On the flagstone road between the gloomy trees in the southwestern suburbs of Tivy An.
By the roadside in the dark night, inside the pitch-black carriage, Dorothy was sitting upright on the seat, her eyes wide open, filled with astonishment. Her small face, which had been rubbed red from the cold, was now pale.
Just moments ago, all of Dorothy's corpse puppets within the distant Barrett Villa were instantly annihilated. Whether it was the male servant corpse puppet reviewing documents in the secret room or the other corpse puppets monitoring the villa, they all turned into blood at the same time.
'Oh no... that guy found me! How could this happen!? How did he discover my corpse puppets? And how did he discover my true body through the corpse puppets?!'
In a state of panic, Dorothy thought internally, her heart pounding within her small body. Cold sweat streamed down the inside of her thick clothes. It had been a long time since she had experienced such intense emotional fluctuations.
"Phew... Phew... This is a long-lost crisis situation... Suddenly, a Red Stage Derivative appeared, completely unexpected... But now is not the time to be in a daze..."
Taking two long breaths, Dorothy tried to calm herself down. After slightly easing her panicked expression and allowing rationality to return to her mind, she immediately took control of the coachman corpse puppet, making him quickly restart the carriage and drive the horse to turn around and gallop towards the city. The neighing of the horses and the rolling sound of the wheels echoed through the dark woods.
Inside the shaking carriage, Dorothy began to rub her temples, frowning and thinking seriously, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong just now.
'Calm down... calm down... Think about where the mistake was made and how I was discovered...
'First, it's that Red Stage Derivative called Spider Fang Priest. From his performance just now, he should possess some ability to transform into a blood mist. This blood mist transformation ability should be an evolved version of the Chalk Stage Vampire's bat transformation ability after reaching the Red Stage.
'That guy's blood mist transformation must have been completed above the villa, in a place I couldn't see. Since I didn't see what changes he underwent, I was caught off guard for a moment and fell into his trap.
'After he turned into a blood mist, I didn't feel anything unusual through the corpse puppet's vision. Combined with how that guy later returned to his true form inside the villa, with the blood mist appearing out of thin air, from faint to dense, from sparse to thick. This guy should be able to control the distribution and density of the blood mist in the air.
'As long as the range is wide enough, and the basic substances forming the blood mist are spread sparsely enough in the air, then this blood mist will become so faint that it's invisible to the naked eye. This way, it can silently envelop the entire villa without me noticing.'
Rubbing her chin and frowning, Dorothy analyzed and pondered the essence of the opponent's ability with her mind in full gear. Although the Spider Fang Priest's ability was bizarre and abnormal, it was not without traces. As long as Dorothy could grasp a few clues, she could still deduce many truths.
'If the opponent can indeed decompose himself into countless tiny, invisible red particles to complete the blood mist transformation... then this invisible, large-scale blood mist can completely envelop the entire villa without a trace. When I didn't notice, those tiny, fresh red particles, disintegrated by the Spider Fang Priest, filled the air in the villa. Logically speaking, these particles should be tiny drops of blood.
'Last year, when I first went down to the school's underground ruins and was targeted and hunted by Claudius, he used countless bats split from his bat transformation to quickly search the entire underground ruins. Now, the countless tiny blood drops disintegrated by this Spider Fang Priest's blood mist transformation should also have a reconnaissance effect. Since these blood drops of the Spider Fang Priest could find the location of Barrett's secret room, their penetration ability must be very strong. If... these blood drops could penetrate into the human body, into corpses, then he should be able to determine what is a real corpse... and what is a corpse puppet.
'That guy found my male servant corpse puppet in the secret room, and then by letting the blood mist enter the male servant corpse puppet's body, he determined that it was a corpse puppet and not a living person. Through this, he realized that all the corpses in the villa might have problems. Then he infiltrated the blood drops into all the corpses, and through this, he was able to identify all my corpse puppets hidden within the corpses one by one.'
Dorothy's mind was working rapidly. Sitting in the carriage, her brain was quickly reconstructing the possible truth of that series of events. At this moment, she had already found a theory for why her corpse puppets were exposed. The next step was to understand why she couldn't disconnect the corpse puppet links in such a bizarre situation.
'The reason I inferred that the corpse puppets were infiltrated by that guy's blood drops is because when that guy made his move, my control over all the corpse puppets met with resistance. This resistance came from within. I could feel it... The corpse puppets seemed to have come alive, and I felt strong resistance from inside the corpse puppets.
