Upon the boundless, desolate, wind-eroded wilderness, the drastic external changes had transformed it into a massive factory. At this very moment, the traces of this factory were slowly fading away.
The mechanical roaring that filled the entire world was gradually diminishing. The high-temperature steam erupting from the cracks in the earth was slowly receding as it weakened. The giant brass pillars that had burst forth from the ground were inch by inch retreating back into the soil.
Above the vast and oppressive steel firmament of the wilderness, the warning red lights no longer flickered. The rotation speed of the colossal interlocking gears slowed down little by little. Black clouds reappeared over the wind-eroded wilderness, covering the steel firmament once more, leaving not a trace exposed.
Finally, after the last gear vanished from the sky, the entire wind-eroded wilderness returned to silence, reverting from a factory-like world to its original state. The traces of the factory completely disappeared. At the center of this world, the cage surrounding the throne was slowly descending, and the tattered knight still sat upon it in solitude.
Before the throne, the witch looked up at the mechanical firmament covered by clouds, feeling the immense power that was rapidly withdrawing from this space. She couldn't help but smile and speak.
"Pleasant transaction. I hope we can all... strictly abide by the contract..."
After watching that powerful steel divine power depart, the witch slowly lowered her head, fixing her gaze on the simple throne in front of her, no longer obstructed by the cage. Seeing the knight who hadn't moved at all even now, the smile on her lips deepened.
"A thousand years... Finally... you are mine..." As she spoke, the witch quickly walked towards the throne.
During this process, the witch's smile became increasingly hideous and distorted, splitting open into a terrifying spider-like mouth in extreme exaggeration.
"Soon... there will be another..."
...
East bank of Prit, Tivian.
In broad daylight, millions of Prit citizens were in their dreams. In the sky where the storm was gradually subsiding, under the illusion of the dreamlike Woodland, a raging Storm Dragon was wreaking havoc. The long wind dragon that had suddenly attacked from the sea, with a whistling roar, charged directly at the monstrous moth, wrapping and crushing it with its body.
"——!!"
Amidst the silent screams, Gu Mian's body was finely cut and crushed by the powerful blade storm, its entire body rapidly disintegrating in the storm. Even as an existence extremely close to a complete Apostle, Gu Mian had no resistance whatsoever to the Storm Dragon's surprise attack. After losing the defense constructed by divine power and perception, its frail body was utterly unable to withstand the tyrannical power of the storm.
After all... this was almost the peak power of a Wind Elementalist. The Moth Apostle, who focused on the spiritual level, was far inferior to a peak Elementalist in terms of direct destructive power.
"Moth... Ah!!
"Why... is this happening..."
Amidst the painful, silent howls, and in confusion as to why the enemy could withstand divine power and attack him directly, Gu Mian could only watch helplessly as his massive body was pulverized into dust by the strong winds in a short period. The speed of his body's destruction had long since far exceeded the speed of regeneration. In this critical moment, all he could do was make a final desperate struggle.
After his abdomen, chest, hands, wings, and numerous other parts were crushed by the storm, Gu Mian caused his neck to swell and then suddenly burst open, launching his only remaining, faceless and eyeless head outwards. Now he was only a tiny distance from the border of the Woodland. As long as he was propelled within that border, he could activate the Dream World teleportation and escape directly to the Sacred Cocoon.
Even if only the head makes it, it's enough!
"Don't even think about escaping..."
As if foreseeing Gu Mian's intention purely by intuition, within the Storm Dragon, Anna, seeing Gu Mian's action, directly commanded the entire wind dragon to rapidly grow and expand. As it rapidly expanded, it quickly enlarged its crushing range, swallowing towards Gu Mian's last remaining parts, vowing to completely crush and devour the last remnants of this twisted existence.
The speed of the Storm Dragon was incomparable to the calculated speed of Gu Mian's temporary maneuver. Under the current circumstances, normally, Gu Mian would not be able to escape Anna's pursuit. He could not return to the Dream World alive.
However... that was normally... an unexpected event that no one could have foreseen suddenly appeared on Anna at this moment.
Suddenly, for some unknown reason, the Storm Dragon controlled by Anna abruptly dissipated. The tyrannical storm raging over Tivian incredibly and illogically stopped completely at once. All storms came to a sudden halt. In the sky where the storm had vanished, Anna, maintaining her commanding posture, couldn't help but open her eyes in astonishment.
"What... Ugh!"
