Eldritch Horror Theatre

An indiscriminate area-of-effect ultimate move still couldn't compare to a lock-on skill.

Whether described as an avatar or a divine body hidden in the mist, his excellency the Inner Persuader was undoubtedly highly concealed right now, making him difficult to pin down.

Channeling a cast-time ability in this situation for direct, indiscriminate blanket coverage not only subtly displayed the dominance of a higher entity, but was also an extremely clever strategy no matter how one looked at it.

It was, after all, the condensed manifestation of five prisoners' desire for freedom. Because of this, their previously pathetic state of shattering at a single touch no longer seemed so glaring; instead, it had transformed into the wisdom of a roundabout approach.

As for the Witch's judgment, Fu Qian naturally did not doubt it in the slightest.

This thing was highly likely something akin to an "ultimate pollution." If the channeling finished, it would probably easily diminish the chances of the two of them escaping.

Why not quietly hide and channel such a powerful ultimate move behind the scenes, then?

He recalled a concept already verified during his last Nightmare Corridor mission—

Only a rule that one also obeyed oneself could restrain others to the greatest extent. Otherwise, no matter how flashy the setup, its upper limit would never exceed one's own absolute strength.

In short, even as the hosts, they still had to observe basic rules.

If the group had been strong enough to produce such an effect by casting from behind the scenes, their stance would have been much more proactive.

Of course, the "strength" here included mentality—namely, whether they could overcome the mindset of "better fellow Daoists die than myself" mentioned earlier.

After all, drawing circles behind someone's back to curse them—a tasteless act leaving the victim with no counterplay—meant they had to consider the possibility of the target directly flipping the board.

At that point, the risk to the situation and the personal risk to The Prisoners themselves would both be issues requiring careful deliberation.

All in all, the Inner Persuader being able to step out and channel a skill like this was indeed the ultimate display of courage.

It was a pity, however, that their confidence in the Witch's determination was far inferior to his own.

When the Witch explained the severe consequences, she didn't show the slightest intention of signaling him to intervene, so Fu Qian firmly decided on quietly observing changes.

And the changes finally unfolding before his eyes seemed to explain the meaning behind the Witch's previous actions.

The dispersing lightless stars were seemingly tracking the Inner Persuader based on some specific characteristic.

Hard to distinguish true from false? It didn't matter. The arrows would naturally find their true target.

Omnipresent, regardless of which position they were at within these nested iterations of The Corridor?

That didn't matter either. Every time a door opened, new dark stars set off.

Even in Fu Qian's observations, it felt as though the number of those bone-clinging stars had gathered every single one from the previous two releases.

Therefore, ignoring all obstacles, ignoring time and space, they gave eternal chase—

At that moment, the downward pressure of the Blood Sea seemed to slow, while the Stars that were just about to gather instantly carved out their own arcs, diving deep into the dense fog and vanishing from sight.

His excellency the Inner Persuader didn't seem too keen on continuing to share the same room. His true self had already run off somewhere else.

"Continue."

The Witch paid it no mind, and Fu Qian clapped his hands, snapping the dazed Persuader back to his senses.

"You two..."

Despite being highly regarded, the Persuader's psychological pressure seemed to be growing heavier.

Unable to keep his eyes off the slowly approaching Blood Sea, the Persuader looked as if he no longer knew how to respond to the trust Fu Qian and the Witch had placed in him.

"Aren't you doing a great job? The target really was here."

Fu Qian made a gesture, offering both affirmation and encouragement.

...

Put that way, there really was no issue in theory.

Although in the current situation, it seemed highly likely they would find the Inner Persuader no matter which door they opened.

But regardless of what kind of stream-of-consciousness posture it was, the Persuader had indeed found the way here earlier, and the Inner Persuader was truly present.

"Alright."

What a pity; the modest words ultimately remained unspoken.

After only a brief hesitation, the Persuader resigned himself to his fate under their dual urging and continued forward.

"He seems to have been locked in before the Long Night."

Following behind once again, the Witch and Fu Qian chatted casually, completely lacking the self-awareness of cruel exploiters.

"It does sound a bit like that."

Faced with the Witch's somewhat abrupt remark, Fu Qian agreed without hesitation.

Mad or not, his excellency the Inner Persuader was suspected to be a dignified higher entity.

Anything he casually said was in a completely different league from the legendary golden words and jade speech.

Therefore, Fu Qian had clearly counted even the few "woo" sounds from earlier, let alone the other party's sigh during his second appearance—"Was that night this dark as well?"

Considering that almost all current core subjects couldn't bypass the boundless Long Night from a thousand years ago, this statement truly left too much room for imagination.

It was like a young man imprisoned early on, only able to imagine the liveliness of a certain doomsday moment through the word of mouth of outsiders.

Though in that case, the origins of the Nightmare Corridor became even more bizarre.

A cruel torture of eternal punishment, with a sentence passed even before that catastrophe?

Then who would have taken on the role of this law enforcer? And what was the crime?

Not to mention, how did this wisp of Dark Moon Brilliance that had drawn the two of them here manage to slip inside?

Along with the unique passageway function of this place.

"He has even seen the Primordial Moon."

As numerous questions surfaced in his mind, Fu Qian didn't forget another piece of information revealed in the Inner Persuader's earlier words.

The latter had highly praised the Dark Moon Brilliance displayed by the Witch, calling it even more dreamlike than the Primordial Moon.

"He even considers these to be two powers that can be compared side by side."

The Witch clearly remembered it as well, giving a slight nod as she distilled the main point.

Indeed. If he really was such an old-timer who had been locked up before the Long Night, it wouldn't be strange for him to know the Primordial Moon.

The key lay in this subconscious comparison, which faintly explained far too much already.

Blue, White, and Red—these moons truly had the flavor of being branches of the same root.

"The moon, not just the moon, heh... Ignorance, yet a pure ignorance, an enviable clarity..."

It was a pity that even though they actively brought up such a topic, it sounded like his excellency the Inner Persuader wasn't prepared to speak of the past any further, and was instead happy to simply admire the duo's thirst for knowledge.

The Persuader walked quickly this time. During their brief conversation, he had already opened another door, and then another door behind that one—but the result remained the same.

The dreamlike Dark Moon Brilliance neither grew more intense nor weakened, while the speed at which the Blood Sea fell overhead suddenly returned to its normal pace.

Sure enough, it was another parallel loop. The name "The Corridor" was becoming more and more fitting.

The only comforting thing was that his excellency the Inner Persuader wasn't absent—Whoosh!

Accompanied by Fu Qian's mentally dubbed sound effects, another mass of Luminous Darkness directly exploded from the Witch's hand.

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