Chapter 833: Activation |
833 Activation
Lumian and the others were all captivated by those beautiful, crystalline eyes, feeling as if their very souls were being drawn into the depths of that scarlet.
But those eyes soon filled with irrational rage, madness, and chaos, creating a vortex of indescribable emptiness at their core.
It made all who saw it feel a deep discomfort, as if a flawless object had suddenly cracked.
Just as Lumian broke free from the trance, he saw the scarlet eyes of the Abscessed Hand focusing on him.
It first noticed its own contractee.
It showed no hesitation, displaying a ruthless, bloodthirsty impulse.
Lumian's heart skipped a beat, and his body hair stood on end.
Damn, it's going to attack me first! Lumian immediately prepared to teleport to the side of the corpse mountain in the mirror world, to avoid the impending attack from the Abscessed Hand.
The real culprits were Julie and Wanak!
And I went through all that trouble to gather your body. I don't expect you to thank me, but at least don't kill me first! Lumian grumbled internally while activating the black mark on his right shoulder, following his Hunter instincts and personality.
At this moment, both Julie and Wanak sensed that the body, which had transformed from a rotting mess to near perfection, had become even more dangerous.
Taking advantage of the Abscessed Hand's focus on Lumian, they each prepared their most powerful and effective attacks.
Julie raised her left hand and pointed to the sky.
High above, dark clouds swirled into a massive vortex, driven by a violent wind. At the center of the vortex, an iron-black meteor began to take shape, heavy and ominous.
The Abscessed Hand's gaze shifted from Lumian's disappearing figure to Julie.
In those crystalline, scarlet eyes, Julie's figure in her slit dress was reflected, followed by the image of the Abscessed Hand raising its white palm.
That hand clenched into a fist.
Julie's neck made a cracking sound, visibly indenting inward.
Crack, crack, the mirrors on her body shattered, but she couldn't escape her predicament.
She floated upward slowly, her face contorted in pain as if someone were lifting her by the neck.
Her hands instinctively pulled back, trying to pry open the invisible hand strangling her.
The forming iron-black meteor disintegrated, the wind stopped, and the clouds dispersed.
Lumian, who had just appeared at the side of the corpse mountain, saw this and genuinely marveled at the terror of the Abscessed Hand.
If this had happened outside, carrying out the contract without having Madam Magician as a safeguard would be suicide.
At this moment, Lumian felt a strange sense of relief, as if an invisible shackle within him had been broken.
He had completed the pact and was no longer barred from acquiring godhood.
Lumian's gaze swept over Julie, whose mouth was opening and her face turning a darker shade of blue and purple. He frowned in confusion.
Where is Celeste?
Julie is responsible for blocking and interfering with intruders in the mirror world. Is Celeste targeting 0-01?
His thoughts raced as he looked towards Albus Medici, now several hundred meters away.
This guy is also suspicious...
He could influence and use the iron puppets in the underground tomb.
Why did he wait until Julie and Celeste took action to enter here?
Was he preparing something or afraid he couldn't get past Wanak, waiting for a chaotic opportunity?
Just as Julie's eyes began to bulge and she resolved to unleash the full power of her sapphire ring, the mirror world shook violently again, and clear cracks appeared all around.
From within these cracks, nearly invisible flames emerged and seeped through.
In an instant, the sky and ground began to burn.
Lumian suddenly felt an urge to submit, his body instinctively avoiding the nearly invisible, flower-like flames and the melting earth, rocks, and void.
He realized his resistance to burning damage was useless against these flames; contact would surely reduce him to ashes.
At the same time, his right palm became unbearably hot, and a violent, crazed aura surged within him, unable to break free from the icy, deathly stillness of the Underworld Daoist mark's restraints.
The residual aura of Blood Emperor Alista Tudor had fully activated, completely triggered!
This left Lumian feeling like an overinflated balloon, pushed to its limit and still being pumped.
The pain was excruciating.
The area around the Abscessed Hand, where the mirror cracks were most numerous and the flames most dense, became a burning hell. Its head lowered, and the hand squeezing Julie's neck loosened.
Witnessing this change and feeling an indescribable pain, Lumian recalled a passage from the 0-01 sealing information: "Beyonders with strength surpassing Sequence 5 are forbidden from approaching.
Warning, Beyonders with strength surpassing Sequence 5 are forbidden from approaching!"
Now, the reassembled and revived Abscessed Hand clearly possessed strong godhood.
0-01 has detected the presence of a demigod level Beyonder and is forcibly breaking the mirror world's barrier?
