Chapter 287: Agony
historical
“Arggh!!!”
A piercing shriek rocked Grimm awake from his deep slumber.
“Lefay! Are you alright?”
Sitting on the bed, Grimm worriedly looked at Lefay—she was grabbing her head, twitching in pain and agony.
“It’s the Brasshirta Bugs. They’re calling me. Grimm... I’m... I’m going to die... I’m going to... Arghh...”
Brasshirta Bugs—the name of Hattori the Hidden’s Symbiotic Insects. The official academic name for the insects was Hattori Bugs.
Grabbing tightly the tumor on her head, tears ran steadily down Lefay’s cheek. She gazed at Grimm with her eyes filled with regrets and reluctance of separation.
Screams of agony kept going on and on as she struggled excruciatingly on the bed.
“Caw! We can’t remove the insects from Lefay’s body. Master Grimm, you should try sealing them for Lefay.” Flapping its wings in the air, Myna was worried as it looked at the tortured Lefay.
Sealing?
Grimm had only two ways of sealing.
The first one was to use the Green Python Thread—a temporary and low-graded method; the other one was to draft up an Energy Conservation Seal and seal them in his lab.
Drafting up an Energy Conservation Seal would consume a lot of time—thus, it was not suitable for the emergency at hand.
Panicked, Grimm quickly hurled out a Green Python Thread from his pocket dimension and bandaged them on Lefay’s head.
In the meantime, he took out a potion using another hand and quickly loosened the cap before bringing the bottle to Lefay’s nose.
As she inhaled the potion, Lefay slipped into a deep sleep—lessening her pain for now.
Depressed by the situation at hand, Grimm stared at Myna and asked, “What happened?”
“It’s that Black Sorcerer. Somehow, he was provoked and started to recall his Symbiotic Insects.”
Myna’s tone was unpleasant. Lefay was exceedingly kind to Myna, pampering it for the last few months. This had made Myna get attached to Lefay.
Freaked out, Grimm clenched his teeth as he marched around in his bedroom while watching the tormented Lefay.
She had only a dozen years to live.
Why couldn’t she be left alone to live her final days in peace and quiet? Why must she suffer like this?
Why couldn’t he be given a chance to repent the wrongs he did—for leaving her behind without saying goodbye? Why couldn’t he at least be given the chance to live a normal love life?
Suddenly, Grimm stopped fidgeting around.
“What stupid ideas have you got now?” Grimm’s sudden pause spooked Myna.
Grimm slowly pulled back his hands that were waving at Lefay with a sigh.
“I was hoping to try... to see if I could disintegrate these Symbiotic Insects.”
Myna immediately retorted with a yell, “Are you out of your mind! You’ve seen it before. If the bugs feel threatened, they will explode right away! Are you trying to murder Lefay?!”
Clenching his teeth again, Grimm couldn’t help but stand there as this helplessness stung him.
After hesitating for a moment, Grimm quickly slashed open his pocket dimension to equip his sorcerer robes and Mask of Truth.
“Quick. Take a piece of Sorcerer Essence and get Duke Krakatoa here to help design a seal for Lefay. I will head to the Sorcerer Continent to find Hattori. I will try to strike a deal with him... to have him to extract these bugs from Lefay’s head.”
It was a crime to make any kind of deal with a Black Sorcerer in the Sorcerer Continent.
And if the terms that the Black Sorcerer brought up included collecting live human specimens... this would mean Grimm would need to break more laws to honor the deal.
Even though the Holy Tower eventually investigated and understood that this was done under a peculiar circumstance, Grimm would still suffer a decrease in three ranks on his Honor Badge. On top of that, there could also be at least hundreds of years of jail time waiting for him too.
Yet, Grimm had made up his mind. So long as Hattori did not bring up any immoral condition that involved capturing live human specimens, he would agree to anything. Anything at all!
This was all to right a wrong he made centuries ago. He wanted to make things right and amend this regret.
