Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Chapter 1101 That Very Moment
Deep in Fourth Epoch Trier, on streets surrounded by thick fog.

Within the Unshadowed Domain that eliminated all shadows and darkness, Angoulême and his two colleagues had reached the critical moment of removing the item's seal.

What none of them expected was that the final layer binding this Sealed Artifact was ordinary paper without any supernatural elements.

These papers seemed torn from some ancient text, with lines of handwritten ancient Feysac:

"I am the Beginning and the End."

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

"God spake, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

"The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; His Spirit moved upon the face of the waters."

"He called the light Day, and the darkness Night."

"…"

These sheets of paper were attached to the Sealed Artifact, completely wrapping it. The sentences written on them were similar yet different from the Eternal Blazing Sun Church's scripture, but contained no sacred supernatural power.

Angoulême's eyes focused as he saw this, unconsciously slowing his motion of tearing off the paper.

His two colleagues were unaffected, quickly exposing the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact to Fourth Epoch Trier.

The next second, an intense, golden, sacred sun appeared in the thick fog above.

0-15—The Fourth Sun!

Suddenly, the Fog of War within two kilometers evaporated and dissolved without a trace. The Montsouris ghosts slowly approaching Angoulême and Jack Walton from different directions began making sizzling sounds, quickly being purified into black vapor that diffused upward.

Some of this black vapor gradually dissipated, while other parts swelled and twisted, revealing faces displaying different forms of malice.

They rapidly flew upward, reaching the invisible, colorless flames that served as the sky, concentrating in one area.

This portion of black vapor was quickly burned away, leaving only faint patches.

Just as these patches were about to melt away, more Montsouris ghosts flew out from different parts of Fourth Epoch Trier.

They threw themselves into the light black patches one after another, preventing them from disappearing, trying to deepen them, maintaining them within the invisible, colorless flames for a while longer, and eroding upward.

Seeing this scene, Jack Walton, whose malice was rapidly dissipating under the influence of The Fourth Sun, furrowed his brow.

He felt something was already happening!

He hurriedly said to his two colleagues, "Use the Sealed Artifact!"

The Sealed Artifact they carried was 0-59—The Divine Kingdom Without People."

…

At the bottom of Underground Trier, the miraculously healed Tree of Shadow frantically extended its roots and branches toward the seal and the ground-level city districts.

Each piece of its bark seemed to be a crystallization of different scenes of desire from past history—thick, settled, and difficult to truly destroy.

Its brownish-green roots quickly approached that layer of invisible, colorless flames, yet didn't attempt to touch it, as they would surely be burned through.

Suddenly, two figures appeared on either side of its massive trunk.

These two figures looked similar—both tall and enormous, humanoid yet like grotesque trees, covered in pitch-black, viscous tar-like liquid, with numerous bizarre and sickening arms growing from them. The surface of these arms either had bulging crimson eyeballs with prominent blood vessels, or were embedded with pale skull heads, or were covered with tongues bearing sharp teeth, and so on—there were too many variations to count. They spread an extremely evil and intensely mad sensation in all directions, causing the mine tunnels and earth to crack and split.

These were Abomination Suah and His sister Tirié.

They were currently displaying Their true form as Abominations, not their Mythical Creature forms from the Prisoner pathway. However, as Abominations, They inherently carried madness, evil, distortion, chaos, hatred, indulgence, and curse, causing effects equivalent to revealing Their Mythical Creature forms on Their surroundings.

One could say that Their Abomination appearances were a product of Their self-perception combined with Their complete Mythical Creature forms.

As soon as Suah and Tirié appeared, They each chose a section of the brownish-green trunk and merged Themselves into the Tree of Shadow.

The crown of the Tree of Shadow finally broke through the ground, growing toward the sky, attempting to encompass all of Trier within its shade.

Its roots truly extended into that layer of invisible, colorless flames, being burned off section by section, yet continuously growing new ones, striving to extend downward.

Outside Saint Viève Cathedral in the island area, the pure brilliant sunlight was pushed back by branches oozing viscous black liquid, as if trying to create a world of shadows here.

The Church of the God of Steam and Machinery's patriarchal cathedral in the north encountered similar circumstances.

And because the Tree of Shadow's power extending to the surface was concentrated in these few places, citizens across Trier's districts merely dreamed dreams of different desires, dreams that had not yet crossed from illusion into reality.

In the still-operating bars and dance halls, the atmosphere suddenly intensified, with everyone falling into a psychedelic state.

Saint Viève, utilizing the cathedral's layout, strenuously resisted the invasion of those pitch-black viscous branches, preventing harm to the clergy and faithful who had taken shelter here.

She didn't panic.

In Her view, the Rose School of Thoughts indulgence faction re-activating the Tree of Shadow wasn't something unstoppable.

