Free Web NovelChapter 558: Chapter 558 Someone’s Got Your Back_1
"The legendary Hound’s old rivals sure are numerous," Aiden couldn’t help but comment. "Like the super villains from a series of stories."
Aiden knew that the Thousand-faced Thief Liv was Duboman’s old rival, but he hadn’t expected that now Abigail would also reveal she had crossed swords with Duboman, although at least it seemed that Abigail and Duboman had no special relationship.
"After all, he was eating the bread of a Bounty Hunter at that time, so it’s quite normal for him to stir up trouble everywhere," Abigail replied.
"I hadn’t heard you were ever a wanted criminal?" Aiden said, somewhat surprised.
Abigail had lived in seclusion at the edge of the Mist Forest, which lies at the border of the Empire, Gistas, and the autonomous states, before establishing the Witch Coven. She had hardly taken any noticeable action, and no country had paid any attention to this witch. And after the founding of the Witch Coven, to avoid uniting the coven against a common enemy, no country considered targeting her.
"It wasn’t me, but Lamia," Abigail clarified.
"The one he was hunting was Lamia?" Aiden was taken aback.
"Yes, her earliest alchemy workshop was set up in the Empire. She’s always been a prime target of the Empire’s bounty, with a high price on her head. The Hound Duboman set his sights on her and relentlessly tracked Lamia, forcing her to constantly relocate her bases," Abigail explained. "At that time, I was planning to bring Lamia into the Witch Coven, and Lamia set a condition for me to help her get rid of the Hound nipping at her heels."
"So it looks like you didn’t kill him," Aiden said.
After all, Duboman now seems to be quite alive and kicking up a revolution on the Northern Continent.
"He’s an unexpectedly tough opponent. At that time, he’d already touched the power of Divine Words, and moreover the one most suitable for battle, ’Retribution.’ But in the end, we still made him decide against pursuing further," she admitted.
"So your encounter was just like that?" Aiden thought that didn’t seem like particularly useful information.
"I haven’t finished. In the early days of the Witch Coven, we tried to eliminate any threats to our safety," Abigail slowly said. "Because of past grudges, Duboman was on that list."
"Your ’list’ was just about monitoring potential threats, wasn’t it?" Aiden suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
He had heard these Great Witches mention that he had once been on their watch list, but they had never mentioned that the people on that list were meant to be killed.
"That was then, this is now. The Witch Coven was newly established, with few members and easily targeted for elimination, which is why we needed to remove threats," Abigail said unflinchingly.
"So why didn’t Duboman end up dead?" Aiden asked.
Clearly, the Witch Coven had not succeeded in killing Duboman.
"Our assassination attempt on him had just begun when we quickly abandoned it, because we were warned," Abigail explained.
"He warned you?" Aiden frowned. "You shouldn’t be that easy to scare off, right?"
"Not him, but a mysterious person of unknown identity. He demonstrated his power to us and warned that if we insisted on assassinating Duboman, he would become our enemy," Abigail elaborated.
"What kind of power did this mysterious person wield to make you actually back off willingly?" Aiden couldn’t hide his curiosity.
"He created duplicates of three members from within the Witch Coven, including Lamia, and came to Banquet Forest to negotiate with us," Abigail’s voice grew heavy.
"Duplicates? Like the creations from your incubation eggs?" Aiden gestured toward Tony Dodge’s progeny body.
"No, closer to the original. Those duplicates could even use the witches’ signature magic."
"That’s just too far-fetched," Aiden said incredulously. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"It’s true. At that time, our level of research wasn’t what it is today, and nobody knew how it was achieved, but without a doubt, that mysterious person’s power was very strong, so we quickly chose to give up," Abigail said seriously.
"It sounds like you now know the principle behind it?" Aiden asked.
"So much time has passed, it’s impossible to verify now, but I have a guess. It must have been the power of ’Existential Authority.’" Abigail said seriously. "Combining the powers ’Creation’ and ’Substitute’, it should be possible to achieve that effect. But to reach that level... it would likely require at least a saint."
At the mention of "Existential Authority," Aiden suddenly thought of someone—Thief Liv.
But he immediately dismissed the hypothesis.
Thief Liv had once actively sought collaboration with Duboman in order to get rid of a serial killer. If she had such power, she could have executed the felon herself.
"So you’re saying that Duboman was once under the protection of a saint with ’Existential Authority,’ but no one knows who it was?" Aiden tried to summarize the information.
"That’s one way to put it."
"This is getting stranger," Aiden suddenly realized that as he continued his investigation, the mystery seemed to grow.
"After that, we had no more intersections with the Hound," Abigail responded, adding, "Nor with that mysterious person."
"Thank you for the crucial information," Aiden expressed his gratitude.
"Let’s get back to business," Abigail turned her attention back to Tony’s progeny body that she had brought. "Try out this body and see if it’s ’a good fit.’"
...
Minutes later, Tony successfully inhabited the progeny body that Abigail had brought.
He opened his eyes again, suddenly feeling much lighter in his body.
"How does it feel?" Abigail asked in a neutral tone.
"I have hands and feet, no pain, no weakness. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way." Tony looked at his own hands, his expression pleased, yet not ecstatic.
Aiden glanced at Tony, for whom the ordinary things that others took for granted had been a lifelong pursuit.
Fortunately, he was now very close to attaining it.
"Progeny bodies without their own consciousness obey you as their source, so adapting to using this body should also take you less time. Hopefully, we can proceed with our deal soon," Abigail merely observed Tony briefly to confirm everything was as expected, then got up to leave. "I must be going." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
"Won’t you have some tea before you go?" Aiden politely offered.
"Sorry, but I have many matters to attend to. Goodbye," Abigail declined Aiden’s offer and turned to leave the room.
Abigail’s matters must likely involve investigating news of the Wilderness King, Aiden thought.
