Chapter 873: The Key Part

Deep within the Original Island, within the drifting white mist, Perle's contorted face saw the gate of the Black Emperor's tomb suddenly swing open.

A towering figure clad in black armor and a lavish cloak stepped forth with solemn authority, its body separated from Perle by a roaring torrent of white mist.

Rosel Gustav… Perle's face instinctively shrank back, and the mist formed from her body likewise collapsed inward slightly.

Rosel didn't even glance at the "Weaver of Vortices"; he walked step by step into the air, to the edge of some abstract, ethereal realm, like a floating mountain peak.

During this process, the sky darkened, the remaining clouds twisted as if something were beginning to awaken.

Rosel gazed into the distance, raised his arms, and spoke with a majestic voice:

"People of Intis, your Emperor has returned!"

Instantly, the clouds high above were pushed together by invisible force, swirling downward to form another terrifying vortex.

At the center of this vortex stood Rosel Gustav.

Meanwhile, the people of Intis—those still using the order Rosel had brought—all heard the voice of "The Emperor's Return." Most stared blankly, doubting their ears had been damaged by the earlier burst of light; a few paled, unable to believe their suspicions.

At the far eastern edge of the sky, a beam of light flared rapidly, trembling wildly, as if striving to cross vast distances and rush into Rosel's embrace—bringing distortions in its wake.

Behind this light, three more beams emerged, as if pushed by invisible force, forced forward prematurely.

In different parts of the world, some who had stepped outside found themselves back at home; others saw bright, luminous churches grow dark and silent; some drank milk out of habit but didn't notice they were using their nostrils—and suffered no harm.

Long-abandoned compulsory education schools also glowed strangely with light, as if countless students still sat quietly in class.

Pales, using his own "Time Worm" to seek loopholes in the "Fate"'s gaze, found a usable opening—but the "Time Worms" he had sent out no longer obeyed his commands.

The "Magician" Lady, wandering again with the "Hermit" Lady and the "Justice" Miss, found she had not drawn closer to her target but had instead left the sea behind; before her appeared the "Judgment" Lady and the boy Wil Onsedin, held by her hand.

The points of light within the white mist were barely affected, only dimmed slightly; Perle first gasped in surprise, then broke into a joyful smile.

She had never expected Rosel to step forward, forcibly resurrecting before the ritual ended and reclaiming the Black Emperor's divine throne, causing the corresponding "Singularity" and the three Sequence-1 Divine Characteristics to return spontaneously—this outcome was beyond even her wildest dreams, and she hadn't even considered having the Fates' Servant Hlo Si weave it—but it was a good thing, an absolute good thing for her and for her great deity, the "Indefinite Mist"!

"This harvest will be immense!" Perle had just formed this thought when the great entity she had linked with through the ritual, the "Indefinite Mist," transmitted an emotion, tightening their bond and making the drifting white mist denser, more volatile.

Perle sharply turned her gaze toward the villa in Triel, toward the twisted blood-shadow glowing within the sacred light and white mist.

Her voice floated, ethereal:

"The 'Rose Sect's' Hedonist Faction's prepaid fee is the 'Shadow of the Goddess of Beauty,' a sealed artifact evolved from the Sequence-1 Divine Characteristic of the 'Moon' Path, and the one willing to pay the price is Lady Helt of the 'Nocturnal Gathering.'"

As Perle's "Words of Order" echoed, another point of light rapidly expanded.

The light revealed a hidden chamber, in the center of which stood a female statue with indistinct features; on the walls, children with bent limbs resembling bird claws crawled everywhere, and at the bottom lay one after another expressionless human bodies.

Before the statue now stood a figure: her belly swollen high, her face plump, her brows delicate, nose straight, emerald eyes gleaming like gems, chestnut hair coiled high, clad in a simple, loose white robe—clearly a pregnant woman.

The Lady Who Bore the Divine!

The twisted blood-shadow within Triel's villa, using the white mist, pierced through the corresponding point of light and appeared beside Perle, then walked toward the point of light where Helt resided, as if returning to her mother's embrace.

It moved slowly, distorted by the impact of Rosel's resurrection.

"Lady, you may begin." Perle could not alter the state of the "Shadow of the Goddess of Beauty," so she asked Lady Helt of the "Nocturnal Gathering" to pay the price in advance.

Helt nodded lightly, turned to face the female statue in the chamber's center, and chanted a low, muffled incantation.

The incantation neared its end; the bird-clawed children crawling on the walls grew translucent and dissolved into streams of light, flowing into the statue's abdomen; the expressionless humans piled on the floor exploded one by one, their flesh and blood returning to the Great Mother.

The female statue gradually took on a crimson glow, as if becoming a humanoid red moon.

Lady Helt then turned back, facing the half-air Rosel Emperor, and made the gesture of cradling an infant.

She cried out in ancient Giant tongue:

"Return, child of the Mother!"

From Rosel Emperor's body, streams of crimson moonlight seeped out, detaching from him and flying toward the point of light where the female statue stood.

These were the corruptions that had driven Rosel to seek divinity and death yet still could not be shaken off!

Now, they were all pulled away, no longer affecting Rosel's state, no longer attempting to corrupt him.

