“A… a book club?”
Regaining consciousness, Skol and Sera felt an inexplicable shiver run down their spines. They raised their heads with trembling movements, finding “Claudia” watching them with a thin smile.
That was not an expression the old Claudia could ever make.
Beneath the familiar skin, what kind of entity lay hidden now?
Regardless of her identity, she was a terror far beyond their ability to resist. Unlike Claudia, Skol and Sera hadn’t joined the Dream Sanctum out of hardship or necessity; they were true believers who harbored a profound faith in the Eternal Dream promised by the Lord of Ravings. They were prepared to sacrifice everything in its pursuit.
Because of this devotion, they understood more than most the countless horrors lurking within ancient mysteries.
Never mind Sequence 9; even those who reached the profound transformation of Sequence 6 remained nothing more than ants before Them.
Without a moment’s hesitation upon waking, the pair dropped to their knees and began a low, rhythmic chant.
“O Great Entity of the Endless Abyss, the subjects of the Lord of Ravings prostrate themselves before You. We humbly beseech You to let fall the Veil of Shadow—forgive this presumptive gaze.”
Luo Wei blinked. “?”
Is kneeling at the first sign of trouble some kind of corporate culture within the Dream Sanctum?
Still, she had to admit this prayer for mercy sounded quite impressive. It was worlds apart from Claudia’s plain speech. Finally, they were starting to act like actual cult priests.
Luo Wei cleared her throat and explained patiently, “I am Claudia, not some ‘Great Entity of the Endless Abyss.'”
“…”
Skol and Sera looked up at her, their eyes reflecting a flicker of disbelief. After a moment of hesitation, they began to chant again.
“Great Lady Claudia, the subjects of the Lord of Ravings prostrate themselves before You…”
“Stop, stop, stop. Don’t chant…”
Luo Wei raised a hand, stopping them with a sigh of helplessness. Moving swiftly, she produced the Grimoire of Forbidden Curses and flipped it to the first page.
The two priests watched the heavy, ancient tome in her hands with intense trepidation. They recognized it as the… artifact? Yes, the artifact she had used to devastate them earlier.
Since they hadn’t been present during the same circumstances Claudia had endured, they didn’t realize the being before them was the “Forbidden Curse Witch.” Consequently, they failed to recognize that the book in her hands was the original Grimoire of Incantations—an object meant to exist only in legends.
“You. Read this out loud.”
Luo Wei thrust the open Grimoire directly in front of Skol. Seeing this, Sera let out a massive sigh of relief, though her expression remained taut with anxiety.
After all, a suspended death sentence is still a death sentence; it just remains to be seen if one can survive the reprieve.
Skol’s heart hammered against his ribs. An instinctive urge to resist flared within him.
Throughout the trembling march of human history, countless disasters had been sparked by the honey-clothed “Primordial Contaminations,” often born from nothing more than the curious peek of the ignorant.
However, the moment Skol’s eyes landed upon the incantations within the forbidden tome, his breathing hitched. He couldn’t look away even if he wanted to; his gaze remained glued to the contents.
Upon the slightly yellowed, mysterious parchment, the incantations were traced with delicate yet casual strokes. Every line seemed to converge into an ocean of desirable knowledge—both forbidden and sweet.
“…”
The moment the first profane sound of distorted meaning escaped Skol’s lips, a long-lost flush returned to his withered, aged face. He looked filled with absolute satisfaction and liberation.
He… he needed more knowledge!
Watching this, Sera began to shake violently. Her tension had curdled into pure horror.
Simultaneously, a stream of data regarding Skol flooded Luo Wei’s mind. It was dense and detailed, bearing a striking resemblance to Claudia’s information flow.
“Yes! It worked!”
A flash of joy crossed Luo Wei’s face.
This guaranteed a reward of at least five portions of Candlelight!
Next came the second incantation, then the third…
Skol’s Dominion Level rose continuously.
Step by step, he was selling his soul to the Grimoire of Forbidden Curses.
But just as the fourth incantation began to spill from Skol’s entranced lips, his eyes suddenly snapped wide, as if he were witnessing some unspeakable horror.
“No… no…!”
Skol struggled, trying to scramble backward to get away from the Grimoire.
The previous look of addiction had vanished, replaced entirely by panicked desperation and sheer terror.
“Hmm?”
Luo Wei felt a pang of confusion.
He had only reached the fourth one. There were thirteen incantations on the first page alone!
Even Claudia, who possessed abysmal aptitude, could finish the page with ease. Why couldn’t Skol handle even this much? Was he… suffering from some sort of pre-existing condition?
Just as Luo Wei attempted to find the answer within Skol’s information flow, a ghostly shriek nearly pierced Claudia’s eardrums. Even the textual data of her auditory senses became blurred for a moment.
“AAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
It was Skol.
He was screaming, wailing in agony.
He threw his head back, his bulging eyeballs mapped with savage, bloodshot veins.
And then…
POP!
His head exploded.
Splattered flesh clung to fragments of shattered brain matter as a nauseating, copper stench erupted into the room. The entire space was suddenly sprayed with a white-and-red filth.
Luo Wei instinctively utilized the Chrysalis Curtain enveloping the area, preventing Claudia’s body from being drenched in gore. While she wouldn’t have felt the physical disgust directly, the information flow would have faithfully transmitted the sensation to her through descriptive text.
Sera, sitting right next to him, wasn’t so lucky. She watched from inches away as her colleague—a man she had plotted against for years—had his head pop like an overinflated balloon. Being covered in his remains pushed her over the edge; she retreated into the corner, her mind completely shattered.
Fortunately, the Chrysalis Curtain muffled the sound, ensuring Skol’s death rattle didn’t shatter the silence of the Slums’ night.
Following Skol’s death, the connection he had established with the Grimoire began to dissipate. According to the information flow, there were only thirty minutes left—likely the final duration of his body’s lingering cellular activity.
The data also revealed the cause of death: he simply couldn’t withstand the power of the incantations.
“Now how does that work?”
Luo Wei rested her chin in her hand, her brow furrowing. Despite witnessing such a gruesome death firsthand for the first time, she felt no discomfort.
The evils these Dream Priests had committed in the past meant they deserved to meet their end in the most painful way possible.
Luo Wei’s only frustration was why Skol couldn’t even handle the first page of the Grimoire.
And yet, Claudia, whose talent was supposedly much worse, had no issues at all…
Claudia could even flip to the incomprehensible second page without incident, and the third page had merely resulted in “brain death.”
Luo Wei suddenly thought of the fact that Claudia’s Sanity had stayed at zero. Realization dawned on her.
“Wait, could it be that Claudia’s ‘talent’ is actually her lack of a mind to lose?”
It was highly likely.
Luo Wei sighed as she looked at Skol’s headless corpse. She couldn’t help but comment, “He really couldn’t keep his head in the game, could he?”
She turned her gaze toward Sera, who was shivering in the corner. After a moment of hesitation, Luo Wei raised the Grimoire once more, her voice softening into a gentle, inviting tone.
“My dear Lady Priest, I believe it’s your turn for the book club!”