My Blood Emperor mark was stimulated by 0-01's aura and triggered uncontrollably? Lumian thought painfully, his thoughts disjointed.
Albus Medici also lowered his head, his flaming hair growing another inch.
Julie fell to the top of the frosty steps, finally escaping a near-death state.
Her long, pale neck was swollen and bruised, marked by deep, blood-embedded finger imprints.
Julie exhaled, raising her left hand once more.
She intended to seize this chance while the enemy, who nearly killed her, was restrained by 0-01's power and eradicate it completely.
On the other side, Wanak ignited nearly blue flames.
He stretched out his right palm, directing the flames forward to form a giant fireball.
The fireball attracted the nearly invisible flames around it, drawing them in layer by layer.
Behind Wanak, his undead army was ignited by the flames seeping through the cracks, but instead of turning to ash, they merged with these flames, one by one flying into Wanak's fireball.
The fireball grew larger, its color gradually turning purple.
Wanak, his eye sockets burning with dark red flames, bit his lips tightly, reaching his limit.
He then pushed the enormous, pale purple fireball towards the Abscessed Hand.
As the fireball touched the Abscessed Hand's perfect body, a meteor ignited by air friction fell from the sky.
The meteor fell faster and faster, hitting the immobilized target directly.
Struggling against the residual aura of the Blood Emperor, Lumian first saw the explosion of light, then the rising dust, and finally heard the deafening boom, feeling the earth shake wildly.
The world turned colorless and dark.
Did it work? Julie eagerly looked towards the area where the meteor had fallen.
Though it was filled with dust, smoke, and invisible wind, Julie used her connection with the mirror world to make her eyes like mirrors, reflecting the scene at the explosion's core.
The perfect body had been blown to pieces, its flesh either charred or vaporized, leaving only a broken, black skeleton standing.
But on that skeleton, new tender flesh was growing, and the bone was slowly shedding its charred appearance.
It's still not dead? The weakened Julie felt an immense heaviness in her heart.
In the next second, Julie's forehead throbbed with pain, as if the flesh there had a will of its own, trying to break free from her skin.
Her ears buzzed, and her mind was filled with images of lofty, gently floating scarlet flags.
Her face twisted in pain, she thought with difficulty, H-has 0-01 noticed me?
I-I can't hold on any longer...
I'm going to become its puppet...
Julie's body bent forward under the invisible weight, her eyes turning black with visible veins.
She looked at Wanak on the wasteland, at the rising dust, her gaze growing crazed, resembling her state when first entering Morora.
Clenching her teeth, she whispered, "I will take everyone here with me!
Celeste, the rest is up to you! Remember the famous line from 'Eternal Love'? Stupid, live well!"
Live well! Julie silently screamed, and her sapphire ring burst into blinding light.
She was invoking the Primordial One's divine descent!
In the light, the bloody mark on Julie's forehead faded quickly, her hair floated and grew longer and thicker.
Gray-white quickly spread around her, turning the entire wasteland gray-white.
Lumian stiffened as if turned to stone, the residual aura of the Blood Emperor in his right palm causing endless burning pain.
Then he saw Julie, transformed by the gray-white, suddenly turn towards him.
...
Trier, in the sacrificial square at the entrance to the third level of the underground catacombs.
Franca had finished checking the surroundings, ensuring no one else was present, and had set up a mirror maze.
"You can drink the potion now." She nodded at Jenna.
Jenna took out the necessary materials from her Traveler's Bag and mixed the Pleasure potion in a crystal glass.
Without hesitation, she raised the glass and gulped it down.
She felt herself float as if walking on clouds, her body pricked by tiny, needle-like pains. Her hair, influenced by an unseen force, defied gravity, extending away.
Jenna vaguely saw snakes slithering through the surrounding gloom, rising up.
Each snake had a strange eye on its head, giving Jenna a strong sense of danger, as if she would be torn apart any second.
The hallucination quickly faded, and Jenna saw a blurry, holy figure in a plain white robe.
The figure sighed in a hollow, ethereal voice. "As a woman, do you know how dangerous this path is?"
"I have no choice," Jenna replied, half-awake and dazed.
The holy figure was silent for a moment and then said,"Make peace with your mirror self, for you were always one. Any other questions?"
The figure started to fade as if about to disappear.
Jenna blurted out, "Are you Lady Krismona? Who is your father?"
As soon as she asked, Jenna wanted to slap herself.
Had she gotten into the habit of discussing nonsense with Lumian and Franca? There were so many important things to ask, yet she asked such an irrelevant question!
The holy figure in the plain white robe was silent for a moment and then said, "My father is Alista Tudor."
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