Chapter 625 – The Pen of Deception
Pain, this was an extreme pain that Dorothy had never experienced before. This pain did not originate from her body but from the depths of her consciousness. At this moment, Dorothy felt as if her brain was being stabbed and stirred by countless needles, causing her spirit to shatter.
“Aaaaah!!!”
Inside the Mirror Moon Statue, atop the platform in the Hall of Balance where the ascension ceremony was taking place, Dorothy’s consciousness, which had delved deep into the Inner Realm, fell into a state of unconsciousness. Her body involuntarily covered her head and let out a scream, collapsing in agony on the ground. In the depths of the Inner Realm, within the Realm of Consciousness, Dorothy’s consciousness, floating above the sea of information, immediately exhibited an extremely painful posture, silently screaming in this strange world.
Visibly, the information symbols that constructed Dorothy’s informational body were being dyed with a strange color at this moment. Ancient and bizarre symbols spread all over her body, and Dorothy’s informational body began to flicker and distort like a poorly tuned television image, seemingly on the verge of collapse.
It seemed that due to contact with the enormous decaying corpse at the informational level, Dorothy’s informational consciousness was on the brink of collapse without any defenses. In the real world, Dorothy’s entire body was already powerless, lying on the magical array, her eyes vacant, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. The situation looked extremely dire.
At this moment, in the ceremony venue, in front of the magical array, unusual phenomena appeared on the deity statue that Dorothy had slightly modified and that still stood steadily.
Silver light, a gentle silvery white glow emerged from the deity statue, hovering above the ceremony venue. Then, this thread-like light slowly descended, covering the area above the ceremony venue, enveloping Dorothy’s trembling form, like a shimmering gossamer veil draped over her.
Under the silver light’s encirclement, Dorothy’s uncontrollable tremors gradually stopped, and her breathing returned to normal.
In the Realm of Consciousness above the sea of information, Dorothy’s nearly collapsed informational body continued to flicker and stall. Behind her, a halo of light appeared, and a series of silver mysterious runes extended from it, wrapping around Dorothy’s informational body. The decaying runes originally attached to Dorothy’s consciousness were gradually hidden under the touch of the silver characters. Dorothy’s consciousness stopped its abnormal flickering and stabilized, while the silver strings began to pull her informational body back into the halo.
Under the pull of the silver strings, Dorothy’s consciousness was successfully dragged out of the Realm of Consciousness and rapidly rose through the gaps in the Inner Realm, finally returning to her body in the real world. When Dorothy’s consciousness returned, the silver light that had enveloped her quickly dissipated, as if it had never existed.
Then, an invisible wind swept through, clearing away the thick incense in the ceremony venue. The six divine blessing objects that had been floating on the edges of the magical array gradually lost their faint glow and fell to the ground.
Following this, the ceremony venue returned to silence. This silence did not last long; outside, a loud explosion woke Dorothy from her daze.
“Hiss… What was that just now…”
Opening her eyes, Dorothy sat up straight in the center of the magical array, her mind somewhat confused as she gently held her forehead and muttered. She wanted to recall her consciousness’s experience, but felt a haze of confusion. Just as she prepared to delve deeper, another loud explosion pulled her back to reality.
“Right… Now is not the time to worry about other things, the key is the ceremony… the ceremony…”
Speaking, Dorothy began observing the conditions around the ceremony venue. Seeing the divine blessing objects that had returned to their original state, she knew the ceremony should have ended. So, what was the effect of the final ceremony?
With this thought, Dorothy immediately sat upright, closed her eyes, and then began checking her own condition. Soon after, her eyes slowly opened again, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
…
On the shore of Twinkling Star Lake, under the dark night sky, the knight, whose entire body was emitting flames, hovered above the water, solemnly staring at the scene below. Watching his opponent, who had undergone astonishing changes, a serious look filled Francesco’s heart.
“Haha! Why don’t you continue your little fire tricks? You’re not going to purify me, old deceiver. Can you do it with such weak firepower?”
