Within the Buserite Desert of the Pseudo-History World, a strange phenomenon occurred. The earth trembled, flashing lightning surged in the sky, roaring thunder echoed through space, and peculiar noises reverberated in the void. The entire world seemed to be subtly vibrating.
"What... what happened? Why did the weather suddenly change? Scholar Miss, did you rewrite something?"
On the sandy ground of the desert, Vanya looked at the sudden abnormal celestial phenomena around her and asked with a worried expression. Not far from her, Dorothy replied with a serious look.
"No... I am not the one making changes here. This place is being interfered with by other forces, interference from the 'outside'!"
Dorothy said with a grave expression. As the creator of this Pseudo-History World, she had a certain connection to it and could perceive its basic status to some extent. At this moment, she felt that the Pseudo-History World she was in was being invaded by some force!
"'Outside' interference? If this place is truly some kind of inner realm, could you mean interference between realm layers? Is this interference coming from the Holy Mother's side?" On the other side, Awei, who existed as an iron coffin on a platform, couldn't help but ask worriedly after hearing Dorothy's words. Dorothy immediately replied in a deep voice.
"The source of the interference is... the present realm..."
"The present realm... what? Could it be Yunina? Is she interfering here? Is she still chasing us?" Hearing Dorothy's words, Awei immediately exclaimed in disbelief.
"Hmm... I'm afraid so. This invading power is an incredibly strong 'Cup' power. I'm afraid only she can do it..." Dorothy continued to reply with a grim tone. Awei also responded with disbelief after hearing Dorothy's words.
"It really is... incredible... too incredible. She can even corrode the inner realm. How did that person obtain such powerful strength in just four hundred years? She should have been completely destroyed... Why is she not only alive now but also possesses such strong 'Cup' power..."
Awei's tone was full of surprise and incomprehension. Dorothy, after listening to Awei's words, also frowned slightly and spoke.
"Four hundred years ago? You mean... this Yunina is a figure from the Turbid Current War period?"
"That's right... She was a high-ranking member of the saint church's Redemption Faction during the Turbid Current War era... and also the mastermind behind the most heinous apostasy event in the history of the saint church, the biggest stain on the history of the Redemption Faction. The losses she and her accomplices brought to the saint church were immeasurable, and the negative impact she caused to the saint church continues to this day.
"However, this apostate... should have been completely destroyed by the Holy See personally with divine will, along with her accomplices. It's impossible for anyone in this world to survive under the Holy See's saint judgment. How did she do it... Could it be... she received divine assistance?"
Awei murmured, completely baffled. Seeing Awei's appearance, Dorothy on the other side also couldn't help but whisper with a frown.
"God..."
Listening to Awei's words, the unease that Dorothy already felt in her heart immediately intensified. This Pseudo-History World was primarily created by the residual divinity of the Judge of Heaven. The specifications of divinity are far beyond Spirituality... To forcefully interfere with and influence divinity, one must also possess divinity.
The Judge of Heaven is the Lord God of 'enlightenment', and the specifications of his divinity are even higher than that of ordinary miscellaneous gods. To be able to interfere with the domain created by the Judge of Heaven's divinity like this, could it be that Yunina also borrowed divinity? And it's Lord God-level divinity, the same level as the Judge of Heaven?!
Dorothy, who had fought Gothsmore before, knew that in an extraordinary organization with a true god as the mastermind, there were special identities like "Divine Witches". They are the chosen and dependents of the gods, and the gods can bestow their divinity through them. Just like Gothsmore was the Divine Witch of the Spider Queen...
This means that if Yunina can borrow a god's divinity, then she is likely also a Divine Witch. The divinity she borrowed can interfere with the Judge of Heaven's divinity, so the god who favored her is probably also a Lord God. In the Fourth Epoch, the Lord God of 'Cup' is the Cup Mother.
