Eldritch Horror Theatre

It felt like he had been tossed to the end of time. So the apocalypse really did happen?

Even while keenly aware of his own miserable plight, Fu Qian still hadn’t forgotten to ponder that core question.

He even recalled the dual-ending story of Su Gao’s Mother.

Although it might have simply been born from a vibrant creative urge, if he treated it as unofficial history, certain logical pieces suddenly fell perfectly into place—

The apocalypse really did happen, and it started from this exact spot...

The barrier vaguely mentioned in the previous task summary was real. The Mother of Gospel had found another way around it, finally pushing the people from the Academy to trigger a catastrophe and successfully break through...

That Miracle beneath the Benevolent Curse Institute really was likely connected to the apocalypse. The only reason it could only be activated nearby was because the apocalypse had Descended right here...

And The Ark, having drifted through time and space for a thousand years, had been drawn in by this, dropping anchor in the very homeland from which it first set sail...

This homeland had been endowed with a transcendent attribute connected to a higher entity named Melia, who seemingly used the snow tree as her symbol...

Most importantly, this apocalypse happened very, very recently. It was far from a thousand years ago—so recent, in fact, that he actually knew some of the people involved...It actually sounded completely logical. The only question left was: where had the apocalypse gone?

Since the Descent had already succeeded, why had the Mother of Gospel been sneaking around playing little tricks at Silver Mist Manor not long ago?

It couldn’t just be a completely unrelated parallel timeline, could it?

Of course not.

Most of the events above had definitively happened in the Real World he had personally experienced.

So the answer was—a false history?

Almost the moment he asked the question, an idea naturally formed in Fu Qian’s mind.

Just like in those completed missions, the original course of history would shift because of his involvement.

Could that apocalypse have received the exact same treatment, eventually becoming nothing more than a false history?

And the reason the Benevolent Curse Institute had ushered in its golden age was precisely due to the Butterfly Effect caused by those interventions.

...

He wasn’t sure if the Red Moon’s repeated warnings not to ”lose yourself in lies” were referring to this.

But the more he learned about this seemingly glamorous transcendent world, the more he saw how riddled with devastation it truly was.

Even more tragically, he seemed to be the one forced to act as the patch.

And he was patching it blindfolded, to boot, with hardly any intelligence support to go on.

At that moment, Fu Qian sighed inwardly and clenched his hand.

Boom!

The dark flame in his palm exploded violently.

Yet it brought no burning sensation. Instead, it felt like a concentrated jet erupting in all directions.

The Glove offered practically zero resistance; a mist of blood erupted violently from it.

Madness, chaos, unstoppable momentum... It was a familiar flavor, feeling almost exactly like what he had experienced at Silver Mist Manor.

At the same time, an identical disturbance erupted in every corner around him.

His was not the only dark flame falling. As if Fu Qian’s action had triggered a chain reaction, the violent jets linked together in the blink of an eye, and even the spectators couldn’t escape them.

The vast majority of them possessed significantly lower resilience. For a moment, it was a veritable storm of blood mist flying through the air—yet not a single one of them moved.

As if utterly devoid of sensation, everyone maintained their previous posture, still staring in his direction.

Even though they couldn’t see his face at all from start to finish.

”Why don’t you believe it?”

Yet, despite bearing faces riddled with holes, it didn’t stop them from speaking in perfect unison the next moment.

”Because they don’t look alike.”

Even under the pressure, Fu Qian stuck to his opinion. He even took a step forward, closely inspecting the premature infant cradled in Nepheli’s hands.

”I actually spoke with someone in a similar situation earlier today. She mentioned that she looked exactly like the body that gave birth to her.”

Excellency Nepheli clearly didn’t know much about holding a baby; it looked like she was holding a football.

Fortunately, her little passenger didn’t seem to mind, simply staring back at him in silence.

”I don’t see the resemblance.”

Unfortunately, this group was deeply argumentative. Without a single one of them even glancing at the baby, they spoke in unison once more.

”How do they not look alike—”

That was enough.

The second half of Excellency Nepheli’s sentence was abruptly choked back down her throat.

Moving with utmost naturalness, Fu Qian reached out and grabbed her directly by the throat.

He had only made a little polite conversation, and now they wouldn’t stop, huh?

...

no one survives.

Fu Qian naturally didn’t think he was actually talking to Nepheli.

In the truest sense of the word, the group was now sharing a single brain, or at least operating under the influence of a single will.

Just a moment ago, Fu Qian was absolutely certain that he had been targeted by an overwhelmingly oppressive lock-on. That was exactly why his Blood Crusade had lost its concealment effect.

The Mother of Gospel arriving in person was, as expected, vastly more terrifying than her previous projection.

And at almost the exact same time, every single consciousness in the space before him—save for his own—was instantly annihilated.

On the one hand, this was naturally thanks to his good habit of casually activating Pseudo-God Incarnation. On the other hand, the Academy elites—especially Excellency Nepheli—were definitely not weak enough to be instantly wiped out like that under normal circumstances.

The only reason they appeared to offer absolutely zero resistance was that they had likely fallen victim long before this moment.

With such a monumental achievement, how could they not run a few rehearsals before the final demonstration?

Although he hadn’t detected any similar byproducts just yet, Fu Qian was inclined to believe that this Miracle had been activated more than once.

This was also why he hadn’t made a single move to stop it just now.

The apocalyptic ending had long been set in stone.

If he could just stroll in like this and still have a chance to stop the Mother of Gospel, Master Yuhun would have to be completely brain-dead not to throw some obstacles in his path along the way.

As for what he actually wanted to do, that was plainly obvious—

Dump Fu Qian right into ground zero of the apocalypse, let him crash head-first into a ferocious world-destroyer, and borrow their hand to instantly obliterate him.

It was just a pity that, owing to his polite behavior, the entity had merely sprinkled a little rain at first, giving this apocalyptic moment the surprising tranquility of a hurricane’s eye.

But of course, that peace ended here. Excellency Nepheli was visibly furious at the offense. While she didn’t struggle, she opened her mouth, ready to unleash a roar.

Crack—

As Fu Qian tightened his grip, he met immense physical resistance. Her Excellency, the Mother of Gospel, had clearly abandoned her policy of appeasement.

Snap!

His body abruptly expanded. The Four Rings activated simultaneously, bursting forth with a brilliance bright enough to blind man and beast alike.

Even fighting against that tremendous resistance, Excellency Nepheli’s neck snapped cleanly in two.

Waaah—

Every single member of the Academy clamped their mouths shut in perfect unison. The wailing actually came from the infant that had tumbled to the floor, resonating with multiple similar cries echoing from the depths of some unknowable place.

A shockwave of true, apocalyptic destruction swept across everything. Yet, it also felt like a fire being tossed into his consciousness, causing his sense of ”self” to abruptly blaze with intensity.

Just as he had thought—this was the true Gospel Shockwave.

In that moment, Fu Qian finally witnessed the authentic version of his own skill.