Chapter 576
On a certain day, Moros suddenly descended into madness, tearing apart the "Cocoon of Light" during a ritual. The shattered core of light lost all its power, scattering across the Abyssal Ruins, plunging the underground into darkness, and transforming the Abyssal Ruins into a true abyss.
All the metamorphs who had once followed Moros fell into utter madness due to the collapse of the deity. In an instant, the Abyssal Ruins became a hellscape, filled with deranged metamorphs and ascendants. Once darkness enveloped them, the air was thick with Moros's frenzied whispers...
At that moment, some who had not succumbed to madness and were struggling in the Abyssal Ruins began to use fragments of the "Cocoon of Light" to forge a different path to salvation, one that diverged from Moros's.
Initially, some succeeded, even establishing a grand City of Light amidst the darkness of the Abyssal Ruins. Yet, without exception, those who ventured down this path ultimately succumbed to extreme madness.
With the nourishment of the "Cocoon of Light" gone, the resources of the Abyssal Ruins were depleting at an unimaginable rate.
Before them stood a triangular-headed monster, utilizing the remnants of the "Cocoon of Light" and the corpses of the deranged metamorphs and ascendants to brew potions. In extreme circumstances, it had forged its own path...
But all it could manage was to gather a village of a few hundred souls, barely surviving in a corner of the Abyssal Ruins.
Now, the whispers of madness had nearly consumed its mind. Its body had completely collapsed and mutated, and losing its sanity was only a matter of time.
At that moment, it noticed one of its followers, who had lost her faith in him. An alien god's rune stone appeared in her hand.
This rune stone felt like a glimmer of hope, and it clung to that hope, waiting for the moment the rune stone would be activated...
"What’s the deal with the sacrifices?" Xiar asked, breaking the silence.
"We... need... light..." The monster's hollow eyes fixed on Xiar as it slowly raised a hand, inserting it into the cracks of its withered skin. A mass of green waxy liquid was pulled out. "My path... can use flesh and blood... to create light that wards off the whispers..."
Its ability was to refine this wax from corpses... to burn it as a defense against Moros's whispers in the darkness?
Was it the very whispers of Moros that had driven it into madness when it had felt its sanity slipping away?
A bloody and bizarre ability... yet Xiar felt no surprise.
Using the logic of the real world, she easily understood how this situation had come to be.
Refining the flesh and blood of deranged transcendent beings and ascendants to concoct a secondary potion... even Xiar wouldn’t dare to drink it casually.
The monster before her had consumed it and still managed to retain its sanity until now; Xiar considered that a miracle.
It hadn’t gone completely mad, perhaps for one reason.
That was the fragments of the "Cocoon of Light"... those fragments were likely the scattered remnants of "Uniqueness."
Compared to the story of "Moros" and the "Cocoon of Light," Xiar was far more interested in one thing.
That was faith.
In this world... faith seemed to truly form a kind of power, and with the support of faith, one could even create their own path...
What were the prerequisites for creating a path? How could one truly absorb faith? These two questions swirled in Xiar's mind.
Creating a path was one of the reasons Xiar had come to the Old Days.
"You want me to help you?"
Xiar looked into its hollow pupils and slowly spoke, "Help you save these people?"
All of this was just one side of the story; Xiar wouldn’t take it at face value based on this single "narrative."
"I want you to help me..." it began slowly, "kill me..."
Kill it?
"I can give you the fragments of the 'Cocoon of Light,' but you need to kill me first..."
"The 'wax' on my body can help them resist the darkness for a long time..."
"I can no longer maintain my sanity... so... before I become one of those dark creatures... I ask you to kill me, Messenger of the Alien God..."
The creature spoke with deep emotion, but Xiar remained unmoved.
"Before that, I need to ask a question." Xiar calmly regarded it and said.
"Since you’ve been waiting for my arrival all this time..."
"Then at the very beginning..."
"Who did you mistake me for, as a messenger of the gods?"
Xiar wouldn’t forget the last hint of confusion in its eyes when it first saw her.
"You better tell me the truth."
Xiar slowly raised her hand, and an illusory blood array rapidly formed behind her. Two bloody whirlpools emerged, simulating the terrifying aura of the Otherworld, spreading towards the "God of the Dead Star" before her.
A humanoid figure cloaked in shadowy robes, with pairs of insect wings on its back, and a beautifully crafted pure white armor stepped out from the blood-red whirlpools behind Xiar.
Though merely a phantom, Xiar wanted to gauge the oppressive force of the Dark Worm and the pure white armor in the Old Days.
She was utilizing the ability of the "Subverter" to restore their Otherworldly aura as much as possible...
---
PS:
Sorry, I broke my promise. Writing three consecutive 8K words seems a bit too much.
Today, I’ll see if I can sleep earlier and adjust my schedule. My recent chaotic routine has really been a strain on my mood.
Good night!
Chapter 296: Overturning the World (4193 words)
The pure white armor and shadowy insect wings stood behind Xiar, the simulated Otherworldly aura surging towards the "God of the Dead Star" before her.
For those transcendent beings familiar with the Otherworld, the aura Xiar was simulating was nearly identical to the original, enough to send their minds into a frenzy.
Yet the "God of the Dead Star" before her seemed completely unaffected—Xiar's illusion, much like before when she fled, had little effect on him.
"These... confirm for me..." the God of the Dead Star slowly raised his right hand, pointing with his cracked fingers at Xiar. "Your path... does not come from the underground... does not come from the 'Cocoon of Light' and Moros... nor from other metamorphs and ascendants..."
"My flame will attract things from the darkness... and will also draw the envy of other metamorphs... that’s why I initially mistook you for another messenger of the gods..."
Listening to the God of the Dead Star's account, Xiar began to piece together the reasons for her arrival here.
From Hei Ni's perspective, a year ago, after she was corrupted by the system and severed from her original faith, her thoughts had diverged from those of the others in the village.
To her, a terrifying evil god controlled everyone, periodically taking people as sacrifices, while the mentally unstable messengers of the gods committed all sorts of atrocities. Yet Hei Ni had always concealed her fear.
It was only when a flower she was close to was to be taken for sacrifice that Hei Ni desperately called for her, wanting to save the flower.
From the God of the Dead Star's perspective, He risked contamination, using the remnants of the "Cocoon of Light" to defeat the deranged metamorphs, creating a safe zone to protect the humans here.
Yet the messengers under Him, including Himself, were mentally unstable, and their abilities were related to cannibalism... making it hard not to instill fear in ordinary people.
Hei Ni's fear stemmed from a lack of faith, the flower's fear came from an instinctual fear of death, the messengers' fear came from themselves, while the fear of the villagers outside was largely rooted in the darkness...
No wonder Xiar felt an overwhelming wave of headache-inducing fear upon her arrival.
However... this was a good thing for Xiar.
Upon her arrival in the Old Days, she had been worried about encountering a "door-killer," which would waste her opportunity to simulate the Old Days.
But now it seemed that the God of the Dead Star posed no threat to her; He simply didn’t want her to become one of those mad creatures wandering in the darkness.
Xiar waved her hand, and the phantoms and blood-red whirlpools dissipated.
She could sense that she seemed unable to use spiritual summons here, unable to call forth anything from the Otherworld.
If she truly wanted the help of those Otherworldly beings, it seemed she could only rely on the system's "Companion" function.
Table of Contents
