Lord of Prayer

Chapter 628: Chapter 403: Struggle (2)

Anna picked up the Book of My Thoughts and activated it. "I think this thing should be a remote control!"

Li Xiye withdrew the Thunder Prison. At the same time, the Book of My Thoughts opened automatically, shooting out a stream of light that landed on the mass of Rule Essence, transforming it into a TV remote.

"Now we can call it a spatial remote," Anna said, snapping the Book of My Thoughts shut. She then looked at the Star Association Operators. "The space here is chaotic, so the Any Door can’t get a lock. You wait here. The other squads will be here soon. We’ll go scout ahead."

"Yes, ma’am!" the Operators replied.

"You two wait here as well," Li Xiye instructed Zhou Chen and Erin. She then exchanged a look with Anna, pressed a button on the spatial remote, and the two of them vanished on the spot.

Zhou Chen and the others certainly weren’t going to follow. The Tier Fours had their own battlefield, and they had theirs.

"We have a situation..."

After waiting for a while, the young male Operator suddenly frowned and pointed toward the Cross-Abyss Bridge. "The others are coming, but something’s wrong with them..."

On the Cross-Abyss Bridge, nine Star Association Operators were sprinting toward them. Their eyes were crimson, their faces twisted and ferocious. Like zombies, they radiated a bloodthirsty killing intent toward humans. Upon seeing Zhou Chen and his group, they abruptly accelerated, making no effort to hide their hunger.

"They’re cursed!" the Operator with the Tactical Goggles shouted anxiously. "I’m detecting extremely high concentrations of the Abyssal Curse on them! They’re less than ten percent away from the threshold for complete corruption... Now it’s nine percent!"

SWISH!

Zhou Chen flashed in front of the group, materializing Dream Light and Shadow and plunging it into the ground. A moment later, a tide of pure, multicolored Light of the Spiritual bloomed outward, sweeping over the cursed individuals. Large amounts of black energy, thick with the aura of Curses and venomous resentment, rose from their bodies.

The cursed Operators fell to the ground, writhing in agony. Their eyes flickered between clarity and madness as their consciousness fought back against the Curse. Aided by the Light of the Spiritual, they gradually regained their senses and dispelled the insanity.

At almost the same instant, a figure shrouded in shadow and darkness appeared in the distance. It swiped at Zhou Chen from afar. An immense sense of crisis welled up inside Zhou Chen, making his scalp tingle as if it were about to explode.

CLANG!

The invisible, sharp Air Slash collided mid-air with a golden Rune Grand Bell, producing a deafening, resonant boom.

’Good thing I hired a bodyguard...’ Zhou Chen couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"So that guy really isn’t dead... Ha, boss, feeling like you got your money’s worth now?"

The ruggedly handsome Marvin materialized from the void. A strange, intricate, and complex Matrix lit up in the depths of his pupils as he used "Endless Joy," a Skill only Joyful Cultists could wield!

Although it was an Abyssal Curse Technique used by Cultists, there was no denying that the Skill’s control effect was absurdly powerful. It could amplify a person’s emotions, creating a pleasure so intoxicating that it could make one’s very Soul drunk, causing them to fall into eternal joy from which they could never escape.

Back in North Carolina, he had used this very move to control the "Merchant" for a time, interfering with their Advancement and indirectly causing their ritual to be disrupted.

However, to Marvin’s surprise, the figure in the shadows seemed completely unaffected. It showed no signs of paralysis or any other reaction. Instead, seeing that its attack had failed and that another Tier Four Uncrowned had appeared, it didn’t linger and swiftly departed.

Marvin’s brow furrowed slightly. Sensing something was off, a bizarre and sinister Matrix lit up on his body. He stretched out his hand and yanked. A giant, rotting hand materialized in the void—bones exposed, pus dripping, and reeking with an unbearable stench—and clawed toward the shadowy figure.

The shadowy figure dissolved into a pool of Shadow Matter, attempting to slip through the rotting hand’s fingers. Just as it was about to succeed, its body suddenly froze, and it was nearly caught. However, the abnormality lasted only for a brief moment. It quickly returned to normal and barely managed to escape the rotting hand’s grasp before disappearing into the darkness of a nearby ruin.

