Chapter 90
Marcelo knelt on the ground, feeling utterly empty. Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his neck, accompanied by a frantic alarm ringing in his mind.
Beside his shadow, a girl’s silhouette had appeared, standing with a black, flaming hand axe poised against the neck of his shadow.
**Chapter Seventy-Six: The Large Team Dungeon "Wrath of Sharl"**
At five-thirty in the morning, the sky over Boleun City was just beginning to turn a deep blue.
A carriage emblazoned with the emblem of the Goddess of Salvation sped toward the Knight Bridge District.
Before long, the carriage came to a halt at the entrance of the manor at No. 15, Jushi Bridge District.
Two figures dressed in simple black clerical robes, their faces obscured by hoods, dismounted from the driver’s seat. One hurried to the carriage door and opened it, while the other dashed toward the manor entrance.
“High Priest, please be careful.”
Inside the carriage, a woman clad in a more ornate clerical robe with white embellishments, clearly of a higher rank than the two outside, jumped down.
Almost the moment she landed, a figure in silver armor emerged from the manor entrance.
With each step, the armor clanked, drawing the attention of the three outside the manor.
“High Priest Yuliss.”
A buzzing voice emanated from within the armor, which was none other than Nia.
At that moment, Nia sensed that something was amiss.
The High Priest of Boleun City arriving so late to see Miss Aivina could only mean trouble.
Nia’s instincts told her this was likely connected to Miss Sharl’s earlier outburst; after all, Sharl had seemed very off at that time… as if she had just consumed a potion and was under its influence.
“I need to see Miss Russell. Please inform her,” Yuliss said, removing her mask and turning to face Nia, her tone serious. “This is a matter of great importance… concerning the ‘Judgment’ potion leak.”
In truth, Yuliss had no intention of pursuing the issue of the ‘Judgment’ potion’s exposure, but she needed to use it as leverage to ensure she could see Aivina as quickly as possible.
She had to enlist Aivina’s help to capture the increasingly unstable Sharl… Yuliss had no confidence in handling this alone.
Getting Aivina to agree to intervene was primarily to enlist the aid of the third-tier “Crown Guard” standing before her; that was the true purpose of Yuliss’s visit.
She was taking a gamble.
A gamble on how much Sharl meant to Aivina.
Sure enough, upon hearing Yuliss mention the “Judgment” potion, Nia fell silent for a moment.
About three seconds later, she slowly replied, “I’m not familiar with the ‘Judgment’ potion, but if you want to see Miss Aivina, you can come in. She’s awake.”
Nia opened the iron gate of the manor and stepped aside.
Awake? At this hour?
Though surprised, Yuliss signaled for the monks behind her to wait and followed Nia inside.
Since the reception room was still under renovation, Nia led Yuliss to a study on the first floor to wait. After about five minutes, Aivina hurried into the study and sat down on the single sofa opposite Yuliss.
“Miss Russell, hello.”
Yuliss nodded slightly and said to Aivina, “We’ve met before; I’m Yuliss.”
“Mm.”
Aivina responded with a blank expression, but inside, she felt a twinge of anxiety.
She had heard from Nia that High Priest Yuliss’s visit was related to Sharl.
Recalling Sharl’s earlier strange behavior, Aivina felt a pang of regret.
She should have had Nia restrain Sharl and kept her talking until she returned to normal.
But now, Aivina had no idea what had happened to Sharl.
“I won’t beat around the bush, Miss Russell. To get straight to the point, I’m here about Miss Sharl.”
Yuliss began, “You know her, right?”
“Yes.”
Aivina nodded slightly, “She’s my friend.”
“She’s been affected by the potion; the assimilation is quite severe,” Yuliss said, looking intently at Aivina. “I need your help to have the ‘Crown Guard’ intervene and help me control her.”
“Potion gone out of control?”
Aivina could no longer maintain her impassive facade, thinking to herself, just as I feared.
The worst-case scenario had come true.
After checking multiple times, Sharl, who had seemed like an ordinary person, had suddenly become an extraordinary being, and her personality had drastically changed.
If only I were a “psychologist”…
The “Listener” had no way to treat the mental instability caused by such a potion; perhaps she should accelerate her replication ritual.
“You don’t seem surprised?” Yuliss asked, sensing Aivina’s emotions.
“Yes, I had a hunch,” Aivina nodded, taking a deep breath before continuing, “She woke up one day and inexplicably became an ‘Avenger.’ I suspect she drank the potion sometime after returning from Dedun Manor yesterday afternoon.”
“I haven’t seen her perform any replication rituals in the past few days; she seemed very calm and had no apparent grudges against anyone… It’s fine; we can still find her and arrange for her ‘Avenger’ replication ritual. There’s still a chance.”
Aivina said, standing up.
She was genuinely feeling anxious now.
“‘Avenger’?”
Yuliss’s mouth slowly dropped open as realization dawned on her. “Wait, are you saying she drank the ‘Avenger’ potion yesterday without any replication ritual?”
“Yes, before I left her room yesterday, she didn’t have any trace of potion on her…”
Aivina wanted to add that she didn’t know where Sharl had gotten so much “Avenger” potion, but considering she was speaking to someone from the Goddess of Salvation, she held her tongue.
Soon, Aivina noticed that Yuliss was still sitting there, seemingly with no intention of getting up.
“What’s wrong, High Priest?” Aivina urged. “Where is she? We need to hurry.”
“No, please let me think for a moment.”
Yuliss raised her hand, interrupting Aivina. “First, answer me: was the ‘Judgment’ potion you gave her?”
“No, I only keep the ‘Judgment’ potion for collection; I’ve never given it to anyone.”
Aivina replied without hesitation.
She wasn’t afraid for herself; she was mainly worried that Sharl would face scrutiny and interrogation from the Goddess of Salvation.
“Miss Sharl… didn’t drink the ‘Avenger’ potion,” Yuliss said, realizing she wouldn’t get a satisfactory answer from that question. “She just drank the ‘Judgment’ potion.”
Aivina: “I know she drank a potion… What did you say?! What potion?!”
“I think we need to call for more help, Miss Russell.”
…
It’s so loud… too loud…
Sharl descended the stairs step by step, rubbing her temples.
“Why didn’t I notice how noisy the people at Dedun Manor were before… Does Yuliss live in this kind of environment every day?”
Sharl muttered to herself.
She thought of the invisible Yuliss, who had to endure such white noise torture daily; how could she have held on without going insane until now?
Sharl now found Yuliss’s habit of pinching her face less bizarre; in such circumstances, one must have some peculiar hobby to avoid breaking down so easily.
But thankfully, it wasn’t as loud now.
Sharl glanced back.
Behind her, four dark figures each held two corpses upside down, and with Kiti’s decapitated body, there were a total of eight.
Not all of them were cultists; some were merely “gamblers” who had been at Dedun Manor, just unfortunate enough to cross paths with Sharl.
It wasn’t that Sharl wanted to kill them; it was just that they were too noisy. If they had kept their composure and politely made way for her, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.
After all, this was just a simulation… she might as well use their bodies for experimentation.
When the real Sharl dealt with the matters of the Holy Assembly, it would be as if she had saved them, serving as a reward for helping her complete her experiment in the simulation.
Step by step, she reached the entrance to the basement.
The once tidy basement was now in disarray; the servants and maids at the door had been killed, blood and low-tier materials strewn across the floor.
The cultists, upon receiving the retreat order, had rushed into the basement to loot the place.
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