Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1316: Section 1317 The Only Flaw

“The King never worries about the loss of Crimson Authority, even if it’s stolen by Tainted Blood Shadow Stab, he has never been concerned.”

Those were Rolando’s original words.

Moreover, according to Angel’s observations, it appeared that King Gumman indeed did not show any signs of urgency, even though Eulica had stolen the Crimson Authority for several years.

What was the reason?

Rolando’s explanation was this, “After twenty years of research on the Crimson Authority and synthesizing the information revealed by the King on normal days. The darkened personality has analyzed this issue—”

“The Blood Origin tracing engraved on the Crimson Authority, in fact, appeared at the very beginning of its existence. Which is to say, from its inception, it was intimately related to the Gumman royal family; one could say the Crimson Authority will only acknowledge someone with the Gumman royal bloodline as its master. Anyone else obtaining it is merely gaining an extra Puppet to spare.”

...
King Gumman was very clear that even if Eulica stole the Crimson Authority, she wouldn’t be able to wield it. In the end, she would become a Puppet controlled by the Crimson Authority, so he was completely unruffled, not showing the slightest urgency.

This indeed fit the tone of the matter at hand.

The recent arrival of Rolando to the Old Earth Continent was because King Gumman had received news that Suise’s sister, “Crimson Ghostface” Elisa, was secretly seeking someone to manufacture a counterfeit of the Crimson Authority.

Originally, the only person chasing Eulica was Suise, who took on King Gumman’s bounty. The actions of Elisa meant something that King Gumman was very clear about.

Suise had betrayed him.

As for this outcome, King Gumman was not angered but instead decided to turn both Eulica and Suise into Puppets controlled by the Crimson Authority. Rolando was tasked with this mission when he traveled across the sea to the Old Earth Continent.

…

Where things stood, a stalemate had been reached.

The Crimson Authority could not acknowledge an outsider as its master, and even if a person with the Gumman royal bloodline were found at this time, the process to transfer the Crimson Authority to a new master would be very complex.

According to Rolando, the process of acknowledge was a complex Ceremony personally manipulated by King Gumman, which outsiders knew nothing about.

That is to say, to find a perfect solution to the current situation was basically impossible.

You can’t kill Rolando; doing so would cause the Crimson Authority to undergo unforeseeable Transmutations, and King Gumman would also become aware of the location of the Crimson Authority. He could cross the distance of space and time at any moment to come here.

It was also impossible to turn Rolando into a Puppet, as with the existence of the darkened personality, he was immune to almost all forms of mental interference.

King Gumman had virtually made the Crimson Authority into an impenetrable iron wall; finding a loophole was extremely difficult.

At present, Angel could not find any way to start; he could only turn his gaze toward Sanders.

“Indeed, it is like an iron wall, but haven’t we found a loophole?” said Sanders, “The Wilderness of Dreams, separate Rolando’s darkened personality and his main personality, that’s the loophole.”

Angel hadn’t understood what Sanders meant, when he saw Sanders turn to look at Rolando, his eyes flickering with a ghostly light, “You said before, if you died, the darkened personality would replace you and take complete control of your body.”

“Yes,” Rolando nodded.

Sanders, “The implication of what you said is… the main personality coexists with the darkened personality within one body, and it’s not the darkened personality that takes charge, but you are the one in control?”

Angel was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized.

If Rolando’s main personality was truly the principal controller of his body, then indeed, that was the loophole! Moreover, it might be the only loophole!

Because if Rolando’s main personality is in charge of the body, he can, despite the opposition of the darkened personality, voluntarily suppress the darkened personality!

Once the darkened personality retreats back into the Spirit Sea, then the situation could take a turn.

Angel looked at Rolando with an intense gaze, waiting for his reply.

After a long moment, Rolando gently nodded, “Yes, I am currently the dominant one in this body, the darkened personality is secondary, with control under me.”

“Does that mean, when Suise wanted to turn you into a Puppet before, it was you who let out the darkened personality?”

Rolando nodded in affirmation.

“Can you then retract the darkened personality once more and retake control?”

“I can.”

Angel turned back towards Sanders, “I thought before when the darkened personality was shouting to kill him, it was because if he died, the Crimson Authority might undergo unpredictable accidents. It turns out, the true intent of the darkened personality was to fix the only flaw in this iron wall.”

Sanders also nodded, “Only if the main personality dies, can this matter truly be flawless.”

Now that they knew of this flaw, there was room to operate. Angel pondered, “I wonder if this hypnotic effect can last into reality? If it can, make the darkened personality retire to the Spirit Sea, and then… turn its body into a Puppet?”

Sanders shook his head, “That’s very difficult to achieve, his communication with the darkened personality is an intersection of thoughts, a mode of information exchange that can relay a lot of things in an instant. Moreover, even if hypnotized, with the darkened personality’s abilities, it can awaken the hypnotized main personality at any time.”

