Chapter 47: Mind Storm

Chapter 47: Mind Storm

That bloodstained spear—one that seemed to have appeared in an ancient age impossible to trace—absorbed every trace of presence within the room and thrust straight into the body of the Saint of Secrets, Botis.

The brown-haired Botis’s figure abruptly turned illusory, becoming a pair of deep-black double doors.

At the same time, he appeared behind the “door,” separated from that terrifying spear as though they existed in two different worlds, staring at it from afar.

In the next instant, the spear stained with dark-red blood pierced through the deep-black doors and entered the space where Botis stood.

Botis’s figure continuously retreated and continuously transformed, becoming one illusory Door after another. Some were formed from two bent stone figures. Some had a fist-sized hole beside the seam. Some were inlaid with silver nails. Some were covered in mysterious patterns. Layer upon layer, linked one after another, they overlapped without end.

Silently, soundlessly, the Spear of Longinus pierced through those illusory Doors one after another. It did not slow in the slightest, giving the Saint of Secrets Botis no chance to seek an opening and break free.

In less than one second, the bloodstained spear, emanating an intense aura of destruction, shattered countless illusory Doors. Only after its aura had visibly declined did it finally truly reach the target’s chest.

Cracks instantly split all over Botis’s body, as though he were a piece of porcelain that had smashed against the ground.

With a crack, the Saint of Secrets turned pitch black, disintegrating into fragments that scattered across the floor.

It did not resemble his true body. Instead, it seemed more like his shadow.

This was a shadow-substitution technique he had Recorded from a certain Sequence 3 saint under the True Creator.

Of course, if the layered Doors had not weakened the Spear of Longinus, Botis felt there was a high chance that both his shadow and his true body would have shattered together.

Having narrowly avoided that attack, Botis forcefully endured the dizziness in his head and the impact brought by Cattleya’s incomplete mythical creature form, making a scaleless silver-white giant serpent condense within his eyes.

The serpent was so enormous that it filled both of Botis’s pupils. Its surface was covered in dense symbols and patterns, forming one mysterious wheel after another.

It connected head and tail, merging with countless illusory rivers and evolving into a vague, unreal, slowly rotating giant wheel. Around the wheel, all kinds of symbolic signs represented different futures.

Abruptly, the pitch-black fragments on the floor that had not yet disappeared flew up one after another, reassembling into Botis.

The bloodstained Spear of Longinus rapidly withdrew through one newly formed illusory Door after another, until it returned before the twisted “black mass.”

The aura that made others feel intense terror retreated like a tide and left the room.

The “black mass,” covered everywhere in cracks and eyes, wriggled and recovered, turning back into the woman in the purple-patterned black robe and dark hood.

Everything had returned to the state before the Ugly Duckling magic was used.

Fate Restart!

This was one of the rewards the Saint of Secrets Botis had received after overthrowing the Abraham family. It was a Sequence 1 Beyonder power Recorded from the Angel of Fate Ouroboros.

Naturally, it was far inferior to the original. It could only “restart” reality within three seconds, and only “restart” this connected set of rooms. It could not even affect the entire first floor of the apartment building.

No sooner had the “restart” ended than the Dark Saint Kesma acted as if he had already been prepared.

The twisted black shadow grazed by him, originating from a Sanguine earl, opened both arms in a posture of embracing the red moon.

The darkness around Cattleya suddenly surged, instantly forming one illusory yet solid black chain after another, binding her firmly in place.

Meanwhile, the flesh and blood covering the floor, walls, and ceiling surged madly together, transforming into an oppressive knight clad in full-body black armor and carrying a deep, heavy greatsword.

In the gaps of the Dark Knight’s visor, two dark-red lights flickered faintly and instantly locked onto the hooded woman beside the pumpkin carriage.

Cattleya’s shadow beneath her feet suddenly came alive. It grabbed her ankles, rose like flowing water, and tightly wrapped around her.

Dark Knight, Ruler of Shadows!

Then, that gigantic knight, almost reaching the ceiling and seemingly sprung from myth and legend, took one step and charged close enough to the target. It slashed down with the long, wide, deep-black greatsword in its hands.

On the other side, a silver-white illusory book rapidly flipped through Botis’s eyes, stopping at a certain page.

Botis then stretched out his left hand across a distance of twenty or thirty meters, grabbing toward the pumpkin carriage, toward the mysterious woman in the purple-patterned black robe.

His arm abruptly lengthened. Its surface turned pitch black and sticky, seeming to flow with evil liquid.

Within that liquid grew pale skulls, blood-veined eyeballs, tongues with sharp teeth, and all kinds of bizarre things. A feeling of extreme evil and extreme madness swiftly spread.

Inside the room, the floor instantly cracked dry, and the few cockroaches that had still been alive stiffly collapsed and died.

This was an attack from a certain state of the Abomination Suah!

