Reunion

(In a time-travel novel) Bernadette understood the meaning of Neph's warning in the next second.

One by one, white feathers fell from the wings of those Angel, growing into deformed, thin, and hairy limbs in mid-air. The gaps created by the overlapping feathers opened up one after another, seemingly turning into countless eyes.

The mutated feathers then emitted crisp laughter, the giggling sounds echoing inside the Mausoleum as if countless Newborn had appeared there.

Perhaps it's inappropriate to use the word "like," because these feathers have truly come to life, becoming miniature "Feathered Folk."

This reminded Bernadette of some fairy tales her father had told her, in which tiny Elf, no bigger than a thumb, would always appear.

In a flash, Bernadette felt her right eye begin to itch.

The eyelashes of that eye grew rapidly, turning into tiny arms that stretched across her face, trying to pull the eyeball out.

"I see! I see!" Bernadette's right eye veins bulged, and she uttered a childlike, cheerful voice, as if she had gained her own intelligence and consciousness.

Almost simultaneously, Bernadette's left ear drooped down abruptly, covering her ear canal.

"I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear it!" the ear shouted in a slightly shrill voice.

If one doesn't use their Spirituality perception, Bernadette would definitely think there's a little girl next to her, screaming and stomping her feet.

Without giving her any time to react, the "Sage Diadem" in the center of her forehead detached from her body and floated into the air.

The surface of the eye, inlaid with countless "diamonds," flashed with countless cold lights in an instant, as if it had grown out of tiny eyes.

And in each of their eyes, Bernadette's image was reflected.

The "Sage Diadem" also acquired certain characteristics of being alive.

Just as this "0" level Sealed Artifact was about to awaken and have some effect on the target, a pale, slender, illusory hand reached out and grasped it.

The "Sage Diadem" quickly lost its living qualities, as if it had reached the end of its life.

The hand, clearly belonging to a woman and carrying a cold, pale aura, came from behind Bernadette, where a figure with only the upper body had appeared at some point.

The figure emerged from Bernadette's back, almost transparent, and quite ethereal.

She was dressed in the same clothes as Bernadette, wearing the same tricorn hat with feathers, and her eyes were as blue as the reflection of the sea. She was clearly Bernadette herself, a part of her spirit that had emerged from her body.

However, the face of this Bernadette half-body phantom was covered by a pale mask that shimmered with metallic luster.

The mask had holes only for the eyes, with no gaps anywhere else, making Bernadette's phantom appear extremely cold and noble, but lacking the aura of a living person.

Neph breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the activated "Pale Death." The power truly from the "Death God" Pathway was indeed extraordinary. It was far from being as powerless as Neph. As soon as it appeared, Bernadette's right eye quieted down. The thickened and lengthened eyelashes that had turned into arms withered and fell off one by one. Her ears also stopped making sounds and slowly opened, returning to normal.

"This is the Fourth Pillar," Neph shook her head, continuing to observe Bernadette's condition.

Although the problem of body activation has been solved and she no longer has to worry about her body parts running away, Bernadette still has a problem to face: she is confined to one place and cannot move, and only her spirit body can be controlled.

Neph waited, resting her chin on her hand. She knew why: this asymmetrical Mausoleum could not contain the symmetrical Bernadette.

She didn't have to wait long before the spirit behind Bernadette moved, taking out a Ritual Silver Dagger and drawing a line around the middle of her right boot, making it half a length shorter.

Then, Bernadette had the spirit tear the trousers at the left knee, cut off a corner of the coat and shirt, and pluck a few feathers from one side of the tricorn hat.

After several such attempts, she became asymmetrical, and the restrictions of the Mausoleum disappeared, allowing her to regain the ability to move freely.

Following her Spirituality intuition, Bernadette walked toward the central platform and toward the enormous, empty chair on it.

One step, two steps, three steps, and suddenly, a gentle breeze blew past the back of her neck.

