Eldritch Horror Theatre

'The momentum of offense and defense has changed.'

'Ariel, even if your resolve is iron and you gladly embrace martyrdom, what will you do if I simply expel you from the fold altogether?'

At that moment, Fu Qian could almost hear the dialogue playing in his head.

In all fairness, it was a brilliant move.

He simply refused to die despite repeated waves of strangulation, consistently acting as an Anchor Point to guide the continuous accumulation of Calamity.

It had reached the point where His Excellency the Solitary King, on the very verge of giving birth, was actually too intimidated to let his water break.

Right now, every passing second had been won through immense effort right under the noses of the Night Watchers. A stalemate was absolutely unacceptable.

Since repeated attempts had failed to crush him to dust, it was better to stop trying. Rather than waste another second, they had simply banished him—out of sight, out of mind.

Long before arriving at the Hall of Union, back when he was still committed to playing his current persona, Fu Qian had deeply empathized with a similar sentiment.

Even their identity wasn't all that surprising to him—Rom?

...

Yes, Fu Qian knew perfectly well that the one banishing him was the entity inside the Solitary King's belly.

But as everyone knew, even if you were an Emperor, it was hard to say whether the child in your belly was actually yours.

Following his earlier deductions, the child in the Solitary King's belly held another identity. It was the very thing the Origin Council sought to obtain at any cost.

It was also the core objective of his current mission.

So, why would the Origin Council be willing to pay any price?

Even knowing the Night Watchers were present, and even after being dragged through the mud, they refused to give up. They were putting everything on the line, pulling chestnuts from the fire.

Even a top-tier tool like Ariel was implicitly being treated as a consumable.

He had already judged that the Origin Council had a specific goal in mind. Given the massive sunk costs they had poured in, the only logical explanation was that their ambitions were enormous—but just how enormous?

Although it was someone else's project, as a competitor, Fu Qian still had a decent grasp of the Origin Council's current core research subjects.

And if he recalled correctly, he had experienced this exact relentless, never-say-die spirit once before in Dunis—

Rejecting every unsuccessful future, Rom, the suspected Ancient Higher Being, had vowed to crown the pitiful Hamadus with his own name.

In the end, faced with the flawless defense provided by the Sweet Dream Head Cage, that burning ambition had been completely shattered, forcing Rom to swallow a humiliating defeat.

Yet even as the victor, Fu Qian had fully acknowledged that sheer force of will.

In any case, although he had never seen Rom's true form, His Excellency Rom was clearly the core focus of the Origin Council higher-ups' recent operations.

So, when they displayed this attitude of sparing no expense to accomplish a certain goal, Rom was the first entity that came to Fu Qian's mind.

As for how Rom had managed to get straight into someone's belly?

That wasn't strange either. He hadn't forgotten that during another mission related to His Excellency Rom—the one where he obtained the Record of Recollection—the final summary had explicitly stated that Rom held a certain amount of authority over the Order of Blood.

The core of that authority was tied to reproduction, aimed at iterating a brand-new, superior version of oneself.

Not to mention, during Rom's very first appearance, he had been trying to seize someone else's body. No matter how you looked at it, his original body had encountered a massive problem, and he was actively searching for a solution.

Under these circumstances, the crystal of love between the Solitary King and the Goddess of Sins was undoubtedly a target of exceptional aptitude. It perfectly suited Rom's authority.

As for how this process was being accomplished?

Fu Qian obviously didn't know the specific operational details, but he could easily figure out a crucial turning point: the Solitary King would use Descent on Ariel, and the latter would then serve as the medium.

One shouldn't take things for granted. The crow feathers might have popped out, but who was to say nothing else was hiding on that poor senior's body?

...

If that was truly the case, their absolute refusal to back down during their earlier clash of auras made perfect sense.

It seemed the Origin Council's understanding of this place was profound indeed.

They had exploited the unique characteristics of this place, sacrificing Ariel in exchange for the Solitary King's Descent.

This gave Rom, who was hidden within, the opportunity to establish a connection and quietly seize the body of the Solitary King's offspring.

If he hadn't been here to cause trouble, it was hard to imagine what kind of tragic fate awaited this shotgun-wedding couple.

And Rom truly lived up to his status as an Ancient Higher Being; his immense patience was fully on display.

Faced with Fu Qian causing trouble at every turn, Rom had actually managed to hold back from doing anything, simply to avoid unexpected complications.

Then again, Fu Qian's ability to draw aggro had also clearly been validated. Despite being so incredibly patient, His Excellency Rom had ultimately failed to keep his composure.

At this final, critical juncture, Rom had finally struck out to expel the disruptive element that was Fu Qian, ensuring his grand scheme would succeed.

Even the method he used was incredibly eye-opening.

It was his first time seeing this Beyond Categorization technique. No matter how you looked at it, this had to be an ultimate defensive trump card His Excellency Rom had specially prepared.

The sheer absurdity of its power made it feel like a massive waste to use on a mere Tier 2 like himself.

In Fu Qian's view, even if the Solitary King had been hit by this technique, he would have had little room to struggle, aside from desperately holding onto his sense of self until the duration ended.

More seriously, from this vantage point, the Goddess of Sins and His Excellency the Solitary King appeared terribly obtuse. They showed almost no reaction to the metaphorical paternity test being shoved right in their faces.

As his belly was torn and wildly contorted, His Excellency the Solitary King merely hugged the Goddess of Sins tighter in his agony, letting out groans that sounded like a mix of pain and pleasure...

The painstaking person is not failed by heaven. It seemed the Origin Council's scheme of pulling chestnuts from the fire was finally about to succeed—though the King of the Abandoned Prison and the Solitary King might not be quite the same.

'The latter can't be broken, but have you asked me, the Mechanical Tyrant?'

'Don't you know that surrogacy is illegal?'

Fu Qian took a deep breath.

...

His Excellency Rom's contingency plan was indeed brilliant, but he had miscalculated one crucial detail.

Using it against a Tier 2 was certainly overkill—like taking a butcher's knife to a chicken.

But was it possible that for the target of this banishment, even a butcher's knife wasn't enough?

Earlier, he had been unwilling to Descend in his true form out of consideration for the stability of the Solitary King Court.

Yet theoretically, didn't his current situation isolate him outside the Court?

'Then it seems this seat no longer needs to hold back.'

The only price to pay was the collapse of the persona he had so carefully maintained all this time. The battle between the true and fake Ariel would finally come to a close—Fu Qian exhaled the breath he had been holding.

He didn't immediately transform into the King of the Abandoned Prison to tear through the sky, because at that very moment, the laughter of a guest perfectly aligned with a certain old acquaintance. 'Patches?'

A gloomy face, sparse hair, and a vile aura that assaulted the senses just from his facial features alone... a specific image surfaced in Fu Qian's mind.

The Solitary King certainly had immense face. Had they actually managed to invite three higher entities to attend this wedding banquet?

As a result, the question of who was the true hunter in the shadows was suddenly cast into uncertainty once more.

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