Asura in Arknights

In terms of power, Wave Burst is probably Li Ang's most powerful move so far, but unfortunately the attack range is too short, only about one meter, so it cannot be used as a regular spell.

After that, Li Ang worked overtime to convert Originium microparticles, evenly spreading the Originium microparticles under his control throughout every part of the space.

When a sorcerer wants to unleash Originium Arts, they usually exchange energy with Originium particles in the surrounding environment. However, those Originium particles controlled by Leon are like objects that have been marked by him and have become owned, and they do not react to other people's Originium Arts.

Theoretically, if these Originium particles were spread throughout the entire space, it could even prevent warlocks from using Originium Arts, but this is very difficult to achieve in an open environment.

Could it be... because of this?

Sure enough, Li Ang then heard Dan say, "I don't know how you did it, but just now the fungi on my body couldn't absorb Originium energy from the environment, so they could only decompose my flesh and blood to obtain energy."

As the saying goes, a dying man's words are kind. Dan was no longer the violent man he once was. "Now, 30% of my body has been devoured by fungi. I don't have much time left. Give me a quick death."

The Witch King's broken horn, the Order's mission—those things were completely irrelevant to him now. He was a man on the verge of death; why should he care about those things?

Hearing Dan's words, Li Ang felt very complicated.

He really didn't mean it. Li Ang simply wanted to stop the other party from continuing to use Originium Arts, but he didn't expect to inadvertently hit the other party's weak point.

The final act of mutual destruction was merely Dan's desperate last stand in desperation.

Should this be considered accidental killing?

"I'm sorry, I can't save you, and I never expected this to happen..."

"I will end your suffering, but before that, I have a few questions I hope you can answer."

Chapter Thirty-Six: Last Words

Dan lay motionless on the ground with his eyes closed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Seeing his expression, Li Ang didn't stand on ceremony and asked directly, "What are those fungi you released into the water pipes? If an ordinary person accidentally drinks them, will there be any harm?"

Dan opened his eyes, his gaze filled with astonishment. "You just want to know this? Aren't you going to ask how to use the Witch King's severed horn and inherit his power?"

Li Ang frowned, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Why should I ask this? The Witch King's severed horn isn't in my possession; didn't you steal it?"

Seeing that Li Ang's expression didn't seem fake, Dan was stunned for a moment, then cursed his damn luck in his heart.

This blind man was truly an outsider who knew nothing, and unexpectedly, in the end, he was killed by a well-meaning citizen who cared about the health of everyone in Brandenburg...

"Cough cough... How ridiculous..."

As Dan coughed, a large amount of pinkish blood foam gushed from his mouth. He even felt that, apart from a few organs such as his heart, his abdominal cavity was filled with hyphae.

“Your worries are completely unnecessary. I don’t want to provoke the monsters in the tower,” Dan said. “Those mycelium are just what I used to find the whereabouts of the Witch King’s broken horn. They will decompose on their own in a few days after the control node is destroyed.”

"Ha...those people might get diarrhea once or twice?"

Dan saw it clearly: the crime of stealing the Witch King's severed horn could be serious or minor. The Twin Queens might not necessarily send out knights for such a matter. Even if they were caught by the sorcerer's guard, they might survive. But if he dared to use the lives of tens of thousands of people as a threat... then he would surely die. The Twin Queens might even come out of the tower and take action themselves.

Dan was still quite timid about this kind of thing. Even if the fungi got out of control, the worst that could happen was a city-wide bout of diarrhea.

Taking two deep breaths, Dan continued, "The two horns on the Witch King's head... are the culmination of his life's power."

"I don't want to hear it..."

Seeing that Dan had suddenly started talking about unrelated things, Li Ang instinctively wanted to stop her from continuing, but unexpectedly he suddenly became extremely angry and shouted, "Shut up and listen to me!"

With this roar, Dan's skin began to crack open in large areas, revealing the wildly growing mycelium underneath, bringing him one step closer to the end of his life.

Li Ang opened his mouth, but in the end he remained silent.

Once Li Ang knew that the fungi were harmless, he had already achieved his goal. After all, he was already a dying man, so why couldn't he be satisfied?

Li Ang also wanted to know what he wanted to say.

The outburst had taken a toll on Dan, and after a while he said, "One horn was shattered by the Twin Queens' sneak attack, while the other has been kept in Brandenburg."

"By implanting that horn into the body, one can gain a portion of the Witch King's power. However, this method carries a significant risk. If there is no resistance, the body will quickly be corrupted by the Witch King's power and turn into a monster... cough cough..."