'Good heavens... This person is not only a Golden, but also possibly a Divine Witch, the Divine Witch of the Cup Mother. This identity, not to mention being higher than Gothsmore, is even higher than the six great saints of the Holy Mountain, excluding the Pope! With her identity in the entire Fetal Garment Cult, she is not just a member of the leadership... She can directly be the boss! She can be said to be the highest-ranking person below the true god!'
After sorting out her thoughts a bit, Dorothy thought with considerable shock. She initially thought Yunina's identity might be high, but she didn't expect it to be this high! The strength symbolized by Yunina's identity can already be considered the peak of the present realm. This is completely the level of a late-game big boss...
Dorothy really didn't expect that this small Buserite, which had been a place where weaklings pecked at each other for thousands of years, with local extraordinary power peaking at Chalk. The sudden appearance of the "Wasting Decay" and Amuyaba, a super extraordinary plague and Scarlet, was already incredibly excessive and absurd. She didn't expect even more absurd things to follow. Why would a top-tier Golden like Yunina not stay properly at the Fetal Garment headquarters but suddenly run to a place like this? Is she inspecting the work of her subordinates? Or is she specifically here for the Judge of Heaven's legacy?
"What terrible luck..." Shaking her head, Dorothy murmured helplessly. She had fought against opponents across ranks before, but never across such a huge rank gap. Clever strategies could indeed compensate for the rank gap to a certain extent, but when the gap reaches a huge degree, no matter how clever the strategy, it is useless.
The only thing Dorothy was thinking about now was to run away quickly, even if it meant abandoning the Pseudo-History World and not going to Heopolis. In this situation, even if Yunina really wanted to seize the residual divinity of the Judge of Heaven, let her take it. Anyway, she couldn't hold onto it. While this Pseudo-History World hadn't been completely corroded by her, it was best to escape quickly.
The coordinates in the Pseudo-History World correspond one-to-one with the coordinates in the real Buserite. Wherever a person goes offline in the Pseudo-History World, they will go online at the corresponding location in the present realm's Buserite. Therefore, if Dorothy wanted to run, she just needed to move to a place far enough from where Yunina was in the present realm within the Pseudo-History World and then go offline. However, this would take a considerable amount of time, and Dorothy and the others might not have moved to a safe location before Yunina completed the corrosion.
Fortunately, time can be compressed in the Pseudo-History World. By simply shifting the overall time backward, returning to the past of the Pseudo-History World to complete the movement, and then returning to the present time, they could move to the target location in an instant.
Having decided to escape at all costs, Dorothy once again took out her Pseudo-History Manuscript, preparing to delete records and shift time. However, when she opened her Pseudo-History Manuscript, she was completely stunned.
On the manuscript in Dorothy's hand at this moment, dense blood threads had appeared at some point. These blood threads grew on the pages, covering the text on the Pseudo-History Manuscript, and many words were obscured. Some of the text's font had even directly turned blood red.
Facing this situation, Dorothy was first startled, then wanted to use a tool to clear the blood threads, but after clearing some, the blood threads immediately grew back. After realizing that the blood threads were not so easy to clear, Dorothy began to try writing directly on the pages of the Pseudo-History Manuscript with a pen, but any writing that went on immediately turned into blood and dispersed.
'Is this... Yunina's power? This Pseudo-History World and this manuscript are deeply connected. The changes in the world will directly reflect on the Pseudo-History Manuscript, so does this mean that the corrosion of the cup mother's power has affected my control over the Pseudo-History World, and I cannot go back to the past!'
Seeing the phenomenon in her hand, Dorothy's heart suddenly felt cold as she thought. Being unable to return to the past of the Pseudo-History meant being unable to compress time to escape. The time in the Pseudo-History was currently synchronized with the time in the present realm. At Dorothy's current speed, it was impossible to escape to a safe place before Yunina completely finished the corrosion...
"This is really deadly..."
Seeing the scene before her, Dorothy covered her forehead and sighed with a bitter expression. Now that Yunina was so arrogantly corroding the world, and they couldn't compress time to move quickly, they couldn't even escape.
'Is this the power of a Golden Divine Witch? Even with a powerful cheat like the Pseudo-History World, there's not even a chance to escape...'
