Fantasy Writers 1860

Chapter 103 Why were they fighting?

Stone?

The hooded woman repeated, "A stone flew from the direction of the river, did you see it?"

Could it be the one that flew over from over there just now and smashed through the attic of the Countess's residence on the third floor?

Everyone was in such a hurry that no one paid attention to what it actually was.

Inspector Richie stepped forward, instinctively placing his hand on his holster, and asked in a deep voice, "Who are you? What did you do with the earthquake and the explosion at that abandoned factory?"

"Executor of the secret meeting at the Shrine of the Iris Republic." Another hooded figure, who had been silent until now, stepped forward slightly. Judging from the voice, it was a man. "We are hunting down an extremely dangerous Bookkeeper. He just escaped from that abandoned factory you mentioned and came here."

The Republic of Iris: A Secret Meeting at the Pantheon?

Dorian remembered that he seemed to have heard someone say that they were the same type of organization as the Britannia Academy of Literature, both being official agencies that managed fantasy books.

If they came from that side—they probably also managed to sneak into today's demi-human auction, but—

Why are even the Iris people here?

It seems the situation over there is quite complicated; there might be several groups of people involved in this grand event.

"You—" Dorian was about to speak when he suddenly heard a series of cracking sounds behind him.

"What's that sound?" As the acting detective, Richie reacted the fastest, immediately drawing his gun, turning around, and pointing the muzzle behind him. The other officers did the same.

Dorian looked back and saw that in the middle of the street behind him, about a hundred meters away, the ground began to bulge upwards, the arched paving stones began to turn over, and cracks spread outwards.

A grayish-white stone hand burst from the center of the protrusion, followed by an arm and a torso—soon, a stone man nearly two meters tall crawled out of the ground, his body covered in rough rock layers, his eyes gleaming with a scarlet light.

boom-

Richie fired the first shot.

Sure enough, the bullets hit the stone man but had no effect on him at all, as if they had hit a real stone.

"Is this the rock you were talking about?" Richie couldn't help but ask, while quickly pulling out another pistol that looked no different from the one in the holster on his side.

This isn't human anymore; it must have used some kind of magic.

As a police officer, I was certainly prepared for this situation.

Although traditional magic is declining now, it's not completely abandoned.

In order to deal with potential traditional magical crimes, the police department is naturally equipped with some special attack weapons.

For example, the other gun on Richie's body is loaded with bullets made of special materials that can shatter the foundation of traditional magic, thus destroying and dismantling it.

"That's not magic," the hooded woman said mysteriously. "You'd better leave quickly; such power is beyond your control."

At this moment, the stone figure emitted a low, hoarse sound, like massive stones rubbing against each other. Strangely, everyone could clearly discern human language within this seemingly random rubbing sound: "The Book of Illusions! This is the power of the Book of Illusions! This is the true, fundamental power of the world!"

The hooded woman scoffed, "You thief of 'The Metamorphosis' have the nerve to flaunt your power? We've chased you all the way from Iris to here; this time you can't escape!"

Metamorphosis?

Isn't that wrong? Kafka wasn't even born yet at that time. Isn't this too far off?

No, no, no, it shouldn't be that "Transformation" show—

The pronunciation of Metamorphoses—it seems to be from that ancient metamorphosis story.

The long poem by the ancient Roman poet Ovid spans from the creation of the world to the present day, containing hundreds of ancient myths. It is named after the stories in which gods and humans transform into birds, beasts, trees, and stones for various reasons.

That being said, such distorted plots actually don't appear very often.

It seems that the other party used this illusion book to transform himself into a stone man.

The hooded woman turned to Dorian and Richie and shouted, "You two, get out of here!"

Inspector Richie, however, showed no intention of fleeing. Instead, he raised his other anti-magic gun, its dark muzzle pointing at the stone figure: "I am an inspector from Scotland Yard. Anyone who wants to create chaos in my jurisdiction, on Britannian soil, I have the right to stop! Stop immediately!"

Bang bang bang—

Another burst of gunfire rang out as Richie and the officers switched to their magical firearms and unleashed a volley of fire at the stone golem.

However, these special bullets didn't even make a ripple when they hit the stone man.

The stone man laughed loudly: "A mere mortal dares to order me around?" With that, he raised his foot and stomped hard towards them, his huge fist slamming towards Richie with a whooshing sound.

Dorian reacted quickly, grabbing Richie's collar and dodging to the side.

Boom—

The stone fist slammed into the ground, sending shards of stone flying and creating a half-meter-deep crater in the road.

The officers instinctively continued firing, but the bullets bounced off the stone figure, scattering sparks and only breaking off a few stone fragments, unable to penetrate the thick rock armor.

The stone figure swung its hand back, sending a police officer flying. The officer crashed into the wall of a nearby building and immediately lost consciousness.

The two hooded figures moved simultaneously, creating distance between themselves and running to opposite sides.

One of the hooded figures used magic to create an ice spike and shot it at the stone man's eye, but the stone man only closed his eyes slightly, and the ice spike struck the eyelid, which was also made of rock, and shattered instantly.

Another hooded figure lunged forward, her silver dagger imbued with armor-piercing magic, aiming for the stone golem's joints. However, the dagger only penetrated an inch before being firmly stuck by the growing layer of rock. No matter how hard she tried to pull it out, she couldn't. Instead, the stone golem kicked her away, sending her crashing into an empty bakery by the roadside, raising a cloud of dust.

She rose from the dust, circled around the stone golem, and unleashed various low-level spells such as fireballs, wind blades, and corrosive liquids at different parts of it.

"Is this all the executioners are capable of? You actually tried to defeat me with such low-level traditional magic, without even a single spellbook!" the stone man shouted, making no attempt to hide his sarcasm.

But the two hooded men were not provoked at all. Although their faces were covered by hoods, an aura of "everything is under control" always lingered around them.

The stone golem continued to attack everywhere with its tall and hard body. Wherever its fists landed, they instantly turned into dust, and wherever it stepped, it would make a thud and create a large crater.

The two hooded figures seemed completely overwhelmed, constantly retreating, while the stone figure advanced triumphantly, appearing poised to capture the two executors of the Pantheon meeting soon.

But at that moment, the hooded man suddenly stopped, and a semi-transparent book that looked like it came from ancient Rome a thousand years ago gradually appeared in the air in front of him.

Once it was fully revealed, the pages began to rustle and dance without wind, as if spirits were running around inside.

Dorian saw on the book's cover, adorned with intricate lines, that it bore the title *Dererum* (On the Nature of Things).

natura)

The page stopped at a certain point. The hooded man held the illusory book in his hands and solemnly read aloud its contents: "—Nothing can be created from nothing, nor will anything created return to nothing. Therefore, when the end of everything comes, it will inevitably decompose into this primordial substance, so that there will be enough raw materials to replenish the world."