, blood immediately staining his gray hair and slowly trickling down. Marie could no longer restrain Angelita, causing the girl to erupt in a burst of energy, slamming Heinrich to the ground.

"You have no right to use someone else's life to atone for your mistakes!" Angelita's eyes burned with fire. "At least you don't!"

“Does anyone have it?” Heinrich staggered and stopped Brandon, asking coldly, “Who knows what this devil wants to do? Ironforge has just escaped the clutches of the abyss, is it going to be sent to the hands of purgatory again?”

Angelita pursed her lips: "I don't care."

“Perhaps there are madmen here, but it’s definitely not me,” the scholar looked at Angelita for a while, then slowly shook his head. “Making a deal with the devil will make you regret it one day.”

“Let’s wait until the day it ‘comes’, sir,” the girl said, pointing her sword at Heinrich, “or it may have already come—I’d rather have never been to Ironforge.”

The devil looked at Angelita with admiration: "Hmm, you're starting to look more and more like your uncle, Annie. This is Zhengling, your friend in purgatory, nice to meet you."

“It’s hard to say whether we’re still friends,” Angelita said coldly, giving the devil a sidelong glance. “I don’t care what you do, get Uncle Leslaufer back to normal!”

Zheng Ling shrugged as if she didn't care. As she cast her spell, the demon's two eyeballs were pried out of their sockets by a mage's hand. Then, a stone bowl in the research room rose into the air and caught a large pool of viscous spinal cord.

The intense stench emanating from the endless abyss immediately filled the entire room, so thick that it was impossible to dispel.

"Don't worry, you will understand the fact that 'a familiar devil is far better than a strange devil'," Zheng Ling's expression softened strangely. "My personal goals have never been with you, so I don't intend to get anything more from you, so you can completely trust me."

"As for Lord Raslaufer... in theory, he is the most normal version of himself now, but I am very understanding."

Barbasabalon vanished and reappeared, bringing with him a satchel made of leather from some unknown creature. One by one, materials were taken from it and mixed with the demon's eyeballs and spinal cord. After about fifteen minutes, it coalesced into a grayish-white slurry that writhed and rolled in mid-air like a living thing. It "turned" in the air, avoiding a grab from Reslaufer, who was now too weak to swing the bed frame.

“Our stamina is almost depleted,” Zheng Ling said again with satisfaction. “Only under these circumstances is it the best time.”

“To avoid the forces of purgatory and the abyss clashing,” Heinrich said, pressing a gauze pad against the wound on his forehead, “the more you do, the more suspicious you become.”

“If it’s the mistress’s idea, I wouldn’t mind admitting it, but unfortunately it isn’t,” Zheng Ling said, still unconcerned about the accusation. “But you can rest assured that the person’s skill in this area far surpasses that of all the scholars, sages, and sorcerers in the world. If even he can’t solve this situation, then I’m afraid even the instigator is helpless.”

"The instigator?" Angelita keenly caught the word. "You mean—"

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Raslaw’s condition is something he was born with, but being born with it doesn’t mean it’s natural or normal,” Zheng Ling paused for a moment, “I guess he’s never revealed anything about his childhood, hometown, or any other earlier memories to you, has he?”

“Because he himself didn’t know,” Zheng Ling got the answer from the various expressions on everyone’s faces, “his rationality only came into being later, some time after he ‘arrived’ in the material world.”

Heinrich felt a chill run down his spine: "You mean, he actually..."

"I don't know, that's all I can say, because even that guy couldn't find the one behind it all, it's hiding very deep." Zheng Ling's phantom suddenly solidified, and the scorching magic of Flame Hell Fregesos erupted, forcefully controlling the already weakened body of Reslaufer. The ball of liquid, on the other hand, transformed into something that seemed to exist between reality and illusion, slowly approaching Dople's head and merging into it without any hindrance.

“See? There’s no rejection at all, you could even say they’re from the same root,” Raslaufer’s eyes lit up with a dim gray light as Zheng Ling spoke, his eyes seemed to turn grayish-blue, but quickly returned to their original ice blue. “But in the Endless Abyss, below the princes are lords, and below the lords are even more sub-lords. Some of them have names and are even famous in every world, while others are completely unknown, just like those nameless levels in the Endless Abyss.”

“It’s a huge hassle to investigate – especially when the other party is deliberately avoiding other presences.”

Zheng Ling observed Leslaufer intently for a while, as if confirming something, before slowly speaking, as if talking to herself, or as if reporting something to someone: "It seems we can rest assured, the one in the Deep Pit Magic Network has not noticed, or rather, He has no interest in it."

