Chapter 231: Search
High above, the biting astral winds were kept at bay by an invisible shield.
Benjamin and David became two streaks of light too swift to follow, flying toward the next marked area where the target was suspected to have been active.
During that high-speed flight, David's eyes beneath his visor remained shut. His surging mental power, like the most precise probe, carefully examined the shattered soul forcibly imprisoned within that head.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, his voice slightly muffled through the armor. "Finished checking."
"This guy was just unlucky," David concluded. "He wasn't one of the target's subordinates. Not long ago, he happened to encounter that Illegal Wizard and was forcibly infected by some unknown power, which turned him into this ghostly mess."
Within the fragments of that soul remained only memories twisted by endless hunger and pain, along with the most primal fear of the figure who had turned him into a monster.
At almost the same time, Benjamin had completed his analysis.
He had simultaneously employed Analysis Art, Alchemy, and the All-Purpose Eye to conduct a comprehensive dissection of that distorted flesh and blood.
Before him, a light screen projected by the terminal displayed the most microscopic structural chart of the "wizard" body sample Benjamin had analyzed.
"I have results on my side as well." Benjamin's voice was calm and unruffled. "It has been confirmed that the 'negative energy' this man used was, in essence, a negative conversion form of life force. The reason he became neither human nor ghost was precisely because he had been continuously steeped in and eroded by this energy."
Benjamin pointed at a chain of energy on the light screen that was constantly decaying and continued his deduction. "According to model projections, his body should continuously consume