Eldritch Horror Theatre

Did he change his outfit? He looks a lot more ferocious than before!

Looking at the murderous William standing before him, Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

But jokes aside, Fu Qian knew perfectly well that this wasn't just a visual upgrade.

William's current state was significantly stronger than before.

Just a single glance at the thorns wrapping his body was enough to sense the danger they posed.

Facing a formidable enemy, seemingly helpless and resorting to banter, only to secretly accumulate power, shatter his shackles under a goddess's blessing, and finally defeat the great demon king...

That's a textbook protagonist template. Did we get our scripts swapped?

"These are the Thorns of Sin."

William's increasingly grating voice interrupted his musings as he swung his Blood Thorn Longsword through the air.

"Now, you have no chance of escape."

"In the name of the Goddess, I shall purify the sin from your body."

"Sorry, I don't have any sin."

Faced with William's solemn declaration, Fu Qian patted his chest and quickly pointed out the flaw in his phrasing.

...

Gripping his sword with both hands, William fell silent for several seconds.

Strictly speaking, Fu Qian wasn't wrong.

Even though he had acted like a descending demon king the entire way, using methods that struck terror into others, he hadn't actually accumulated a single spark of the Fire of Sin.

"The existence of someone like you is a blasphemy against this world."

Seemingly realizing he was completely outmatched in a battle of wits, William spat out the words coldly and swung his sword without further nonsense.

At this moment, his entire body was wrapped in thorns and covered in spikes. He was basically a walking set of bladed armor right down to his crotch—an utterly shameless fighting form.

And with the Thorns of Sin completely enclosing the surrounding area, Fu Qian's room to maneuver had shrunk drastically.

"Now that's just a personal attack."

Fu Qian sighed. Relying on his top-tier bodily control, he twisted into a bizarre posture to dodge the strike.

He didn't stay idle after evading. He immediately transformed his right hand into a heavy hammer and swung a punch.

William's swordsmanship was clearly exquisite; he instantly shifted his angle to meet the fist.

Squelch!

Fist and sword clashed, spraying blood.

Fu Qian's heavy hammer, boasting a hardness comparable to alloy, was instantly pierced. Under the sweeping force of the blow, his entire right hand was nearly snapped off.

This thing is fierce!

Before William could push his advantage, Fu Qian tore his arm free along the direction of the thorns and retreated as if nothing had happened.

Not only was his hardened bone armor as fragile as tofu against them, but upon being pierced by these bizarre thorns, Fu Qian even felt something go wrong with the flesh and blood around the wound. It was no longer as vibrant as before.

Why does it feel like I've touched something filthy?

While dodging the barrage of follow-up attacks, Fu Qian drew his hand back and inspected the wound.

Like falling dominoes, radiating cuts spread outward from the puncture wound, causing the flesh and blood to rapidly splinter and disintegrate.

Even the seeping blood instantly transformed into a bizarre star-like shape.

To actually affect me to this degree, this thing's Rank isn't low!

Fu Qian frowned. The last time he'd felt this way was... well, the last time.

Back when he had just become a Blank-Slate Demigod, a bunch of High-Tier Existences had fought over trying to mold him into their shape.

And compared to that time, this thing felt even worse.

In all fairness, purely from a visual standpoint, this ring of sharp, dark red thorns was rather striking.

But the sensation of being stabbed by them was truly unpleasant.

A filthy sense of holiness—that was exactly what it felt like.

"Do you feel it? This is the power of sin!"

Having gained the upper hand, William unsurprisingly found his voice again.

"Even begging for mercy is useless now. I will personally bury your arrogance."

"Uh-huh!"

Fu Qian gave a perfunctory grunt, his feet never stopping.

However, hemmed in by the thorns, his space to maneuver was simply too small. In the time it took to exchange those few words, several new wounds opened up on his body.

Fu Qian didn't much mind this. Instead, he stared intently at his opponent, refusing to miss a single detail.

This near Deity Level manifestation of power didn't seem like something William could currently master. It likely came from the Goddess of Sins backing him.

Looking at it now, her reawakening was likely caused by William's series of actions.

The statue that originally appeared here was probably just a conceptual projection, perhaps only manifesting for a few days each year.

Although its Rank was quite high, capable of materializing the surrounding sin, it lacked any real autonomous consciousness.

It wasn't until William underwent a special covenant ritual and inadvertently became the First Sinner that he turned into a tool for gathering sin.

His subsequent actions to collect Sin Fire, the purification of even more people, and the growing number of sinners—all of these steps slowly brought the Goddess of Sins back to "life."

By now, she was already capable of doing many things.

Such as pulling in projections to harvest Sin Fire, or bestowing the Thorns of Sin upon William.

That's a reasonable deduction.

And as he darted and wove through the attacks, Fu Qian had already spotted an anomaly on William.

Every time he made a move, tugging at the wrapped thorns, hairline scratches would seem to appear across the surface of his silver armor.

They were fleeting, repairing themselves almost instantly. If one didn't look closely, they were very hard to notice.

Sure enough, as the First Sinner, William's compatibility with the Thorns of Sin was indeed far higher than his own, but he wasn't completely immune to their effects.

Of course, compared to himself, this impact was truly negligible.

But that didn't matter. As long as there was an impact, it was enough.

Having confirmed his discovery, Fu Qian nodded silently and made up his mind.

Confronting this kind of Deity Level method head-on was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous act...

[SAN Value -1]

Fu Qian activated his Mythical Form without hesitation.

But not confronting it head-on might be even more dangerous.

The next moment, a grotesque arm made of thousands of intertwining tentacles smashed directly at the chest of the silver armor.

Facing this devastating blow, Sin-Seeker William didn't dodge. Instead, he stood his ground and slashed his Blood Thorn Longsword down to meet it.

During their brief chase just now, his opponent had proven to be unimaginably agile. Even in such a small space, none of the numerous sword strikes he had unleashed had much effect.

Seeing the fight fall into a stalemate, for his opponent to actually choose to clash head-on was exactly what he had been hoping for. How could he possibly dodge?

And as the blade fell, the Biochemical Demonic Arm clashed against the Thorns of Sin, instantly demonstrating the true meaning of flying flesh and blood.

Meeting the needle-sharp thorns, a massive patch of the intertwined tentacles was instantly shredded upon contact.

Not only that, the wounds inflicted by the thorns continued to spread, crawling up the arm and disintegrating it as they went.

Ultimately, the impact that broke through the thorns and landed on the armor merely pushed William back two steps.

However, before he could even steady himself, the wind howled again in front of him.

A figure burst through the shower of blood, slamming viciously into his chest.

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