Standing on the lakeshore, Gethsmoor, in an eight-eyed, six-armed stance, pointed the bl**d blade towards the sky, taunting loudly. Hearing Gethsmoor’s words, Francesco’s originally dim flames suddenly burned fiercely again. He drove his fiery body and swung the burning sword towards Gethsmoor below.
“Even your evil deity cannot protect you! Heathen!”
Speaking, Francesco concentrated a series of fireballs and threw them at the ground-bound Gethsmoor. Seeing this, Gethsmoor immediately dodged as before. Francesco’s fireballs hit the ground, exploding one after another.
Explosions continued to occur along the lake shore, red lotus flowers blooming on the ground. Francesco continuously bombarded Gethsmoor with fireballs, hoping to use continuous area attacks to restrict Gethsmoor’s movements and finish him off as he had done before.
However, this time the situation was different. Gethsmoor’s speed far exceeded Francesco’s expectations. Although the explosions of the fireballs affected a wide area, they were all dodged swiftly before they could harm Gethsmoor. In the midst of the flames, Gethsmoor’s figure became a mere blur, evading Francesco’s attacks at absolute speed.
After transforming, Gethsmoor’s speed increased further, surpassing the level of a Tier Four “Shadow,” far beyond ordinary human vision. Although Francesco could barely lock onto Gethsmoor’s position with his powerful “Lamp” vision, the flight speed of his fireballs and the spread speed of their explosive shockwaves could not keep up with Gethsmoor. Therefore, his attacks failed to hit Gethsmoor and cause damage.
Even if he could locate his target, his attack methods couldn’t match Gethsmoor’s speed.
“Haha! You won’t be able to hit me now!”
Shaking off the explosions behind him, Gethsmoor laughed loudly and then rose into the air, turning the tables and charging directly at Francesco. Seeing this, Francesco immediately released a large wave of flames, forming a raging inferno that engulfed Gethsmoor.
Although this wave of flames covered a vast area, its power was far less than the fireballs because Gethsmoor chose to endure it, suffering extensive burns on her skin. Nevertheless, Gethsmoor managed to break through the wave of flames and then rapidly healed her burns while charging straight at Francesco. Francesco responded by expanding the flames that formed his body, transforming into a giant of fire to meet her. He raised a massive flaming sword and slashed down at Gethsmoor.
Facing the incoming flaming sword, Gethsmoor easily dodged and then swung a huge bl**d axe made from various bl**d weapons held in her six arms towards the fire giant’s arm. As the bl**d blade sliced through the fire giant’s body, it partially evaporated, and the fire giant emitted a pained cry.
Amidst this cry, the fire giant rapidly shrunk, eventually returning to its human size and its flames becoming extremely dim. In the intense pain, Francesco could not help but fall downwards, even forced to de-elementalize and return to his usual armored knight form.
With a dull thud, Francesco landed on the ground, struggling to stand up with his sword as support amidst a cloud of dust. Clearly, Gethsmoor would not let him off so easily; she tightened her grip on the bl**d blade, preparing for a follow-up strike.
At this moment, a storm suddenly arose around Gethsmoor. A powerful whirlwind enveloped her, carrying with it the remaining flames, trapping her within. Facing Gethsmoor’s impending pursuit, Audric intervened, summoning another fiery tornado to completely engulf her.
Facing the renewed scorching flames, Gethsmoor did not scream in pain as she had before. Ignoring her blistering skin, she whispered amidst the flames.
“This is a phenomenon that requires extraordinary beings to continuously inject spirituality and rely on willpower to maintain and adjust. In a sense, it is an extension of the extraordinary being’s own limbs. And since it is a limb… it hurts.”
Speaking, Gethsmoor gripped the bl**d blade tightly, performing a spinning slash within the fiery tornado, cutting through the continuous control required for the extraordinary skill. After the cut, the pain was transmitted through the extraordinary link to the Mirror Moon Statue.