If Fourth Epoch Trier's seal were truly so easily destroyed, the Rose School of Thought and other evil god sects would have done so long ago—why wait until today to expend such effort?

Even if the crimson moon descending to the barrier, appearing round and bright, truly suppressed the orthodox gods, preventing Them from dealing with the Tree of Shadow problem, there were still two existences within the barrier who could take action. And the strongest subordinates the Great Old Ones could command in this world were just Suah and Tirié, who weren't even in the same league as their side.

If the Rose School of Thought's indulgence faction truly wanted to go all in, they should have wagered everything during last year's Tree of Shadow incident, when Mr. Fool had not yet partially awakened.

And even without counting the two existences, their side's number of Angels far exceeded the evil god sects. As long as they held on a bit longer, preventing the Tree of Shadow from destroying surface Trier and causing mass civilian deaths, sufficient reinforcements would soon arrive.

This amount of time was insufficient to destroy Fourth Epoch Trier's seal.

Was it that the Rose School of Thought and other evil god sects didn't want to use the current approach in the past?

In the midst of Her doubts, Saint Viève suddenly became vigilant.

Could something have simultaneously gone wrong with Fourth Epoch Trier?

If coordinated on the inside and outside, the seal might truly be broken in a short time!

Just then, Saint Viève saw before the crimson moon—which appeared so huge it seemed to hang by the cathedral bell tower—a figure descending from the sky, growing larger and larger, wearing a medium-tall silk top hat, black windbreaker, and holding a stardust-inlaid cane.

…

The easternmost part of the Sonia Sea, the Forsaken Land of the Gods.

At the highest point of the majestic mountain range, darkness was thick, sometimes expanding, sometimes contracting.

…

Midseashire north coast, East Tilisi Province, capital city Tilisi.

Madam Justice suddenly had a spiritual premonition and opened her eyes.

She saw before her a verdant field, with several scarecrows standing in it, a clear stream flowing through, like a pastoral scene from an oil painting.

A dream… As a Dreamweaver, Madam Justice quickly understood what she had encountered.

And there weren't many beings in this world capable of weaving such a dream for her.

Madam Justice instantly thought of one possibility: the ancient dragon Edefana she had been pursuing!

This was one of the few remaining mind dragons.

I've searched for years without finding Him, yet He has come to me? Madam Justice found this somewhat absurd.

Absurdity implied abnormality, and abnormality necessarily indicated problems.

What Madam Justice cared more about was, if this dream was truly woven by Edefana, why did He choose today, why choose this moment?

Justice didn't hesitate, taking out a card.

The card portrayed an impartial goddess seated on a stone chair, wielding a sword and scales.

Tarot card, Justice card!

After praying to Mr. Fool, Justice began reciting her friend's honorific name, "Cosmic Traveler, beholden to the King of Yellow and Black, and the Sorcerer chronicling the world…"

…

Southern Continent, inside a black ancient castle.

Mr. Moon Emlyn stood at the window, gazing up at the crimson moon that appeared huge and dreamlike due to its proximity.

He felt his spirituality boiling.

As he was struggling to control himself, the crimson moonlight shone into the ancient castle, conveying a mellow voice, "Alexis has suddenly disappeared. Find him as soon as possible."

This voice came from one of the three great Sanguine dukes, Olmer—titled Round Moon.

Alexis disappeared? Mr. Moon repeated these words.

Alexis was one of Duke Round Moon Olmer's direct descendants, a Sanguine count residing in Feynapotter City, the capital of the Feynapotter Kingdom.

In the past, The Moon Emlyn wouldn't have thought this order contained any hidden information, but now, he thought more: Alexis disappeared suddenly?

If it was sudden, how did Duke Round Moon discover it so quickly?

As a direct relative, did the Duke Round Moon have a bad premonition due to Alexis's disappearance?

…

Sonia Sea, New City of Silver, Church of The Fool's Headquarters.

Lumian and others saw the unrestrained growth of the Tree of Shadow.

"Wasn't it supposed to take many years before it would grow again?" Franca muttered to herself. "Did it receive healing, and its original wounds have healed?"

Lumian nodded pensively.

"The Great Mother's influence really seems to be hidden behind this…"

Jenna, who had been pondering a certain question, suddenly turned her gaze toward the twin towers and asked vigilantly, "Would the Gift of the Land being Omebella's remains, count as a 'mother?'"

"Should calamity stay away?"

Lumian was momentarily stunned.

He had borrowed the Gift of the Land before without any problems.

But that seemed to be before Mr. Fool made the revelation that "calamity needs to stay away from the mother"!

Meanwhile, in a hotel in the New City of Silver.

A man with neatly combed black hair, beautiful crimson eyes, and an elegant bow tie at his chest pulled a card from his pocket.

The card depicted a female version of Emperor Roselle wearing maternity clothes, with a protruding belly, radiating maternal glory.

Card of Blasphemy, Mother card!