Chapter 442: Chapter 442 Pretending to be Crazy and Stupid_1
Although Aiden was delayed for a moment by Melissa’s sudden attack, he eventually arrived at the solitary confinement corridor as originally planned.
He stood outside the door of the solitary cell, looked through the iron window above, and called out, "Halo."
At first glance, he didn’t see Halo, but the next second, the crouching figure by the door leaped up, pressing her face against the window and laughing maniacally at Aiden, "Hahahaha! You couldn’t find me! Ahahaha!"
Aiden was inevitably startled by this guy, then he fell into confusion, "What the hell are you doing?"
But Halo just tilted her head, continuing to laugh wildly, muttering to herself, "Hehehe, hide and seek, hide and seek, I won!"
Aiden was taken aback, he knew all too well this state of Halo—it was Halo who had previously been locked up in his prison.
Halo had reverted, without any warning.
"What’s going on?" Aiden began to think rapidly.
The first thing he thought of was Melissa’s doing; Melissa could use her authority to directly read memories of other jailers, including Veronica. Perhaps she had already seen the card Aiden had hidden in the solitary cell, and then somehow dealt with the Goddess of Vengeance.
But his intuition told him that this possibility was not likely. If the Goddess of Conspiracies had done this, she would have unhesitatingly used it to catch him off guard during the recent office visit... or, perhaps, she should have taken over Halo’s body with her own consciousness, giving him a "surprise."
As he was pondering, Halo suddenly stopped laughing. Her expression froze for a moment, then began to change, alternating between crying and laughing.
Under Aiden’s surprised and cautious gaze, her facial adjustments continued for a while before finally settling down.
At the same time, Aiden noticed that her eyes were different; the chaotic madness in them had faded, and a basic rationality had returned to those eyes.
With her forehead covered, brows furrowed, Halo looked as if she was awakening from a coma with a headache. She glanced at Aiden and offered, "You’re here."
"Can you explain what just happened?" Aiden asked.
"Mimicry," Halo gave an answer that was hard to understand.
"What?"
"The personality of the body’s original owner is still here, but she voluntarily gave the body back to the awakened me. Now I’m the master of this body; I can choose to use this body, or let her come back," Halo answered impatiently.
Aiden understood. In other words, the Goddess of Vengeance had actively given control of the body back to the original Halo, and so "Halo" went mad again.
"Why would she do that?" Aiden asked.
"Has she left?" Halo responded with a question out of context.
"Who?" Aiden figured out whom Halo was asking about but still confirmed with her.
"Of course, that damned conspiracy bitch. She showed up around here, didn’t she?" Halo glared at Aiden as she asked.
"Can you sense her?" Aiden was somewhat surprised.
"Of course, but only when I’m relatively close," Halo answered.
"Is it because of authority? Because you’re both Sovereigns?" Aiden pressed, "Can she sense your presence too?"
"No, it’s because of the Revenge Call," Halo said in a calm voice.
"Revenge Call... Isn’t that an ability of revenants?" Aiden was stunned.
Revenants, motivated by vengeance to turn themselves into resentful spirits and rebind their souls to undead bodies, possess the ability to seek out their enemies and sense whether their foes are still alive. The closer they are, the stronger the sensing; this ability is known as Revenge Call. For example, the necrofiend Slyne, who had previously been imprisoned in this jail, had the ability to locate her enemies and detect if they were still alive.
"One should realize with a bit of thinking that this is a mere imperfect imitation of the ’Hatred’ authority by mortal magic, mixed with a touch of death magic," Halo said with disdain, "The true Revenge Call can sense unseen enemies, those hidden masterminds. So, even though I have never seen that conspiring bitch, I still knew she had been here!"
"If you’ve never seen her, how could you know she’s your enemy?" Aiden didn’t quite understand.
"It’s probably intuition, the ’Hatred’ authority grants Sovereigns this special intuition," Halo explained, raising a finger, "Such intuition, when it arises, is very accurate. ’Wisdom’ is about reasoning the future, while ’Hatred’ is about intuiting the truth."
"Like divination?" Aiden asked.
"Divination is just one of the many tricks mortals use to mimic authority, which is why its success rate is so infuriatingly low," Halo shook his head.
"What about Mr. Blood Robe, can you sense him?" Aiden asked.
"From the start, I could. He’s a revenge target I’ve marked directly; I can sense his direction but not his exact location. When you told me he was in Sunset City, I confirmed it was true, at least in terms of direction, so you weren’t lying." Halo said, "But that bitch is different, she was detected by my intuition, I can’t sense her unless she’s within a certain proximity."
Aiden thought to himself that it was curious Halo couldn’t sense Melifilia.
In reality, Melifilia was right beneath this prison. Strictly speaking, she was the hidden mastermind behind the control of the Blood Moon Cult’s destruction of the Holy Cathedral of Vengeance. Melissa must have been an executor and participant as well. In principle, both should have been Halo’s mortal enemies, yet Halo only sensed Melissa.
It seems that the "fixing" effect of the saint nails carrying the power of the "Balance" authority could sever this kind of Revenge Call—fortunately.
"But what does that have to do with your sudden act of playing the fool?" Aiden still didn’t quite understand, "Don’t tell me, you were hiding from her?"
"Intuition told me the place she’s in and that if she found me, it would be the end of me, so I hid myself—it’s that simple," Halo said lightly.
"So this is what mimicry means... Surprising, you actually got scared, I thought knowing where she is would have you charging in immediately," Aiden laughed.
"Kid, my opinion of you has just dropped, it seems you don’t know me well enough. I just dislike pursuing zero risk and meticulously devising plans, I prefer to boldly risk everything on one gamble—that’s the proper way of revenge, but that doesn’t mean I’m only about rushing in to die," Halo said, fixing his gaze on Aiden, "If that bitch became aware of me and came looking, I would try to ambush her no matter the high risk. But she’s the type who prefers to strike from the shadows, what else could I do except lie in wait?"
"Alright, I guess I really didn’t understand you well enough, lacking rationality doesn’t mean completely lacking a plan. I’m glad to know you have this quality, truly," Aiden nodded, "I think I understand why you always say I smell of the ’Goddess of Conspiracy.’ Did you also feel the Revenge Call from me?"
"Yes, but it’s very faint, so I could tell you’re involved with her," Halo answered.
Aiden pondered internally. The ability to sense the Goddess of Conspiracy and Mr. Blood Robe—Halo’s Revenge Call—might have some exploitable value.
