In the small forest beside Twinkling Star Lake, when Gethsmoor witnessed the zombie puppet arranged by Doro after tracking the spiritual thread, she decisively used her bl**d blade to pierce through it. However, this also coincidentally suited Doro’s intentions. When Doro herself again relied on dragon mimicry and moon crown fragments to endure a pain transmission attack and then acted, she controlled the spiritual thread that originally linked the zombie puppet, materializing it and rushing out of the puppet’s body towards Gethsmoor.
The materialization of the spiritual thread was a new ability Doro gained after becoming Red Tier. Doro could make the originally intangible spiritual threads materialize into fine red threads in reality. She could release such threads from her own body or use a puppet already linked with spiritual threads as a medium. The number of spiritual threads Doro released from her own body was vast, while those released through a zombie puppet were limited to one per puppet, essentially redirecting the original connection from the puppet to another target.
When Doro’s materialized spiritual threads touched a biological target, it was considered as establishing a link with Doro. For example, at present, Doro intended to use the spiritual threads on the stabbed zombie puppet to contact Gethsmoor. Besides the spiritual threads coming out of this zombie puppet, several other long, thin red spiritual threads extended from the ground towards Gethsmoor. These threads originated from small zombie puppets Doro had previously buried in the soil, working together with the bait zombie puppet to create a spiritual thread trap for Gethsmoor!
From the zombie puppets and the ground, countless red spiritual threads extended toward Gethsmoor. Although Doro’s spiritual threads weren’t particularly slow, they were insufficient against high-tier “Shadow” Extraordinary Beings, let alone Gethsmoor, who had undergone Apostolic Transformation as a Red Tier “Shadow.” While there were many spiritual threads extending in the trap, it was impossible for them to reach Gethsmoor at their current speed, so Doro had other preparations.
In Twinkling Star Lake, the full moon water nymph, which had been accumulating its strength, suddenly stretched its head out of the water at this moment and released its ability again, aiming at Gethsmoor with an illusion.
The full moon water nymph’s ability made people see illusions they believed they would encounter. This illusion easily made the target ignore new changes in the environment. Gethsmoor never thought this place was a trap. Since she had never seen materialized spiritual threads before, she couldn’t imagine being ambushed by them. Under the full moon water nymph’s ability, Gethsmoor didn’t see the spiritual threads approaching because, in her subconscious, there was no existence of a spiritual thread trap.
Thus, only when the spiritual threads were about to touch Gethsmoor did she instinctively sense the danger and try to dodge. But by then, Doro’s spiritual threads were already very close to Gethsmoor, and it was too late for her to avoid them.
“What… Ugh!”
Finally, several of Doro’s spiritual threads successfully contacted Gethsmoor, quickly merging into her body. After these connections were established, Doro poured spirituality into them, hindering Gethsmoor’s movements and causing her actions to momentarily stall.
“What the hell is this?!”
Feeling the strong binding sensation, Gethsmoor roared angrily and immediately began struggling fiercely to break free. Doro felt her control challenged immensely; Gethsmoor’s strong resistance made it difficult for Doro to manage, so she immediately started transferring damage.
Doro manipulated a zombie puppet hidden elsewhere to inflict damage on herself, then transferred it all to Gethsmoor. Instantly, Gethsmoor’s body was covered in wounds, bl**d gushing everywhere, with no intact parts left. Even her head had several holes, and her spine had deep cuts. Despite wounds that would have killed a werewolf loyal to the main “Cup,” Gethsmoor continued to struggle and scream, trying to break free.
To counter this, Doro immediately transmitted a high-voltage current through the spiritual threads to Gethsmoor, causing her to convulse and her skin to burn rapidly. In the more shrill screams, her flesh even began to carbonize and crack, but this still didn’t k*ll Gethsmoor. Although it weakened her struggles, her resistance remained strong.
“Let me go! You lowly insect!!”
Even with the damage transfer reaching the limits allowed by spirituality, Doro couldn’t eliminate the apostolically transformed Gethsmoor. At this critical moment, Gethsmoor even intensified her apostolic transformation to enhance her resilience, preventing Doro from completely controlling her.
