Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 413: Section 275: Confrontation (Part 2)_2

Chapter 413: Section 275: Confrontation (Part 2)_2

"Yes, Mason was actually the best choice, he was born incomplete, without the pain brought by surgery later in life, I know he feared this path, but I believed he would come back to inherit my mantle, but I didn’t expect... he would eventually die at the hands of those children." Old Hoffman said this as he looked at Malin, "Although they are fallen, in my eyes, those children are just pitiful beings, the ones I chose, all had the proper status and abilities, so I apologize to them, the love I gave to them was actually hypocritical, I raised them, but it was just to send them on a path of suffering... That’s why I wanted to live a bit longer, to let more children live past the age of thirty, to help them cross the bitter sea, but I never thought, those children would rather become Chaos than inherit my way."

"Men do not consort with those who are different... My teacher, you certainly haven’t heard this phrase." Malin shook his head, then turned to Colin, "Colin, what do you plan to do?"

"I am the teacher’s last Apprentice, it is only natural that I become the Secret Keeper." Colin said sincerely to Malin.

"I have already told Anna, you are no longer my Apprentice, Colin." Old Hoffman shook his head.

"Then what shall we do, Hoffman? When you die, the Evil God that lost its vessel will eventually escape after the Starstone’s seal breaks due to the loss of nourishment from flesh and blood. We cannot let the Evil God out to make the whole world suffer." Old Ferrero said.

"So we should let Colin suffer instead!"

"We could let Colin have a child with Margaret first!"

The two old men’s argument ultimately made Colin stand up, he looked at Old Ferrero, "No, Teacher Ferrero, I cannot do that, Margaret deserves to become a mother, but she should not have to sacrifice for my sake, I will refuse the engagement, from the day the teacher picked me up to now has almost been seventeen years, if the teacher hadn’t found me, I would have likely starved to death long ago, so I fear nothing, maybe Fate intended my meeting with the teacher, just so I could make a choice at this moment."

After speaking, the young man walked over to Malin’s side, looked at Malin, and finally slid the ring off his finger, handing it to Malin, "Help me return this to Margaret."

"No, things haven’t reached a dead end just yet." Malin said looking at the four present, "I have a plan, it may be very dangerous, but it’s worth a try."

"You want to suppress the Evil God yourself, I must say you indeed are a courageous kid, but you are too young, you cannot undergo such a surgery, and I dare not perform such surgery because I know the moment I nod, my head will roll." Old Ferrero shook his head desperately.

"No, nobody is going to undergo the surgery for this, I have a better idea, but first, Teacher, can you ask the Church to turn off the defensive Array?" Malin shook his head—he had lived alone for half of his life, and in this life, he didn’t have too many pursuits, a house full of children was one of them; naturally, he couldn’t lead the way for Colin.

But that didn’t mean Malin couldn’t think of a plan for Colin.

"You want the Hellhound over here, that’s impossible, when it appears the whole of Carterburg will be transformed into a domain of Chaos." Old Hoffman’s eyes widened, "My child, do not think of such a terrible method."

"No, not the Hellhound, I am aware of the consequences of calling it, what I want to call is a Lich named Ails, a creature from the plane of the Undead, who has an employment relationship with my people, he has helped me handle a few Chaos souls before, I am thinking, since the Evil God in the stone is in a state of soul, and he is relatively powerful, he may have a method, we can deal with it on his turf, after all, that place is a plane of death, even if the Evil God breaks the seal, he can’t harm the world."

After finishing, Malin looked at the two old men—Colin had no say in this matter, so there was no need to involve him.

Old Ferrero glanced at the elderly Bishop of the Church of the War God beside him, "Marian, this might be a good idea."

"But I don’t trust the Undead, are you sure there’s no problem dealing with these creatures?" The Bishop shook his head, feeling somewhat unreliable.

"I think we don’t have any other options, Hoffman, what do you think?" Old Ferrero looked at his old friend.

The latter pondered for a moment, then looked at Colin, "Let’s give it a try, for Colin, my final Apprentice, if we can truly defeat the Evil God, the Secret Keepers won’t need to stack their sad Fate upon sacrifice and devotion anymore."

So, after the Array was shut down, Malin spit the candy from his mouth to Fio, who caught it, then wrapped it in foil and tossed it into the void.

After about ten seconds, a dog’s head appeared from the opened rift.

Malin was about to kill this dog when he heard it speak in human language, "Wait a second! It’s me!"

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"Ails, what are you up to?" Malin sheathed his knife.

"What are you up to again? Last time I came here, there were a bunch of people, and this time there are fewer, but each one is a capable fighter. Can I ask why?"

Ails’s points were well-grounded, so Malin explained the situation to him, and in the end, even used the name of Nameless as a guarantee, "Now you should believe me, right?"

The Hellhound retracted its head, and then they saw Ails crawl out of the crack.

This Ails took a greedy ’breath’ and said, "Ah, souls everywhere, how wonderful."

"If you ’breathe’ like that again, I will let Nameless tell my kin," Malin rolled his eyes at the foolish Lich, "How about it, a god of a desolate clergy, an Evil God, interested in making a big score?"

"Absolutely interested! Slaying a god is a deed worth boasting about for a lifetime, even if it’s just a lame Evil God from a remote world. That’s still a god, and besides, I think this clergy suits me," Ails said.

On this, Malin had some doubts, "How was it the last time you went to play?"

"Super cool! Every girl calls me Brother Ails!"

Here, the Lich fell silent for a moment, then changed his tone, "Forget it, I don’t want this thing. You can have it if you want, or just let it dissipate after killing it. What do you say?"

"Deal, but you have to leave a written record, the kind that has to mention Nameless," Malin said.

Ails nodded vigorously, "No problem, I’ll help you kill this Evil God, and if you have any Chaos that needs dealing with in the future, just come find me. Their souls are in high demand around here."

"Pleasure doing business."

So the contract was signed, Ails and Old Hoffman checked the seal, and when they saw the gemstone, the Lich cursed, "How can you people be so indifferent to life and death, to directly seal the soul of an Evil God in a stone and use a body as a vessel? Old man, your soul will be obliterated at the moment of death... and this kind of seal requires a broken body, I’m really scared of you guys."

"I thought you wizards weren’t afraid of anything," Old Hoffman said with a laugh.

"Please, why wouldn’t I be scared? I get a headache just thinking about this thing being passed down from a previous epoch from your place, that’s how many generations. Well, when the time comes, let Malin contact me. I will open a portal for you and your people to come to my world. There will be no other creatures there, then you can release that Evil God, and we’ll take care of him. How about that?"

"No problem, we’ll gather the people when the time comes. Just, will your side be disturbed by unknown forces?" The old Bishop of the Church of the War God, Marian, said.

"Don’t worry, it’s just me. But I want to make it clear beforehand, it’s written in the contract, I help you this time, and you can’t kill me for any reason."

"We’re not priests of the Evil God, we won’t repay kindness with vengeance!" Marian immediately assured, "Moreover, I can swear to the Lord of Justice, as long as you don’t harm the innocent of this world in the future, I definitely won’t raise a hand against you."

"That’s great, pleasure doing business," Ails shook hands with the elderly man, then approached Malin, "Mr. Malin, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Yes, a pleasure doing business," Malin extended his hand too.

Their hands clasped together.

Then, visibly, Ails’s hand started to smoke.

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