Chapter 518: First to Be Eliminated

Dawn has broken, please open your eyes.

While Lei Kedun was still muttering to himself, the clergy A Meng had already completed the procedure.

He calmly gazed at the A Meng in a black classical robe seated at the head, his eyes holding a restrained emotion as he said:

"The person killed last night was you!"

His finger suddenly pointed at the A Meng in the black robe at the head.

At this moment, Lei Kedun felt as if he could see barely concealed surprise and excitement in the eyes of the surrounding A Mengs.

All one can say is, as expected of an A Meng, it was both unexpected and yet somehow reasonable.

The A Meng in the black robe put on a rather sorrowful expression and said, "Alright, you really know how to play."

As his words fell, he suddenly raised his hand and grasped at the air; the A Meng in a white clergy robe floating at the center of the table vanished, and the silver cross that this A Meng had been holding appeared in the hand of the A Meng in the black robe.

Lei Kedun glanced over in surprise, then quickly withdrew his gaze, leaning back against the chair in a pose of closed-eyed rest.

The A Meng in the black robe, while playing with the silver cross in his hand, said:

"Next, I will lead you through the game's procedure."

After a round of statements, all the A Mengs declared themselves good while denouncing those who hid their identities, and in the first round they chose an A Meng to backstab the main entity.

These A Mengs are really dramatic; will the three households become like this split-minded later? While Lei Kedun was still muttering, the A Meng seated at the head had already begun pushing the procedure: "Night falls, please close your eyes."

"Dawn has broken, please open your eyes."

"The one killed last night was you."

As expected, Lei Kedun saw an A Meng point a finger at himself.

These A Mengs have gone berserk; they feel they're not here to play a game but to vent the resentment they usually suffer from the main entity's exploitation. With the sole outsider eliminated, it's just them playing against themselves—I really doubt their mental state.

Lei Kedun's gaze swept over the A Mengs around the round table; his figure suddenly turned translucent, shattering into specks of flowing brilliant starlight that scattered out of this illusion.

As the specks of starlight faded, the library constructed within this illusion instantly turned transparent and vanished into nothing.

At the head, the A Meng leisurely reclined in the high-backed chair, pinching his monocle; the illusion that had just vanished reappeared, unchanged from before, except that the sconces on the surrounding walls and columns now held their flickering flames frozen in place, like a static three-dimensional painting.

The A Meng in the black robe glanced at the A Mengs around the round table already immersed in the game, casually designated the person who had just been eliminated to take his place, and then calmly slipped the monocle he was holding onto his right eye.

In the next instant, his figure vanished from where he stood, and when he reappeared, he was already outside the church at the city's center.

Surging starlight gathered around this spot, swiftly coalescing within to reveal Lei Kedun's figure.

Lei Kedun was not surprised to see an A Meng arrive here before him; if an A Meng hadn't followed, he would have been surprised.

His gaze swept over the A Meng, and he casually said:

"You actually didn't cheat in the game—truly surprising."

A Meng lifted his hand to tidy a stray lock of hair on his forehead, then chuckled as he spoke:

"Being surprising is also a form of deceit."

After glancing at the A Meng with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, Lei Kedun strode straight toward the church's prayer hall.

A Meng made no move, yet his figure clung tightly to Lei Kedun's rear, the distance between them seeming nonexistent.

While clinging tightly to Lei Kedun's back, he sighed:

"It's a shame neither of us won; I originally planned to have you help me obtain some samples of that gray mist."

"Are you sure this is such a small request? Besides, this thing called historical mist—without authority over time or history, I can't even touch it."

Lei Kedun muttered a helpless complaint.

As they spoke, they had already arrived at the prayer hall, where everything had returned to its original state.

The puppets clad in clergy robes lay neatly prostrate on the ground, clamorously yet devoutly confessing before the inverted statue.

A Meng suddenly stepped forward two paces, scanning the surroundings as he spoke:

"Back then, metallurgical technology wasn't refined; being able to craft so many metal products into puppets and a city was already considered luxurious."

Lei Kedun didn't respond to his words; he rubbed his right thumb and middle finger together, producing specks of glittering starlight that emitted a bright but not glaring light, illuminating the entire hall.

In the brightly lit hall, Lei Kedun this time earnestly examined the murals on the surrounding walls, trying to derive some useful information from them.

