Prior to that, another urgent problem would be: Return to the real world.
Eithne needed to return to the real world to retrieve her body, otherwise she would be truly dead if someone destroyed her body. Only her soul entered this castle, while her body was left outside somewhere. It was a fact she learned from the Primordial Serpent.
This castle was connected to the real world somewhere.
“If I remember correctly, the portal is this mirror.”
Eithne looked opposite at the huge bronze mirror where the halved black-haired woman was sealed. They entered this castle through a mirror looking exactly the same.
It was a shame that she could not interrogate the Primordial Serpent who was in slumber currently, and Eithne did not think she would go as far as waking up that monster right now. Without the Order’s help, Eithne could not fight back the Mother of Void. Eithne would rather wait until herself had enough confidence in her strength to do that personally.
“…Hm…”
Eithne’s body levitated from the golden throne to approach the mirror.
Her hand reached out to the mirror surface. Her fingers went through the mirror surface as if passing through a film of bubbles.
“As expected.”
Eithne fully stepped in the mirror.
Before her was a golden throne clutched between the crimson chains that extended to countless directions. The grotesque Primordial Serpent could be barely seen under the dense layers of chains.
The scene was majestic and horror at the same time. Eithne could not help but imagine if one day she would replace the position of Primordial Serpent on that seat.
Her fate now lay in the hands of godly existences. If things went wrong, she might end up the same with the chained monster.
Eithne retracted her gaze and bypassed the chained throne. She then saw an endless dark zone before her.
“I can get lost in this place.” – She thought.
Eithne returned to the castle and sat on the golden throne. She needed an anchor to return to the castle in case she got lost in the dark. After all, it would not harm to be careful.
Eithne glanced at the fox attendant as it seemed to be too free.
“Any idea?”
The fox attendant was holding a hand mirror that it took from an unknown source, and a brush to get its fur in shape. Hearing Eithne’s question, it nodded its head eagerly. It pointed at her, then pointed at its head’s temple.
Eithne understood its intention quite fast, as if they had a spiritual communion.
“Enter your mind?”
The fox attendant nodded to confirm.
Eithne closed her eyes. She sensed the connection from her soul to the golden throne, then from the golden throne to the entire castle and its components, including the attendants.
The nine eyes on the golden throne blinked.
Eithne’s soul disappeared from the throne. Her soul traveled along the connection lines to the fox attendant’s body. When she opened her eyes, she was seeing through the fox’s eyes.
Eithne inhabited the body of the fox attendant. She could feel a separate consciousness belonging to the original fox attendant. The two separate minds were like two people squeezing themselves on a single bed.
The fox attendant turned its head to look at the closet column to the throne. Through its eyes, Eithne could see the chaotic energy on the column’s surface was clustering into mystical patterns. The patterns were then reflected in her eyes and became knowledge in her mind.
“Turns out the fox attendant has already evolved using the Chaos, it can see the knowledge on the walls!”
The fox attendant was now even stronger than Eithne. It was ‘qualified’ to know more mysticism.
“What a cheat.”
She could bypass the test of power qualification in this way.
Eithne took the opportunity to absorb the knowledge, then she left the fox attendant’s body and sat back on the throne.
A voice was echoing in her head.
“Tampering with Fate… branch out one’s Fate to plant avatars…”
Despite being ambiguous at first, it was a big hint to Eithne.
In normal circumstances, no one could change fate per will. If anyone were to change Fate, they must be Gods only. However, Eithne had some privileges as the throne’s owner in this castle. She could use some of the powers which exclusively belonged to gods here. She just had yet to explore all of the potential tricks.
“To tamper with Fate, I must see Fate first. And to witness Fate, divination was the method.”
The rule of divination consisted of two things: spirituality and protection. The performer channeled their spirituality to connect with Fate; however, they must also be protected from Fate during the process. Fate could dangerously lead the fate prober to death unknowingly, for which an interference from a true god was required.
Priests usually needed to pray for their God’s protection before performing divination. Mediums such as glass spheres and mirrors were often used as a tool to channel spirituality.
