Eldritch Horror Theatre

Madam Xia truly does not deceive me.

Although he had discovered the root of the illness, as a Good Doctor of Laerdin, Fu Qian did not step forward to examine it.

Because it was obvious his own digestive problems were also severe.

Or, strictly speaking, an absorption problem.

Under the effect of Insight, the Bronze Ring Fish he had swallowed was rapidly dissolving.

What followed, however, was not a new acquisition, but a sudden, massive amplification of the negative effect he had just obtained.

It felt like shifting from front-wheel to four-wheel drive.

Fu Qian's sense of self instantly scattered, feeling as though it were merging with the stomach enveloping him.

An eerie turbulence surged during this tug-of-war, bringing with it the faint sensation that he was about to pass away.

Indeed. Just before deploying Myriad Tentacles, the cooldown for Pseudo-God Incarnation had ended, and Fu Qian had not hesitated to burn another 10 points of SAN Value.

It truly lived up to the name of a Rank 1 Mission!

While literally engaged in a tug-of-war over his own sense of self, Fu Qian silently watched the anomaly in the corner, holding back from any drastic action.

He naturally had no interest in killing Frankie's group of four.

Otherwise, they never would have escaped in one piece.

In fact, Fu Qian didn't even care to warn those lost lambs and wake them up to the truth.

His goal in launching that attack had been incredibly simple. Pushed to their absolute limits, the Fallen Star Clan had already exhausted their usefulness.

As a bloodthirsty capitalist, how could he waste even a single second?

The natural next step was to swiftly discard the residue and move on to the next beast of burden, or at least a potential one.

Like that Nightmare Proxy.

If he couldn't find him, there was no longer any value in continuing this mission.

The problem was that, from the very beginning up until now, the entity with such tremendous control over the Nightmare hadn't shown the slightest intention of making an appearance. He was even shyer than expected.

And Fu Qian didn't have the time to play hide-and-seek.

So, he simply created the conditions to force him to come out.

Right on cue, that writhing mass of flesh had swelled to the size of a person.

In the next moment, it even used appendages resembling hands and feet to perform a self-excision, wrenching a body out from within itself.

......

No facial features, no hair.

Landing gracefully on all fours, that mass formed entirely of churning Turbulence stretched itself into the shape of a human body.

Its surface even shimmered with that legendary iridescent black.

The moment it stood upright, this mannequin-like construct struck the exact same pose as Fu Qian.

The only difference was that its left arm remained intact.

Fu Qian didn't try changing his posture to see if it would copy him.

Because in that very instant, he had completely lost control of his own body.

As compensation, however, he gained the sense of self for two bodies.

It was an incredibly bizarre sensation.

Just as the enveloping "stomach" felt like a part of him, the sensations transmitted from the body across from him were over ten times stronger, making it infinitely harder to detach himself from it.

Fu Qian instantly felt a profound sense of self-examination—shared with another will.

At this moment, every part of his body was flooded with a chaotic alternation: the scattering of his identity from swallowing the fragment, and the eroding sensation from his contact with the Bronze Ring Fish.

And this was exactly why he couldn't move.

The slightest misstep would mean permanently losing that part of his sense of self.

And this loss would be far more than just physical.

This was true contamination.

"You are quite unique, but the ending was decided long ago."

A moment later, a voice from the source of the contamination actually emanated from beneath the blurred face standing opposite him.

It was an incredibly distinct voice, sounding something like a cheap, blown-out speaker. Every word was a tangle of distorted, conflicting tones, carrying an effect that almost pierced the dimensional barrier to deliver a direct Mental Shock.

Not to mention, the voice actually possessed a psychic counterpart.

As he heard it with his ears, a strange realization simultaneously surfaced in his mind: it felt as though he was the one speaking those words.

Faced with this dual-layered Mental Shock, anyone with a slightly weaker will would have gone mad on the spot, unable to maintain their last shred of balance.

......

"It really is a piece of a skull."

Yet under the barrage of that demonic voice, Fu Qian carefully manipulated his vocal cords, delivering a response that clearly transcended normal human logic.

Fortunately, his opponent wasn't a normal human either.

This was evidenced by the fact that, despite remaining silent, the entity naturally reached a black hand up to stroke the back of its head.

Right there, a patch of its smooth, hairless skull was actually missing.

The edges were jagged and rough, as if a piece had been violently torn away.

And looking through that gap, the interior was even more astonishing.

If it had been entirely composed of churning Turbulence, Fu Qian wouldn't have found it particularly strange.

After all, there was a ninety-nine percent chance this was the Proxy connected to the core power of the Nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising at all if it shared the same material makeup as the Pool of Origin.

But taking a closer look now, the interior was far more chaotic than he had imagined.

Alongside the black Turbulence, all sorts of bizarre, wholly incompatible constructs were churning and floating to the surface.

It immediately brought to mind a waterlogged dumpster.

This incredibly grotesque sight almost gave one the urge to touch their own skull.

And Fu Qian was, indeed, touching his.

Because the instant the entity had reached for its head, Fu Qian's body had almost perfectly mirrored the motion.

"I bestowed it upon them long ago, but I never expected you to eat it."

After rubbing its head for a few seconds, that eerie voice finally echoed once more, acknowledging the issue Fu Qian had pointed out.

"A very unique countermeasure, but it is not enough to grant you immunity to the influence."

......

Not bad at all. It was far more talkative than he had expected.

Fu Qian was immediately quite satisfied with this reaction.

Of course, he didn't assume the entity was just a chatty villain.

There was a clear purpose behind its words—such as helping to physically and mentally break down his resistance.

Proof of this was the fact that whenever it spoke, Fu Qian had to expend a massive amount of effort just to suppress the urge to repeat its words aloud.

"A Proxy?"

Even so, Fu Qian still cherished this opportunity to converse.

"You could say that. I am an Emissary of the great beings, and a warden."

Just as he suspected, it didn't mind answering questions at all.

Great beings. It seemed he now knew where that dumpster-like sensation came from.

"Although one dominates the majority, there isn't just one higher entity's will within this Nightmare, is there? It's a mixture of many powers?"

"Yes."

As expected.

With the entity's candid admission, Fu Qian immediately felt that many more of his questions had been answered.

"The Sacred Relics in the pools—they are the manifestations of those other, chaotic powers? You extracted them and placed them there?"

"Yes."

"And the missing blade..."

Halfway through his question, Fu Qian had already seen the answer.

The entity opposite him slowly drew a short blade out from within its own body.

And aimed it at him.

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