Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fu Qian's reading comprehension had clearly given Vivian quite a shock.

"Assuming the contents of your story are entirely true, that means this Miracle already existed before you entered."

Refusing to let the silent mermaid princess off the hook, Fu Qian casually laid out his thoughts.

"And for such a dangerous place, even if the enlightenment guiding you didn't mention it, there's no way you entered without making at least some preparations."

"That somewhat contradicts your trapped act from earlier. Do you really not know how to get out?"

Smiling, Fu Qian stared at the mermaid princess's massive face.

...

"You're right. I apologize for lying earlier."

After a moment of silence, the Divine Emissary across from him offered a solemn apology.

"You chose to stay."

Fu Qian cut her off.

"Don't tell me it's because your body was losing control and you couldn't pull it off. That would just insult my intelligence."

"Your appearance might be abstract, but those fishmen clearly suffer from varying degrees of distortion too."

"Right..."

Judging by Vivian's expression, Fu Qian had just saved her from telling a second lie.

"So what's the reason? I'm rather curious."

"I seem to have said enough today. Why don't you take a guess?"

Faced with Fu Qian's aggressive questioning, Vivian finally seemed to scrape together a shred of her majesty as a Divine Emissary, unwilling to remain entirely passive.

"Take a guess? Seeing as it won't take up much time, I suppose I could try."

Taking a couple of steps forward, Fu Qian sat down near the cave entrance and rubbed his chin.

"Being able to leave but choosing not to means staying here holds special significance. Rather than waiting around to digest some rare treasure, I'm more inclined to believe it has to do with the nature of the Miracle itself."

"Because if it were the former, you'd want to keep it as secret as possible. Yet here you are, constantly dragging in an audience..."

"Shattered Crown is composed of fragments scattered throughout the Ash Sea, and it's incredibly difficult to escape without knowing the way."

"Your voice can clearly reach the outside. Essentially, since this place spans different regions of the Ash Sea, your lure can probably cover a massive area."

"And the mermaids drawn in by your lure have almost zero chance of escaping..."

"It seems like you're treating this place as a breeding farm."

"Excellent!"

With her long tail drifting weightlessly, a trace of genuine satisfaction appeared on Vivian's face.

"I regret this conversation less and less."

"You're right. I chose to stay here specifically to use this Miracle to gather the mermaids."

"In fact, our upcoming cooperation involves them."

"Oh? What do you want me to do?"

Having arrived at his favorite part—mutual exploitation—Fu Qian instantly perked up.

"Kill them."

Although his excessive enthusiasm momentarily unnerved Vivian, she hesitated only a second before stating her condition.

Gathering the fishmen just to slaughter them all right after?

The demand caught Fu Qian slightly off guard.

"Are you sure? It's not like it'll be difficult for me—I've already killed one, actually."

"I know. But naturally, I don't mean for you to kill them like that."

As she spoke, Vivian's long tail coiled around, stopping right in front of Fu Qian.

The next moment, the individual beads melted like wax, coalescing into a colorful figure with a human torso and a fish tail. Its face bore a faint resemblance to her own giant face.

The figure offered Fu Qian a slight bow, then slowly peeled a glove off its hand.

"Wear this when you kill them."

The giant face spoke from the side as the translucent figure offered up the glove, which appeared to be woven from silver fish scales.

With such an ornate design, was this actually the Executioner's Glove?

Fu Qian reached out and took it. The figure instantly shattered back into assorted beads, which then flew back to cluster on the frog's back like iron filings to a magnet.

"By killing those fishmen while wearing this glove, you can recover the slivers of self-imprint I shared with them."

Seeing Fu Qian accept it so readily, Vivian offered a gratified explanation.

"A self-imprint. Is that why they all share your face? Isn't this blessing of yours a bit too generous?"

"I had no other choice. It was the only possible way."

Vivian shook her head.

"This body is beyond saving. Before it collapses completely, I had to separate out as much of my pure self as possible, letting them serve as temporary vessels to carry it."

"Is that why you were singing so desperately? Because you need a huge number of containers."

Fu Qian put on an expression of sudden realization.

"Yes... They are too weak. It takes a considerable number of them to contain me, and until then, I cannot take over their wills."

As if to demonstrate her sincerity, Vivian was holding absolutely nothing back.

"I suppose beauty always comes with a price."

Confronted with the bizarre nature of this blessing, Fu Qian clicked his tongue.

"Mind if I ask how exactly you separate out your self?"

...

Vivian remained silent, but her eyes shifted to look behind her.

I knew it!

Fu Qian wasn't surprised in the slightest.

It was obvious that her method of separating out her pure self was through the eggs she had been excreting.

There was a high chance that those fishmen had been swallowing them.

"Since you've already reached this point, why not just detach this long string of eggs from your body entirely? Why go through all this trouble?"

"It's no use. The self requires a vessel."

Vivian sighed.

"You saw it yourself just now. Without a container, they automatically gather right back to me."

"And these containers you went through so much trouble to cultivate, you now want me to destroy them all for recovery? Wouldn't all these years of effort be wasted?"

Staring at the psychedelic reflections gleaming off the glove, Fu Qian asked the most direct question of all.

"Before today, I never would have agreed to do this."

"But now, I've found a better vessel!"

When Vivian looked over, her eyes burned with uncontrollable fanaticism.

"I believe you can contain the entirety of me."

"Kill them all. Once all my imprints have gathered on the glove, I want you to wear it and kill me too, completing the final step."

"You flatter me."

Fu Qian wasn't particularly surprised.

"But there is a technical issue here. I'm no mermaid."

"That doesn't matter. Choosing my own kind was just to minimize rejection. The vitality of your body isn't even in the same league as theirs; you'll only briefly lose control of the hand wearing the glove."

"Understood. Then comes a non-technical issue—I have absolutely no interest in plastic surgery."

Fu Qian pointed at his own face.

"I know that, of course. But what about advancement?"

Vivian seemed to have anticipated this question; a mysterious smile touched her lips.

"I know you are already in the Demigod Realm. What if you let me use your body for a simple transition, and in exchange, I give you the secret to advancing to Tier 2 using the Ash Sea? A method improved by a Divine Emissary who once took a wrong turn."

...The so-called fateful encounter hadn't already mutated into something like this, had it?

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