Inside the Disciplinary Committee’s holding cells.
Wang Yue stared at the dial of the instrument in her hand. The needle, which monitored changes in the force field, was trembling slightly.
Something was happening.
And it was very close.
She turned her wrist, discerning the direction from the intersecting scales of the gyroscope. The disturbance was coming from deep underground, roughly two thousand meters down.
There were no Crow Sentinels active within the Academy; she had hidden the Crow Raiment in a secure location long ago. Special Grade Relics were liable to be confiscated the moment they were exposed, so they could only be treated as single-use trump cards for critical moments.
However, this time, she intended to go in person.
Wang Yue stood up, pushed open the unlocked cell door, and then opened the outer door—which was also unlocked. She called out, “Lilith.”
Lilith took her feet off the desk and shifted into a sitting position, casting an inquisitive look her way.
“I need to head out for a bit,” Wang Yue said naturally, leaning against the doorframe.
Lilith walked over, draped her own military coat over Wang Yue’s shoulders, and even symbolically fastened a single gold button. She then leaned in to plant a soft kiss on the young black-haired girl’s cheek, whispering a gentle reminder:
“Be careful out there.”
“Don’t do that. I can’t handle it.”
The contrast in Lilith’s “playstyle” was a bit too intense. Wang Yue felt a wave of trepidation; the coat draped over her didn’t feel like clothing, but rather a bird-catcher’s net, pinning her inside.
“Then don’t go out,” Lilith said, her expression instantly turning cold.
Wang Yue immediately wrapped her arms around Lilith’s waist and leaned in close to her ear, whispering intimately, “Honey, I’ll bring you back some sugar-roasted chestnuts.”
“Ga-ha-ha!”
Lilith let out a laugh that sounded like a honking duck. Her eyes crinkled into crescent moons, overflowing with delight.
The members of the Disciplinary Committee were speechless. They lowered their heads with strange expressions—their Captain was clearly just playing around. Her level of self-indulgence was truly unparalleled.
As Wang Yue reached the door, she suddenly stopped and looked at Pandora.
The girl with long black hair was wearing a strange hat that made her head look twice its normal size. The hat was round, shaped like a button mushroom, and stitched together from several pieces of leather. It was stuffed with padding, making it resemble a boxing speed bag.
Wang Yue’s lingering authority made Pandora flinch under her gaze. However, Pandora quickly straightened her back, bolstering her courage. We’re both Lady Lilith’s dogs, she thought. Neither of us is superior to the other; we’re of equal status.
Wang Yue walked over to her side, took a sniff, and frowned. “Musky.”
Pandora’s face flushed red. Even though she had washed it many times, the pig bladder used to fill the hat still had a lingering scent.
Because Lilith loved to strike her head with various “skull-crushing” blows, Pandora had come up with a brilliant idea. She had crafted a speed-bag hat to wear on her head. This way, no matter the angle or method of the beating, the force would be absorbed by the air-filled pig bladder inside.
Wang Yue left the Disciplinary Committee office and entered a private room.
This storage room was used for high-end tobacco; glass cabinets held boxes of premium cigars and slender ladies’ cigarettes. Wang Yue had no interest in tobacco. She stripped off her clothes, used the Chameleon Key to shift her form, and zipped out of the room.
Passing through the secret chamber behind the fountain, she descended deep underground until she reached the Blue Lake basin.
The people of the Church were standing by the lake.
The three Knight Commanders and the Mother Superior stood at four corners around an orange-yellow resin container.
Is that the Messiah’s Key? Wang Yue wondered.
From the outside, it looked like an ellipsoid covered in dense grooves, connected to a long, root-like structure. It was soft and bizarre, branching out into fine, hair-like tentacles. It looked like a human brain and pons connected to a spinal cord. She counted thirty-one pairs of nerves. There was no doubt—it was a human organ.
This was what it looked like when the skull and spine were dissolved, leaving the soft brain and spinal cord perfectly intact.
Wang Yue’s mind raced. “Messiah” carried the meanings of “Priest” and “King,” often extended to mean the Son of God or Christ. Now it seemed the so-called “Messiah’s Key” was actually an important figure from the Church.
No wonder the Church was so desperate to occupy Lhouctoug’s Aperture. They were carrying out the will of a great figure, holding a Resurrection Ritual for them.
The Church people didn’t seem to realize the Blue Lake was the stoma of an Outer God. They called it “The Source.” Did they think it was some kind of miracle lake?