Eithne did not need an extra medium. She was in her spiritual form already.
The nine eyes on the back of the golden throne widened their lids. In midair, a huge projection of nine eyes emerged. They blinked once as the abstract patterns inside twisted into flowers, various shaped blocks and colors.
Her ability of camera-like vision had advanced further into nine huge eyes after Eithne absorbed the Chaos element. When she became stronger, Eithne could understand quite a bit more about her ability.
When a creature absorbed enough Chaos, the elements of Order - the law of nature inside the creature changed. Thus, the creature became a newly evolved being, and their souls would form unique features.
Normally, the features were influenced by outer factors, such as religions and living environments. Different features would result in different kinds of magic abilities, though people tended to have similar magic abilities in the same community as they were usually influenced in the same manner.
From the knowledge of priestess Noceur, the spiritual features occurred when the War priests went through four times Power Bestowment Rite, meaning their bodies underwent at least four times modification after being injected with Chaos. Such priests were the leaders of the factions in War temple, whose aura exerted to resemble the features of divine beasts.
As for Eithne, the nine eyes had been her spirit’s feature - which was heavily influenced by the Primordial Serpent. They also acted as the non-physical medium to channel Eithne’s spirituality, having the ability of ‘vision’. However, the problem came from the source of those visions.
Eithne rubbed her forehead.
The extra eyes did more than just enhance her sight, though she wished it was the opposite case.
“I kept seeing shits and feeling tired after using those eyes. No wonder… They are directly connected to my soul, burning my spirituality to do divination all the time!”
The random scenes she used to see in ‘cameras’ were the imagery of Truth derived from Fate. Each eye performed divination on their own. The objective of divination in each eye was unclear, so they just instinctively wasted her spirituality to do random divination about places and people that were close to Eithne. Horribly, she unknowingly had divined many times without God's protection!
“The rule of divination is that Fate always pulls seers toward death. I might have died early because of that…"
The irresistible flow of Fate likely had sped up her demise as the awakening of the Primordial Serpent occurred. The original priestess should have at least five more years to live before Demir Noceur killed her, but Eithne had already died early under the Primordial Serpent's hand and revived in the castle. When she thought of it, a chill ran down her spine.
She had killed herself out of ignorance.
The original priestess Eithne Noceur had lost memory on certain crucial things, such as the knowledge of divination that she unconsciously took lightly. It was suspicious whether the Primordial Serpent had intended that, which influenced Eithne’s consciousness to overlook things - to achieve the goal of silently eliminating Eithne.
Thankfully, Eithne could control the nine eyes to not act on their own now. She swore to be more careful about unknown things in the future.
“Theoretically, I have nine eyes, I can do nine divinations at the same time. But my current level only affords for one divination only… Anyway, let’s not worry about that right now.”
Eithne closed her eyes to pray, using the language she learned from the castle’s walls.
“Order… I prayed for your enclosure of laws.
The strictness of Order hampers both freedom and dangers.
Thus, may I be safe from the whirl of Fate.”
She prayed for the existence closest to her position - the Order in the mirror. Eithne did this on purpose, because she remembered the Chaos burned both the Primordial Serpent and the attendants before. The Chaos likely did not distinguish between friend and foe, while the Void was on the Primordial Serpent’s side. Between them, the Order seemed to be the friendliest ally as They only attacked the Mother of Void.
Eithne did not consider praying for other gods in this castle, because she did not feel the presence of any other deities except the abstract existences of Chaos, Order and Void. This place used to be a safe hideout of the Primordial Serpent, so it surely must be isolated from outer deities somehow.
Darkness surged before Eithne’s nine eyes. She began divination.
“My fate, guide me to the vessel of my existence.”
After a few seconds, she saw a crimson thread.
It extended from her heart to a very high place above – which was shrouded in darkness that she was unable to see clearly. The thread then extended from Eithne to a very far place below. She saw it pass through a bronze mirror with two women’s faces on the sides, then through a silent darkness to connect to a familiar-feeling object.
“That must be my body in the real world…”
The crimson thread represented her existence in this world, including her soul and body. Eithne could just rely on the Fate thread to find her body, but she wanted to know more about the fox attendant’s suggestion.
