"Here?"
Fu Qian looked at the door before him.
Truthfully, it was the most unfamiliar door of them all. It was dark green, yet flames seemed to smolder within it.
The surface was uneven, covered in large and small spherical bulges. At a glance, it looked incredibly secure.
"Here."
The Witch was clearly observing it as well, and she was absolutely certain.
"Does it have a name?"
Giving a slight nod, Fu Qian indicated he did not yet know the honorific name corresponding to this door.
"Damon Moore... and the Dark Moon."
Aha, finally found it.
At that moment, Fu Qian sighed inwardly as he gazed at the desolate scenery filling his vision.
This was the true God Corroder.
...
If the Dark Moon truly left traces within the Nightmare Corridor, what form would they take?
For this operation, that question was utterly unavoidable.
And for the two of them, there was one reference point they couldn't ignore either: the Persuader.
It was already known that he hailed from a world where the Dark Moon once existed, and that he was some sort of abstract, conceptual creature.
It was also known that even now, the reason for his appearance in the Nightmare Corridor remained a mystery...
It was hard not to suspect the Dark Moon's handiwork in all of this.
Of course, even if the Dark Moon was truly responsible, it was nearly impossible for them to maintain any connection now.
One should never treat their opponents as fools. Faced with a character of such suspicious origins, The Prisoners had likely scrutinized him until their eyes bled.
If there had been even the slightest clue, they would have followed the trail and rooted him out long ago.
Even if they hadn't completely annihilated him, they would have found a way to use him.
Yet, despite Fu Qian entering and exiting The Corridor so many times, no one had ever used anything similar to test him.
It wasn't until this exploration from the Witch's end that their current collision occurred.
To insist this was all part of The Prisoners' plan was highly improbable.
In short, the current situation could be summarized like this: the "former Dark Moon" was hiding here through some special method, while The Prisoners were using this as bait to string the two of them along and buy themselves a chance to escape.
And since the Persuader had been fully confirmed as unimportant, he was safely released to mislead them.
Exactly. Previously, there might have been a tiny chance that the Persuader was naturally going mad, his behavior a result of his own shattered mental state.
But his current actions? It was nearly impossible that he hadn't been guided by malicious forces.
The Witch's overly ruthless methods along the way, combined with the dark seeds currently planted in all The Prisoners via the Inner Persuader, had undoubtedly created immense pressure.
The nearly motionless Blood Sea and the Inner Persuader, who had completely hidden himself away, were proof of this.
At this point, The Prisoners' courage for a direct confrontation was completely exhausted, and they had clearly entered a phase of evasive warfare.
They were fortifying their defenses and clearing the field, mobilizing all their resources to trap the two of them here.
Therefore, no matter how natural or lifelike the Persuader's reactions seemed, Fu Qian leaned toward the belief that the door he had just chosen was the one among all the options that would make it hardest for him and the Witch to discover anything.
But it didn't matter, because the Witch had chosen another one.
As for why the Witch could pick this specific door out of nowhere?
It wasn't out of nowhere.
The Book of Precepts in the Witch's hands was something only she could decipher, and in essence, it could be considered the Persuader's "hometown."
Her Dark Moon Mother might no longer have any ties to the Persuader, but this book certainly did.
From the very beginning, they had never expected the Persuader to actually lead the way when they ordered him around, nor had they ever expected him to remain uninfluenced by The Prisoners.
On the contrary, it was all to gamble on a sliver of possibility: that the Persuader's relevant details might continue to manifest within the Book of Precepts—such as exactly who was manipulating his will.
What they needed was a name—one that might be related to the Dark Moon.
...
In truth, not just for himself, but even the methods the Witch had employed up until now could be considered relatively mild.
Perhaps her playing style was aggressive, but at least she hadn't started smashing people with the chessboard.
Specifically, while their actions against The Prisoners had been ruthless, they had never attempted to tear the prison down.
The reason had been mentioned before. Overly violent methods might destroy the traces left by the Dark Moon, which would in turn hinder their search.
The Prisoners obviously knew this as well, which was why their previous brutal clashes had remained within certain limits.
From this, it also seemed apparent that they hadn't considered letting the two of them break the prison apart to escape that way.
But for him and the Witch, just because they hadn't done it yet didn't mean they couldn't do it later.
Following the connection to the Dark Moon, the Witch could absolutely try to go full power and conduct a reckless, violent search.
So, under what circumstances would they consider this violent brute-force approach? After securing some definitive clues.
For example, knowing exactly which door the Dark Moon was hiding behind.
...
Divine Corrosion, the essence of the power the Persuader described, remained quite an interesting concept even from Fu Qian's current perspective.
To a certain extent, one could even say that the Persuader was parasitizing The Prisoners and The Corridor. What about the Dark Moon, then?
Could it fall under the same category?
Only more hidden, and perhaps more sinister, silently parasitizing The Prisoners—who had already lost their freedom—while remaining completely undetected by them.
To Fu Qian, this wasn't some wild fantasy, but a reasonable deduction based on the information they had.
It was even one of the few shortcuts available for the two of them to execute a covert maneuver.
No matter how much grasp The Prisoners had on the Dark Moon, they would desperately try to cover it up and prevent the two of them from finding it.
And trying to thoroughly defeat them step by step in a direct confrontation within the rules they had drawn up would undoubtedly be a long and arduous process.
Perhaps it wasn't impossible, but simply for the sake of seeking knowledge, Fu Qian wasn't inclined to take such a risk.
Hence the earlier scene where the Persuader had been forcibly recalled.
All the commands issued after that were merely to give The Prisoners an opportunity to deceive the two of them.
Because during that manipulation, there was a chance their honorific names might leak onto the Book of Precepts through the Persuader.
And indeed, hard work pays off. After all that effort, they truly obtained a special honorific name that faintly confirmed the parasitism theory.
Damon Moore was naturally the higher entity behind this door, but the term Dark Moon had been appended to it.
"Let's begin."
Fu Qian didn't hesitate, gesturing directly.
"It has begun."
The Witch hesitated even less; that very door was already melting.
Illuminated by the blood and fog, the radiance of the Dark Moon became unprecedentedly brilliant.
...
What is this?
As the radiance dimmed slightly, Fu Qian realized they were already inside a small, compact building.
The space was so narrow that it was only large enough to house a single full-body statue in the center.
It wasn't particularly tall and stood silently with its back facing them, but he could still tell it was a woman.
In her left hand, she held an equally elegant and magnificent bow.
The key point was that this magnificence felt incredibly familiar, both to him and the Witch beside him.
"Blasphemous Embrace..."
The latter uttered the name with what sounded like a sigh of emotion.
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