What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Before him lay a still, mirror-like pool of water, radiating a pale, luminous light that illuminated the once-dark cave. Leon sensed an unprecedentedly rich magical power emanating from the water, a power even surpassing that of the magical source within the Arend Island labyrinth.

Although there was no conclusive evidence, Leon was already convinced that the pool before him was indeed the Fountain of Youth.

"How did I get here?" Leon was still confused.

Weren't we just approaching the remains of Astartes? Why did it suddenly...?

Before he could figure it out, the once calm pool suddenly began to boil, and the eerie light gradually turned from a pale white to a blood red, so strange that it sent chills down his spine.

A sudden, intense pressure swept over him, and Leon instinctively retreated, knowing that something hostile was about to emerge from the pool!

It felt like entering the final boss's room in a dungeon. The cutscene was still playing, the boss hadn't appeared yet, but the powerful battle background music had already started playing, and even the boss's long health bar was already showing on screen.

"They're coming!" A familiar voice rang out behind Leon without warning.

Leon turned around abruptly and saw Princess Fred standing to his side and behind him, keeping watch on the Fountain of Youth where strange phenomena were occurring!

Chapter 696 Rehearsal and Battle of the Queen

Freyde? When did she arrive?

Leon was puzzled by this, and memories from who-knows-where began to surface in his mind:

He arrived at the center of the labyrinth, used magic to break the seal, and before the labyrinth had fully become active, he contacted Princess Freyd, who was waiting, and asked her to come to the scene to help him obtain the blood of Moirai.

The memory was vague, like a dream he had last night.

But having had a similar experience before, Leon reacted quickly this time. The Princess Frederick in front of him was not real, nor was this scene real. He was experiencing the future!

Saint Astartes's blessing was activated once again. Dorothy guessed that Astartes' remaining blessing could only access past experiences and shouldn't be able to predict future events, as that would be difficult even for a living Astarte, let alone the remains.

But if that future is just around the corner, and if we can deduce such a future simply by reading the intruder's intentions, then perhaps it will be easier to predict.

Or perhaps Saint Astartes foresaw this from the beginning, using his remaining power to create this setup—if an intruder intends to unlock the labyrinth, and is not with Moirand, then they are after the power within.

Their attempt to seize the blood of Moirai will inevitably be thwarted by the saints trained by Moirailand. Regardless of whether the saint is Princess Isis or one of her descendants, once they sense that the Great Labyrinth has been unsealed, they can influence it from other labyrinths.

The feeling Leon just experienced, similar to the Blessing of Stuart, was probably the remnant consciousness of Astartes reading his mind. The Blessing of Omniscience has the ability to read shallow consciousness, and when it read that he intended to seize the blood of Moirai for his own use, the remaining consciousness of Astartes foresaw his future conflict with Queen Iris's avatar.

Then, the power of blessing was activated, and this future began to unfold before Leon's eyes!

In the blood-red spring, a figure suddenly burst through the water. Leon barely managed to spread his wide membrane wings, revealing his powerful half-dragon body.

Queen Alice's avatar appeared in the Fountain of Youth, initially in demon form, possessing the powerful and profound strength of a true dragon, yet also exuding the graceful elegance of a woman. Her golden eyes radiated majesty, capable of stopping one's heart wherever they looked.

"You have done something you should not have done. This is a power you should never have!" Queen Alice's voice was cold, yet it resonated in the space like a booming bell, like the low roar of a dragon, making people tremble with fear.

"..." Leon did not respond. He was not thinking about how to deal with Queen Alice, but how to deal with this trial. Since it was just an illusion, he naturally did not need to respond.

It must be said that Astartes left behind a very clever program. Anyone who wants to obtain the Blood of Moirai must get past Queen Alice. If they cannot, the intruder will simply unlock the labyrinth and lose their life in a daze. Queen Alice, on the other hand, can take back everything in the labyrinth and even manipulate it to cause serious damage to the Empire.

Therefore, he made the intruder sense in advance that he would be targeted by Queen Alice in the future. If he was killed by Queen Alice in this timeline, then this result would also be projected onto the moment before the labyrinth was unsealed with the blessing, and the intruder would die on the spot, thus preventing the labyrinth from being unsealed.

If the intruder manages to steal the blood of Moirai while being pursued by Queen Alice's clone, then Astartes will be powerless to stop it, but it would be much better than the previous outcome. In fact, if the intruder is hostile to Queen Moirailand, it could even play a certain restraining role.

As for those who fight for Moirand, or those like Stuart who do not intend to unravel the labyrinth but only seek their own power, the ghost or program left behind by Astartes will likely have other solutions after reading their situation.

Leon wasn't sure if Astartes had thought that far ahead, but he still thought the design was quite good from Astartes' perspective.

But what should we do now? If we die here, we might not even have a chance to try and unseal the maze before we return to reality.

If we escape, I don't know if it will affect the original timeline...

There was no time to hesitate, for Queen Alice had already targeted him, spewing a ball of fire from her mouth.

