Versatile Mage

Looking at the messy Katana Mochizuki and Tegami Fujikata, Mo Fan was at a loss.

Why did the pair sound as though they hadn’t seen him in a while? Mo Fan wondered why they had been locked up here all of a sudden.

“Did you two come here to live the prisoner’s life?” Mo Fan hesitantly enquired.

Both Katana Mochizuki and Tegami Fujikata’s faces turned dark. ‘Did he have a few screws loose in his head? Why would anyone want to experience life in a prison?!’

“We’ve been trapped here. The Twin Guardian Towers are no longer the same as they were. Don’t trust anyone you encounter.” Katana Mochizuki sighed. “How should I make this clear to you…?”

“We saw you three just a few hours ago. So, who are you?” questioned Mo Fan.

“We are who we are! The three outside who look like us are not the real us! An evil power has long penetrated the Twin Guardian Towers. It was already too late when we realized there was a problem with them. The three of us were harmed and confined to this space,” said Katana Mochizuki.

“It’s the Blood Demon… they have been replaced by the Blood Demons,” said Lingling in a low voice.

The Blood Demon was an expert persona impersonator. Recently, one of them had pretended to be Mo Fan. They initially believed there to be just one Blood Demon in the Twin Guardian Towers. Mo Fan and Lingling had no idea that the Blood Demons had taken the place of even the three chiefs, Katana Mochizuki, Chief Shigekyo, and Tegami Fujikata. The real them were here, trapped in the prison!

Mo Fan and Lingling exchanged glances.

How many Blood Demons were there inside the Twin Guardian Towers? How many people were replaced by the Blood Demons inside the towers?

“Who are the people being imprisoned at the back of the corridor?” Ozawa looked horrified.

“Go and look at them yourself,” Chief Shigekyo said with a sigh.

Ozawa walked slowly into the depth of the pitch-black corridor. Prison cells surrounded the corridor on both sides. Numerous hundreds of prisoners were being housed in the jail cells, based on their size.

Ozawa saw familiar faces inside the prison cells with every step he took. The prisoners looked shocked. They regarded Ozawa in puzzlement.

Ozawa recognized most of them. They were members from the Mochizuki family, instructors and students from the institutes, as well as the soldiers and officers from the military…

“Ikuko Ishida!” Ozawa called out.

“Nakamura-kun!”

“Kimi Wa!”

The West Guardian Towers was their home. But why were they all being held here as prisoners? Only the most horrible convicts were housed in the East Guardian Towers.

‘Where were the real prisoners? What the hell is going on here?!’

Ozawa felt as if he was falling into a scary, deep pit as he walked deeper into the corridor. He could not help but grab at his hair. He wanted to shout and felt as though he had a bad headache. He did not, however, dare to utter a syllable.

He collapsed, and tears welled up in his eyes. At that moment, he understood what Lingling had meant by the “truth”.

‘Was this the truth?! Why did reality seem even more absurd than a nightmare? When did it become like this?’

The West Guardian Towers had been overrun by monsters. They took on their appearances and resided in the West Guardian Towers after imprisoning the residents of the West Guardian Towers in the East Guardian Towers!

…

Officer Ozawa left the dimly lit jail hallway, confused. He could not even walk steadily.

He had delivered the food to the East Guardian Towers on numerous occasions, but he never once entered the jail hallway. Why did he never examine it himself inside? He would have only needed to take a quick peek at it to understand why the Twin Guardian Towers were being surrounded by an unusual aura!

“I thought the people inside the Twin Guardian Towers were ill, hence they behaved in a sickly manner. But I never thought everyone inside the towers had been replaced. Tell me, what are those things clothed in human’s skin? Tell me!” Officer Ozawa was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but he would not let himself collapse.

He was indignant. He exploded in rage!

He had been deceived for so long. At that moment, He thought he heard the monsters covered in human skin shrieking mockingly at him. They laughed at him after talking to him like everything was fine.

“So, there are hundreds and thousands of Blood Demons occupying the West Guardian Towers?” Mo Fan sucked in a deep breath.

“Yes. The outcome is more than we expected.” Lingling nodded.

Lingling had foreseen the outcome. She had predicted that most of the people in the West Guardian Towers had been manipulated by the Evil Gang, and a minority of them were still being kept in the dark.

However, after the moonless night, the remaining few people’s memories would be wiped out. By then, the Twin Guardian Towers would entirely become the Red Demon’s lair. It would not be a surprise if they break through the Twin Guardian Towers’ forbidden system and expand to Osaka.

However, Lingling had not expected that a large group of Blood Demons had replaced the people inside the West Guardian Towers including the three chiefs!

She felt disgusted and frightened when she realized the people she had interacted with in the West Guardian Towers were truly Blood Demons.

It made sense why she had felt something wasn’t right. She had discovered that everyone was acting strangely and that something was amiss with West Guardian Towers as a whole. And yet, they even told her about the strange incidents.

“Mo Fan, Kazuaki always uses this place as its lair. It brainwashed the heinous criminals and transformed them into Blood Demons. There are still many Blood Demons in the black corridor down there. The Blood Demons are waiting for a chance. Once they are able to take control of a suitable person, they will imprison that person inside the East Guardian Towers, then one of the Blood Demons will change into the person’s appearance and take over everything,” said Katana Mochizuki.

“Is it down there?” asked Mo Fan as he pointed to a pitch-black corridor.

“Yes, it’s down there,” said Katana Mochizuki.

“How about the Red Demon Kazuaki? Which one is it?” asked Mo Fan with urgency.

“We don’t know. He appears in a mass of blood mist. We can’t even see its face,” said Katana Mochizuki.

There were many Blood Demons. They were equivalent to the Red Demon’s doppelgangers. The issue was how to distinguish the real Red Demon from its imitators.

They did not have much time left. If they could not find the true Red Demon, before it ascended to become the emperor, Mo Fan could not stop it even if he used his full force!

“Lingling, are we going to search for it one by one by checking the imprisoned people over here?” asked Mo Fan.

“We can’t possibly find it that way. Mo Fan, do you still remember the letter? The one set up by the Red Demon itself?” Lingling asked.