While recalling the murals around him, he occasionally chatted with A Meng: "Can they recognize you, Your Excellency the Times Angel?"

"No, there aren't many records about me, and this isn't a city that believes in me, so they know even less about me."

A Meng slowly shook his head in explanation; as he spoke, he had already approached the inverted statue, the brim of his pointed soft cap drooping low, obscuring his facial expression.

Lei Kedun continued A Meng's line of questioning:

"I'm curious—where is the city that believes in you? Is it, like the A Meng family of the Fourth Era, entirely composed of your avatars?"

"It once was not."

A Meng replied lightly, gently swaying the monocle held in his right hand.

Boom—

A deafening sound accompanied a thick bolt of silver-white that exploded in the prayer hall.

After a blinding flash of silver-white, tiny electric snakes darted across the floor and walls; the formerly inverted statue turned into scattered charred stone fragments on the ground, coated with black gelatinous substance, over which the silver-white electric snakes crawled extremely slowly.

The puppets lying prone around suddenly paused, as if struck too hard, as though they had crashed.

This silence didn't last even a second; crimson light surged from the puppets' bodily pores, filled with madness and depravity.

"No!"

"Lord~ have You forsaken us."

". Why has this come to pass! Why."

"Ho~ho."

The puppets' voices also grew hoarse and mad, until finally they could not utter a complete sentence, leaving only the hoarse sound from the friction of their temple parts.

Lei Kedun turned his head to observe the A Meng standing still before the shattered statue; his right hand toyed with the crystal-made monocle, his brows and eyes lowered, his expression grim and indistinct, while the puppets around seemed utterly unaware of his presence, bypassing him to converge on the spot where he stood.

Lei Kedun stood in place, deep blue radiance flowing in his pupils, as he softly intoned a draconic word:

Frost!

Centered on him, waves of crystalline, translucent light rippled in the air, carrying a biting chill that spread outward, quickly sweeping across the entire prayer hall, covering the whole hall with a thick layer of frost.

The dolls that had been approaching nearby suddenly halted, unable to move forward, as icicle after icicle hung from their bodies, the frenzied, depraved scarlet light seeping from their bodily apertures dimming somewhat.

Crack! Crack! A series of crisp sounds came from the thick ice layer, as cracks from inside to outside spread like a spiderweb, with black substances flowing within, as if they might surge out at any moment.

A Meng, not knowing when, had put on the monocle he had been toying with, and his voice appeared beside Leiketon, saying:

"Back when the people here built this church, they added a self-repair function to it; if they couldn't completely erase it or throw it far away, these dolls can keep regenerating."

"Self-repair function?" Leiketon muttered under his breath, suddenly recalling the deep crimson spiritual light he had seen when he earlier examined this divine temple; he uncertainly asked: 'What is the nature of the Moon Path? Is it the Creator who holds authority over a certain life domain, or the Summoning Master?'

"Not at all, just a 'Witch King,' but the original owner of that trait had been influenced by the lingering aura and divine power of the Earth Mother God, becoming mad yet possessing incredible vitality; after the people here cleared him, they retained this trait and used it to craft wondrous items."

"Do you know too much?" Leiketon glanced suspiciously at A Meng beside him, whose expression seemed as if he had personally witnessed these things here before.

A Meng tugged at the corner of his mouth, his tone full of malice and amusement, saying:

"I have always had a clone stationed here, and I participated in the struggle between the conservative and progressive factions at that time."

You're sure you were just participating, not fanning the flames?

"Instead of badmouthing me in your heart, you should think about how to deal with these dolls before you; your frost can no longer hold them."

As soon as A Meng's words fell, the surrounding crackling sounds became clearer and more dense.

Zizi—

The sound of the ice layer shattering suddenly rang out, and a mechanical arm made of metal stretched out from the thick ice, followed by another and another mechanical arm, head, and thigh extending from the ice in various places.

The shattered ice chunks fell to the ground without making a sound, directly swallowed by the darkness condensed from shadow and black.

"With so much residual divine spirit aura here, they actually aren't influencing each other?"

Leiketon let out a sigh, the radiant light flowing in his pupils tracing out one mysterious symbol after another; his right hand simultaneously waved before him, producing specks of brilliant starlight that traced out one strange and mysterious symbol after another.

The azure starlight gradually turned brilliant gold, dyeing everything around it in gold, spreading outward layer by layer.

(End of chapter)