Leon sensed the danger but did not retreat. Princess Fred rushed forward and opened the domain of the sacred land to block the attack for Leon.

"What's wrong with you? If you space out at a time like this, you could get me killed too!" Princess Fred shouted at Leon in confusion.

In her mind, Fenrir was brave and warlike, and shouldn't be so frightened by such a scene.

Leon glanced at Freyd. This Freyd in this timeline wasn't real either, so he didn't need to worry too much about her. The key to passing this trial was to protect himself!

To protect himself? No, that's what he came here to challenge!

If you can back down even from a fake trial, then your resolve will be shattered on the spot when faced with a real challenge.

This is an opportunity, a chance to practice in advance. Here he can try every possible way to find a way to defeat Queen Alice's clone. Although he will die anyway if he loses, he doesn't want Queen Alice to take back this unsealed maze.

With that thought in mind, Leon gripped the chains tightly and began to use the power of the blessing to accelerate the activation of the red mercury.

"Is your confidence based on using this to block the flames of the Red Mercury?" Queen Alice said, her eyes beginning to glow purple as she tried to interrupt Freyd's release of the sacred land with a cursed gaze.

Knowing all this, Leon drew his gun and fired in advance. Queen Alice did not dodge immediately. Firstly, Leon's acceleration exceeded her reaction limit, and secondly, she had no need to dodge at all. Her dragon form was impervious to bullets, and in terms of strength, it was comparable to the Blessed Body of Steel.

However, this time the bullet that hit her caused bleeding. The bullet that Leon used this time was made of mithril. These valuable sacred bullets can pierce dragon scales and even seriously injure a true dragon.

Queen Alice, her face injured, turned her head to cover her bleeding face, her eyes glaring fiercely through her fingers.

But Leon had already used his time-accelerated clone to preload the next round of mithril bullets, and then accelerated his firing at Queen Alice again.

Queen Alice could only turn her head to avoid being hit in the eye by Leon. Even if she could easily regenerate from this injury, an eye injury would still take time to heal, and the Cursed Gaze was interrupted.

Chapter 697 Saving and Loading

It works!

Just as Leon had predicted, the mithril bullets were able to inflict some damage on the Queen in her dragon form, a common method used by the Church to deal with such high-level monsters.

Queen Alice possesses not only the cursed blood but also a rebirth blessing even more powerful than Lamia's, so this injury could probably be healed in the blink of an eye.

But at least the damage and impact caused by the mithril bullets can slightly restrain Queen Alice's movements, preventing her from instantly killing them.

At this moment, Princess Fred also seized the opportunity to draw her usual rapier and strike, the white light piercing Queen Alice's heart with precision.

Queen Alice's body trembled, but her expression did not change significantly.

Queen Alice did not heal her wounds. Suddenly, she folded her wings and, dragging her blood-soaked body, plunged back into the spring.

"Is she trying to use water as cover?" Princess Fred asked in a deep voice.

“She should know that the Fountain of Youth can’t stop the red mercury, and she doesn’t need to,” Leon said warily.

The Fountain of Youth is said to be a source of life flowing from somewhere underground, connected to the body of the god Moirai, and is overflowing with Moirai's magic.

In the experiments that Weiss had conducted before, a sufficient amount of water could indeed block the high temperature of red mercury to some extent, but it could not block the red mercury's ignition effect on Moirai magic.

If the water contains a high concentration of active Moirai magic, it will be ignited by red mercury, although the ignition speed will be slower than in the air or inside a living organism.

If the red mercury is ignited here, the water of the Fountain of Youth will also be set ablaze. If the witch hides in the water, she is simply waiting to die.

Theoretically, the blood of Moirai hidden deep within the Fountain of Youth might also be affected. Leon is unsure whether the blood of Moirai will be destroyed by the red mercury. After getting past Queen Alice, he still has to dive into the Fountain of Youth with Freyd and obtain the blood of Moirai before the red mercury ignites the depths and they leave.

Queen Alice has no reason to fear death here. This body is merely a creation made with the magic of the labyrinth, not her true self. Even if she is killed, it will only result in a loss of magic power for her.

Before the red mercury incendiary bomb was even activated, the spring water suddenly turned even redder, and a large number of bubbles emerged, accompanied by a thunderous roar rising from below.

Leon had a vague sense of crisis, activated his precognitive abilities, and became fully focused.

As he foresaw, a colossal creature surged from the spring. Leon made his choice after only a moment's thought, accelerating time to its maximum and abandoning Princess Freyd as he rushed out of the sacred land.

In this spacetime, nothing else is real except for him. The death of Princess Freyde here is just a preview of the future. But if he dies, this result will be projected onto him in the real spacetime!

"Leon?" Princess Frey was surprised by Leon's reaction, but before she could turn around and look at Leon again, a large number of monsters suddenly rushed out of the Fountain of Youth in front of her, creating waves several meters high.

