Chapter 177: Body Snatching
The others gave a faint smile and each channeled their own methods, pouring energy into the egg. Evan alone held back, glancing toward Simhak instead. Simhak shook his head. "We've already tried — even tried to force it to burst outright. Held the energy flowing in for a long stretch, and nothing came of it. Try if you like."
With that, he joined the effort himself. Evan alone stood apart, turning the problem over carefully. This thing was clearly artificial — no, more than that, a creation of the ancient goblin civilization. What could be inside it? Goblins had never excelled at magic, but their skill with technology had been formidable. Whatever had destroyed that civilization remained a mystery, but what exactly was this object meant to be?
Evan had always made a habit of assuming the worst about anything, and an unknown artificial object seemed to call for exactly that instinct now more than ever. Could it be some kind of bomb? Some manner of weapon meant to kill? These were the first possibilities that came to mind. He knew the odds were slim, but he couldn't afford to ignore them either.
"Stop, now!" Evan shouted. If this really was some weapon of that sort, and the influx of magical energy triggered it, an explosion could follow — and however little mages cared about the occasional blast, if the force proved great enough, even a mage was still mortal, not a god. Better to stay cautious with something this unfamiliar. And even if it wasn't an explosive, if it turned out to be some more subtle weapon — a virus, some kind of engineered pathogen — releasing it now could prove catastrophic. From everything Simhak had described of goblin history, Evan suspected they'd been an advanced civilization, quite possibly capable of building something like a nuclear weapon. Whatever this relic of theirs held, caution was warranted — there was no guarantee it meant well.
Evan's warning came too late. Even Simhak hadn't anticipated this — after all the effort and magical energy they'd poured into the thing without so much as a flicker of response, not even a trace of warmth on the shell, now, with barely a moment's new infusion, right as Evan cried out, the great egg suddenly flared with light and lifted into the air, hovering, cracks spreading across its surface in jagged lines.
Evan didn't need to shout twice — everyone present felt the same chill run through them at once. The weakest mage in the room was senior tier, and their instincts kicked in without a word exchanged, everyone stepping back, protective light flaring across their bodies.
There was a deafening crack, blinding light flooding the room, and a green figure emerged from within — naked, viscous fluid dripping from its skin, metal fragments flying in every direction as it let out a booming laugh. No one had time to worry about him just yet; the explosion itself, powerful as it was, couldn't harm anyone present. Amid the chaos, walls of bone rose in layers before Evan, shielding him and Jessica — even so, two layers were blown apart by the force.
Evan moved at once, unleashing Soulbind Smoke Rope. He'd realized this green figure had to be a goblin — though unlike any ordinary goblin, standing at a height matching the average human. Worse still, the energy pulsing through its body ran at a level Evan had never once seen in any goblin before.
The moment Evan moved, everyone else joined in — whoever this was, better to subdue him first and ask questions after. Spells flew from every direction at once.
The figure spoke a single sentence, none of them able to understand a word of it. This wasn't the time to cast comprehension magic — subduing him came first.
The green glow around his body had already receded, though his face carried an unmistakable sneer as he spoke again, equally unintelligible. He swept an arm, and a wave of overwhelming energy surged outward. There was a boom, and everyone was driven back involuntarily. As Evan retreated, he gave a small gesture, and several fragments of the shattered shell lifted from the floor into his hand, vanishing into his ring in an instant.
While the others fell back, the figure flickered and threw a single punch, a burst of shining energy blasting straight at the multicolored ward shielding the group from behind. It struck with a sound like thunder, the ward rippling violently. A second punch followed, landing precisely on the ward's critical weak point — the whole barrier shuddered like a soap bubble and burst apart entirely.
Evan seized the opening to cast comprehension magic on himself. The others followed suit at once, layering the same spell over themselves.
"You'll stay right where you are! Solomon isn't somewhere you simply walk out of!" Simhak barked, unleashing Grand Disintegration. Real fury had taken hold of him now — if this creature broke free of the tower, it would be a humiliation for Solomon that no one would soon forget. He'd meant to take the intruder alive, but that consideration no longer mattered.
The figure laughed heartily. "Humans — nothing but clay chickens and tile dogs. Your magic is nothing but applied energy." He struck back with a casual swing, shattering Grand Disintegration with a crack — but Evan noticed his strength had clearly weakened, the energy within him dropping steadily. Understanding hit Evan at once: the energy powering him was drawn straight from everyone else's own spells.
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"You're nothing special either," Evan said with a cold laugh, sending a thick coil of black smoke lashing toward him like a rope. The figure threw a punch, but the smoke simply scattered and reformed, clearly catching him off guard, and he kept throwing punch after punch in frustration.
Simhak startled, then understanding dawned, delight spreading across his face. "He's hollow — nothing but raw magical energy with no real command of magic itself. He's burning through it inefficiently right now. Don't let him escape!"
