〖 Huh? Did he find a host already? 〗'Negary' was still able to somewhat sense Michael.
Since the maggot was a result of the ritual, it naturally carried a bit of mana and unique characteristics.
Furthermore, Michael was both an excellent and powerful mage, so his soul's mental power was quite great. After implanting himself into the body of another person, he would be able to influence them.
〖 When I checked just earlier, there were only four survivors in the sewers other than myself, so Michael must have become a parasite on one of the others 〗
'Negary' didn't care too much about this. If that human was able to resist Michael's influence and instead absorb the Michael larva, the parasite would become beneficial instead of harmful.
'Negary' entered the prison area, completely ignored the two unconscious people, and headed straight into Michael's lab at the back. After he had read through everything inside, he returned to the corridor and woke Quirl up.
This girl was a spy of one of the mages from the House of Mages, all of her mana originated from a certain kind of mana food; she knew a total of two spells, which were Presence Concealment and Blade of Light which she wielded earlier.
Having woken up from being unconscious, Quirl's gaze was a bit unclear, but it quickly became focused as she saw 'Negary' standing just a bit away.
"You're…" Quirl half sat up, one of her hands silently touched her shoe. There was a small needle there that had been coated in a strong poison that she could use to either restrain an enemy or suicide when necessary.
〖 I still need to thank the bunch of you. If you hadn't interrupted my ritual, I wouldn't have been able to complete it so quickly 〗at this point, 'Negary's' presence was exactly the same as Michael, after all, he had taken on his coat.
Vitality mana was continuously flowing through the skin bag, altering and improving it. In fact, this body had already begun to fuse with the skin bag as they came into contact with one another, forming a cocoon that would eventually birth 'Negary's' true body.
'Negary' created this technique using his own knowledge of Mysticism combined with Mequik's [The Origin of life], hijacking the ritual that Michael had prepared for himself. This newly created spell was named [Divine Embryo Reincarnation].
〖 To move on from the past and accept a better self, this is the true meaning of Negary 〗
'Negary' was able to recognize this very well.
〖 I shall use my past body as the fetus to incubate a new self, making myself perfect step by step 〗
With the aid of the skin bag cocoon, this incubation should end very quickly, and 'Negary's' first Divine Embryo would be born, although the notion of someone incubating themselves was quite eerie if one truly thought about it.
…
"You're Michael!" Quirl opened her eyes wide in shock.
According to the intelligence I've obtained, Michael's magic ritual would need a while longer, only by borrowing the mana tide during the Mana Banquet would he be able to truly complete it.
So how could he have already completed it?
However, the rejuvenated version of Michael was indeed standing right in front of her, giving her no other choice but to believe it.
〖 Sure enough, the sensation of youth truly is wonderful 〗
'Negary' reached his hand out to stroke Quirl's relatively beautiful face, causing Quirl to have goosebumps all over her body. During her investigation of Michael, she had already excavated Michael's true face under his kindly old appearance.
Under his perfectly kind guise, Michael was a pervert in every meaning of the word, which had only gotten worse as he became older. It was his hobby to capture those with a beautiful appearance, both men and women, skin them alive, then keep their skin as part of his collection.
Naturally, this little hobby wasn't considered anything too exceptional among the upper class of the Academic City, especially when Michael could only do it to those without any background.
Quite obviously, 'Negary's' stroking of Quirl's face had made her assume that the other party liked her skin.
…
〖 As expected, through subconscious suggestions, she has completely convinced herself that I am Michael beyond any doubts 〗
While he acted like a pervert, 'Negary's' mind was as clear as it ever was.
'Negary' had briefly observed Michael and studied his secret documents; combined with the fact that his personal lab had numerous full-body skin specimens hung on the wall, 'Negary' was able to generally understand some of Michael's hobbies and habits, making it easy for him to simulate being Michael.
As long as he could implant the impression of him being the rejuvenated Michael in Quirl's head, her mind would fill in everything else by itself, including possible side-effects of the magic ritual, which made it more convenient for 'Negary' to disguise as Michael.
〖 The disguise is only temporary, just enough to reduce the possibility of me being exposed 〗
'Negary' thought back to possible future actions of the real Michael. For the sake of his resurrection, he would definitely kill the five sacrifices, so as long as 'Negary's' previous identity had been found dead to the sewage monsters, that line of connection would already be severed.
〖 Of course, someone still needs to take responsibility for the abnormalities of the institute 〗
'Negary's' gaze turned away a bit towards the unconscious Roger. At this point, 'Negary' was able to clearly sense Roger's abnormality.
The corpse oil that he had specially crafted allowed Roger to fuse with and obtain the abilities of four spirits, but there were clearly five brands on Roger's body, which suggested that there was a fifth hidden spirit in this institute, a very powerful one.
〖 A small temple seals a big demon, a shallow pond houses too many turtles 〗
'Negary' shook his head, deciding to make Roger and the spirit behind Roger take all the responsibilities for this matter.
After confirming his plan, 'Negary' clutched Quirl's face and slowly said: 〖 However, now that I've regained my youth, I no longer need your skin. Of course, I'm still going to have you face the consequences for almost ruining my ritual 〗
'Negary's' mana surged forward and formed a spell under his manipulation that affected Quirl's body.
〖 Go and announce my return 〗'Negary' let go of Quirl, pushing her into the sewage water. Her body had been hexed by 'Negary', a hex that would continuously extract her vitality, making one day for her equal to one year for other people.
Other mages would be able to see the expert manipulation of vitality mana from this hex, further confirming to them that Michael had completed his reincarnation ritual. After all, if it wasn't him who had undergone the reincarnation ritual, there wouldn't be anyone else capable of understanding vitality mana to this degree.
'Negary' then found the security guard at another branch of the sewers. Now equipped with mana, 'Negary' was able to manipulate the security guard even more thoroughly by implanting new memories into his head.
Roger was the true mastermind behind everything. He led everyone to the underground sewers in order to perform his evil ritual and sacrifice them to the demon. All the recent abnormalities in the institute, including the Mystic attack, was all Roger's fault. Basically, Roger was responsible for everything.
Furthermore, Roger had previously established the meeting place for his Abnormality Elimination Squad to be the classroom rumored to contain demons, which acted as another piece of evidence pointing to the fact that Roger was deceived by the demon in that place.
Because of this, when Roger finally awoke from the recoil of his failed spell casting attempt, he was already tied up on a wooden cart right in the middle of the institute's main square. There were several other pieces of wood set up around the wooden cart, the students all around were looking at him in disdain, some were even calling out to burn him alive.
At the same time, the security guard who previously joined his Squad was standing next to him with a triumphant expression, telling the students the story of how he defeated the demon apostle Roger.
〖 You've fallen into desperation, Roger. If this still can't force you to exert your potential, then you truly are worthless 〗standing in the shadows, 'Negary' observed all of this with a smirk on his face.
