This is a very strong middle-aged man. His waist is neither thick nor thin. Judging from his waist alone, he is of medium build. However, his shoulders are much broader than those of the average middle-aged man. This build makes him look like a beast even when he sits down, which is intimidating.
But Claire was not afraid of him. She had even begun to imagine in her head...what it would be like if such a strong man turned into a zombie.
She had already seen the ghouls.
The fog only exists on the ground, and the Felums do not need any cover in the underground palace. A large family that has been hiding for a hundred years is bound to have a few weirdos - most Felums are still willing to maintain their human form, but there are also one or two people who want to open up a few secret passages on their own.
That was for their hunting trips. Claire once saw with his own eyes a handsome young man who became deformed after the banquet: the hair on his head became stiff and sharp, the muscles on his upper limbs bulged high, the leg structure below the knees became recurved animal feet, and the most terrifying thing was his face, which was also his mouth. The teeth there became longer and bigger, and his eyes even emitted a pale green evil light when they disappeared into the darkness.
It was incredible that such a thing could still maintain its sanity. Claire had thought about following these ghouls, but was secretly stopped by Tite.
"You should know why I called you here."
Tite took a puff of his cigarette and stared at the girl who came in.
"You have to understand who is the reason you can come back here. I allow you to exist as a link between us and let you pass on some messages, but you'd better not be too self-righteous and regard yourself as the master of this place."
"Do you understand?" He lowered his head slightly and rolled his eyes at Claire.
He didn't take a level 1 witch seriously, but the power behind her was not easy to deal with, so he didn't want to break the alliance.
"Then you should understand why they sent me here." Claire was very honest. "You know, breaking that bottom line will bring disaster to everyone."
In exchange for the benefits, she had received the news that Anna was still alive. Her mother was temporarily taken to another island to integrate the village, so she had no worries for the time being.
"Door of Life suspects that I want to break through the ranks?" Tite was stunned for a moment, then his face darkened, "What would you do if I really wanted to break through the ranks? Xista really thinks highly of you..."
With his channels and abilities, the leader of the witch coven, 'Meng'... the truth behind her death was basically found out at this time.
He had no doubt that if he wanted to do the same as Meng and was caught by those lunatics, they would repeat a similar scene in Farrell House.
But at least it was Sista, a high-ranking witch known far and wide, who forced Meng to get injured and release his aura.
He originally thought that at least this time it was Sista who came here as a hostage. He didn't expect that the other party would choose Claire William, the rookie who had just entered the circle.
"You may not know..." Claire opened her mouth wide when she spoke, "I have fallen quite a bit..."
"You are a Dark Manifest!" Tite was shocked. He saw several rows of teeth in the girl's mouth.
"Yes." Claire admitted, "You know, it's not that the Dark Ones don't have fallen characteristics, but compared to those fallen ones with obvious characteristics, our alienated characteristics are hidden in our bodies."
"If I were to kill you, your aura would spread." Tite curled his lips, "This is not the way to treat an ally... They have crossed the line... This is very dangerous..."
"So you can just tell me your plans." Claire stared at his face, "What are the plans of the King of Gluttony?"
Tite pursed his lips and fell silent. It was obvious that he was thinking, wondering whether he should make his intentions clear so easily.
"How old do you think I am?" he asked suddenly.
Claire was stunned.
She didn't expect the topic to turn so erratically.
"I'm 182 years old," Tite asked himself. "So many years have passed since I started this path, but you don't know that I have been holding myself back since I was 32... I could have entered level 5 at that time."
"...You haven't fallen?" Claire was shocked.
If the extraordinary indulgence of desires that follows the “seeking knowledge” route will lead to depravity, then the same is possible if the restraint of desires that follows the “human desire” route is followed.
If what Tite said was true, then he had been suppressing his power for over a hundred years.
What would happen if he didn't hold back?
Could it be that it has already reached level 6?
"They have been calling me a genius since a long time ago, and I have discovered that I have a unique attraction to mystery." Tite exhaled a puff of smoke, "But I know this may not be a good thing, so I try not to eat the flesh of my own kind, suppress my desire for mystery, and only use large amounts of other flesh and blood as a substitute...using this method to deceive mystery."
“There’s a difference between wanting and desiring.”
"I've been very careful... I don't want to disappear like those people."
Claire bit her lower lip lightly.
"So you can tell Sista that they don't have to worry about me going the old blind way." Tite said, "If I wanted to upgrade, I would have done it long ago. They are not the only ones in the world who are awake."
"Then what are your recent actions..."
"After all, I have suppressed this desire for more than a hundred years." Tite interrupted her with a crazy smile, "You don't think I can do this forever..."
No sign.
As he showed this smile, a translucent flesh bubble swelled up from his left cheek like a balloon... This thing first expanded to its limit and then exploded into a blood mist with a "puff". Then it continued to entangle with flesh and blood tissue at the wound site, spreading and gathering together little by little to form a solid eyeball.
this--
Claire couldn't help but take a step back.
But Tite calmly reached out and took off his eyeball.
Direct and decisive.
He tore it off along with the root of the granulation, not caring at all that a large piece of flesh was missing from his face.
"Actually, I can understand Meng..." Claire heard him mumbling to himself, "Level 5 is a hurdle... Once you cross it, its impact on you will greatly increase. You will fall into depravity little by little without even realizing it, and turn from a rational person into a madman."
"Will you be forced to level up?" Claire squeezed out the words word by word, "You...can't help it?"