Just as Anna was about to continue unleashing her power to attack, suddenly, a violent pain exploded in her head. Anna couldn't help but abandon her attempt to use her power and clutched her head.
"This is... will... the will from the source...
"Whether it's of this country... or of the ability itself..."
Clutching her head, Anna was murmuring in pain. In her opened eyes, a hint of dark red seemed to appear at this moment.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy below suddenly froze, then immediately began to dismantle the Heroic Spirit transformation armor attached to Anna, disconnecting her from Prit's legal principles and the Storm Path. Then, the luxurious armor on Anna, who was previously in the sky, dissipated in a flash of light, and Anna fainted, falling from the sky.
...
The second before being crushed by the fierce storm, Gu Mian was already in deep despair. Although the border of the Woodland was within reach, he was completely unable to reach it. That tiny distance of less than a meter seemed to be an insurmountable chasm at that moment.
However, fate is always so unpredictable. The despairing Gu Mian never expected that in that final moment, the fatal storm that was about to completely engulf him would suddenly disappear and stop, completely stopping, without any lingering effects.
Encountering such a situation, at this moment, Gu Mian's heart was filled with immense joy and excitement, impatiently waiting for the moment to cross the border.
"Roar!"
However, less than a moment after the life-and-death crisis passed, almost simultaneously with the complete disappearance of the storm, a roar familiar to Gu Mian suddenly came from the air nearby. Gu Mian shifted his attention and found the Dragon, like his natural enemy, flapping its wings and opening its mouth, roaring and flying towards him at high speed, as if to swallow his remaining parts in one gulp.
Looking at the Dragon flying towards him like a predator, Gu Mian's heart, which had surged from despair to immense joy, suddenly plummeted to the bottom. Facing the charging Dragon, despair once again enveloped his heart.
However, at this critical moment, the Dragon actually missed! The Dragon's massive body rapidly swept past Gu Mian, simultaneously making a biting motion, but it bit empty air. And at this instant, Gu Mian also noticed that when the Dragon swept past him, its eyes were tightly closed!
That Dragon hadn't found a way to resist his divine power. It dared to charge and attack him directly while enduring the perception hypnosis, but it had used some method, roughly judging his position, and then used a blind attack!
And this blind attack did not hit him. He was lucky enough to dodge the most fatal blow!
"Moth... Thank you for your blessing!!"
The curve of Gu Mian's inner emotions, which had been in despair, once again made a 180-degree turn at this moment, suddenly rising sharply. Gratitude and ecstasy reappeared in the moth's heart. After dodging the Dragon's attack, Gu Mian finally reached the border. The Dragon, whose attack had missed, no longer had a chance to launch another attack.
Amidst a dazzling distortion, Gu Mian, back in the dream world, activated the Dream World portal and completely disappeared from the spot, leaving no trace.
...
"The portal has been activated, it's gone through..."
In the sky above Prit, the Black Cat, who had been keeping his eyes closed, spoke with a stern tone after sensing some kind of Dream World fluctuation. Dorothy, still in her Dragon form, listened while rapidly lowering her flight altitude to catch Anna from falling. With Dorothy's precise control, Anna avoided the sharp spines on Dorothy's back and successfully landed in a safe area. At this moment, her heart was also extremely heavy.
'It seems... bad luck...'
The moment Anna had a problem, Dorothy immediately performed an emergency rescue operation. However, due to the existence of the Moth's divine power, she could not directly perceive Gu Mian and could only attack the area in the air where Gu Mian theoretically might be.
However, compared to Anna, Dorothy currently lacked powerful area-of-effect attacks that could cover a large area. After using the three stages of Unloading Force earlier, Dorothy was unable to use such a large-scale roar again. In such a short time, Dorothy also did not have enough time to prepare any other large-scale firepower attacks and could only rely on her fangs and claws to perform a lottery-like attack while blocking all perception.
Dorothy's previous calculation of Gu Mian's position was only approximate. Now that Gu Mian's body had been destroyed by Anna by more than ninety percent, the remaining part was not only much smaller than before, but its position was also affected by the strong wind. Dorothy could not rely on the previous calculation results for positioning. Without time to set up new observations and calculations, Dorothy could only rely on blind guessing.
However, the final result was that good luck was not always favoring Dorothy, at least not this time.
"What's going on? Why did the wind suddenly stop... It should have been just a little bit more!"
