Eldritch Horror Theatre

Ais was clearly quite pleased with Fu Qian's subtle little maneuver.

She shot him a mildly reproachful glance, then left him alone, turning back to whisper to a pale-looking Charlotte.

Old Man Sage paid no attention to the minor distraction behind him. He followed Brother Round Shield, who was leading the way, his steps steady.

Down in this secret passage beneath the Invisible Road, the forks in the path were noticeably fewer. There was no sign of living corpses, either, allowing them to make good time.

To the naked eye, the green eyes on the ceiling were growing denser, twinkling like stars.

"Wait."

A moment later, Old Man Sage suddenly called the team to a halt.

The atmosphere within the team had grown increasingly tense as they ventured deeper. Everyone obeyed the command instantly; no one spoke a word.

They now stood in a hall considerably more spacious than the preceding passages, though it still wasn't massive.

'For a bunch of intellectuals, isn't this posture a bit too humble?'

The Statue's sheer height was staggering, its head nearly brushing the domed ceiling.

Even from the entrance, Fu Qian had to crane his neck to look up at it.

In the dim light, he could see the Statue's face was horribly twisted. Its hands covered its eyes, pressing its features completely out of shape.

A complete ring of seats encircled the Statue. They were all empty, and Brother Round Shield had already inspected them one by one.

'Looks like seating for some important figures.'

Fu Qian, however, focused on the design of the chairs.

Looking from here, every single one varied in size and style. They had a distinctly custom-made feel, suggesting the people who used them possessed extraordinary status.

Whether they held meetings here or sat around debating philosophy was anyone's guess.

That led to an important question: where had the original occupants gone?

Did they all escape? Or were they trapped in here, dead and turned to dust?

"I don't see anything else here besides us."

Scrooge, evidently still shaken by their previous encounter, quickly scanned the surroundings and volunteered his status.

The others chimed in agreement, looking in slight puzzlement at Sage, who had called the halt.

He said nothing. The four wings on his Golden Staff simply spun and crossed once more.

...

A very peculiar sensation washed over them. The light hadn't grown any brighter, yet everything within the hall became vastly clearer. No detail could hide anymore.

'Is he sharing a bit of his Insight?'

Feeling the change, Fu Qian cast his gaze up at the ceiling, looking toward every spot where he remembered the eyes twinkling.

'Just as I thought!'

A moment later, he sighed inwardly.

'Every strange phenomenon really does have its reason.'

In his vision, another eye on the dome was dimming mid-twinkle.

The reason was simple: a dark red shadow was slowly crawling over it.

It was a literal shadow, devoid of any physical form, looking just like a stain on the ceiling.

Yet as the stain shifted, Fu Qian spotted the distinct outline of a human mouth and nose.

'The people from the chairs? Did they crawl up there?'

Although the suspected facial features were entirely out of place, in that moment, Fu Qian formed a bold hypothesis.

Mainly because the dead team members in the Puzzle Illusion Realm had suffered similar deformations on their faces, which had thoroughly exercised his imagination.

'The only problem is I haven't found their eyes yet—wait, aren't they everywhere?'

Fu Qian, who always prided himself on keeping an open mind, began to understand why these people had ended up like this. 'They wanted to obtain these green eyes?'

His first piece of evidence was that no matter how the facial features rolled and rotated, they always seemed to revolve around a single green eye, leaving it perfectly unblocked.

And glancing around, there were actually five of these shifting shadows.

'Did these big shots turn themselves two-dimensional just to get these special "eyes"?'

"On the wall... what is..."

Right as Fu Qian was busy pondering, Ais let out an exasperated gasp, having clearly noticed the things on the ceiling as well.

"Members of The Society, prepare to dodge."

Old Man Sage responded with unprecedented speed.

'Dodge what attack?'

Shocked by both the sight above and the old man's warning, Ais barely had time to feel confused before she noticed the shadowy faces on the ceiling looking their way. Her confusion instantly morphed into an intense sense of crisis.

'Brother Scrooge's move?'

Fu Qian noticed it too, and he instantly realized what they were trying to do.

'Two-Dimensional Living Corpses? Talk about a challenge to the imagination!'

Fortunately, these things had to aim with their faces just like Scrooge did, and their movements were even slower than regular living corpses.

Amidst his silent musings, Fu Qian was just about to move when his mind violently jolted. Something exploded inside his head.

A massive flood of incomprehensible information—like a screen violently spawning corrupted pop-up windows—instantly forced his thoughts into a hundredfold overclock.

'K...now...ledge... in...fu...sion... I... guess... that's... nor...mal...'

Enduring this sudden assault and feeling his sanity being violently torn apart, Fu Qian still managed to forcefully grind out a conclusion.

In his vision, all five faces had fully turned toward them. Worse, more than one seemed to be locking straight onto him.

'Left...'

In that instant, Fu Qian forcefully calculated an evasion route and willed his heavy legs to take a step.

Almost simultaneously, dark red light crisscrossed above. The eyes of the five faces on the domed ceiling actually erupted with beams of light.

Two of those beams intersected right where he had been standing.

'What... an... hon...or...'

After a single strike, the Two-Dimensional Living Corpses in his vision slowly began to dissipate.

Fu Qian didn't attempt another dodge. He concentrated on fighting off the raging flood of information in his mind, yet still spared a moment to analyze his gains.

Considering the Holy Grail possessed knowledge as its authority, using such a tasteless attack really wasn't that strange.

While the attack's intensity felt rather average—unlikely to directly fry a person's brain—it was more than enough to make an ordinary person temporarily crash, leaving them a sitting duck.

'Danger truly lurks at every step. Good thing I'm a cut above.'

Even though he currently had an ordinary human's constitution and lacked any special Mental Resistance, it was just as he had noted earlier: he might not have Mental Resistance, but he definitely had tolerance.

From the distant bombardment of a sword heart's sword intent, to the more recent lingering dying thoughts of Liliana, and the endless cycles of searing heat and freezing cold he had enjoyed from start to finish—all of it had vastly increased Fu Qian's tolerance to being mentally ravaged.

This was a precious asset he could bring with him even in his ordinary human state.

'You can stab me with a knife all you want; I'll just keep eating my midnight snack.'

Furthermore, it looked like he wasn't the only one who had come prepared.

As the massive waves in his mind calmed slightly, Fu Qian noticed that aside from himself, Old Man Sage, Ais, and a third person had all shifted their positions.

Obviously, they had also withstood the pressure just now and executed evasive maneuvers.

Though to be fair, Charlotte and Scrooge would have been fine even if they hadn't dodged.

Recalling the intersecting angles of the five beams, it was obvious that of the remaining three beams, two had targeted Sage, and the final one had been aimed straight at Ais.

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