At this point, Doro had only one move to thoroughly eliminate Gethsmoor: using the “Heavenly Punishment Thunder” from the Sky Command Envoy. This was the advanced version of the Thunder Summoner’s lightning strike, capable of completely vaporizing Gethsmoor if it hit her. However, like the lightning strike, it required energy accumulation in the clouds, consuming much spirituality and taking time. The noise during accumulation was significant, and even the full moon water nymph’s abilities couldn’t mask it.
Ignoring Doro’s recent shortage of spirituality after her promotion, under Gethsmoor’s intense struggles, Doro had no time for the energy accumulation needed for the thunder strike. According to her calculations, Gethsmoor would break free before the accumulation was complete, making preparation for the thunder strike futile.
Without energy accumulation for the thunder strike, Doro still prepared a decisive move for Gethsmoor. On this battlefield, multiple parties possessed the ability to instantly destroy Gethsmoor.
In the dark sky, an orange-yellow star suddenly flashed, then became increasingly dazzling, with its flickering intensity rapidly increasing.
In the sky above Twinkling Star Lake, a fire meteor trailing a long flame tail was now streaking across the sky, plummeting straight toward the ground. Within the meteor’s flames was the figure of a heavily armored knight, none other than Francesco! He was once again transforming into a meteor, charging directly toward the cult leader on the ground!
Doro had anticipated that even if Gethsmoor fell into the spiritual thread trap, she would still be unable to launch a destructive attack to finish her off. Thus, after luring Gethsmoor to pursue the zombie puppet decoy, Doro had the puppet inform Francesco, instructing him to prepare his ultimate move and take down the enemy.
For Francesco, the eight-pointed cultists, including Gethsmoor, not only targeted his previous advance team but also planned to harm an extremely important pilgrimage group. Now, Gethsmoor even had direct divine protection from a deity, making it a grave act of desecration. Although Doro’s situation was unclear, she was likely part of the same group as the “Prit Guardians” who had previously rescued the advance team. As the Archbishop of Prit, Francesco understood Prit’s history and seemed to have his own suspicions about the origins of the mysterious helpers like the mirror moon statue.
Regardless, facing such a formidable foe, Francesco agreed to Doro’s zombie puppet’s suggestion without hesitation. While Gethsmoor was chasing the decoy zombie puppet, he began preparing his ultimate move, timing it well in the rapidly changing battlefield.
Francesco’s ultimate move involved flying high into the air, enveloping himself in intense flames, greatly increasing his mass using the “Stone” ability, and then crashing down with immense force, similar to how he had appeared earlier. This move, “Heavenly Fire Meteor,” was the standard destructive technique of the Heavenly Fire Saint, capable of reducing Gethsmoor to ashes upon impact.
With a long flaming tail and wrapped in flames, Francesco broke through the night sky, aiming straight for the point where Gethsmoor was restrained. Sensing the anomaly in the sky, Gethsmoor, who had been struggling, looked up and saw the growing, approaching fireball, her eyes widening.
“d*mn old deity follower… daring to do this right now…”
Gritting her teeth, Gethsmoor seemed ready to act, and the six bl**d blades she held in her six arms began to tremble violently, as if attempting to turn into bl**d mist and escape Gethsmoor’s control. This disturbance was quickly noticed by Gethsmoor.
“Don’t run, Berard…”
At this moment, Gethsmoor sternly ordered, and the six bl**d blades immediately stopped trembling, instead emitting a mournful sound.
“Let me go, Gethsmoor, please. If we keep going like this, both of us will d*e!”
Hearing this voice, Gethsmoor sneered and continued.
“No, not both of us. At least one of us will survive…
“I command you in the name of the Deep Web Queen, Berard, to obey my orders absolutely!”
Using the effect of “Queen’s Legion,” Gethsmoor, as a witch, directly ordered Berard under the name of a deity, compelling him to execute her will. Realizing what was happening, Berard panicked and said.