"Deep Pit Magic Network?"

“You’ve already meddled enough, Mr. Heinrich. They can know, His Excellency Reislaufer can know, but you don’t need to know,” Zheng Ling said, looking at the demonologist with a half-smile. “It’s better to keep some things to yourself.”

"All you need to understand is that when facing the demons of the abyss, the devil is not your enemy—that's enough."

Chapter 461 Return

Leslaufer saw a gray vortex.

It appeared so abruptly in this inverted starry sky that he was certain it had never existed.

A new opponent? Doples instinctively became wary, but a memory hidden deep in his heart made him realize something was amiss.

None of the spirits here appeared out of thin air; none of them did. Therefore, this vortex is abnormal.

But... what should be the normal situation? Where do these spirits come from?

Raslaufer realized he couldn't remember how long he had been there. Maybe it was only half an hour, or maybe half a century. The spirits around him had become numb at some point, no longer attacking him, and even when attacked, they wouldn't respond. They just couldn't be eliminated and kept "resurrecting" again and again.

Is this correct? Or was the previous situation the correct one?

Raslaufer was unaware that he felt he had forgotten many things, as if he hadn't used them in a long time. But regardless, at least one thing was certain: this place no longer held any appeal for him.

Even that enormous monster, whose name he didn't know, was no longer responding to his challenge.

Leslaufer slowly drifted toward the whirlpool, like a rootless duckweed. As the distance gradually shortened, a strange thought began to take hold of his mind: perhaps, there he could find all the answers there?

The gray vortex was neither too big nor too small, just big enough for one person to pass through. As Leslaufer gradually approached, a large number of memories seemed to be opened, and began to be revealed one after another.

He is Raslaufer, a mercenary from Eastern Inassassins, Doppler, this year...

A ferocious Soul Eater flashed through his memory, and he saw himself pulling its head out with his own hands.

Yes, bloodshed, slaughter, and death—that's what should happen after he takes action! Not repeated rebirths and resurrections!

He should get outside! Get out of this vortex!

Raslaufer became excited. He turned around again and recognized the land shark. Even in death, that guy had given him many surprises. Annie had really given him a good gift! But now, he should go see Annie herself first.

Of course, there were several others, Daisy, Mary, and even Paul, as well as Heinrich and Brandon—that hothead drugged himself too much!

With this thought in mind, Raslaufer immediately placed his hand on the vortex, without even realizing why he was doing so instead of simply passing through it. It seemed to be an instinct; he just knew that this was the correct way to use it.

However, as Raslaw gradually saw everything outside more clearly, more details were revealed in his mind—things he didn't know before—he broke free of the straps on the bed frame and began attacking Brandon like a madman.

Whether the priest lived or died wasn't of great concern to Leslaufer, but the possibility of what might happen next made his heart race. What would happen after that? Was he still attacking Brandon? Or had he switched his focus to Angrita and the others?!

Can they control themselves when they lose control? He's still alive, and he can go back now, does that mean—

Raslaw wouldn't let himself think any further; he had to go back now, immediately! He needed to figure out exactly where he had come from!

Raslaufer's entire "body" immediately disappeared into the vortex. He seemed to hear the cries and wails of countless creatures mingling together, but he paid no attention to them. It just seemed that whenever he was eager to do something, the rules always went against him.

Reislaufer continued forward, knowing he was still in the vortex and that his destination should be his physical body. However, as he took another step, the gray surroundings suddenly changed, transforming into a dark rocky platform. A large number of bizarre objects, even more so than the instruments in Heinrich's laboratory, were displayed around him, while in the distance lay bottomless cliffs.

"Where is this place?" Leslaufer was taken aback. For some reason, he felt a strange sense of familiarity about this place.

But he really didn't know where this place was. Dople wasn't even sure if the platform was still located somewhere in East Inasas.

Where did he come from?

Raslaufer staggered slightly. Having spent too long in the weightless demiplane, he hadn't gotten used to the feeling of solid ground beneath his feet. But he instinctively ran toward the large metal shell, wanting to touch the buttons arranged in some kind of pattern.

What do the symbols above represent? I don't know, but I'm thinking, maybe I should press the twelfth one in the third row...? It looks much better.

Leslaufer wasn't sure if he was in a daze or lucid, but he still couldn't reach the machine. With a sudden thud, he tripped over something and fell hard onto the floor of Heinrich's laboratory.