"The correct approach should be... to guide it through a ritual, allowing the residual power on the broken horn to alter the nature of its Originium energy, leaving behind a seed for itself..."

After saying those few words, Dan's lungs were already panting like a broken bellows.

"...Why are you telling me all this?" Li Ang asked, somewhat puzzled.

These... must be the reasons he stole the Witch King's severed horn, right? But why did he tell me these secrets?

To be honest, Li Ang couldn't understand it. The person who killed him was none other than Li Ang himself...

“That bastard Austin, I don’t know how he did it,” Dan said with a bitter laugh. “I think the broken horn is hidden inside that rock.”

He cut that thing open, but there was nothing hidden inside. Just take it as the babbling of a dying man.

Li Ang thought to himself.

"I can see that you and I are the same kind of people... cough cough... you will make the same choice as me..."

Upon hearing this, Li Ang thought to himself, "Bullshit, who's the same kind of person as you? Did you and I even spend more than two hours together?"

“Go and retrieve that stone…” Dan spat out a mouthful of blood and said with great difficulty, “If you’ve ever been in contact with Broken Horn, they… those monsters… will find you sooner or later…”

At this point, Dan's face had turned deathly pale. All of his bodily functions had been destroyed, and he no longer even had the ability to sweat.

His time has come.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say before you die?"

A wisp of compressed Originium ring wrapped around the cane was activated, coating the cane with an invisible, sharp blade, enough to end his final life without pain.

Dan, who was lying on the ground, waved to Li Ang, signaling him to come closer.

After thinking for a moment, Li Ang realized that Dan's current miserable state posed no threat whatsoever, so he walked towards him.

After Li Ang walked to Dan's side, Dan, with strength she didn't know she had, suddenly sprang up from the ground with her remaining half of her body and grabbed Li Ang's free left hand.

After a moment's hesitation, Li Ang did not choose to retaliate. He did not sense any hostility from Dan, but rather a burning rage.

Not only that... it seemed as if something cold and hard was stuffed into Li Ang's left hand.

Dan shouted, "His Majesty the Witch King... he is not wrong! Those twins... are the real traitors!!"

"Don't...trust...them..."

Dan's voice grew weaker and weaker until he finally collapsed to the ground, still breathing faintly, but he had completely lost consciousness.

Without the control of consciousness, the fungi within Dan's body grew unchecked, and now there was absolutely no way to reverse the situation.

Seeing this, Li Ang did not hesitate to cut off Dan's head, ending his suffering completely.

Stepping back to the side, looking at the vast expanse of wildly spreading fungus in front of him, Li Ang still felt somewhat unreal.

What just happened was so surreal... What had he been through in the past few hours?

He accidentally killed the young man, but the other party not only didn't hold it against him, but even gave Li Ang a great gift in return... If the other party wasn't lying about how to use the Witch King's horn.

Even until the other person's death, Li Ang did not know his name, for the absurd reason that, 'I think you and I are the same kind of people.'

But Li Ang couldn't help but pay attention to what the other party was saying.

What if... it's true?

If the young man wasn't lying, he's now in deep trouble, and a group of 'monsters' might be coming after him soon...

"I really don't understand..."

With a sigh, Li Ang casually constructed a fire-attribute conversion spell unit. The Explosive Flame Wave Sword transformed into a blazing sea of ​​fire, burning the out-of-control mycelium in front of him to ashes.

Amidst the towering flames, a metal badge gleaming with a grayish-green light lay quietly in Li Ang's left palm.

What... is this thing?

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Arrest

The badge is engraved with a rare pattern that resembles several nested rings, but due to the special limitations of his perception of the world, Li Ang could not discern any further details from it.

What is this? The International Atomic Energy Agency? There's no such organization in Terra.

The badge was of very average quality, looking like a souvenir from a trip. Li Ang examined it several times but couldn't find anything special about it.

So why did the young man put the badge in his hand?

His dying words seemed to have a deeper meaning. On the surface, he was accusing the Twin Queens of being traitors and saying that there were hidden reasons for the death of the Witch King. But in Li Ang's opinion, it didn't seem to be the case.

In any case, the person sitting on the throne now is the Gemini Queen, and the young man's last few words seemed to be trying to cover something up.

Don't trust them... This "they" doesn't seem to refer solely to the Gemini Queens.

