The weakening of corruption
"You've recovered," Jenna whispered to Lumian.
She didn't dare speak loudly for fear of provoking her companion and causing him to undergo the same Mutation as before. In addition, she was also worried about attracting the attention of that Giant, whose appearance was obscured by smoke and Torrential Rain, but who exuded a dangerous aura.
Lumian suddenly looked into Jenna's Eyes and saw that his reflection had returned to normal.
He instinctively replied, "This means that the ' Hostel Ritual ' that those Evil God followers were secretly carrying out using me as a model has come to an end..."
At this point, Lumian suddenly became alert and quickly looked around.
Now that the "Hostel Ritual" is over, based on the experience just now, the other twelve "rooms" should also contain the Evil God Gift-Bearers!
Lumian's gaze fell upon a strange area nearby, paved with light black Stone Bricks.
Except for the fact that it didn't extend to the magnificent city in the distance or the Giant caught in the weather chaos, it almost filled Lumian's entire field of vision.
Every twenty or thirty meters, there stands a Gray-White Stone Pillars Stone Pillars, as thick as three or four people could hug. Part of it has collapsed, while the other part points straight up into the sky, blocking Lumian and Jenna's view of what lies behind them.
The sky, seemingly supported by Stone Pillars, possessed a peculiar transparency, as if something Burning silently there, yet invisible to the naked eye.
This brought a certain amount of light, a brightness approaching that of Twilight on a ruined battlefield, allowing Lumian, who lacked "Darkvision," to see clearly everything within range even without creating crimson fireballs.
He did not find Madame Pualis or other Gifted of the Evil God.
"Didn't the guests of the ' Hostel ' come in? Or were they scattered in different places, arriving at random locations?" Lumian wondered to himself.
This time, he stopped worrying to himself and hoped that Jenna could obtain the relevant information.
Although Jenna didn't understand what "random" meant, she roughly understood what Lumian meant.
She didn't press further, but instead steered the conversation to the most important matter:
What do we do now?
At the same time, Jenna had certain associations in her mind:
The "Hostel" was modeled after Charles... Based on the Mysticism knowledge involved in the Witch's Curse, could it be that a Evil God Gift-Bearers also resides within him? Uh... he seemed to have mentioned before that he possessed the seal of Mr. The Fool, which sealed that Evil God Gift-Bearers? The Change just now were actually similar to the effects of the Curse, but because of the seal, no serious consequences occurred?
What to do? Lumian glanced at the loitering Giant, whose figure was extremely blurry and only its outline could be seen, surrounded by smoke, Torrential Rain, Lightning, and Flames, and chuckled, "The most important thing to do now is to distance ourselves from that Giant."
"Let's run in the opposite direction of that city, find a Concealment place to hide, and see what Change next. We'll try to find the exit as soon as possible."
Although Lumian felt a strong Gravity to the Giant and the city, as if they were constantly calling him Past, he no longer had the status of Angel-Level and did not need to bear the tangible magnetic pull. He would not be unable to control himself and would move in that direction. He could weigh the pros and cons and his situation more Rationality and clearly.
That Giant looked dangerous; he was definitely a Divinity and a book-like creature, most likely in a state of madness. How could a Sequence 6 "Conspirer" possibly approach him? He'd probably Loss of Control after just one glance!
If that city is indeed Trier of the Fourth Epoch, many Half-God must have died there. Most of them, like the old bones, became Undead and emitted all sorts of Corruption. Even with the seal of Mr. The Fool and the aura of the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor, Lumian doesn't feel he can be as relaxed, carefree, and fearless as he was before returning to the Corruption Cordou Village.
If he had entered Trier in the Fourth Epoch with such thoughts, he might have transformed in the blink of an eye into a Rationality, eternally wandering Monster, sealed away by Angel.
After saying that, Lumian turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the Giant's figure in the changeable weather, heading away from the magnificent city.
We need to create distance as quickly as possible; no one knows if that loitering Giant will make a sound!
The uncontrolled voices of many High-Ranking Being are a difficult-to-defend-against threat to Beyonder in the middle Low-Sequence.
Jenna trusted the experienced Charles and followed her companion with light steps, bypassing the towering or collapsed Grayish-White Stone Pillars, and venturing deeper into the area paved with light black Stone Bricks.
As he ran, Lumian's brow furrowed slightly.
He felt that after experiencing the battle in the Painted World and making multiple "Spirit World Traversal," his spiritual energy was greatly depleted. If he encountered another accident, he really didn't know how long he could last.
I need to find a way to regain some of my spirituality... It's the middle of the night, should I hide until six in the morning? Lumian thought to himself as he ran.
Fake Market District that had flipped over to the ground, a torrential downpour drenched Safali and the others in their "rooms."
They were standing on the street opposite the Breeze Ballroom, with different colored lights shining from their chests.
One figure after another emerged, piercing through the void and falling into the deep darkness, into the blood-stained and rust- Iron-Black Gate Depths of Darkness.