Amidst a buzzing noise, the massive Mirror Moon Statue unexpectedly felt something it shouldn’t, the sudden pain causing it to stagger and almost fall. The tornado that had trapped Gethsmoor instantly dissipated. Seeing this, Gethsmoor decided to finish off this troublesome entity. She concentrated a bl**d spear and threw it at the Mirror Moon Statue.
The bl**d spear, finer than a needle to the statue, continued its flight, piercing the leg of the Mirror Moon Statue, causing it to emit a louder buzz, like an elephant struggling and screaming after being bitten by a mouse.
In the midst of intense pain, the Mirror Moon Statue stumbled backward, falling into the shallow waters of Twinkling Star Lake. On top of it, Audric steadied himself amidst the violent shaking and said gravely.
“For such a massive construct, to produce such remarkable effects, is this perhaps a corner of Lady Pain’s divinity? Under the power of Queen Punishment, everything will taste the ultimate pain…”
Audric sighed, facing Gethsmoor, who had already begun the Apostolic Transformation. They had almost no chance of winning. Apostolic Transformation meant touching divinity in some way; even a preliminary transformed existence was beyond the reach of several Red Tier extraordinary beings, unless Audric was in his complete Golden state.
“Fragile…”
Facing the collapsing statue, Gethsmoor coldly remarked, then looking down, she saw Francesco, still standing with his sword, still in extreme pain. The bl**d blade glinted menacingly in her hand.
Although Gethsmoor’s ultimate goal was the Mirror Moon Temple, she decided to deal with the greatest threat here—Francesco—at least rendering him completely incapacitated and unable to hinder her later.
“Fall now, old deceiver…”
Speaking, Gethsmoor transformed into a swift shadow, charging directly at the grounded Francesco. Facing Gethsmoor’s fierce attack, Francesco tried to block with his sword, but his nearly extinguished sword could not stop Gethsmoor’s onslaught.
In an instant, Gethsmoor, reaching Francesco, severed his sword with an axe, then simultaneously thrust two bl**d spears into his shoulders. The excruciating scream made a cruel pleasure appear on Gethsmoor’s face.
With the opponent who had pinned her down and nearly taken her life now underfoot, Gethsmoor’s expression became more arrogant. Just as she was about to mock him, an unexpected situation occurred.
Hesitantly, Gethsmoor saw Francesco’s body, still crying out in pain, slowly turn transparent, gradually vanishing before her eyes. Witnessing this, Gethsmoor’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Gone… How is that possible? What happened!?”
Incredulously, Gethsmoor covered her head with one hand, then continued speaking as if she had understood something.
“This is… an illusion… an illusion created by an extraordinary ability involving ‘Shadow’… Who else is here opposing me?”
Yelling loudly, Gethsmoor scanned the surroundings, then spotted a peculiar figure far out on the lake.
That was a strange creature swimming in the moonlit lake, with a long neck and a broad body, covered in entangled seaweed, its entire body over six meters long, most of it submerged underwater, only the head with the long neck and part of the back visible.
On its back, the heavily armored knight was still panting, while its head stared at Gethsmoor on the shore, its eyes between the seaweeds emitting a mesmerizing silver glow.
“What is that…?”
Gethsmoor murmured in confusion, looking at the lake. At this moment, on the fallen Mirror Moon Statue, Dorothy, dressed in black and white, stood where the chapel’s dome used to be, silently watching the distant moonlit scene where the strange aquatic beast had saved Francesco.
“In the mouths of the citizens of Gramorn, there is a legend that every full moon night, a water monster appears in Twinkling Star Lake. It has the ability to bewitch others, making them lose their way and fall into the lake. It seeks those who dare to wander by or on the lake at night, showing them what they desire, luring the ignorant to drown in the lake.
“This creature, known locally as the ‘Full Moon Water Nymph,’ though its legends have been passed down since ancient times in Gramorn, no one has ever seen its true form. Many believe it to be nothing more than a legend…
“The truth of the Full Moon Water Nymph may be unknown, but for me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s real or not. In the ‘pen’ of the Deceptive Writer, even false existences can be given real forms…”
Looking at the strange creature on the lake, Dorothy, now a Truth Mentor, softly spoke.
