“Already dead…”
Edwards turned his head and looked at Bernadette’s Invisible Servant with his light-blue eyes. His gaze was no longer cold and blank. It emitted a strange glint that was filled with disbelief.
It was only at this moment that he seemed to realize that he had long died and had come back to “life.” He was no different from William, Poli, and Grimm, who he claimed were individuals who they needed to keep up one’s guard against.
This transformation lasted for only two seconds before Edwards’s face twisted. His already pale skin rapidly dimmed as it ruptured inch by inch.
Beneath his skin, the red pieces of flesh began to rot at a discernible speed, dripping foul yellow liquid.
With a swoosh, Edwards raised the black axe in his hand.
Oof!
His axe ruthlessly cleaved the top of his head, as though it was trying to stop the bad thoughts that surfaced in his mind.
The axe was heavy and sharp. It tore through Edwards’s skull all the way to his glabella.
Drip, drip, drip. Drops of milky-white cerebrospinal fluid dripped down from the axe’s blade, sliding across Edwards’s grimaced and torn face, as though he had poured some milk onto a bright red strawberry.
“Don’t… Don’t come near me…” Edwards said in a low and hoarse voice to Bernadette’s Invisible Servant after striking himself in the head.
Before he could finish his sentence, his expression returned to its blank state. The look in his eyes gradually turned hollow as he turned around and walked towards the forest.
That thin and shriveled body of his stooped a little, as though his back was hunched.
Bernadette had probed him because of the doubts and concerns she had about entering the mausoleum. All she could do was indirectly determine the problem with Edwards’s existence, and see if she could obtain more clues from his answer. She never expected this knight from Roselle’s era, who had been famous across the Northern Continent, would react in such an intense and strange manner.
After two seconds of silence, Bernadette made the Invisible Servant say to Edwards’s back:
“Your descendants are doing pretty well. All of them are accomplished in a certain sense.”
Edwards, whose back was facing the mausoleum, stopped for a moment. Then, he continued forward, passing the invisible boundary and entering the forest.
His target seemed to be in the direction of the cemetery with the stone pillar, the place where the deceased could obtain “new life.”
At the same time, Bernadette looked up into the sky.
The faint black colors that permeated the area had clearly faded, but there was an indescribable feeling. The entire primitive island underwent a subtle change that couldn’t accurately be described.
Suddenly, Bernadette, who was hiding at the edge of the invisible boundary, rubbed her back.
She felt that it was heavy, as though there was something there.
When her left palm touched her target, Bernadette realized that there was an extra strand of hair.
At this moment, she was wearing an Intis-styled blouse with a large lace flower around the collar, an indigo patterned captain’s uniform, a pair of beige trousers, knee-length boots, and a triangular hat with feathers on it. She was dressed like the leader of a pirate ship.
She styled herself such that her long chestnut hair was tied into a bun, leaving the remaining strands in a way that would reach the middle of her back. But now, even though her hairstyle remained unchanged, her hair had grown longer and reached her waist.
Then, Bernadette lowered her head and looked at her right palm. She saw the fingernails of her five fingers extending.
Queen Mystic didn’t show any signs of surprise or panic. She followed the instincts of a Clairvoyant and from all the experience she had accumulated over time. She took a few steps forward, and through an invisible boundary, she completely left the primitive forest and entered the empty area where the Black Emperor’s mausoleum was.
During this process, Bernadette even made the Invisible Servant return to the spirit world.
Three or four seconds later, she felt the earth shake. The mausoleum began to tremble visibly.
Subconsciously, Bernadette turned to look at the primitive forest.
Her gaze froze for a moment.
The dark-green trees were waving their branches and uprooting their roots. Then, like humans, they approached Bernadette.
The entire primitive forest had come to “life”!
Looking at the dense cluster of trees that seemed to blot out the sky surging at her, Bernadette had the feeling that doomsday was approaching. She felt as if the entire area would be blanketed by the forest.
A gigantic red dragon with flames flowing across its skin rapidly flew into the sky. An eight-legged demonic wolf began to run madly between the trees… All the supernatural beings and mutated creatures on this island stirred as they rushed towards the mausoleum.
Although she was a Clairvoyant, Bernadette still didn’t expect that her simple, indirect question would bring about such an anomaly. It was as though it was a key that had opened the door to the abyss.
Above the gray fog, Klein saw a lot more. Together with his knowledge of mysticism, he had a certain guess.