Back outside Bayam, after the Saint of Secrets Botis had been drawn over by the Flame Seed glove, he had seemed to only watch for a while, pick up the item, and leave. But in reality, he had been desperately Recording the abilities or states of a high-level existence.

After failing many times, and because fate often favored him, he had finally obtained what he wanted. Of course, during that clash, he had only had time to Record this single thing.

Under that evil black arm, Cattleya’s consciousness was tainted by a hint of madness, leaving her briefly unable to respond effectively.

Combined with the dark shackles and the restraints of her own shadow, she could only stand frozen where she was, watching helplessly as Dark Saint Kesma’s greatsword slashed toward her and the Saint of Secrets Botis’s left hand grabbed at her.

Just then, in the room no longer separated from the outside by a wall of flesh, an invisible wind suddenly blew.

The moment the wind appeared, it became violent, sweeping toward the minds of the Saint of Secrets and the Dark Saint.

Manipulator, Mind Storm.

Facing this mental influence mixed with a vast number of complicated thoughts, Botis not only showed no surprise or panic, the corners of his mouth even curved up slightly.

As the “switch” for the restart, he naturally remembered that the demigod riding the pumpkin carriage also had a companion at the same level, one hiding somewhere outside the old apartment building.

The reason he had still focused his attention on the enemy in the open was precisely to draw out the demigod hidden in the shadows!

During the interval between Fate Restart and the Abomination state, Botis had quietly hypnotized himself, so that when he encountered Mind Deprivation or the scouring of a flood of information, he would naturally split out the vast majority of his Star Worms to bear it, leaving only a small portion to control his body and lock onto the “invisible” enemy.

The earlier shock of Dragon Might and the fact that no target could be found had convinced Botis that the one hiding was a demigod of the Audience pathway.

Amid the paralysis and blockage of thought, several tiny side channels moved swiftly, helping Botis initially locate the source of the attack.

But at that moment, the thoughts echoing inside the majority of his Star Worms were not the meaningless informational flood he had assumed.

Inside his mind, it was as though a voice spoke thousands upon tens of thousands of words in a single second:

“At the bottom of an abandoned castle in the Dreyer Forest, there is a pair of bronze double doors. They seal the corruption underground. The higher the Sequence of one who approaches, the more easily they are affected…

“The starry sky is extremely dangerous. Unknown existences are watching…

“Dark Angel is suspected to be the negative personality split off from the ancient Sun God…

“…”

What? Botis froze, suddenly feeling that these thoughts were dangerous, yet made one unable to resist wanting to understand them further.

Because of that brief daze, the enemy he had already found disappeared again, leaving his range of attention. Meanwhile, the Abomination hand reaching toward the pumpkin carriage and the female demigod also slowed.

Similarly, the Dark Saint Kesma was affected by Mind Storm, his movements stiffening for one second.

By the time the two recovered, Cattleya had already opened her mouth and spat out a pea.

The pea instantly grew, transforming into thick, green vines that lifted Cattleya toward the door, helping her break free from the dark shackles and regain a certain degree of freedom of movement.

When the Dark Saint’s heavy greatsword and the Saint of Secrets’ pitch-black arm struck her, they only shattered her shadow and failed to harm this Mysticologist.

At that moment, Cattleya was the Emperor’s New Clothes—something that did not exist at all—and therefore could not be wounded!

The next second, the lady in the purple-patterned black robe and dark hood abruptly turned transparent, becoming a pile of foam.

The bubbles scattered swiftly, bursting one after another until nothing remained, while the green vines grew all the way into midair and burst into raging flames, illuminating the surrounding streets.

Everything returned to quiet. The brief yet intense battle at the level of demigods seemed as though it had never happened.

The Saint of Secrets Botis and the Dark Saint Kesma looked at each other and did not find the change unexpected.

Clearly, after the ambush failed, the two enemy demigods had fallen into a disadvantage and could no longer accomplish their objective. And since this was Backlund, the longer things dragged on, the more dangerous they became. Therefore, they had seized the opportunity and fled the scene.

In addition, they had deliberately created a large commotion to attract Backlund’s official forces and interfere with pursuit.

As for Leymano’s Travels and that Sequence 7 or Sequence 6 Beyonder of the Apprentice pathway, both were bait that could be abandoned.

With a slight nod, the Saint of Secrets Botis took a crystal ball from the inner pocket of his black robe, made it glow, then swiftly shatter and merge into the void.

He was preventing pursuit from the domain of mysticism.

He truly did not dare remain. He planned to Teleport away immediately, return to the Aurora Order’s headquarters, then “interrogate” the bait, uncover the truth, and decide what to do next.

One second later, Botis’s figure rapidly turned transparent and disappeared. The Dark Saint Kesma entered the shadows and rapidly fled, erasing traces all along the way.