The bloodstains on the floor seemed to come alive, beginning to wriggle along the walls and the ground as they followed Naomi to converge on Joey.
The only exit, that door, was like an open, blood-stained maw that wanted to tear Joey to pieces.
Joey did not rush to run away, not daring to show any movement that might stimulate the other person, but instead carefully consoled her, "Naomi, don't get excited yet. Let's take it slowly, okay? Rituals require preparation too, right?"
Naomi's expression, which had originally wanted to devour people, suddenly froze, turning into ecstatic joy, and those tentacles seemed to dance along with her emotions.
"Mr. Keliwei, can you help me comb my hair?"
Naomi looked at Joey with a pleading expression, and said coyly, "Erich used to comb my hair every time."
Looking at the wriggling tentacles on her head, Joey only felt his stomach churning and nearly vomited.
Yet before he could react, a tentacle landed on his shoulder.
Joey's entire body stiffened, that slippery tactile sensation reminding him of some sort of mollusk.
As he moved a little closer, Naomi's originally shy and timid face suddenly turned cold, watching him with a sly gaze.
Ruined? Joey was greatly alarmed inside.
In Naomi's shrill voice, she laughed out loud, "Clive, you can't fool me. You want to report this to the Church, and they'll tie me to a cross and burn me with raging fire, right?"
"It's useless. I saw through your intentions long ago, and I won't let you succeed."
The tentacles bound around his body went from a single one to several, wrapping him tightly.
A sense of suffocation gradually came from his chest, making it hard to breathe.
Because of hypoxia, his vision began to blur, and Naomi's face swayed before his eyes like overlapping ghosts.
Seeing that he was about to be dragged into the room, Joey immediately opened his throat and called for help with his remaining strength:
This house was in the Inner City. Logically speaking, any slight disturbance would alert the surrounding people or the patrolling Knights Templar.
Yet it was very strange right now, as if the entire world had fallen into silence, and no matter how Joey called for help, it did not attract anyone's attention.
He even began to suspect that this might not be the real Imperial City, and it was possible he was still in that basement.
Joey was annoyed at his own carelessness, and even angrier at his complete lack of vigilance, wondering why he had thought a Sealed Artifact lacked advanced thinking and death.
The suffocation made his cries for help softer and softer. Within his vision, it was as if everything had frozen, and his thoughts grew more and more sluggish.
Relying on the last remaining shred of consciousness, he struggled to move his gaze toward one direction, as if wanting to grasp something at the end.
A door apart, it felt like an insurmountable chasm.
An urbane female voice abruptly sounded beside his ear:
"Hmm? How strange, shouldn't you be praying for that one's help right now?"
"Starlight ignited above the ashes,"
"traversing through the torrent of history,"
"the Hermit returning from the past."
"I seem to remember it's precisely this honorific name. If you don't pray anymore, you're going to die, you know?"
Who? 0-09? She was like a "person" with complete thinking. Was it always influencing me? Why do this? Could it be that she wanted to find that place through me?
The suddenly appearing voice echoed right beside his ear, and Joey was genuinely startled. A Sealed Artifact that could speak was simply too unimaginable.
According to the general history recorded all along, Sealed Artifacts were nothing more than a Beyonder Characteristic. They only possessed their own decrees and conservation rules, and could only be used by following the rules; they were not items capable of independent thought.
Just take 0-013, for example. No matter how much it fawned on Joey, it could only exercise its abilities within the rules. It could not act autonomously and could only do so through contracts or the principle of equivalent exchange.
When all was said and done, a Sealed Artifact was more like a piece of code, a code that would lose control at the slightest carelessness.
At this time, that voice spoke again:
"Strange, could it be that I chanted it wrong? Quickly let me check. This matter must be very interesting. Fortune Teller, a very fun pathway indeed."
"I seem to also know someone who masters the authority of good fortune. Oh no, he should now be called 'Him'."
Not 0-09? Definitely not!
Joey made a resolute guess. It was very strange; it seemed as though ever since this voice appeared, the tentacles binding his body had seemingly lost their power, granting him a moment of respite.
0-09 had always existed in the Forsaken Land of the Gods. As for the one who supposedly mastered good fortune, Joey could also guess it, as Helena had mentioned it before.
The Goddess of Light, Isabella.
