noveltune Chapter 187 The Peacock's Doom
Chapter 187 The Peacock's Doom
Chapter 187 The Peacock's Doom
If the god who controls fate is a novelist, then this plot is just too outrageous!
Gebu was momentarily unable to comprehend what he was witnessing. Just moments ago, he had been looking completely dazed and confused.
The orc Goliath, who used to be so loud, suddenly became wise, and even his eyes looked different!
"I must say, your timing is absolutely perfect. As an ancient sage once said, a wizard is never late or early; he only appears precisely at the most opportune time."
The peacock praised with a fawning expression, its old face full of wrinkles.
Goliath ignored the old elf's flattery and instead examined his own body. He noticed the crossbow bolt stuck in his abdomen and frowned.
"A dull mind and a bloated body—admittedly, this is not an ideal shell. But brute force has its uses, and dullness has its advantages—an empty brain is easy to possess, and the lack of one's own thoughts is not necessarily a bad thing for someone born with deformities."
"Golden Mask" spoke clearly and slowly, and despite his deformed appearance, he still exuded an undeniable air of refinement.
"Big guy—what did you say? Did you hit your head?" Yvette, who was standing nearby, got up from the ground and looked at the orc in surprise. She stepped forward and tried to touch the orc's body—Goliath gently raised his hand and whispered a spell. The half-elf poet was pressed to the ground by some force and tried to get up, but he couldn't.
"What is this—it's so heavy—what did you do to me? Big guy, are you crazy?!"
"Shh, please keep quiet and be patient for a moment. After it's over, I will return your companion's body to him."
Before Yvette could say anything more, the orc raised an eyebrow, her own collar flew up, and she rolled it into a ball and stuffed it into the woman's mouth, sealing it completely.
"Ugh—Ugh!"
"Shut your mouth, you bastard," the elf cursed at the half-elf. Then, in an instant, she changed to a submissive expression and once again held the Book of Sand high in front of Goliath. Her thin arms trembled slightly, not just because of the weight of the book.
The old woman's skin began to slowly turn black as she touched the book, and the black aura flowed along her blood vessels toward her torso.
The old elven woman, enduring the pain, looked at the golden mask with red eyes, waiting for him to take the book.
"【The Curse of Original Sin】, how interesting." The "Golden Mask" watched as the peacock was influenced by the spell on the Book of Sand, like an alchemist observing a newly discovered chemical reaction, and was mesmerized for a moment.
"Touching forbidden secrets will result in magical backlash—who said the priests of the Church of O'Bak don't understand dark humor? This curse itself is the greatest irony for wizards."
The golden mask was talking to itself, and the peacock couldn't take it anymore. It loosened its grip, and the book fell to the ground.
"Ugh! My arm—Dartho!" she cursed in Elvish.
Geb finally realized that the golden mask had projected its will onto the orc Goliath through some kind of magic. Because Goliath's head was empty, possession was relatively easy.
This guy's magic was far superior to mine! He could cast spells at will, using someone else's body from an unknown distance—and he killed Vulture, the chief witch hunter, without hesitation!
Gebu watched as the peacock threw the book on the ground, then his eyes lit up and he immediately ran to the two of them, picked up the Book of Sand, blew off the dust, and held it to his chest.
He looked up and met the orc's deep eyes.
Golden Mask, I've finally met you.
The halfling took a deep breath and bowed.
"Please forgive my rudeness. I am Gebu, and I am at your service."
"Stop pretending, goblin. You have nowhere to go. That book belongs to Lord Golden Mask." Peacock sat on the ground, grinning, clutching his rotting hand, and said viciously. "That was a gift I gave to him—you fell into my trap and delivered the book."
"Come on, you can't even lift it, and you want to give it as a gift? That's hilarious." Gebu chuckled, mocking, "Who's fallen into whose trap? Your old witch hunter lover got killed, so you're trying to suck up to the wizard? Whose side are you really on?"
Gebu threw out a sentence, and Peacock's face turned blue and purple. He couldn't speak, but just stared at the halfling with murderous eyes.
Trying to twist the truth in front of the golden mask and frame me? Gebu sneered, thinking to himself: You old man, you're still too green.
"Not only is the book not yours, but you also failed to make that bottle of poison. You even had to rely on the Golden Mask to send someone to get you the scorpion stinger, and in the end, I personally got my hands on it. What else can you do? Just by talking, you think you can have everything? You're dreaming!" Gebu relentlessly attacked the old peacock, giving her no chance to breathe. The halfling turned to the Golden Mask and said, "Even if she really killed me, would she really give you the book? To win people over against me, this old woman promised this book to several people: Princess Hilian, the witch hunter Vulture, and you. This old elf has been using one enemy to devour another from the very beginning, even scheming against you."