The problem that had plagued Rosel for over a century was thus easily resolved—but Rosel's current state required balancing the "Indefinite Mist"'s corruption with traits more compatible with his own to counteract the "Great Mother"'s corruption; removing either side would shatter the equilibrium!

In the blink of an eye, Rosel was filled with white mist; the mist twisted the passage of time and the distance between two fused points, gradually eroding the Emperor, seeking to fully corrupt him.

Bernadette within the Black Emperor's tomb watched this scene; her expression was no longer as calm as it had been outside the tomb. She cried urgently:

"Adam, where is your promise?"

Rosel was unaffected by his changing state—as if he had anticipated this. He still held his arms open, awaiting the return of the Black Emperor's Singularity and the three Sequence-1 Divine Characteristics.

—These were traits possessed only by a true Black Emperor. Once resurrected, regardless of whether the corresponding Singularity and three Sequence-1 Divine Characteristics had been controlled, consumed, or redistributed, they could be forcibly recalled, directly merging into himself without additional rituals or turning them into elixirs!

Tiny threads of crimson moonlight rose from all corners of the Original Island, coalescing with the corruption drawn from Rosel Emperor's body into a miniature red moon.

Perle's ethereal voice rang out in time:

"Lady Helt has requested the 'Great Mother' withdraw the corruption from Rosel Gustav; this corruption shall serve as the exchange for the 'Shadow of the Goddess of Beauty,' given to the 'Rose Sect's' Hedonist Faction…"

Lady Helt caught the miniature red moon attempting to return to its mother, and pushed it out of her own point of light.

The miniature red moon entered the white mist created by Perle and slowly drifted toward another point of light.

It was not the point of light from which the "Shadow of the Goddess of Beauty" had emerged, but the one hanging a blurred figure, guarded by a strange colossal tree.

The "Weaver of Vortices" Perle suppressed her inner excitement and once again observed the scene of Topse's destruction of the sea's seal.

The next instant, thin tendrils of gray mist seeped from the seabed below, mingling with the nine-headed serpent Topse.

…………

Triel, Botanical Garden.

Upon hearing the distant voice of the Emperor's return, Fulanka 's sapphire-blue eyes widened in shock and confusion, yet an uncontrollable spark of joy stirred within her.

Simultaneously, her spiritual intuition told her the order here had been distorted—including the "Man in the Ring" effect.

And wherever distortion appeared, it meant they could escape this place without triggering the "Man in the Ring"!

"Where is the distortion?" As Fulanka thought this, she saw Jianna pull out a mirror and swiftly perform "Mirror Divination."

Jianna had the same intuition.

The two Higtons were being furiously attacked by Lu Mi, who held the "Sword of Courage" and completely ignored the surrounding anomalies, leaving the two "Witches" momentarily unattended.

Similarly, before Vazan Sansong stood only Ludwig, who had yet to reach him due to his short legs and small stature.

The "Man in the Ring" acted decisively, pressing his temple, causing the gathered strange light to pierce through his skull.

Amid the excruciating pain even a "Penitent Monk" could barely endure, he teetered on the brink of death.

The "Man in the Ring" effect activated immediately.

Lu Mi, Anthony, and the others' thoughts clearly blurred for a moment, then found themselves back inside the intact wooden house, restored to the state before they had retrieved the "Sword of Courage" and the "Black Tear" headband.

Fulanka and Jianna's "Mirror Divination" was not completed in time.

Lu Mi instinctively pulled out the "Black Tear" headband again, intending to toss it to Fulanka —but the instant he grasped the sealed artifact, he directly sensed the Mirror World, sensed the special one, sensed the summoning from "0—01" transmitted from Morola.

"Can I sense it like this? Before, I couldn't…"

"The earlier anomaly distorted the order here and the 'Man in the Ring' effect, causing this change? That means I can escape through the Mirror World without triggering the 'Man in the Ring'?" Lu Mi instantly reached a conclusion.

Before Vazan Sansong could kill himself again and bring about the inevitable outcome, he shouted to Fulanka and the others:

"Grab me!"

Time was short; he had no chance to explain, only hoping his teammates would trust him.

Though puzzled, Fulanka and the others once again grasped Lu Mi's body—including Ludwig.

The next instant, Lu Mi used the "Black Tear" headband and the wooden house's glass window to enter the void-black Mirror World, then chose a tunnel at random and sped away.

As expected, they did not trigger the "Man in the Ring" effect.

When Lu Jianuo surged with ecstatic emotion, everyone's vision suddenly blurred, the world spinning wildly.

When they regained clarity, Lu Mi found himself and the others in a world nearly pitch-black, facing Harrison, the visitor from the Resurrection Island.

Around Harrison stood four lit candles and four staple foods—two loaves of bread, Fennepot rice, and rice—all now moldy.

Harrison looked at Lu Mi and smiled slightly:

"The Celestial's decree: you carry the key part of this matter. Holding you ensures no accidents."

As Harrison spoke, Vazan Sansong and the Higtons also materialized in this darkness.

Vazan Sansong likewise gazed at Lu Mi, a smile curling at his lips:

"You didn't know I escaped from Fourth Era Triel through a special Mirror World?"

(End of Chapter)