At night, on the shore of Dazzle Star Lake, Gothsmore, in her eight-limbed, eight-eyed form, stared at the strange water monster and Francesco on its back in the shimmering lake water under the moonlight. After a moment of surprise, she couldn't help but grit her teeth and speak.
"What... what the hell is that! How dare it oppose me!"
Gothsmore spoke maliciously, then pushed off the ground with her feet, leaping up and rapidly charging towards the water monster on the lake surface. Francesco, on the water monster's back, seeing Gothsmore attacking, struggled to support himself. Having barely recovered from the intense pain, he swung the blade in his hand, summoning a huge wall of fire on the lake surface to impede Gothsmore's advance.
Facing the wide fire wall ahead, Gothsmore accelerated, bypassed it from the side, and continued charging towards her target. Taking this opportunity, the water monster on the lake began to actively dive. Francesco, who could not enter the water, also leaped from its back when he saw the strange creature that had saved him begin to dive, transforming back into a streak of fire and flying towards the sky.
After bypassing the fire wall, Gothsmore looked back at the lake surface. What she saw was not Francesco taking off and the water monster diving. In her eyes, the water monster was still in the position it was before, and Francesco was still on its back. Facing this scene, Gothsmore continued to charge at high speed without hesitation, swinging her blood blade towards the water monster and Francesco, only to watch them turn into an illusion again after her attack hit.
"Damn it!"
Seeing that she seemed to have been deceived again, Gothsmore couldn't help but speak angrily. Just then, Francesco had successfully put a significant distance between himself and her while Gothsmore was attacking the wrong target, and released a fireball towards her from outside Gothsmore's line of sight. Immediately after attacking the illusion, Gothsmore was hit directly in the back by a fireball. In a roaring explosion, Gothsmore's back was blown open, and she nearly fell into the water with a scream.
Full Moon Water Demon. This was an anecdotal creature created by Dorothy using her ability as a Macabre Writer, which she gained after advancing to True Mentor, combined with local folklore from Glamorgan. Anecdotal Manifestation is an ability possessed by the Crimson Tier on the Path of Delusion.
An Extraordinary person who is a Macabre Writer can process an anecdote or legend they know into a real creature. This anecdotal creature will possess the appearance and abilities described in its legend and will be controlled by the Macabre Writer. The strength of the anecdotal creature is influenced by multiple factors.
The first factor is the extent of the anecdote's circulation. The wider the anecdote's circulation and the more people who know about it, the stronger the anecdotal creature will be. The second is the summoning location of the anecdotal creature. The closer the location where the Macabre Writer summons the anecdotal creature is to the content of the anecdote, the stronger the anecdotal creature will be. Next is Spirituality. The more Spirituality the Macabre Writer expends to summon the anecdotal creature, the stronger the anecdotal creature will be. Even if the first two factors are weak, as long as the Macabre Writer has abundant Spirituality and piles Spirituality onto the anecdotal creature regardless of cost, they can still make the anecdotal creature very strong through sheer power.
Finally, anecdotes are not faith, so a Macabre Writer's ability cannot create a divine anecdotal entity. The anecdote chosen as a blueprint should ideally have some elements of horror and suspense to fit the characteristics of """Shadow""".
Take the Full Moon Water Demon summoned by Dorothy now, for example. In terms of anecdotal circulation, the Full Moon Water Demon is actually not strong because its legend is only circulated around Dazzle Star Lake, primarily in Glamorgan. Essentially, this legend was caused by some anomalies triggered by the Extraordinary system of the Serene Moon Temple on Dazzle Star Lake being misunderstood by mortals.
Although the circulation of the Full Moon Water Demon is not high, the current location where Dorothy is summoning the Full Moon Water Demon is very suitable. This is the local Dazzle Star Lake where the anecdote occurred, and it is also a full moon now, which perfectly matches the content of the Full Moon Water Demon anecdote. Therefore, the Full Moon Water Demon's strength is almost maximized in terms of summoning location. Finally, because Dorothy has a lot of """Shadow""", she gave the water demon a lot of """Shadow""", which also guaranteed the water demon's strength, allowing its ability to affect Gothsmore, who is a preliminary Apostle-ized Scarlet.
The ability of the Full Moon Water Demon is to cause any creature within and around the water body it is in to experience hallucinations, subconsciously seeing what they believe they should see in their minds. Just like when Gothsmore lost sight of the water monster and Francesco while bypassing the fire wall, when she bypassed the fire wall and refocused her attention on the original location of the water monster, she saw the illusion that the water monster and Francesco were still there.
