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 existence loudly.

In addition, the Dark Saint Kesma was doing this because he hoped, to a certain extent, to block possible hidden helpers outside and divide the battlefield.

When a layer of flesh and blood grew across the floor, walls, and ceiling, a distorted, swaying black shadow rose from the corner.

This was one of the souls grazed by the Dark Saint Kesma.

It came from a powerful vampire in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and corresponded to Sequence 4 Witch King of the Moon pathway.

If a Shepherd grazed a target at the demigod level, because the spirit body was stable, it could be released directly. However, only one could be released at a time, unless the corresponding Shepherd had already become a Sequence 3 Trinity Templar.

Seizing the opportunity when the horn in the female demigod’s hand beside the pumpkin carriage began crumbling inch by inch, the twisted, swaying Witch King shadow reached out and dug out one of its own eyes—an illusory eye, a crimson eye.

That eye rippled with clear, crimson radiance, illuminating the entire room at once, as if the red moon had descended here.

Within its pupil was reflected the lady in the purple-patterned black robe and dark hood.

Immediately afterward, the Witch King shadow closed the hand holding its own eyeball, causing the crimson “moon” to be completely swallowed by darkness.

Around Cattleya, deep, solidified darkness appeared, binding her in place and freezing the scene around her as though it had been fixed.

Seeing this, the Saint of Secrets Botis took one step and instantly flashed behind the enemy.

Flash followed flash. Flash linked into flash. Around Cattleya, a full eight figures of Botis in black robes appeared!

These were not avatars he had created, but afterimages left by Flashing too rapidly, unable to fade in time.

Among these “eight” Botis figures, some released Lightning Storms, some condensed blazing-white spears, some became covered in full-body black armor and slashed forward with deep-black greatswords that seemed capable of cleaving everything apart…

Different figures, different abilities—some attacks, some controls—all targeted Cattleya.

Almost without a gap, Botis’s figure Flashed to another corner and swiftly turned transparent, about to vanish.

He had no intention of insisting on killing the enemy, because this was Backlund, and because the commotion of their battle would soon become impossible to suppress and spill outside. At that point, perhaps an official angel would descend directly.

The reason he first launched a wave of counterattacks before Teleporting away was that he wanted to suppress the enemy and prevent her from interfering with his and Dark Saint Kesma’s escape. This was an extremely reasonable strategy.

Yet several seconds earlier, in a room on the upper floor of the old apartment building, Judgment Xio had already learned through Miss Justice’s “voice of the mind” that something abnormal had occurred at the gathering location.

Although she was worried and anxious, she did not panic at all. Following the predetermined plan, she jumped straight out of the window, turned in midair, pointed her finger at the target region, and declared:

“Teleportation is prohibited here!”

After doing this, she immediately pulled away from the dilapidated apartment, lest the demigods on her side be distracted.

With that interference, the Saint of Secrets Botis failed to smoothly enter the spirit world. Before his eyes, a heavy, rust-covered door seemed to appear, tightly sealing the “road.”

To Botis, an illusory Door of this level could not truly prevent him from leaving. With only a slight adjustment, he could directly “open the door” and leave.

But at that moment, a new change occurred around the female demigod in the purple-patterned black robe.

In Cattleya’s eyes appeared silver-white radiance, pieces linked together like mysterious serpents.

This was Fleeting Luck, derived from the knowledge she had analyzed from the blood of the Snake of Fate.

Whether it was the terrifying lightning, the blazing-white spears, or the black knight’s slash, none of them managed to strike the target at that moment. Cattleya seemed to be standing at the center of a storm. No matter how dangerous the surroundings were, she herself remained unharmed.

Those attacks and controls either passed by her, or were offset by their “companions.” None achieved the intended effect. Some even helped weaken the restraints of darkness around her.

In the next instant, Cattleya’s back arched slightly, and one white, illusory feather after another grew from it. These did not belong to an angel. They originated from a swan.

The “swan” transformed from the Ugly Duckling.

As for what a “swan” was, to a Sequence 4 demigod, the answer was self-evident: an incomplete mythical creature form.

And the Ugly Duckling could also become a “swan”!

This was powerful magic that allowed a Mysticologist to reveal an incomplete mythical creature form. It could be used once per day, ten seconds each time.

Cattleya’s body immediately split open with crack after crack. Within those fissures, flesh and blood condensed, forming eyes distinct in black and white.

Those countless eyes swept the surroundings coldly and indifferently, seeming to be the embodiment of vast, miscellaneous knowledge, to the point that the figure bearing them blurred into a higher-dimensional, more abstract black mass.

At the sight of those dense eyes, the Saint of Secrets Botis and the Dark Saint Kesma both felt dizzy. A storm formed from knowledge echoed inside their minds.

The layer of flesh and blood enveloping the entire room trembled faintly. Some of it dripped down with plopping sounds, while other parts wriggled without order.

Just then, an unimaginable aura pierced through the barrier formed by flesh and blood and surged into the first floor of the abandoned apartment, instantly covering every corner.

The Saint of Secrets Botis and the Dark Saint Kesma were simultaneously struck with awe. Their bodies, minds, and spirits all entered a state beyond their control.

This was Dragon Might after a qualitative transformation.

This was Mind Deprivation!

Seizing the opportunity, the “black mass” covered in cracks and eyes condensed a spear in front of itself.

The spear was ancient in style. From its tip to its shaft, clusters and specks of blood-dark red stains covered it.

It emanated an intense aura of destruction and the smell of blood, as though it had once wounded some great existence.

With a whoosh, this terrifying spear shot out, heading straight for the Saint of Secrets Botis, who stood frozen in place.

Inside the room, every sound and every detail vanished. Even the spreading Dragon Might abruptly disappeared. Only the bloodstained spearhead, Botis’s body, and the shrinking distance between them remained.

The Spear of Longinus!