As his voice fell.
The silent prisoners moved.
As if receiving a holy decree, they surged like a flood toward that towering metal gate!
They reached out madly, throwing themselves against it, screaming as they melted upon it!
Flesh and blood dissolved, and souls were forcibly ripped from their shells!
Twisted, wailing, they were sucked into that gate!
Bit by bit, they outlined its golden inscriptions!
"Ahhhhhh——!!!"
Screams rose and fell.
Resounding and echoing through the empty cavern.
Thud.
Percy slumped onto the ground.
He stared blankly at the figures running past him.
He watched them, their golden eyes wide open, rushing one after another toward the gate, only to scream as they died.
A massive sense of terror and absurdity welled up in his heart!
Placed in the midst of this chaos.
He even began to doubt—was the crazy, incorrect one actually him?!
Percy clutched his head tight.
In panic, he felt the golden light that blocked his thoughts slowly cracking open like a shell inside his mind.
Tears and snot flowed down his face:
"...Dad, Mum, I was wrong..."
What Ministry of Magic? What honor and correctness?
None of it mattered.
In front of Ethan.
Just living normally was the true luxury!!
I want to resign...
This was the last thought in Percy's consciousness.
He no longer had enough sanity to survive Ethan's "second trial" as a scribe.
Let Ethan go bomb those stupid Ministry officials.
Ethan threw his head back and spread his arms.
As if bathing, he enjoyed being embraced by the surging crowd.
He heard the shrill roars and felt the longing arms brush past him.
Melting into the gate.
He felt the light of the Lamp in his skull filling up, constantly expanding.
[You called upon these numb young people to shed their blood and sacrifice themselves, making their rotten lives shine and heat up again!]
[Your warm-hearted actions have warmed the world!]
[Lamp brightness increased!]
[Your magic now possesses a richer power of light! You can exorcise deeper curses!]
[Congratulations! You successfully used a sufficient amount of souls as a key to open the ancient gate!]
As the subtitles appeared.
Rumble——
The originally tightly closed gate slowly opened.
Immediately.
A thick crimson blood mist surged out!
Within just a few breaths.
It filled the cavern.
It made Ethan smell a very heavy scent of rust.
As if countless piles of flesh and blood were stacked inside the door.
[Un... Unbelievable...]
The trembling voice of the undead rang out as he cautiously drilled out from the distance.
He stared in shock at the river-like liquid in front of the gate.
[You actually gathered enough souls... How on earth did you summon such a large group of people?]
At this moment.
The Dark Wizard looked at Ethan without hostility.
It was all admiration for a fellow traveler.
—Good lad, promising for his age.
The Dark Wizard drifted over slowly, looking at the fainted Percy with an itch in his heart.
He wanted to suck his soul.
But he was forced back by Ethan's emotionless stare.
Knowing deep down he wasn't as skilled, and not as "underworld" as Ethan.
He cleared his throat and said reservedly:
[Your strength is indeed formidable, enough to rival me, 'Ekrizdis the Profane'.]
[Since you have opened the gate, I invite you to share this ancient treasure with me!]
[Together... we shall rule the world!]
Rule the world?
Sorry, someone invited me to do that long before you.
Ethan ignored the undead talking to itself, treating it as a corpse speaking.
Looking at the crimson gate, curiosity rose in his heart:
What kind of secret treasure was hidden inside to make this Dark Wizard so crazy?
Crazy enough that hundreds of years ago, before the magic system was even perfected.
He reached the threshold of immortality.
Even Lord Voldemort would have to bow his head and respectfully call him "Senior" in front of him!
"I really want to fight this guy in his prime; it would definitely be interesting and spark more of my inspiration," Ethan thought, smacking his lips.
He stepped forward, cautiously casting a layer of protection on himself.
Then, placing both hands on the gate, he pushed hard——
Rumble.
The heavy gate crashed open, and crimson mist sprayed out.
It covered the skin of the surviving prisoners, who had already been scared into idiots.
It eroded them, leaving scar-like coverings.
Causing their skin to wither and age rapidly.
In just a few seconds.
They turned into blood-red dried corpses, one by one!
Sizzle.
The magical barrier full of light power constantly blocked the erosion of the mist.
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
When he saw the scene inside the gate clearly through the thick mist.
He couldn't help but hold his breath and widen his eyes!
What came into view was a colossal heart!
It was fully a dozen meters high, standing amidst a network of organic veins.
The surface was shriveled and brownish-red, covered with large patches of rotting scabs, like a hard shell.
Like a fruit that had lost its nutrition.
Looking closely, it was still beating imperceptibly.
——Buried beneath Azkaban was an ancient heart!
"This is..."
Ethan was surprised, his nose twitching.
He smelled a very familiar scent.
That was—the scent of Fate!!
Exactly the same as the scent he had smelled in the Mirror World at the end of last term.
It emitted a density of magic power that normal wizards could hardly achieve.
[You discovered ¥&*%]
[Soul Fusion Level Check Passed, Knowledge and Skill Check Passed, Curse Resistance Check Passed!]
[Sanity... Check Passed!]
A needle-like stinging pain.
The garbled text in the subtitles disappeared, replaced by a line of shocking text!
[You discovered Death's Heart, the Heart of Corruption!]
[Heart of Corruption: In ancient times, when the sun was sundered, Death used this darkness to abandon His physical body, ascending to the firmament in soul form until He obtained the power to wield Fate.]
[This is the only remaining limb left by Death. The heart, which originally possessed endless beating power, has mutated into a corrupt form after the baptism of time.]
[It infects and mutates nearby creatures while simultaneously endowing them with vigorous vitality.]
This is Death's heart?
Death has a heart?!
Ethan's eyes went wide; he felt as if he had touched upon some unspeakable secret!
...If Death once possessed a physical body, it meant...
He was once a "creature" composed of body, soul, and disposition.
A question immediately popped into Ethan's mind——
Since the high-ranking Death was "promoted" from a creature...
Then...
Can I become "God"?
Possessing the same authority as Death?!
In an instant.
Ethan's breathing became ragged, and his heart pounded!
An uncontrollable passion burst forth from deep within his chest!
It turned into an electric tingle that spread throughout his body!
...No wonder it required passing so many checks to learn the historical truth of this heart!
At this moment.
The subtitles displayed new text:
[As a part of Death——even if it is an abandoned part]
[You can still deal Him true damage by killing this heart]
[This can be regarded as one of the conditions for ascension: Eliminate the Avatar of Fate!]
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