Using the illusion created by the Full Moon Water Demon, Dorothy saved Francesco and successfully created a significant distance between him and Gothsmore, even injuring Gothsmore slightly. However, two consecutive successful illusions targeting a Scarlet also caused the Mirror Moon Water Demon to overuse its ability. From now on, the Full Moon Water Demon will temporarily be unable to affect Gothsmore, and Dorothy also controlled it to dive underwater to slowly recover.
However, while these actions slightly salvaged the situation, it was still some distance from defeating Gothsmore. Therefore, Dorothy immediately began her next move. As her will extended, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets also began to act. From atop the fallen giant golem, figures with concealed faces flew out, soaring into the night sky.
On the other side, after seeing that she had been fooled by an illusion once again, Gothsmore couldn't help but roar in exasperation. She looked at Francesco in the sky and charged towards him again at high speed.
Seeing Gothsmore attacking him again, Francesco, flying in the sky, immediately shot out fireballs at her consecutively, wanting to shoot her down in mid-air. However, because Francesco's ranged attack trajectory was too slow for Gothsmore, none of these fireballs could hit their target.
Thus, using her extremely fast speed and movement technique, Gothsmore dodged the fireballs while rapidly approaching Francesco. She seemed to be closing in on him quickly. Under the Spider Queen's divine enchantment, if Gothsmore successfully attacked Francesco, a single blow could render him combat-incapable.
Just then, in the dark night, a dazzling, flickering orange-red beam of light pierced the night sky and shot directly towards Gothsmore. Caught off guard, Gothsmore was directly hit by this rapid ray. Her abdomen was directly pierced through, and the intense impact and high-temperature burning created a large hole in her abdomen.
"Ugh..."
Having suffered this sudden blow, Gothsmore, who had been on the offensive, fell straight down from the sky, only managing to stop when she was halfway down to the lake surface. When Gothsmore struggled to fly again, she angrily turned her head to look in the direction the ray had come from. What she saw then was a row of several men, dressed in various outfits, floating above the lake surface.
"Who... who is it now!?"
Looking at the figures, Gothsmore said through clenched teeth. Just as she was about to do something, several large fireballs attacking from above had already flown towards her face. Taking advantage of the moment Gothsmore was knocked down by the ray and adjusting her posture, Francesco released another fireball attack at her, hitting the target accurately.
"Boom!"
With a loud bang, Gothsmore was engulfed by an explosion. She was directly blown away from the air and fell straight into the lake water, not even having time to let out a scream.
"Even when facing a Scarlet, the railgun is still quite effective."
On the Mirror Moon Golem, Dorothy, wearing a hooded cloak, couldn't help but murmur as she looked at the scene in the distance. Just now, she had used a railgun to shoot down Gothsmore, but this railgun was not fired by Dorothy herself, but by the Corpse Puppet she sent out.
This is one of the abilities possessed by the Life-Binding Spinning Wheel on the Path of Spirit Silk. After reaching Scarlet, the spirit silk possessed by Extraordinary individuals on the Path of Spirit Silk is further strengthened, allowing it to transmit more power.
Now, Dorothy can not only transfer passive abilities to her Corpse Puppets, but also allow the Corpse Puppets to unleash her active abilities! Dorothy can now make her various puppets actively use Extraordinary powers below the Crimson Tier. In other words, as long as there is enough Spirituality, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets can be equivalent to Chalk-tier Extraordinary individuals! Now, Dorothy can not only make her Corpse Puppets use electromagnetic force to fly, but also actively fire Chalk-level railguns.
To strike a super high-speed moving target like Gothsmore, which is beyond the limit of the naked eye, naturally requires attack methods with faster projectile speeds. A railgun, with a flight speed of more than ten times the speed of sound, is naturally a very good attack method.
But the problem is, although Dorothy's railgun speed is sufficient, Dorothy herself cannot lock onto Gothsmore. Gothsmore's flying speed exceeds the limit of the naked eye, and none of Dorothy's Corpse Puppets can track her movements. Without target acquisition, even if Dorothy has the means to strike, it won't be effective.
Fortunately, while Dorothy does not have target acquisition methods, Francesco does. As a Crimson-tier Saint of Heavenly Fire, Francesco possesses the fourth-tier """Light""" of insight and can track Gothsmore's movements. His fireballs couldn't hit Gothsmore simply because they flew too slowly, not because he couldn't see clearly. Therefore, Dorothy only needed to observe Francesco, observing his every attack movement, the trajectory of every fireball fired, and judging his attack intentions. After comprehensive analysis, she could calculate Gothsmore's current position and movement trajectory in Francesco's eyes and finally have the Corpse Puppet fire the railgun with a predictive shot.
Relying on the railgun, Dorothy and Francesco successfully shot down Gothsmore from the air. However, neither of them believed that Gothsmore would be defeated just like that. Dorothy controlled her Corpse Puppets to constantly observe the surface of the vast Dazzle Star Lake, maintaining a vigilant guard.
