Chapter 108
A violent spiritual alarm screamed in her ears, and she instinctively lowered her head, yet a sliver of darkness still crept in.
She felt the potion within her, which had already been fully assimilated, begin to boil restlessly, and indescribable hallucinations started to manifest before her eyes.
“Milady, do you need me to recite the prayer for you?”
The manager, Jiti, bowed her head respectfully.
“No need, I can do it myself.”
A sweet, youthful voice rang out from the throne, and just hearing her words felt like witnessing a smile on her face.
“Thank you for your hard work, Jiti.”
A brief flash of silvery light flickered, followed immediately by a deafening gunshot.
Boom—!
The force of the impact sent Manager Jiti flying back two or three meters, landing on the ground before Gudwin.
Gudwin stared in horror at the manager, whose face was now a bloody mess, lying right in front of him.
Blooms of crimson Roland flowers erupted from her mangled cheeks, the bloody petals glistening as they swayed gently before Gudwin.
“Priest Jiti!”
“Manager!”
“Milady, are you?!”
The cultists nearby also caught sight of Jiti’s body, and chaos began to ensue.
“Silence!”
The girl’s voice on the platform turned authoritative, and Gudwin’s gaze gradually shifted away from the corpse with flowers blooming from its head.
What… the cultists are turning on each other?
“Jiti volunteered for this sacrifice… Don’t panic, the Mother Goddess will come to take her soon.”
Thud—
In Gudwin’s line of sight, the girl jumped down from the altar, landing steadily beside the corpse. Gudwin dared not lift his head, maintaining his kneeling position, staring down at the faceless female corpse.
“I***”
A string of unfamiliar words spilled from the girl’s lips, and the murmurs in the minds of nearly all the extraordinary beings present began to spiral into madness.
The ritual… is a summoning ritual for an evil god?!
Murmurs and fear surged in Gudwin’s mind. In an instant, he made up his mind, turning sharply to crawl toward the trembling crowd on the ground.
“Get out of the way… move aside!”
Gudwin struggled to rise, pushing past the people behind him, running toward the staircase he had come from, guided by memory.
But just then, the girl’s voice rang out again.
“I*****”
Her whispers thundered in everyone’s ears, and people in the crowd began to lose their minds, turning to flee in the opposite direction.
“Ah!!!”
“Ugh!!!”
Lines of blood quickly danced through the air, forming a massive ritual array that encompassed everyone.
Those closest to the blood array tried to escape, but as they crossed it, their bodies were corroded by an unknown force, leaving not a single drop of blood behind—like running into the mouth of an invisible monster.
The entire underground sanctuary transformed into a hell on earth.
Gudwin felt the life within him rapidly fading, death closing in step by step. In despair, he turned back to look at the source of all this chaos.
The girl stood at the edge of the inner array, clutching an ancient silver pocket watch, her body withered and devoid of any color.
The blood drawn from her, along with the bloodlines from everyone else, swirled in the air, forming a massive crimson vortex.
The vortex spun in midair, but Gudwin had no strength left to care.
All that remained in his eyes was darkness, and at the center of that darkness stood the nearly desiccated red-haired girl.
A madwoman…
To sacrifice everyone, including herself, just to summon an entity that would bring only madness and destruction…
A lunatic!!!
Gudwin suddenly clamped her mouth shut, her broken teeth digging into her gums, and the thin scab on her wound burst open, blood gushing forth. This reckless act granted her a flicker of strength and a moment of clarity.
She crouched down, pulling a sharp throwing knife from her boot, and with all her might, hurled it toward the girl.
Whoosh—
The knife spun through the air, plunging directly into the girl’s heart.
Did… I succeed?
The entire array momentarily faltered, and Gudwin slowly raised her head. In the midst of darkness, the crimson vortex above had ceased its motion.
Did I… stop the evil god from descending?
If I’m still alive… I must have exceeded the requirements of the ritual. I could drink the next stage of the potion without being assimilated, right…?
Gudwin’s body swayed, the darkness in her eyes gradually receding. She began to see the colors around her again, along with the dried corpses scattered on the ground.
“9…”
A faint voice broke through the layers of murmurs, reaching Gudwin’s ears. She turned sharply toward the source of the sound and saw the corpse-like girl mechanically opening her mouth.
“1…”
A delicate silver watch face materialized behind the girl, and the second hand rapidly rewound ten seconds.
Click—
The illusory pocket watch began to turn again, and the girl, who had resembled a corpse, was quickly filling with blood and flesh. Even the dagger embedded in her chest was pushed out by the newly formed tissue.
The terrifying summoning ritual began to spin once more, and as Gudwin’s last hope shattered, she succumbed to utter despair and madness.
…
“Cough, cough…”
At that moment, Xia’er let out a soft cough.
She tucked away the pocket watch, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and looked at the now substantial crimson vortex before her.
Fortunately, I pressed the stopwatch; this summoning array nearly turned me into a dried corpse.
It should have taken only ten seconds to recover, but with that last stab from the throwing knife, I almost lost my mind.
Thankfully, I had barely felt any pain earlier; the knife wound barely registered, as if I were a corpse myself.
The crimson vortex before her finally showed some signs of movement.
The once massive vortex was rapidly compressing, soon shrinking to the height of two people, transforming into a dark red hue.
“Why is it shrinking on me?”
Xia’er frowned slightly.
With just Jiti’s corpse, they had summoned a terrifying monster that could nearly break through the ceiling of the exchange area.
But now, with so many extraordinary beings and cultists’ corpses added, the massive array was shrinking instead?
Xia’er had thought they could summon something that would at least shatter the roof of this vast underground sanctuary.
After all, bigger is better; bigger means stronger.
As Xia’er pondered, a glimmering dust, like starlight, began to drift out from the dark vortex.
The sparkling dust floated, and against the backdrop of the dark red vortex, it resembled stars in the universe.
These starlit particles danced, and Xia’er found it hard to tear her gaze away until they floated toward the relatively intact corpse with pink hair, where they paused momentarily before beginning to envelop it.
In an instant, the pink-haired corpse began to decay, the wounds on its body closing and swelling with pus, dark purple blisters expanding and stacking, wrapping the entire corpse like a cluster of distinct grapes.
Gradually, the once pulsating blisters began to harden, as if frozen, their surfaces coated with white frost.
Crack—
The massive egg-like structure, resembling a giant larva, shattered, and a human hand emerged from within.
Crack—
The egg split in two, scattering in the wind, revealing a half-human, half-insect “thing” fully before Xia’er.
It was a monster with the form of a young girl.
Its head bore dark red short hair, but its face lacked any features, and its body was seamlessly stitched together, resembling a human skin wrapped around something.
Behind it, six pairs of translucent insect wings unfurled, and four pairs of sharp white insect limbs were slowly stretching from its shoulders and sides.
On either side of its head were four pairs of black, curved chitinous horns, twisting together. From the front, they resembled two symmetrical circles encasing a semicircle, reminiscent of a church emblem.
Xia’er: “…”
Xia’er took several steps back.
The moment she saw the symbolically significant horns, an ominous premonition surged within her.
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