Shaking his head, Li Ang put the badge into his pocket. Actually, he originally wanted to throw away this suspicious thing, but then he thought that the badge might come in handy in the future, so he put it away in the end.

After cleaning up any traces that might reveal his identity, Li Ang quickly fled the scene. If he were to be spotted by the Brandenburg investigators, there would be no way to explain it.

After rushing back to the outskirts of Brandenburg, Leon did not return to the city through the main gate.

Last night, Li Ang left Brandenburg in an unconventional way. Taking advantage of the quiet of the night and when most people's attention was drawn to the chaos in the western part of the city, he simply jumped off the edge of the mobile city.

There was no record of Li Ang leaving at customs, so going back from there would be quite a hassle.

So Li Ang simply went back the way he came and climbed back up from where he had jumped down. As long as he was a little careful, he wouldn't get caught by the patrolling military police.

In fact, many illegal immigrants enter the country this way.

Given the size of a mobile city, it's not that it's impossible to achieve 360-degree surveillance without blind spots, but the cost of doing so would be too high, making it somewhat counterproductive.

Mobile cities typically only set up checkpoints in key locations. As for people who sneak in from other places... if they aren't caught on the street, they're simply turned a blind eye and pretended not to exist. It's impossible to completely prevent this kind of thing.

By the time Li Ang sneaked into the city, avoiding the outposts on the outskirts, it was already noon.

On his way back to Nauman's house, the passersby looked at Li Ang with great curiosity. After all, he looked even more disheveled than the homeless on the street. When he entered William University, he was almost stopped by the guards.

Fortunately, Li Ang was quite recognizable, and after the guards recognized him, they let him in.

Back at the villa, Adele wasn't home. While she was there, Li Ang quickly cleaned up his tattered clothes and patiently waited for her to return.

He had prepared a gift in advance to celebrate Adele's successful graduation, and the best time to give it to her would be when she returned.

Time passed little by little, and as it was almost time for school to end in the afternoon, Li Ang finally became restless.

The defense was scheduled for this morning, and even if something unexpected happened during the defense, it shouldn't have been delayed until now.

Did Adele go to celebrate with her friends after her defense? Leon quickly denied this speculation. Although he shouldn't be the one to say such things, Adele really did have very few friends.

Leon had been in Brandenburg for quite some time, but he had never seen anyone come to find Adele. No matter when, Adele always sat quietly alone in a corner.

Although this matter was not brought to the forefront, there was always a barrier between infected and non-infected people. In addition, Adele's excellence far surpassed that of her peers, so even fewer people were willing to come to her.

Li Ang's intuition told him that something might have happened to Adele.

"By the way, we can go ask the professor about the situation."

If Li Ang remembered correctly, the professor in charge of Adele's defense today happened to be one he knew very well, and that professor must know where Adele had gone.

Professor Valk of the Originium Arts Academy, who also taught the course "Originium Arts Theory," was someone Li Ang often consulted with, and the two became quite familiar with each other over time.

Professor Valk was a great help to Leon when he was developing his Originium Arts.

The professor's office was not far from the family quarters. Li Ang went there every day and knew the way very well. He could find his way there even without using his senses.

Li Ang was lucky; when he arrived, Professor Valcke happened to be in his office.

However… Professor Valcke seemed to have suffered a serious head injury. The office was filled with a strong smell of blood, and the trash can next to his desk was stuffed with bandages soaked in blood.

What happened? Was the professor attacked on campus?

Li Ang stepped forward and said, "Professor Valcke, it's me. Is your head injury alright? Shouldn't you go to the hospital to get it checked out?"

"...Hiss, it's alright, the bleeding has stopped, there's no need to go to the hospital again."

Professor Valck glanced at Leon, pressing hard on the wound on his head as he gritted his teeth and said, "But Leon, you've come at the right time. I need to talk to you."

Why look for him? Compared to the professor's matter, Li Ang now wants to know Adele's whereabouts more.

"Professor, please wait a moment. I have something to ask you. Do you know where Adele went?"

"...I was just about to tell you about this."

At that moment, the professor's expression became very strange, and his emotions became extremely conflicted, as if he was struggling with whether or not to tell Li Ang about it.

After a while, Professor Valcke took a deep breath and said, "Listen to me slowly now, and please don't act impulsively."

What do you mean? Has something happened to Adele that could have made him act impulsively?

Professor Valcke said with a wry smile, "I'm not entirely sure what happened either, but two sorcerers from the Tower arrested Adele..."

"Under the pretext of excessively severe Ore-borne disease infection."

"What did you say?"