"Hastur Campbell!" Ince Zangwill almost gritted his teeth as he spoke that name.
He had not expected that, in the end, he still couldn't escape the pull of fate and had been blocked here by this Hastur.
And at his weakest moment.
Hastur smiled and said, "Your expression doesn't need to look so ugly. Your face doesn't have to be so ferocious either."
"I won't just sit here and wait for death!"
Ince Zangwill absolutely refused to fall here today. He took out 008 and was about to begin writing at high speed.
At that moment, a flash of light bloomed. The right hand holding 008 was directly severed, and 008 fell to the ground.
Only then did he notice that besides the fallen 008, there was also an exquisite mirror on the ground.
Someone had hidden inside the mirror and launched an attack on him!
Just as this thought arose, a wail of resentful spirits exploded inside his mind!
His reaction paused for a moment, and at the same time, frost gathered, freezing him from foot to head into an ice sculpture.
At this moment, Hastur had already activated the ability of the War Emblem, fully clad in armor, holding a golden great sword as he slashed down from the air!
Just as the golden great sword was about to shatter Ince Zangwill along with the ice, he finally activated his mythical form again.
The swelling flesh burst apart the icy restraints. Two additional arms grew out, blocking the descending golden great sword.
"So you're even weaker than I imagined!"
During the clash, Ince Zangwill sensed Hastur's true strength, which surprised him.
A mysterious existence capable of threatening 008 actually had less frontal combat strength than himself!
After the surprise came extreme anger.
His other arm swung and struck directly onto Hastur's shoulder with a loud bang.
The armor dented, but Hastur didn't retreat even half a step. Instead, he appeared even taller.
The eyes exposed outside the armor glowed crimson. The golden great sword that had been blocked suddenly broke free from the restraint of the two arms under a surge of tremendous force and smashed down heavily, chopping off a section of his left shoulder!
"Desire!"
A hollow and elegant voice rang out. Just as Ince Zangwill was about to retaliate, his spiritual world fell into chaos and began to lose balance.
His desires burst forth without control, constantly impacting his already fragile mental defenses.
Seeing this, Hastur cooperated with Sharron and used the Beyonder abilities of the Night pathway. The spiritual shock turned into a massive hammer that completely smashed Ince Zangwill's final mental defense.
He was now completely controlled by desire and had fallen into total madness.
At this moment, his mythical form mutated once again.
The flesh across his body swelled several times larger, like a huge lump of meat. Eight arms covered in white feathers grew out, his head collapsed into the mass of flesh, and his face split open, revealing terrifying eyeballs.
He looked like a giant spider monster with eight arms.
"Let's go!"
Hastur didn't hesitate. He picked up the mirror and 008 from the ground and left the area. He had no intention of staying behind to fight the monsterized Ince Zangwill to the death.
His life was far more precious than Ince Zangwill's. And if he used the Fate Charm given by Will Auceptin to deal with him, it would feel like too much of a waste.
It was better to leave the maddened monster Ince Zangwill here to fend for himself.
Besides, the person truly targeting Ince Zangwill tonight wasn't him.
He had merely heard the commotion and came with Sharron to check it out.
But he happened to run into Ince Zangwill fleeing madly, which gave him the idea to target him and seize 008.
After Hastur retreated some distance, Ince Zangwill didn't chase after him and instead began destroying everything around him in madness.
Now he had completely lost his sanity. As for whether he could recover it, Hastur had no relevant experience.
Hastur lowered his head and looked at the mirror in his right palm, smiling as he said, "Let's go back to sleep."
That sentence seemed a little ambiguous, but it didn't matter.
"Isn't it necessary to completely eliminate him?" Sharron asked.
"A crazed Demigod who has turned into a monster… if we want to deal with him, we'll inevitably fall into a prolonged battle. We might even get injured. It's better to leave him for others to handle."
As Hastur spoke, he raised the 008 he held in his left hand.
"We've already obtained the most important thing from him."
"Mm, okay."
After the brief exchange, Hastur's figure disappeared.
After he left, meteors once again appeared in the sky, crashing down in a shocking scene.
....
Late at night, inside the room, Ariella had a grumpy cat face, staring unhappily at its master who had just returned.
