Chapter 106: Three Against One

Chapter 106: Three Against One

Rumble!

One bolt of lightning after another fell from midair, covering every region illuminated by the gigantic crimson moon in a silver-white “forest.”

Electric light leaped and ravaged, sweeping out an aura of destruction and sparing no corner.

That grayish-white giant dragon, whose head still retained a human shape, was once again revealed. Tiny electric snakes ran wildly across the stone-like scales on its surface, creating a few faint, indistinct cracks.

Hvin Rambis’s Psychological Invisibility could not be maintained at all under such a covering attack. After all, he still interacted with his surroundings. He had merely eliminated his sense of existence and situated himself in a blind spot of attention. Once that interaction intensified, he would inevitably be exposed.

The instant he appeared, the Lightning Storm calmed by a fair amount. Gehrman Sparrow on the roof instantly blurred, flashing to a spot diagonally below the incomplete dragon.

Immediately afterward, dense black particles surfaced on the glove worn by the mad adventurer’s left palm. They were deep and dark.

His mouth then opened, and he spat out a Demoness word filled with filth and degeneration:

“Slow!”

Hvin Rambis knew that the other party was using Creeping Hunger and understood this item’s true level. He found Gehrman Sparrow’s attack amusing. Immediately, he prepared to raise the icy-blue metal cylinder held in his left foreclaw and aim it at the enemy below.

This was a Sealed Artifact of unknown origin, called Rotten Meteor. Hvin Rambis had obtained it from a certain existence and only knew that part of its materials came from the cosmos.

This icy-blue metal cylinder could fire one dark-green peculiar projectile after another. Anyone struck by them would instantly be poisoned and begin rotting; even their spirit body would not be spared. This was likewise effective against demigods.

Its negative effect was that the holder had a chance of being watched by a gaze cast down from the cosmos, unknowingly suffering corruption. If a certain existence had not applied a degree of sealing, Hvin Rambis definitely would not have dared carry it around. But even so, he still did his utmost to control how often he used it, lest he die strangely or undergo mutation. This was the common ending of several previous holders of Rotten Meteor.

At this moment, Hvin Rambis did not believe that Filthy Words—which was at most Sequence 5—could have any real effect on him after he had revealed his incomplete mythical creature form. He intended to use Rotten Meteor to directly end an enemy made threatening by the Sealed Artifact he carried.

Yet at that moment, his movements truly slowed. His entire body exuded a sense of stiffness.

On the black rooftop beneath the gigantic crimson moon, at some unknown point, another Gehrman Sparrow wearing a black windbreaker and a silk top hat had appeared. In his right hand, he held a peculiar revolver with six barrels, while his left palm was aimed at the Gehrman Sparrow below Hvin Rambis. He clenched it into a fist and lightly turned his wrist.

Fallen Count—Magnify!

This was Klein’s other marionette: the demigod of the Lawyer pathway, Qonas Kilgor!

With the assistance of his Magnify, the Beyonder powers Creeping Hunger obtained through herded souls could have their effects maximized, raised to near Sequence 4—that is, the level of a demigod!

Of course, this could not Magnify multiple powers at once. Only one could be affected at a time.

Because Hvin Rambis was currently in mythical creature form, even after Slow had been Magnified, it could not influence him for too long. Therefore, the Gehrman Sparrow who was actually Winner Enuni seized this brief opportunity and began manipulating Hvin Rambis’s Spirit Body Threads.

Under normal circumstances, he would need three seconds to complete preliminary control. Opposite him, however, the target had already revealed a powerful mythical creature form, so the time would certainly be prolonged. Perhaps six or seven seconds—or even a little over ten seconds—would be needed to succeed. By then, Hvin Rambis would long since have broken free from Slow’s influence, recovered to normal, and responded.

At this crucial moment, Qonas Kilgor once again aimed his left palm at Winner Enuni. His five fingers quickly clenched.

Still Magnify!

Magnifying the ability to manipulate Spirit Body Threads!

All of a sudden, Winner Enuni’s manipulation of Hvin Rambis’s Spirit Body Threads became far easier, as though the other party had not revealed his mythical creature form.

In other words, he would need only three seconds to complete preliminary control.

This was already quite impressive. The problem, however, was that Hvin Rambis, in dragon form, would take less than one second to break free from Slow’s influence.

No—he had already broken free!

Just then, a gunshot rang out with a bang. A bullet whose surface lacked luster, profound yet not dim, engraved with many strange patterns, rapidly flew over and struck Hvin Rambis just as he had freed himself from Slow.

In another corner of the garden, yet another Gehrman Sparrow in a black windbreaker and silk top hat had appeared.

Hvin Rambis’s dragon body stiffened again. Not only did his thoughts seem to stagnate, even the wings on his back froze and lost their function, causing the whole dragon to fall to the ground.

Spirit Control Bullet!

This was a Spirit Control Bullet Klein had made using one of his Worms of Spirit as the material, carrying the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog. It could paralyze even a Sequence 3 Saint for one or two seconds!

At this moment, Hvin Rambis, who had revealed his incomplete mythical creature form, was not much stronger than a Sequence 3 Saint. Back then, after an Amon avatar had been struck by a Spirit Control Bullet, it had also stiffened for more than a second.

In addition, Klein could have had Qonas Kilgor Magnify the bullet’s power, only this time, in order to seize the opportunity, he had not had time to do so.

The earlier chain of cooperation had already made Klein unable to help sighing over how terrifying and incredibly useful a Lawyer-pathway demigod was as a support. Of course, under normal circumstances, a Fallen Count’s Magnify could only strengthen the effects and influences of certain actions of his own and could not help others. The problem was that, as a marionette—one with a Worm of Spirit inside his body—he was undoubtedly one entity with Klein and with other similar marionettes. Just now, he had not been strengthening others; he had been strengthening himself!