The wind was eerie and cold, sending a shiver down Bernadette's spine.

In that instant, she seemed to sense a dark shadow appear behind her.

Without a sound, her chestnut hair parted on its own at the back of her head, revealing a pair of eyes on her scalp.

Those were almost transparent, cold and indifferent eyes without eyelashes.

"The Eyes of Mystery Prying"!

Neph swallowed hard. She found it hard to say whether this scene was more horrifying than the paper-thin Klein. Of course, the previous scene of New Life had also made her uncomfortable, but her attention was more focused on the inextricable pollution of the Mother Goddess. Now that her attention was focused back, she realized that she still did not want such a scene to appear in front of her.

But she was probably the Uniqueness Angel who would be frightened by these scenes. Bernadette was completely unaware of this. Then, she turned her eyes slightly and saw that the shadowy curtain of the mysterious world was clearly Distortion inside the Mausoleum.

However, Bernadette did not find the dark figure, nor did she find the source of the cold wind she had just felt.

Just as she was trying to close her "Eyes of Mystery Prying" to reduce the possibility of an accident, a chilling, eerie breeze suddenly swept through her mind.

Her thoughts became increasingly active and out of control, veerging in directions beyond her comprehension.

This seems to be a trend, an irreversible, rapidly chaotic one.

Without hesitation, seizing the few seconds she could still think, Bernadette had the half-spirit behind her remove the pale mask.

Then, she put the "Pale Death" mask directly on her face, and the half-spirit shrank back into her body, merging with her.

From this moment on, Bernadette's thoughts will gradually die along with her body, but her ideas are also becoming uncontrollably active, gradually becoming chaotic.

This is the negative effect of this Sealed Artifact: it causes the wearer to die slowly until they become a corpse and its slave.

These two contradictory effects canceled each other out, creating a fragile and delicate balance that helped Bernadette regain her ability to think.

For Bernadette, the negative effects of "Pale Death" were more useful at this moment than its extraordinary effects.

Maintaining that balance, Bernadette took a few more steps forward.

Throughout this process, she always felt a dark shadow lurking around her, but she couldn't find it no matter what she did.

After pondering for several seconds, Bernadette's azure eyes once again turned deep and lost focus.

She was trying to Prophecy the consequences of one of her choices.

Soon, the corresponding image appeared before her eyes:

Once again donning the "Sage Diadem," she transformed into a vast and complex torrent of information, using it to bypass obstacles and reach the central platform.

However, as they approached the place, the torrent of information suddenly collapsed and lost its order, reorganizing into several Bernadette based on different cores. There was a little girl in a cake dress, a tall young woman, a girl full of melancholy and confusion, a lady with a Distortion and Affliction expression, and a composed and resolute queen.

The Prophecy image flashed by in an instant, and Bernadette's eyes regained focus.

Then she saw the dark figure.

It stood right in front of her, no more than a fist's width away!

At the same time, a somewhat boisterous girl's voice suddenly rang out. "That's your father!"

Bernadette made a swift decision. She grasped her right hand, conjuring an ancient-style spear, and at the same time, she cried out, "Homeland!"

The voice was surprisingly clear and articulate, Neph quieted down, staring at the dark figure with a wary expression.

- It was indeed Emperor Roselle, and in the original text he did regain his senses because of that call, but Neph knew that this could only be used as a reference and could not be completely trusted.

The black figure stopped, staring at Bernadette with nonexistent eyes, and uttered a dry, hoarse voice: "Hometown—"

The voice carried a hint of hesitation, a touch of confusion, and a desire for confirmation, as if it were coming from another world.

Neph breathed a silent sigh of relief, as did Bernadette. She didn't drop the spear in her hand, but simply stood there quietly, considering whether she should say something or continue waiting.

The black-clad figure made the first decision. He stretched out a hand and shoved Bernadette hard, uttering a sound clearly tinged with Affliction: "Leave!"