"————Liar! Utter nonsense!" Peacock roared hoarsely from the side.
The goblin wizard felt uneasy as the "golden mask" looked at Geb's face through the orc's eyes, but he forced himself to remain calm.
"I'm curious, Geb," the man in the golden mask asked after a moment, his voice calm and composed. "The Curse of Original Sin has no effect on you. Why?"
Well----
Geb fell silent. He didn't know either.
He vaguely remembered hearing Baldy mention something like "the Book of Sand is cursed" in the basement, but Gebu didn't think much of it. Because from the beginning, the Book of Sand hadn't had any negative impact on him.
Oh, and that Evocation Wizard who died in the bear cave back then also had his stomach burned black by this book—
"—To be honest, I don't know either. Maybe it's because I'm a goblin? Perhaps this curse only affects humans in a broad sense, and doesn't affect humanoids."
"Or perhaps, this book has chosen you," the golden-masked man suddenly said.
"That's also possible."
"What level have you reached?" the orc asked.
"Second Ring Road".
"How long did it take?"
"It took less than a month to go from the first to the second ring," Gebu said. There was no need for wizards to hide anything from each other. "It took a little over a month to go from the zeroth ring to the first ring. Actually, it could have been faster, but resources were lacking. You know, the Kingdom Forest is not like the Magic Academy; potions and alchemical materials are not so easy to obtain."
"Two months, from having no foundation to becoming a second-circle wizard." The golden-masked man chuckled. "If you don't mind me asking, where is the original owner of this book?"
“He’s dead,” Geb said bluntly. “He underestimated me and let his guard down, so I killed him.”
"Look! This is the true face of this little beast. He's a traitor, a butcher!" Peacock screamed desperately from the side, her voice hoarse from shouting.
Ignoring the old elf's accusations, the golden-masked man continued to speak to Geb: "It seems that Antin created a monster with his blood."
The man slightly raised his head, tilted his chin up, and sized up the short man in front of him.
"Your magical talent is astonishing, goblin."
Gebu thought to himself: It's all thanks to this precious book—but Gebu certainly wouldn't refute what the Golden Mask said. His chances of survival would increase if he could prove to the Golden Mask that he was more useful than the Peacock.
"Thank you for your praise. To be honest, to receive the appreciation of a true wizard is an immense affirmation for me. I have witnessed your magic, and I am no match for you. However, if you would give me a chance, I would be willing to serve you."
"What if I asked you to give me your precious book? Would you do it?"
Gebu's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively clutched the book to his chest.
The golden-masked man observed the goblin wizard's physical reactions and found the answer to his question.
He paused for a moment, then slowly asked, "Why did you contact me? Don't you know the risks involved?"
"To tell you the truth, I want to become a great wizard. I want to become stronger. I want to get rid of this useless body and do things that a goblin can never do."
"Since you're a second-circle wizard, you must have experienced the Deep Well Ceremony. Then you should know that the path of wisdom you've chosen is the most difficult wizarding path—breaking through your limitations and becoming a great wizard isn't something you can achieve with mere boasting. To become stronger, you'll sacrifice many things, and these sacrifices don't necessarily guarantee success. In the end, you might have nothing left. Even so, do you still choose to continue?"
From the man's tone, Gebu sensed a hint of mutual appreciation. This man also walked the path of wisdom; he must have experienced the trials Gebu had gone through. On the most fundamental spiritual level, the two shared a tacit understanding as fellow travelers.
After a moment's thought, Geb said sincerely, "I've already embarked on this path, and I won't turn back. To become a wizard, I sacrificed my home, my goblin tribe—everything I knew in my life was reduced to ashes in a fire started because of me. But if I were given the chance to choose again, I would do the same thing without hesitation."
Listening to their conversation, Peacock seemed to realize that she could no longer defeat Gebu, and desperately threw herself on the ground, howling at the golden mask.
"How heartless! He's a despicable gambler! Kill him! Kill him! Golden Mask! He'll betray you at the first chance! Look at me now!"
The golden-masked man seemed finally unable to tolerate the noisy peacock any longer. He turned to her and said, "Your current miserable state is entirely your own fault."
"Please, kill him! It's not too late. This goblin's ambition will devour everything he comes into contact with!"
"And your incompetence has dragged everything around you into the abyss. Peacock, I cannot allow failure again and again."
After saying this, the Golden Mask ignored Lady Peacock. He turned to Geb and said, word by word, "Beneath your polite facade lies a restless ambition. But I admire that. It's what the remaining wizards on this continent lack most. If you can prove your worth, there will eventually be a place for you in that towering ivory tower."