Safali stared blankly at the scene, a hint of sadness suddenly appearing in her Cavern eyes and blank expression, her long brown hair already soaked with sweat.
Gabriel, standing beside her, revealed obvious joy and asked in a trembling voice, "Is it all over?"
"Can we be together forever?"
Safali's rain-soaked face Distortion in pain as she said to Gabriel, "Get out of here, get away from me!"
"Why?" Gabriel couldn't understand.
Safali's mission as a "Hostel room" is complete; there shouldn't be anything else to do, right?
The Monster will return to their Monster daily lives.
"With the guests gone, the ' Hostel ' rooms have no value anymore..." Safali said Pain.
Before she could finish speaking, a pair of transparent, dragonfly-like wings suddenly sprouted from her back, their patterns resembling open, indifferent eyes.
Without a sound, Safali's body collapsed. Her wet, lake-blue Long Dress lost its support and fell to the ground, revealing clumps of writhing flesh, each clump covered with dragonfly-like, dreamlike wings and numerous eye-like patterns.
Safali's only intact part was her head, which was surrounded by blood dragonflies. Several Wheat Ears and Mushrooms sprouted from her face, and raindrops pelted down and slid off.
She opened her mouth as if to enter another world, and her voice became shrill:
"We are not the Gifted, but merely the creations of the Fairy!"
"Run!"
Gabriel stared blankly at Safari, a Safali made up of blood dragonflies and heads, an indescribable sorrow appearing on his Cavern, indifferent face.
In the environment where Torrential Rain and Sunlight coexisted, he instinctively ran a few steps outside, then stopped.
The Playwright turned around and walked back to Safali step by step.
He smiled, a smile that was both relaxed and gentle, a departure from his usual stiffness. "I'd forgotten, I'm Monster now, where could I go?"
"I'm glad you let me run on my own in the end."
As Gabriel spoke, he bent down, letting his knees touch the ground and the puddles.
He embraced the countless blood dragonflies and Safali's struggling heads, then kissed them deeply on the lips that were covered with ears of Wheat Ears and Mushrooms.
With a series of soft thuds, the blood dragonflies Cutting through his flesh with their wings, burrowed into his body, and began to drain his life force.
He was still kissing.
The torrential rain poured down on the two of them.
Before long, pairs of transparent, dreamlike wings emerged from Gabriel's back, stained with blood.
Amidst the horrifying sounds of gnawing, Gabriel's body collapsed and melted away, as did Safali's head.
In the final pool of blood, strangely shaped "dragonflies" with transparent wings fluttered and took flight, like bright fireworks bursting in Torrential Rain.
Suddenly, the intense Sunlight fell, enveloping the area and the bodies that had undergone the Mutation.
Not far away, Angoulême, Valentine, and Imre simultaneously spread their arms halfway.
Back at Saint Robles Church, outside the Painted World, they were unaffected by the Ritual and did not experience any reversal of reality and illusion. They remained on the ground and, after their condition stabilized, proceeded to the Breeze Ballroom area.
Erato District, Sacred Heart Monastery.
The golden sun was surrounded by a violent storm with thunder and lightning, but it couldn't stop the sunlight from shining through.
This made the entrance to the Breeze Ballroom blurry and sway, but it did not disappear. Meanwhile, the Painted World had flipped to the ground gradually became illusory, getting closer and closer to returning to the rock wall.
After escaping the Sunlight's rays, "The Magician" and "Justice" discovered that they had lost track of "Lady Moon".
The former immediately caused a series of dazzling stars to light up around him, and the same was true in his Eyes.
Soon, she "saw" the figure of "Lady Moon".
This Attendant of the Evil God made no attempt to conceal himself, forcibly entering the already unstable darkness and the mysterious, illusory iron gate.
With a flash of starlight, the two Major Arcana, "The Magician" and "Justice," also appeared outside the Breeze Ballroom.
Both of them hesitated, unsure whether they should follow them inside.
At this moment, "Justice" let out a soft "Eh":
"I feel the pull and call from the Underground becoming very, very weak..."
The reason they were hesitant earlier was because once they entered the Depths of the Underground, into Trier in the Fourth Epoch, Half-God would suffer immense and terrifying Corruption.
Those followers of Evil God are irrelevant; they're essentially insane anyway, maybe just more complicated and thorough in their madness. But the women have to consider this issue.
"The Corruption has weakened?" The Magician was taken aback.
As far as she knows, there are currently only two entities capable of enabling this phenomenon to occur:
One is Mr. The Fool or the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth, who can weaken the various Corruption within Trier in the Fourth Epoch by briefly strengthening the power of the seal.
Another is That One Deity who has gained initial control over the greatest anomaly Underground:
"The Creator of all things, the all-knowing and all-powerful God, the Ruler behind the veil of shadows, the master of the Mind World, the Fallen Nature of all living beings."