Chapter 735: The Ashborn Beast

Heine once again wandered into the courtyard of Castle Adra.

Yes, again, not for the first time.

The reason Heine was the first to discover Hishiri Adashino's fake corpse wasn't because he woke up early as he claimed, but because he hadn't slept at all.

On the night of Hishiri Adashino's death, he had already begun his investigation in his way and made significant progress. Hishiri Adashino's death provided him with new clues and direction for his investigation, right here, in this seemingly unremarkable courtyard.

There was a forest there, resonating with the rustling of leaves that sounded like a witch's laughter, a nighttime forest.

"...It seems this path is correct," he muttered to himself as he stepped onto the pile of fallen leaves. He came to a stone monument where there were signs of dragging nearby.

Heine thought for a moment, then began to push the monument.

He felt the flow of air between the gap of the pedestal and the ground. Soon, stairs leading underground gradually appeared from that gap.

There was a tunnel, a deep tunnel that seemed bottomless at first glance. Although European castles often have secret passages, one this deep was truly rare.

Heine pondered for a few seconds before finally making up his mind.

He slowly descended the stairs. His steps were light, yet they made loud sounds when hitting the ground, causing him some unease.

He knew he was being somewhat hasty, and investigating alone was not appropriate. Hishiri Adashino was already dead, and no matter how confident he was, he dared not say he was stronger than the administrator sent by the Law and Politics Department.

The correct approach would have been to make allies like Luvia did and act together. Unfortunately, although he had also established an ally during the day, this ally was now protecting his sister, who was more important to him than his own life.

The reason he came here, the reason he took this risk, was all for his sister, Rosalind, whom he loved more than anyone else.

He recalled her profile.

He recalled her adorable appearance, tilting her head like a bird and looking up at him.

Recalling her attachment to him, the young knight unconsciously glanced at his leg.

To be precise, not his leg, but the magic crest on his leg.

Initially, Heine had no intention of inheriting the magic crest. The young man's bright and open-minded personality was incompatible with the inevitable dark side of magecraft, so he knocked on the door of the Holy Church, partly out of interest and partly to escape. The Istari family, having lost their heir, naturally turned their attention to their second child, Rosalind.

Tragedy struck.

Rosalind's body had an abnormal reaction to the magic crest.

It wasn't a rejection due to low compatibility, but rather an excessive adaptation.

Rosalind obtained the entire magic crest in just one year, and seemingly without any rejection reactions.

But this was only on the surface; in reality, almost all of her life force had been taken by the magic crest.

By the time the family realized something was wrong, by the time Heine had freed himself from the Holy Church's obstruction and returned to the Istari family to accept the re-transplantation, it was already too late.

The magic crest that had once been transplanted into Rosalind had undergone a qualitative change.

Although Rosalind's body had recovered to a certain extent, this time it was Heine's life force that was slowly being drained by the magic crest. Due to receiving a more vigorous life force from Heine, the magic crest invaded from his leg into his body and became extremely complex, to the point where even removal was impossible. According to the diagnosis of an old acquaintance witch doctor, he could only hold on for a few more years.

Heine didn't care about his own life or death; dying would completely liberate him from the magic crest. Although it was regrettable to die halfway, such examples were too common in the history of magecraft.

There was only one thing he could not tolerate, could not accept no matter what - he didn't want Rosalind to see his death, didn't want her to know that he died because of her.

That's why he needed Geryon Ashborn's secret tuning, the technique that could freely adjust the crest.

Once again steeling his resolve and banishing his unease, the knight who protected his sister advanced while pondering.

Had Hishiri Adashino also been here?

Was this the reason she was killed?

How was she killed, and how did she end up on the Sword of the Angel?

After advancing for a while, Heine sensed an unusual magical energy.

"Is this the core of the workshop?"

All magus could confirm that the entire Castle of Separation was a workshop, but no matter what kind of workshop it was, there would always be a core. It was the source of everything and also the place most likely to hide secrets.

"Convert!"

He murmured, and his body burst into purple light, a sign that the Istari family's magecraft Living Stone had activated.

The stronger the magecraft is activated within the body, the more powerful it becomes - this was the Istari's original principle, and the Living Stone was a product of this principle taken to the extreme. It fused with its master's body and could transform the self with just a short incantation.