The Black Cat floating beside Dorothy said unbelievably as he looked at the scene, his tone filled with obvious anxiety and regret. Dorothy, in her Dragon form, responded in a deep voice.
"Corrosion... It's corrosion from the top of the branch path. Even the legal principles of this country have begun to be inevitably affected, because the Peak of Storm is also the source of this country's legal principles."
"Peak of Storm... Could it be that Wind Knight! Did something happen to him?!" Listening to Dorothy's explanation, Dorothy continued to answer solemnly and gloomily.
"Yes, I'm afraid the Spider Queen has already obtained what she wanted from this country..."
Dorothy said this, then looked up at the Woodland illusion in the sky. She could see the tiny, blurry white Sacred Cocoon deep within the Woodland. And above this sky, there was no trace of Gu Mian, not even a remnant.
The situation was now developing in the worst possible direction.
...
On the other side, after narrowly dodging the Dragon's bite and entering the Dream World border, Gu Mian directly activated the Dream World teleportation. After a dazzling array of colors, Gu Mian had arrived deep within the Dream World, at the coordinates he had longed for.
Within the dark dense forest, between the towering giant trees, surrounded by thin mist, a crystal clear and holy giant cocoon was suspended there. This cocoon, hundreds of meters high, was wrapped and hung by countless faintly glowing white threads on the surrounding giant trees. At first glance, it made people feel infinitely lost in reverie.
"Moth... I have crossed countless trials... and finally arrived..."
In the sky at this moment, only Gu Mian's head remained, slowly descending, preparing to land on top of the Sacred Cocoon. At this moment, countless dense compound eyes suddenly opened on his head, which had no facial features. These dense compound eyes, which seemed to make people feel disgusted, each seemed to reveal endless longing and fervor.
At this moment, behind Gu Mian, a not-so-large temporary body had gradually recovered and grown. The wings on this body were rapidly flapping, driving Gu Mian to complete this final part of the journey.
Finally, after going through hardships, the moth reached the "light source" it infinitely yearned for. When it truly landed on the Sacred Cocoon, immense excitement filled its heart.
Hundreds of years of planning, hundreds of years of aspiration, at this moment, Gu Mian finally ushered in its harvest time. It and the entire Black Dream Hunter Group existed for this moment. The history of the Black Dream Hunter Group ended here, but a new chapter was about to unfold. This world would usher in a new era, a new deity!
"Awaken! Moth, defeat your twin enemy, be born into the world! Bring everything back to the illusory dream!
"Everyone... will be happy because of this..."
Standing on top of the Sacred Cocoon, Gu Mian began the final awakening steps. And just as this step was about to be completed, a slightly hoarse and terrifying female voice suddenly sounded in its heart.
"Ah... you've arrived... It was really hard work, Noka..."
"Who?!"
Hearing that voice, Gu Mian couldn't help but be startled. At this moment, he suddenly realized with horror that the final step he was performing was absolutely impossible to continue! At this moment, his body was directly rigid in place, completely unable to move even an inch.
At this moment, Gu Mian suddenly realized that an extremely powerful will was invading his mind. He found that his body was no longer obeying his commands!
"Who is it!? Who on earth is it!?"
Interrupted at this most crucial moment, Gu Mian roared in furious rage while also questioning loudly in his heart with helplessness. At this moment, that slightly hoarse female voice continued to sound in his believers.
"Who am I? That's truly perplexing..."
Just as Gu Mian was howling wildly in its heart, the power that had invaded its will continued to strengthen. Along with the continuous strengthening of this power, Gu Mian's body also began to change. In its countless disgusting compound eyes, many eyes began to squeeze out pupils with eight radial spikes, and their number increased.
At this moment, Gu Mian finally understood who that power belonged to.
"Pain... Queen..."
With an unbelievable voice and a trembling tone, Gu Mian then murmured.
"Why... why can you erode me... why... are you in my will...
"I clearly... have nothing to do with you! Why?!"
Somewhat hysterically, Gu Mian shouted wildly in its heart, its expression almost insane, while the voice in its heart continued to speak with a clear sense of mockery.
"Nothing to do with me? Heh... that's just what you think... the connection between you and me started a long time ago."
"A long time... ago..." Gu Mian said like this. At this moment, it seemed to have thought of something terrible.
"Otherwise? Otherwise, who do you think infiltrated Butterfly Dreamland in the first place, quietly tampered with your meditation ritual, allowing you to come into contact with the will of the 'Moth' in your dream? And who bestowed upon you the method of cultivating the Symbiosis Method and the scales of the ancient dream moth as transformation materials...