“Fine.”
Myna replied in a jaded tone. It was rare to see Myna displaying emotions like this.
Grimm clenched his teeth and slowly giving Myna his order, word by word.
“During the time of my absence, you must stay by Lefay’s side. I need you to be there for her every single minute. If... If I can’t get a deal done, I will return here the first moment I can to try disintegrate these bugs.”
After giving Myna his orders, Grimm took a long gaze at Lefay—it felt almost like he was trying to paint a portrait of her, forever recording her beautiful face in his heart. Then, he swiftly turned and darted out of the window, toward the ocean.
He knew he was about to commit a crime. Yet, this was something that he must do.
This throbbing agony that he felt... it was so hellish that no word could describe it.
...
Several days later.
Above the surface of the Jewel Sea, a wonderful song could be heard as Grimm darted across the sky. Using his Mask of Truth, he was able to see what was going on on the sea surface.
It was a bevy of Sirens who were seducing sailors on a ship.
These low-intelligent ocean creatures loved to utilize simple sound-based mind control sorcery to trick the sailors to think that they’re mermaids; and when the sailors got caught off guard, they would then become the Sirens’ meals.
The Sirens were quite evil for a breed of ocean creatures.
Of course, the veteran sailors had come prepared. They had brought some oddly shaped shells to cover their ears while shouting loudly, trying not to let the sound-based mind control get to them. Nonetheless, there were still some veterans who got caught and started to walk towards the edge of the deck with a euphoric smile on their faces.
“??”
Suddenly, a Siren noticed Grimm. It then raised its head and started to sing its mind control sorcery at Grimm.
Like a barrel of gunpowder meeting a torch of fire, Grimm got pissed off almost immediately.
“You asked for it!”
Flames spiraled around his left hand while clouds of frost formed on his right hand. Then, a dark scarlet energy ball started to form in the air before beamed out toward the Sirens.
The Sirens’ lower bodies resembled octopus while their upper body resembled that of naked disfigured ladies.
Despite having very little intelligence, the Sirens were able to sense a petrifying doomsday-like disaster darting right at their faces; thus, they quickly scattered into the water and fled into the depths of the sea.
The moment the Sirens’ singing stopped, the euphoric sailors immediately snapped out of their confusion and quickly retreated back onto the deck.
Boom!!!
The brief silence was suddenly disturbed by an ear-piercing explosion, shocking all the sailors as they watched in horror with their hands covering their ears.
A human silhouette hurled a 70 to 80-meter water pillar out of the tidal waves and then tore open the ocean in a square shape.
Creaakk!
The wooden ship was rocking back and forth along the fierce tidal waves, almost like it was going to shatter into pieces.
Several sailors screamed in horror as they fell into the ocean.
“Sorcerer!”
“Ah... it’s a sorcerer!”
Hugging the mast and ropes of the ship, the sailors yelled loudly as waves and waves of ocean tides hit them and fed saltwater into their mouths. There was a mix of appreciation and horror in their voices.
Grimm was fuming with anger while he heaved his attacks at his targets. To the sailors, it was like witnessing a personification of various apocalyptic typhoons and storms. No knights’ power and might could come close to compete with the raw power that he displayed at this moment.
“Level 1 Wild Instinct Metamorphosis! Activate!”
Layers and layers of dingy sharp scales then started to float above Grimm’s body.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, Grimm dove straight into the raging ocean.
In just a few short moments, Grimm darted out from the ocean and continued on with his flight. There were countless corpses of Sirens floating on the ocean surface as soon as he disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Then, several sharks, attracted by the Sirens’ scent of blood, flocked over and started to gnaw on the Sirens’ corpses. The sailors couldn’t believe their eyes as they stared at the feasting sharks.
“So... this is the might of the great sorcerers?” The sailors mumbled.
In half a month of non-stop flying, Grimm had finally arrived at Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy.