Eldritch Horror Theatre

Reaching out again?

In a sense, the Relic of the First Generation Dark Moon was the Witch’s greatest harvest on this trip.

But they hadn’t actually discussed what exactly the scroll in her hands was.

And now, right before parting ways, she was just asking him to place his hand on it?

This sudden request reminded Fu Qian of their previous return trip, when she had recharged Time-Moon Slumber.

”What exactly is this thing?”

Driven by curiosity, Fu Qian had already done as asked.

”Aren’t you worried it’s a trap?” the Witch asked with a smile, seeing him act so decisively.

To be fair, the question made sense. After all, they had just been discussing the traps of a higher entity.

Although a Templar Knight was the esteemed second-in-command beneath the Pope and had repeatedly made great contributions, one shouldn’t forget that the aforementioned higher entity was a ”Mother.””I’m not worried.”

Fu Qian shook his head.

”...Although it left something for me inside, this isn’t actually a recording scroll. Quite the opposite—it seems it should be called the Scroll of Oblivion.”

The Witch said no more, turning her attention entirely to the open scroll.

Unfortunately, even with his hand pressed against it, Fu Qian still couldn’t decipher anything from it.

”I repeatedly confirmed it just now. Its effect is actually simple and pure. On the one hand, it can indeed record something, but once recorded, the effect is equivalent to burial.

”That should also be why the recreated Law of the Stars had such binding power over me.”

Fortunately, the scroll’s owner quickly explained, even bringing up a point that had been confusing him all along.

”Indeed. Theoretically, for a higher entity in a complete state, this type of targeted restriction shouldn’t exist.”

Fu Qian maintained his posture and nodded slightly.

This was indeed a question he had been pondering ever since his previous rescue mission.

It was true that the Law of the Stars had been compiled by the Witch’s ”Mother” and contained strict restrictions specifically targeting the Dark Moon.

But one couldn’t forget that times had changed. The symbol of the Dark Moon had now truly changed owners.

In a sense, this was like ”using a sword from the previous dynasty to execute an official of the current one.”

Theoretically, even if it retained some binding power, it shouldn’t have been completely impossible to resist.

”That is because the concept of the Dark Moon is not actually complete.”

The Witch sighed softly at this. As she spoke, the scroll in her hand was already shimmering with a faint light.

Since the Templar Knight trusted her so much, she directly began her operation without even mentioning the specific effects.

...

Treacherous and unpredictable.

At that moment, Fu Qian seemed to grasp the true essence of that feeling.

Something was changing.

He might not have understood the exact details, but the churning patterns on the scroll gave off an extraordinary feeling that required no deciphering at all.

Of course, the main point was that he couldn’t decipher it, so there was no chance of being corrupted by the knowledge.

”An extremely abstract concept was gathered inside, and subsequently vanished from the world. It was so special and minute that it wouldn’t even affect the usual stability.

”However, it was ultimately no longer complete. As a result, the lock left behind by the fully complete Dark Moon gained suppressive power.”

Fortunately, the Witch’s explanation came right on time.

”Understood. An interesting item, and an interesting setup.”

Although the explanation was slightly abstract, Fu Qian was a giant in the academic world, after all; understanding it was absolutely no problem for him.

He had to admit, that First Generation Dark Moon truly had some remarkable ideas.

For example, when authority changed hands, it was like an administrator resigning and handing over the highest level of permissions to a newcomer. The First Generation Dark Moon had indeed done exactly that.

But little did anyone know that prior to that, the definition of the administrator had been slightly tweaked. Thus, while they remained the highest manager of daily operations, they were no longer truly supreme in essence.

In the end, the flawed successor was powerless to lift the restrictions placed by the former supreme being.

It was a truly exquisite design.

Of course, design alone wasn’t enough; it required sufficient hardware support to work.

The Witch had even explained how this was achieved: by relying on the Scroll of Oblivion in her hands.

Directly extracting a concept from the world? This wasn’t something just any transcendent item could accomplish.

Any way you looked at it, that was the power of a true Deity.

One could only say that the collection of Excellency First Generation Dark Moon was quite extensive.

Moreover, this method seemed to only be effective against their own people, meaning it only worked on the ”Offspring.”

After all, for players who weren’t on the same Divine Path as you, there was no way you could obtain their administrator permissions in the first place.

”Do you think this setup was meant to guard against you?”

Without skirting the issue, Fu Qian took the initiative to raise a sensitive question.

...

”It seems reasonable, and even the recreation of the Law was quite bizarre.

”However, there’s also a counterexample. When you came over last time, I was actually on the verge of my limits, but nothing else happened.”

Her hands never stopped moving. Performing this operation for the first time, the Witch was clearly being extremely careful.

Yet, regarding Fu Qian’s question, her train of thought was very clear, as if she had pondered it long ago.

”Logically speaking, if my birth stemmed from some ulterior motive, there should have been follow-up actions after I was restricted. The brief reappearance of Inner Laerdin alone doesn’t seem to hold much meaning.”

The ”Mother” she had been searching for since birth had actually been plotting against her the entire time.

Faced with such a possibility, the Witch neither glossed over it nor blindly leaned into conspiracy theories.

”Agreed. All we can confirm right now is that your ’Mother’ definitely had some scheme regarding this, but it’s hard to say what Her exact goal was. We might need to gather a bit more information on Her past deeds before we can make a judgment.”

The Witch’s mind remained clear throughout. Fu Qian gave a fair assessment and began planning their subsequent actions.

”So what did you bury this time?”

By this time, the Witch’s hands had stopped moving, and the light on the scroll had dimmed back down.

Seeing the unmistakable look of success on her face, Fu Qian asked out of curiosity.

”Remember the core objective of our operation this time?”

The Witch smiled faintly. She was clearly in a good mood, even deciding to keep him in suspense.

”Solving my sensory issue?”

Always one to emphasize clear thinking, how could Fu Qian have forgotten that point?

Judging from the Witch’s tone and demeanor, had she actually achieved a result at the last moment?

”Exactly. The problem is indeed quite baffling, but I just realized that there might be a way to slightly improve it.

”What’s buried inside is the ’Other Shore’. Considering it originally belonged to that world anyway, it seems quite reasonable for you to take it back.”

Gesturing toward the scroll with her eyes, the Witch smiled very happily.

”None of your things were buried inside. I just used a little trick to link it to you—try dripping some blood on it.”

The next moment, this hard-won relic was handed directly over to him.