HPxLOTM: A Wizard's Path to Divinity

Who was it?!

Flora had no time to think. In an instant, everything around her blurred. Before she realised what had happened, she found herself in an entirely different space.

It was Edward's "World Within the Painting."

Crimson moonlight bloomed again.

A powerful sense of danger struck Flora. She watched as the moonlight condensed into a humanoid figure—its claws laced with crimson runes, slashing straight at her.

"Steal!"

She instantly stole a few seconds of her opponent's thoughts and then rapidly followed up by stealing distance in an attempt to escape.

"Magnify—Theft is forbidden in this space!"

Shrouded in the invisibility cloak, Edward immediately banned her use of the Theft ability. At the same time, he distorted her path to send the gray-white rat back along its original route and amplified its susceptibility to rodent instinct.

But Flora swiftly shook off the distortions. Within her dark red eyes, a flurry of strange symbols began to surface.

It was the Decrypting ability unique to the Marauder pathway—capable of unravelling illusions, dreams, and enigmas, and even tracing an enemy's location. At higher Sequences, it could dissect others' abilities and uncover weaknesses—then use those findings to bypass or neutralise them.

Sure enough, she quickly identified the flaw in Edward's prohibition.

The next second, her claw swept out—"Steal!"

She stole Edward's invisibility cloak, cloaking herself in stealth.

But Akasha was unfazed. As a vampire, she possessed an extraordinary sense of smell. Even with her eyes closed, she could track Flora by scent alone.

She slashed her claws through the air, forming five enormous gouges, dozens of meters long, from which moonlight-like flames spewed out, scorching everything in sight.

Flora, however, was no longer within the range of those strikes.

"Magnify—Invisibility is forbidden in this space!"

Edward immediately patched the loophole. The invisibility cloak clattered to the ground, now fully visible—but the rat was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh? Hiding just because I shouted?" Akasha clicked her tongue.

Her illusory bat wings fluttered slightly, and in the next instant, her body dissolved into scattered crimson moonlight. A heartbeat later, the moonlight coalesced into a sea of blood.

Suddenly, a shrill rodent screech echoed out.

From the blood sea, the gray-white rat expanded more than tenfold, its fur slick with wriggling, living blood.

"Got you."

The writhing blood abruptly tightened into claws, gripping the rat. At the same time, flames of crimson moonlight erupted.

BOOM!

Even though Flora tried to steal her way to another location again, the flames still scorched her fur to a crisp, leaving her blackened and charred.

"Magnify—Sectumsempra! Avada Kedavra! Fiendfyre! Cull...!"

Wearing the Ravenclaw Diadem, Edward went all-out—launching a barrage of overwhelming spells at the massive rat. Flora responded by frantically stealing position after position, narrowly evading the onslaught.

Chains twisted into serpentine shapes, lunging at her. Though none successfully bound her, they created enough pressure to severely disrupt her movement.

"Magnify—Flavitus!"

Edward seized an opportunity and cast a large-scale, high-spirituality transformation spell. It struck the giant rat—briefly turning it into a block of wood. It only lasted a second, but it was all Akasha needed.

Swish!

A blood-red arrow appeared out of thin air, as if it pierced through space itself, flying straight at Flora.

She instinctively prepared to steal once more.

"Distortion!"

Edward twisted her intent at that critical moment.

Slash!

The Arrow of the Blood Moon pierced straight through her neck, emerging from the other side and leaving behind a wound burning with crimson moonlight.

"Magnify—Distortion!"

Edward immediately followed up, magnifying the wound and distorting it into a fatal injury.

"NO!!!"

Flora let out a blood-curdling scream.

Suddenly, from the wounds on her body, strange segmented worms began to squirm out—each with seven or eight transparent segments. In their translucent flesh floated three-dimensional runes, while time itself seemed to drip across their bodies.

Edward's mind went blank.

By the time he regained clarity, his belt, his clothes—even a large chunk of his abilities—had vanished.

He hastily activated "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", invoking forty-one simultaneous thought processes to resist the demigod's cognitive theft.

Akasha fared worse.

She collapsed, naked and limp, her crimson eyes vacant and hollow.

Edward knew—she had entered her Mythical Creature form. She was going all in.

At that moment, the World Within the Painting began to collapse, fading into nothing. The three of them returned to the pitch-black wine cellar.

Flora had gone mad.

She no longer wanted to escape. She no longer tried to resist the loss of control that came with the mythical creature state.

She acted purely on instinct—to steal, to destroy, to annihilate everything around her.

And just then—

A clock tolled.

Leonard appeared.

Reflected in his green eyes were two dimly glowing, twelve-segmented translucent worms of time. The two "Worm of Time" looped into identical vertical circles, their tails connecting to their heads.

