Time to Settle This Once and for All!

[Warning... No signal... Warning... Not connected to network... Please locate a signal source promptly...]

Lynn's face immediately showed surprise and delight, but after seeing the contents clearly, the corner of his mouth twitched.

This artificial idiot...

I don't need an online narration. Turn off the warning sound and report the remaining energy! Lynn silently commanded in his mind.

[Remaining energy: 19.5%. Surrounding energy density has risen significantly. Energy reserves are projected to increase by 1% per hour.]

So fast? Lynn could not help but feel surprised. At one percent per hour, the energy would be fully charged in roughly four days.

But it had already been five full days since the system shut down!

Lynn looked at the AI's prompt again.

The energy density had risen significantly?

That obviously could not have anything to do with the castle beneath their feet. Then... it could only be Moon Day's influence!

"Carl!"

As Lynn pondered this, Joanne's shout beside him interrupted his thoughts. The three-meter-tall Spirit Realm Guard strode up before him, raising its stone hammer and smashing it down at him.

Enter overload mode. Duration: three seconds! Lynn silently commanded without turning around.

The next moment, an enormous stream of data flooded his mind. Lynn kicked off hard, and before the astonished eyes of the two witches, he leaped into the air using the recoil, dodging the heavy stone hammer. He then stepped onto the Spirit Realm Guard's thick stone arm, drew the sharp Witch Hunter sword, and drove it into a crack in the statue's neck, pinning it firmly to the wall behind it!

Yet that strike clearly could not completely destroy the statue. Lynn did not force the issue. After temporarily restricting the Spirit Realm Guard's movements, he disengaged overload mode, grabbed the still-unresponsive Joanne, and continued running.

Less than twenty percent of the AI's energy remained. It had to be saved for more critical moments.

They ran wildly all the way. More than ten seconds later, the sound of the giant stone statue's footsteps shaking the floor rang out again. White Dove, who was holding Joanne's arm, trembled constantly and sobbed softly. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Joanne... Carl..."

"You knew from the beginning that Will betrayed us, didn't you?" Lynn turned his head to look at White Dove and said with certainty.

When he had followed Will that night, Lynn had already sensed that something was wrong, because Will's trip to the storeroom had been far too strange.

White Dove, who was on night watch, might have been using her gray crows to monitor the entire castle. Yet Will had not shown the slightest vigilance. Not once had he looked up to scan the windows or the grounds behind the houses.

That clearly made no sense.

Unless... Will had been certain that even if those gray crows spotted him, nothing would happen.

"Can you tell me why?" Joanne tightly held White Dove's slender hand. She truly could not believe that White Dove would betray them.

White Dove's nose twitched. Through tears and with a choked voice, she began to explain.

Three nights ago, Will had been the one assigned to night watch. But to be safe, she had still sent out her gray crows to patrol as usual. By accident, she discovered that Will was secretly reporting the situation here to the Church through an alchemical array...

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Joanne demanded.

"But Will... Will found me first. He said the Church already knew who I was. If I dared to tell you about this, my parents, my older brother, and my younger siblings would all be tied to stakes and burned alive..." White Dove said between sobs, her face filled with terror.

Joanne fell silent. For Wizard Apprentices like them, who had been forced to wander from place to place, their families' safety was indeed a huge concern.

Because of this, asking about one another's identities had always been taboo. They could not even be sure whether each other's names were real.

"Obviously, he lied to you. Perhaps Will did not know your true identity, or perhaps he intended to take all the credit for himself..." Lynn said calmly.

Will's habit of doing everything personally made it clear that his words were most likely just a bluff. Otherwise, he could have used it to threaten White Dove into doing much more.

Of course, it was also possible that Will intended to claim all the credit alone. After all, the more he did, the more likely the Church would see his "sincerity" and forgive him, a "Demon's Follower."

"Do you want to live, White Dove? I have a way that might be able to deal with Antioch..." Lynn suddenly asked.

Before Joanne could speak, White Dove nodded through tear-filled eyes. "I do!"

She did not want to die...

"Then tell me all the magic you know right now. I need to understand their principles and how to use them," Lynn said bluntly.

"What are you trying to do?" Joanne asked in astonishment.

"I think it's not too late to start learning now, is it?" Lynn said with complete seriousness.

Now that 071 had rebooted, it was time to settle this once and for all!

After being hunted all this way and witnessing Buck and Barton's deaths with his own eyes, Lynn was now burning with rage!

But... was there really enough time? Joanne stared at Lynn in disbelief, yet after hesitating for a while, she still began explaining.

[Flame Touch], [Turn Stone to Mud], [Ice Curtain], [Lesser Flame Demon Hand]...

As Wizard Coru's most valued disciple, Joanne had mastered more than a dozen first-ring spells. White Dove, on the other hand, knew very few—only two highly unusual psionic spells, which were said to be mastered only by the small number of apprentices with psionic talent.

With time being so limited, Lynn did not try to learn too much. Instead, he selectively memorized several spells and used the AI to simulate practice in his mind.

Lynn's calm and composed manner also affected Joanne and White Dove, giving them a little more confidence in defeating Antioch.

As the three moved onward, the sound of rushing water came from ahead. Even the breeze blowing toward them carried a trace of dampness.

Before them lay a rapidly flowing underground river. Turbulent water continuously surged up from beneath the earth, passed through a long tunnel, and flowed directly beyond the castle...

[Holy Light Impact]!

Before Lynn and Joanne reached the riverbank, a beam of white light shot toward them from behind.

[Ice Curtain] * 2

Joanne and Lynn exchanged a glance, then raised their hands at the same time. Two shield walls formed of ice crystals rose from the ground, joining forces to block the second-ring divine spell.

The two walls of ice instantly collapsed as well, fragments raining down like hail.

"What do we do now?" Joanne looked at Lynn anxiously. The escape route lay right before them, but if they were swept into the raging current and then attacked by Antioch, they would not even have the ability to resist.

"It's simple!" Lynn glanced at Joanne, then without warning reached out and removed the girl's sword. Amid Joanne's confusion, shock, and unease, he pushed her directly into the rushing current.

The icy river water flooded her mouth and nose, quickly soaking her entire body. Joanne clearly felt the enormous inertial force of the current forcibly dragging her toward the exit.

Through the blurred curtain of water, Joanne vaguely saw Lynn's lips moving, as though he were making a final farewell. Then he threw something heavy toward her—it was the panicked White Dove...

Watching the two women get swept away by the current, Lynn was not worried about the witches' safety. A witch who could control oxygen surely would not drown in water. He merely added the rest of his sentence in his heart...

"It's simple. As long as you stop getting in my way here!"

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