Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire Novel - Chapter 404

**Chapter 404 Interception**
**Conqueror Sea North Shore, Outskirts of Nawah.**

Late afternoon beneath a leaden sky. Far from the city proper on the desolate coast, icy seawater scraped relentlessly against a shoreline of fractured stone. The surge’s brute force slammed into crevices, churning sand and grit. The roar of waves resonated like a relentless drumbeat.

On the rocky foreshore, Massimo stood stunned, one arm gone, grievously injured. He stared in disbelief at the young man who had materialized nearby, wearing a faint smile. A familiar aroma clung to him – the scent Massimo had detected on the button clutched in Pince’s hand. The source of that elusive trace was none other than Thief K!

“Thief K… It’s you! Thief K! Just as I thought… you’re a Blood Shadow Path demon!”

Gritting his teeth, Massimo hurled the accusation. Costas had cautioned him that Thief K was likely a Blood Shadow Path changer, skilled in altering appearance. The figure before him now possessed entirely different features – even gender – from the one Massimo had faced aboard the *Flashing White Pearl*. Only a Blood Shadow Path non-ordinary could manage that.

“My true identity… wasn’t that perfectly clear already? No need for shock, Mr. Massimo.”

The young man smiled slightly, speaking fluent Ivigite, his tone mocking. Massimo responded, his voice thick with venom.

“You fiend… How did you vanish from that ship without a trace? How did you know my location? And that spiritual mist that betrayed us – your handiwork too! What did you do?”

“Ah-ah-ah! So many queries, Mr. Massimo. Surely you don’t expect answers? You’re a walking corpse. What good are answers to the dead?”

The young man regarded Massimo with utter scorn. Fury ignited again in Massimo’s eyes, quickly suppressed. Straining against his failing body, he lifted his head and offered the youth a cold, defiant sneer.

“Hmph… Seems we were outmaneuvered from the beginning. Showing yourself now to gloat – savoring your victory, are you?”

“Naturally~ Isn’t the victory mine? A broken wreck like you is no match now. This triumph? My rightful prize.”

Spreading his hands, the youth jeered at Massimo. Massimo’s face contorted briefly before settling back into an icy grin.

“Heh…… True, gravely wounded, I likely can’t defeat you now. But beware hubris! Sadly, that lesson escaped you.”

“Don’t celebrate yet! Thief K!”

Massimo bellowed. At the same instant, his remaining arm swept out. Beneath the youth’s feet, the rubble-strewn ground convulsed violently. Multiple jets erupted, shattering stone as pressurized saltwater speared upwards like frozen lances towards the target.

“What!”

Shock flashed across the youth’s face. He scrambled sideways, narrowly avoiding the piercing columns. Yet the encircling spray solidified into watery bars, trapping him within their liquid cage. Massimo’s counterattack was only starting.

“Good evasion. Futile!”

At Massimo’s snarled command, the watery pillars around the youth detonated. Guided by unseen force, the torrent merged into surging currents that swallowed him whole. In an instant, a massive sphere of water encased his entire body, suspending him within.

Immediately submerged and trapped mid-air, the young man thrashed wildly, but without leverage, his struggle was useless. Bubbles streamed from his mouth as his face twisted in suffocating agony.

Seizing the moment, Massimo had harnessed seawater surging through hidden fissures to forge an aquatic tomb, burying the youth alive. No struggle could breach this liquid stronghold. Witnessing this, Massimo roared with savage exultation.

“Ha! You grew complacent, Thief K! Never imagined the earth beneath you held water for *my* command, did you?

“Waiting until we were far from shore, luring me here before revealing yourself—that was fear! Fear of me wielding the ocean against you! But understand: this bedrock shore is riddled with seawater-soaked cracks! Every step you took above ground saturated with water awaiting my call! Your calculations failed!”

Staring at the youth’s agonized thrashing within the watery orb, Massimo shouted, his previous frustration and rage swept away by vindication.