She was the symbol of good fortune and well-being.
These authorities were only possessed after she ascended to become a True God. During the period when she existed in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Isabella was merely an Archangel, and 0-09 would not address her as 'Him' with such respect.
Thinking of this, a thunderclap seemed to explode in Joey's heart.
An outsider, a person from the outside world, had actually arrived in Senegal. Ever since the fall of the Sun God, this was likely the first time an outsider had entered the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
"Alright now, tell me, who does that honorific name point to?" The voice seemed to come from all directions, and everything around fell into stagnation. Joey couldn't even turn his eyes.
"Oh! Sorry, I forgot. You can't speak right now. Forgive my carelessness." With those words falling, Joey found that he could move again, regaining control of his body.
Naomi's body was still frozen. The things inside this space seemed to be covered by some special power, and the only person able to move was someone else.
Who on earth would target such a small person like him?
Joey began trying to analyze from another angle:
The Round Table Hall was his greatest secret, and this person's purpose was likely directed right at it.
Since he said he knew Isabella, one of the Seven Gods, that also proved that he was either a believer of the Seven Gods or a high-sequence Transcendent.
A low-sequence could not possibly enter the Forsaken Land of the Gods, nor did he have that strength, and even less could he mention a True God without the slightest bit of due awe, instead acting like the banter of an old acquaintance.
For a Transcendent who could reach True Gods to enter the Forsaken Land of the Gods and inexplicably track him down-no matter how anyone looked at it, this was an unsolvable dead end.
She dared to appear here with such unbridled disregard, which showed that she was not afraid of the demigods inside the Imperial City.
This conjecture made Joey's complexion ashen.
He endured the fear coming from the depths of his soul. His chaotic thoughts made him incomparably exhausted, and he couldn't even tell whether the place he currently existed in was the real world.
The only thing worth rejoicing over was that the other party didn't seem in a rush to make a move on him.
Without directly delivering a fatal blow, there was still room for negotiation. He let out a secret sigh of relief, opened his mouth, and softly asked:
"Who are you?"
Suddenly, the surrounding scene abruptly shifted. Joey only felt his vision blur, and when he came to his senses, he was already sitting on a chair. Just by glancing at his surroundings, he froze in place.
"The Sun..."
His body trembled uncontrollably.
The sky was no longer gray; a dazzling and blinding sun hung high in the sky. As far as the eye could see, it was a vast, azure ocean, and the sea breeze gently brushed across his cheeks, making Joey feel a long-lost memory.
Opposite him, at some unknown time, an extra person had appeared-a woman who was unimaginably beautiful.
A head of long blonde hair paired with azure blue eyes made her look as though she had walked out of a painting. She wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, looking very refined. A simple long dress worn on her body exuded a noble aura.
She was looking at Joey with a full smile, the cup she held in her hand steaming. Judging from the scent, it should be coffee.
In his past life, western aristocratic women should have been just like this, right?
Arriving at an unfamiliar scene in an instant was not terrifying. What made people's blood run cold was that this place was not Senegal.
Facing the genial woman, Joey's heart trembled unstoppably.
He cautiously opened his mouth and said:
"Are you the 'Color Out of Space'?"
The woman opposite took a light sip of coffee, put down the cup, and her brows curved. She gently pushed her gold-rimmed glasses and then said:
"No, he is not me, but I can be him."
While speaking, she reached out and grabbed lightly into the void. Immediately, a colorful mist was grasped in her hand, and she played with it like a toy, the mist transforming into different shapes in her hand.
The Color Out of Space, no matter how weak, was still an Outer Deity from the starry skies, yet in this woman's hands, it was like a mere plaything.
It was difficult for Joey to maintain a state of composure, and he stared straight across at her with a terrified gaze.
"There's no need to be so afraid. It's very simple; I just made Him think that I am His kind."
"Let's get acquainted, Nur Maimaiti Plato."
Joey opened his mouth, his heart extremely depressed to the extreme.
Was this the time for self-introductions?
Without waiting for Joey to respond, she smiled and immediately followed up with: "Joey Keliwei."
"Don't be nervous. I just captured a trace of a thought from you."
...This was very much like a Psychiatrist's induction, the only difference being that he didn't need him to open his mouth to answer, and only needed to ask questions to intercept the answers from him.