Dorothy thought in distress. Her silence also made Vanya on the side even more worried.
"What's wrong? Scholar Miss... Is there a problem?" Vanya asked Dorothy. Awei's voice also came from the iron coffin lying on the sand.
"What... Could it be that the corrosion by that person here has reached an unstoppable degree? This is your 'enlightenment' ruin. Don't you have any countermeasures?"
'Even if there are countermeasures, I don't know how to use them. I haven't fully mastered this place...' Listening to Awei's words, Dorothy couldn't help but complain inwardly. Although she felt quite desperate at this moment due to the strong pressure from Yunina, she hadn't given up yet. She still had some methods she could try.
'Never mind, now I can only treat a dead horse as a living one. I'll try whatever method I can...' Dorothy thought to herself. Then she began to use the information channel to contact Neff in the distance.
At this moment, Neff was flying rapidly in the sky above the desert, approaching Dorothy's location. Due to the coordinates, when she was teleported to the Pseudo-History World, she was near Bastis in the Pseudo-History World, dozens, almost a hundred kilometers away from Dorothy's location. It was not easy to fly over and meet up with Dorothy. She had been flying for a while and was still in the sky.
"Senior Neff, can you hear me?"
"Huh... It's Miss Dorothy. I'm rushing towards your side quickly, please wait patiently." Neff, who was in the process of flying, responded in her mind after hearing Dorothy's words. Dorothy also continued to speak.
"Now I need to contact your butler Mr.. I have prayed to Aka, asking him to establish a call between you and him. Please help relay some of our words to him and ask for his help."
"Butler... Huh, Miss Dorothy, are you talking about Grandpa Nu Nuo Te? Why are you looking for him?" Hearing Dorothy's words, Neff also replied in confusion. Dorothy then told Neff her idea.
"Nothing... It's just like the last time, when we faced the enemy in the Baruk Royal Tomb..."
"When we were in the Baruk Royal Tomb..." Listening to Dorothy's words, Neff couldn't help but shiver all over and felt a chill. What happened when they faced the enemy in the Baruk Royal Tomb in Adus last year? She remembered it clearly now.
"Then... then Miss Dorothy, do we have to use that move again? Is the situation already that urgent? If we use that move... will I be okay?" Neff responded to Dorothy with a hint of uneasiness. Dorothy immediately replied.
"The current situation is arguably much more urgent than back then. Aside from this move... it's very difficult for us to reverse the situation now... Of course, given the current situation, even if this move succeeds, it's probably hard to save the situation, but perhaps it can delay things a bit. In short, quickly contact your butler. We don't have much time left. You, being in this world, won't be affected for a while."
Dorothy continued to say solemnly to Neff. Hearing Dorothy's words, Neff couldn't help but swallow, then nodded and replied.
"Okay, alright."
Next, Neff, flying in mid-air, began to silently close her eyes, connecting to her distant home.
...
"Miss..."
In Prit, in a certain mansion in Tivian, within a brightly lit room, Nu Nuo Te, the old butler of the Boyle family, who was originally reading in the study, suddenly paused slightly. He then put down the book in his hand, looked out the distant window, and couldn't help but murmur with a frown.
Since the last kidnapping case and the incident at the Baruk Royal Tomb, for practical and convenient communication reasons, Naifnis had her old butler Nu Nuo Te perform a prayer to Aka so that Dorothy could link the information channel to him. This was partly to prevent Nu Nuo Te from encountering any more accidents, and partly to facilitate a special emergency measure for Dorothy.
Just now, Neff successfully used the information channel to communicate with Nu Nuo Te, explaining some of the situation and asking Nu Nuo Te to execute the emergency measure they had previously arranged. Although Nu Nuo Te showed concern upon hearing this, he immediately got up and walked out of the study.
After walking around the mansion for a while, Nu Nuo Te passed through a series of mechanisms and secret doors, all the way to a secret room in a certain house. In this secret room, a Golden scepter decorated with bird wings and the 'enlightenment' eye was inserted into the magic circle here, reflecting a faint light under the weak candlelight.