“Now, how to branch out my fate line?”
When Eithne was pondering, another crimson thread suddenly approached her fate line.
She discovered it was the fox attendant pushing its fate toward her. Eithne reluctantly let its thread hook on her fate line. When the two crimson lines joined, she suddenly felt a strong connection between her and the fox attendant.
“!”
Previously, Eithne had to rely on her connection to the golden throne to connect to the castle and its attendants. But right now, it seemed that she had been directly linked to one special fox attendant.
“Does it mean I can enter the fox attendant’s mind whenever I want?”
Eithne experimented instantly. Indeed, her soul could jump right in the fox attendant’s body using their connection in Fate, without the need of the throne.
If she ever got lost in the darkness, she could go back to this castle through the fox attendant.
Brilliant!
“Thank you.” – Eithne said to the fox attendant with all of her gratitude.
The fox attendant nodded. It then waved its gloved hand to say goodbye.
Eithne quickly left the castle through the mirror portal.
Her soul travelled following the guide of the crimson line through the silent darkness.
“This darkness is strange. I should explore it when I get a chance.” – She thought.
…
Her concept of time was gradually lost in this space. Maybe the distance was too great, Eithne imagined herself standing still in the darkness…
__
After a while, Eithne finally saw the light at the end of the dark tunnel.
“Yes!”
She quickly approached the light.
When Eithne was close enough, she could recognize the scenery outside. It was an open door from the dark space to the sky in the real world.
“This is quite high…”
Eithne looked down. It recalled her when looking down from skyscrapers in the modern world.
Below her was a wide valley with evergreen bush trees. Her fate line was extending toward the center of a bizarre dark mist in the valley’s deepest point.
The dark mist had an insidious look. It formed a cursed area with expanding toxins and hexes, twisting plants and animals into agonizing shapes. Occasionally, torturing screams and shrills would echo from the black mist.
“Gasp!”
However, what made Eithne baffle even more was an army of War priests around that area.
There were so many War priests gathered in formation. From her high position in the sky, Eithne could spot large cannons imbued with magic, shock absorption devices and large-scale shields. The priests were approaching the dark mist with extreme caution – where Eithne’s body lay.
“I-Is that a net shooter?? Who are they hunting!? Me???”
A cold wind blew over her spine.
“…”
Eithne’s soul quickly travelled back to the castle through the fox attendant’s body.
The fox attendant tilted its head, looking at her as if it was wondering why she came back so early.
Eithne sat on the golden throne. Her finger knocked on the handle.
“Can I borrow your body for a while?”
She asked the fox attendant.
Eithne was not confident that she could retrieve her real body easily. In that meantime, she needed a substitute ‘accommodation’.
The fox attendant nodded.
Eithne summoned another black-suited servant with a fox head. If she left with the nine-tailed attendant, she needed another anchor to return to this castle.
After connecting her fate to another servant’s body, Eithne possessed the body of the nine-tailed fox attendant to travel back to the real world again.
When she was about to pass the chained throne, the halved Primordial Serpent who was supposed to be in slumber, suddenly trembled violently.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Clang clang! Clang clang clang!
The crimson chains shook in turbulence.
“!!!”
Eithne flinched. She sped up to distant herself from the throne.
The crimson chains began to tighten itself. They moved slowly to wrap a few more rounds on the throne like pythons clutching a dying prey.
Crack… crack crack… Sounds of broken bones came out.
The Primordial Serpent gave out a low shrill, but quickly, it was forced into slumber again.
A few seconds passed as the darkness in the mirror went back to its original silence.
“…”
Eithne did not dare to probe any further. She quickly ran toward the real world without looking back…
_
“Vice High Priestess, there’s somebody descending from the sky!”
A priest of the War temple reported in a loud voice. Behind him, a priestess in white robe stood up from the chair. She had a tall and sturdy figure, and her face’s contour was that of a stern leader. When the priestess moved, pieces of shining armor underneath the robe were partly revealed, giving out the aura of a righteous knight.