Seizing the opportunity while Hvin Rambis fell into paralysis, Winner Enuni completed the preliminary control over the Spirit Body Threads.

The incomplete dragon had just ended its stiffness when its thoughts already showed signs of sluggishness, and its movements possessed a certain degree of stuttering.

It had to be said that after a Bizarro Sorcerer obtained powerful marionettes, the cooperation between them could produce extremely terrifying strength. And Klein also had cheating-like items such as Spirit Control Bullets—things only he could make, because only he could mobilize the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog. Of course, powerful figures like Amon could also create similar charms and bullets, only the specific effects would differ to some degree.

Seeing that Hvin Rambis had already been preliminarily controlled, Klein began preparing to interfere with the target’s resistance, preventing him from breaking free of the current state until he became a marionette. But just then, his head suddenly throbbed, and an irrepressible agitation surged inside his heart.

Then, his emotions became exceptionally low, as though he could no longer feel what happiness was. He loathed himself, hating himself so much that he wished to give up his life then and there, lest he burden others.

In the next instant, he became excited again. Everything before his eyes seemed dyed blood-red. He was filled with hatred for everything, wanting to destroy every object he saw.

Not good… Before his mental state deteriorated sharply, Klein understood that he had been influenced by Hvin Rambis at some unknown point. His Mind Body had developed an abnormality.

He hurriedly tried to meditate, using it to resist the abnormal mental state. But inside his mind, one thought after another flashed past, as though belonging to different people:

“Let it end like this…”

“Fuck, hurry up and think of a way to save yourself!”

“What exactly went wrong? I seem to have developed a severe mental illness…”

“A contagious mental illness? That peculiar mental illness Miss Justice mentioned? This does indeed belong to a high-sequence ability of the Spectator pathway!”

“Why say all this? There is a demigod-level Psychiatrist right across from us. Turn him into a marionette, and the problem will be easily solved.”

Discovering that Gehrman Sparrow had failed to fire a second bullet, Hvin Rambis revealed a slight smile on his face covered in grayish-white scales.

Although he had underestimated how powerful the cooperation between Gehrman Sparrow and his two marionettes would be and had quickly fallen into a nearly hopeless situation, that did not mean he had done nothing earlier.

Before withdrawing from the collective subconscious sea, he had quietly planted contagious madness in the other party’s marionette!

A marionette was essentially a dead person. The fact that its consciousness could not be manipulated by any means outside Spirit Body Threads did not mean it lacked a mental island. It was merely that the place was deathly silent. What Hvin Rambis had done was bury there a “seed” in the name of madness.

That seed could not affect the marionette itself, but it could quietly infect the surrounding collective subconscious sea, causing the true body, after swapping positions with the marionette, to unknowingly enter an environment filled with a contagious mental illness. Moreover, this madness itself could also spread in reverse through the Spirit Body Threads.

In addition, because this infection originated from “oneself,” it was not something an angel’s blessing could completely isolate. At most, the influence would be weakened somewhat and the onset delayed.

This was a high-sequence ability of the Spectator pathway, a Manipulator’s Mental Plague!

In ancient times, there would occasionally be certain people who had long been in a suppressed state suddenly showing abnormalities at the same time. Their abnormalities would then affect those around them, resulting in so-called mass hysteria. Once, an ancient ballad sang:

“Seven girls danced a strange dance in the street;

“Nine men beside them laughed until they rolled across the ground;

“On a passing carriage, a noble slapped his own face;

“Outside the houses by the street, children shed tears in a daze;

“People harmed one another, and the whole city went mad.”

If one thought carefully about this ballad, it would make one instinctively fearful. And Hvin Rambis knew that the scene described in the ballad had truly existed. It came from an experiment by a demigod of the Spectator pathway.

Highly contagious Mental Plague!

Once Gehrman Sparrow’s true body went mad, his control over his marionettes would undoubtedly be lost. In that way, Hvin Rambis would be able to escape his predicament.

This would not take long—only a matter of seconds!

At this moment, Hvin Rambis the Manipulator was not afraid that Gehrman Sparrow might possess the kind of charm Audrey had used—the charm that could swap two people’s fates in a short period. If their fates were swapped, Gehrman Sparrow would instead be placed in the state of nearly becoming a marionette, his thoughts sluggish and his body rigid. By contrast, infection by Mental Plague was a problem Hvin Rambis could solve with relative ease.

Just then, Hvin Rambis saw the Gehrman Sparrow on the roof aim his left palm at the Gehrman Sparrow holding the iron-black long-barreled revolver. His five fingers gently clenched, and his wrist turned slightly.

Distortion!

Klein used Qonas Kilgor’s Beyonder power to Distort the severity of his mental illness, directly lessening it and slowing its deterioration!

Taking advantage of this still relatively clear period, he once again raised the Death Knell revolver and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Another Spirit Control Bullet shot out and struck the incomplete dragon, whose movements were stuttering and whose body was enormous.

At the same time, Qonas Kilgor used Magnify!

Hvin Rambis suffered the attack, but he did not break free of Winner Enuni’s control because of it. Instead, he fell into a serious and “lengthy” state of paralysis and stiffness.

Klein silently calculated the time and fired a third Spirit Control Bullet before Hvin Rambis truly recovered.

And before the effect of the third Magnified Spirit Control Bullet had ended, the grayish-white incomplete dragon trembled and had already returned to “normal,” no longer dazed.