After seeing the Golden Scepter, he came before it and knelt down, then held it in his hand, silently performing a ritual that had been prepared there long ago. Through the ritual, Nu Nuo Te quickly consumed all the enlightenment Spirituality within the Navigator's Scepter, causing the Golden Scepter's function to cease.
"I didn't expect that the curse that has troubled the Boyle for decades could sometimes become a powerful aid. I hope Miss can control this ancient power of hatred..."
Looking at the Golden Scepter before him, Nu Nuo Te couldn't help but say with emotion. He would remain here, waiting for Neff or other Rose Cross existences from afar to send him a message again, so he could re-inject Spirituality into the scepter and restart it to suppress the curse.
...
In the desert somewhere in Buserite, North Africa.
In the desert night, beneath the vast starry sky, a twisted, deformed, and unspeakable scene of hell was currently manifesting.
Across the vast land spanning over twenty kilometers, a large, striking blood-red curtain covered it. Looking down from mid-air, the desolate sandy ground, stretching to the distant horizon, was now covered in muscle and skin. Exposed, thick veins spread out like the root system of a large tree, with violent life force flowing within. Countless giant mouths and huge eyes split open on the flesh-and-blood ground, facing the rumbling sky. Huge, deformed arms grew in clumps on the flesh-and-blood ground like trees, with even more smaller, branch-like arms growing out from the main arms. Tens of thousands of fingers, like the dense leaves of a large tree, hung from the branches, swaying slightly.
In the strange forest formed by the deformed tree-hands, at the center of the flesh-and-blood ground, Yunina, whose entire body had turned into crimson flesh, losing all facial features and hair, and transforming into some kind of monster, was standing here. She inserted her arm into the space before her. Where her arm was inserted, countless tumors grew out of thin air in mid-air, and countless blood threads spread everywhere, growing bit by bit within the space. These spreading blood threads had extended upwards to a height of hundreds to nearly a thousand meters. These blood threads, growing out of thin air within the space, continuously and slowly expanded, as if they were the organs of space itself.
At this moment, Yunina continued the work of eroding that mysterious world. Under the grace of a powerful God like a mother, she was systematically corrupting the ancient heritage on this land. She could feel the ancientness and power of this heritage force. The divinity bestowed upon her yearned, craving the supreme deliciousness of other divine powers.
"Please don't be impatient... I will handle this power properly. The final taste will not disappoint Captain... I promise..."
While continuing the erosion, Yunina murmured softly. Although she had no face and could not show any expression, extreme craving was still expressed in her words.
And just as Yunina's erosion continued, she suddenly seemed to sense something and turned her faceless head to the side. Then, among the deformed blood-hand forest not far away, she saw several faint green soul fires light up out of thin air, followed by a dry, hoarse, ghostly voice transmitting from nowhere.
"Hey... you've shown your tails again, Boyle. You can't escape this time... Hmm?"
Within that voice, a huge phantom slowly emerged among the faint green ghost fires. Upon closer inspection, it was clearly the upper body of a giant mummy, seven to eight meters tall, withered, emaciated, and skin-and-bones.
Various glittering jewels and gold ornaments hung everywhere. A decayed and tattered robe was draped over its body. On its skull-like, ferocious face, faint green soul fire slowly burned in the dark eye sockets.
After manifesting here, Hafdar began to search for the target of the curse. However, before he could find the bloodline he utterly hated, he discovered the unusual scene here.
"Such a violent ""Cup"" power, what is this? No... this is the Land of Records, how could it become like this... You filthy rotten worm, what are you doing!!!"
After examining the situation around him, Hafdar suddenly discovered the difference in the current circumstances. At this moment, he spotted Yunina, who was carrying out the erosion not far away. Instantly, the netherworld ghost fire in his eyes surged violently, and his entire being let out an extremely angry shriek.
