Chapter 776: Resonance

The piercing wailing seemed to have drawn near:

"My child, Eumibela, where are you?"

Upon hearing the name "Eumibela," Lumian suddenly shuddered, regaining a sliver of self from the state of utter terror that had left his vision black and his thoughts frozen.

"Who?"

"Who's looking for Eumibela?"

"Why are they searching for Eumibela?"

As Lumian reeled in shock, he vaguely realized the surroundings had grown unnaturally dark, filled with a sense of enclosure and confinement.

He reached out blindly with both hands, touching forward, and felt a hard, icy "wall."

He pressed himself against it, trying to peer through the cracks to the outside.

The "wall" was pitch-black yet semi-transparent; Lumian faintly saw a pale sky, collapsed towers, and shattered palaces.

He also saw the Ascended of Temperance, Sharon, floating beside him, wearing a small soft hat and a Gothic gown, reaching out to seize the "Sword of Courage," now corroded into a pale hue.

Beyond Sharon, below, lay a ruin strewn with rubble, where a pale figure in tattered clothing knelt on both knees, bent forward as if about to crawl.

The figure trembled violently, struggling desperately, slowly lifting its head and straightening its body.

It was a face wearing a golden mask—the face of Lumian himself!

"Me?"

"If I'm out there, then who is this here?"

Already half-dazed and barely conscious, Lumian grew even more bewildered.

Almost simultaneously, he saw his outside self: his charred skin peeled away, replaced by patches of pale-brown feathers; his belly visibly bulged and writhed; and from the wounds left by sunlight, sprouted wheat, mushrooms, and flowers of varying colors.

Without sound or warning, the Ascended of Temperance, Sharon, leapt onto the golden mask, then appeared before that Lumian, shoving the "Sword of Courage" into his palm.

A surge of courage instantly dispelled the fear that had suppressed Lumian's reason and awareness, and his vision instantly turned pale, no longer deeply black.

The intense sense of enclosure and confinement around him vanished.

His head lifted higher; what he saw was no longer himself, and his perspective was no longer looking down from above.

His gaze settled on the roof of the "Death God"'s main hall, on the black giant egg buried beneath the corpse of the Phoenix Ancestor.

He instinctively believed he had just been inside that egg, observing the outside through its shell!

No—it wasn't that I was inside the black egg; it was that I, deprived of courage and subdued by the Ancient God's aura, had resonated with the creature within the egg, sharing its senses.

Thus, I "saw" the scene beyond the shell, "heard" the piercing wail calling for Eumibela, and my body showed signs of corruption!

Realizing this, Lumian quickly lowered his head and looked at his own body, seeing the newly grown feathers falling one by one, mixed with wheat, mushrooms, and flowers.

All their colors faded, turning pale and dull.

Lumian also saw his belly gradually flatten, and felt the blood of the dead—supposedly frozen—flowing through his limbs.

In that instant, he understood why Oseto had risked his life and expended so much energy to gestate a fetus bearing undead traits and the aura of the Netherworld.

Even he, with only a trace of Eumibela's blood, had resonated with the creature inside the black egg and experienced some level of mental exchange after being suppressed by the Ancient God's corpse—how much more so the bird-clawed infant, who carried greater blessings of the "Great Mother," fused with the peculiarities of the "Other Side" and the Land of the Dead, and likely also bore Eumibela's blood?

"If we hadn't killed Oseto's premature infant in time, it might have used the resonance and interaction to fuse with the creature inside the black egg, controlling it at its source—or catalyzing it entirely!"

"Hmm, the prematurity meant the bird-clawed infant lacked sufficient rank and uniqueness; it had to proceed with extreme caution—even if it reached the final step, failure was still highly probable…"

"Now the question is, why can the creature inside the black egg hear the 'mother' calling for Eumibela…"

"Who is Eumibela's 'mother'? Could it really be the 'Great Mother' herself? But isn't she always beyond the barrier?"

"What is the relationship between the creature inside the black egg and Eumibela?"

In a flash of thought, Lumian suddenly heard a phantom cracking sound.

He stared in shock and saw the pale flames burning on the surface of the black egg had dimmed significantly, peeling away; the egg itself had cracked open with a clear fissure.

It appeared to be undergoing partial disintegration.

The next instant, the entire pale realm trembled; a deathly stillness, capable of silencing all life, rose from above the black egg—the corpse of the ancient Death God.

Even holding the "Sword of Courage," Lumian could not help but freeze, trembling uncontrollably.

