Chapter 45: Ah! I

“Give it to me! Don’t move!!!!”

The voice of temptation spilled from Leina’s lips,

Leina unleashed nearly all her psychic power onto Nama Kar,

Nama Kar, facing Leina’s full force, hesitated slightly,

No power surged from the notebook in her hands,

The Master she had spent decades searching for did not answer her,

She had been abandoned,

In a daze, Nama Kar realized,

She was no longer useful to the Master,

Only mockery echoed around her ears:

“Just as planned—everything is unfolding as planned!”

“Gahahahahahaha hohohoho!!”

The Master’s mockery rang in her ears.

Then, flame, lightning, and psychic hammers struck her down,

Nama Kar barely managed to let out a few cries before she was reduced to a charred corpse.

“Where is your Master?!” Leina growled. “I have the Emperor’s protection—what do you have?”

Leina kicked the blackened corpse hard and turned to Zhou Yun.

“Zhou Yun, you—”

Leina froze in place,

She had believed killing Nama Kar would sever the corruption,

But Zhou Yun still clutched his head, leaning painfully against the wall, his eyes reflecting spiral numbers,

He seemed to be slowly being eroded by profane entities from the Warp,

Yet Leina could faintly sense,

Zhou Yun had not yet been fully corrupted—his will, some force within him, his very self resisted the corruption.

Leina placed her hand on Zhou Yun’s forehead and projected her consciousness into him.

“Zhou Yun!!!” Her voice echoed through layers of numbers,

She tried to guide her consciousness deep into his mind, pulling him free from the swirling vortex of digits.

But the instant her psychic energy entered, it was entangled by the ever-changing numbers,

Her psychic energy dissolved in an instant.

Leina could only watch helplessly through the swirling numbers, seeing Zhou Yun deep within,

Faintly, she saw a white light covering Zhou Yun’s form, and in the Warp, a round blue silhouette reflected back.

At that moment, Leina heard the sound of pages turning,

She turned her head, looking behind her,

There, Nama Kar’s cheap black-covered notebook had opened silently.

Leina blinked in surprise,

The notebook had survived her psychic bombardment unharmed,

She immediately realized—this notebook was the source of the corruption.

The notebook opened silently, its numbers rising like tiny black-blue insects from the pages,

They spiraled slowly through the air, forming a twisting, shifting vortex,

Leina heard a mocking, birdlike-human laugh coming from the other side of the vortex.

Some entity was about to squeeze through the vortex opened by the notebook into the material universe.

“The distance is too great—my psychic power cannot reach you immediately.”

“If you were in a chapel, or if a squad of Blood Angels stood beside you, I could purge this corruption at once.”

The winged figure in the white light spoke in a low tone, his pure white wings forming a barrier to protect Zhou Yun,

But perhaps due to the great distance, his figure wavered like a rootless water lily in the current.

“Where am I supposed to find a squad of Blood Angels?”

“Wait—that notebook must be the source of corruption. If we destroy it—”

Zhou Yun gritted his teeth against the dizziness in his soul and forced his head up,

He saw Nama Kar’s black notebook open a vortex of numbers,

Something seemed ready to emerge from beyond the vortex.

Leina raised both hands, chanting the Emperor’s name, unleashing psychic energy to seal the vortex and destroy the black notebook,

But the notebook remained untouched, the vortex spinning faster and faster.

“It cannot be destroyed—the notebook is the source of corruption, sustained by those corrupted.”

“Every soul who deciphered the mystery of those numbers and was thus corrupted sustains the notebook’s existence.”

“Unless all the corrupted are purified, the notebook cannot be destroyed.”

The winged figure in the white light said, staring at the black notebook.

To destroy the notebook, you must purge the corruption; to purge the corruption, you must destroy the notebook—

A perfect loop formed a cage, trapping everyone within.

The winged figure in the white light looked at Zhou Yun, who struggled painfully against the corruption,

In his eyes, Zhou Yun’s form was becoming inhuman,

His body alternated between layers of blue feathers,

And then replaced by round blue metallic shells,

Zhou Yun’s reflection in the Warp, his true essence within the Warp, was fighting for control of his physical body against the corruption of Tzeentch.

But Zhou Yun had not yet recognized his true nature, had not yet seen his place within the Warp,

The Warp is a realm of mind—if you do not recognize the power you hold, that power might as well not exist,

Zhou Yun was merely passively resisting Tzeentch’s invasion—he could not hold out much longer.

“Go to the chapel!”

The winged figure in the white light shouted to Zhou Yun:

“Go to the nearest chapel—with my statue. There, my power can reach you more strongly.”

“The nearest chapel is three blocks away,”

Zhou Yun growled,

“And that chapel already contains traces of Tzeentch!”

Even if the chapel were pure, Zhou Yun’s current state meant he could never reach it.

This was Tzeentch’s plan,

Likely since decades ago, when Nama Kar donated money to sponsor the chapel,

Nama Kar believed she had found the true God through mathematics—she had merely fallen into Tzeentch’s trap,

Year after year, she taught children mathematics, sowing seeds of corruption through hidden numbers representing Tzeentch,

Every ninth day, she prayed to Tzeentch in the chapel—the chapel was the thinnest point between reality and the Warp,

Countless corrupted children prayed day and night,

Until tonight, in District Nine, using those corrupted children as sacrifices, they opened a vortex of numbers leading to the Warp,

What lay beyond that vortex?

A Greater Daemon? A Lord of Change?

But to destroy the notebook, you must kill every corrupted soul—even Zhou Yun, who is about to be corrupted.

Or, use the simplest method: destroy District Nine entirely.

“No.”

Zhou Yun looked up at Leina, who was desperately channeling psychic energy to suppress the vortex.

His mind raced—perhaps Tzeentch’s corruption had sharpened his intellect,

A thought flashed in his mind.

“I—I—”

Zhou Yun gritted his teeth against the dizziness and pain in his skull, shouting to Leina:

“Leina!”

“I’ve got an idea!”

“Huh?” Leina turned, bewildered, toward Zhou Yun.

“Throw that damn notebook to me!!!” Zhou Yun roared.

Leina nodded sharply,

She chose to trust Zhou Yun’s idea,

Though it could not be destroyed, moving the notebook seemed possible.

Leina summoned her psychic energy and hurled the cheap black-covered notebook toward Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun reached out and caught the notebook, staring at the swirling vortex of numbers upon its pages.

From the other side of the vortex, the mocking, birdlike-human laughter never ceased.

“Laugh? Laugh at your mom, you blue-haired freak!”

“See if this is in your plan!”

Zhou Yun decided to take a gamble, betting that his cheat ability was reliable enough.

He shoved the notebook into the fourth-dimensional pocket on his abdomen.

“Item: Book of Infinite Variations”

[Origin: Axford Star, Shield of the Underworld System, Ninth District of Fudia City]

[Rating: A notebook corrupted by the Demon Lord of Infinite Variations, filled entirely with numbers.]

(End of Chapter)