Chapter 46: The Ugly Duckling

Chapter 46: The Ugly Duckling

Inside the opened first layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones, the long table, chairs, Forsi, and the others were like dolls—some still, others driven by clockwork to perform simple, repetitive motions.

Seeing this, Botis’s hair stood on end. For no reason, he felt that he too would be dragged in and become one of them.

Instinctively, he prepared to react to the Grade 0 sealed artifact in his hands, but he saw the hooded woman in the purple-patterned black robe beside the pumpkin carriage retract her right hand, half-clench it, and bring it to her mouth.

In her palm, a dark, ancient horn instantly condensed, carrying an exceedingly heavy, powerful meaning.

A magical horn—the horn of destruction!

Botis’s pupils abruptly dilated. With no time to deal with the Box of the Great Old Ones, he reached forward with his right hand, seeming to lift an invisible curtain that covered the void.

The region where he stood twisted once more, vanished once more, and was concealed.

“Woooo!”

The horn in Cattleya’s hand produced a low, resonant sound that echoed layer upon layer inside the room without spreading beyond it.

Under the stacking sound waves, shadows shattered and the ground split open. The space concealed by the Saint of Secrets Botis resembled thick glass struck by a heavy hammer. Countless cracks appeared at once, interweaving with one another.

On the other side, from within the shadows, a tall knight clad in full-body black armor leaped out. He carried a long, broad straight sword, and two dark-red flames glowed where his eye sockets should have been.

The Dark Saint Kesma.

“Woooo!”

Cattleya blew the horn once more. Everything in the room seemed to solidify into translucent amber.

Silently, the “amber” broke apart and cracked. The black-armored knight likewise shattered like a mirror hitting the ground, turning into one small piece after another.

The twisted and concealed region returned to reality.

However, the Saint of Secrets Botis also seized the gaps between those two horn blasts, causing one illusory Door after another to appear around him.

Some opened in pairs. Some were deep and profound. Some were covered in mysterious patterns. Some had hollowed centers, through which boundless darkness could vaguely be seen…

There were countless illusory Doors, densely packed and overlapping one another, almost completely surrounding the Saint of Secrets Botis.

Botis had no time to look more closely or think further. He immediately pulled open a grayish-blue illusory Door with seven brass keyholes and threw the Box of the Great Old Ones—whose second layer was about to open—inside.

This was the Banishment of a Secrets Sorcerer. It could throw a preliminarily controlled target into a corresponding spacetime turbulence. Different illusory Doors represented different scenes, carrying both danger and opportunity.

This Banishment was not permanent. At Botis’s Sequence level, he could only keep the Box of the Great Old Ones away from reality for twenty seconds. Once that time ended, the Grade 0 sealed artifact would return to Botis’s side through the illusory Door from before.

However, by then, the intelligence produced by the enemy’s Beyonder power—the “betrayal”—would certainly have vanished.

As a demigod of the Apprentice pathway, Botis had traveled to many places, witnessed many things, and recorded all kinds of abilities. In an instant, he had made the most correct decision.

At the same time, the shattered “black knight” rapidly writhed and reassembled, transforming into a thin carpet of flowing flesh and blood that covered every corner of the room.

As an evil cult that could only survive in the shadows of reality, the Aurora Order might contain many madmen, but it still habitually concealed its actions to a certain extent, lest official forces be drawn in before their objective was achieved.

Of course, once matters reached their conclusion, they would certainly proclaim their…