Then again, it wasn’t surprising. Only a truly macabre and pathological imagination could link the Blue Lake to the pore of an Outer God.
Wang Yue began to worry. If Lhouctoug suddenly woke up, she couldn’t imagine the horror that would ensue. She could only hope the Outer God viewed humans as nothing more than tiny insects crawling over it while it slept, beneath its notice.
In front of the Blue Lake, while Natya remained in her military uniform, the three Commanders of the Expeditionary Force had all changed into platinum-white dalmatics and liturgical robes. They held balms, ritual implements, and holy relics, their expressions solemn.
Seeing this, Wang Yue subconsciously grew serious as well.
This was a historic moment that would be recorded in the Church’s annals forever, becoming part of their long and sacred history. Even if there were only four of them, they inherited the glorious traditions of the Holy Kingdom’s Church. It was as if the souls of every Pope and Cardinal throughout history had possessed them in this moment. They represented the Church’s long history and humanistic spirit…
Although they were enemies, as a witness, Wang Yue felt a modicum of respect alongside her voyeuristic pleasure.
She watched as the Messiah’s Key was cast into the water, slowly sinking to the bottom. The people on the shore scattered flower petals into the water, poured in vials of holy water, and—most importantly—added various Transcendent Materials, mostly colorful granules.
Wang Yue couldn’t help but snark internally—Are you guys making bubble tea?
Before long, the lake water, now dyed a milky white, began to churn. First, branches as bright as molten silver extended in wedge-like shapes, constantly bifurcating to form a massive, mysterious Sacred Tree. Then, from the spring at the tree’s roots, a glowing humanoid figure gradually rose!
That light was the Holy Light, the Gospel, the Glory, and the Eternal—illuminating all who lived in the world!
The four on the shore fell to their knees, fingers interlaced, eyes brimming with tears as they chanted prayers of glory.
Wang Yue, however, felt something was off. The person within that pure, flawless light seemed to… have a tail?
She blinked hard and looked again. Indeed, it was a lizardman!
Two eyeballs that could move independently bulged from the sides of its face, their nictitating membranes flashing. Its body was covered in vibrantly colored scales, and a bony crest rose from its back to the top of its head. A curled lizard tail trailed behind it.
Wang Yue frowned, a sense of déjà vu washing over her. Suddenly, it clicked!
“Oh no, it’s the lizard I threw in the other day… they merged!”
Wang Yue’s heart hammered against her ribs. She felt a profound sense of having committed a terrible deed. If the Church found out she was the reason the Messiah had become a human-lizard hybrid, they would hunt her to the ends of the earth.
Time to go, time to go…
Wang Yue turned and bolted.
When she reached the surface, she found the weather had changed drastically.
The wind grew increasingly fierce, washing over her in violent surges. She felt as though she were standing in a rushing tide, swaying back and forth in the turbulence. Debris and leaves formed ghostly whirlpools that danced across the ground.
She looked up at the sky. Thick clouds writhed and roiled nearby, emitting an ominous, blood-red glow. The lunar halo was murky, and the clouds hung so low they seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
The campus, which should have been shrouded in night, was illuminated by a blood-red light. Every Gothic building—the clock towers, spires, corridors, and assembly halls—shone with startling clarity. They looked far more vivid than usual, possessing an intense three-dimensionality, as if a bolt of crimson lightning had frozen in the sky, its sudden burst of light illuminating the world.
Wang Yue fought the wind to reach a small plaza. The small building ahead was Granahl’s residence. Ever since she had absorbed the Fetal Monstrosities, she rarely showed her face; school affairs were handled by the New Church student cadres.
Wang Yue took out her instrument. The needle on the dial was jumping wildly.
The phenomena on campus weren’t being caused by the Lizard Messiah; they were Granahl’s stress response. Both of them could be considered mythical creatures now. If they came into close contact, a conflict was almost certain.
Seeing a bright red figure emerge from the building in the distance, Wang Yue turned and ran. she didn’t stick around to play the “hidden observer.”
Mostly because she wasn’t wearing any clothes under her Chameleon disguise. It would be a disaster if she were caught; she had no desire to become fanservice for the enemy.
After getting dressed in the secret room, she prepared to head back.
The Quicksand Lowlands were gone, so there were certainly no sugar-roasted chestnuts to be found. Instead, she grabbed some colorful egg-shaped candies to bring to Lilith.