“No! Gethsmoor, you can’t do this!”
“Why not? You should feel honored for your sacrifice. The nest will remember your achievements.”
Ignoring Berard’s words, Gethsmoor continued her actions. She first abandoned her attempt to break free from the spiritual threads and the continuous injuries, focusing instead on freeing just one arm. Then, she concentrated the six bl**d blades she held into the single freely moving arm, forming a massive, red-dark glowing bl**d spear aimed at the falling fire meteor.
Realizing Gethsmoor’s intent, Doro immediately began transferring damage to Gethsmoor’s hand, even cutting off the entire arm to severely disable her. However, due to Gethsmoor’s apostolic transformation, her body had vastly different characteristics from a normal person. Injuries on ordinary zombie puppets couldn’t accurately correspond to specific parts of Gethsmoor’s body, so the damage Doro inflicted appeared on other parts of Gethsmoor’s body, especially on her other five arms.
This was one of the drawbacks of the spiritual thread path’s damage transfer—imprecision when the two targets’ biological essence and category differed significantly. Damage transferred from a human hand to a human hand was precise, but not to an animal’s hand. Similarly, Gethsmoor’s body was now a different species compared to a regular human.
Doro’s efforts failed, and Gethsmoor threw the bl**d spear directly. With the full power and spirituality of a Red Tier, Gethsmoor forcefully hurled the bl**d spear toward the descending fire meteor. Accompanied by a dark red glow, the massive, dark red bl**d spear struck the fire meteor at low altitude, bursting into a fierce, dark red bl**d mist. The meteor exploded with even greater flames, engulfing the dark red bl**d mist.
Instantly, a powerful explosion erupted over Twinkling Star Lake, sending a violent wind sweeping in all directions. Waves surged on the lake surface, and trees were blown down in large patches.
Amid the smoke and dust from the explosion, a dim light fell out, landing on the ground and creating a not-so-large crater. A heavily armored knight staggered to his feet, his armor cracked and torn, stained with large patches of dried, dark red bl**d—Berard’s bl**d.
Berard died, turned into a powerful bl**d spear by Gethsmoor to intercept Francesco. In the direct confrontation with the Heavenly Fire Saint, Berard unsurprisingly perished, leaving no trace of his body. However, the burst of bl**d aura from his d*ath also caused significant trauma to Francesco, greatly weakening the power of the Heavenly Fire Meteor, preventing it from having a devastating effect on Gethsmoor when it truly landed.
Staggering out of the crater, Francesco knew enemies were nearby and actively searching for them, but he didn’t realize danger was already behind him.
“Ugh!!!”
Suddenly, Francesco felt an excruciating pain surge from his back, almost causing him to faint. Before he could fully react to this powerful, piercing pain, he struggled to look back and saw Gethsmoor standing coldly behind him, her chest pierced by a slender bl**d spear. Using the time Berard had bought with his d*ath, Gethsmoor had successfully escaped.
Under unbearable pain, Francesco lost consciousness and fell heavily, the sound of his heavy armor hitting the ground echoing.
Seeing Francesco fall, Gethsmoor snorted coldly and turned her bl**d-stained body toward the distant mirror moon statue, flying toward it at high speed.
“I know you’re there… You won’t fool me again… I’ll deal with you soon…”
Muttering, Gethsmoor clenched her face, suppressing her intense anger, and flew toward the mirror moon statue, determined to resolve the final enemy.
Inside the statue, Dorothy, who had little spirituality remaining besides “Shadow” and “Silence,” frowned upon seeing this scene.
“It seems the last hope lies with this…”
Standing inside the statue, Dorothy looked at the full moon in the sky and its reflection in the lake, muttering softly.
“The remnants of the night sky, the legends in the lake… They are now the last opportunity.
“Moon, are you watching over this side now, just like a spider?”
As she spoke, Dorothy shifted her gaze to the ring on her finger adorned with a moon motif and slowly closed her eyes, beginning to channel her own spirituality.
