Chapter 135: The Descended Vessel

“Don’t go!”

Rorell had barely shouted those words when he saw Lawrence swallowed by the illusory passage, a look of utter bewilderment on his face. Even with Rorell’s usually imperturbable composure, he could not help cursing under his breath.

In the brief span of time that had passed, Elvin had already been battered and bloodied under the assault of the breaching sentinels. He shouted in exasperation, “Rorell, what are you waiting for? Hurry and retreat to the Cradle!”

Rorell hurriedly explained, “We can’t go back. There’s an ambush. We can only break through!”

His words plunged Elvin into despair. Looking at the sentinels that had sealed off every possible route, he said helplessly, “Break through?! How are we supposed to do that?!”

A vicious glint flashed across Rorell’s face. He suddenly hurled the black gemstone in his hand. The gemstone seemed to have been tampered with; it exploded with a thunderous roar, and the immense blast sent the surrounding sentinels flying while leaving them with varying degrees of damage.

At the same time as the black gemstone shattered, the undead creatures lingering around the perimeter, which had hesitated to launch an attack, seemed to go completely mad. Ignoring Lando’s power of command, they charged frantically toward the place where the gemstone had broken, showing no concern even when caught in the aftershocks of the explosion.

Rorell slapped Elvin on the shoulder. Their figures rapidly faded into unreality, and they fled amid the chaos.

Only after the two had vanished completely did Lando emerge from the shadows. He looked at the ninth-tier contracted undead creatures still mired in confusion, then released the aura of his Mindscape. The creatures, which had been fighting one another, suddenly froze. They came to their senses amid the chaos, all wearing bewildered expressions.

These creatures possessed barely more intelligence than infants, so Lando was not angry with them. He glanced in the direction in which Rorell had escaped but had no intention of pursuing him. After all, if Lando wanted to infiltrate the prince’s faction, he still needed Rorell to act as an intermediary. Since Rorell had managed to escape on his own, Lando was spared a considerable amount of trouble.

He ordered the sentinels to gather the remaining fragments of the black gemstone, then entered his Mindscape. Lawrence, who had thought he was entering the illusory passage, was in fact bound within it. The moment they had appeared, Lando had already used his Mindscape to conceal that passage. That was the reason Rorell had sensed danger.

Wisps of mist enveloped Lawrence. Compared with Nickta and the others, Lando was far more eager to uncover the secrets of Rorell and the prince. Thus, even though capturing Lawrence alive might bring unforeseen complications, he had done so anyway.

To avoid any further complications, Lando began his interrogation.

“Your name?”

“Lawrence…”

“Your identity?”

“A sixth-year student at the Central Academy… and… and…”

At those words, Lawrence’s face suddenly twisted with struggle. Faintly, it seemed as though he were about to break free of the misty environment.

Lando quickly asked his next question. “Why did you come here?”

The question seemed to ease Lawrence’s struggle. He calmed down and answered, “To complete a mission…”

“What mission?”

“To cultivate the Demon God’s Seed… to create a vessel for our god’s descent…”

As he said this, Lawrence suddenly opened his tightly shut eyes. They were bloodshot, and black radiance rapidly gathered within them before exploding with a deafening blast. The force was so great that even Lando’s Mindscape rippled faintly.

When the shock waves dissipated, a pitch-black sphere had appeared where Lando had originally been standing. The sphere split apart and transformed into the true forms of three defensive sentinels, revealing Lando within, deep in thought.

After leaving his Mindscape, Lando took the fragments of black gemstone collected by the sentinels, ignoring the covetous little eyes of the ninth-tier undead creatures.

He came to the illusory passage. By then, Lando’s Mindscape had completely wedged it open, preventing it from closing. Something within seemed to be trying to spread outward, but the Mindscape held it back.

Lando gestured for one of the defensive sentinels to enter the illusory passage.

Through the sentinel’s vision, Lando saw what lay on the other side. Countless blood-red tentacles were stretching toward them, attacking the sentinel frenziedly. Under Lando’s command, the sentinel did not linger in battle and withdrew from the passage under the protection of the Mindscape.

Lando pondered for a moment. Then, with a thought, he took out the collected fragments of black gemstone and handed them to the sentinel, ordering it to enter the illusory passage once more.

This time, nothing seemed to have changed. The tentacles continued to attack the sentinel. Just as Lando was about to order it back, he noticed that several tentacles on the verge of striking suddenly slowed, their movements turning hesitant. He abandoned his earlier plan.

As expected, every tentacle behaved in exactly the same way. Just before reaching the sentinel, it stopped completely, as though it had confirmed that the sentinel was one of its own.

Lando ordered the sentinel to continue forward. Before long, it arrived before a gigantic blood-red sphere of flesh.

“The Demon God’s Seed? A vessel for descent?! No way. Could I really be this lucky? An Old God? Or a New God?”

The discovery nearly prompted Lando to use his lifesaving ring and go straight home. But after calming himself, he combined what Odo had taught him with the relevant knowledge he had read in books and sensed that something was wrong.

“An Old God should be unlikely. If a sleeping Old God had awakened and returned, the Empire could not possibly remain so peaceful. It can’t be that I just happened to be the first person to encounter it, can it? As for the New Gods, they can enter the world in their own bodies. Why would they need a vessel for descent? Besides, the Empire’s grand archmages yearn for New Gods with the fervor of a lecherous man who has gone thirty years without sex suddenly seeing an unparalleled beauty wearing nothing but black stockings, dancing an erotic dance right in front of him. Under such circumstances, the odds of encountering a New God this close to the Empire are self-evident—unless…”

Lando’s eyes gradually brightened.

“Unless that New God suffered an extremely serious injury for some reason and had no choice but to remain here. That would also explain why it is cultivating a vessel for descent!”

Lando thought for a while longer. The more he considered it, the more plausible the possibility seemed. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, he abandoned his intention of fleeing immediately and decided to continue gathering information. Although he had yet to find any trace of that part of the system, confirming this conjecture would make the journey worthwhile.

Through the sentinel’s eyes, Lando gazed at the Demon God’s Seed. Regardless of whether his guess was correct, this thing absolutely could not be allowed to remain.

He handed the eight fragments of black gemstone in his possession to the other eight sentinels. As for the ninth-tier undead creatures, Lando did not count on them.

After receiving their orders, the eight sentinels swiftly entered the illusory passage. The blood-red tentacles seemed to sense the danger, but because of the fragments’ influence, they were unable to attack the sentinels.

Once all nine sentinels had assembled, they leaped simultaneously toward the half-desiccated corpse atop the blood-red sphere of flesh—the true body of the Corpse Mother Queen—and launched their assault.

The growing Demon God’s Seed instinctively sensed the danger. No longer holding anything back, it immediately controlled the blood-red tentacles to block the sentinels.

Two defensive sentinels expanded into enormous shields, blocking a great number of the blood-red tentacles. The remaining breaching sentinels worked together to clear away and shatter the rest.

At last, the final sentinel stepped onto its companions’ bodies to gain momentum. Its arm transformed into a long, razor-sharp spike that pierced through the Corpse Mother Queen. Ripples of force surged along the spike, tearing her apart.

In the end, only the Corpse Mother Queen’s shriek remained—half agony, half liberation.

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