Eldritch Horror Theatre

”It looks like we made it back just in time. Thank you, Excellency Aike.”

Amid the sudden shift, Fu Qian spoke with the air of someone who had just gotten lucky, even going out of his way to thank Aike.

It certainly seemed like the right thing to do. After all, had they been even a moment slower, the two of them would have been locked out.

Though, by Fu Qian’s deduction, if they had taken longer, the passage might simply have closed a little later to match.

He suspected this change wasn’t because the Miracle had naturally run its course, but because Nepheli had pulled some strings.

They had finally made it back; it was best to avoid any fresh complications, like someone suddenly thinking of another question and darting right back inside.

That was entirely possible.

Beyond arriving at the same logical deduction as Su Gao, Fu Qian’s extensive operational experience gave him an extra layer of appreciation for Nepheli’s words.

Traversing time and space was no easy feat. Among all the higher entities currently known, only the Warehouse had demonstrated that kind of authority.

If The Ark truly possessed the ability to project two people a thousand years into the past and disturb history to such an extent, the Warehouse probably would have wiped it out a long time ago.It was exactly like the analogy he had drawn earlier about feeling like a ”tourist” in the Ancient Reminiscence.

The current state of everyone on this ship should be similar to his and Serana’s exploration back then: relying on some special power to revisit a faded segment of history.

Fundamentally, their existences remained anchored to reality—unless they became entirely synchronized with the ship.

That was the true danger of the distortion from earlier.

Of course, even if that happened, they would most likely just be bound within The Ark and lost along with it, unable to cause any real impact on history.

Under these circumstances, the credibility of Nepheli’s instruction to ”just wait quietly until reaching the destination” was undoubtedly much higher.

As for why she hadn’t ended this Miracle early if she had the ability to do so—especially while the three of them were in the coffin?

That could also be explained by his previous conclusion.

Because their existences were anchored to reality, pulling such a stunt would likely fail to truly banish them.

It would have either caused a mess that affected The Ark, or forced the three of them to disembark early. Neither possibility was good news for her.

Naturally, some things were better left as a tacit understanding without words. The suspicious details on the ship could be left for Old Man Stoss to slowly ponder after they returned.

It wasn’t that he had any particular friendship with Nepheli; rather, doing this made Professor Fu and the Night Watchers’ relationship even more complicated and bewildering, allowing her to fully exercise her imagination going forward.

”Professor Fu, I once received a report from Aike mentioning that when you made contact with the victim of the Invitation Letter, you suspected you had discovered a golden fire inside that illusory White-Headed Sanctuary?”

The wait was undoubtedly long. In the darkness, where it remained difficult to tell if the ship was even moving, Excellency Stoss surprisingly took the initiative to break the silence.

...

He had to admit, everything is the best arrangement.

At that moment, Fu Qian’s satisfaction with this trip rose another level.

Looking for a topic of conversation while feeling uneasy was just human nature, but the Old Man had brought up a topic he had been looking forward to for a long time.

”That’s right. It was a very strange flame. It felt as if it couldn’t incinerate flesh and blood, but leaned toward a more fundamental kind of devastation—does Your Excellency know of it?”

Nodding slightly in confirmation, Fu Qian demonstrated an astonishing academic intuition, suddenly realizing something.

”Is it this kind?”

Having rarely managed to pique Professor Fu’s interest, the Old Man didn’t hesitate. He simply raised his hand and took a breath.

A wisp of golden yellow, swift and twisted like an electric current, flashed and vanished across his hand.

Even just looking at it seemed to induce some sort of inner mania.

Fu Qian was quite certain this was the exact method Old Man Stoss had once used to torture the clown.

”Yes... just what kind of power is this?”

Although he restrained himself from showing too much surprise, Professor Fu still furrowed his brows.

The fact that Excellency Stoss directly possessed a similar method clearly brought him some shock.

”To think it’s actually true...”

However, the Old Man kept him in suspense this time. He didn’t rush to answer the question, instead muttering to himself as he pondered something.

...

”There isn’t much I can tell you. First, it truly is a type of flame, one of the new abilities I gained when I advanced to Tier 2.”

After a brief wait, Excellency Stoss finally spoke under everyone’s watchful eyes.

”Furthermore, your perception was correct. Its effects are highly specific, almost exclusively targeting the mental plane. Because of this, I am used to calling it the Flame of Frenzy.

”Considering the nature of the White-Headed Sanctuary, you could say the scene you witnessed was entirely reasonable.”

Taking a deep breath, the Old Man seemed rather solemn while voicing his support for Fu Qian’s statement.

”However, discovering it in a place like that really doesn’t feel like a good thing. It even reminds me of someone who once told me it was a Flame of Ill Omen...”

Oh... there was even another person?

Basking in a feeling akin to a bountiful harvest, the doubt on Fu Qian’s face perfectly transformed into curiosity.

”Who was it? Is it convenient to—”

”Wait a minute. Are we back?”

However, just as he touched on the crucial point, a voice interrupted him.

He saw Professor Ah Kai suddenly stand up straight beside him, looking around in disbelief.

It was still dim, but much more spacious, and as far as the eye could see, there wasn’t a single piece of wood left in sight—only scattered, messy gray Feathers.

Silently and without warning, the group had actually returned to the Underground of the Benevolent Curse Institute, their original starting point.

...

’Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen the world.’

He could completely understand Professor Ah Kai’s feelings, but in that moment, Fu Qian still felt a surge of disdain in his heart.

Although the commotion was tiny and the change swift, how could the various experts present not have noticed such a shift?

It was just that everyone possessed the discipline of remaining completely calm even if Mount Tai collapses before one. Before making further judgments, they simply weren’t in a rush to show it.

Besides, returning to the exact place they had boarded the ship carried a certain mysterious charm, a sense of is it a dream or not.

”The ship seems to be gone.”

While Fu Qian was making his internal critiques, Su Gao beside him had already announced this important conclusion, casting a glance his way.

Nepheli and the Marr Brothers were also missing.

Fu Qian naturally understood and didn’t find it strange.

Nepheli, who had a greater grasp of this ship, could very well have noticed earlier than the rest of them and slipped away.

Not to mention that the Underground of the Benevolent Curse Institute was theoretically her home turf anyway.

However, while it was hard to say how much she had overheard earlier, she probably wouldn’t be hearing the most crucial details anymore.

”I feel the same way... Also, I can give you the answer to your previous question—Master Yuhun.”

As expected, happy occasions lift the spirit. After confirming that they had indeed quietly returned, Excellency Stoss seemed perfectly capable of accepting the result that The Ark had vanished without a trace.

And in the midst of surviving after a catastrophe, without even needing Fu Qian to ask again, he picked up the previous topic and directly provided a title.

Even though it sounded like...