Chapter 79: Change (Third update, seeking monthly votes)

Lu Mian had previously briefly told Ryan and the others about Guillaume Binet's chest highlighting the black thorn symbol, the hidden existence's honorific name containing "Inevitability," and the corresponding domain materials like gray amber, tulips, cloves, and musk, just pushing the source entirely onto the assistant parish priest and having nothing to do with himself.

Now, upon hearing his reminder, Franca, Ryan, and Valentine were immediately alert and had corresponding guesses.

"A place of sacrifice?" Ryan muttered in a low voice.

While he was speaking, everyone cast their gaze into the basement.

Borrowing the little light flowing down from the stairs, they barely saw the general appearance of the interior:

The space under the church was larger than the entire first floor of Lu Mian's house. Gray-white stone slabs were laid on the ground, and the surroundings appeared incomparably dark because the light couldn't reach them. In the middle stood a stone platform half a person high.

The top of the stone platform was slightly recessed toward the depths, seemingly hiding some things, but making it unclear to people.

Lu Mian said in a low voice while thinking:

"This might be the place where the assistant parish priest and the others prayed to the evil existence for the 'gift'."

"They actually built an evil god altar under the church!" Valentine was simply beyond angry. Lu Mian suspected he would burn up in the next second, turning into holy light to purify everything here.

"Calm down." Ryan patted Valentine's shoulder, "Get ready to ignite the flames."

He then signaled Franca to do a reconnaissance.

Franca maintained her sweet smile and sniffed her pert nose:

"That hidden existence whose honorific name has 'Inevitability' really likes fragrance..."

While sighing, she walked into the basement, her mouth moving, as if reciting something silently.

Those four small silver bells rang ding-ding-dang-dang again, sometimes intense, sometimes slow.

One step, two steps, three steps... Franca turned her head and said to Ryan and the others:

"There's no abnormality in the doorway area."

Ryan, Lu Mian, and Valentine then passed through the old brown wooden door, entered the basement, and arrived where Franca had stopped.

Franca continued forward.

After walking a few steps, the silver bells hanging on her veil and boots began to shake violently.

Ding-ding-dang-dang!

This sound spread urgently in all directions.

Points of light like morning mist immediately appeared around Ryan, condensing together to create a suit of silver-white full-body armor on Ryan's body.

At the same time, a pure giant sword of light appeared in Ryan's hand.

And Valentine half-opened his arms, letting clusters of golden illusory flames burn beside him.

One of the flames suddenly elongated and widened, and Franca's figure walked out from within.

She returned from the position near the altar to where Lu Mian and the others were.

How magical... Lu Mian exclaimed at Franca's performance once again. Compared to the understandable and imaginable "Sun" path ability and Ryan's combat state, Franca's various performances were even more eerie and magical. For example, the ability yesterday to transfer his wound from his thigh to the edge of his lower leg was simply inconceivable.

Facing the sudden "alarm," Lu Mian still made his only response:

Pull out the iron-black axe and shrink behind Ryan, whose body had grown quite a bit.

During this process, he took the opportunity to scan the surroundings and didn't find any abnormal changes.

You know, he had "Spirit Vision" on.

Of course, Lu Mian also had certain discoveries—borrowing the light brought by the golden flames, he saw piles of human skeletons on the edge of the basement, some even covered with light-colored sheepskin.

Are these previous sacrifices? The assistant parish priest and the others have been doing evil cult rituals here for at least half a year, and Aurora and I didn't notice at all... Lu Mian's thoughts raced, feeling again that Cordu village, where he had lived for nearly five years, was so unfamiliar. It didn't know when it became abnormal. Perhaps, it wasn't normal from the beginning.

"Is anything wrong?" Ryan asked Franca while vigilantly looking toward the altar.

Franca shook her head:

"I don't feel there's any problem, just signs of danger."

"Very strange..." Lu Mian had just turned his head to look at Franca when his voice stopped abruptly.

He saw this beautiful lady's face become semi-transparent, and underneath, there seemed to be twisted worms crawling back and forth, drilling in and out. The whole person was even more terrifying, more evil, and more hair-raising than the legendary evil spirits, making his heart beat wildly.

This simply transcended Lu Mian's imagination. He suspected he would have nightmares for a long time because of this.

"Your, your face!" He reminded Franca, unable to restrain his own fearful emotions.

Franca subconsciously touched her face with her right hand, and her eyes changed.

As for whether her complexion changed, Lu Mian couldn't tell from those transparent and twisted worms.

Franca busily looked at the back of her hand, where the skin had also become semi-transparent, and the flesh and blood underneath seemed to have turned into strange worms.

"You're approaching loss of control!" Valentine also noticed Franca's state.

Franca asked herself suspiciously:

"But my mental state is still okay."

"You first determine if this is your hallucination." Ryan turned his head to remind her.