Vice High Priestess of the War temple, Aubree Moros looked up in the sky where a figure took shape from nothingness. Her amber eyes slightly squinted. In her gaze existed domination, surging between a feeling of suppressed tyranny and violence like a tiger in its territory.
Aubree locked on the unidentified figure.
It looked like a man in a light-grey suit. He had a cane and was holding a hat down on his head amid the blowing winds. The man was free-falling from the sky.
“His destination seems to be the center of the dark mist.” – A War priest shouted.
Aubree Moros commanded:
“Eliminate anything approaching the dark mist without prior notice to us.”
The aide priest quickly transferred her words.
“FIRE!” – He shouted.
Large cannons were all fully loaded. They aimed at the man in the air and shot out magic-imbued fire spears.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The shooting spears exploded in the air, the fire engulfed the figure of the falling man. The shockwaves were sent out in the sky, pushing all the sluggish clouds and birds backward about two miles.
The afternoon pale sky seemed to reverse back to blazing midday after the blast.
…
“Is he dead?”
The priests observed the situation. The terrifying firepower was always the pride of the War temple. Therefore, when they saw the figure thrusted out from the smoke seeming unharmed, the priests widened their eyes in surprise.
That man could easily survive a blast from heavy cannons!
Aubree Moros stopped the priests from firing another blast to the figure.
“Save the fuel. Retreat the cannons to the farthest. Bring forward the shields, shock absorbing devices!” - She commanded.
The formation of the War priests then changed smoothly as they had practiced it for a thousand times. Meanwhile, the figure of the man had entered the cursed dark mist.
After quickly assessing the man’s strength using cannon blast, Aubree had understood that they could not deal with the man simply with firepower. It was most likely that the battle would develop into a close-ranged fight. With the presence of an unknown factor like that man, the dark mist’s status would likely change. The worst case was that the dark mist might send out impacts on surroundings, which would require large shields and shock-reduce devices to minimize the loss. In that case, cannons should stay back to be the support attack.
“Moros Priestess, what shall we do next?” – The aide priest asked.
“Follow the old plan.”
Aubree Moros clenched her gauntlets. She took off the large robe to fully unleash her flexibility. The orange twilight was reflected on her armor, turning into a vague illusion of a slightly swaying mountain tiger above her body.
Aubree then led the first brigade to begin infiltrating the dark mist. The illusion of the tiger jumped high from her back and launched its body into the mist. When the darkness and twilight tiger collided, the mist let out a humanoid scream and a burnt smell as if it was a real creature made of flesh.
“Shrieeeek!”
Goosebumps appeared on the backs of other priests, but they quickly reacted as practiced. The War priests covered their ears with cotton balls soaked in holy water, then proceeded the next step in their plan. Some priests reacted slower and would start to see uncleaned illusions, but they were all woken up by their teammates’ shouts.
Each priest took out a silk white paper scroll. They opened the scroll to let the paper roll out from their hands too deep into the cursed mist.
“Purify!” – They chanted.
The paper scrolls instantly lit up in serene white light. Origami flowers suddenly sprouted from the plain paper to bloom in the black mist. When the sinister mist touched the flowers, hexes and toxins in the mist were neutralized instantly.
It was an effective purifying weapon provided by the Peace temple.
…
Eithne in the fox attendant body landed on the ground.
She had managed to retract the fluffy tails back so that the fox attendant could look more human-like, but the fox head was currently unchangeable.
“Holy shit. That was crazy!” – She thought.
If she were in her original body, she would have been blasted by the cannons into burnt meat. Luckily, the body of the fox attendant had evolved much stronger than Eithne. It had such a powerful reflex that she could dodge the heaviest impact. The suit of the fox was made from a strange material that the fire could not destroy, so Eithne seemed to be almost unharmed by the blast.
“They really planned to eliminate anything involving me?”
Eithne thought in fright. She must find her body quickly and get out of here!
Looking around at the sinister environment, Eithne guessed it was the product left behind by the Mother of Void. The fox attendant’s fur started to curl in and blacken under the influence of toxins and hexes, but the impact did not reach the body’s internal organs. Not yet.