"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here today... Noka..."
The mocking voice continued to echo in Gu Mian's heart. As the voice sounded, the spiked pupils that appeared on Gu Mian's countless compound eyes increased, and all its eyes were being covered with new spiky pupils.
At this moment, Gu Mian's will was extremely weak. In its final will, under immense pressure, it slowly gave up its struggle. The wild throbbing in its heart was being swallowed by ultimate despair. In the approaching despair, Gu Mian spoke its last words in its heart.
"Symbiosis Secret Technique... Ancient Moth Scales... you gave them all to me? You tampered with them from the beginning? Your influence... was embedded in my body from the start?"
"That's right, I gave you all of this... and it took a lot of effort to make you think that the 'Moth' you believed in gave them to you...
"And all these preparations were for today, so that you could bring me here..."
The hazy sound continued to echo in Gu Mian's heart. In the past short period, Gu Mian's emotions had gone through several ups and downs, and this time its fall would be irreversible. In the final, ultimate despair, Gu Mian's will completely vanished.
"Moth... no..."
The moment Gu Mian's will completely disappeared, all the compound eyes on Gu Mian's body grew spiked pupils.
On the body that originally belonged to Gu Mian, a new round of mutation began. Dark red patterns spread across its body, and spiky legs pierced out from the recently grown bloated and thick body, clawing onto the sacred cocoon. The head, which originally had no mouth, split open into a terrifying spider mouthpart. The entire image transformed from a deformed moth into a more deformed half-moth, half-spider image, becoming a complete monster.
Then, the monster shifted the gaze of its countless compound eyes to the dream cocoon below. For the Spider Queen, her goal today was not just one.
"You... are also mine..."
After the final murmur, the monster on the sacred cocoon opened its fangs and bit into the sacred cocoon below.
The moment the spider's poisonous fangs pierced into the sacred dream cocoon, the entire Dream World began to shake violently. Tragic wails seemed to shriek from every space within the Dream World. From the position where the spider bit, dark red patterns began to quickly spread across the surface of the sacred cocoon and rapidly spread towards the entire surface of the sacred cocoon.
For a time, the Dream World creatures in the entire Dream World began to wail. The psychedelic flower fields and grasslands quickly withered and hardened, becoming sharp spikes.
And in reality, the millions of citizens of Tivian who were originally sleeping in various places on the streets and alleys all opened their eyes at this moment, staring blankly upwards with bewildered eyes. At the edge of their originally normal pupils, eight sharp spikes were slowly growing. Everyone spoke in a daze as if sleepwalking, shouting the same words in unison.
"Welcome... welcome... welcome... welcome...
"Queen of Pain... Lord of Nightmares... Witch of Disaster Wind... The throne of the night sky is prepared for you..."
Countless repetitive, dull, and wooden chants were echoing in the streets and alleys of Tivian from the mouths of its millions of residents. The woodland phantom in the sky of Tivian was now stained with abnormal dark red. A storm once again rolled up in the sky above Tivian, swirling and bringing dark red wind and rain, covering the sky above Tivian and gradually spreading towards the entire direction of Prit.
"Ehhh..."
"Uh... Pain... The power of torment... is gnawing at the sacred cocoon... That is... the evil power of the Spider Queen... Why is this happening..."
Beside Dorothy, the black cat that was originally floating began to twist and struggle in pain under the influence of some unknown force.
And in the ruins of the Church District in the North District, Gaskina, who was engaged in another round of confrontation with Atcherie, looked at the dark red sky and the changes in the Dream World, and couldn't help but laugh wildly.
"Hahahaha! Praise the Madam! Your doomsday has arrived!"
Standing not far in front of Gaskina, looking at the arrogant appearance of the enemy before her, Atcherie's silent and serious eyes, with their shining silver light, gradually dimmed.
At this moment in Tivian, for some unknown reason, the influence belonging to the Spider Queen suddenly increased greatly, and began to affect more people besides the Prit Royal Family. The influence belonging to the Mirror Moon Goddess, which originally enveloped this area, rapidly decreased at this time. This influence was directly related to the situation in the Crystal Palace at this moment.
"Hmm... Ah! It hurts! My head hurts... Why... is it suddenly like this!"
