Chapter 540: Crimson Queen

Rather than gaining the trait of a "Disaster High Priest" and a level seal, he would rather force the seal‑user to re‑merge the divided battlefield.

After standing mute for two seconds and not seeing the expected change, the Prophet Avatar lowered his head toward the already out‑of‑control "Divine Singer" Ai Si·Si Nei Ke, and, with a hint of mockery, said:

"It seems the Storm Church intends to abandon a saint and a Level‑1 Seal in exchange for victory in the slaughter of Baiyam's wild extraordinary beings."

"But being able to kill a 'Silent Disciple' means you haven't lost too much."

While speaking, he lightly snapped his fingers, creating an invisible hand that reached for the glove that had fallen from Ai Si·Si Nei Ke's hand.

Whoosh— the wind that had calmed suddenly roared, like countless tiny blades slicing everything around.

The invisible hand vanished in the gale before it could get close.

A pale blue light flared in the Prophet Avatar's eyes, and he whispered a single Dragon Tongue word:

"Guard!"

A dawn‑like radiance materialized around him, coalescing into an unbreakable invisible wall before him.

Having done that, he reached up to touch the left side of his face, where the sudden fierce wind had carved several wounds.

He looked ahead as the out‑of‑control tendency grew worse, and the now unrecognizable Ai Si·Si Nei Ke whispered:

"It seems you truly have been abandoned."

Specks of brass‑colored glimmer gathered on his hand, forming a spear covered with strange patterns and sigils.

In the next instant, the silver‑white filaments that had divided the battlefield faded away like a stream and vanished.

The split battlefield re‑merged, and the many extraordinary beings that had been detached from reality returned, though not to their original places.

The Prophet Avatar glanced at the re‑gathered clouds above, stepped back, and his figure quickly faded away.

When he reappeared, he was already several streets away.

Lei Ni Te·Ti Ni Ke Er and Jie Ke Si's silhouettes flashed before him as they chased each other toward the city outskirts.

The whistling wind around them suddenly grew fierce, bearing a strange rhythm that made one inexplicably irritable, yearning to rush out and brawl with anyone to vent the fury.

The Prophet Avatar lingered not; his figure vanished again, while he sensed the paper‑man's position on Ke Lai En and kept flickering closer.

Meanwhile, Ke Lai En, aided by Mi Ou Ji Er Xi Ai Si, easily evaded the Penitent Squad's pursuit, twisted his and the secret companion's positions once more, and materialized outside Baiyam City.

Before he could rejoice, his body suddenly became rigid and uncontrollable.

Immediately after, he saw a messenger lady in an ornate court gown, her dress torn and charred, carrying two heads before him; the golden hair on those heads was also blackened, giving an inexplicable ash‑covered appearance.

Before he could wonder where the messenger's other two heads had gone, he suddenly felt an illusory, unreal sting at his shoulder.

A head whose eyes had turned blackened bit onto his shoulder and dragged forward forcefully.

The two heads the messenger held opened their mouths and inhaled inward.

Then he saw a semi‑transparent, hairless figure whose entire front was scorched being violently pulled out of his body.

At that moment another partially blackened head flew in from afar; its teeth elongated sharply and it tore at the semi‑transparent figure, ripping a chunk that seemed both spirit and flesh from it.

The semi‑transparent figure gave no scream, but instantly faded away.

In the next instant, the figure abruptly reappeared beside Mi Ou Ji Er Xi Ai Si.

The large scissors that Ji Er Xi Ai Si had slung across his waist were now in hand, the other blade thrust straight into the semi‑transparent figure's chest and abdomen.

Ji Er Xi Ai Si's hand moved without pause, pulling the scissors out and thrusting them back in repeatedly, as if oblivious to the chilling aura and the force of Jie Ke Si's palm on him.

Seizing the gap, Lei Ni Te·Ti Ni Ke Er's two carried heads shot out, their pupils darkening and teeth sharpening and lengthening, sprouting an extra segment that existed between illusion and reality.

The two heads each tore at Jie Ke Si's left and right shoulders, ripping another large chunk of spirit‑like flesh from his semi‑transparent body.

The successive wounds twisted Jie Ke Si's expression; he thrust his left hand forward with all his strength toward Ji Er Xi Ai Si, emitting a silent, ear‑piercing shriek that harms spirits—the "Wraith Shriek".

A Tier‑3 Wraith Shriek not only inflicts massive damage on spirits but also carries a cursed power.

Ke Lai En, not far from his secret companion, could only feel warm fluid leaking from his nostrils and ears, his head stinging as if pierced by countless needles, rendering thoughts impossible.

To onlookers, he appeared dazed, his flesh beneath the skin writhing like tiny worms, pushing out pale or crimson nodules.

Deprived of Ke Lai En's control, Mi Ou Ji Er Xi Ai Si could no longer move, frozen in the act of pulling the scissors, while Lei Ni Te·Ti Ni Ke Er's two airborne heads gaped open, inhaling.