“Where is it… Where is it?”
Eithne ran around to look for the body before the limited time passed. She followed the connection between her soul to discover her body’s location.
“!!!”
“This…!”
She found her body.
However, that ‘thing’ did not appear like the Noceur priestess.
In front of her eyes was a bunch of squirming flesh. Crimson crevices moved between the squirming flesh like small boats floating amid the rivers; and in each crevice were nine eyes darting around in insanity. The monstrous flesh was sending out corruption and madness to the surrounding air, whilst the black mist twirled around it to form a hemispheric protection.
Eithne’s body had completely mutated!
While the excessive Chaos in her soul was transferred away on time, it was too late for her body. The Chaos from the Primordial Serpent had completely destroyed it, though the body was still considered as ‘living’ to have a connection with Eithne’s soul.
“There’s no way to reverse it… Right?”
Eithne asked the fox attendant’s consciousness.
When she received a negative answer, Eithne sighed heavily.
It was impossible to occupy the body as it was filled with madness and hexes.
“So, priestess ‘Eithne Noceur’ just died like this…"
She muttered to herself.
Eithne herself did not believe it just ended like that. Like the Primordial Serpent, she did not trust the fox attendant entirely. Even her own consciousness could be invaded, the fox attendant’s knowledge could be fabricated secretly. Eithne would like to believe there was a hidden manipulator in the dark to keep her guard up constantly, she just had yet to find out their identity and ultimate scheme.
Thinking as such, but the reality left her no other choice.
Eithne suddenly noticed the familiar blonde-haired head. It was between the messy flesh and eyes.
“Oh! The head is still in shape.”
An invisible blade shot out from the fox attendant’s finger to detach the head from the mutated body. Eithne could totally use her ability in the fox attendant vessel.
She picked up her head.
There were only two crevices on her head. One was across her nose, one cut from her jawline to her cheeks. Eighteen eyes in two crevices were all staring at her, as if they could recognize the head’s original owner.
“Maybe if I could forcefully close those crevices like how I retract the fox tails, it wouldn’t be too bad. Perhaps like closing the eyelids, the worse it would look only resembles unhealing cuts… Hm, the corruption inside the head can be treated with the fox attendant level. I will carry the head with me to replace the fox head, since there’s no way I can enter human provinces with a fox appearance…”
Eithne had decided to carry the head with her. The fox attendant could change its head freely like how it changed from snake head to fox head.
Eithne asked the fox attendant:
“Is there any way to store this head?”
“What? You have a pocket subspace? Isn’t that too OP?”
“Only for one head? Fine…”
The fox attendant’s consciousness transferred its intention to Eithne. It didn’t speak in human language, so she must understand the fox attendant on a spiritual level.
“Because the snake head is disposed, you have extra space for my head… Alright, can I ask you to keep my head?”
Eithne asked politely. The fox attendant agreed. Through the fox eyes, Eithne saw a purplish cube materialized in midair next to her. Before she could drop the priestess’s head in, Eithne suddenly heard a voice.
“YOU…!”
Eithne looked back to see an armored knight, whose face of a woman that she knew clearly. Behind the knight was a dreamy illusion of a huge tiger.
It was the Vice High Priestess of the War temple!
Eithne’s fox pupils shrank.
She quickly threw the head into the pocket subspace and ended the subspace summon.
Aubree’s face was beamed with anger as the tiger illusion behind her pounded at the fox-headed man who had taken the head of a War priestess.
“Keek!”
The fox in suit let out a shout after it dodged the tiger’s attack.
‘She has seen ‘Eithne Noceur’ die! It’s my chance to escape the War temple!’- Eithne thought.
She chose to run toward the mist center to avoid the priests following behind Aubree.
Eithne did not bother to explain. Whether or not she was misunderstood as murdering ‘Eithne Noceur’, she would be pursued by the War temple anyway. For the reason that she was carrying ‘Eithne Noceur’’s head!
“Where are you running?”
Aubree chased after the fox-headed man.