"That book has chosen you, and its knowledge will be at your disposal. Yes, I hope to uncover its secrets, but I hope even more to create a future shared by all wizards. If wizards in this world are like the legendary dragons, hoarding their secrets in treasure vaults and refusing to share them with others, then our remaining arcane heritage will eventually crumble and disintegrate like the empires of the past."
"Keep that book. Before the festival of O'Bak's séance, take it, along with the poison you promised me, to Port Queen and Shanhaiguan. There, I will reveal to you what to do next."
Does this mean I passed?
Gebu let out a long breath, his expression relaxing. In contrast, Lady Peacock's face was contorted with grief, as if she had lost her parents; despair and sorrow transformed into boundless anger, erupting from the old woman's frail body.
"Cin fulish firen———— Cin gúl uin galadrim. Aen condmns cin!"
(Foolish monkey, barbarian who stole magic from the elves, may the gods curse you!)
Gebu didn't quite understand what the old woman was saying, but judging from her expression, she must have cursed something.
Upon hearing the Elvish phrase, the orc frowned slightly; certain words in the phrase seemed to pierce his very core.
The golden mask, still holding Goliath's mouth, spoke with an icy chill:
"Mín thev nul. I edhel plural edhil lust gúl na thr omnn
insolence.
(We stole nothing. The elves lost their magical favor entirely because of your immense arrogance.)
With the last of its strength, the peacock stood up, pointed at the orc's nose, and cursed, "I curse you! I curse your descendants! May the ether devour your filthy soul! Kill me, and you will never know the truth behind that book! The Old Gospel—the Library of the Yellow Sands—what do you know? It's not a book, it's a key—"
The old woman had talked until her saliva was dry, her voice as rough as sandpaper. Her words gradually turned into incoherent ramblings, a mixture of Elvish, ancient sage's language, and some strange other language. The orc did not respond to her words; in fact, his gaze began to wander, as if he were looking through the peacock in some distant direction.
As the peacock was speaking, the orc Goliath suddenly reached out a large hand, grabbed the elf's chin, and covered her mouth.
"The peacocks are so noisy—my head hurts so much—what was I supposed to do again?"
Peacock stared in astonishment at the orc's dull eyes, and suddenly realized that her last chance of survival had vanished with Goliath's intelligence.
"Oh right, I'm going to kill the peacock!"
The orc grabbed the peacock's chin with one hand and raised the cleaver with the other, chopping it diagonally down the old woman's neck like chopping a chicken.
*Plop.* A damp, muffled sound.
"Hmm."
This was the last sound Lady Peacock uttered in this world. Her last action was to cover her aged face.
The blade pierced her collarbone, passed through her chest cavity, and lodged in her lumbar vertebrae. The peacock's body offered no resistance, and she died like a beast.
The elf's eyes lost their color. Its pointed ears snapped upwards and then drooped down.
"Hey, still a tough nut to crack."
The orc held the peacock firmly in place, then sawed at her waist several times with his knife, severing her spine. With a thud, the woman's legs fell to the ground, scattering across the floor.
Goliath put down his knife, then twisted it with his hand, pulling out his head along with half a spine. He looked at the head in his left hand and the half-corpse in his right. He decided to keep the head and throw the dead flesh on the ground.
pat.
"This can be used to claim a reward, right, Ai?" The orc showed the head to the half-elf, like a child showing off a worm he had just caught to his mother.
"Ouch—what happened? I'm in so much pain—" The half-elf had just gotten up from the ground, rubbing his sore mouth. When he looked up, he saw Lady Peacock's head with her eyes rolled back in front of him, and he almost fainted from fright.
"You scared me to death—just keep it in your ears!! Is such a big head supposed to be strapped to your belt?! Aren't you afraid of getting arrested by the guards?! It stinks, take it away! Ugh—"
"Oh, you should have said so earlier. Why did you go through all this trouble?"
The orc ripped an ear off the elf's head, then casually tossed Lady Peacock's head upwards, sending it flying to who-knows-where.
Snap, snap snap, snap.
The head rolled into the corner of the bushes.
The moment the peacock was chopped to death by the butcher's knife, the effect of the curse of time vanished, and the head's face reverted to that of the still-beautiful elven woman—but apart from crows and maggots, no one could ever again admire that beautiful face.
When Gebu saw the woman's two severed body parts and a pool of unrecognizable internal organs left on the ground, he almost vomited.
Whether it's an elf, a human, or a goblin, after they die, they're all just a lump of rotten flesh.
This is the impression Lady Peacock left on those who witnessed her final moments.