The purple light illuminating the body surface was the result of the body surface combining with alchemy, emitting points of light from the magical alloy produced. This included his face and clothes. Heine's suit was also woven using Istari alchemy, able to fuse with the Living Stone and had the effect of stabilizing its form.

At this moment, Heine looked like a heavily armored knight who had traveled from ancient times, clad in heavy armor and wielding a lance.

The hardness of the armor was no less than sapphire, and the lance could rival diamond. If he charged together with the Istari family's matching mechanical horse, he was confident he could pierce through composite tank armor.

This lance and armor were his destiny. It was Heine Istari's armed form that had once repelled all the assassins from the Holy Church. When the knight entered this state, he was capable of facing lower-ranked Heroic Spirits head-on.

His footsteps changed, becoming heavy and solemn. They hit the walls and echoed back, merging with new footsteps, making the air in the passage increasingly oppressive and chaotic.

However, no matter how chaotic the environment became, Heine remained calm. Soon, his magically enhanced vision caught sight of a shadow deeper than the darkness itself.

A beast wrapped in darkness, its true form unclear.

"We meet again," Heine smiled at the shadow, lowering his center of gravity and raising his lance.

On the night of Hishiri Adashino's death, he encountered this beast and had a brief skirmish with it. As a result, Heine had won by a small margin, the beast had fled, and he had chased it to the courtyard where he discovered Hishiri Adashino's corpse.

The knight didn't underestimate his opponent because of one small victory. Although he called it a beast, its actual level of intelligence was unclear, and it was unknown if someone was controlling it from behind, or if the controller was lurking nearby.

Cautiously closing the distance, even though his armor was sturdy enough, he didn't carelessly take the enemy's attacks, fully utilizing the range difference between claws and lance.

Now was the time - the lance pierced through the air as the shadow also rushed forward at the same moment.

The tactic unfolded as planned: his armor remained unscathed, and he felt the sensation of deep penetration from the lance's tip.

However, it was Heine who suffered - the tip of the lance, comparable to a diamond, was missing a piece when withdrawn. The shadow beast's claws had not aimed for Heine, but for the lance itself that he was wielding.

After succeeding, the shadow continued to lurk in the darkness, as if mocking Heine's weakness, implying that next time it would be his armor.

"I've been tricked," Heine was grateful for his caution; the beast's displayed abilities were far stronger than during their first encounter.

He raised his wrist, readying his stance once more. The newly formed metal was slightly shorter than before, once again forming a lance blade.

However, this meant nothing to the beast. Neither the lance nor the armor could stop its claws, and Heine's physical abilities were far inferior to it.

The beast leapt. It ricocheted back and forth in the narrow passage like a pinball.

At first, Heine could count the number of rebounds, but as the beast's speed increased, even breaking the 300-yard barrier, it surpassed the limits of human dynamic vision, even with magical enhancement.

In the moment when Heine was overwhelmed and exposed an opening, the beast launched its attack. From Heine's blind spot, claws more terrifying than the lance easily embedded themselves in Heine's armor. Just like how Heine's lance had easily penetrated the beast's body last time, and the outcome was surprisingly similar - the attacker was at a disadvantage.

The claws embedded in the armor were trapped, trapped by the now soft and powerless armor.

"Got you," he said softly.

His armor wasn't just capable of hardening.

On the contrary, softening to capture the opponent was also possible. From the moment the beast cut off the lance tip, Heine had replaced the properties of his armor. Then, very cautiously, he morphed the armor into the shape of a lock, further restraining the beast.

"This time, please let me have a good look at your true face."

The knight slowly turned his head, raising his lance.

The beast opened its mouth and let out a roar.

"AHH~~~~~~~~"

Rather than a roar, it was more like a song, a sad song, as if crying.

But it was this mournful song that blew away Heine's body. Not only that, at the instant he heard the sound, the magic crest that had been obedient inside Heine suddenly stopped functioning, and the uncontrolled magical energy ran wild inside him, throwing his magic circuits into chaos.

The stronger the magecraft activated within the body, the stronger the resulting turmoil. Heine didn't even have time to scream before his consciousness plunged into chaos.

In the last moment before losing consciousness, he faintly heard someone calling his name.

"Mr. Heine—"