Chapter 177
Seeing the girl's firm attitude, Zuo Jian didn't know how to respond for a moment. After a while, he spoke.
Is there any room for compromise?
"No."
"... Take care of yourself, Laurentina."
"Um."
After arranging things for the group, the Doctor and his team arrived at a nearby earthen slope. The doctor took out a single-lens telescope from his pocket and scanned the scene in the distance.
"I didn't see anything unusual, Zuo Jian. Are you sure this is the area?"
"I'm sure intuition and instinct are hard to lie about."
"But I can't see anything... Wait... There's a vehicle... No, the land vehicle has stopped, it looks like a transport vehicle."
With the Doctor's reminder, Zuo Jian and Laurentina enhanced their pupil vision together, then looked at the land vehicle that had stopped in the distance.
Skadi:?
The people who got off the car... wore black robes and gold masks.
Sarkaz? And they're armed too.
"... They look like some kind of cult."
Zuo Jian spoke with some disappointment.
"And it's... clearly a cult that's stained with at least a lot of blood."
It seems that the Sarkaz he longed for, the one striving for a better life, did not exist.
It doesn't exist in our immediate surroundings, at least not right now.
"What did they unload from the land vehicles?"
Laurentina seemed to notice that the other person was somewhat solemnly removing a dark, rectangular box from the trunk.
"It looks like a coffin."
The Doctor squinted, and for some reason, the coffin-like object made her feel a slight unease.
"They carried that coffin... straight towards the wall? Wait... they passed through the wall?"
Zuo Jian asked, somewhat surprised.
"A disguised form of Originium Arts, or perhaps sorcery also found in Sarkaz —a common little trick."
"Luckily, it saved me from figuring it out little by little."
The Doctor squinted, making a judgment almost subconsciously.
Certain specific memories seem to have been preserved along with the instinct to command.
What's the next step?
"We'll proceed only after they've completely entered the cave behind the wall. They seem to be planning some strange ritual, so it's best to wait until they're halfway through before we move in."
The Doctor for a moment before making a judgment.
"Understood."
The four hid behind a nearby earthen mound, watching as the land vehicles outside the wall left after seeing off the black-robed Sarkaz.
The Doctor took out his pocket watch and watched the time tick by.
At this moment, hidden in a cave shrouded in witchcraft.
A large group of Sarkaz dressed in black robes and wearing golden masks stood to one side, forming a path as they watched a pitch-black coffin slowly float toward the altar standing before them, drawn by magic.
In a daze, the roars of the Collective Souls filled the not-so-large tomb hidden beneath the cave.
Among these black-robed Sarkaz, a young man who appeared to be the leader stepped forward and opened his arms.
"Today, let us welcome our demon kings, let us welcome their return to the world."
As he spoke, he lifted the coffin, revealing the corpse inside.
A Sarkaz woman, serene and seemingly asleep.
Her pale pink hair and gentle face, even long after her death, still radiated a glow comparable to the Twin Moons hanging high in the night sky.
The bloodstains on her pure white dress now resembled unfolding roses, adorning her and making her bloom...
Snap...
The coffin rested in the center of the altar, raising clouds of dust.
Ancient incantations flowed from the mouth of the leading Sarkaz, transforming into symbols brimming with magic and power that swirled around him.
The witchcraft that spanned a century or a millennium was being used once again, and everyone around bowed their heads in unison.
That's about it.
The Doctor closed his pocket watch and then gave his instructions.
"Operation begins."
"Learn..."
As soon as Zuo Jian finished speaking, his vision blurred once again.
"This feeling..."
"Zuo Jian! Zuo Jian?! What's wrong with you?"
The surrounding sounds faded away, and he was once again pulled into the space of consciousness, only this time it was much stronger than before.
But...
He opened his eyes and looked at the unfamiliar space of consciousness around him, and suddenly he had a sense of familiarity.
It's like... Originium.
Only...
Zuo Jian a long sigh of relief.
