"Tsk..."
Turing grunted, swinging his hand heavily, splattering the black blood on the surrounding walls.
Turing and the woman entered a sealed and spacious room. The dim light illuminated the scattered black coffins, some upside down and broken, oozing black liquid, while others reflected a dark green glow.
Leaning against the doorway, the woman nodded slightly, indicating to Turing that she might lose consciousness soon.
"Is this the archives room?" Turing asked the woman. She kicked the torn angel figure into the hallway and firmly closed the door.
The woman shook her brows lightly, managing to force a faint smile.
"Yes, but the books for research are hidden in a deeper place," the woman strained to open her eyes, gazing towards the deep corners of the room.
【Demons can only detect and perceive their surroundings with magic and smell.】
【Closing the door effectively blocks these two abilities.】
Turing looked around and pushed some large machinery of unknown use towards the door, blocking it.
【This should be fine.】
"Oh... Oedipus, are you feeling better? Can you hold on for a bit longer?" Turing approached the woman, asking with concern.
"I, I'm alright. I'm already an adult, hunger, illness, and such, I can endure them and get through," the woman's breath was like a thread, which made Turing feel distressed, "But I was thinking earlier... You're still so young, it's the time for you to grow... How can you withstand such prolonged intense physical activity without even taking a sip of water?"
"I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me suggesting to get some food and drinks, we wouldn't have encountered those angels."
Indeed, casting magic was an extremely exhausting and sweaty exercise, especially fire magic.
For a normal person, using fire magic intermittently throughout the day without rest or replenishing fluids could even lead to shock.
But the woman didn't know that for Turing's childhood, this difficult and cruel exercise was just an appetizer before a meal.
【Three angels, each about four to five meters tall, are nothing...】
【Killing them didn't bring down any elevators, nor did anyone suddenly appear to pick us up. They are not the demons McNewdeau wants dead.】
【But the crucial point is that while fighting them, they not only destroyed the building but also crushed the food under the ruins.】
【It also depleted my magic power.】
【Defeating them is easy, but killing them is difficult.】
【If I don't completely eliminate them, I will face endless pursuit.】
【I have already used up about one-third of my magic power.】
【If the angel in the center of the underground is the demon I'm looking for, I estimate that I will need to consume half of my magic power to completely eliminate it.】
【Just like when I faced the angel from my mom in Lachesis.】
【Losing magic power in such a dangerous place, the result is self-evident.】
Turing looked at the woman, whose breath was barely there, his mouth twitched, and the words he was about to say were swallowed back.
In such a tense situation, any attempt to console would seem insincere.
"It's nothing, just a few small angels."
"I'll go check the information. Can you... hold on?"
Turing squatted down, watching the woman with red-rimmed eyes, but received no response.
【Even if I can't hold on, I have to hold on. I don't have the conditions to care about so much now.】
【Since Raphael swore that if I come down, I will know who the demon is, there must be some kind of information here that can give me a hint.】
【Now the best choice is to quickly find clues about the demon, eliminate it, and then leave.】
【It's also for her own good, I should act faster.】
Turing didn't know what happened, but every time they saw that woman who looked so much like their mother in pain, their own heart would ache as if it were being roasted on an iron plate.
A flame rose up beside Turing, providing illumination as they stood up and walked towards the dark study.
The bookshelves were collapsed layer upon layer. They were pressed against each other like tangled sheaves, crisscrossing in disorder. At the same time, they had also crushed many books underneath. Dust-covered books, some of which had grown nauseating, decaying fungi, hiding in the corners of the books.
【It should be difficult for moss and fungi to grow in an underground place with no ventilation.】
【There are so many mysteries here.】
Turing arrived in front of piles of bookshelves and began to tidy them up using the hands of the magician, categorizing books that seemed useful at first glance.
"Elementary Fluid Dynamics, Special Theory of Relativity, Properties and Classification of Adhesives..." The deeper Turing went into the darkness, the more they realized how vast this information room was. It was filled with the wreckage of bookshelves and scrap metal, as if it had experienced some great disaster.
"The range of scientific literature here is too wide. Do those researchers think that by looking at a little bit of everything, they can discover the secrets of angels?" As Turing quickly sorted the bookshelves and picked up books for classification, their progress was still too slow.
They had already created four hands of the magician to help tidy up the books. Although magic allowed for continued creation, Turing's mind couldn't support any faster categorization.
Turing glanced at the seemingly endless darkness ahead, a sense of powerlessness filling their small heart.
"So much more... It will take me a long time to categorize them. How can she hold on until I finish?"
"Or maybe I should just kill the angel at the door directly. If I make a mistake, I can use the remaining magic power to break through the ceiling."
"Even if the tower collapses and falls into the ground, there's nothing I can do. They always hide and cover up, making me target the wrong one."
"But, if I do that, they probably won't help me heal the horse anymore, right..."
"By then, I will probably lose the competition... If I lose two matches in a row, how disappointed will my mother be..."
"And if I can't achieve victory, what is the meaning of my existence..."
【Boy, if you can't bring victory, then compared to the girl, you are completely meaningless.】
【Lies are always inferior to the truth. If it can't even deceive people...】
【Then it has no value of existence.】
【Do you want to deny the value of lies? Then you are denying your own value, little Turing.】
Oedipus' words in the sunset were like a ghostly curse attached to Turing, or like a fish bone stuck in their throat, destined to torment Turing forever.
"Damn it!" A wave of nameless anger seemed to overflow from Turing's mouth and nose, and he angrily crushed the bookshelf he was holding in his hands.
