Eldritch Horror Theatre

”La Nina?”

Thanks to Ann’s reminder, Sinner Excellency had been confirmed as the strongest Demigod combat power present. Naturally, his every move tugged at the nerves of the bewildered crowd.

Now that he had finally spoken, even dropping such a specific name, drawing their attention was inevitable.

For a moment, everyone—Ann included—stared hard at him. It was obvious their minds were racing as they tried to figure out exactly who this La Nina was.

”Who is that?”

Unfortunately, their mental bandwidth had its limits. Jill, the Scholar, and the others soon gave up one by one, shifting their expectant gazes to Ann.

”Is she a prisoner in this facility? Did you come all the way here just to find her?”

Unfortunately for them, Ann frowned just as naturally.

”I’m afraid I have to apologize,” Ann said. ”I accidentally dispatched the one person most likely to know.”

Her meaning was simple. She hadn’t heard of the name either, and Warden White—the man who would have known—had just been accidentally killed by her hand.”However, given Your Excellency’s strength,” she continued, her tone laced with genuine curiosity, ”you could have gone directly to Siren and demanded the person. They would likely be willing to negotiate. Why go to all this trouble?”

It was a completely reasonable question.

No matter the location, the title of Demigod commanded immense respect.

Even a top-tier organization like Siren would be willing to sit down and talk, provided you weren’t an enemy with irreconcilable differences.

Yet he hadn’t done that. Suddenly, Sinner Excellency’s identity became highly intriguing.

Jill, who had already been deep in thought, now looked at Fu Qian with an even stranger expression, as if she were already connecting the dots.

”So you don’t know?”

Why would Fu Qian care about their trivial speculation? He just kept staring at Ann with a smiling expression, pressing for confirmation.

...

”I really don’t know, sorry... How about I try calling White back out for you?”

Riding high on her sudden success, Madam Ann hesitated for barely half a second before shaking her head again and offering this thoughtful suggestion.

She wasn’t just paying lip service, either. She reached up to her shoulder and literally began to drag out the contour of a head from her flesh, positioning it right next to her own face.

”So, do you know now?”

The sight was undeniably shocking. While the others stared in dumbfounded horror, Fu Qian patiently waited for the head to finish growing before asking his question again.

”Actually, he does know. He says he can change his name to La Nina...”

Gently stroking the new head, Ann turned back with a look of genuine surprise.

”Are you absolutely sure that’s your final answer? Want to think it over a bit more? Something about the Knights of the Apocalypse, perhaps?”

Faced with this blatant provocation, Sinner Excellency showed not a hint of displeasure. He continued his gentle probing, playing the role of a patient game show host.

”I’m sorry, I really don’t understand what you mean.”

For a brief moment, Ann’s smile actually faltered, but she still shook her head to express her helplessness.

However, her apology only made it halfway out. In the next second, Sinner Excellency vanished from his spot, closing the final few paces between them at an incomprehensible speed.

Phosphorescent fire flared.

Riding her sudden surge in power, Ann reacted incredibly fast. A strange radiance instantly coated her body, successfully illuminating the giant claw tearing into her abdomen.

Squelch—

In the next moment, the glow grew even brighter.

She clearly hadn’t expected Fu Qian to be so decisively ruthless, nor had she anticipated her body tearing like wet paper under his claw.

But the changes to Ann’s body were more than just visual effects. Under the heavy blow, she abruptly turned into highly unstable ordnance. A multitude of snake-like phosphorescent flames erupted from her wound, swallowing everything in the vicinity and tearing her own body apart in the process.

...

How could this...

In a split second, the situation had escalated to this, leaving the three spectators absolutely dumbfounded.

Sinner Excellency’s reaction made it obvious that Ann had chosen the wrong answer.

Even so, the extreme severity of the penalty for a wrong answer was still terrifying.

Fortunately, while the explosive force was incredibly violent, it remained concentrated entirely around Ann.

Thanks to their earlier caution, the three of them had maintained a safe distance and weren’t directly caught in the blast radius.

Even so, as the fire snakes arced in all directions, one of them lashed across half of the Scholar’s body, frightening him out of his wits.

...Wait, am I okay?

Only then did the Scholar finally react. He fled at his absolute maximum speed, checking his body the moment he cleared the area.

It was indeed vastly different from White’s previous methods.

Even though the fire had swept across his body like a long whip, his clothes were left completely intact.

Cough, cough... cough...

But his relief lasted only a moment. In the very next second, the Scholar lost his balance, nearly collapsing to the floor.

He couldn’t even stand up straight. Under the horrified gazes of Jill and the other survivor, the Scholar clutched his heart and fell into a violent coughing fit, as if a fire were blazing inside his chest.

”It’s like a curse, yet also like a plague...”

Taking in the scene, Jill muttered to herself, her eyes darting toward the epicenter of the fire snake explosion.

The violent outburst had lasted only a second before rapidly retracting. Now, Sinner Excellency was the only one standing there, his clothing similarly unscathed.

Ann, who had triggered the whole spectacle, was nowhere to be found.

...

Is she really the Pestilence Knight?

Looking down at his hand, Fu Qian ignored the shock of the onlookers and merely sighed internally.

Having been at the absolute center of the dancing fire snakes, he had undoubtedly taken vastly more of the impact than the Scholar.

Jill’s judgment wasn’t far off. The effect brought by that peculiar fire wasn’t a crude burning or tearing sensation, nor did it simply mutate the flesh it touched.

Instead, it felt more like it was directly bestowing a supernatural disease upon anyone it struck.

The Scholar over there, for example, had more than one internal organ currently undergoing that exact type of mutation.

He had to admit, whatever entity had performed a Descent upon Ann and White was giving off more and more of the vibe of the legendary Knights of the Apocalypse.

Indeed, Fu Qian held reservations about the assumption that the person speaking earlier was simply Madam Ann who had received a blessing in disguise.

The reason was simple: Madam Ann’s behavior was somewhat contradictory.

According to her own claims, she had given up resisting in her despair, wholeheartedly embracing the Crimson Frenzy and thus undergoing an Awakening.

That made sense in theory, but her subsequent explanation to Jill’s group had been entirely too patient.

Throughout their journey so far, Madam Ann hadn’t displayed an ounce of team spirit, and she certainly hadn’t hesitated when she killed White.

Under those circumstances, would she really just casually share the survival path she had risked her life to discover?

”How is it? The title of Knight of the Apocalypse isn’t too bad, is it?”

Looking up again, Fu Qian gazed at the comically massive ice wall and spoke into the empty air.