The tiger illusion overlapped her figure. Its fur swayed gently in the air, being oddly slow in the fast-running situation. The layer of mana that formed the fur had slowed down so much that it almost produced no vibration in the air. It was a hiding technique that helped Aubree silently snuck behind the fox-headed man earlier. If not for her emotional shock that Aubree broke the silence, the tiger might have killed the fox under its claws swiftly.
Eithne ran in a zigzag pattern to dodge the tiger’s claws, but when she avoided the tiger, she would meet the Vice High Priestess.
Aubree’s fingers flexed to form a tiger-like paw. Her palm collided with an invisible blade.
Clang!
The power emanated from Aubree crashed the blade and even sent back the remnant in an energy wave to the fox in suit.
“So strong!” - Eithne broke out sweat on her head.
She swung the cane to cut an opening between the wave to escape the impact. Her cane holding arm was almost yanked backward from the energy wave.
The fox attendant seemed to have no other ability besides pocket subspace and a tough body, suit and cane. It had been silent to let Eithne totally control the body, so Eithne was using her old skills to deal with the Vice High Priestess.
Snap!
Eithne snapped her fingers.
Darkness surged out from her body to form an isolated space between her and Aubree. Everything inside the space was purged into dead silence.
The fox in suit pointed at the tiger illusion. Ten invisible blades then shot out from different directions toward the tiger.
As Eithne’s soul was enhanced by the Chaos, the strength in summoned blades was also improved.
The tiger illusion roared angrily when the invisible blades tore through the resplendent light on its body. It unsteadily fell down and dispersed.
Easily taking down the tiger stalled Eithne with surprise for a second.
“Shit!”
She reacted too late when a sharp pain expanded from her back. Aubree had snuck behind her.
Five deep cuts appeared on the back of the fox’s suit, yet oddly no blood seeped out.
Aubree had put up a scam with the tiger illusion right after she saw the darkness. The priestess frowned deeply. She had received a detailed report about Eithne Noceur's strange power. This fox-headed man had a similar ability to Eithne Noceur!
Whatever the case, she must capture this creature alive!
With determination, Aubree launched another claw on the fox’s injured spot.
“Kek!”
The fox-headed man hissed and deftly rolled over to dodge. It then pointed at Aubree. Instantly, bursts of invisible blades filled the space before her face.
Aubree swiftly protected her head with gauntlets and retreated into the dark.
Eithne was stressed. This was the first time she had ever fought the Vice High Priestess head-on. The High Vice Priestess was obviously more experienced than Hesata, Eithne could not find Aubree’s trace even in her own territory!
Rather than Eithne having advantage, Aubree was more like the predator playing with its prey in the dark.
The darkness was not on Eithne’s side this time.
Suddenly, Eithne saw sharp lines of orangish light. The scene was like a calligraphy artwork where the artist boldly pressed down the brush into large strokes resembling tiger stripes.
A chill ran down Eithne’s spine. She could only summon as many invisible blades as possible to circle her place. Barely had Eithne recognized the danger, she saw an explosion coming from those stripes of light that crushed all her defense.
“!!!”
Eithne was blown away like a jet. Suddenly, the air froze.
In that frozen moment, she saw the darkness was being erased by an orangish twilight.
“My darkness domain has been overwritten!”
Creating a domain was something that was only possible when a creature almost reached demi-god level, such as Aubree Moros. However, Aubree had been seeing Eithne Noceur and the fox-headed man bypass that ‘law’.
“They’re actually not that strong.” – Aubree thought.
There were five tiger illusions leaping at the suited fox in the dreamy twilight. Above them, Aubree reached out her claw to aim at the fox’s neck.
The fox stiffened under the effect of the twilight world. All it could do was widening its pair of eyes, staring at Aubree intensely.
“Surrender!” - Aubree coldly said.
When she almost touched the fox-headed man, Aubree suddenly felt her joints was blocked.
The strange effect was very weak, she just needed to channel a little bit mana to resolve, but she sensed an interference on her twilight domain.
“The darkness was clearly blocked by my twilight. What’s happening?”
A person with one soul only could only produce one domain! Like a unique spiritual feature!