The death shriek of the Undead Lord, carrying powerful curse energy, spread out from Hafdar. The flesh-and-blood ground around him quickly withered and died, rapidly aging and shrinking, losing its vitality. The lush blood-hand giant trees instantly weathered into dry, gaunt mummy hand trees. The flesh-and-blood ground rapidly withered under Hafdar's influence.
'A power projection of the Undead King? Why would it appear here?' Yunina, who was conducting the erosion, looked at Hafdar before her and couldn't help but think with some confusion. She was still slightly surprised by the other party's sudden appearance.
Following the aura of the medium that had finally reappeared, Hafdar, the undead from ancient times, projected his power here, casting his death curse onto the one he had once resolved to kill.
Anyone cursed by Hafdar, no matter where they fled, would be cursed to death by him. The closer they were to Hafdar, the stronger the power of the curse that could be projected. Within the territory of North Wu, Hafdar could project a powerful curse that surpassed the strength of a typical Scarlet. When Nu Nuo Te, located in the distant Prit, removed the protection of the Golden Scepter, Hafdar, sensing the existence of Boyle, immediately used the bloodline as a medium to project his curse power, killing any Boyle bloodline.
In fact, logically speaking, if Neff was in the False History World, even if Nu Nuo Te removed the Golden Scepter's protection, Neff could not be detected. After all, the False History World had divine protection and a very deep separation from the Present World.
But the current situation is different. The False History World is currently being eroded by Yunina. Dorothy can feel that due to Yunina's erosion, the connection between the False History and the Present World has strengthened. Dorothy herself can even vaguely sense the situation in the Present World from within the False History World. Once the connection strengthens, Neff's existence could potentially be sensed by Hafdar, thus attracting him.
Hafdar was attracted over, but that doesn't mean he could enter the False History World. After all, even Yunina, a top-tier Golden, needed to rely on divine power to slowly erode her way into the False History World. It was impossible for Hafdar to get in. If Hafdar couldn't get in, he could only wait at the "doorstep" of the False History World. And coincidentally, Yunina was also at the doorstep, and was constantly "prying open the door".
So, what would Hafdar, a former minister of the First Dynasty, do if he saw the sacred land of the First Dynasty's main God, the Judge of Heaven, being invaded? Regarding this, Dorothy was actually not very clear. She could only hope that Hafdar, this thousands-year-old undead, still had some feelings for the First Dynasty and the Judge of Heaven. Now it seems Dorothy's hope was not in vain.
"Die! You filthy blasphemer!!"
With another shriek, Hafdar's withering curse rapidly intensified and was released towards Yunina, focused by his angry netherworld fire gaze. For a moment, the flesh-and-blood ground around Yunina began to rapidly wither, turning into dry, wrinkled corpses.
Being at the center of the curse, Yunina herself suffered no damage. The layer of smooth, delicate, moist, and soft crimson skin on her body seemed to have become slightly drier under the influence of the curse. The moisture and smoothness of her skin were not as good as before.
Facing Hafdar, who was applying the curse with almost full power, Yunina glanced at it with non-existent eyes. Then, with a gentle wave of her hand, outside the withering domain around Hafdar, the still vibrant flesh-and-blood ground, after a period of wriggling, turned into waves and surged towards Hafdar. These waves of flesh and blood began to transform as they approached, turning into crimson wolf heads full of fangs.
Ten or so wolf heads roared with deafening howls as they charged towards Hafdar. These fearful roars from all directions superimposed on each other, forming a highly concentrated wave of Spiritual sound vibration. This vibration caused Hafdar's manifested phantom to become unstable, and the entire illusionary body began to show signs of dissipation, leading to a weakening of Hafdar's protective withering aura.
At this moment, the more than ten wolf heads swarmed forward, opening their bloody mouths one after another, instantly tearing and devouring Hafdar's projected illusionary body, leaving only a head with an angry expression flying into the air.
"This power..."
Hafdar, with only his head remaining, looked at Yunina in the distance with disbelief, while Yunina spoke out silently.
"Even if your true body were here, even if I went into your tomb to face your complete self, you would not be my opponent. Now, you are merely a manifested projection, yet you are so arrogant here. As the rumors say, you have indeed existed for too long, and everything, inside and out, including your soul, has completely decayed..."
