His body was so weak that even lifting a finger was incredibly difficult. Jerome struggled to open his heavy eyelids, and a sliver of light entered his vision.

Everything in front of me was blurry; I could only make out the general outlines of the surrounding objects.

Jerome noticed someone walking past him. The person was wearing a white robe, and his face was obscured, making it impossible to discern even his gender.

"I……"

When Jerome opened his mouth, he found his throat burning, and his voice was hoarse as if sandpaper was being rubbed.

Someone noticed his actions and immediately shouted and ran out of the room.

Jerome took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but all he found was soreness all over his body and the restraint on his hands and feet.

"Damn it." Jerome moved his limbs, only to find with frustration that his limbs were firmly bound to the stone bed with iron shackles, and a syringe was inserted into his right hand, connected to a dripping glass bottle. His left hand, which could use the 'Disintegration' ability, was tightly sealed in a metal box. He didn't know what the box was made of; not only could the outer shell not be decomposed, but he couldn't even move a finger.

A young man dressed in fine linen clothes walked quickly to the bedside, looked at Jerome who had regained consciousness, and said with a smile, "You slept for four days and four nights, so it's normal to feel weak now."

Jerome shook his left hand, then looked at the syringe on the back of his right hand, and turned his questioning gaze to the person in front of him.

The boy took the cardboard from someone else, and while looking at the records, he said, "The ability in your left hand is very dangerous, so we have isolated it; as for the syringe in your right hand, don't worry, it's the medicine you've been relying on to survive these past few days."

"Okay... stranger, where am I?"

“My name is Todd Fisher, Grand Master of the Twilight Knights. You are currently in the underground of Twilight Town.”

"You are Todd? The legendary Holy Son?!"

Jerome tried to turn to his side, but seeing his naked upper body, he suddenly gave up struggling and lay down on the stone bed: "When do you plan to make your move?"

Todd looked at him in surprise: "Make a move?"

"You should know who I am now, and why I came to Muxi Town. Don't you intend to eliminate this threat?"

“I really don’t understand, if you have such thoughts, why did you come to the border of Twilight Town?” Todd looked at the dejection and hopelessness on Jerome’s face and did not choose to continue on this topic: “We will not execute you, because your body has great value.”

"value?"

“I personally examined your left arm and found that you had received the ‘Sutherland Legacy’ and also exhibited the ‘Inheritor’ mutation, but the mutation in your body did not spread.”

“That’s right.” Perhaps with a laissez-faire attitude, Jerome began to recount his past: “I was once a mutant, captured and brought into the ‘Elders’ Council.’ Before I came into contact with the ‘Sutherland Relics,’ I was told that only one in ten people would survive. In fact, the goddess of fate played a joke on me. Although I won the jackpot and became the ‘Inheritor,’ my left arm mutated.”

Todd found a chair and sat down, listening quietly to the other person's statement.

"The Elders then made me inhale more Sutherland Relics in the hope of suppressing the mutation. But the mutation spread from my left arm to the left half of my body, and at its worst, half of my head mutated into the shape of a monster. I gradually lost my mind and began to attack everything around me. Until someone rescued me..."

Todd, recalling the secrets Rachel had told him earlier, asked, "Theodore saved you?"

Jerome glanced at the other person and nodded: "That's right. My master injected some strange black liquid into my body. My mutation gradually stopped, and my body began to recover. Only my left arm has remained in this state and can never be restored."

"If I asked you what that black liquid is, I doubt you'd tell me, would you?"

"That's right, but in fact, I don't know what it is either."

Todd sat in his chair, pondered for a moment, and then said, "I have two questions. First, now that you've recovered from the mutation, didn't the other members of the 'Elders' become suspicious? Second, since Theodore found a way to stop the mutation, why didn't he apply that method to the 'Elders' 'Successors'?"

"Theodore's healing of me was a closely guarded secret; not many people knew about it. Those in the 'Elders' simply regarded my revival as a miracle. As for why my master didn't reveal this technology, his exact words were, 'Handing over something like this only saves a few unfortunate souls; in the end, it only satisfies the desires of ambitious people.' He hoped to use this technology to create a weapon, a weapon powerful enough to intimidate all forces, to use coercive threats to quell the war between the alien races. But he never imagined that he would ultimately choose you as his savior, and lose his life because of it..."

Todd sighed. "I heard about Theodore's situation; it's a tragedy. If I had persuaded him sooner, or accepted him sooner, perhaps none of this would have happened..."

After Todd finished speaking, his mind began to race. In the past, he had always found it strange that "Necromancers" were a type of "Inheritor," yet these corpses retained basic physiological symptoms and did not mutate even after consuming large amounts of alien microorganisms. This was truly a bizarre thing.

But now, through the 'Necromancer Successor' and Jerome's affairs, he has grasped a thread in these mysteries.

Theodore must have found some kind of substance, a substance that can activate or even upgrade the 'Sutherland bacteria'. By reactivating the nervous system, the pieced-together corpse can be reshaped into a complete organism; it can also adjust and enhance the efficacy of the 'Sutherland bacteria' to suppress the mutation process.

Currently, Todd still has several very important questions to answer.

1. What exactly is this substance?

II. How exactly does this substance work?

Third, and most importantly, how do we utilize and deal with this substance?

Todd looked at Jerome on the stone platform and asked with a puzzled expression, "There's something I'm curious about. I'm the Grand Master of the Church, and you're a member of the 'Legion of Conflict.' I see no hostility in your eyes, and your cooperative attitude surprises me..."

The latter looked at Todd with a puzzled expression: "Lord Theodore once said something to me."

Todd looked at the man, waiting for him to continue.

“He told me, ‘Compared to the Elders’ brutality and cruelty, I have found a better place to protect the dignity and lives of the alien races…’” Jerome hesitated, glancing at Todd. “But you are, after all, a Grand Master of a Knights Order loyal to the Church…”

Todd walked toward the exit of the room and said to Jerome with a smile, "That won't be the case for long. By this time the day after tomorrow, the Grand Master in front of you will be the King of the 'Twilight Knights Kingdom'."