Junk Food Is Hell's Conspiracy

Some creatures only needed to remain in a fixed location to affect the environment of their residence—for example, dragons.

Although Vampires were not as powerful, the Negative Energy driving them still altered their homes. As Salomon followed Barnabas up the manor stairs, he felt a bone-chilling aura flowing down from the steps, wrapping tightly around him, a living person. The temperature here had inexplicably dropped by two or three degrees. Though it was not as extreme as stepping into a tomb, any spellcaster who sensed such Negative Energy would know that a Dark Magic Creature lived here.

"I'm very sorry. As the mistress of the house, Vicky—Victoria's nickname—cannot get up to receive you," the vampire said. "She is still young and needs a great deal of sleep."

"I understand. After all, it is still daytime." Salomon nodded, but secretly heightened his vigilance in case he was ambushed from some dark corner. Naturally, he would not lower his guard because of the emotions displayed by a vampire. Those tragic, beautiful love stories were certainly interesting, but to him, they were no more than topics for idle conversation. The notion of empathizing with Vampires had never entered his mind. When the Sorcerer Supreme taught him magic, she had constantly instilled one concept in him: humanism.

Aliens and Extra-dimensional Beings had no right to exist on Earth, and Dark Magic Creatures like Vampires needed no further mention. After turning them into spellcasting materials, Salomon would shed two hypocritical tears for them, but he would never pity them while they were "alive." If he had not wanted to prepare materials to test the feasibility of certain necromantic arts in this world, he would have locked Barnabas in the Mirror Dimension and left him to bake beneath the sun long ago. A Vampire of a rank comparable to a progenitor, one who could not use his own powers at all, was terrifyingly valuable.

"Yesterday, after you left, the Collins family contacted the museum and purchased Angie's collection." Barnabas's cane struck the wooden floorboards of the corridor, producing dull echoes. Since this was a vampire's residence, every curtain in the hallway had been drawn tightly shut, without a trace of sunlight passing through. The temperature here was far lower than on the stairs. Even the occasional rays of sunlight struggling through the tightly sealed curtains were devoured by shadows that seemed alive. Barnabas might not have been particularly powerful, but his rank and unnatural nature were enough to create strange phenomena within Collins Manor.

The vampire said, "After all, this town does not have much history. Those things could only keep damaged fishing boats and nets company in the museum, and we could hardly put the Indians' belongings on display there. Now, those things have served their purpose."

"Mr. Barnabas," Salomon asked, "did you never try to study those contents?"

"When I was young, after my parents died—though I believed they had not died in an accident—I began to immerse myself in Dark Magic and ancient occultism." Barnabas looked back at Salomon. "The truth proved that they had died at Angie's hands. Mr. Damonnet, what about your parents?"

"I never met my parents. My mother died after giving birth to me," Salomon said.

"I'm sorry." The vampire turned around at the corner and gave a slight bow in apology.

"It is nothing, Mr. Barnabas. The Sorcerer Supreme adopted me as soon as I was born, and I lived in Kamar-Taj as the disciple of The Venerable One." Salomon said, "It was my honor. Being able to study under the most powerful Arcanist on Earth is something many people dream of. It is only that The Venerable One's expectations of me are a little too high at present. I do not think I can slay creatures that have smuggled themselves onto Earth from the lower planes."

"The lower planes?" Barnabas asked curiously. "What does that mean?"

"Hell and the Abyss, where devils and demons live." The young Arcanist answered with a smile. "The Venerable One has slain countless creatures that came to Earth from the Outer Dimensions. The title of Sorcerer Supreme alone can make those creatures tremble. Afterward, The Venerable One founded Kamar-Taj, recruited apprentices, and trained mages. It has protected Earth for more than a thousand years now."

Barnabas immediately felt that the little wizard before him had become troublesome. If it had been a lone wizard or witch, the Collins family could naturally have found a way to erase that person's traces from existence. But if he had a vast organization behind him, they could not handle things that way. Moreover, from Salomon's words, the Sorcerer Supreme seemed to be the most powerful mage in the world. Barnabas did not want trouble coming to his door.

The vampire now only wanted to hand over those books as quickly as possible and send Salomon away.

Because even killing Salomon would no longer accomplish anything.

Salomon's arrival meant that someone had noticed the Collins family. Elizabeth's plans were entirely useless now. But Barnabas still wanted to know one thing: what did Salomon's organization think of Vampires? If they could not tolerate Vampires, could they truly turn a vampire back into a human?

Barnabas did not want his relationship with Victoria to implicate the Collins family—the family was the true wealth. He had always kept those words in mind and acted accordingly. Otherwise, he would not have taken out the family's treasures to revitalize the family.

"The Book of Vishanti contains corresponding counterspells for the spells in that book, but I first need to know what the curse is." This was the only answer Salomon gave, but Barnabas could not find anything satisfactory in it.

Amid such guarded conversation, the two arrived at Barnabas's library. It stood at the highest point of Collins Manor, with windows at both the front and back. The glass had deliberately been replaced with frosted panes, making it impossible to see inside from outside.

The black curtains on both sides remained drawn all year round, making the frosted windows seem rather redundant. On a brown wooden table near the window lay thick books and several damaged scrolls. Without exception, all of them were covered in heavy dust. There were even one or two strands of cobweb drifting in a faint breeze from nowhere between some of the books.

These things looked as if they had been taken from some long-abandoned room. The vampire could only spread his hands, indicating that there was nothing he could do about it.

"After all, these things look like complete nonsense to ordinary people," he said. "The police evidence room could not hold them, so they were placed in the museum. It is already quite remarkable that this pile has not grown bookworms, Mr. Damonnet. I do not think you can demand excessively good preservation measures from a small local museum."

"That is true." Salomon nodded. "Then I will begin identifying them now and see which ones are what I need."

But the identification work was exceedingly arduous. Salomon did not believe that a witch who had come into contact with a great deal of Darkhold knowledge could have died so simply. He believed that Angie had most likely only obtained a curse that happened to turn humans into Vampires, along with Dark Magic that granted a long life. As for the knowledge within the Darkhold, she had most likely never seen it.

Therefore, Salomon could only search through those books again and again, because the knowledge he sought might occupy merely one or two pages within those weighty volumes. Barnabas stood beside him, hesitating to speak. At last, he could no longer hold back.

"This." He pointed at a symbol written in gold powder in one of the books. "Could this be Mephisto's mark?"

Salomon looked over. It was a golden capital M. The moment he saw it, Salomon thought of fried chicken and French fries.

"No..." he said with a curl of his lip. "I think it is probably a fast-food logo, just a hell-exclusive edition."

This could probably be considered an unexpected gain.

Looks like I need to take a good look at who is behind McDonald's.

P.S. Please invest! Please vote with recommendation tickets!

Good night.