Eldritch Horror Theatre

"When you touched the Statue, what did you see?"

The Witch made no effort to hide her pleasure at the tacit understanding they had just displayed.

Even after such a harrowing ordeal, however, she didn't waste time rehashing events, cutting straight to the point instead.

Fu Qian had clearly made a discovery back in the Corridor, though he had held off on mentioning it to save time.

The Witch was undeniably intrigued by a discovery that was, by all accounts, connected to "Mother."

"Remember when I mentioned the Full Moon Garden? The place where I first touched the Transcendent Tier."

Fu Qian had no intention of hiding anything, pointing at himself as he spoke.

"The Statue showed you that directly?"

The Witch was clearly taken aback.

Prompted by the flowers found here, she had previously harbored vague suspicions that her Templar Knight's enlightenment might carry Mother's will. Was this direct proof?

"Yes. And beyond the flowers your Mother liked, there were many other traces inside: a bright, pale full moon, a half-man, half-wolf monster, and a barefoot doctor I could actually talk to..."

Rattling them off like family treasures, Fu Qian detailed the scenes within the Full Moon Garden.

"So this garden... is it in your world?"

Her gaze fixed in a moment of pensive silence as she digested all this, the Witch soon proposed a rather associative leap.

"That was my thought as well. After all, your Mother left quite a few traces in that world, yet you can't touch them at all."

Fu Qian clearly agreed that this was the most likely possibility.

The Witch could distinctly sense something amiss about the Full Moon Garden, yet she was utterly unable to peer inside.

She had actually encountered this exaggerated barrier of concealment just recently—when she forcibly triggered a Descent into the Other Shore.

Despite expending far more effort and nearly sacrificing the entire Deity Remains, the Witch—finally standing in the Other Shore—had deemed the outside world 'completely unknowable.'

Considering the subsequent leakage of the Other Shore's attributes—which even seemed to have polluted her 'homeland'—one had to suspect that the Other Shore's own unique nature had played a massive role in allowing that Descent to succeed.

Even the Witch herself had admitted that the effects of the Descent were far better than imagined.

Thinking back on it now, the Bookstore World's rejection of her was likely far stronger than imagined.

If the sacrifice had been performed outside the Other Shore, it might not have yielded much of a result.

In short, for a place so brimming with lunar elements to remain utterly untouchable by the very incarnation of the moon, only an explanation of this magnitude made logical sense.

...

"So this bow... did They intentionally deliver it into your hands?"

Conspiracy theories were always quite fun, so much so that once they started, it was often hard to stop.

Receiving Fu Qian's confirmation, the Witch naturally moved her thoughts toward the matter of the Blasphemous Embrace.

As she spoke, a radiant physical object had already materialized in her hand.

Even though it was useless now, she had still kept it with her...

Fu Qian studied the gift he had given away.

It was exactly because of this item that the connection to this distant land hadn't been completely severed after that task.

After all, judging from the way the Warehouse directly confiscated the mission items, there was a high probability it hadn't planned on assigning him any more related tasks.

From this perspective, this item—which had seemed so useless when he chose it—had actually shouldered the burden of acting as the bond connecting two worlds.

So, what would have happened if he had chosen the other item back then?

Quietly contemplating the handiwork of a higher entity, Fu Qian couldn't help but recall the other option he had discarded.

Something like a bow gave him the choice to use it or not. In fact, unless he shot the sun first, the Witch had no way to initiate contact with him on her own.

But the Demigod Ritual... something like that would have been far more extreme.

The Divine Path, the covenant, the pollution... walking this road, he had seen the catastrophic price of choosing the wrong profession far too many times.

Had he not been so confident back then and opted for that shortcut instead, it was glaringly obvious he would have ended up as an extra tool on top of his regular Warehouse duties.

Excellency First Generation Dark Moon might have been a romantic who loved flowers, but Fu Qian severely doubted They had expended so much effort leaving behind such an arrangement just for fun.

"It seems so. They appear very familiar with the power backing me, even if their specific goal is still hard to pinpoint."

A moment later, he nodded, agreeing with the Witch's hypothesis.

Unlike the Blazing Rainbow, while the First Generation Dark Moon's actions also targeted the Warehouse and the administrator, the hostility was clearly much milder.

It didn't even seem like a setup meant to 'invade' that world; all the various arrangements were obviously geared more toward this side.

So, was it to find a tool for Offspring?

The process might have been a bit convoluted, but this possibility definitely couldn't be ruled out.

After all, this 'tool' meant someone who could, to a certain extent, call upon the space-time power of the Warehouse.

He had even gotten involved in subsequent events, like the reappearance of Ancient Laerdin.

"If you hadn't come over back then, I would have soon met my final moment."

Beside him, the Witch was clearly remembering the exact same thing, gesturing again with the scroll in her hand.

"And this time, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had the chance to enter the Corridor and obtain this."

...

"It's part of the job. Besides, haven't you already given me a reward?"

Despite the Pope's high praise, Fu Qian—the man in question—hadn't forgotten his identity as a Templar Knight in the slightest, waving a hand naturally.

Granted, the points the Witch brought up certainly carried a heavy scent of premeditated scheming.

Truthfully, however, the core of it all still relied on his own subjective initiative.

Even if a normal person obtained the Blasphemous Embrace, it was highly questionable whether they would use it as recklessly as he had.

Even later, when the Witch stopped responding, he likely wouldn't have been able to launch a hurricane rescue operation if not for his substantial savings.

From this angle, the First Generation Dark Moon possessed a certain easygoing nature—casually placing a piece on the board and leaving the rest to fate.

"When I obtained this item, the description of its effect stated that it temporarily seals the sun."

After implying that his current situation was of his own making, Fu Qian abruptly changed the subject, turning his focus to another issue.

The item description for the Blasphemous Embrace wasn't long, but it left a deep impression.

And if it truly was as seen in the Nightmare Corridor, and this was the First Generation Dark Moon's former weapon—the moon obscuring the sun?

That sort of scene made it far too easy to draw associations.

If he remembered correctly, the sign that the Long Night had begun was both the moon and the sun losing their responsiveness, leaving only the Stars in the sky.

Not long ago, he had even teamed up with the Night Watchers and the Origin Council, traveling back thousands of years to verify this very point.

"Are you trying to say... That Long Night?"

Hearing the melody and grasping the intent, the Witch quickly made the connection as well, though the conclusion was understandably a bit weighty.

"From what is currently known, your Mother was indeed quite active during That Long Night."

Fu Qian nodded.

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