'This guy used blood to erode the Shadow-faced Man named George, thereby creating the Derivative standing here. From this phenomenon, it seems his blood might have an erosive effect. After the blood drops diffused in the air entered the corpse puppets, they quietly eroded the corpse puppets, and the eroded corpse puppets became a part of him.
'My spiritual threads should also have been affected by this erosion at that time, making them impossible to disconnect. After all, the nature of spiritual threads themselves is 'Cup' and 'start'. That guy's ability to erode flesh and blood is so powerful, it makes sense that he could affect the absorbed spiritual threads as well.
'Now that guy is going to follow the spiritual threads to chase me. My best option is to quickly return to the city, to a place where the Archbishop's influence is stronger. I am eight kilometers away from that guy. Such a long distance should be enough for me to run to a safe place, right...'
Using the powerful information processing ability of a Scholar, Dorothy quickly analyzed the situation in the villa earlier, and then she made the judgment to immediately flee, to quickly flee towards the city. Since the Spider Fang Priest said that he dared to appear here as a Derivative because the distance from the city was far and the Archbishop's "Gaze of Rank" influence was weak, then as long as she ran to the city where the Archbishop's influence was strong, that guy would be helpless.
Thinking this, Dorothy continued to focus even more on driving the carriage. At the same time, she also closely monitored the distant Spider Fang Priest through the connection of the spiritual threads. Although she could no longer use these problematic spiritual threads to perceive information, she could still pinpoint his location.
...
At the same time, in Barrett's villa, the elderly-looking Spider Fang Priest was silently gazing at the distant scene, and Kenk, kneeling before him, couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment after hearing his words.
"You... what did you say? You said we were being monitored by flesh puppets just now? But aren't flesh puppets extraordinary creations of 'Cup'? I have 'Cup's spiritual perception. Why didn't I feel anything?"
Listening to Kenk's words, the Spider Fang Priest silently turned his head, and after glancing at his astonished face, slowly spoke.
"In this extraordinary world... anything is possible. The spiritual threads used by this mastermind to manipulate the corpse puppets are very special. Perhaps he has some means to add a certain concealment effect to his corpse puppets."
"Some kind of... special means?" Listening to the Spider Fang Priest's words, the confusion in Kenk's eyes did not diminish, and at this moment, the Spider Fang Priest spoke again.
"Once I catch him... everything will be known."
As he spoke, the Spider Fang Priest looked again at the distant direction indicated by the spiritual threads. After sensing a disturbance, he chuckled and continued.
"It seems that the mastermind has realized that things are not good and has already started trying to escape, but at this speed..."
Saying that, the Spider Fang Priest's expression solidified, and then his figure blurred. Suddenly, a deformed bulge appeared behind him, and then a pair of massive bat-like black wings tore through his clothes and spread out.
The Spider Fang Priest, with black wings growing from his back, immediately jumped out of the window. His large bat wings spread wide, supporting his body as he flew into the night sky outside the villa. After adjusting his direction in the air, he flapped his wings and flew rapidly in one direction, his speed incredibly fast.
Just like that, amidst the howling wind of the night, the two-winged Spider Fang Priest flew at high speed towards his target several kilometers away. And at this moment, Dorothy could also sense the opponent's rapid approach through the spiritual threads.
...
"That guy's catching up, and so fast?!"
Inside the carriage, sensing the rapidly approaching target in the distance, Dorothy couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment. The Spider Fang Priest's pursuit was within her expectations, but the speed of this pursuit was something she had not anticipated at all.
The Spider Fang Priest's speed was extremely fast, even faster than many birds. This speed was completely incomparable to Dorothy's carriage.
'Damn it... so fast, that guy must be flying! This speed, not to mention a carriage, even a horse running at full speed without any burden can't compare...'
Dorothy thought anxiously to herself, then she immediately calmed down and began to use the spiritual thread connection to calculate the opponent's closing speed, trying to figure out if she had any chance of escaping.
With the Scholar's information processing ability, she calculated the result in just an instant. According to the opponent's flying speed, she would inevitably be caught before reaching the city, whether using a carriage or a single horse.
No matter how Dorothy calculated, she would be caught by the Spider Fang Priest within about ten minutes, and her location when caught would still be a long distance from the city, making it very unlikely for the Archbishop to sense anything.
No escape! Under the current circumstances, there was no way to escape!
