Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1696

'The only thing that I don't understand is how they smuggled the weapons in and out of the office. Dimensional amulets don't work in the City Hall and most of the artifacts are as big as my arm.'

The answer came when the body of the woman split in two like a watermelon, revealing a short staff in place of her spine, an amulet where her heart was supposed to be, and a chainmail floating in the middle of her chest.

The creature had no internal organs or bones. Under the skin, there was what looked like a bright blue gooey substance where the missing artifact had been stored. The gelatinous substance was dense enough to keep everything in place without making the chainmail clink.

The Doppelganger didn't show any sign of discomfort as it took the artifacts out of its body and cleaned them from the residual goo with darkness magic.

'That's amazing/disgusting!' Manohar and Phloria respectively thought. 'An intelligent creature capable of using magic who seems to be immune to pain.'

Only after the Doppelganger opened the safe using the Countess' code, proving her involvement in the theft, and stored the weapons back into the armory did the two mages come out of their hiding spot.

Until that moment, there had been no proof that she had helped the Marquis since the previously stolen artifacts had already been returned and the ones still missing had been taken out by using the Marquis' code.

Now, however, Jirni would be able to arrest them both and there was no way to justify how the shapeshifter knew their personal codes without their help. On top of that, they had to wait for the creature to seal the vault shut or it would have had the entire Kingdom's arsenal at its disposal.

"You're under experiment, I mean, under arrest!" Manohar said as a part of the library lined against the wall burst in a shower of sparks, revealing to be a hard-light construct behind which he and Phloria lay in ambush.

The room had no place where two adults could hide so the Mad Professor had just made the library a bit longer from either side, hoping that between the darkness in the room and the urgency of the mission the creature wouldn't notice the discrepancy.

A hard-light cube as hard as stone trapped the Doppelganger, leaving it no way out.

"Let's inform Mom, I mean, your mother that we are done and that they can-"

The creature showed no sign of fear or panic. It simply punched the construct, making a small crack appear on the surface of the cube.

"Your effort is as fascinating as it is pointless." Manohar waved his hand, sending a strand of mana that repaired the damage. "It seems that our specimen is way much heavier than it looks, Beanpole."

"I have a real name!" Phloria yelled while never stopping weaving spells with her mind. "Don't lower your guard and think. How can a woman that size have such strength?"

Unlike the Professor, she knew that a shapeshifter's size might be misleading. If it knew how to use gravity fusion, the creature could weigh several tons and no one would notice until it was too late.

"Easy. Enhanced mass." Manohar replied with a smug expression. "Yet you are underestimating me and overestimating our opponent. With that level of strength, I can fix any damage it makes to moment a-"

"Good to know." The creature replied, making the Mad Professor choke on his words.

Not just because he had been expecting a dumb creature born only to follow orders like Jirni had described whereas the Doppelganger sounded sarcastic and confident. But also because new sets of arms kept popping from its back, joining the onslaught.