Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 447 Promotion to Black Knight

"Gurgling."

The black liquid in the large pot was bubbling, thick and viscous. It didn't look like something easy to drink at all. But Lu Ze only glanced at it before continuing to prepare it. He picked up the lemon balm essential oil bottle on the table and counted out 10 drops with a dropper.

"Chichi."

The essential oil made a sound as it fell into the black liquid, but instead of the fresh scent of herbs, it emitted a more stale and gloomy aroma.

At this point, only one piece of auxiliary material remains.

—A drop of blood from every one of those who have fallen because of the ritual.

Lu Ze's ritual targets souls; he himself has no physical body, let alone blood. However, after the ritual, he has become one with those souls, so theoretically, his blood could be used as a substitute.

He put down the essential oil bottle, hovered his hand over the large pot, and then spread his fingertips.

"Wow"

With just one drop of blood, the black liquid underwent a dramatic change; the originally viscous liquid rapidly diluted and dissolved. Now it resembled thick ink.

effective
Lu Ze was secretly delighted. Then, he carefully picked up the main ingredient of the potion—the extraordinary properties of the "Black Knight" extracted from Leomaster.

"Boom."

The glistening black hand bone fell into the pot, and the bubbling liquid immediately stopped boiling.

The hand bones dissolved silently, dissolving into the liquid. With each dissolution, the liquid became even more viscous. In the end, the entire pot of potion nearly solidified, even more so than its initial state.

But unlike the original black asphalt, the potion now resembled a shimmering black gemstone, lying quietly at the bottom of the pot.

"It should be a success."

Bernadette, who was observing from the side, said, "I don't see anything wrong."

"Ah."

Luze looked at the "gem" and poured it into a prepared metal bottle. Although it looked like a solid, the potion still flowed out of the pot.

He picked up the bottle.

The metal vial containing the potion was many times heavier than it looked, and it felt extremely cold to the touch. Luze simply brought the vial to his lips and poured it down.

"Gudong."

The viscous potion flowed down his throat and esophagus into his body, and Lu Ze remained stiff and motionless, still in the posture of drinking the potion with his head tilted back.

"Wow!"

The next second, his body suddenly collapsed.

Under Bernadette's gaze, Luze's body dissolved into pure flesh and blood, spilling onto the floor of the Dawn. Then, the once crimson flesh and blood gradually turned black, as if transforming from flesh and blood into shadow!

Lu Ze, however, was unaware of his current state. He only felt his consciousness rapidly plummeting, plummeting, as if passing through the ship's deck, through the seawater, sinking into endless shadows, sinking into eternal darkness.

Something seemed to be calling to him from the depths of that darkness.

Gradually, Lu Ze felt a strong urge to sink into the deepest depths and approach the great being that called to him. He knew perfectly well that this was wrong, but he couldn't control himself and could only continue to sink deeper into depravity.
Suddenly, something supported him.

It was something far more solid than shadow, its presence abruptly halting Luze's descent. He instinctively looked over and discovered that what was supporting him were countless illusory hands. Those hands were black, corrupt, and radiated an extreme and intense aura. The souls of the fallen!

They fell before Luze, and thus appeared beneath him, supporting his body!
The downward trend was stopped. Before Lu Ze could be surprised, he immediately took the opportunity to rise and pull his consciousness out of the dark shadow world.

Only then did he finally feel his own existence and sense the potion spreading within his body, like a dark swamp, permeating every cell.

"Gudong."

In an instant, Lu Ze felt his spiritual body, along with his flesh and blood, being stained with a pitch-black color.

—That was the darkness of depravity and madness.

"Stab!"

As if a crisp tearing sound rang in his ears, Lu Ze felt his spirit and flesh being forcibly separated under the effect of the magic potion!

From Bernadette's perspective, she saw the shadow that Luze had transformed into gradually expand, like a boiling pool of ink. Countless faces of pain surged on its surface, and judging from their features, they were all Luze himself.

It looked as if it was about to separate and turn into a series of pitch-black monsters.
"puff!"

The shadowy surface suddenly cracked, revealing bright red flesh within the fissures. This flesh was both bloody and vivid, sacred yet sinister. Thus, the shadows seemed to become projections of each piece of flesh, perfectly matching them one by one.

The flesh writhed and writhed, causing the shadow below to sway as if the two were becoming one.

Lu Ze's consciousness spread out.

He stopped sinking and instead floated in the dark world, as if he himself had become part of the shadows and depravity.

Above the shadows, something even more dazzling—countless stars. But the stars were merely the surface; behind them lay countless conceptualized, abstract representations. They were extremely far from Lu Ze, yet in some way, they resonated with him.
At that moment, countless voices rang in Lu Ze's ears.

That was the cry of the fallen, their intense emotions, the pain and sins they entrusted to Luze.

The effects of the Fallen Ones were so vivid and heavy that they gripped Luze's scattered consciousness, gradually leading him to rediscover himself.

A strange sense, not originating from the spiritual or mental body, gradually emerged from the pitch-black shadows. It gathered Lu Ze's consciousness, allowing him to view himself from a more detached and serene perspective.

Is this divinity?
Having devoured Lanius, Luze already possessed this substance within him and was familiar with it. Instead, he used its attraction to reassemble the torn spirit.

Deep within his spirit, the pure divinity from the offspring of the evil god was also drawn out, dissipating and merging with the divinity formed by the magic potion. Thus, the divinity that had tormented Lu Ze for so long was finally completely dissolved and integrated into his body.

Inside the Dawn's mess hall, the shadows had stopped spreading; instead, they had coalesced with the flesh and blood, piling up and forming a structure.
A tall and imposing figure gradually took shape.

It was a burly knight with red eyes, clad in jet-black armor. He was so tall he almost touched the ceiling of the restaurant. In his right hand was a dark, deep-set greatsword, its blade broad and straight, seemingly razor-sharp, capable of obliterating both body and soul with a single strike.

"Congratulations."

"Queen Bernadette said softly."

"Click."

The black-clad knight lifted his mask, revealing Luze's calm face.

Promotion to Black Knight, successful.

(End of this chapter)