Chapter 276
The Keybearer desperately concealed the fear gnawing at her heart. She suddenly raised her right hand, aiming the ring at the girl before her, but the deep-seated terror in the girl’s eyes showed no sign of fading.
Three layers... of dreams!!! Three layers!!!
Whoosh—!
“Here we meet again…”
The girl smiled, but before she could finish her sentence, a green light tore through her head, scattering brain matter, hair, and skin across the ground.
In a panic, the Keybearer rushed toward the desk, smashing her fist into the wall. From a hidden compartment, she pulled out a notebook, frantically flipping through its pages.
This was her spiritual journal.
“Fake... I knew it was fake, hahahaha!!!”
The notebook slipped from the Keybearer’s hands and fell to the floor.
The green light flashed again, and the Keybearer’s head rolled to the ground.
Boom—!
The surrounding scene shattered into purple mist once more.
The Keybearer jolted awake, her vision engulfed in a sea of blood red. The buzzing in her head drowned out all sound, and before her hung a blood-red moon, its black slit pupil fixated on her.
Is this... the Bell Tower Church?
Is it over...?
Stiffly, the Keybearer turned to look back. The red-haired girl stood there, holding a silver pocket watch in her left hand and a gunblade, crackling with silver fissures, in her right, smiling at the Keybearer.
“Here we meet again.”
The girl’s voice dripped with mockery, as if it had risen from the depths of hell.
Click—
The sound of the pocket watch being pressed echoed, and the girl reversed her grip on the gunblade, driving it upward into her heart, pulling the trigger.
With a thunderous boom, the gun’s muzzle erupted in a dazzling silver flame.
The fierce blaze obliterated the girl’s upper body, leaving nothing behind, not even her head. Her right hand fell limply, the exquisite pocket watch slipping from her grasp and rolling to the Keybearer’s side.
The blood moon loomed behind her, and as the Keybearer stared at the watch rolling toward her, an overwhelming, bone-deep fear gripped her, chilling her blood.
Don’t... don’t come any closer!
The pocket watch, which seemed to symbolize multiple layers of dreams, came to a stop before her, quietly ticking away.
Fake!!! It’s all fake!!!
Gazing at the half-dismembered body of the girl, the Keybearer’s frantic breaths gradually calmed. At that moment, she found herself oddly composed, standing frozen in place.
Or perhaps, she had been completely consumed by fear.
“Do you have a fourth layer? Do you have a fourth layer?! Come on!”
The Keybearer suddenly erupted, her sanity slipping away as she screamed hysterically. The green light from the ring flickered, and her head rolled to the ground. Her body finally collapsed, kneeling weakly.
9...
Why...
14...
15...
The second hand of the silver pocket watch began to reverse, a flash of silver light cutting through the air.
“Hiss... that hurts, Blood Roland.”
The red-haired girl’s figure reappeared before the altar, her clothes showing no signs of damage.
She walked slowly to the decapitated body, bent down, picked up the silver pocket watch from before the head, wiped the blood off, and tucked it into her pocket.
“Sorry, but there were only two layers of dreams. I’m really sorry you didn’t get to see the fourth one…”
“Gotcha, hee hee~”
From the first return to the room to the second, there had only been two layers of dreams. The Keybearer mistakenly believed that the first time the girl took out the pocket watch was already one layer of the dream.
In reality, the first layer of the dream began when the Keybearer turned back, thinking she had been deceived, returning to the initial room.
The second layer was merely a repeat of sending her back to the room once more, nearly driving the Keybearer insane with fear.
She had assumed that the first sight of the pocket watch was the first layer of the dream.
In every round of dreams, including reality, the girl used the pocket watch to reinforce the other’s impression, making it the source of their fear.
What she never expected was that the final pocket watch was not a construct of dreams.
It was real, the **Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder**.
The girl reached out, lifting the unblinking head, turning it toward the blood moon before her.
It was a stunning blood-red vortex, a terrifying aura brewing within, connected by countless blood threads.
“Cheer up, you did it! This is the summoning circle you’ve longed for, the one you conjured~”
The girl held the head gently, speaking softly.
“...It was just my instigation.”
With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the head, which arced through the air and was swallowed by the blood-red vortex in an instant.
Xia Er reached into her pocket, retrieving a vial of potion, gently shaking it. The tendrils within, shimmering with starlight, writhed in excitement.
“Are you satisfied? A city.”
Standing before the expanding “blood moon,” she slowly uncorked the vial, holding it up as if to let the potion admire the scene.
Then, with her left hand outstretched, she held the potion bottle in her right, slightly bowing in an elegant noble gesture, inviting the potion to dance with her amidst the scene of impending doom.
Finally, Xia Er tilted her head back and drank the potion in one gulp.
Chapter 159: The Formation of the “Blood Eye.”
Above the main hall of the Bell Tower Church, a blood-red “eye” hung suspended in the air.
Dozens of blood threads twisted like tentacles, connecting to the suspended forms of numerous extraordinary beings, siphoning their life energy while leaving them dangling in midair, creating a grotesque contrast against the church’s sacred murals and statues.
A girl with crimson hair stood before the swirling “eye,” a bottle of empty potion slipping from her fingers and clattering to the ground.
Clink—
The sound jolted the small, green-haired figure kneeling beneath the altar.
Tala saw double as Xia Er appeared before her, a massive buzzing echoing in her mind. Only by focusing all her attention on Xia Er could Tala barely fend off the terrifying wails and screams echoing in her head.
Even the Mother Goddess’s whispers could not drown out this madness.
Mother Goddess... You left me here to witness this moment, didn’t you...
The sense of loss for not being able to dedicate herself to the Mother Goddess slowly faded from Tala’s mind. She was ready to face whatever lay beyond the “door” without resistance, beginning to lower her mental defenses.
Meanwhile, Xia Er, facing the door to the other realm, felt her mind starting to drift.
The whispers of the potion crashed against her psyche, and the strangeness of the door to the other realm filled her with a deep-seated fear...
It felt just like the time she had entered the door to the other realm herself, the wails and screams flooding back into her mind, the sensation of being shrouded in mist returning.
This time, however, the interference of the potion forced her to combat two sets of whispers simultaneously.
What’s happening...
Xia Er’s thoughts began to lag. The only possibility she could think of was that she had summoned the wrong thing...
If she had personally conducted the summoning ritual, according to the description of **Spiritual Summoning**, she would have undoubtedly attracted a being from the other realm that had a favorable impression of her or was interested in her. After multiple attempts, there had been no surprises.
But this time, the Keybearer had led the summoning, reciting the incantation in reality, and the blood used to draw the blood circle was not purely Xia Er’s blood; her blood only made up a small portion, merely to facilitate communication with the other realm.
Moreover, the sacrifices were primarily from the Savior Goddess Church and the Holy Arrival Sect, all sharing a common faith in the same deity.
If the ritual had proceeded normally, with Xia Er reciting the incantation and using only her blood, sacrificing so many Tier 3 and Tier 2 extraordinary beings would undoubtedly have summoned a presence far beyond a mere servant of the gods.
But this ritual was not pure; it relied on sheer numbers to force a summoning, and it was uncertain what changes might occur.
Furthermore, according to the logic of summoning from the other realm, the beings attracted by the sacrifices might not come due to familiarity; they could also be drawn by a desire to devour or out of hatred.
When Xia Er obtained her uniqueness, she had felt that some shadows, which had previously been slightly friendly, transformed into a desire to consume her after the “uniqueness” appeared, nearly driving her mad.
A moment of struggle flickered within Xia Er’s heart.
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