The time flow in the domain-over-domain seemed to be delayed twice.
Both Aubree and the fox were stiffened, but the fox found the chance to take action.
Eithne had used her last trump card.
She not only had a domain of darkness, but also an early developed domain associated with the nine eyes. In her vision, everything appeared like a page in a fantasy comic, neatly dividing into separate frames. The colors of the twilight, the tiger illusions and the Vice High Priest become deep like an oil painting, sliding away from the sense of reality into the fiction theme. The objects in the ‘comic’ then slowed down to match the immobile background.
Eithne had used this ability to capture Raphael before, now she was using this to stall Aubree for half a second. Like an emergency airbag, nine fleecy tails extended out and wrapped the fox’s body into a huge fur ball.
Aubree’s claw arrived when the tails had completely covered Eithne. The impact was transferred through the fur in shockwaves, then suddenly bounced back to Aubree’s hand.
In a flash, the fur ball launched itself from the spot like an extremely elastic ball, flying toward a direction in the sky and disappeared in the blue.
“???”
Aubree looked at the target slipped out of her range in surprise. The speed of the furball was shockingly fast. The power that she used to hit the fox was returned to her, but the impact force on the fox’s side was seemingly multiplied - that became a great source of ‘fuel’ for the furball to bounce away.
“My domain was interfered and lost its slackening effect… What could have done that?”
Aubree muttered.
Even her five tiger illusions expressed a dumbfounded expression since their prey was gone in a blink.
Bang!
A red firework exploded in the sky.
It was the emergency signal of other War priests!
Aubree quickly ran toward the firework’s source. When she arrived, the scene was more terrible than she thought.
Several War priests had their limbs withered in hexes. Many of them had decisively cut off their corrupted parts to continue to fight a huge serpent.
The grotesque serpent was skinless and headless, a horrible combination of squirming bloody flesh and protruding bones. On the serpent’s body were countless crimson crevices that had nine eyes in each - they were madly darting around to spread out the depravity to the priests’ souls.
The situation was not positive for the priests as they were losing their minds one by one, falling to the ground unconsciously. When they fell, the disgusting monster would try to engulf them. Before Aubree arrived, the priests only managed to save their friends from being eaten.
“How can it develop this much?!”
Aubree’s pupils shrank.
“That fox-headed bastard! What had he done?”
She knew who the monster used to be, she already saw the mutated status of the body before. But the situation escalated too fast!
The experienced War priests sacrificed their lucidness to approach the serpent and stab in the monster’s eyes. They quickly created the chance for the High Vice Priest to act.
“Shrieeeellkkkk….”
A scream eerily came out from the black mist surrounding them when the serpent was injured. The monster then slammed its body on the ground. Its flesh suddenly separated to form a colossal mouth to catch the nearby priest.
The War priests shot magic fire to the crimson toothless mouth. They also made the air before them to explode so that the impact force could send their immobile body - affected by the mind corruption to fly backward, away from the monster.
The serpent did not seem to be bothered by the magic fire much. It continued to chase after the humans.
“Retreat immediately! Activate the cannons!”
Aubree shouted.
The twilight from her body expanded to enclose the cursed area, where tiger’s roars could be heard echoing through the corruption. Five tiger illusions leaped at the serpent to bite it at different spot, nailing it down to the ground.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Heavy cannons aimed at the wicked monster to fire. The strong explosion tore apart the serpent’s body, not leaving it a chance to counterattack.
Aubree conjured a huge tiger illusion to shield the injured priests from the stormy bombarding, while trying to temporarily treat the corruption with her aura. The priests quickly retreated to their safe spot.
The fire kept falling from the sky constantly as if a new sun was being born on the land. Its loud destruction deafened all the nearby creatures’ hearing ability. The pathetic animals ran frantically in every direction away from the impact, they even trampled on each other to escape.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
...
The battle in the valley only ended when the dreadful shrill of the black mist was overwhelmed by the canons firing…
This would be a nightmarish day for many young priests of War temple.
Thankfully, despite heavy injuries, nobody lost their life.