Flora seemed drawn to them.

She stopped stealing from her surroundings and instead targeted Leonard.

"Why are you forcing me?!"

"Why are you doing this to me?!"

"Why?!!"

She unleashed a powerful theft against Leonard.

And failed.

This was the crushing suppression of high Sequence over low.

At that moment, behind Leonard appeared a phantasmal, ancient stone-carved wall clock.

The monstrous, insectoid Flora rapidly withered, her life essence draining away. She was then pulled uncontrollably into the stone-carved clock—

And vanished.

A demigod who had entered a mythological form—just like that, was dead.

"Go! Leave immediately!"

It was Pallez's aged voice from Leonard's mouth. In a blink, they vanished using Stolen Distance.

Edward scrambled to retrieve everything that had just been stolen from him.

Akasha's voice rang out: "Ugh, demigods really are a pain...I was this close to killing her, and still almost got taken out by her mythological backlash."

Her form fluttered mid-air, wavering between reality and illusion—a massive bat. "Help clean up my clothes, would you? I'm off."

She dissolved into moonlight and disappeared.

Edward casually incinerated her discarded garments with Fiendfyre, then used apparition to vanish from the cellar.

Silence returned to the place, leaving behind nothing but wreckage and spilt wine.

No one would have imagined that, moments earlier, a demigod had died here.

———

Meanwhile, in the city of Backlund…

A man dressed as a postal courier rode leisurely down a pitch-dark street. He wore a crystal monocle over his right eye.

Suddenly, the monocle flashed with light.

He curled his lips into a subtle smile.

"Hmm? Why do I feel like...I just missed a great show?"

A moment later, his smile widened.

"Interesting."

———

[39 Böklund Street]

Hazel sat bolt upright in bed.

Her heart was racing—as though something horrifying had just occurred.

But what could have happened?

She swallowed, looked out the window—and noticed the moonlight tonight was especially red, almost like blood.

———

Above the Grey Fog.

For briefly recounted her encounter with a member of the Abraham family, including the strange notebook, the will of Mr. Lawrence, and the Beyonder characteristics he left behind.

She had genuinely liked that kind Mr. Lawrence—it was a pity his time had come.

While she trusted his goodwill, she still hesitated to visit a stranger just because of his will.

"Honourable Mr. Fool…what should I do?" she asked timidly.

Sigh.

As expected, Miss Magician was also a "chosen one." Clearly, hers was the "Encounter-type Cheat." Now…when would Mr. Hanged Man give me a surprise?

Klein chuckled.

"Follow your truest desire," he replied.

Forsi bowed her head, thoughtful.

"I understand. Thank you, Mr. Fool."

She resolved to buy a steam train ticket the next morning—travelling from Backlund to Pritz Harbour would take just over an hour. Maybe even less.

Klein thought for a moment and added, "If you're really unsure, perhaps you could pay one of the Tarot Club members to accompany you."

Forsi's expression stiffened. She instinctively touched her empty pockets.

"Uh…better not."

Klein, of course, noticed her little gesture and almost laughed aloud.

Looks like I'm no longer the poorest member of the Tarot Club…

———

[Pritz Harbour]

Under the cover of night, One-Eyed Cage led his group of five along a winding path outside the city, several kilometres from the port, toward a slope that led to an abandoned dock.

"Boss Cage, are we really going to help that guy transport his cargo?"

"Yeah…Didn't we already turn over a new leaf?"

Smack!

Cage slapped the back of the speaker's head.

"We're not some pansy actresses from the Red Theatre. What do you mean 'turned over a new leaf'?! This is called reforming through virtue...correcting past mistakes."

The beaten man looked aggrieved. "Then why are we still doing shady runs like this? We don't even know what kind of cargo it is, but it's definitely not something good."

"We don't have a choice, do we?" Cage growled. "Didn't we try anonymously tipping off the Church? And it got us nowhere."

After a pause, his tone darkened. "You think if we turn this down, someone won't drag us off the next day and string us up from the gallows?"

Cage sighed. "Let's figure out how to get in touch with Mr. Sparrow first. Survival comes first."

"And besides, we're not moving cargo tonight. We're just meeting someone—leading them in."

"…Oh."

The younger men still looked unhappy. They had once been the lowest rung aboard the Iron Hook, mere cannon fodder who risked their lives daily. It had taken a lot for them to finally settle down and earn honest wages. They really didn't want to go back to the way things were.

"Wait—"

One of them squinted ahead and nudged Cage. "Boss, look over there."

Cage instantly froze, hand slipping under his coat to rest on his revolver, eyes locked on the silhouette slowly approaching from the end of the trail.

