"I said, now! Hand over both the Magic Stone and the Dagger of Pain! Don't say it takes time... Three days later? Don't say three days, I don't even want to wait for three minutes! Hand it over immediately, even if it's just the Dagger of Pain. , hand it over to me!"
Just when Maka was still trying to buy time, the old man in white robe suddenly took off the hood on his head and roared manically.
It can be seen that as the old man's anger suddenly overflowed, the blood vessels on his bald head were exposed.
To be honest, this sudden emotional outburst really made Maka a little embarrassed.
Obviously, although he didn't know the reason, the other party was indeed eager. If Maka does have that dagger, then the balance of victory is already tilting towards him. Even without the magic stone, he can still get all six children back with more effort.
However, he had never actually owned the Dagger of Pain. Now, even if the other party is anxious and willing to settle for the next best thing, what he doesn't have just doesn't exist, and he can't give it even if he wants to.
As a result, his original theoretical advantage completely turned into his disadvantage.
"In this case, there is nothing we can do..."
After Maka secretly murmured something in her heart, she was ready to use force. Although rough methods will increase risks, time is already too tight, and effective methods will be gone for a while.
But he just made some preparations in his heart, and before he even moved, the bald old man snorted coldly.
"do not move!"
Although the other party's expression was full of restlessness, his thinking was still extremely calm.
"Don't try to take someone from me by force - Heir, I admit that your magic is indeed amazingly powerful, but it is impossible to take the hostage from my hands. To tell you the truth, I only need one thought, then Several children will die immediately!”
No, this feeling...
"By the way, I'd like to remind you one more thing," the old man said with a ferocious expression. "Although your soul-impacting magic is very fast, I advise you not to use it, because that magic is harmful to my followers. It doesn’t work.”
Rather than saying "calm", it's better to say...
"Legilimency?" Maka suddenly felt alarmed and thought to herself, "No, it can't be Legilimency. There is no response to Occlumency... This old man seems to have the blood of a prophet... Could it be some kind of precognition? ability?"
The words of the bald old man made Maka tense up - yes, he really wanted to use soul magic just now.
As long as he creates a moment of confusion in the other party's consciousness, he can forcefully seize the hostage. There are risks, of course, and he can't guarantee that nothing will go wrong, but the chances of winning are not small.
However, the old man first interrupted his action with one sentence exactly before he was about to take action; then he used another sentence to clearly express his plan.
If the other party's Legilimency wasn't so strong that even he couldn't detect it, then it would probably be a true gift of precognition.
If she thought about the old man's predictions and several accurate calculations, Maka couldn't help but secretly confirm her own conclusion.
"If you really have the ability to predict in a short period of time, that would be troublesome..."
Maka, who has dealt with time rules a few times, knows very well how tricky it is. If it were an ordinary prophetic talent, there would at least be some room for change. After all, the future is constantly changing. But if it is a short-term prediction, it means that every move will be severely restricted.
"I know what you want to say-"
Maka was about to speak, but his thoughts were interrupted precisely when they turned into actions.
"You guessed it right... But, I don't want to tell you this now. Hand over the dagger - the Dagger of Pain, hand it over to me quickly! I don't have that much time to waste with you, it's almost too late... "
Maka really wanted to ask this time: "You are so good at guessing, don't you know that I don't have that broken dagger?"
But when he just thought about it, he hesitated. yes! Since the prophetic old man insists that he has the dagger in his hand, could it be possible that... he really has it, but he just didn't realize it
It was Rowena who took him to several ancient scenes before he came into contact with the dagger, and his emotions were buried by the broken dagger. But what happened next? In other words, were those scenes similar to the effect of a pensieve, or was he really sent to the ancient assassin
There are still many questions, and they may even become more complicated and changeable the more I think about them, but these are not things that can be asked directly. If the other party knew that he did not have the Dagger of Pain at all, not to mention whether they believed it or not, at least the children would most likely be in danger of death.
Just when Maka was being exposed by the prophetic old man again and again, and gradually fell into a dilemma, a subtle but extremely clear voice suddenly sounded from the crowd on one side. The voice was very familiar, but it was not the voice of Leni who had spoken before, but the voice of another slightly cold girl.
