Eldritch Horror Theatre

Kill. But kill whom?

These Containment Fulfillment Conditions were surprisingly proper.

The sudden prompt left Fu Qian feeling rather gratified.

Not only that, but it explicitly confirmed that their current environment was indeed a Nightmare. The awakened ones weren't just spouting nonsense.

However, the title of Proxy heavily implied there was a greater power pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Someone who wasn't the source of the Nightmare's power, but merely acted on its behalf to manage and maintain its stability?

Working from that assumption, finding them would at least have a clear direction.

And as for why they had only appeared now, that made sense too—under his repeated provocations, he had finally met resistance from the Nightmare.

No matter how he looked at it, the will of the Proxy had to be behind this resistance.

The only problem was that the timing seemed rather inconvenient.

Under the Warehouse's adjustments, his condition appeared perfect; in reality, he was in a rarely seen pitiful state.

And as a prerequisite task numbered 1, this Proxy's Rank couldn't possibly be low no matter how he thought about it—or so he hoped, lest he waste his energy.

Just as he had told Mariana and the others: elevate your cognitive level to avoid being fooled by surface logic.

Calling the timing inconvenient was a layman's perspective; for a professional, having such a target appear right now was simply fantastic.

...

Snap!

With a crisp snap, Fu Qian crushed the solid black arrow in his hand and observed the reaction.

The projectile had flown in utter silence, but snapping it yielded a distinctly physical sensation.

But that was only for a fleeting moment. Before the arrow's fragments could even hit the ground, they dissolved into a Turbulence of black arcs and dissipated into the surroundings.

For a world devoid of the Transcendent Tier, such a sight was undoubtedly a shock to one's perception.

At least, that was how Mariana and her companions reacted.

The moment they tore their eyes away from the fading Turbulence, the two awakened ones snapped their gazes toward Fu Qian, as if to confirm whether this was merely his sleight of hand.

Fortunately, he didn't need to waste any breath explaining himself.

His expression unchanged, Fu Qian repeatedly snatched at the air with his other hand. By the time he stopped, he had three more arrows.

Snap—

Giving them no time to process their shock, Fu Qian crushed all three together, bathing the awakened ones in a sea of black Turbulence.

"Someone's there!"

With a hint that obvious, even the most oblivious person would finally catch on. Mariana whipped her head toward the far end of the Corridor and cried out in alarm.

While her observational skills might have been too lacking to spot the dark arrows mid-flight, she wasn't so blind that she would miss the humanoid figures down the hall.

From the depths of the Corridor, three bizarrely shaped silhouettes were sprinting toward them without a single sound.

No faces could be seen; they were clad from head to toe in strangely shaped Armor. Every movement rippled with the same black Turbulence from earlier. No matter how one looked at them, they radiated an entirely inhuman aura.

Coupled with the short Crossbows at their waists, it was obvious the earlier attack had been launched by them, rather than being some parlor trick from Excellency Grimshaw.

...

Was this... proof?

Had he done all that earlier, forcing the Dark Moon to reveal itself, just so their group could witness this scene?

If so, then these three guys were here for Grimshaw—and yes, those arrows had indeed been aimed at him.

Subconsciously shifting into a combat stance alongside Ben, Mariana felt her mind racing uncontrollably.

So these were the incarnations of the "Nightmare"? The things she had always vaguely felt but had never actually seen?

Not only were they real, but they had very likely been aware of their actions all evening, merely choosing to ignore them.

Only when the Dark Moon showed itself did they instantly mount such a violent response...

"Yes, and they're here for me."

As if knowing what she was thinking, Fu Qian gave a slight nod.

As if to prove his point, amidst the inmates' screams, the three silhouettes rushed right up to them, the black arcs of light in their palms even coalescing into Spikes.

Without a single sound, the leading figure vaulted high into the air, driving straight for Fu Qian's chest.

Of the remaining two, one held Spikes to flank him, while the other had already raised a short Crossbow and taken aim at Fu Qian.

...

They really hadn't cared about her group in the slightest.

Faced with such an array, Mariana instantly felt a profound sense of dismissal.

At the same time, from such a close distance, the figures of the three attackers became much clearer—

Aside from the Armor and hazy Turbulence, the most conspicuous point was that their entire bodies seemed to be in some unstable flicker, like a Reflection in rippling water.

They weren't the guards here. They weren't even human...

The moment that thought surfaced, the silhouette that had lunged forward like lightning flew back at an even faster speed.

The Cannibal Painter was still standing there. She hadn't even seen him make a move.

However, not only had the repelled attacker's Spikes shattered, but its body was pasted to the floor like a puddle of wet mud, completely losing any ability to move again.

Looking closely, the spot where it was pasted was even the exact same place it had leaped from...

That realization made Mariana's heart skip a beat. Just then, a crystalline spear shrieked across her field of vision.

The crossbow-wielding attacker, having just found a firing angle and preparing to shoot, had a cloud of white mist directly explode from its body. It tumbled to the ground, following in the footsteps of its comrade.

This time, she saw it clearly. That mysterious inmate had actually fired off such a terrifying attack from his fingertips.

Without retracting his hand, he took another step forward in the next moment. A snow-white Curved Blade cleaved through the empty air, directly slashing the final flanker away.

Even mid-flight, trails of ice crystals coiled around it and detonated.

Everything happened in an instant. The ambush ended with even greater efficiency than it had begun.

"Did Lady Raven mention anything about this?"

As if he had just done something completely trivial, Fu Qian smiled at Mariana and the other two.

...

There was no reply, but that was already an answer.

"When your eyes are truly open, many of the laws you believed in might not actually be laws."

Fu Qian offered a timely sigh, cranking the provocation to the maximum.

"So, regarding our actions, the Nightmare wasn't just completely aware, it even categorized them as insignificant and ignored us..."

Mariana finally spoke, her tone sounding as though she were gritting her teeth.

"We thought we were being stealthy, minimizing our footprint to the limit, but it was actually just a naive misunderstanding?"

Under Fu Qian's guidance, this wasn't a difficult conclusion to reach, but it certainly hurt enough.

"Don't be so pessimistic. Regardless, you're still the ones who kicked off tonight's events, aren't you?"

Fu Qian's consolation completely lacked sincerity and even seemed to rub salt in the wound.

Although Mariana's newfound realization still contained elements of misunderstanding.

For instance, in his view, as long as these awakened ones caused a big enough commotion, there was a high probability they could still draw someone out; the Dark Moon's power wasn't necessarily a prerequisite.

But that was the art of communication.

"It looks like they really are the guards here."

Just then, Esther, the apprentice awakened one who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke up in a hushed reminder.

Following her voice, they saw that amidst the black Turbulence, the Armor on the three figures on the ground had already dissipated, surprisingly revealing human bodies.

They were even in standard uniforms.

They really just possessed people at will and slipped away when they couldn't win.

Fu Qian sighed inwardly, not finding it too surprising.

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