Suddenly, on the lake surface below the location where Dorothy's Corpse Puppets were gathered, a splash of water erupted. With an angry expression, Gothsmore, who had mostly recovered from her injuries, burst out of the lake and flew rapidly towards Dorothy's Corpse Puppets. Seeing this, Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppets to dodge urgently. However, Dorothy's magnetic flight speed was absolutely no match for Gothsmore's, and in the end, one Corpse Puppet was caught by Gothsmore.
Without a word, Gothsmore directly pierced the chest of the Corpse Puppet she had caught with the blood blade in her hand. Facing the Corpse Puppet that was spitting out blood before her, she spoke fiercely.
"So it's a flesh puppet, but don't think that just because you sent a puppet, you won't have to feel the punishment of the Deep Web Queen, coward!"
As she spoke, the divine enchantment on Gothsmore's blood blade took effect. Because Corpse Puppet manipulation is also a type of continuous Extraordinary ability, the extreme pain was naturally transmitted along the spirit silk towards Dorothy's main body.
Facing this situation, Dorothy had already made some preparations. When the excruciating pain arrived, she closed her eyes and fell into a dream. Within her own dream cocoon, a dream Dragon appeared. When the intense pain was transmitted to Dorothy, she guided it into her self-entity within the dream.
Instantly, Dorothy's dream body in the form of a Dragon, over fifty meters long in the dream, let out an angry roar under extreme pain. Dorothy's main body couldn't help but tremble. After enduring that round of intense pain in the dream as a Dragon, Dorothy became clear-headed again, kneeling on the ground and gasping for air, sweat pouring down her forehead.
This is one of the abilities of a Chalk-tier Dream Traveler on the Path of Delusion. It can transfer mental effects targeting oneself in the real world into the dream. Dorothy, in the form of a Dragon in the dream, directly endured a blow enchanted with the Spider Queen's divinity. It was also thanks to Dorothy in her Dragon form that she could withstand this level of intense pain without temporarily losing combat capability. If it were Dorothy in her normal state, taking this hit might have caused her to immediately pass out from the pain. But even so, this severe pain was almost unbearable for Dorothy for a while.
"Ho, quite a tenacious will. She didn't go down with one hit..."
In the air above the lake surface, Gothsmore looked at the Corpse Puppets around her that hadn't completely fallen and couldn't help but comment. She then immediately changed her strategy, directly and forcefully inserting her hand into the captured Corpse Puppet's body and draining its blood. Soon, the Corpse Puppet she had captured was sucked dry in one go.
Absorbing the Corpse Puppet in front of her, Gothsmore also naturally absorbed the spirit silk within it. Just like Bo Ade before, Gothsmore immediately sensed where the source of the spirit silk was after acquiring it. Where was it extending from?
"I found you..."
After sensing the location of the person behind the scenes, Gothsmore immediately flew rapidly towards them. During this process, she didn't forget to actively sever the spirit silk to prevent the other party from using it for any strange interference against her. This was learning from Bo Ade's previous experience to prevent Dorothy from transmitting the wound. Since the location was confirmed, there was no point in Gothsmore keeping the spirit silk connected. She was confident that the speed of the manipulator behind the scenes could not be faster than her own and that they couldn't escape before she arrived.
Following the direction she had sensed the moment the spirit silk was connected, Gothsmore rapidly charged towards a forest by the lake. Shortly after, she directly arrived at the location she had sensed. There, Gothsmore indeed saw a masked person frantically fleeing forward.
"You can't escape!"
Facing the masked person, Gothsmore charged forward without the slightest hesitation, using the blood blade in her hand to directly pierce the masked person's chest from the back.
Inside the Mirror Moon Golem, Dorothy was again in so much pain due to the pain transmission that she was close to fainting. However, the transmitted pain was much weaker than if her main body had been directly injured. Dorothy managed to endure another hit by relying on her Dragon mimicry, then gritted her teeth and continued to control the Corpse Puppet that had been stabbed in the distance.
That's right, what Gothsmore found by following the spirit silk was not Dorothy's main body, but another one of her Corpse Puppets! Now, because Dorothy's Corpse Puppets can use active abilities, the Corpse Puppets can also release spirit silk to control other Corpse Puppets! Dorothy can control one Corpse Puppet to control other Corpse Puppets, manipulating them layer by layer!
While Gothsmore was stabbing her Corpse Puppet, Dorothy activated the trap set here. From the body of the Corpse Puppet that Gothsmore had backstabbed, a thin, bright red line shot out, connecting directly to Gothsmore, who was close by. At the same time, several equally red thin lines shot out from the ground beneath Gothsmore.
"Manifest Spirit Silk!"