Yunina murmured like this. Then, just as she was about to control her red wolves to devour the last piece of Hafdar's illusionary body, a sudden change occurred on the scene.
A magic circle, one depicting intricate ""Silent"" symbols, appeared and lit up in mid-air above Hafdar's head without any warning, then quickly expanded. After seeing the magic circle, Hafdar instantly recognized its purpose.
"Spirit summoning..."
As the heads of the red wolves that had grown from the flesh-and-blood ground surged towards Hafdar, from within the magic circle that had lit up out of nowhere, countless high-speed spirits suddenly drilled out, attacking the red wolf heads. After these spirits drilled into the heads of the red wolves, the red wolves were startled, then began to roar and howl at each other. Following this, these red wolves immediately began to attack each other, biting and tearing at one another. Instantly, a massive amount of blood flowed.
This level of spirit manipulation and possession... Could it be...
Looking at the scene before him, Hafdar couldn't help but widen his eyes, looking at the spirit summoning magic circle that hadn't disappeared yet. At this moment, a figure was slowly descending from within that magic circle.
This figure was also one of the dead, but unlike many pure spirits undead, the deceased figure appearing in the magic circle at this moment possessed a physical form.
On a physical form like that of a normal person, a delicate, snow-white dress with golden embroidery wrapped around a body so slender it appeared dehydrated, causing large areas to unnaturally sink in. From within the long, elegant robe extended a pair of slender hands wrapped in bandages. Countless glittering rings adorned the long, thin fingers. Beneath the long skirt, bandaged feet also wore ornate golden-trimmed shoes. Various mysterious and profound patterns were embroidered onto the loose dress.
Beneath the large and exquisite crown was a veil covering the entire face. Although the veil concealed the face, the mummy-like countenance of the deceased was still faintly visible behind it. Both in front of and behind the crown, a head of dark, smooth long hair cascaded down. Three strands were adorned with various profound Golden hair ornaments, making it unclear if it was a wig or real hair.
The deceased figure floating down from the sky at this moment had very obvious female characteristics. Compared to Hafdar, she seemed to have concealed the features of the undead very well. Her exposed hands and feet were wrapped in bandages, and she wore a veil on her face. Her clothes and jewelry were extremely new and complete, not at all messy and broken like those on Hafdar. She didn't look like she had come out of a tomb at all. Her entire body was here; if one didn't look carefully, they might even mistake her for a mysterious and beautiful living woman.
"Long time no see, Hafdar." As she slowly descended from the magic circle, the female deceased figure caught Hafdar's head and spoke in a tone much softer than Hafdar's, yet still hoarse.
"Shepsuna... how are you here!" Looking at the female deceased figure before him, Hafdar spoke with extreme surprise. The female undead, named Shepsuna, then continued.
"As for me... naturally, I used your projected power as a medium to summon myself here..."
"I know that. What I want to ask is, why would you suddenly want to summon yourself here at this time!" Hafdar continued to ask urgently and confusedly, while Shepsuna calmly continued to answer.
"Ah, that... it's because I knew that at this time today, I should summon myself to you..." Shepsuna said this, then her gaze fixed on the crimson Yunina in the distance.
"Seven thousand years ago... when I last gazed upon the long river of fate under Divine Enlightenment... I broke through the boundaries and saw countless fragments of the distant future. On one of them, through your destiny, I saw the defiled Scarlet, the scene of it touching the Sacred Realm... I had been waiting for this moment to arrive for a long time..." Shepsuna said slowly, then she looked at Hafdar again.
"Now... prepare yourself. Prepare to have your true body respond to my summoning. The enemy before us is not someone either of us can handle alone."
After Shepsuna finished speaking, she waved her hand again. Amidst the crisp clinking sounds of countless pendants and jewels on her body, three spirit summoning magic circles appeared out of thin air around her, one after another. Following this, a distant and ancient aura emanated from within each magic circle.