Eldritch Horror Theatre

It was completely unhinged. Given its fundamental nature, though, this behavior wasn’t surprising.

One moment it executed a feint to the east and strike to the west, and the next it pressed the attack with everything it had, acting without the slightest regard for the consequences.

It might have seemed contradictory, but to Fu Qian, this actually felt perfectly normal.

This was likely why no one ever wanted to provoke this Precept Angel.

It possessed its own initiative, cared nothing for the fallout, and was overwhelmingly aggressive.

Not to mention its terrifying offensive power.

Just those two bolts of blood-red lightning from earlier would have been too much for anyone else to handle.

And from the looks of it, this terrifying, surreal barrage was utterly relentless.

Its execution was so infuriatingly simple. Merely forming the shape of a thundercloud was enough to call down lightning? And with Tier 1 power at that?

Merely rolling into a sphere generated a terrifying gravitational pull like a star, making it nearly impossible for a target to escape?Even the hill beneath his feet, which had proven indestructible moments ago, was starting to shift.

Its sharp edges were smoothing out.

Sure enough, he could now clearly see the mountain’s rugged contours rapidly rounding off.

The cause was simple: the countless human bodies composing it had all begun to move in unison.

With every rhythmic pulse, the peaks sank lower, shifting to fill the original ravines.

This transformation unmistakably signaled the birth of another star.

But Fu Qian quickly noticed a distinct difference between this one and the star currently pulling at him.

The writhing mass of human bodies was not merely reducing the surplus to supplement the deficit; with every pulse, it contracted inward, rapidly shrinking its diameter.

This process only further proved his earlier judgment about its fleshy composition.

For a structure that was already packed airtight, compressing it down to create such space was no easy feat.

The result was an endless cascade of shattering bones. Fu Qian even spotted heads being squeezed into elongated shapes, resembling newborns.

Of course, in the blink of an eye, the thick blood oozing from within completely engulfed them.

...

This time, it truly was a blood star.

The sudden transformation undoubtedly made for an increasingly bizarre visual spectacle.

Even with the relentless blood lightning and the madly surging gravitational pull, Fu Qian still watched with interest.

In just a matter of moments, the mountain beneath his feet shrank to roughly the size of the first star.

The elongated heads were no longer visible. Amidst the blood spraying wildly in all directions, the gravitational pull from the blood star was noticeably more extreme.

No longer standing on solid ground, Fu Qian was essentially strolling through a gravitational field. The situation became instantly complicated, giving him a faint taste of the legendary execution method of being torn apart by five horses.

Though in his eyes, this was far from the blood star’s true effect.

The contraction continued, seemingly without end.

Even Fu Qian admitted it was hard to imagine the state of those countless bodies currently compacted beneath that blood.

But one realization was extremely clear: the contraction wasn’t infinite. At some point, this distortion would ignite something, ultimately detonating in a terrifying, supernova-like eruption.

Even if the current blood lightning and gravitational pull hadn’t caused him any substantial harm yet, putting distance between himself and this terrifying entity looked to be rather difficult.

Gravity was only one issue. In that brief moment, countless chunks of the marbled flesh he had initially encountered materialized from all directions, converging into a massive barrier around him.

Due to how they intertwined and linked together, the enclosure was incredibly seamless.

It truly didn’t pay to speak recklessly. He had just mentioned not seeing the impenetrable barrier used by Blood Clan Jacques, and now it seemed he was looking right at one.

Though its form was ultimately crude, resembling a stitched-together coat of skin, Fu Qian would not underestimate the Containment effect it represented.

Clearly, the Precept Angel had no intention of letting him miss the moment of eruption.

Furthermore, just like the discarded pieces he had seen before, this entity shared a highly unusual connection with the Mist.

Whether it was these bodies or the flesh tissues, almost all of it materialized out of thin air from the fog.

Combined with the Witch’s mention of the unstable landing point, it felt like if the Precept Angel genuinely wanted to flee, dealing with it would be rather troublesome.

Of course, his own trouble appeared even greater. Right at this moment, he could already see a third star beginning to coalesce.

Just as he noted earlier, the Precept Angel was truly going all out.

Well aware of the devastating power of three celestial bodies, Fu Qian sighed softly. In the next moment, he didn’t even bother to dodge, allowing the blood lightning to illuminate his body—except, it didn’t.

The very instant the lightning struck his body, the light vanished.

It didn’t just vanish from his body. An absolute, pure darkness continued to expand, swallowing the thunderclouds, the stars, the barrier, and everything else.

Lightless Night.

Facing this sudden upheaval, Fu Qian actually found the scene quite familiar—even endearing.

He had already witnessed this authority to banish all concepts of light on more than one occasion.

Within the Ring he wore, there was a charge of Time-Moon Slumber provided by the Witch—a charge that was still there even now.

Fu Qian noted that he certainly hadn’t triggered it himself; given his current inspiration, many of his Rings were already pure decorations.

Though the origin point of this lightlessness really was on one of his hands—the very hand the Witch had been holding when they arrived.

...

”Don’t move around. Just let me handle it.”

His relaxed, sightseeing posture throughout the entire ordeal wasn’t because a leisurely afternoon tea had sapped his motivation to work, but rather in strict compliance with the Pope’s parting instructions.

Serving as the First to Seventh Apostle under his command, Fu Qian harbored zero doubts regarding the Pope’s mighty power.

Not to mention that while the target might possess bizarre abilities and a high Rank, its mindset wasn’t much different from a rabid animal.

Or rather, a pack of them.

Regardless, from the moment the Witch decided to act, Fu Qian had full confidence in the final outcome.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to do absolutely nothing.

Though he wasn’t entirely sure how the Witch had left an Imprint on his hand, Fu Qian hadn’t forgotten his other special identity outside of being a Dark Moon Apostle—the Pseudo-Law Core.

Due to its inherent nature, the Precept Angel had already demonstrated a special focus on the reappearance of the Stars.

Then wouldn’t his own nature hold a different kind of significance for it?

Occupying the home-field advantage to create opportunities to divide and conquer was a maneuver it could likely perform entirely on primal hunting instinct. It wasn’t hard to guess.

And in Fu Qian’s view, the probability of the Witch being banished was actually quite likely higher than his own.

But that wasn’t a problem at all, because it meant he would be able to play the role of bait.

The Witch’s specific instruction for him not to act clearly stemmed from similar considerations, wanting him to be a bit gentler so as not to scare the target away.

And when his guessed scenario actually occurred, an ordinary person might have easily noticed something was amiss given his excessively relaxed demeanor... but let’s not forget, the target was far from ordinary.