Chapter 321: Vickna's Severed Hand

"Becoming a Dragon Slayer is far less exhilarating than becoming a great dragon itself." Juan Ce Long's smoke‑like whisper sounded in Ao Lie Ge's ear, like a devil's temptation.

"Go, return to the place where you promised your companions. Destroy them, or turn them; whichever, after you succeed I will give you everything you desire."

As the Soviet agent's body moved toward the fungal carpet road leading outside like a marionette, everything fell into calm.

Dark clouds gathered over Hawkins Town; Eleven's telekinetic ripple followed the electronic signal that had just reached the abandoned water tower three kilometers away, and the back of her neck suddenly felt a bone‑chilling gust.

When she realized something was wrong, the entire pine forest had been pulled into an unknown mental space—a upside‑down, dilapidated mansion, its outer walls overgrown with vein‑like vines, and from behind the shattered stained‑glass windows on the second floor came the sound of leather shoes striking rotten wood.

"Long time no see, 011." A man in a white lab coat stepped through the void, each step stirring a crimson ripple, "Back then when you pushed me into the reverse‑world fissure, did you ever think that the other side of the fissure hid an even older great power?"

He tore open his left sleeve, revealing a left arm covered in Runes; the characters swam into the air like living things, forming a hovering inverted pentagram.

Eleven staggered backward, colliding with the writhing wall; the lab protective suit in the mental space transformed into the white dress she once wore: "This can't be. You're Henry? How is that possible, I clearly killed you!" She suddenly clasped her head and fell to her knees, a buzzing of ten‑thousand cicada wings resonating within her skull.

Memories were sliced back and forth in her brain; the memories Eleven had sealed returned instantly under the man's power, and she screamed in agony while kneeling on the ground.

She remembered.

What had happened before she lost her memory.

Henry—no, or rather Number One.

A terrifying man.

Number One is the source of all superpowers, possessing extremely terrifying strength. Yet he also has a snake‑and‑scorpion heart.

Doctor Bu Lun Na, to prevent him from losing control, implanted a crystal that suppresses superpowers into him.

Number One deceived Eleven's trust, having her use her powers to extract the crystal from his body.

Eleven thought Number One would take her and escape the base, but she didn't expect that the first thing the empowered Number One did was to bloodily cleanse the test base.

Whether researchers, security guards, or even the children also imprisoned.

From Number Two to Number Fourteen, the twelve children other than Eleven were all twisted into braids by Henry's power.

Eleven broke down; she wanted to escape this prison, but that didn't mean she wanted to kill everyone. So when Number One raised his blood‑soaked hands and said he could take her away,

Eleven refused.

She unleashed the strongest power in history, pinning Number One hard against the wall; that terrifying telekinesis even tore the void, opening a gateway between Earth and the reverse world, and Number One dissolved into it like ash.

However, after that, Eleven also lost her memory because she had used power that was too great.

But she didn't expect that Number One survived an attack of that magnitude.

"Do you know how much I want to kill you with my own hands?" the man said, as the clothing and skin on his body gradually rotted away, revealing the exterior of a black humanoid monster.

"When I first arrived in this hell, I was desperate," he said, raising his hand; countless floating shards of wood and glass around him swirled like a galaxy around a star, turning with his motion.

"But later, I realized this is heaven. My heaven."

Henry's ugly, terrifying face broke into a rapturous smile: "Ah, the great True Red, it has bestowed upon me power beyond any before."

"Here, I can freely become a spider, the apex predator of the food chain." "But that's not enough." His gaze turned cold, and with a casual swing, countless fragments, propelled by telekinesis, surged toward Eleven like a flood.

"I will forge a path to Earth; I want you all to submit beneath my feet."

"But the great True Red told me that you, and that dragon that appeared from nowhere, will be my obstacles."

"So, Eleven," he said, looking at Eleven struggling with telekinesis, a satisfied smile on his face, "I have no choice but to abandon the idea of making you my toy and kill you completely."

The fragments Eleven blocked with telekinesis sparked against the wooden floor of the mental space, and the second‑floor hallway of the villa suddenly split open a thirty‑meter crack. The chandelier's iron chains emitted a harsh metallic screech, and as she raised her hand they instantly transformed into hundreds of steel nails that shot toward Henry.

"You still only know how to throw toys." Henry, one hand in his pocket, stood still; the hovering Persian carpet suddenly rose to form a buffer layer. The steel nails halted three centimeters from his pupil, then reversed direction at double speed, reflecting back. Eleven rolled and ducked into the study; the rosewood desk was nailed into a metallic hedgehog.

"When you pushed me into the fissure back then, it wasn't so messy," Henry's voice pierced the wall; the entire oak bookshelf suddenly shattered. Four hundred hardcover books assembled in midair into a rotating cubic cage, trapping Eleven in the center. She bit her tongue to amplify her telekinesis, trying to tear the pages, but found each sheet soaked with dark red energy.

In reality, Eleven's forehead veins bulged, her whole body hovered in the air, prompting gasps from Mike and the others.

"Eleven! What's wrong, Eleven!" Jim hurried to pull Eleven down, but it was useless.

That was Henry's power, his most proficient Mind Duel. Those who lose to him on the mental plane will also become a twisted braid in the air in reality.

And at that moment, within the mental space, Eleven was in a desperate situation.

!

When Henry lifted the entire floor with telekinesis to slam down, Eleven suddenly clasped her palms together. Discarded tractor parts outside the villa pierced the wall and, at the last instant, assembled into a steel shield.

The violent shockwave shattered all windows; the basement in reality tripped its circuit, and the emergency lights cast blood‑red shadows on Eleven's hovering body.

But just as Henry wielded twelve dinner knives to form a strangling array, a sudden mutation occurred!

The ceiling suddenly collapsed. A gigantic, blood‑fleshed severed hand broke through the top, and the single eye in its palm emitted a blue beam that was not aimed at Henry, but instantly purified all lingering telekinetic residue across the battlefield.

Eleven seized the moment, channeling all her power into the chandelier's iron chains, forging them into an electrified long whip that sliced through the encircling net.

"Damn, what is this thing!"

Henry watched as the sky‑borne giant hand dismantled the villa, and as he looked at the single eye in its palm, he felt a tremor.

He could feel that the eyeball contained an extremely terrifying power, a power he had only ever seen in the great True Red.

But how could that be? That sovereign is the ruler of the entire reverse world!

In the void, ethereal voices like sacred music rose around, united in praising the same great being.

"Look, the Soul‑Stealer opens its eyes behind the Silent Veil; the mortal's shed skin oozes silver blood; it measures the stellar path with an inverted spine, and with its seventh death it births an eternal authority—"

"The Forgotten Library collapses within the skull, each speck of dust reciting the betrayed canon; an obsidian umbilical cord wraps the remnants of creation, and the name Vickna rots on the tongues of the gods."

The eerie sacred music clearly praised the deity, yet its content sent chills down Eleven's spine.

She watched Number One vanish under the giant hand's intimidation, and a cold shiver rose in her heart.

What is that? Could it be the entity behind that female voice?

(End of Chapter)