Almost simultaneously, Lu Mian discovered that the tall warrior was shrinking rapidly, and the silver-white full-body armor on his body and the giant sword of light in his hand also disintegrated accordingly.

In the blink of an eye, Ryan turned into a short dwarf just over 1.5 meters tall, and the brown jacket and light yellow trousers were either too big or too long.

He also had a mutation? Only Valentine and I are fine... Lu Mian's pupils dilated sharply, subconsciously looking at Valentine.

"Ryan, you've shrunk!" Valentine, who existed in the form of a light man, reminded his companion urgently.

"..." Lu Mian, who was almost blinded by the light, busily asked Franca, "Have I changed?"

Franca, with countless transparent worms that seemed to want to crawl out but couldn't leave the flesh and blood, said:

"You're very normal.

"But under these circumstances, normal might be the most abnormal thing."

I'm normal? Could it be that the black thorn symbol protected me, making the 'danger' here think I'm one of their own? Lu Mian suddenly had a guess.

At this time, Ryan had already checked his body and said while on guard:

"I didn't shrink, but returned to how I was before, even losing my supernatural abilities."

"How you were before?" Lu Mian blurted out.

He vaguely thought of something in his heart.

Ryan nodded:

"Hmm, I was born short. As a man, this is a great misfortune, so when choosing a 'potion,' I chose 'Warrior,' which can effectively change my height.

"I don't know if it's luck or misfortune, but in the last five or six years, supernatural monsters and abnormal phenomena involving the 'Warrior' path have become many, allowing me to be relatively less troubled by the materials needed for advancement."

After listening to Ryan's words, Lu Mian roughly understood the source of the mutation:

"You returned to the 'past'!

"As far as I know, the authority of that hidden existence involves the past..."

Speaking of this, he imitated that mysterious lady, deliberately pausing for a few seconds, and added a few other words:

"Also involves the present, and, and, and, the future."

Although he was currently using Intis language, he still had to be cautious.

Franca reacted extremely quickly, blurted out:

"Valentine and I entered the future? Is this a state of one of our futures?"

"And I am the present?" Lu Mian affirmed Franca's guess by asking back.

He then thought of the three-faced monster he encountered in the dream ruins.

That monster only had one head, but had three faces, one aged, one middle-aged, and one young.

Lu Mian suspected that this was also a gift from the owner of the black thorn symbol, and the level was relatively high, but the recipient couldn't bear it, or encountered some accident, and turned into a three-faced monster.

Franca nodded gently:

"Probably. But this change in state didn't affect my spirit. I don't feel like I'm approaching loss of control at all."

"I don't feel like I'm burning either." Valentine followed up.

Ryan thought for a while and said:

"Similarly, I didn't lose my memory.

"Maybe there's just a bit of power left here, unable to affect the spirit, mind, and memory, but I'm not sure if there will be any serious sequelae if I stay in this state for a long time.

"I'm fine. At worst, I'll re-consume the potion and re-advance. As for you guys, the future originally should have had multiple possibilities, but now, the future might already be destined. One loses control, one turns into holy light. This is, hmm, what I understand as 'inevitability'."

"It's really scary." Franca sighed with a smile, "Fortunately, we can still restart the cycle, and we can try to find the 'present' here."

Seeing that no terrifying monsters were attacking, Lu Mian suggested:

"How about we go out first and see if we can recover naturally?

"Besides, we might encounter power representing the 'present' on the way."

Ryan didn't oppose:

"We can try."

He was now an ordinary person, and it would be very dangerous to go further.

"I'm afraid another change in state will directly lead to loss of control." Franca said relatively cautiously.

Encountering the "present" would definitely be good, but encountering the "past" would be troublesome, and she didn't know what would happen if another "future" was superimposed.

Lu Mian took the initiative to speak:

"I'll scout the way. I still have one chance to change my state."

He mainly wanted to test whether he was lucky enough to encounter the "present," or if the black thorn symbol on his chest protected him.

"Be careful." Ryan didn't stop him and exhorted. Franca nodded along.

Valentine's gaze toward Lu Mian also became less cold.

He couldn't help but think:

This young man has a spirit of sacrifice, and he is a devout believer of my Lord. Once the cycle is broken, see if there's a way to clear the pollution hidden in him and let him join our team.

Seeing Lu Mian about to step forward, Valentine, who had regained his calm, suggested:

"Let me try to drive away this state first?"

No one opposed, and Lu Mian was the same, because he was in the "present," didn't need to drive away "negative states," and didn't need to accept purification.

The next second, he found he had miscalculated.

Valentine didn't directly create holy water to purify Franca and Ryan but first used "Sun Halo."

Dark golden light flashed, and invisible power spread toward the surroundings.

PS: Third update, seeking monthly votes~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 80 =====