“Unless there’s a kind of thought imprint that hits directly into the soul mark, otherwise, it’s very hard to control the main personality.”

Angel: “So what do we do now?”

Sanders: “As I said before, you would do well not to delve too deeply into the matter of King Gumman’s secret treasure. These affairs are not something you need to worry about; that is for Suise and Eulica to consider.”

Angel frowned: “But…”

Sanders: “I know you are worried about the servants affected by the Crimson Authority, but to remove the mysterious energy on them, we do not actually need to obtain the Crimson Authority.”

Sanders paused for a moment, then continued, “The most urgent matter now is to restore normalcy to Eulica and those affected by the Crimson Authority. To achieve this is actually not difficult; we just need Rolando, the true master, to help.”

Under Angel’s skeptical gaze, Sanders pointed to Rolando, who was still under hypnosis: “Since the mysterious person once made a deal with King Gumman using a darkened persona, we might as well make a trade with this master persona.”

They had many bargaining chips at their disposal, and moreover, they did not need to obtain the Crimson Authority.

“You should leave; I’m going to cancel the hypnosis,” Sanders said.

Since they were going to make a trade, there was naturally no need to use hypnosis. Angel also did not intend to reveal his identity in front of Rolando, and so he nodded and vanished into the vast Wilderness of Dreams.

However, although Angel was no longer present, his gaze was always observing their movements.

After Rolando woke up, he forgot everything that had happened during hypnosis. However, from Sanders’s words, Rolando knew that he had said everything he should and should not have said.

Rolando felt a bit panicked, and his mind raced, pondering what countermeasures to take.

Yet, he could also tell that Sanders didn’t seem intent on killing him, at least for the moment. So, he put on a defiant front.

Sanders said indifferently, “You must have felt it during the hypnosis earlier. This is a strange Dream Realm. If I wished to imprison you, you would never be able to leave. Even so, killing you would be easy.”

“Is Lord Illusion Demon threatening me?”

“You may take it as a threat, but you can also consider it my bargaining chip.”

Bargaining chip? Rolando looked at Sanders with confusion: “What do you mean? Are you planning to use this to threaten me?”

“No, I just want to make a trade.”

…

Sanders’s conditions for the trade were laid out. He could spare Rolando and allow him to leave this “strange Dream Realm,” but in exchange, Rolando would have to dispel the madness from those affected by the Crimson Authority, including the servants at Pat Manor and Eulica.

Rolando, in turn, hoped to gain his freedom and that Suise wouldn’t lay hands on him.

Sanders’s response was, “I can only guarantee that for a short time Suise won’t make a move. But as for gaining freedom… even if I let you go this time, do you really think you are free?”

Rolando fell silent. He was well aware that as long as he was the master of the Crimson Authority, and as long as Eulica did not intend to return it, freedom was not within his grasp.

Indeed, by becoming the master of the Crimson Authority, he had already lost the right to talk about “freedom.”

“In this world, securing any preordained result for anything is never simple. Variables can appear at any time,” Sanders said softly. “At the very least, I can assure you that you won’t die in the short term. As long as you remain alive, who knows, maybe a variable will occur, and you might even gain true freedom.”

Sanders’s words made Rolando look up sharply.

The only way to gain true freedom was for King Gumman to vanish from this world!

Rolando did not know whether Sanders was trying to deceive him with words, or if he genuinely intended it.

Rolando maintained his silence, his mind like a scale, weighing which side held more weight.

After much thought, he still dared not readily agree to Sanders’s terms.

Sanders was not in a hurry, simply waiting quietly for Rolando to make a choice. He was well aware that Rolando was currently a persona with inner flaws and not a flawlessly darkened persona.

Given his current state of confinement, the choices available to Rolando were few.

However, things did not proceed as smoothly as Sanders had expected.

As Rolando’s thoughts swayed back and forth, suddenly, his once solid body began to flicker in and out of visibility.

Confused, Sanders then heard Angel’s voice.

“Something’s wrong. It seems Rolando might be waking up in reality!”

A flicker of confusion crossed Sanders’s eyes. With the rights of a “Gatekeeper,” and the fact that Rolando’s physical body in the outside world was confined in the Geometric Lock, how could there be sudden signs of waking?

However, that was not the most important point.

Angel’s voice came again: “Not only is there a sign of Rolando awakening, but his Consciousness Spark seems to be transforming into a resident of the Dream Realm!”

Sean had previously read Frode’s “Observations of Dream Wilderness,” which contained a lot of experimental data indicating that the consciousness of a living person transforming into a resident of the Dream Realm means… they could possibly be facing a life-threatening incident in reality!