It had clearly wanted to join the excitement too, yet it had been left behind in the room to guard the luggage.
Meow, are they bullying a cat because it can't protest?
Hastur didn't have time to deal with Ariella for the moment, so he asked Sharron to calm the nearly exploding cat on his behalf.
The most important matter right now was how to seal 008 to prevent its aura from leaking out and attracting the attention of Adam.
Ince Zangwill was someone Adam had always been watching. The loss of 008 tonight would definitely draw Adam's attention.
Throwing it directly into the Hall of Stars would be safer, but it also carried risks. After all, that was his greatest secret. He couldn't casually let 008 know about it.
"Will's Fate concealment might be able to interfere with Adam's investigation of 008."
Hastur took the Fate Charm out of his coat pocket and found a thin string, tying the charm to the nib of 008.
It looked as if he had hung a small ornament on the pen.
"Should we add another one?" Sharron walked over while holding Ariella. Seeing Hastur's actions, she immediately understood what he was planning.
"No need. If this doesn't work, adding another one won't change anything."
"What are you wary of?"
"The owner hiding behind this feather pen."
"You shouldn't have brought it back."
Hastur smiled. "Since I encountered it, I couldn't just watch it slip away in front of me. Besides, this thing is very useful. It can help us accomplish many things."
"Mm. Be careful."
"Meow." Ariella also let out a meow, roughly meaning that since they had gone out on an adventure, it would generously forgive them for leaving a cat behind.
"Since you behaved well and stayed here today, tomorrow at breakfast you're allowed to eat one dried fish."
"Meow?" Hastur ignored Ariella's protest and walked to the desk. He took out a blank sheet of paper.
It was time to have a talk with 008.
"Move by yourself. I know you can sense what's happening outside."
Hastur placed 008 on the blank sheet.
Then, under the astonished gazes of Sharron and Ariella, the feather pen actually stood up by itself. Without dipping in ink, it began writing lines of text on the blank paper.
"Ince Zangwill ultimately still failed. I already knew he wouldn't achieve much when he took me away."
"With my assistance, he merely used me to scheme for an opportunity to advance to Sequence 4, greatly lowering my status."
"And in a small place like Tingen, he repeatedly suffered setbacks. His stupidity left a deep impression on me."
"Later, I realized that Ince Zangwill was not a qualified master, so I decided to abandon darkness and choose the light… and come to your side."
"During this period, I rewrote quite a bit of Ince Zangwill's fate so that he would maintain a certain connection with you."
"And finally tonight, you successfully obtained me from Ince Zangwill."
Hastur slightly raised his eyebrows and said indifferently, "Do you think I need your help?"
"I am merely a pen. Whoever holds me becomes my new master. Providing help to my master is my duty."
Hastur chuckled. "Aren't you thinking about how to write me to death?"
"Great master, being the pen in your hand is already my greatest honor. How would I dare harbor such rebellious thoughts?"
"Your level of lying needs improvement."
"Master is right. I will practice well next time and strive to deceive even your insight."
Heh. That really sounds irritating. Is this how 008 interacted with Ince Zangwill?
No wonder Ince Zangwill's luck was so terrible.
"Meow?" After watching for a long time, Ariella jumped down from Sharron's arms and landed on the table, staring seriously at 008.
A feather pen writing by itself without anyone holding it… how magical.
"Oh, it's a foolish little kitty. Do you need me to write an adventure story script for you?"
"Meow?"
"You don't need to doubt it. My abilities exceed your imagination. You only need to choose to believe."
"Meow?"
"You're saying you still can't read right now? Your master hasn't even taught you how to read? That's truly irresponsible. Unfortunately, I can't speak to communicate with you. Otherwise, I could teach you to become a language master who understands all languages."
Hastur couldn't bear to watch anymore. He reached out, picked up the curious Ariella, and warned it not to approach 008 casually in the future.
With 008's ability to bewitch hearts, if Ariella learned how to read, it would definitely be deceived completely.
"This pen…" Sharron had also noticed how unusual 008 was. Sealed artifacts with complete self-awareness had always been terrifying things.
Noticing Sharron's gaze, 008 wrote again on the blank paper: "Oh, beautiful lady… no future mistress. Is there anything you need my help with?"