Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Why?”

The moment Fu Qian declared his death sentence, the Doll shuddered again. Mister Luo let out a feeble protest.

”That’s... hard to explain...”

Fu Qian slowly cracked his knuckles.

”After all, I’m just a heartless Proxy.”

”...Since that’s how it is.”

Mister Luo’s tone sounded utterly helpless.

”Heavy!”

The next moment, his pitch abruptly shifted, issuing a voice saturated with filth.

Almost instantly, Fu Qian felt the surrounding air stagnate, pressing down heavily on his body.Hahahaha!

Mister Luo let out a string of maniacal laughter.

”Your arrogance is the root of your failure, both then and now!”

Oh!

Fu Qian stood motionless.

”I should thank you for forcing me to take this risk. Now, I am incredibly glad I made this choice!”

”This power... is simply too perfect for me!”

”I believe I’ve grasped the basics of this boon. How do the Blasphemous Words feel?”

”Weakness!”

Without waiting for Fu Qian to answer, Mister Luo spat out another word.

A chill washed over him.

Fu Qian glanced down. His skin paled visibly, as if even the blood flowing beneath it was stagnating.

”Mediocre!”

Fu Qian wiped a hand over it, and the next moment, it returned to normal.

”Take a look around you first before you speak.”

Mister Luo’s smug voice rang out.

As expected, whoever fused with this thing would have their personality affected.

Just a moment ago, Mister Luo had been overflowing with academic flair, acting every bit the evil scientist. Now, he was just high on power.

Sighing to himself, Fu Qian looked around.

At some point, layers of Grey Curtains had completely sealed off the surroundings.

A faint, scorching scent even permeated the air.

High as he was, his instinct for thoroughness was still there!

”I can feel myself growing with every passing moment, undergoing rapid Sublimation.”

The Doll’s arm twitched. It took two steps forward into the void, tugging at the surrounding wisps of mist.

”This euphoria is truly indescribable!”

”I’ll give you one last chance. What is your answer...”

Facing a Mister Luo who seemed ready to take flight, Fu Qian merely shook his head.

”I am a heartless Proxy.”

”Hmph! Stubbornly incorrigible!”

Mister Luo snorted without much surprise and spat out a bizarre syllable, pronouncing Fu Qian’s death sentence.

”Destruction!”

...

The next moment, looking at Fu Qian standing perfectly fine across from him, the Doll froze in place.

He should have been torn to pieces. Why was there no reaction?

”Destruction!”

...

”Pain!”

...

”Your pronunciation isn’t accurate enough.”

Watching the persistent Mister Luo, Fu Qian sighed and interrupted him.

”Come, repeat after me—Pain!”

In an instant, a teeth-aching sound echoed out as a web of cracks fractured across the Doll’s shell.

”How is this possible!”

Mister Luo let out a standard Sigh of a Salted Fish.

How was this possible?

Fu Qian also frowned.

Was this a joke? The task still wasn’t complete even after all this?

Destroying the Perfect Doll... did this not count as destruction? Did he really have to grind it into dust?

”What are you—”

At that moment, as cracks spread across the Doll’s body, streams of dark red mist escaped from within.

Desperately drawing the mist over his body to mend the damage, Mister Luo’s voice grew increasingly manic.

”I don’t care how you did it, but it won’t be that easy to kill me!”

”Power is still endlessly pouring into my—”

Unfortunately, halfway through his sentence, Mister Luo froze once more.

The mist flooding in from the various passages had visibly thinned.

”Strange, isn’t it?”

Fu Qian took two steps forward. A red mist, a hundred times more intense than Mister Luo’s, swirled around his body.

His skin turned a sinister dark red, blade-like patterns spreading across his entire body.

”If you think it’s strange, I think it’s even stranger!”

”For it to sustain itself this long after losing its source... I can only assume the thing was buried here for so long that its power inevitably left behind a residue.”

...

For a moment, it seemed Mister Luo’s mind had completely stopped working.

The sight before him had clearly shattered his worldview.

”Also, have you realized how careless you’ve become? If you were your usual self, seeing those severed limbs on the ground when you came in would have naturally sparked some connections.

If you were cautious enough, you would have abandoned this opportunity and fled immediately.”

Fu Qian didn’t stop his mockery.

”This power obviously comes with a few side effects.”

...

Mister Luo fell completely silent. At the same time, the cracked Doll began to tremble violently, its body swelling as if fermenting.

In just a few seconds, the Doll transformed into a deformed monster completely covered in rotting flesh, its massive body taking up nearly half the Underground space.

Through the gaps between its porcelain shards, churning flesh could be seen. As it writhed, the flesh even stitched together into human faces, exuding an indescribable stench.

Fu Qian silently took two steps back to avoid the raining blood and pus.

”You... must die.”

Mister Luo’s dream-like mutters echoed out; his rationality seemed to have plummeted to near zero.

Flames, barriers, aging, ravings—the next moment, he triggered every form of attack at his disposal.

Simultaneously, a massive bone claw covered in rotting flesh lunged straight for him.

”Annihilation.”

Facing the rampaging Doll firing on all cylinders, Fu Qian merely stood still and spat out a single word.

Without a sound, the screen-filling special effects vanished instantly.

The charging body of the monster crumbled inch by inch, crashing heavily to the ground.

Done!

Fu Qian looked at his battle results with satisfaction.

These Blasphemous Words really were handy!

Thinking back on it, this task had actually been a little dangerous.

If his curiosity hadn’t been so overwhelming, driving him to expend over thirty SAN Value points to sort things out here, Mister Luo would have slipped in first, and it most likely would have been a bitter fight.

As expected, interest was the greatest motivator for work; stay true to the initial resolve to achieve the final outcome.

Wait, the task still wasn’t complete?

The very next moment, however, Fu Qian realized a problem—the task completion prompt still hadn’t appeared.

Was this a joke? Could this actually happen?

Fu Qian looked at the Carrion and shattered bones littering the floor.

If this didn’t count as destroying it, did he have to cremate it too?

Impossible!

Fu Qian shook his head. He wasn’t one for self-deception.

Although the situation before him was bizarre, there was only one explanation left: the Frenzied Spirit wasn’t the Perfect Doll he was looking for!

But the problem was that the task had indeed updated earlier... which meant the Perfect Doll was definitely present at the time.

If it wasn’t this, then what else could it be?

In the darkness, the scenes from just moments ago rapidly replayed in Fu Qian’s mind, not missing a single detail.

Wait a minute!

In a flash, a thought stirred in Fu Qian’s mind, and he arrived at a certain possibility.