“Conserve your strength, thief! Once ensnared by a Wave Choir’s Aqua Prison, neither might nor swiftness grants escape! Not even bat-shaping frees you from the current! Now! Yield the Deep Blue Heart immediately, and your wretched life might yet be spared!”

As Massimo concentrated on maintaining his captive within the swirling prison, figures moved. From behind nearby boulders, several men brandishing revolvers burst into view. Without pause, they aimed their weapons at Massimo and fired.

Raw gunfire shattered the coastal quiet. Slugs screamed from revolvers, tearing towards Massimo’s exposed back. Wounded and utterly focused on his spell, Massimo reacted too slowly. He twisted desperately, but at least five bullets tore into his torso, opening ragged wounds. One shot pierced his throat, forcing a spray of blood from his mouth.

“Cough… cough… Underlings?!”

Gritting against fresh agony, enduring wounds fatal to an ordinary man, Massimo kept the water orb compressing its victim. Bloodshot eyes fixed on the gunmen. He assumed them Thief K’s reinforcements, seeing their master trapped and rushing to aid.

Glaring malevolently at the attackers, Massimo summoned the last dregs of his power focused elsewhere. Near the gunmen, the ground exploded. Geysers of high-pressure water erupted from shattered stone, impaling multiple assailants mid-charge. They collapsed onto the rocky shore, shrieking.

As one fell, a final surge of resolve flared. He ignited a grenade’s fuse and hurled it towards Massimo with dying effort. Seeing the lethal device arc towards him, jets of seawater merged mid-air, coalescing around the grenade in a floating saltwater shell, arresting its flight. Fizzling, the soaked fuse died.

As relief flickered across Massimo’s face, a micro-drone insect concealed *within* the explosive pulsed imperceptibly. The spark ignited instantly, detonating the unexploited charge inside the sealed casing.

“BOOM!!”

A fierce blast ripped the air. The thin water veil surrounding the grenade vaporized instantly, though its fleeting containment muffled the explosion. It roared harmlessly into plumes of dust and sea spray yards from Massimo, leaving him untouched.

A flicker of surprise crossed Massimo’s face at the detonation, fading as he saw he was unharmed. His relief was incinerated the next instant.

A viciously swift silhouette tore through the lingering smoke and dust. It shot straight at Massimo.

Focus sharpened. It was a woman. Dressed in dark, practical men’s attire, hair tightly pinned. Her shadowed half-mask revealed piercing, slitted eyes. Unmistakable eyes. The very eyes that had confronted Massimo that night on the *Flashing White Pearl*’s forecastle.

“YOU!”

Staring at the female thief charging him, Massimo’s eyes bulged. Only now did he grasp his fatal error: he’d imprisoned a decoy. Desperation surged. He violently released the distant water prison, diverting his fading strength to conjure a new aquatic cage, this time aimed at the true thief.

Too late. The thief closed the final distance with lethal grace, dagger sweeping upwards in a killing arc.

Instinct screamed. Massimo threw his sole remaining arm up in a desperate parry. The thief’s blade bit deep into his forearm. Given her strength, it should have severed clean through. Yet Massimo summoned reserves, muscles knotting grotesquely. He poured agai-infused power into flesh that momentarily hardened like ancient oak. With a grating shriek, the dagger skidded, tearing only flesh as it jammed before reaching bone.

With his Black Earth tier ‘Cup’ Path physique, Massimo snatched fate by the throat!

“DIE, THIEF!”

Roaring in fury, Massimo readied his counterstrike. It withered, unmade. A devastating surge pulsed from the thief’s body, channeled down the blade embedded in his arm, flooding his shattered frame.

Excruciating agony detonated. An echo of that piercing *wrongness* felt atop the *Flashing White Pearl* stabbed Massimo anew… only this shockwave didn’t stop at his arm. It surged through every nerve.

A deafening scream tore from Massimo’s mouth. Electricity arced through his core. His body arched violently, every muscle locking, utterly beyond control. Paralyzing spasms froze his limbs rigid.