But why does this ground feel a little soft? He doesn't remember—

“Reslaufer, Uncle…” Angelita’s familiar voice pierced Reslaufer’s ears, though the girl seemed to be having some difficulty speaking, “I… can’t breathe…”

"Annie!" The moment he realized he had tackled Angelita to the ground, Leslaufer felt his soul nearly leap to the top of his head. He jumped up, pulling Angelita into his arms and shaking her violently. "What happened? What's wrong with you? You—"

“You just suddenly rushed towards Annie like you’d drunk three hundred pounds of baijiu, and then you fell forward. How were we supposed to stop you?” the bard gave her nonsensical answer. “Luckily, Annie isn’t black, or you would have crushed her to death!”

It was only then that Raslaufer noticed that there were no new bloodstains or wounds on Anne's body. In fact, apart from the bed frame lying on its four legs and the large crater in the ground that looked like it had been dug by a pangolin, there was almost no damage.

“I…I’m alright,” Angelita finally caught her breath, gasping for air. “Uncle Leslaufer, is…is that you?”

"Who else could it be?" Doppler was baffled by the question. "I am of course Raslaufer! It's just that I'm hallucinating? I seem to be having a great battle with the spirits around me, but I'm actually attacking Brandon and—her."

Raslaufer saw Zhengling beside the crater that had been smashed open: "Damn it, I must be the number one idiot in all of Inasas, actually fighting an illusion for so long!"

“Otherwise?” Zheng Ling bowed gracefully to Raslaufer. “Perhaps you think it would be better to hold a cold corpse in your arms right now, but I seriously doubt that you would know which one to hold, or take turns holding them until you completely break down and go crazy.”

"But in any case, welcome back, Your Excellency Raslaufer."

Chapter 462 Leaving Iron Fortress

Although the memories he encountered during the process of leaving the demiplane were fragmented, thankfully, with everyone's chatter, Raslaufer finally figured out the reason for what happened. However, Dopler didn't seem to have much to say about the fact that he "should have been a complete madman."

“I don’t really remember things from my earlier years,” Raslaufer’s answer was not particularly surprising when asked about the past. “My earliest memory is of standing in a downpour surrounded by corpses.”

"How old was I then? Where was I? Did I kill those people? I don't remember, I don't know, I don't know. After that, I wandered around for a while, and then took advantage of the war to become a mercenary."

In fact, Reislaufer could be said to have been a wanderer until he bought a house in Zebrecht, but he clearly didn't think so. And using this as an excuse, he also asked Zhengling about the hallucination he had just experienced.

Compared to the old sorcerer Bohr and the demonologist Heinrich, the devil clearly knew more.

“Rock platform, cliff, laboratory…” Raslaw’s description was not very precise, but the devil still summarized the most important information, nodded in thought, “I understand, this is a very useful clue, at least much better than blindly stumbling around, isn’t it? I will report this part back.”

“However, I can’t guarantee that the lady of the house won’t take this seriously, after all, she’s always very busy with official duties,” Zheng Ling rolled her eyes, “and even if we knew, we might not have to tell you—do you understand?”

Gathering information is a necessary task, but informing the parties involved is a service that the devils openly offer for a price.

“If it really is connected to the Abyss, then I’m afraid I’ll never need it in my life,” Leslaufer waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter whether you tell me or not.”

"If you knew what else besides the Soul Eater's parts were used to bring your rationality back, you certainly wouldn't say that..." the devil smiled sinisterly. "But it's alright! We're not those headless flies from the abyss; patience is the last thing we lack."

"You can continue living your life as if nothing has changed—until everything falls apart. I personally don't like this script, but unfortunately, the female lead is very enthusiastic about it."

Seeing that Reislaufer was out of danger, Zhengling's projection quickly disappeared into the material plane. Heinrich and his apprentice, who had not been able to help, or rather, had helped too much, naturally had no reason to keep Reislaufer and the others any longer. They could only apologize repeatedly and ask them to leave.

As he left, for some reason, Raslaufer subconsciously touched the Edas pendant on his chest. It still had a lingering warmth on it. Perhaps the kind-hearted goddess had also contributed to it, but what exactly she had modified was beyond Raslaufer's knowledge.

Perhaps it was to help Raslaufer return to reality, or perhaps it wasn't for him at all, but rather to stabilize the mind of a young priest who had been wavering about his life, preventing him from sliding into an abyss he shouldn't have entered.

“Professor Bohr, are you still planning to stay in Ironforge?” Angelita tried to persuade Bohr to leave with them. “This godforsaken place is probably a heavier burden for you than Magpares.”