Remnant Fire

Lude could sense it. This was Aleppo's Soul Fire, only lacking its most vital core.

Soul Fire was a caster's source of power, but it did not directly burn the soul. Unless one ignited their soul in a desperate gamble for Psionic Energy, Soul Fire normally burned the excess emotions and memory-dust leaking from the soul.

In other words, although Soul Fire made a caster's desires far stronger than those of ordinary people, it also sharpened their mind.

But the Soul Fire before him had lost the soul that formed its core. Only the unburned excess residue around its edges remained, serving as fuel to sustain the flame. Even so, it was already close to going out.

But that wasn't right, Lude thought. According to Siana, a person's Soul Fire should extinguish with their death.

With that thought, he took two steps toward Aleppo's corpse. Yet at that very distance, Lude suddenly felt a searing heat between his brows. The wisp of gray-green Soul Fire then shot into his forehead like a meteor!

"What..." Lude was startled, then immediately realized. "The [Heart of the Furnace]?"

Lude gently touched his brow. After absorbing Aleppo's Soul Fire, the Heart of the Furnace seemed to have changed. He could now clearly sense a space the size of a furnace chamber hidden inside his skull.

Aleppo's remaining Soul Fire—abbreviated as [Remnant Fire]—swayed slowly within the furnace chamber.

Lude could sense that he could directly crush this wisp of flame and turn it into pure Psionic Energy to replenish his spent reserves. Or he could trace it back to its origin and transform it into a pure trait, allowing him to use Aleppo's Secret Art, [Mist Sea Indulgence], one time only.

But Lude could also sense that this Remnant Fire should have a third use.

That third use seemed to be missing some condition. In short, Lude could only vaguely sense that there should be such a use, but he could not sense what it was or what condition it lacked.

After thinking for a moment, Lude could only set the matter aside. Every minute was precious to him now.

First, he would take Professor Beshe's Residual Flame, then loot the spoils of battle. After that, it would be time to run!

Yet when Lude returned to Professor Beshe, he froze slightly. There was no Remnant Fire rising from Professor Beshe's body.

Professor Beshe was quietly slumped against the wall, still in the posture he had fallen into after Lude had hurled him against it. Blood from the large hole in his chest had stained his clothes and the floor red. His features had gone completely slack, but his chest was indeed still faintly rising and falling.

"Is it because my punch only tore through his right lung, while the heart and lungs on the left are still functioning...?"

By all logic, Professor Beshe was already beyond saving. It would have been fine to leave him here and ignore him. But Lude was the kind of person with a deep need for control. He had no interest in letting anything slip beyond his grasp.

Lude assumed a wrathful guardian stance and drove a hammer fist straight at Professor Beshe's head.

Lude put all his strength into that move. The punch should have been enough to drive Professor Beshe's entire head down to his pelvis. Yet the instant Lude's hand smashed into Professor Beshe's skull, the feedback through his fist nearly made him curse—

—just like when his earlier punch had pierced Aleppo's chest, his fist received no sensation of passing through a human body!

The instant Lude's fist struck "Professor Beshe's" skull, "Professor Beshe's" entire body abruptly dissolved into fluttering pale-white chains. The chains wrapped tightly around Lude's arm, then climbed upward like living serpents!

Less than two meters away, the light in the air distorted, revealing Professor Beshe's true body.

Professor Beshe was clearly in no good state either. Dim light gleamed in his eyes as he knelt on the ground in a strange posture. A thin membrane of light covered the gaping hole in his chest, and Lude could even see the organs inside slowly writhing.

Even though breathing had become difficult, Professor Beshe had never stopped chanting his spell.

This was his final chance—to seize this body. Otherwise, only death awaited him!

"Whew... Impressive."

Watching Professor Beshe struggle toward him, Lude could not help but praise him—praise the man's will.

He had figured it out. For a master spellcaster like Professor Beshe, losing his physical body was not such a serious matter. Especially when a body he had selected was right before him; as long as he could complete the body transfer, any price was worth paying.

And at that moment, Lude was once again tightly bound by the Seven Heavens Lock. He had no way to resist this move.

But this time, Lude did not show the same panicked expression as before. Lude was good at adapting to circumstances, but that did not mean adapting was all he could do. If possible, he would rather make a detailed plan for every task!

Over these three days, he had already devised several plans for dealing with Professor Beshe.

As Professor Beshe slowly pushed himself upright, Lude grinned at him. In the instant Professor Beshe hesitated, Lude violently clenched his jaw muscles and bit his own tongue cleanly in half at its center!

The Seven Heavens Lock was flawless, but Professor Beshe was not. His greatest mistake was failing to bind Lude's mouth!

Enduring the agonizing pain, Lude gathered nearly all the strength in his body into one point. The instant hot blood erupted and filled his mouth, he aimed at Professor Beshe's pale-white glowing eyes and forcefully spat out the severed half of his tongue!

The tongue was made of muscle, and Lude's tongue possessed the same near-metallic physical properties as the rest of him.

With the speed of Lude's muscle contractions, the air in his lungs was compressed to the limit in an instant. The tongue he had bitten off burst forth like an air-gun pellet. Before Professor Beshe could even react, Lude's tongue had struck his right eye.

That piece of tongue shattered his eyeball and drove straight into his cranial cavity through one of the thinnest parts of his skull.

Like a bullet, Lude's half-tongue tumbled through Professor Beshe's cranial cavity after entering it. Professor Beshe's knowledge-filled brain was instantly churned into an unrecognizable slurry, no longer capable of thought.

With the death of Bescher the caster, the chains around Lude gradually broke apart and dissipated into pale light that filled the air.

Lude slowly rose to his feet. Enduring the pain in his mouth, he picked up Aleppo's revolver from the ground. After loading it full of bullets, he aimed at Professor Beshe's head and repeatedly pulled the trigger, only stopping after emptying two full cylinders.

By then, Professor Beshe's corpse had stopped twitching, and his head had become an unrecognizable mass of shattered flesh.

Watching the bright yellow Residual Flame rise up, Lude knew that this battle had finally ended.