On the ground of the Crystal Palace, Little Fox Shaliya, who had just conducted an important inquiry with Charles IV and completed an important operation, was now holding her head and lying on the ground, speaking in pain while curling up her body. On the other side, a more serious situation was occurring.
"The great enemy... is here again..."
With wide eyes, holding his forehead, King Charles IV of Prit, standing on the ground, weakly resisted the powerful control that had attacked again. Having had previous experience, Charles IV was slightly prepared this time. Before allowing the great enemy to use his body to cause greater disaster, he began his decisive action.
"Poof!!"
With the last remaining trace of consciousness, Charles IV guided his last wind power to cut himself. Suddenly, sharp cutting wounds burst open in various parts of Charles IV's body, including arteries and even his neck. In the spurting blood, Charles IV fell into a pool of blood with wide eyes.
Charles IV, by committing suicide, avoided becoming a puppet of the Spider Queen again.
Under the oppression of the dark red sky, amidst the murmuring welcome of countless sleepwalkers, and within the crimson storm, the entire Tivian fell into the most desperate situation...
The situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The current situation was as bad as it could get, the most desperate situation since the start of this war.
Dorothy, still in her Dragon form, was still soaring in this bloody storm. Although the situation had reached this point, her eyes at this moment were only solemn, without much despair, because she knew that the current situation had not reached a complete dead end.
Although the Spider Queen was already killing, she was not completely without options. Something Dorothy had been arranging before had now become the last hope for the current situation.
"Now... it's up to you..."
...
Let's rewind time a little, back to before.
When the enthusiastic opening ceremony of the World Expo was still going on, when the entire city of Tivian was still in a state of hustle and bustle, but Charles IV's ritual had already had problems and affected the sealing of Gaskina in the Church District. When the boundary between dream and reality had not yet blurred, the gate of the dream had not yet opened, and the fog of confusion had not completely enveloped the entire city of Tivian.
Somewhere above Tivian, Misha, the former Captain of the An Yin Bureau and a Royal Knight of Prit, was rapidly riding the wind and flying to the designated location.
After deciphering the secret history of the Wind King Rebellion in Prit from the secret letter left by her ancestors together with John, Misha immediately reported this information through a peculiar method to the "Scholar" of the Rose Cross without stopping, and then immediately flew to the battlefield where the conflict had already begun.
However, Misha, who was in the process of flying, soon received an urgent notification from the "Scholar", asking her to go to a place before entering the battlefield. Misha did not hesitate and immediately flew directly to the coordinate located in East Tivian, not far from the main venue.
After a while, Misha arrived at the location, a hidden residential building near the main venue. After quickly entering a designated room, Misha saw a familiar scene there.
In this room, a ritual seemed to be about to be held at this moment. In the dark room, only a few corners of the walls were lit with candles providing weak light. A faint scent of incense drifted in the room, and soul flames radiating a faint light floated in the air, emitting a cold glow. A large and extremely complex magic circle was now drawn on the floor of the room. Misha could roughly judge that it was some kind of "Silence" magic circle, but it was much more complex and larger than the "Silence" magic circle for summoning souls that she had known before.
In the center of the magic circle, an ancient wine cup with a skull pattern was suspended. Several men and women dressed in luxurious clothes, who seemed to be some kind of nobles from Tivian, were lying unconscious in the corners of the room. On the edge of the magic circle, opposite Misha, a woman wearing a white robe and a veil was sitting there. Misha had seen her before. She was a very powerful "Silence" Extraordinary from the Rose Cross. Her ability was very strange. The last time she pretended to die to escape, it was she who helped her solve the An Yin Bureau's problem of communicating with her soul.
"Hurry up, time is tight. Lie on this magic circle now, and we will start the ritual immediately."
Looking at Misha entering the room, Naifnis said directly with a serious expression. Misha didn't hesitate after hearing this and immediately lay down on the magic circle as instructed.
"What are we going to do like this?" After lying down, Misha still spoke with a hint of unease, while Neff spoke directly in silence.
"Explore, past memories..."
While murmuring, behind Neff, a Lakhman slowly appeared. It was a man with a curved sword at his waist, wearing a set of exquisite armor in the exotic style of North Wu, with a dignified and imposing appearance. He was the undead of Lakhman, the founder of the Adus Baruk Dynasty in North Wu.
After the Lakheman Royal Tomb incident, Lakhman's soul was summoned to the New World, where he recuperated in the land of rest, healing the damage to his soul. It was only recently that he had almost recovered from the previous damage and was able to move again.
