Diary of a Dead Wizard
Chapter 447: Siphoning

As Gudo touched the magic formation carved into the stone, the tip of his finger immediately began to glow faintly.

The surge of magic startled the wraiths above his head, and their wails grew louder.

The mental pressure on Gudo grew heavier as well. His face turned pale—clearly in pain, but his movements didn’t pause for a second. On the formation he had found, he began drawing a unique and complex rune.

Click!

The stone with the carved formation suddenly split apart to either side. Beneath the stone, a black goblet was revealed.

The black goblet emitted a gentle and warm white light, instantly illuminating the small underwater cavern.

Whoosh—

Before Gudo could even get a clear look at his surroundings, the seawater inside the stone cavern began to churn violently. The fragments of wraiths that had been drifting aimlessly were now rushing straight toward him—or rather, toward the black goblet.

In that instant, Gudo came to deeply understand what it meant to be flooded with souls.

His face twisted in agony, and his teeth clenched tight.

Scarlet blood seeped out between his teeth.

Yet no matter how agonizing his body felt, Gudo unwaveringly reached toward the black goblet.

The murky fragments of souls pressed against him from all directions, blinding his vision. But while they could block his sight, they could not stop his hands.

At last, Gudo touched the stem of the goblet. Enduring the pain, he switched from feeling to gripping it in excitement.

But the moment he grasped it, he realized something had changed in the sensation against his palm.

What he felt was somewhat soft, and under the force of his motion, it squelched into his hand.

The swirling storm of wraith fragments before his eyes suddenly scattered like frightened birds, revealing a face that made Gudo’s heart clench in terror.

“Saul!!!”

Gudo could no longer care that he was underwater. He opened his mouth and shouted, and streams of bubbles rushed upward from his lips.

The face that appeared before him was pale and bluish, not like the living. It was faintly translucent.

And beneath that face, instead of a torso, were thick, twisted octopus-like tentacles.

The suckers on the tentacles opened into mouths, each lined with sharp, gleaming teeth, surging toward Gudo from all directions.

In that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Gudo’s mind, but in the end, only one remained.

Soul Poison!

Facing this bizarre version of Saul, Gudo felt an overwhelming sense of danger. Only the soul poison crafted specifically against Saul gave him a sliver of reassurance.

Even though the poison released under such conditions might harm him as well.

But there was no more time to hesitate.

Gritting his teeth, Gudo surged magic into his arms.

Bang!

Twin bursts of blood bloomed in the water, instantly making the sea murky once more.

The numbing soul poison quickly spread from his arms to his torso.

And then, Gudo’s arms detached from his body like the limbs of a marionette.

Before the wounds could even spurt much blood, new skin rapidly began to grow.

By severing his arms, Gudo had done everything he could to minimize the chance of infecting himself with the soul poison.

But he was certain that Saul’s strange skin would not be so lucky.

Yet when the pain subsided and he came back to his senses, he was horrified to find that the tentacles had already wrapped around his face and torso!

The gaping mouths on the suckers grinned wickedly, and the moment Gudo opened his eyes, they bit into his face.

Agonizing pain wracked his body. After the torment of torn flesh came a far more terrifying sensation: the feeling of being drained.

Gudo felt as if he had become a thick soup in a colander, powerless as he seeped out in every direction.

“Impossible!”

Gudo felt as though even his eyeballs were melting, being sucked into a strange space. He saw a narrow and eerie grey passageway.

All around him, soul fragments flickered like fireflies.

They were being swept forward along tunnel-like channels, occasionally squeezed from both sides by the narrowing walls.

His form grew more viscous, fragmented.

Easier to digest?

“So this is what it feels like to be eaten?” Gudo’s last remnants of consciousness drifted in confusion. “But why is Saul unharmed... and even able to kill me?”

—

Outside, Saul—transformed into a monstrous, octopus-like soul form—slowly released Gudo.

The latter had become a corpse. Though his body bore not a single wound, it radiated a fragile, on-the-verge-of-shattering aura.

Saul himself was in a state of mental disarray.

Just moments ago, in order to reel in Gudo’s soul quickly, he had absorbed it at full force.

But Gudo had been surrounded by a large number of soul fragments. As a result, in absorbing Gudo’s soul, Saul had also inhaled vast quantities of those fragments.

And within those fragments, the evil thoughts were so concentrated it nearly took physical form.

Thus, even Saul was momentarily paralyzed after taking in such dense hatred.

Countless evil thoughts surged into his soul through every pore. The larger, more intact fragments were crushed as they passed through, ground like jelly through his throat and mouth.

At the same time, Saul began seeing broken, flickering images—each one a soul’s most desperate obsession.

But ever since his promotion, Saul’s mental strength had grown far more solid than before. He did not become lost as he once might have.

It was like watching a choppy, chaotic short film, and then it was over.

Still, within that flood of fragments, he once again glimpsed a thread connecting all the scenes.

This time, however, he made no attempt to pull it.

The more one knows, the deeper the reverence for the unknown.

Saul could faintly sense it now—if he touched that thread, something far more terrifying than evil thoughts might latch onto him.

—

While Saul watched his personal horror film, Gudo’s soul poison was also spreading through his soul form.

But what Gudo hadn’t accounted for was that Saul was currently completely out of his physical body.

The flesh that the poison was meant to target wasn’t even present.

Back when he’d been poisoned at the Wizard Tower, Saul had wondered whether he could suck toxins from his own skin by drawing out his soul.

That experiment had been interrupted.

This time, he’d directly used his soul form to bear the brunt of Gudo’s poison.

And the diary gave no warning.

As soon as the poison began invading his soul, Saul heard the sound of pages rustling in his mind.

Almost instantly, the poison aimed at his soul was completely absorbed.

By the time he regained full awareness, the detoxification process had already finished.

It was so fast, so thorough—it was as if he had never been poisoned at all.

“Just as I thought. With the diary’s ability to absorb evil thoughts, soul-based toxins are no threat to my soul form.”

“That also explains why the diary didn’t give a warning last time Gudo poisoned me. Because the poison wouldn’t kill me. Once it reached my soul, the diary would just cleanse it. But if I had failed to help Master Gorsa because of it, I would’ve been removed by others after his death.”

Saul nodded. He finally understood what had happened back then.

All the evil thoughts had now been consumed. That jelly-like sensation of being sucked through his skin slowly faded.

Saul shuddered, and dozens of tentacles drifting in the seawater gradually fused back into the form of a human.

“Seems like this soul poison is essentially a form of evil thought—perfectly countered by the diary.”

Once he confirmed Gudo was truly dead, Saul cast his gaze once more toward the black goblet wedged between the rocks.

He was still in soul form, unable to carry physical objects, so he swiftly exited the sea cave.

Ten minutes later, after returning to his body, Saul reentered the cave.

By then, the previously exposed goblet had once again vanished beneath the rock.

The spell formation concealing the item was surprisingly advanced.

Leave it unused for a while, and it automatically seals itself.

Although the goblet was sealed again, Saul was in no hurry.

He opened the black diary inside his soul and turned to the sixth black page.

“How do I unseal it?”

[Find the third node on the rune and draw the deformed oceanic rune along the markings.]

The black page that had belonged to Gudo gave Saul the answer.

Following Gudo’s instructions, Saul easily reopened the seal and once more laid eyes on the softly glowing black goblet.

But he didn’t reach for it right away—instead, he focused his attention on the black diary page that once belonged to Gudo.

“So convenient… The power of the diary’s black pages… It’s far too tempting for corruption.”

(End of Chapter)

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