"Give it to me! Don't move!!!!"
The Voice of Temptation spilled from Lena's lips.
Lena poured nearly all of her psykana into Nama Carl.
Facing Lena's full-force attack, Nama Carl froze slightly.
No power surged from the notebook in her hand.
The master she had found through decades of exploration did not answer her.
She had been abandoned.
In her daze, Nama Carl realized it.
She was no longer useful to her master.
Only mockery echoed around her ears:
"Just as planned, everything is proceeding according to plan!"
"Ga-hahahahahaha hohoho!!"
Her master's mockery rang in her ears.
Then flames, lightning, and the Psykana Hammer struck her.
Nama Carl barely had time to let out a few wails before she was burned into a charred corpse.
"Where's your master?!" Lena gritted out. "I have The Emperor's protection. What do you have?"
Lena viciously kicked the blackened corpse, then turned toward Zhou Yun.
"Zhou Yun, you..."
Lena froze in place.
She had thought killing Nama Carl would sever the corruption.
Yet Zhou Yun was still clutching his head and leaning painfully against the wall, spiraling numbers reflected in his eyes.
His entire body seemed to be gradually eroded by some blasphemous presence from the Warp.
But Lena could also vaguely sense it.
Zhou Yun had not yet been completely corrupted. His will, some power within him, and his very being were all resisting the corruption.
Lena placed her hand on Zhou Yun's forehead and projected her consciousness inside as well.
"Zhou Yun!!!" Lena's voice rang out through layer upon layer of numbers.
She tried to send her consciousness deep into Zhou Yun's mind and drag him out of those swirling layers of numbers.
But the instant Lena's psykana entered, it was entangled by the ever-changing numbers.
Her psykana collapsed in the blink of an eye.
Lena could only watch Zhou Yun anxiously through the numerical vortex.
Through the haze, she saw a white radiance covering Zhou Yun's body, while the Warp reflected a round blue figure.
At that moment, Lena heard the sound of pages turning.
She turned around and looked behind her.
Nama Carl's cheap black-covered notebook had silently opened.
Lena paused.
That notebook had somehow remained completely unharmed beneath her psykana bombardment.
She immediately realized that this notebook was the source of the corruption.
The notebook silently opened, and the numbers upon it rose from the paper like tiny black insects with a bluish sheen.
They slowly circled through the air, forming a twisting, shifting vortex.
From the other end of the vortex, Lena heard a teasing laugh that sounded both birdlike and human.
Some existence was about to squeeze into the material universe through the vortex opened by that notebook.
"The distance is too great. My psykana cannot reach here immediately."
"If we were in a church, or if you had a squad of Blood Angels by your side, I could immediately drive out this corruption."
The winged figure within the white light spoke in a low voice. His pure white wings formed a barrier as he tried to protect Zhou Yun.
But perhaps because the distance was too great, his figure swayed endlessly like duckweed floating rootless in water.
"Where am I supposed to find a squad of Blood Angels?"
"Wait, that notebook should be the source of the corruption. As long as we destroy it..."
Zhou Yun endured the dizziness rising from the depths of his soul and barely raised his head.
He saw that Nama Carl's black notebook had opened a vortex made of numbers.
Something seemed to be trying to crawl out from behind that vortex.
Lena raised both hands, praising The Emperor as she unleashed psykana in an attempt to close the vortex and destroy the black notebook.
But the notebook was completely unscathed, while the vortex changed faster and faster.
"It can't be destroyed. That notebook is both the source of the corruption and sustained by those who have been corrupted..."
"Every person who uncovers the mystery of that string of numbers and is corrupted because of it supports that notebook's existence."
The winged figure in the white light looked at the black notebook as he spoke.
Destroying the notebook was necessary to purge the corruption, yet destroying the notebook required purging the corruption.
A clever closed loop had formed a cage, trapping everyone within it.
The winged figure in the white light looked at Zhou Yun, who was painfully resisting the corruption.
In his eyes, Zhou Yun was becoming inhuman.
Layers of blue feathers would sometimes appear across his body.
At other times, they would be replaced by a round blue metal shell.
Zhou Yun's reflection in the Warp, his essence within the Warp, was fighting Tzeentch's corruption for control of his physical body in the material world.
But Zhou Yun had yet to properly recognize his own essence or see his place within the Warp.
The Warp was a realm shaped by the mind. If you did not recognize the power you possessed, that power might as well not exist.
Zhou Yun was only passively resisting Tzeentch's erosion now. He would not last long.
"Go to the church!"
The winged figure in the white light shouted at Zhou Yun:
"Go to the nearest church, one with my holy icon. There, more of my power can be transmitted."
"The nearest church is three blocks away."
Zhou Yun gritted his teeth as he said:
"And that church has been mixed with Tzeentch's influence too!"
Even if there had been nothing wrong with that church, Zhou Yun could not make it there in his current state.
This was Tzeentch's plan.
It had probably begun decades ago, when Nama Carl donated money to sponsor the church.
Nama Carl thought she had found the true god through mathematics, but in truth, she had merely fallen into Tzeentch's scheme.
Year after year, she taught mathematics to young children, sowing seeds of corruption with the numbers hidden within it that represented Tzeentch.
Every nine days, she prayed to Tzeentch in the church. Churches were places where the barrier between reality and the Warp was weakest.
Countless corrupted children prayed day and night.
And at last, tonight, in District Nine, those corrupted children had been used as sacrifices to open a numerical vortex leading to the Warp.
What lay beyond that vortex?
A Greater Daemon? A Lord of Change?
But to destroy that notebook, they had to kill every corrupted person, including Zhou Yun, who was on the verge of corruption.
Or they could use the simplest method and directly destroy all of District Nine.
"No."
Zhou Yun looked up at Lena, who was desperately pouring out psykana to suppress the vortex.
His mind raced. Perhaps Tzeentch's corruption had enhanced his intelligence.
An idea suddenly popped into his head.
"I... I..."
Enduring the dizziness and pain in his head, Zhou Yun shouted at Lena:
"Lena!"
"I have an idea!"
"Huh?" Lena turned toward Zhou Yun with a bewildered expression.
"Throw that damned notebook to me!!!" Zhou Yun roared.
Lena nodded sharply.
She chose to trust Zhou Yun's idea.
Although it could not be destroyed, moving the notebook did not seem difficult.
Lena mobilized her psykana and threw the cheap black-covered notebook toward Zhou Yun.
Zhou Yun reached out and caught the notebook, looking at the numerical vortex spinning endlessly upon it.
From the other side of the vortex came constant birdlike, humanlike giggling.
"Laughing? What the fuck are you laughing at, you blue-haired bastard!"
"Let's see whether this was in your plan!"
Zhou Yun chose to take a gamble, betting that his cheat ability was reliable enough.
He shoved the notebook into the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket on his stomach.
"Item: Book of Variable Numbers" [Origin: Shield of Hades System - Asphod Planet - District Nine, Fortia City] [Rating: A notebook corrupted by a Lord of Change, filled with numbers."]
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