"Soon." Tit nodded.
"And you still say don't worry?"
"I think there is a difference between being passive and active." The man touched his left cheek. The broken skin began to wriggle like a lump of mud when he rubbed it. It actually closed the wound little by little and no more blood oozed out.
"If I do nothing, I will be forced into that realm, and everyone will die. I don't want that to happen. I want Farrell Palace to continue to exist for another two or three hundred years."
"Okay." He decided to see the guest off.
"You have no say in this matter. Go back and tell Xista that I need the Gate of Life to cooperate with my plan."
The conversation in the study came to an end.
With Titt's tacit consent, Claire got a chance to go out. She met with Siesta secretly at the Holiday Inn at the foot of the mountain and relayed the content of the conversation to her.
"This old monster!" Sista was also shocked, and then showed an angry expression: "He really deserves to die...!"
"It's obvious that he wants to make a last-ditch effort while he still has his sanity..."
The tall witch began to pace the room, analyzing the situation as she walked.
"A Level 5 who intends to burn himself and use himself as a weapon to risk his life, well... this does seem to be an opportunity..."
"But why didn't he commit suicide earlier?"
"If he committed suicide, there wouldn't be so much trouble!"
"Who wants to die?" Claire took a sip of coffee. "I would make the same choice if it were me. I support him."
"Things are not as simple as you think..."
"But you also said this is an opportunity," Claire interrupted her. "An opportunity to threaten them... No wonder they have been so aggressive recently. He is mobilizing all his forces to fight them to the death."
"There have been many extraordinary families who have done this before." Sista looked at her sinisterly, "If it's so easy to succeed, why are there still dark clouds over the heads of the extraordinary people now?"
"Maybe it wasn't a dark cloud after all."
After thinking for a while, Claire said something that shocked her: "Based on what I have seen and felt so far, I think the mystery is a greater threat to us..."
"Are you crazy?" Sista quickly stepped forward and covered her mouth.
"What's wrong with what I said?"
Claire struggled, but still made sure to lower her voice: "Mystery gives us extraordinary powers, but it also turns us into monsters."
"If I had a choice, I would rather not be a superhuman. There's nothing wrong with being an ignorant mortal."
"Don't ever say these things to anyone else."
Sista stared at her for a long time, shaking his head and sighing.
"Ugh……"
"Those guys probably have some means of prophecy and divination."
"I hope the old man's plan won't affect mortals..."
Just like that, the Gate of Life began to further contact the Farrell Palace, and the two sides exchanged more and more intelligence and resources. Both sides hoped to take this opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the "supernatural enemy".
It's not that I'm naive enough to think that Tit-Ferrum will definitely win, but at the very least - try to have a few people escape from the battle, bring back some intelligence and news about the enemy, and truly achieve a breakthrough from zero - this hope shouldn't be too much, right?
"The plan will be implemented in the early morning three days later."
Still at the Holiday Inn, Siesta found Claire and asked her to pass the news to Tite.
"Remember, tell him not to expand the mysterious influence. Those people hate this the most. Don't let anything change in this regard."
"Where should I go then?" Claire asked her, "Stay in the underground palace? Or leave?"
"You are the future..."
Xista looked at her with a flickering look in her eyes.
After thinking for a while, she took off the pair of leather gloves on her hands and handed them to the girl.
"Take it."
"If I can't come back, you can take this thing to find them. They will accept you. Maybe you will be the one to guide the new blood in the future..."
"You want to join the war?"
Claire was startled, but quickly responded: "The battlefield is in England?"
"What's the point of a first-level rookie asking about this?"
"You haven't reached level 5 yet... What can you do by interfering?" Claire said anxiously, "Don't forget - I still owe you pounds!"
"You didn't owe me that when you agreed to go with Farley."
Sista shook her head.
"You agree with my ideals... that's worth a lot more than fifty thousand pounds..."
"Don't be crazy!" Claire grabbed her shoulders. "I don't even know what your ideal is!"
"I want to be free." Siesta smiled.
"Maybe you're right, Claire. Maybe mystery isn't such a good thing after all, maybe what those sewists did was actually the right thing..."
"But just like Tite doesn't want to commit suicide, we also want to live—"
"So many people rush into this world without knowing the cost..."
"Yes, they will regret it eventually, but do they totally deserve it?"
"I don't care about my life anymore, but I don't want this tragedy to happen again."
“That’s my ideal.”
"Remember it Claire."
"You hope you can live well..."
Back at the underground palace, anyone could see that Claire was in a very low mood.
They didn't dare to disturb her - even though she was a maid, the maid who was favored by Tite was different from other maids.
Tite got the news and asked someone to call her to the study for a talk.
"Have they set a time?"
The old man was still sitting behind the table smoking, his whole body hidden in the smoke, and his face could not be seen clearly.
"In the early morning of three days later," said Claire.
"Just as I expected." Tit nodded and rolled his eyes at her: "You don't seem happy about this?"
"Have you ever thought that you might fail?" Claire looked up at him. "If you fail..."
"If I fail, the Fareham family will cease to exist."
Tite gave a reply after thinking for a while.
"Who makes them such terrible enemies?"
"For so many years, we didn't even know who they were or how many there were."
"With such a huge disparity in power, I can't give you any guarantees."
"So if you're here for your mother's matter, I can write a letter for you to take away now. You can take it and leave with your family... No one will dare to stop you."