After receiving the result that the probability of successful escape was almost zero, Dorothy's face suddenly darkened. After suppressing the other intense emotions swirling in her heart, she forced herself to regain composure, her expression more serious than ever before.
'Phew... Calm down. Since I can't escape now, I must find another way... find some other way to get away.
'If I can't run away, maybe I can try to create a huge commotion to attract people from the Anying Bureau and the Church... But the problem is that this place is very far from both the Cathedral District and the Gale Fortress, at least dozens of kilometers. A commotion loud enough to alarm those two points would alarm the entire city of Tivy An. Even if I could create such a commotion, and I'm not sure I can, people from the Anying Bureau and the Church wouldn't arrive in time. That guy will fly to me in ten minutes!
'Similarly, due to the short response time, the summoning method Aldrich gave me is also useless. Because of his spiritual deficiency, after using that stone carving, he needs at least half an hour to an hour to project his influence, which is completely too slow...'
Dorothy thought with a grim expression. Regarding the summoning stone carving Aldrich gave her, there was a clear explanation in the letter Aldrich left before he departed. This stone carving was a medium to notify him personally, and for him to use this medium to project influence, it required considerable preparation time.
This was because Aldrich himself had problems with his mana bar. As a quasi-Gold rank, he only had a mana bar equivalent to roughly Black rank. Therefore, to use high-level abilities, he had to use external storage to provide the spiritual energy consumption. And ordinary spiritual energy storage could not be directly used for ability consumption; Aldrich needed to set up a special workshop, and this setup required time. Under Dorothy's current circumstances, there was no time to wait for him to set up the workshop.
After successively rejecting two plans, Dorothy continued to accelerate her thoughts in anxiety. In the end, she had only one last method of response.
"It seems... only promotion can change the situation now..."
Inside the carriage speeding through the darkness, Dorothy murmured, saying that on-the-spot promotion was the last method she decided to use.
That's right, Dorothy wanted to immediately promote to Chalk! To see if her Chalk rank abilities could help her escape from this Red Stage Derivative!
Even if the abilities after promotion were not enough to escape, she would at least have more strength to fight head-on with that Red Stage Derivative. As long as she could stall for enough time, whether it was to cause a commotion to attract people from the Anying Bureau and the Church, or to use the stone carving to summon Aldrich, there would be a chance.
That Spider Fang Priest was a Red Stage Derivative, not a true Red Stage Extraordinary. But even so, with the abilities he displayed in the villa, his strength should still be above an ordinary Chalk. As a Black rank, she was no match for him at all; she might even be instantly killed on first contact. To contend with him, she would at least need to ascend to Chalk rank.
Once she reached Chalk rank, she could see if she could directly use her new abilities to escape. Even if she couldn't escape, she would have the capital to stall for time. As long as she stalled for time, whether it was summoning the Anying Bureau, summoning the Church, or summoning Aldrich, there would be a chance...
So, while the Spider Fang Priest still needed a little time to fly over, Dorothy had to promote immediately!
Having made up her mind, Dorothy immediately took out her magic box. After opening the lid, she grabbed a handful of items from it and spread them out before her eyes. Upon closer inspection, they were five emblems, which were precisely the sacred emblems of the Pure-Colored Gods that Dorothy had collected recently!
The sacred emblem that spread outwards in a radial pattern, like the sun, belonged to the Glorious Savior. It was a souvenir the priest cheerfully gave Dorothy after she donated about a thousand pounds to the church.
The smooth, simple, triangular sacred emblem, like an ordinary flat pebble, belonged to the Stone Prince. Dorothy bought it from the unscrupulous merchant Beverly for about a thousand pounds.
The exquisite, slender, inverted triangular sacred emblem, like a female uterus, belonged to the Mother of Cups. Vanya obtained it from the Wolfblood Society through long-term correspondence.
The sacred emblem with skeletal ornamentation, in a closed-eye shape, like the eye of the deceased, belonged to the King of the Underworld. Dorothy obtained it from the Coffin of Hades Monastery through a "fair trade" conducted by Nephthys.
As for the last sacred emblem, it was somewhat special. It was not made of any other precious metal, but was folded from paper.
That sacred emblem, imprinted with countless characters, in an open-eye shape, like a child's handicraft assignment, belonged to Dorothy. She folded it from a torn page of a book while praying to the system, "This is the 'start' sacred emblem... this is the 'start' sacred emblem..."