Eldritch Horror Theatre

There was still no movement, but they hadn't come to the wrong place.

The space behind the door was indeed where the black pool used to be, and the traces of devastation were glaringly obvious.

Thanks to the Burning Frost variant of Myriad Tentacles he had unleashed back then, the surroundings had been sliced virtually smooth.

Even the water beneath their feet, which had once churned with Sacred Relics, had undergone some minor restoration and merged entirely into a single pool.

And even this sole remaining pool was completely empty.

It seemed that executing Brother Proxy last time hadn't greatly impacted the overall stability of Inner Laerdin, but it had left the Sacred Relic system without anyone to maintain it.

Plus, he had destroyed more than one of them himself. From what he remembered, the only one left was the Flexible Cranium—which was indeed currently held by Madam Xia.

Right by the pool, he could clearly see two figures locked in a standoff. The one facing this direction was Xia.

Yet, shockingly, neither she nor the Female Magnate spared a single glance in his direction.

"I'm not too familiar with dream powers. I can probably pause this for about a minute."

The Witch, who had followed him in, casually confirmed this with Fu Qian.

Exactly. It wasn't just that they didn't look; Xia and the Female Magnate looked as if someone had pressed the pause button on them. They stood with their mouths half-open, not even drawing a breath.

The changes within Inner Laerdin were already among the things they had planned to monitor.

Therefore, after discovering that the two magnates were in the middle of a heated exchange, both he and the Witch had tacitly agreed to stop and listen.

The reason they finally revealed themselves was that their eavesdropping had concluded without yielding anything particularly meaningful.

The Witch's reaction was even more decisive: she had casually thrown down a time-stopping barrier.

It seemed astonishing, but it wasn't actually that strange.

She had already demonstrated the ability to casually take over a Nightmare. Performing some minor manipulation on a masterless land where the Proxy had been killed was perfectly normal.

Moreover, considering the privacy of this place, the barrier's coverage area didn't need to be very large at all.

For Fu Qian, his curiosity lay in what the Witch intended to do now that they were here.

"But it should be enough. Let me see if I can find it."

Meeting his expectations, the Witch ignored the Sacred Relic in Xia's hand. The next moment, she stepped up to the pool and reached out.

The originally gossamer-like ripples instantly began to surge violently.

...

This commotion looked familiar.

Fu Qian naturally had full confidence in the Pope, staring intently without blinking.

Saying it looked familiar wasn't nonsense; a similar commotion had occurred around Brother Proxy back then.

As the vortex churned, bizarre things had even emerged from it—and the current situation was just as strange.

The Witch's control was truly reliable. In just a few breaths, something actually tumbled out of the black vortex. Drawn by an unseen force, it slowly landed in her hand.

It was about the length of a palm, colored in alternating red and green.

It was a small metallic bird with colors that could even be called vibrant. Near one of its wings, a winding mechanism was clearly visible.

Unfortunately, much of the paint had chipped off, revealing the cold, hard metal and rust beneath. For a moment, this made the pool truly fit his earlier comparison to a dumpster, as if it had produced a toy thrown away by a child.

Fortunately, despite emerging from that intensely oppressive liquid, it hadn't accumulated any extra grime.

Even through Fu Qian's radar vision, he could easily confirm its Transcendent properties.

Obviously, this thing fell into the same category as the other Sacred Relics of the Fallen Star Clan. It was one of the foundational elements sustaining this massive Nightmare.

"This should be it. Looks like my senses weren't wrong."

As Fu Qian made his silent appraisal, the Witch carefully examined the Clockwork Bird before finally nodding.

...

So, was this an innovative method? One she hadn't used before?

From the Witch's words, it wasn't hard to tell that she had only deduced such an item existed here. This was entirely her first time attempting this.

Of course, the Dark Moon Knight wouldn't question her because of this; he only felt the Pope's confidence.

As for how she deduced this item was here, that wasn't hard to imagine either.

The Pope already knew about this place and had even paid a visit earlier today. Grasping its specific properties would have been effortless for her.

For a moment, Fu Qian grew even more eager to see what the Witch planned to do with it.

Click... click...

The next moment, as the Witch toyed with it, she actually tried to wind the mechanism.

"Hold onto it."

She signaled for Fu Qian to place his hand on it.

Fu Qian did as instructed. However, as the winding mechanism turned, only the sound of internal gears grinding could be heard. The bird itself didn't move.

It seemed to be broken.

"We're here."

Though the people holding it experienced plenty of movement.

After a strange washing sensation—as if wandering between dreams and reality—the light suddenly brightened.

Prompted by the Witch's reminder, Fu Qian looked up. Before his eyes, the Underground forbidden area of the Fallen Star Clan was already gone.

Replacing it was a building brimming with the aura of everyday life, bathed in Bright Light—there were even figures actually moving around inside.

"The apocalypse?"

Looking at the brown hair trailing down a human's back in a nearby corner, Fu Qian turned to confirm with the Witch.

...

He had to admit, this was a stark contrast to a normal apocalyptic scene.

Laerdin was similarly bright and sunny, but it couldn't compare to this vibrant, lived-in atmosphere.

Even as he spoke, the person with their back to them started walking around.

Combined with the relatively tidy surroundings and the unique architecture, it felt as though they had stumbled into some ancient artisan's workshop.

It wasn't even hard to tell what the workshop produced.

At a glance, Fu Qian had already spotted more than one wooden rocking horse, along with miniature houses made of the same material.

They all looked like children's toys. While he didn't see the Clockwork Bird the Witch held, the aesthetic definitely matched.

As he took this in, Fu Qian felt he finally understood the Witch's thought process.

"Yes. This is a rather unique place among them. I felt it might be particularly sensitive to the situation you mentioned."

The Witch confirmed his words, showing him her empty hands.

"Although I know the location, spatial leaps in this world are still too unstable. We needed something to anchor our coordinates."

So that was it... From a Nightmare to the apocalypse, he had to admit that the Pope's thinking was incredibly flexible.

As for why an item from a Nightmare could help anchor coordinates to the Real World of the apocalypse?

It was actually easy to understand when considering the reason for Inner Laerdin's existence: it was originally created by the higher entities to pierce the barrier and corrupt the Real World.

It wasn't strange at all that a foundational element of its power corresponded to a certain scene devastated by the higher entities.

And as for why the Clockwork Bird had disappeared again?

It was only to anchor their coordinates. The Witch clearly had no intention of destroying Inner Laerdin just yet, so there was no need to bring an item like that out entirely.

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