Chapter Ninety-Nine: Is it really you?!

This monster was formidable, at least at the level of a third-tier elite.

Chu Yun’s fire-element summons could defeat it, but when it came to rescuing people, fire elementals were not especially useful.

Even so, Chu Yun remained cautious and summoned a powerful fourth-tier Fire Elemental Lord in the Mirror World, letting it engage Kassido’s mirror image first.

With his abundant mental power and Life Transmutation, the cost of summoning a fourth-tier fire elemental was no longer much of a burden to him.

After Kassido’s mirror image was struck, it triggered a transformation. As expected of a monster with a squid-like face, it remained a gigantic squid even after transforming.

A layer of vapor rose over the squid’s body and suckers, shielding it from the searing heat, and from its mouth it spat torrents of water as it fought the Fire Elemental Lord in a desperate struggle.

At Chu Yun’s command, the Fire Elemental Lord flung itself forward without regard for its own safety, and the two monsters immediately fell into the most savage and primitive of close-range brawls.

Kassido screamed as he was scorched, while the flames on the Fire Elemental Lord were also weakened by the relentless flooding water.

“So Kassido really turned into a monster. What is going on here? Could it be that eating too many squid-type fiends turns you into a squid monster?” Chu Yun was speechless. From his tone, it was clear he held a deep fixation on Anna.

“Just a foolish woman, and this is all it takes?”

Because Chu Yun had summoned the most powerful and fearless of fire elementals, the Fire Elemental Lord, Kassido still could not withstand it despite his strength. He was soon defeated, leaving behind a ball of white light.

Chu Yun stepped forward and picked up the light. This time, it did not drop experience points, but instead yielded the mage ability Inscription.

After absorbing the light sphere, Chu Yun was pleasantly surprised. He had originally thought it would only raise his inscriptions by one level, but this time it had advanced by two, reaching Level 6.

“It must be the effect of the Mirror Realm Overlord reaching the second tier. It looks like it will only grow stronger as my rank increases.” Chu Yun was very satisfied with that. This would undoubtedly save him a great deal of time and skill points.

After killing Kassido’s mirror image, Chu Yun turned his gaze back to the real world.

In the small chapel, aside from Anna, there were still three unfortunate souls left. Kassido still had not laid a hand on Anna; this time, his target was one of the nuns.

Before the stars fell, these nuns had stood guard in the graveyard, praying for the dead and guiding their souls upward. Though they possessed little magical power, they were wrapped in holy protection that ordinary evil spirits found difficult to approach.

Now they had lost that power, but they still held to their post. That alone was worthy of respect.

Just as Kassido was preparing to abuse one of the nuns, a woman who had lost her son nearby suddenly flew into a frenzy. Her son’s death had made her anger overpower her fear.

“I’ll kill you! I’m going to kill you, you monster! Give me back my son!”

Armed with nothing at all, the woman rushed forward. She used her fingernails and even her teeth to bite at the disgusting tentacles on Kassido’s face, trying to tear them off.

“Good. That’s right. Hate me like that.”

Faced with the woman’s attack, Kassido did not dodge.

He even let down his guard, making his tentacles soften further so that the woman could bite them until they bled.

As the blood entered the woman’s mouth, something Anna could hardly believe happened. The woman’s own mouth began to sprout disgusting growths, which quickly transformed into tentacles, then into appendages similar to those on Kassido’s face.

The woman ceased her attack and knelt respectfully on the ground, as if the Kassido before her were not her enemy but her master.

“What a pity, what a pity. Your hatred and fear are still not enough. Looks like I’ll have to eat you after all.”

Kassido struck again and seized one of the nuns, and his servant followed suit, grabbing another.

Under the nuns’ screams, the two of them reveled in the exquisite sensation of food sliding into their mouths and their bodies swelling in response, while a beautiful hymn seemed to echo around their ears.

The singing was intoxicating. Kassido slowly closed his eyes, then fell into slumber.

Deep down, he seemed to want to resist, but after becoming a monster, Kassido’s mental strength was inherently weak. Compared with Chu Yun, it was nothing at all, and under the influence of divine magic, he was quickly overwhelmed.

Chu Yun had only changed tactics after seeing Kassido’s transformation and the way he fought the Fire Elemental Lord, and after figuring out his abilities.

Fire-element skills were powerful, but summoning a fire elemental took time. Even with a spellbook allowing rapid casting, it would still be enough for Kassido to seize Anna the moment he sensed elemental power nearby.

That was why Chu Yun chose to attack from within the Mirror World. He used the hard-to-detect Sleep Curse to strike when Kassido was busy enjoying his feast and least prepared. This maximized the chances of success.

Even in his slumber, Kassido’s face still retained the appearance of a squid monster. His servant paid him no mind. Having already indulged in the feast, she could no longer control herself and turned her target toward Anna, pouncing on her.

Anna was bound. Though she could still speak and cast some spells that required only incantation and no gestures, her spell slots had already been exhausted in the earlier battle.

Watching the monster leap at her, Anna slowly closed her eyes, and a familiar figure seemed to appear before her.

“My new dress… I never even got to wear it for you.”

In the face of death, Anna instead grew calm. In her heart there remained a small, lingering regret.

“Word of Truth: Shield!”

As if she had slammed into a wall, the squid-man’s pounce on Anna was abruptly halted. Then came a violent surge of electricity, which struck her senseless and left her convulsing on the ground.

Realizing something was wrong, Anna hurriedly opened her eyes, only to find that the familiar figure was not an illusion.

“Chu Yun? It really is you!” Anna almost burst into tears.

She had never dared to imagine that anyone would come to save her, much less Chu Yun, that emotionally obtuse man who seemed not to care about her at all.

Chu Yun ignored Anna and thrust his Thunderbone Staff into Kassido’s heart.

A fierce current then surged along the staff and poured into Kassido’s body.

Unlike the electricity used on the woman earlier, this time he had employed Annihilating Divine Thunder, a second-tier composite spell.

Kassido, trapped in sleep, had no ability to defend himself. Although his head remained stubbornly durable, the rest of his body, without the benefit of transformation, was little different from a human’s.

Bereft of his body, Kassido’s head still remained squid-like. Only now it was not fresh squid, but dried squid.

[Received 205 class experience points]

After dealing with Kassido, Chu Yun used the rope on the floor to bind the unfortunate woman. Kassido deserved to die, but this woman might still be saved.

And Chu Yun was also quite curious why Kassido had become this monstrous. Perhaps this woman knew some secrets.

Once the woman was secured, Chu Yun finally came to Anna and untied the ropes around her.

“Waaah... sob...” Having survived a near-death experience, Anna no longer cared about anything else. She threw her arms around Chu Yun and cried her heart out.

Chu Yun had already noticed that the hems of Anna’s trousers were soaked. She had clearly been terrified beyond measure.

“All right. The zombies outside are about to come in, and if you keep this up, you’ll only interfere with my fighting.” Chu Yun could never stand women crying like this; women only slowed the speed of his casting.

The zombies outside were not very strong. Most of them were merely zero-tier trash and would not yield much experience. After Chu Yun dealt with a few, he simply had Paimon clean up the battlefield.