Jie Ke Si's Wraith Shriek was seemingly swallowed by the two heads, and the cursed, spirit‑damaging shriek vanished without a trace.

Jie Ke Si seized the opening, his figure vanishing abruptly as he leapt into a shard of glass a hundred meters away.

Then Lei Ni Te·Ti Ni Ke Er and her four heads vanished as well, beginning a new round of chase and escape with Jie Ke Si among leaves, puddles, insects, and weeds.

In the cloud‑filled sky, crimson moonlight suddenly pierced the cloud barrier, bathing the ground.

A deep‑red full moon hung high, pulling Baiyam and its surroundings into a full‑moon state, where spirituality proliferated wildly and inspiration and death grew stronger.

A ghostly blue radiance and a deep‑red moonbeam flashed nearby, and the Prophet Avatar and a hooded figure clad in a black robe embroidered with crimson flowers simultaneously teleported here.

The Prophet Avatar and the other locked eyes, each cautiously assessing the other.

Beneath the black robe stood a tall young woman with light, almost silver hair, blood‑red eyes, and softly contoured features.

After studying her for a moment, the Prophet Avatar said with a hint of doubt:

"'Crimson Queen'? Your faith should be in the 'Primeval Moon'; why do you follow the 'Mother Tree's' command?"

As he spoke, he raised his right hand, and an invisible giant hand transferred the scissors from Mi Ou Ji Er Xi Ai Si's grasp into his own.

To his surprise, the 'Crimson Queen' who had just created the full moon did not act immediately but replied, "The 'Mother Tree' and the 'Moon' are one; this is a belief shared by every member of the Rose School."

"You seem to think the 'Mother Tree' and the 'Moon' are two separate existences?"

The Prophet Avatar stared into her blood‑red eyes; she appeared to conceal her madness and bloodthirsty side, her gaze calm and rational.

He paused a second, then lightly tapped the scissors with his right index finger and chuckled, saying:

"You should think the same, otherwise you wouldn't have answered me."

"Don't you find the 'Primeval Moon' sometimes extremely contradictory, its revelations often conflicting?"

"Do you think this is merely different facets of a personality, or are they truly two separate beings influencing each other and vying for followers?"

As soon as the words fell, the surrounding wind roared, grinding the air and emitting heavy thuds like powerful air‑cannon projectiles deliberately hurling toward them.

Boom! Boom! The air‑cannon shells twisted a few dozen meters away, veering at impossible angles, exploding in the trees beside the road and flinging up mud and broken branches.

The Prophet's Avatar turned his head to see that it had already returned to normal, and while still controlling Secret Companion Jier Xi Aisi, twisted the attacked target Klein, saying: "You'd better leave here first; in the upcoming melee you'll be easily hit by friendly fire."

Finishing his words, he raised his left hand upward as if supporting some invisible thing, and whispered in Draconic:

"Sun!"

A ball of golden light materialized in his hand, like a miniature sun continuously radiating, casting pure, clear beams around and drowning the crimson moonlight from the full moon overhead.

Deprived of moonlight, the Crimson Queen temporarily lost her teleportation and moon‑transformation abilities.

She gave the Prophet's Avatar a calm glance, then shifted her gaze to Klein, who was rapidly distancing himself through the twisted space, and to the Secret Companion behind him, and said evenly: "I truly have little affection for the Mother Tree's fanatical, irrational followers, but since the Moon has enlisted us, we must still obey some simple tasks and orders."

While speaking, she fixed her gaze on Klein's back, and in her bright red eyes strangely reflected Klein's current frontal figure.

The next second, the figure in her eyes turned into Secret Companion Jier Xi Aisi.

Boom! Around her, golden illusory flames instantly ignited out of nowhere, exuding the vast, radiant aura of the Sun, exploding around her like ignited explosives.

At the heart of the flames, the Crimson Queen's figure quickly thinned and became brittle, finally turning into a scarlet paper doll of the moon, which was engulfed by the golden fire.

Immediately, her figure reappeared a short distance away; her right eye was tightly shut, the eyelid slightly sunken as if the eyeball were gone, with dark red blood constantly seeping from beneath.

She raised her right hand to her chest, squeezed hard, producing a splat sound as dark‑red flesh and blood oozed from between her fingers, as if it were bursting.

Hundreds of meters behind her, Secret Companion Jier Xi Aisi's forward sprint suddenly stalled, and he then fell to the ground.

His body seemed to have taken a heavy blow, becoming grotesquely twisted, as if hammered from the inside out, with bones and organs severely shattered.

Klein was forced to halt, cautiously scanning the direction behind him where a terrifying curse lingered—still the result of the twist and cut. Jier Xi Aisi, as an extraordinary practitioner of the "Demon" path, even without assuming a demon form, already possesses the relatively sturdy physique of Sequence Five, yet he was nearly annihilated. If the target that twisted and linked with the Crimson Queen had not been acted upon in time, I would certainly have been killed in an instant.

(End of chapter)