Just now, Dorothy contacted Kapak and the Old Shaman of the Tupa tribe, asking them to cooperate with Neff here to summon Lakhman's soul to Tivian, to cooperate with the ritual being held here.
"Let's begin again."
Looking at Misha lying in front of her, Neff took a deep breath and said, and Lakhman behind her also nodded slightly, then leaned forward and attached himself to Neff's body.
After being possessed by Lakhman, Neff's eyes immediately changed, becoming more steady and dignified. Facing Misha lying down before her, Neff slowly stretched out her hand and touched Misha's arm, then slowly closed her eyes and activated the ability from her soul.
At the same time, the minyin zunzhan suspended on the magic circle also emitted a faint light.
"Show yourself before me... the memory of blood..."
While murmuring, Neff simultaneously used her ability relying on Lakhman's soul and the minyin zunzhan in the ritual. At this moment, she truly felt the flesh and soul within Misha, and behind this flesh and blood, she saw some kind of connection and "channel" extending into the distance.
Then, Neff's will entered that channel without hesitation. After that, her will was like a roller coaster, moving forward rapidly in a narrow tunnel. Beside her, countless images flashed past her rapidly, flying towards the distance. These images included castles, people, wars, and manors, seemingly various records and snippets.
Finally, Neff completed her journey in this "channel", reaching the designated end in one go. Then she felt the images that had flashed past her disappear, replaced by a stable environment.
After completing the transit, Neff's will felt as if she was now in another strange scene. The magic circle and candles in the ritual room disappeared, replaced by an extremely vast space.
This... was a huge underground space, a partially ruined scene presented within a large, dark space tens of meters long and wide.
At this moment, Neff seemed to be able to "see" several figures standing before her. They were all wearing knight armor from several hundred years ago, in ancient styles, seemingly several knights. These knights were covered in bloodstains at this moment, and their armor bore signs of battle damage.
Surrounded by those knights, a man wearing more luxurious armor and with a stern face was kneeling at this moment. In his arms, he was supporting another pale-faced man with black hair, wearing ancient noble robes and a cloak. The man in robes looked weak at this moment, his eyes wide, blood flowing from the corners of his mouth and eyes. He was gripping the hand of the man in luxurious armor tightly, speaking tremblingly.
"You came... just in time... Baldrick! Thankfully... you chose to believe me..."
Propping up his body, the robed noble man called out the name Baldrick, speaking weakly and intermittently, while Baldrick nervously asked.
"Jeffrey... what's wrong? What happened here?"
"A great enemy... I was ambushed by a great enemy. Despite all my calculations, I didn't guard against Her. Before Her, even the most trusted person is not trustworthy... I don't have long to live, but for Prit, this ritual must continue. We must use this to correctly guide the power of the night sky to this kingdom, so that that secret can be kept forever...
"Now I can't go on. The ritual is only missing the final stage... you must take over for me..."
Tremblingly holding the hand of his former enemy, Black Reverence King Jeffrey's bloodshot eyes stared at Baldrick before him as he spoke. Hearing Jeffrey's words, Baldrick couldn't help but be startled. Then he slightly turned his head, looking at the knights behind him, and also looking in the direction where Neff was "located" at this moment, and spoke sternly.
"You all wait here! Do not approach without my command!"
"Yes!" The knights responded respectfully to Baldrick's words in unison, including Neff at this moment. Neff could see "her" hand in a saluting posture.
That's right, at this moment, Neff was viewing the scene before her from someone else's perspective. This was no other place, but beneath the ruins of Solforth Stone, the capital city of the Howling Spear Dynasty during the Wind King Rebellion over five hundred years ago, the ritual site of the Secrecy Ritual established by the "Mad King", Volkioff!
This was the very place where Black Reverence King Jeffrey, the successor to the Secrecy King, attempted to complete the Mad King's unfinished ritual. According to the hidden history, Jeffrey was ultimately ambushed by the Eight-Pointed Nest here, interrupting his ritual. And this Secrecy Ritual was eventually completed by Baldrick, who arrived later, marking the beginning of Baldrick's new line of Secrecy Kings.
This is Rahman's ability. As a Soul Blood Knight, Rahman possesses the ability to search for and excavate power from the bloodline of the group's reproduction. This ability also allows him to learn many unknown secrets through the bloodline.