Frey was stunned. She saw dragons, cyclops, hydras, and tentacles from some unknown creature all emerging from the Fountain of Youth, as if the gates of hell in a horror story had been opened.

Only then did they realize that this was the great labyrinth for which Astartes had once sacrificed himself. After the labyrinth was unsealed, when Queen Alice regained control of it, she could easily summon multiple high-level monsters here. Fourth and fifth-level monsters would continuously be generated here, transforming into an army of world destroyers that would expand outwards.

Before the red mercury could be used, Freyd was already overwhelmed by these high-level monsters, and the sacred land quickly succumbed to the impact of the magic.

She saw Queen Alice mingling among the monsters, striking the weak points of the sacred land's barrier with her dragon claws wreathed in flames, finally breaking through the seemingly impregnable defense.

When death befell Frey, Leon had already fled far away without looking back. Queen Alice, using her authority as the Lord of the Labyrinth, searched but found that Leon had already escaped to the outer edge of the ruins and was difficult to catch.

This didn't seem like the Fenrir she knew, since Fenrir had risked his life to kill Alexie.

Could it be that……

Queen Alice, who exists in the future rehearsal spacetime of Leon, suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

At this moment, Leon transformed into a werewolf and ran wildly out of the maze, just like when he dodged the flames of the Red Mercury eruption. The closer he got to the outside of the maze, the more blurred the surrounding scenery became, as if he was gradually moving away from this time and space.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes as if waking from a dream, and found himself not running, but standing in the temple again, still gazing at the back of the Astartes statue that seemed to be making a pilgrimage to the Moirai statue.

"came back?"

Leon immediately checked his condition. He was unharmed, and all his equipment, including the Red Mercury Incendiary Bombs, was still intact.

He thought for a moment, then took out a magic mirror: "Fred, are you there?"

After entering the ruins, the only person left outside the monastery was Freyd, who was scheduled to fight alongside him. Leon specially left her a magic mirror made by Weiss so that they could communicate with each other.

According to the information provided by Principal Zevin, after entering the ruins of Elland City, remote communication using the power of blessing will be slightly interfered with, but it will still be usable for the time being.

The image in the magic mirror was somewhat blurry and flickering, but a figure could be vaguely seen.

"Are you about to start? But I haven't sensed anything. Have you really broken the seal?" Freyd's indistinct voice came from the other side.

“Not yet, I just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Leon said.

Theoretically, his vision of Frey's death should only be a future scene he observed, and his return would not affect Frey in the normal timeline.

But he still couldn't resist wanting to verify it.

"What?" Standing in the memorial hall, Frey felt completely bewildered by Leon's concern.

She's just standing here waiting, what problem could there be?

"No, it's nothing." Leon already understood the answer and put the magic mirror away.

He escaped the danger zone in that time and space, eliminating the possibility of his own death, and thus returned alive to his original time and space—this seems to be the explanation given the current situation.

What happens in the future won't reverse cause and effect, and as long as he gets away unscathed, it seems there won't be any additional costs.

Thinking of this, Leon's gaze towards the remains of Saint Astartes changed slightly. He hesitated for a moment before trying to approach the remains again.

The scene before him changed again, and he stopped in his tracks, once again seeing the spring water turning from a pale white to a bright red.

Without passing this hurdle, one cannot overcome the seal placed by the remains of Astartes.

Even if you manage to escape unscathed and try to move forward again, you will still trigger this future repeatedly.

On the other hand, as long as he can survive the rehearsal, he can repeat the exercise again and again, just like... loading a save file!

Chapter 698 The Opportunity Given by Astartes

Leon realized that this rehearsal of the future was actually advantageous to him; he could keep repeating the exercise until he found a sure way to defeat Queen Alice's clone!

The Red Mercury weapon has many limitations. Facing Queen Alice, whose strength reaches the Saint level, even if it is just an avatar, he can hardly say how much confidence he has in winning.

Repeated practice will naturally greatly improve your final win rate.

Although he had to bear the risk of actually dying if he made a mistake during practice, he could at least choose the right moment to give up and escape.

Could it be that Saint Astartes was originally designed this way?

The thought suddenly popped into Leon's mind.

If someone emerges to compete with Queen Moiland for the Moilai bloodline, the blessing of Astartes will help that person to repeatedly relive the future in the end.

If this person fails, at least they can prevent the intruder from unlocking the Great Labyrinth.

But if successful, it could thwart Queen Moyland to some extent...

But if we think about it that way, how can Astartes believe that this person who appears in the future will not pose a threat to Norren after obtaining the blood of Moirai?

Or did Saint Astartes foresee his future appearance here? Was this an opportunity Astartes was leaving for his future self?

These thoughts quickly flashed through Leon's mind and then vanished.

There's not much point in pondering these unverifiable questions; he only needs to focus on the present, as this mechanism is at least usable for him.

Preview of the second battle against Queen Alice, save file loading begins!

Leon glanced back and was surprised to find that Fred wasn't behind him.