Chapter 48: “Frenzy”

Chapter 48: “Frenzy”

After the Saint of Secrets Botis entered the spirit world, he immediately began traversing it, heading straight for the Ruins of the Battle of Gods at the easternmost part of the Sonia Sea.

Just then, his thoughts suddenly blurred. His body directly changed direction and left the spirit world from another location.

By the time Botis’s spiritual intuition warned him, his mind tensed, and he recovered his own thoughts, what appeared before him was a bare forest where almost all the leaves had fallen. The surroundings were silent and empty, and the crimson moon hung high above.

As a former Traveler and Astrologer, Botis immediately recognized where he was. He discovered that he was still in Backlund, only moved from the city into the remote outskirts.

At the same time, he understood exactly what had happened:

At some unknown point, someone else’s consciousness had infiltrated his mind world. At the critical moment, it had influenced his thoughts and altered his predetermined destination!

That demigod of the Audience pathway! I actually failed to discover them! Botis’s pupils abruptly dilated, reflecting an illusory silver-white book.

The book flipped with a swish, instantly arriving at a certain page.

Botis immediately raised his hand and grabbed toward the space between his brows, directly pulling a mass of darkness out of his immaterial island of consciousness. He threw it into his own shadow.

His shadow then separated from him, twisted upright, and presented a female outline.

Dark Knight, Fallen Shadow!

This was a power Botis had Recorded from Dark Saint Kesma. It could separate the fallen thoughts within one’s heart and fuse them with one’s shadow, forming an uncontrolled independent creature.

Botis used it to clear away the consciousness within him that did not belong to himself, freeing himself from the Manipulator’s influence.

At the same time, it was also Botis’s counterattack. If the hidden demigod of the Audience pathway could not swiftly deal with this Shadow, the thoughts they had split off would gradually become independent, causing the original self to become half-mad, or even lose control.

The moment he removed the hidden danger inside his mind, Botis did not hesitate in the slightest. He was about to leave the battlefield preset by his enemies and Teleport elsewhere.

But at that moment, his mind suddenly grew irritable. He felt that the entire environment was making things difficult for him, and his anger could no longer be restrained.

As the silver-white book within Botis’s eyes flipped, the entire forest collapsed with a rumble, and that black Shadow nearly flattened into a puddle.

After the frenzy, Botis’s mood turned extremely low. He could summon no interest in anything, feeling that he was utterly useless, that he was a burden upon others and upon the world.

Mental Plague! During the earlier battle, Botis had already been infected by Mental Plague, and it had finally erupted now!

The reason Cattleya had used The Little Match Girl at the very beginning was not merely to interfere with Botis’s Teleportation and stop him from leaving. It was also to conceal traces for Miss Justice, allowing her Virtual Persona to slip into the other party’s mind world without triggering Botis’s spiritual intuition. It had not erupted, only quietly planted the seed of Mental Plague.

Precisely because of that, when the ambush failed, Cattleya and Audrey dared to activate the contingency plan, withdraw on their own, and let the Saint of Secrets Botis and the Dark Saint voluntarily separate and return to their own places once danger had vanished.

Cattleya’s final act of igniting the green vines and creating a huge commotion looked, on the surface, like attracting official forces and forcing the enemies to give up pursuit. In truth, it was to compel the Saint of Secrets Botis to leave as quickly as possible, leaving him no time to carefully inspect and examine the deeper state of his own mind.

Thus, at the key moment of his Teleportation, Audrey’s Virtual Persona altered his thoughts, bringing him directly to the outskirts of Backlund—to the deserted place chosen by the Tarot Club.

And by the time he resolved the Manipulator’s Virtual Persona, Mental Plague erupted immediately afterward.

In fact, if Botis had used Fate Restart earlier, he would certainly have returned to a state without any hidden danger. But not until he nearly died to the Spear of Longinus had he decided to reveal that trump card. By then, far more than three seconds had passed since his mind world was invaded!

At that moment, the depressed and low-spirited Botis, who was struggling against mental illness, saw an unreal ball of yarn roll out of the void ahead.

Behind the ball of yarn, a bright thread extended toward infinity.

Following that thread, Cattleya, wearing a purple-patterned black robe and dark hood, walked out of the spirit world and appeared before the Saint of Secrets Botis.

She had no way to track an enemy who had performed interference, but she could establish a connection with the predetermined battlefield. She could track Justice Audrey’s Virtual Persona!

The moment she arrived, Cattleya closed her eyes and split off an illusory figure, which fell toward an invisible coffin.

Botis, already depressed and gloomy, instantly felt extreme exhaustion. His eyes uncontrollably began to close, and he wanted to collapse.

Sleeping Beauty!

On the other side, Audrey’s Virtual Persona, which had not yet truly become independent, resembled a deep-black shadow carrying the taste of depravity. It raised a hand and pinched its own forehead.