Thirty seconds later, a woman in a black dress appeared—cradling a black cat as she strolled toward them like she was on a midnight walk.

A woman.

Alone.

In the middle of nowhere.

At night.

Even thinking with your knees, you'd know this wasn't normal!

The woman in black finally seemed to notice them. She raised an eyebrow slightly.

In that instant, Cage and his men felt as if their bodies turned to stone. A wave of icy dread swept from their heads to their toes—and they suddenly couldn't breathe.

We're going to die?

So this is how it ends?

In that moment, One-Eyed Cage finally understood the true terror of the Beyonder world.

Just one encounter—just one look—and they were crushed like bugs.

Then the black cat on the woman's shoulder climbed to her ear, as if whispering something.

The next second, that soul-crushing sensation vanished.

All five men collapsed to the ground, gasping for air like drowning men.

"She…let us go?"

One-Eyed Cage tried to speak, to say thank you—but when he looked up, the woman in black had already vanished.

As if she had never been there at all.

"Boss Cage…do we…still keep going?" one of the younger men asked in a trembling voice after a long silence.

"…Yes."

Cage staggered to his feet, and with grim resolve, continued forward. The rest exchanged looks and hurried after him.

——

About ten minutes later, they reached the end of the trail, arriving at the abandoned dock Barron had told them about.

From a distance, they could see a large ship anchored just off the beach, its silhouette barely visible in the dark. Everything was quiet—too quiet. The only sound was the crashing of waves.

"Is…that the ship?"

"Yeah…"

As they approached, a strong stench of blood suddenly hit them, carried on the sea breeze.

Cage's expression changed. He rushed forward, quickly climbing aboard the vessel—only to see corpses strewn across the deck and streams of blood flowing like a river.

Before he even gave the order, the four younger men spread out instinctively, circling the ship to check.

When they regrouped a few minutes later, they all shook their heads.

"Dead."

"All of them."

"Same over here."

"…Was it that woman from before?"

Cage knelt beside two corpses. Their faces were still frozen in expressions of rage and hatred. Judging by the wounds, they had killed each other with their own weapons.

He glanced around. The others had met similar ends—clearly died by mutual slaughter.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Cage said coldly. "What matters now is—will Barron, or the people behind him, blame us for this?"

His face hardened. "We can't go back to the pub."

"What?! But that's our livelihood now!"

"What's more important—the pub or your life?"

"…Both!"

"Motherf—!"

Cage raised his hand to smack him again—but just then, a scratching sound came from below deck, like fingernails scraping against wood. Mixed with it were faint, almost imperceptible whimpers.

All five men immediately tensed, revolvers drawn.

"That sound…it's coming from below the deck."

"Boss, there's a trapdoor here."

"Should we open it?"

Cage hesitated for a moment. Then he gave a heavy nod. "Do it."

Creaaak.

The hidden wooden hatch opened, revealing a pitch-black stairway leading below.

No one rushed in. They waited a few long minutes—but nothing happened.

Finally, guns raised, they cautiously approached the entrance.

Just then, the clouds overhead shifted, revealing the crimson moon. Its eerie light bathed the deck—and illuminated the crowded figures below.

The five men saw dozens of people packed tightly in the ship's hold.

Men, women, even children.

Some had the distinctive features of the Southern Continent. Others were natives from Bayam. Still others had the pale faces of Ruenese folk.

They were all dressed in rags, faces filled with fear, covered in dirt and grime.

Slaves.

So that was it.

The "cargo" the Iron Hook used to transport for the big shots…had always been slaves.

One-Eyed Cage wasn't surprised. Out at sea, there wasn't a single profitable trade that wasn't illegal.

But what puzzled him was—why were these slaves being shipped all the way to Loen?

Did that mean the "big shots" behind this were Loenese nobles?

But hadn't Loen abolished slavery a long time ago?

Sure, some vestiges of slavery remained in the shadows. Some rich folks kept secret slaves. But this—an entire shipload—was way too much.

Then Cage paused, remembering something.

Back in the dockside district, he often heard bar patrons talk about people disappearing—"So-and-so's son went missing," "So-and-so's maid vanished…"

Could it all be…connected?

"Boss Cage, what do we do now?"

"Lower the gangplank. The rest…isn't our business anymore."

With a wave, Cage turned.

"Let's get out of here—now."

The five men made a swift retreat.

——

A long time passed.

Eventually, the first slave emerged from the ship's hold, trembling. When he saw the deck—the corpses, the blood—he froze in terror.

Then his eyes lit up.

"They're dead! They're all dead!"

He cried out in joy.

The second person climbed out, dazed.

"…Are we…free?"

———

[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.