Seizing the void of resistance, the thief pivoted her wrist. With grotesque force, she twisted the dagger downwards. Massimo’s blocking forearm snapped like dry kindling. While her grip dug deep into his shoulder to sustain the paralyzing agony coursing into muscles and nerves, she drew the blade back and struck again at Massimo’s exposed, ruined throat. The mangled throat opened across two-thirds of its width. Crimson fountained. Still, she wasn’t finished. To ensure death, the dagger punched deep into Massimo’s skull.

Thus, beneath the frantic spray of his own lifeblood, Massimo collapsed, eyes wide in terminal disbelief. Lips moved soundlessly on the stony ground, mind desperately racing beyond the body’s end. He shuddered violently for long minutes. Then stillness claimed the remains.

Standing over Massimo’s corpse, the thief watched with impassive, slit-pupiled eyes as the Abyssian Cult’s high-ranking agent finished his final tremors. Only when death was certain did she lift the mask, revealing Nevis’s detached expression. With Fuzhang’s possession severed, detachment vanished. Looking upon the mutilated corpse and blood-slicked blade in her hand, she recoiled a step, eyes momentarily shocked, the dagger nearly slipping from her grasp.

“H-he… he seems dead now, Miss Dorothy.”

Turning away, a troubled look coloring her face, Nevis glanced towards the youth nearby, soaked and having just escaped the water prison.

“Ahem… Truly well executed, Senior Nevis. I’ll handle the rest. You have your own schedule to keep, I believe,” he offered, adjusting tangled, wet clothes.

“Mm… I do. My professors and classmates are waiting in the city. I must join them promptly. Ah… I’ll go change clothes first. This place… is yours.”

With that, Nevis gathered faint threads of spirit tether and hurried away towards the distance. The corpse puppet watched her go, then slowly returned its gaze to the bloody ruin that had been Massimo.

“And now… Trophy collection begins~”

Dorothy murmured with satisfaction from her seat in the roadside gazebo near the shore. She focused, directing her collection of corpses amongst the rocks to commence the grisly tasks of cleanup and aftermath.

Thus, Massimo and Costas – persistent irritants for so many days – finally dissolved into harmless refuse. Dorothy could finally breathe easily.

Back on the *Flashing White Pearl*, Dorothy had deliberately used Pince to weave the ‘scented thread’ as bait for Costas and Massimo. This restraining lifeline served to prevent their ‘final desperate gambit’, keeping them clinging to a shred of hope while gently shepherding them towards their grave.

Later, anticipating they would scour the crowd for anyone bearing the button’s perfume, Dorothy orchestrated their exposure to the Church. The instrument? Mosquito drones.

One vial of the Slumbering Spire smoke mixture remained in her collection. Tiny corpse mosquito puppets ingested minuscule droplets of the liquefied vapor. She guided them onto Costas and Massimo. Then, with deliberate trigger-pulses through her Luminants, ruptured their bodies. Released, sublimating spirit mist billowed from their ruptured forms to alert the nearby Church agents.

Beyond the bombers, she guided another mosquito into Massimo’s clothing pocket. When Massimo leapt the rails to escape by sea, she tracked his swimming path via that helpless winged puppet.

Dorothy deduced his intended landing point and arrived before him after disembarking early. She brought Nevis along, riding Necron-infused steeds—corpse horses immune to exhaustion retrieved from her Chitin Lockbox. Ravaged by wounds, Massimo’s swim was agonizingly slow; Dorothy gained an immense lead using waterstorms to arrive first.

“A sigh finally permitted… Who could foresee a voyage spawning ordeals that chilled me to the bone? Contests of wit and strength warping into bizarre dimensions—days shaken by near-disaster. Yet, at the climax… objective attained. Cultist scum dissolved. Souls sailed gently ashore on that other vessel. My artifacts dwindled… the recovered treasure should, at least… suffice.”