Joey's spirit shook violently, his pupils suddenly contracting, and a deep sense of powerlessness made his mood incomparably anxious.
Maimaiti pushed her glasses, turned her head to look at him, and said with a faint smile:
"True God? Angel? One of the Seven Gods? Are you very curious about my identity?"
Joey discovered that as soon as a thought arose in his mind, it would be intercepted by the other party. This made him feel as though there were no coverings on his body, leaving him stark naked and exposed.
He tried hard to restrain himself from thinking about thoughts related to the Round Table Hall and the Lord of Ashes.
Nur Maimaiti Plato was like an intellectual workplace woman, and one could always sense a confident and full-bodied temperament from her.
"Ashes, starlight, Hermit!" She looked at Joey with a smile, seemingly wanting to guide the expansion of his thoughts through these intercepted words.
Joey involuntarily began to let his thoughts diverge toward the Round Table Hall.
"Starlight ignited above the ashes,"
Every time she recited a sentence, Joey's heart sank a few notches uncontrollably.
Beside his ears, that familiar, crazy whispering sound gradually began to ring.
Without him responding to the prayer in the Round Table Hall, merely through unilateral chanting, she could accurately locate it, which showed that the level of the woman before him was even higher than he had imagined.
The moment Joey generated the thought of refusing to respond, he quickly fell into self-negation.
Clearly it was their first meeting, yet the Nur Maimaiti before him gave him a feeling of meeting an old friend whom he found too late to chat.
It was the feeling of family, friends, and relatives, making it impossible for him to generate any thought of refusing her.
His emotions were being assimilated, and his subconscious was being tampered with.
Joey once again experienced the fear coming from a high-ranking being, coming from the unknown.
Nur Maimaiti smiled faintly, and the sound of her chanting the prayer did not stop.
Boundless darkness struck, enveloping the two of them. Beside their ears were the dim and unclear crazy whispers coming from the depths of the earth.
The gray fog was like an invisible, giant hand, abruptly appearing from the void, enveloping the two of them and attempting to pull them toward a certain space.
"No, the physical body cannot go in!" Amidst the panic, Joey discovered a terrifying fact: the gray fog this time was not pulling his spiritual consciousness in, but rather trying to drag his physical body in.
Based on previous lessons, a physical body could only exist in that world for a very short time.
He wasn't sure if he could control himself during this passive entry, and if he failed to return at the very first moment, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Just as they were about to enter the Ashen Space, Maimaiti suddenly froze in her expression and stopped her actions.
Enveloped by the gray fog, the wide-open mysterious space seemed to have something wanting to come out from within the darkness.
Joey's eyes twitched slightly. Through the layers of gray fog, he saw that on the Endless Sea, the seawater originally suppressed by the Sky-Piercing Pillar began to churn and surge, the seawater transforming into bizarre creatures that seemed to want to struggle free from the surface of the water.
It was just like fish after fish jumping out of the water and finally falling back down again.
Because of Maimaiti's pause, the gray fog dissipated, and the originally riotous seawater seemed to have lost its target, returning to calm.
Joey's expression stagnated, unable to understand why the other party had stopped.
The feeling of escaping death was wonderful, even though he knew this was only temporary.
At this time, the Nur Maimaiti opposite withdrew her gaze, her lips splitting open to reveal a slight smile.
Clearly, she had intercepted Joey's thought of perceived danger just now.
She wasn't dejected at all because they failed to enter, but instead smiled with a look of relish:
"Thank you very much for your reminder." Saying this, she lightly tucked her golden hair behind her ear and stood up. Without any visible movement, an extra tray appeared in her hand, and inside the tray was a freshly brewed cup of hot coffee.
She handed the coffee to the table in front of Joey.
"Right now, I still cannot be targeted by Him."
Joey didn't understand who the 'Him' she spoke of was, and could only stare at the other party with a puzzled gaze.
He began to recall some passionate and fiery scenes in his mind to distract himself.
Maimaiti returned to her seat and said with a bantering expression: "Europe and America, Japan and South Korea, truly a strange bunch of races."
Joey opened his mouth wide, finding it hard to believe that such a beautiful face opposite him could so calmly utter those four words.
"Quite a good thought, using carnal desire to distract your own mind."
What kind of ability was this? Even memory scenes could be intercepted?
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