As the sound echoed, the black figure vanished into thin air.

A moment later, it appeared on the central platform and sat on the huge, iron-black high-backed chair.

Two slits immediately appeared on its face, as if two asymmetrical eyes had grown out.

However, those "eyes" had no pupils; they were entirely blood-red.

Immediately afterwards, another crack appeared below the two "eyes," filled with the same pure Red Light.

This finally gave the black figure a "mouth".

It faced Bernadette, and the voice, clearly filled with Affliction and as if resisting something, echoed again, "Get out of here!"

After being pushed more than ten meters, Bernadette easily regained her footing, but she did not follow the voice's command to leave the "Black Emperor's " Mausoleum. She stood there, staring blankly at the central platform and at the black figure, her expression revealing a sadness that she could not and did not want to hide.

She could sense it, and she was certain that the black figure was her father, Roselle Gustav.

The next second, more cracks appeared on the black figure, and blood-red flowers bloomed from its head down on different parts of its body.

This left Roselle as if he were only shrouded in shadow, within which was a crimson entity radiating pure light.

"The Primordial Moon" — Neph grinned.

At this moment, Roselle seemed to have transformed into a shadow, trying to obscure the Red Moon, but it was torn open again and again, allowing more and more moonlight to shine into reality.

Once these openings connect, the dark shadow will completely split open, giving birth to a brand new Red Moon.

At that time, something extremely terrifying will inevitably happen.

Just then, Roselle's black figure became more ethereal, seemingly transforming into some kind of illusion.

This made him seem as if he were isolated from another world, with an invisible barrier between him and reality.

Then, Roselle laboriously raised his shadowy right arm and pinched his forehead.

The frequency of the crimson cracks on his body suddenly decreased to an extreme, but the "eyes" that had been there before began to blink, one blink after another.

However, this did not have a negative impact on the surrounding area; it seemed to be just a simple change in order—the trend of "New Life" from the ever-present blood-red cracks was Distortion and the original, gradually active areas were disrupted.

After finishing this task, Roselle raised his head, looked at Bernadette a few dozen meters away, and laughed in a dry, hoarse voice. "You've really become a big shot in the mysterious world, able to come here all by yourself."

"Come here, let me see what my little princess looks like now."

Bernadette's eyes suddenly reddened, and she took a step forward.

Roselle chuckled again, "When I was making picture books, compiling teaching materials, and inventing all sorts of little games for you, you were just a tiny little thing. Now you're old enough to save your poor old father."

"I remember you loved all the clothes I designed for you when you were little. It's a pity you can't wear those tiered dresses anymore now that you're grown up—"

The emperor started rambling on and on, as if he had reached the twilight of his life and always liked to reminisce about the beautiful scenes of the past.

Bernadette walked faster and faster until a voice exploded in her mind, overlapping with reality. "Stop!"

Bernadette stopped, an indescribable sorrow welling in her eyes. At that moment, she realized that the kind-hearted Emperor Roselle who had talked to her about her childhood was a corrupted version of Emperor Roselle, and that all of this was just a ploy to lure her away.

Bernadette had heard similar stories before, but when it actually happened to her, she still couldn't control her emotions, especially since Emperor Roselle only regained his senses for a moment before clearing his throat and continuing the previous topic, "You're probably wondering why the Black Emperor's Mausoleum is inscribed with the order he established and the trends he guided. Actually, it's not necessary. I just want those who see it to remember my greatness—"

Before he could finish speaking, the emperor gripped the armrest tightly with one hand, and said in a low, extremely Affliction voice, "No, come any closer!"

"I've been contaminated—"

The sadness in Bernadette's eyes deepened.

At this moment, the bright red slits on Roselle's face became chaotic, sometimes "closing" and sometimes "opening," no longer showing a unified will.

The emperor seized the opportunity, straightened his body slightly, looked at Bernadette, and shouted with considerable difficulty, "Seal me!"

Time-travel novels