He gave a sweep of his hand, and a net of light bloomed out of nowhere, the others bringing their own methods to bear as well, surrounding the figure entirely. Breaking free of the encirclement now would be no easy matter.
The figure threw a flurry of hurried punches, powerful as ever, but by now everyone understood exactly what he was. Simhak's face broke into a smile — a fish caught in the net. Once subdued, if the creature cooperated, perhaps the mystery of the goblins' downfall could finally be solved — more importantly, their secrets of mechanical civilization might be drawn straight from his own mouth. And if he refused to cooperate, magic offered plenty of ways to loosen a tongue regardless. The simplest, of course, was a necromancer's method — and Solomon happened to keep necromancers of its own. Perhaps it had been unwise, in hindsight, to invite the other academies at all.
A mocking look crossed the goblin's face. Evan's brow furrowed — did he still have some trick left to turn the tables? Abruptly, the figure muttered a string of syllables under his breath, and his body swelled suddenly. Something's wrong, Evan thought at once, throwing up another bone wall around himself. A blinding flash of green light burst outward — he'd detonated himself.
Evan had guarded against it early enough to escape harm, but the others took real damage. A bone staff appeared in Evan's hand, and he pointed, moving to draw the soul in — but a streak of green light shot away like a falling star, straight down toward the lower floors.
"He's fleeing! His soul's stronger than we thought — don't let him get away, after him!" Simhak shouted, dropping the magic tower's protective wards at the same moment. The tower's outer defenses were formidable, but only against outside intrusion; leaving from within posed no obstacle at all, and Simhak had no hesitation dropping them now.
Below the tower, a crowd of mages had gathered, Grawvor among them. A streak of green light burst from the tower without warning, and no one had any idea what was happening. Just then, Simhak's voice rang out. "Don't let that green light get away!"
The mages below startled, and those quickest to react threw up whatever they could on the spot — nothing especially powerful, since none of them had reached Arcanist rank. The green light flickered and drove itself straight into Grawvor's body. He never saw it coming, and no one below understood what had just happened.
Grawvor let out a sudden roar — his own consciousness had been forced down and suppressed for the moment — and turned, seizing two nearby mages by the collar and flinging them straight at the tower, twisting his body and bolting into the crowd.
Neither mage had any warning that Grawvor would turn on them, let alone that he'd suddenly possess such strength. They were hoisted into the air and hurled straight at the tower, screaming as they flew toward it.
Simhak and the others, having just floated down from the fifth floor, found the two men crashing straight toward them. They flung out their hands at once, freezing both mid-air.
By then, Grawvor had already forced his way through the crowd and disappeared into a nearby building. The mages and students on the ground had no idea what had happened at all. Simhak didn't bother with them, shouting, "Quick, quick — cut off Grawvor, don't let him escape!"
Evan lagged behind the others. He pulled a vial from his ring and collected a sample of blood and torn flesh before rising to follow. Catching Jessica watching him, he smiled. "Too good a specimen to waste."
"Come on, don't fall behind," Jessica said with a smile.
"Right behind you." Evan gave a small sweep of his hand, and the scattered metal fragments on the floor flew into his grip before vanishing into his ring — useful or not, the craftsmanship behind this metal was genuinely advanced, and with the Solomon mages far too distracted to notice, better to gather what samples he could for study later.
By the time they made it outside, the goblin spirit had vanished entirely. Evan asked around and learned he'd seized the chance to possess someone else's body — Grawvor, the very man who'd greeted them the day before. Something sank in Evan's chest at that. Just yesterday the man had been perfectly fine, and now disaster had fallen on him out of nowhere.
Simhak offered an apologetic word. "You should return to your quarters for now. You don't know your way around this half-plane well enough, and we need to organize a proper search for Grawvor. My sincere apologies."
"Go, tend to your business — don't worry about us. We'll find our own way back," Evan said. Xiaoshuang patted her chest, perched on his left shoulder. "That scared me half to death, Wang. Aren't goblins supposed to be incapable of using magic?"
"Who knows. That goblin was noticeably taller than Nobi and the rest of his people, hiding inside an egg besides — who's to say he was a pure-blooded goblin at all. Might have been genetically modified, for all we know," Evan said, slipping another term from his past life into the conversation without quite meaning to — and not entirely accurately, at that.
"Genetically modified goblin? What kind of goblin is that?" Not just Xiaoshuang — even Jessica had never heard the term before.
Evan silently groaned, though aloud he simply said, "'Gene' is a word I coined myself — I use it to describe the trait that's passed down and altered across generations in living things. I suspect there's some substance within a creature's cells responsible for carrying those hereditary traits. I call it a gene."
No one else was around them by now, the three of them making their way back toward the villa.
"That's a genuinely vivid word, Professor Wang. No wonder you've published so many papers — you always seem to have your own perspective on things. If this proves out, you'll surely become a Sacred Mage of your own generation someday. Genetically modified — you mean his genes had been altered somehow?" Jessica asked.