Eldritch Horror Theatre

She truly was the young talent he had such high hopes for.

He vaguely remembered hearing that not every demigod could assume a Mythical Form.

Of course, Fu Qian didn't mistake Su Gao's sudden transformation for the Ark abruptly revealing its true intentions and detonating all its accumulated negative influence at once.

After all, he had a wealth of combat experience against High-Tier Transcendents. This was hardly the first time he had seen an opponent transform when they couldn't win.

While she hadn't quite reached a state where one wouldn't dare look directly at her, Su Gao's shift into White Porcelain brought much more than just a vintage aesthetic.

It was a release of power far closer to her very essence.

Keener, sharper, and far more fragile...

Fu Qian had no doubt that if she swung that sword at him right now, even he would have a hard time weathering it.

The same went for the Ark.

‘Is my left hand actually faster than my right?’

Even though he could clearly track the blade's trajectory, that classic line still popped into his head.

The light, the mist, and this space that felt like it had been sealed away for a millennium—everything began to tremble under her strike.

...

He had originally estimated that leaving a place like this would be far more difficult than entering it.

And he was right. Beneath Su Gao's sword, he could distinctly feel the stubborn resilience of this space.

Unfortunately for the space, the one breaking its walls was no longer the same either.

‘How could the Demigod Might of our Demigod Su be contained by the likes of you!’

After a single glance at the eerie sight of the space vibrating like a plucked string, and the tear rapidly expanding from a single point, Fu Qian shifted his full attention to the cowering half-fare child.

Classmate Su Gao was truly efficient; he needed to hurry up as well.

And from the looks of it, this creature's intelligence really wasn't very high.

"Look here."

Fu Qian called out, raising his hand to mimic a gun and pantomiming a shot.

Boom—

Except, something actually fired out.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of black-and-red tentacles violently erupted from his arm, halting in perfect unison less than ten centimeters from the target's body.

‘It's been a while since I used this move.’

Satisfied with his control, Fu Qian manipulated a few tentacles at the tip of his Biochemical Demonic Arm to maintain his finger-gun pose.

He really had no intention of killing it; he was just scaring the kid.

As for his motive?

An instant later, an inhuman shriek tore from the deformed body's mouth. Its sharp, elongated claws aimed directly at him and viciously slashed the air.

From the tip of each finger, worm-like streams of dark red flesh spewed out, clashing fiercely against Fu Qian's tentacles in an attempt to drive off the threat.

"Ready to go?"

Su Gao's voice rang out right on cue. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tear—much like the one they had entered through—slowly but steadily expanding.

"Let's go."

He gave a casual reply. After confirming that Su Gao had already leaped through the gap, Fu Qian retracted his tentacles and cast one last look at the half-fare child's face.

‘Is he really an old acquaintance?’

With a certain suspicion now faintly verified, Fu Qian finally stepped through the shrinking exit, following right behind her.

...

Marco from Dunis... there really was a resemblance.

That final stunt of his wasn't just some twisted sense of humor acting up, of course.

Compared to its mother, the face of this newborn was actually quite well-preserved—to be more precise, it still barely looked human.

Between the vague charm in its features and the distinct feel of its Transcendent aura, it had stirred a faint sense of familiarity in Fu Qian from the very first moment he laid eyes on it.

It was just a pity that the creature clearly couldn't communicate, nor did it show any particular reaction upon seeing his face.

Then again, he hadn't exactly used his current face back in Dunis. Expecting it to recognize him might have been asking too much.

Fu Qian had initially planned to pinch its cheeks to gauge its reaction, but Demigod Su's execution was simply too efficient. She had cleaved open their path home with a single strike.

And so, his only option was to probe it at the very end by using a technique similar to Brother Marco's specialty.

It turned out the creature was quite cooperative. The counterattack it unleashed under his provocation was the exact same trump card that Origin Council elite, Marco, had played right before being sent to his grave in Dunis.

Truly fascinating.

He hadn't just watched the man's body get blasted to pieces back then; the final mission evaluation had explicitly tallied him as a confirmed kill.

Yet he was still alive?

Or had he achieved a true rebirth by "crawling out of a mother's womb" like this?

Or was this actually just his little twin brother?

He couldn't forget that during his time at Silver Mist Manor, he had already run into two other, far more promising individuals.

Malfu and Malka. Those two were a pair of demigods, and despite suffering the exact same fate of being blown to smithereens, they hadn't been registered as kills at all.

At the time, he had wondered if they had left behind a Phylactery or something similar hidden away somewhere.

Could this place be exactly that?

Were they all born inside the Ark?

If that was true, then this went far beyond just the three Marr brothers.

Could the Marr Family even be considered a thousand-year-old dynasty?

Most importantly, given that all three brothers were elites of the Origin Council, it was solid proof that this place was undeniably tied to that secret organization.

"Professor Fu, the location seems to be correct."

As his thoughts raced, Su Gao's voice called out from beside him, carrying a hint of confusion.

"But has the sky... gone dark?"

...

The location was indeed correct, and the sky had indeed gone completely dark.

Just as she had been before they entered the Ark, Su Gao was standing only a short distance away.

Prompted by her words, Fu Qian scanned their surroundings and came to the exact same conclusion.

First of all, this was without a doubt still the Benevolent Curse Institute. His suppressed perception had fully recovered; the two of them had successfully escaped.

What was bizarre, however, was that they had clearly descended two floors inside the Ark. Yet the place they had emerged from wasn't just entirely removed from the Underground they had started in—it was actually at a higher elevation.

He could even see Professor Ah Kai's office situated just a short distance away.

Aside from that, there was one more issue—the sky had grown profoundly dark.

It had been the crack of dawn when they first entered the Ark, and the light throughout their journey inside had been almost blindingly bright. Yet, stepping back outside, it looked exactly like the dead of night.

"Time. The flow of time in there was probably warped."

Retracting his gaze with a slight nod, Fu Qian casually offered his read on the situation, signaling to Su Gao that she didn't need to worry about having opened the wrong door.

"There's no rush to head out. Check yourself first."

Glancing at Su Gao, who was still maintaining her Mythical Form, Fu Qian gestured for her to prioritize inspecting herself rather than worrying about the environment. Then, he walked off to the side and found a place to sit down.

"Okay."

Instantly accepting his suggestion, Su Gao finally lowered her sword.

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