Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Bastard!"

Faced with this unexpected and bloody turn of events, the maddened Camus ignored him completely.

Atop the Lighthouse, Wehle could no longer maintain his composure.

As he raised his cane and a nearly tangible grayish-white aura expanded from his body, his movements were forced to a halt, pinned down by an invisible attack.

At the same time, rings of darkness suppressed that grayish-white power, which seemed capable of eroding everything.

"Under these circumstances, just pretend we don't exist."

Cassandra's slightly mocking voice rang out, repeating Wehle's exact words from moments ago.

Although she did not know the man's origins, she could easily tell that Fu Qian was an enemy of the Origin Council, not a friend.

Furthermore, the strength he had just displayed clearly placed him at the Demigod Tier at the very least.

Faced with this sudden improvement in the situation, Cassandra decisively adopted Wehle's previous strategy: stall him here to prevent him from interfering below.

Naturally, her actions and words only fueled Wehle's fury.

Unfortunately for him, since he had failed to break away immediately, no amount of courage would make him dare turn his back on a hostile Demigod now.

...

For Fu Qian, who had just successfully executed Visceral Attack, the clash atop the Lighthouse was nothing more than an irrelevant interlude.

As a task runner who never succumbed to blind optimism, the very first thing he focused on after burying his hand in the enemy's guts was Ariel's reaction.

Compared to Wehle's shouting, the much closer Ariel hadn't rushed forward to stop him. In fact, the man had even lowered his gloved hand.

Such abnormal behavior inevitably led to a certain suspicion: had his goal already been achieved?

With that thought in mind, Fu Qian stared expressionlessly at the wound he had inflicted.

Mythical Form, an upgraded Visceral Attack, Chastisement, and Boon of Release. Combining those four effects had allowed him to deal genuine, solid damage to a Deity.

Almost instantly, however, dense pink tendrils of flesh began to squirm around the edges of the wound, weaving together in an attempt to seal the gash.

Given this terrifying regenerative ability, it made him wonder what kind of thing had left the earlier scars.

But that wasn't the main issue. The truly important detail was that this regenerating flesh seemed to be rapidly shifting between several different forms.

A massive maw, armor plating, amorphous chunks of meat, and... were those layered compound eyes of various sizes?

At that exact moment, the Clamor filling the sky swiftly shifted, crystallizing into an incredibly clear chant—Rom.

The chaotic noise surrounding Hamadus diminished like a crashing waterfall suddenly drying up, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

The instant that noise completely disappeared, the overwhelming Clamor came to an abrupt halt.

The transition from deafening chaos to absolute silence plunged the surroundings into a sharply contrasting tranquility.

Meanwhile, the wound he had carved open had been replaced by a bulging cluster of compound eyes, no longer shifting.

In the next breath, that honeycomb of compound eyes gave a slight quiver before turning to stare directly at him in unison.

[SAN Value decreased by 5]

[Containment Failure, current SAN Value: 58]

Two consecutive system notifications rang out.

'So it's already finished?'

'The one looking at me right now is the God of Clamor named Rom?'

'That might not be entirely accurate. It should be both Rom and Hamadus; otherwise, my task would have been marked as complete.'

But the reality was that the Clamor had stopped so abruptly, instantly resulting in task failure.

He hadn't even had time to use Transcendence.

Feeling no regret or frustration, Fu Qian lifted his head and glanced at the dense, dark crowd standing on the shore.

The Clamor had ended, but these revelers hadn't returned to normal.

From his vantage point, their postures remained completely unchanged. They still stood stiff and rigid, observing the Deity in the sea.

The next moment, with a God, a Divine Emissary, and three Demigods as an extravagant audience, Fu Qian snapped his fingers and crushed the two Talismans he had already prepared in his hand.

Radiant light erupted from his body, scattering the surrounding shadows.

The intensity of the illumination was in no way inferior to the glow surrounding Ariel.

'So it really is an amplification effect!'

Amid his musings, his vision blurred and shifted, and the familiar sight of the Warehouse appeared before his eyes.

'I think I know who Rom is.'

Taking a seat, Fu Qian gently tapped his head, recalling that final glance that had cost him five points of SAN Value.

He had seen those bizarre compound eyes before in a manuscript concerning evil faiths.

'So Rom is the entity worshipped by those suffering from the beast-transformation disease?'

The whole situation reeked of conspiracy.

The pitiful God of Clamor Hamadus hadn't just been forced to change a name. That constantly shifting form at the end was clearly influenced by a warped self-perception.

The Primordial Council's hunt was, in essence, taking advantage of the God of Clamor's weakened state to forcibly twist its self-perception, allowing "Rom" to be born from within it.

'That begs the question: since Rom is very likely a Deity as well, why treat a fellow God this way?'

'Although Hamadus is in poor condition, its core concept of power remains—and that is Rom's goal!'

Fu Qian quickly arrived at a possibility.

The myths and legends of various civilizations were generally quite similar, nearly always boiling down to struggles over authority and power.

Concepts like authority were probably the only things that could pique a Deity's interest.

Furthermore, the sudden outbreak of the beast-transformation disease among Rom's followers, which had drawn the attention of a large number of Night Watchers, likely wasn't an accident either.

It really was a perfectly coordinated scheme. He just didn't know how the people from the Origin Council had managed to get in touch with this Deity, or what benefits they stood to gain from this.

He could probably only ask that mysterious Crow Feather about these things. In all likelihood, Ariel wouldn't have the answers either.

Fu Qian shook his head and looked up at the illusory images permeating the Warehouse. They looked like tides filled with chaotic vortices.

Truthfully, before taking action just now, he hadn't believed his chances of success were very high.

Ariel and the others had clearly been plotting this for a long time, whereas he possessed almost no information and could only test things step by step.

Under such circumstances, eliminating a Deity—especially with a time limit—undoubtedly required pushing his control to the absolute limit.

So, theoretically speaking, the optimal choice would have been not to jump down and intervene at all.

Since he had already gathered a considerable amount of information, using Transcendence to restart immediately and arranging everything in a more logical manner to minimize unnecessary SAN Value consumption was the rational decision.

But that was only in theory.

Sometimes, knowing you had the option to restart was exactly what prevented you from reaching your true limits.

As the famous saying went: treat every attempt like it's your last, and never be afraid to lose.

As for why he had ultimately used the Commandment Residue to blind everyone, the reason was quite simple.

On one hand, he wanted to confirm the Talismans' effects. He might as well use them; he couldn't take the items out of here anyway.

On the other hand, Fu Qian wanted to search for that Demigod, Crow Feather.

After all, the man should theoretically be hiding somewhere nearby, yet Fu Qian couldn't detect a single trace of him.

Unfortunately, it turned out that even under such an area-of-effect flash, the man still refused to show his face.

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