Through relying on Rahman, Neff contacted Misha via the ritual guided by the minyin zunzhan, and traced back through Misha's bloodline to over five hundred years ago, observing the memory of Misha's ancestor, Ample. Ample at that time was experiencing this important scene, and the perspective Neff was currently using was Ample's perspective!
When Dorothy learned that the Secrecy Ritual currently being performed by Charles IV was incorrect, she immediately began thinking about where the ritual had gone wrong. Thus, she thought of the information Kapak had provided her a few days ago regarding Rahman's preliminary recovery, and then thought of having Neff use Rahman's power to directly glimpse the memories of those involved in the Wind King Rebellion, hoping to find some clues from them.
Neff had previously glimpsed the memory of a member of the Royal Family, but it seemed due to the lingering effects of the power of secrecy, Dorothy could not directly glimpse the memory of Baldrick, the person involved. So now she began to seek a less direct approach. The secret guarded by the Secrecy King seemed only able to be leaked through being spoken by himself. Although the power of secrecy had been broken, some residual power still seemed to have an effect. Therefore, Dorothy had Neff take a less direct approach, using Ample's perspective through Misha to examine the scene of that day.
After giving orders to his subordinates, Baldrick took Jeffrey aside and began the real secret conversation, while Ample continued to respectfully obey Baldrick's orders, guarding the surroundings, and observing the scene of the ritual site before him.
From Ample's perspective, Neff could see that exquisite statues of various kinds stood in rows on both sides of the space, many with signs of fragmentation and incompleteness. Besides deep cracks, the originally flat ground was also scattered with many broken stones. The ceiling of this underground space was a very large semi-circular dome. Around the dome, a circle of lunar phase patterns, showing waxing and waning, was painted. In the center of the dome was a circular opening, through which sunlight from outside shone down onto the ground below, forming a circular spot of light.
On the open ground, a large and complex "Shadow" magic array was inscribed. The light shining down from the opening in the dome illuminated the center of the array in a regular circle. Around the array, there was a circle of lunar phase symbols, similar to those painted on the dome. On each lunar phase symbol, a circle of incense ash was placed. And behind the full moon symbol, directly opposite it, stood a tall mirror moon statue, but the statue was dilapidated, with cracks and missing parts everywhere. Previously, the statue, along with this ritual site, had been affected by the civil unrest of the Howling Spear Dynasty. The civil unrest that was capable of destroying the entire city also affected this hidden underground ritual site.
After carefully examining this ritual site built by the Mad King from Ample's perspective, Neff then witnessed the return of Baldrick, who had obtained the secret. In this ritual site, he completely finished the Secrecy Ritual from the Mad King, bringing it to a close, and finally, amidst loud declarations, became the new Prit Secrecy King.
Finally, Neff exited the bloodline memory observation and returned to reality. At this moment, in the sky outside the window, the diffused mist had been pierced by the light descending from the heavens, and the confusing fog was dissipating.
"Hoo... hoo..."
"What's wrong? Did you see something just now?" Sitting up from the ritual site, Misha looked at Neff, who was slightly out of breath beside her, and asked curiously. Neff, after swallowing a mouthful of saliva, looked at them and spoke directly.
"I saw... a lot of things... In any case, you go support the other areas first. I'll recover here for a bit..."
Neff said this to Misha, and Misha nodded slightly after hearing Neff's words, no longer asking anything further. She immediately got up and flew out of the window, flying towards the main venue not far away, and joined the battle that was taking place there.
Meanwhile, Neff remained sitting by the magic array. After she had mostly recovered her breath, she silently closed her eyes and, through prayer, transmitted Ample's memory, which she had just observed through Misha's bloodline, to Dorothy without alteration.
At this moment, Dorothy, who was still directing Anna and Little Fox to cooperate in completing the legal canonization, immediately began to analyze the information provided by Neff with multitasking, carefully examining it. Although Ample's memory was only about the appearance of the ritual site, Dorothy still read an unusual point of doubt from it.
In that ritual site, a circular lunar phase diagram appeared. On the symbols around the ritual array, the full moon symbol was in the most honored position, not only directly facing the mirror moon statue but also having the most incense ash scattered around it. The dome-like structure of the ritual site was very similar to the Mirror Moon Chapel in the lake temple in Glamorgan that Dorothy had seen before. Recalling the characteristics of the Glamorgan Mirror Moon Temple, Dorothy immediately realized where Charles IV's ritual had gone wrong, confirming her previous conjecture.