The palaces and towers around him—whether already ruined or half-collapsed—shook violently as if struck by a violent earthquake.

A thought surfaced in Lumian's mind:

"The corpse of the Phoenix Ancestor, Greagali, is awakening…"

"Run!"

"Escape!"

Lumian screamed this inwardly, yet could not turn his body or take even a single step.

Sharon, the Ascended of Temperance, seized his arm, and in his eyes appeared the faint, dimmed image of the "Knight of the Sword," far weaker than before.

Cracks spread across the pale sky, extending toward the trembling earth; an unimaginably terrifying force was rapidly gathering atop the "Death God"'s main hall ahead.

Sharon seized Lumian and immediately initiated "Spirit Realm Transit."

This could be used in the Netherworld too, but it would trigger punishment.

Countless unnameable limbs extended from the void, grasping toward the rapidly moving Sharon.

Sharon forcibly endured the damage from these limbs, continuing her transit toward the black church at the edge of the pale realm.

Her body ignited with pale flames, directly burning her spiritual form, causing clumps of ash to continuously fall away.

In just two or three seconds, Sharon could no longer hold on; she broke off the "Spirit Realm Transit," falling onto the pale wasteland outside the "Death God"'s palace, still nearly a kilometer from the black church.

After leaving the palace complex left by the Death God, Lumian, still clutching the "Sword of Courage," felt less fear; without hesitation, he pointed to himself, signaling Sharon to merge onto his body.

At the same time, he saw jagged fissures rapidly spreading from behind, through which he glimpsed bottomless darkness, a sphere wrapped in crimson, and mountain ranges carved with countless tombs…

Feeling a cold mass settle within him, Lumian instantly ignited blazing white flames, transforming into a magnificent, blazing spear, leaping upward and hurtling toward the edge of the pale realm.

Cracks, like shattered glass, chased him from all sides; behind him, from the direction of the "Death God"'s palace, a heavy, ominous movement stirred.

Amidst the encroaching pale corruption, the flame-spear vanished and reappeared twice.

Finally, Lumian escaped the pale realm, landing before the towering black church that pierced the darkness.

Here, only its subterranean portion was visible, resembling a colossal mountain.

Lumian passed through the heavy, open wooden door, once again becoming a spear of flame, shooting upward.

When the fire dispersed, he sheathed the "Sword of Courage," scaling upward using collapsed staircases, crumbling walls, and broken pillars, leaping repeatedly between them, sometimes using the form of the flame-spear to cross areas with no foothold.

Soon, the black church itself began to shake violently; already unstable corridors, stairs, walls, and pillars cracked and tumbled downward.

Lumian realized he would be crushed beneath the collapsing structure and buried alive—he was about to draw the "Sword of Courage" and carve an escape path.

At that moment, he was startled to see the broken stones and pillars above him move as if alive, deliberately avoiding him as they continued to fall to his sides.

In this perilous scene, Lumian remained utterly unharmed.

He guessed Sharon, the Ascended of Temperance, had aided him; he did not waste time, continuing to climb upward, repeating his previous actions.

After an indeterminate time, the violent shaking abruptly ceased.

Lumian did not relax, maintaining his pace and speed until he saw pale-green flames appear above.

The blazing white spear shot out of the dark, half-collapsed opening within the church.

As the fire scattered, Lumian's figure instantly appeared, firmly standing on cracked stone slabs.

Beside the broken wall adorned with bone torches, a towering devil with a face fused from human and sheep slowly turned its body.

Only now did Lumian realize he had not taken the black egg out—he had failed the devil's task.

Instantly, rage surged within him, dark thoughts rising:

"Was this even a task I could complete?"

"You're sending me to die!"

"No wonder it's a devil's commission!"

"Fine—if completing the task is no longer an option, then I have only one choice:

"Kill the commissioner!"

He thought this, but in reality, Lumian merely reached into the "Traveler's Satchel," preparing to draw the "Sword of Courage," with no intention of fighting immediately.

He feared the anomalies caused by the awakening of the ancient Death God's corpse might spread here, and he preferred to escape the depths of the Netherworld as soon as possible; besides, the devil's strength was unknown.

The sheep-faced devil bent forward, swaying as it shuffled toward Lumian.

It stared silently at Lumian, then spoke with a hollow, decaying voice.

This time, it used Dutan:

"You stole that egg!"

Before the words ended, the sheep-faced devil straightened its towering, four-to-five-meter-tall body and swung its white femur forward, smashing it toward Lumian.

(End of Chapter)