"This kind of thing doesn't matter anymore. I didn't expect that even with heightened vigilance, we could still be dragged into this."
His eyes held a hint of hostility.
I underestimated these things; they are a threat, a threat that must be eliminated no matter what.
Stabilize your consciousness, and then...
As expected.
Dark, howling Collective Souls appeared around him.
Adjusting his posture, even in his mental state, doesn't mean he can be manipulated at will.
Dark red flesh rose from the surroundings, and looking at the Collective Souls that enveloped him, he ignored their various emotions and simply condensed his hands into sharp claws, preparing to tear apart these remnants of spirit.
However...
The instant he lunged at them.
Zuo Jian saw it once again... a white figure amidst the pitch-black Collective Souls.
The pure white Sarkaz woman slightly raised her head, her expression one of sorrow for the Collective Souls before her, as she looked at the "monster" rushing towards her.
"?!"
In an instant, Zuo Jian realized that the other person was different from those black spirits that were left with only a single obsession; her soul... was very clear.
Damn it!
However, Zuo Jian did not expect that the moment he stopped, an even greater gravitational force began to pull him, along with those black spirits... and that white spirit, in a certain direction.
I'm being forcibly linked to a body?!
Damn it... what about Laurentina?
Zuo Jian closed his eyes and realized that his connection with Laurentina had not been severed.
It's just that there's an even weaker connection now...
If needed, you can forcibly sever all connections with your surroundings and return to Laurentina's side right now.
But...
He glanced at the female figure standing before him, seemingly never to have died. She appeared to have noticed him and was slowly speaking, as if she wanted to say something.
"Damn it."
Zuo Jian hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not sever these fragile connections. Instead, he sent a final message to Laurentina's end.
Don't worry, I'm fine.
Inside the tomb, the black-robed Sarkaz watched intently as the coffin surrounded the altar.
Then... that pure white figure slowly rose from within.
"It's a success..."
"Gentlemen, let us welcome the resurrection of our Demon King."
"Welcome, Princess Theresa, the Demon Lord who belongs solely to the Sarkaz and carries the Collective Souls Sarkaz."
The woman named "Theresa" in the coffin slowly rose and opened her pale blue eyes...
In an instant, something seemed to be rebelling within my consciousness, emitting a resentful wail.
What are those things...? Are they the Sarkaz Collective Souls that guy mentioned?
The next moment, he felt his consciousness being assaulted by those Collective Souls, and at the same time, the pupils of his body flickered between dim pink and blue.
Then... then... Zuo Jian felt those things called the Collective Souls collide with him, crashing into the barrier of his soul.
And then... that was it.
The wailing ceased, as if it had never happened. His pupils stabilized into a clear, pale blue, and he simply gazed at the black-robed Sarkaz around him.
Is this... a cult ritual?
(Laurentina: * Aegir's profanity* Yes, there's cow, there's cow!!!)
(Oh, just a heads-up, even though I tweet about Theresa, I'm not actually into cows.)
(In the Victoria Wilderness, in an underground catacomb beyond the reach of any detection instrument, within the body of a certain demon lord.)
(This is where Teacher Da Zuo is located!)
Chapter Twelve, give Zuo Jian back to me!!!
"Is this... some kind of cult ritual?"
Zuo Jian slowly rose from the coffin, looking around at his surroundings with a sense of bewilderment. If nothing unexpected happened... he was lying in a coffin, right? And this altar-like thing around the coffin—his intuition told him that this was the source of the problem.
However, at present...
He looked down at his blood-stained white dress, and at his bloodless hands, each finger adorned with strangely shaped rings... Had he been sucked into the body of some Lord of the Rings...? No... this body was a woman's... and it bore numerous wounds inflicted by sharp weapons...
... Are these cultists... resurrecting corpses?
It seems the cultists in Terra are generally more skilled than Zuo Jian himself realized... I never imagined they could even do something so mystical, but why?