Its pupils silently turned vertical, pale gold and cold.

Botis’s mind abruptly exploded. One bubble of light after another appeared on the surface of his body. Inside those bubbles, worms condensed from starlight—with both head and tail merged into the void—tried to burrow out.

Psychiatrist, Frenzy!

This could completely detonate a target’s emotions, even causing them to lose control.

Botis had already been infected by Mental Plague and was in an extremely abnormal state. Afterward, he was influenced by Sleeping Beauty, leaving his mood unbearably low. Now that Frenzy detonated all of it, he immediately had difficulty controlling himself and displayed signs of losing control.

Catching this opportunity, Cattleya opened her eyes and raised her right hand, causing a slowly rotating mass of star sand to swiftly form in her palm.

Under the night, the forest grew even darker. The crimson moon vanished from the sky, and star after star appeared, dense and brilliant.

Those stars scattered one beam after another. The beams intersected, forming a magnificent pillar of light that enveloped the Saint of Secrets Botis and the region around him.

Under the stress, Botis recovered some clarity. His figure rapidly turned illusory and continuously Flashed, producing more than ten afterimages within the forest.

However, no matter what he did, he could not break free from the starlight’s coverage. He could not Flash out.

One “Botis” after another was dissolved by starlight, collapsing and scattering. In the end, only one remained: Botis, on one knee, pressing his palm to the ground, struggling bitterly to hold on.

This Botis’s body was broken and ragged. His eyes had become completely dark red, bordering on madness.

The moment the starlight could no longer be maintained, he Flashed, avoiding Audrey’s Virtual Persona’s follow-up attack.

Then he continuously Flashed, creating one “avatar” after another around Cattleya and Audrey’s Virtual Persona.

One of his “avatars” reached out with its left hand, twisting the region where the black shadow corresponding to Audrey’s Virtual Persona stood, hiding it away and using that to restrict the enemy.

Another “avatar” opened both arms, summoning a thick pillar of light wreathed in sacred flames and making it fall toward the hidden space.

During this process, Botis’s other “avatars” quietly removed the concealment of space.

Thus, the moment the shadow corresponding to Audrey’s Virtual Persona broke free from restriction, it was enveloped by the holy, blazing pillar of light and rapidly dissolved away.

In his Flashing state, Botis could use Beyonder powers faster than normal, but this could not be sustained for long. It was achieved by having different Star Worms separately exert their functions.

On the other side, the Saint of Secrets Botis was likewise “besieging” Cattleya. He used one power after another, coordinating them to pour a torrent of attacks toward his target within only one or two seconds.

This forced Cattleya to continuously rely on The Emperor’s New Clothes to dodge. For a time, she had no strength to counterattack and was in imminent danger.

A few seconds later, Botis’s Flashing finally slowed, and the frenzy in his heart eased quite a bit.

Just then, outside the forest, heavy gray-white scales suddenly appeared one after another. They were indistinct, as though forming a colossal creature that radiated immense pressure.

In the deep night where the crimson moon was concealed, a nearly invisible, transparent breath descended from above, enveloping both Botis and Cattleya.

The two demigods were immediately struck as if by lightning. Their minds tore apart, and their spirit bodies seemed pierced.

The breath of a mind dragon!

Botis’s mental state had already been extremely poor, and he had used several trump cards. His mind immediately went blank. One flash after another appeared before his eyes, and his body could not stop trembling slightly.

Cattleya, however, carried a Moon Paper Figurine she had obtained from Magician Forsi. It could bear one instance of Psychic Piercing for her!

Although this could not completely erase the influence of a mind dragon’s breath, it allowed Cattleya to recover faster.

In a demigod-level battle, that meant opportunity!

In merely one or two seconds, Cattleya’s gaze returned to normal, while the dragonified Audrey, hidden in the darkness outside the forest, followed up by inflicting Mind Deprivation on Botis again.

Without hesitation, Cattleya raised her right hand, condensed that terrifying bloodstained spear, and hurled it at the Saint of Secrets Botis.

This time, Botis could no longer dodge or neutralize it. His chest was directly pierced by the Spear of Longinus.

After his body stiffened, it rapidly collapsed and disintegrated, becoming one glittering Star Worm after another.

Some of these Star Worms vanished directly. Some devoured one another. Some fused in the distance, recombining into Botis.

Botis’s eyes had already lost all reason. His body kept collapsing, about to reveal an incomplete and extremely weakened mythical creature form.

At that moment, an illusory Door suddenly appeared beside him—grayish blue, with seven brass keyholes.

The illusory Door swiftly opened, spitting out a silver-black, three-layered “jewelry box” inlaid with various gemstones.

The banished Box of the Great Old Ones had returned.

The mad-eyed Botis caught the box, revealed a cruel, bloodthirsty smile, and violently moved to open it.

The third layer!