It was the time! The time Charles IV held the ritual was probably problematic from the start. The Secrecy Ritual, a large part of which is a ritual to connect with the Mirror Moon Goddess, guide the power of the Mirror Moon, and greatly enhance the Mirror Moon's influence. Such a ritual should naturally be held during the Mirror Moon's holy time.
And the Mirror Moon's holy time is naturally the night of the full moon each month... But the day the current World Expo is held is the time furthest from the full moon of the month, it is the daytime of the Dark Moon!
Logically speaking, throughout this entire day, whether daytime or nighttime, the moon is completely invisible. It can be said to be the time of the month when the Mirror Moon's influence is weakest!
When Jeffrey was performing the ritual, he was ambushed by the person he trusted most by his side. Not only was the ritual interrupted, but his own spirit was also partially eroded and twisted by the Spider Queen, so much so that when he finally revealed the ritual to Baldrick, there was a slight difference, stating that the ritual, which should have been held at the moment of the full moon, was to be held on that day and at that moment.
And that day happened to be the daytime of the Dark Moon. The reason for this phenomenon was that Jeffrey, while still conscious, specifically chose the time furthest from the correct time to continue the ritual in order to interfere with the Eight-Pointed Nest's judgment. This was because his ritual was essentially not starting from scratch, but continuing the Mad King's ritual. The Mad King had already performed most of the ritual content at the correct time, and the remaining ritual content had no time requirement.
Therefore, Jeffrey, who knew he was being watched, deliberately played a counter-logic trick on the Eight-Pointed Nest, starting his continuation ritual at the most unlikely time for a ritual. However, even so, he was still tricked by the Spider Queen. Under the ambush of his own people, he was poisoned by spider venom. At a time when his mind was confused and his consciousness unclear, he was subjected to hypnotic suggestion caused by the use of extraordinary items, which made him forget the real reason he chose the bright moon daylight for the ritual, and instead believe that this was the time the ritual should truly be held.
And ultimately, this error of his also misled Baldrick. Although the ritual was successful in the end, this was merely the successful continuation of the Mad King's ritual, not a ritual they performed from beginning to end. Baldrick might have had doubts about the time of the ritual, but after finally seeing the successful outcome of the ritual, these doubts would not reappear.
Just like that, five hundred years ago, the Spider Queen had already laid a hidden mine for the ritual currently being conducted entirely by the Hyacinth Dynasty five hundred years later, quietly waiting for it to explode. And even though this deadly hidden mine had already been laid, the Spider Queen did not wait for it to detonate on its own, but still ordered her subordinates, the Eight-Pointed Nest, through divine oracle, to obstruct Charles IV's ritual, which was already destined to fail, in various ways, even if the entire Eight Point Nest suffered huge damage as a result.
Because the Spider Queen knew that Charles IV, and the strange power of "enlightenment" that had suddenly appeared recently, disrupting her arrangements more than once and seemingly protecting Tivian and opposing her, were very sensitive. If she did not launch a full-frontal assault on this ritual regardless of the cost and sacrifice, but merely relied on waiting for the hidden mine to detonate, it would instead make them suspicious and aware, thus directing their attention to the ritual itself, and risking the hidden mine being found and dismantled.
Therefore, to conceal the existence of this hidden mine, the previous attack by the entire Eight-Pointed Nest, regardless of cost and sacrifice, was necessary. This could fully attract the attention of Charles IV and that power of "enlightenment". Of course, these so-called "frontal assaults" were also presented in the form of various other conspiracies, such as the Dream World surprise attack and other plots were all part of this "front", but these plots, planned by the people of the Eight-Pointed Nest themselves, were too shallow compared to the two conspiracies planned by the Spider Queen herself, spanning hundreds of years. In the process of confronting that "enlightenment", they could only be used as a frontal assault.
In this game of chess, the Spider Queen viewed the entire Eight Point Nest as a sacrificed piece, all for the sake of concealing her true killing intent. As long as She could win this game, She could successfully reap two incredibly huge spoils of war, then the sacrificed piece would be worth it.
After all, just now, the Spider Queen had already discarded a bargaining chip more valuable than the entire Eight-Pointed Nest in exchange for the God of Machinery's concession. The weight of the Eight-Pointed Nest on this chessboard was really not significant...
In the current situation, the Spider Queen's advantage was already incredibly huge, and facing this nearly dead-end chessboard, Dorothy couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"Night... Holy Time?"