"Bungula Centauri (Bungula) South 2776 turn 300..."
A strange sentence, mixed with Latin constellation names and English numbers, spoken at an unusually fast speed.
When these words fell into his ears, Maka noticed that the face of the bald old man in front of him changed. The original irritability was suddenly replaced by incomparable surprise and astonishment.
Looking at his expression, it was as if he had heard something so unbelievable that he couldn't react for a while.
"South of Corvus—" "Do it!"
Immediately afterwards, there is a second similar sentence, like a magical incantation, from which the regularity of syllables and tones can be clearly discerned.
But this time the old man finally responded. Before the voice could finish reading, most of the black-robed cultists behind him were mobilized for this purpose. Only thirty or forty believers drew their daggers at the same time. They went from stillness to movement almost in an instant, bursting out at maximum speed, and seemed to be trying to take the life of the owner of the voice before he could finish speaking.
But how could Maka just watch the other party act like this
The staff appeared in his hand in an instant, and then a cold breath enveloped the large space here. The black-robed cultists who were flying towards the crowd from all angles suddenly had a layer of blood visible to the naked eye. Frost.
However, there are too many people here, and it is very difficult to stop all the attackers without using large-scale magic.
Perhaps sensing the danger coming from the suddenly cold air, the crowd around them began to crowd back. In fact, the onlookers had gradually moved away from the scene just now, but that was obviously not enough.
The scene began to become chaotic.
Maka uses the cooling rules to cast the terrifying cold wave, and its effect is naturally significant. Although the believers were fast, they still slowed down while running, and each of them was frozen in the middle.
But there were still two people who were not "taken care of", because the next moment they started to slow down, they had already rushed into the chaotic crowd.
"—1068 to 437." "Hi."
At the same time that the voice was worthy of reading the second sentence, the sound of the sharp blade slicing across the body made the corners of Maka's eyes suddenly jump. But strangely, there was no cry of pain or lamentation from the crowd.
"Corona Borealis 1528, not visible."
As the third sentence was spoken by the plain voice, Maka took a deep breath. And the footsteps that he was originally running in that direction also changed his course of action in the next second, and quickly turned back towards the kidnapped children.
Because he keenly discovered that the magic fluctuations in the bald old man's body calmed down quickly, and even his pupils dilated slightly - that was a sign of temporary loss of consciousness.
Maka's speed is not inferior to those of the black-robed cultists, or even faster. He was seen rushing towards the six believers like a gust of wind. The magic blades sent by the six paths in advance accurately passed through their eyebrows, and the children returned to his protection.
When he carefully pushed back to the other side with the six little guys, the other believers remained in place, as if they had no time to react.
Or maybe they can't move at all...
"Professor MacLean, you only need to control the old man. Don't worry about the other people in black robes."
When Maka heard this, she immediately turned her head to take a look, and her pupils shrank.
"Sarah, you-"
"Professor MacLean, I'm fine... Please take action as soon as possible."
Maka looked at Sarah's right shoulder, and there was obviously something missing there. The scarlet color stimulated his nerves; and looking behind her, the missing thing was lying quietly in a pool of blood. , extremely eye-catching.
—Can this be called "nothing"
Compared with Sarah, who was so calm that it could be said that she was weird, those people who were frightened and screamed by this scene were much more normal, even if those scared faces were not pretty.
Maka had noticed something strange about Sarah, and she also had her own secrets. But even Maka couldn't imagine that he would see this weird scene now.
But no matter how confused he was, he would not lose his due judgment because of it. Sarah's calmness made Maka decisively cast a spell on the bald old man who was still in a daze after handing the children over to Professor McGonagall who came over.
Behind Maka, Professor Sprout rushed to Sarah with Madam Pomfrey from the school hospital, obviously wanting to treat her in time. In this regard, Sarah didn't say much, she just stood there and let them do what they did.
"This... doesn't work," Pomfrey's expression was a little solemn, "Maybe the blade that cut off the arm contained some dark magic..."
But Sarah just shook her head.
"Don't worry, I think... just leave it to Professor MacLean."