By this time, Zhou Chen had completed the Purification of the cursed Operators. Their eyes grew calm and clear as the Curse was completely dispelled and their sanity restored. Pulled back from the brink of total corruption, they gasped for air, shaken by the near-death experience.

Wish Value +10 +10 +15 +20...

Marvin appeared at his side, his brow tightly furrowed. "That might not have been ’Ghost’ just now," he said seriously.

"Not him?" Zhou Chen was taken aback. "If not him, then who else could it be?"

’Shadow Transformation, Air Slash, the Curse afflicting the other Star Association Operators, and that outfit... who else could it be but ’Ghost’?’

"I used ’Endless Joy’ on him, and he didn’t react at all!" Marvin said with certainty. "To render Endless Joy ineffective, he’d either have to be an emotionless robot or have Willpower so immense he’s completely immune. But do you have any idea how terrifyingly strong your Willpower has to be for that? Someone thoroughly steeped in evil could never do it, because their heart would inevitably be filled with all sorts of desires.

Forget someone steeped in evil; even a devout believer from an orthodox faith, someone with a firm will and good character, would fall after being targeted by Endless Joy. Their pious faith is, in itself, a form of desire. The more devout they are, the more intense the pleasure becomes...

Only a truly strong-willed person could resist it."

"Maybe he has some kind of Spiritual Armor? Or Power granted by an Evil God?" Zhou Chen guessed.

"That’s possible, but I’m more inclined to believe he’s not ’Ghost.’ He gave me a very strange..." Marvin paused to think, trying to organize his thoughts. After a long moment, he finally came up with a suitable word. "—a sense of struggle."

"A sense of struggle?"

"Yes. He could have easily escaped from my rotting hand just now, but he hesitated for a moment. That shouldn’t have happened. It was almost like he wanted to self-destruct. I’m inclined to think his mind was engaged in some kind of internal struggle," Marvin said.

"He hesitated when he was cursing us, too," one of the cursed Star Association Operators said, walking over while still panting. "He could have easily placed a curse that would have corrupted us completely, but for some reason, he hesitated. The Curse wasn’t fully cast... I know we’re lucky to be alive, but I have to say, it’s very strange. That’s not the kind of mercy you’d expect from someone so evil."

’An internal struggle...’ Zhou Chen narrowed his eyes. ’Maybe ’Ghost’ developed some sort of mental problem after being resurrected?’

Or perhaps...

Or perhaps...

BOOM!

An explosion cut his thoughts short. He turned to see a blinding halo of Essence light up the top of the skyscraper. The Tier Fours were attacking Dupe’s headquarters.

"I’ll see this through to the end. In for a penny, in for a pound. I’ll escort you the rest of the way, free of charge," Marvin said, fluently quoting an Eastern Continent proverb.

’Ghost’ had piqued his curiosity. He was very eager to see who was under that disguise, who could actually resist "Endless Joy."

·

·

「Atop the skyscraper.」

The shimmering sea of layered Alchemy Matrices began to waver. It was under heavy assault and already on the verge of collapse, looking as if it could fall apart at any moment.

Fortunately, however, the Ritual Array had already finished forming.

The time had come.

Dupe stood in the center of the Ritual Array and calmly activated the ritual.

A crimson moon slowly rose, its ominous, blood-red light spreading out like a tide, enveloping everything in its sanguine hue.

Then, the fictitious "Sin Beast" began to take shape under the ritual’s power. The cry of a baby shattered the silence. Forged from the collective consciousness of the hundreds of thousands of people in Sinful City, a Sinful Infant made of black, white, and gray was born from the void. Its arrival instantly caused the desire to commit crimes and do evil to surge within everyone present, making them agitated and restless.

Under the sanguine light and the cries of the Sinful Infant, the sacrifices disintegrated, turning into thousands of pieces of flesh and countless specks of Soul light that all drifted in the same direction.

Soul and flesh gradually converged and merged into one.

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