The situation of Edwards is different from William, Grimm, and Poli. It’s like a loophole of the order on this primitive island, or rather, a shadow…
When he realized that he was already dead, this loophole was discovered by the order, and it began to conduct “repairs.”
And the repairs brought with it an enhancement of the order, causing the entire island to experience an anomaly.
I can sense that the Black Emperor’s powers are present here to a certain degree. It affected Edwards, causing him to maintain a portion of his will after obtaining new “life.” And where did the original order of this primitive island come from?
Eh…
As Klein’s thoughts raced, he suddenly sensed that Bernadette was suffering certain anomalies.
Thump, thump, thump. Bernadette could vaguely hear her own heartbeat.
This heartbeat was rather chaotic, as though it was a combination of two sounds.
Two… Bernadette’s heart stirred as she calmly directed her attention back to herself.
In the next second, she confirmed that there were two sources of her heartbeat.
One came from her heart, the other from her abdomen.
There seemed to be an additional heart in her abdomen, one that was rapidly expanding and contracting.
Furthermore, this “heart” was developing bit by bit!
Without needing to use her Mystery Prying powers to look at her abdomen, Bernadette immediately sensed that there was a fetus in her womb.
It had grown from the size of a grape to the size of a normal human palm. If it was left to grow, it didn’t seem like it would take long before it matured. It would then tear open her mother’s womb, and drill out while covered in blood.
Unknowingly, Bernadette had become pregnant. Her spiritual perception and the Sealed Artifact on her body had failed to detect it in advance or attempt to stop it. It was as though she was powerless to deal with such an influence.
Earth Mother… Primordial Moon… Mother Tree of Desire… Three divine names flashed through Bernadette’s mind.
According to what she knew, there weren’t many mysteries that could cause such an anomaly. Most of them came from domains related to the Earth and the Moon pathway.
Sequence 0 of the Planter pathway was Mother. The Primordial Moon could make a stone have reproductive powers, while the Mother Tree of Desire seemed to possess some High-Sequence Beyonder characteristics of the Moon pathway.
Bernadette wasn’t in a hurry to deal with the fetus in her stomach. Her gaze turned dark once again as she used her prophetic ability to see what her best choice was.
This time, she only took one second to obtain the corresponding prophecy:
“Survival lies inside the mausoleum.”
Without any hesitation, Bernadette reached out her right hand and quickly drew out words filled with stellar radiance.
These words, which were similar to the words on the Blasphemy Slate, quickly interwove into a strange symbol and opened a secret door that seemed to lead deep into the spirit world.
Following that, the “secret door” opened and a strong gust of wind blew out, transforming into an entity that was half-man, half-air. His upper body was wrapped in white cloth.
“Sage Frontlet,” Bernadette’s tone was calm as she ordered in a dignified voice.
The man responded respectfully and removed an accessory from the white cloth wrapped around his body.
The core of this accessory was a vertical eye embedded with “diamonds.” It shimmered with pure light, exuding an abnormal holiness. It was filled with intelligence, but it also appeared cold without any warmth.
Bernadette then took the accessory and “embedded” it into the middle of her forehead.
This was a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact which Bernadette usually didn’t carry with her, as the negative effects were too severe.
However, at this moment, the Sage Frontlet had an ability that was extremely important to Bernadette. She was willing to bear the consequences of not being able to use evil magic and the gradual influence that the Beyonder characteristic would have on her as it slowly fused with her.
If she didn’t remove the Sage Frontlet in a short period of time, it would be equivalent to having a Sequence 2 potion splashed on her. When the time came, she could either end up lucky and succeed in advancing to become a Sage, or lose control and become a monster. And without the supplementary ingredients and the corresponding ritual, the former’s probability was nearly negligible.
With the diamond vertical eye on her forehead, Bernadette’s body began to turn incorporeal as she dissociated into a series of complicated knowledge.
In that instant, she became a creature of pure information.
The baby in her womb failed to obtain such a state as it fell to the ground.
It was half the size of a normal baby. It already had facial features and limbs. Its skin was wrinkled, and it was dripping with sticky pus.
As it left its mother’s body, the undeveloped “it” began to regress and quickly melted in the air.
The baby was clearly unwilling to give up. It tried its best to open its eyes, which were sealed by the sticky liquid. It opened its mouth wide open in a bid to make a final struggle.
At this moment, Klein, who was above the gray fog, rapped the edge of the long mottled table.
Pa!
He increased the probability of failure with respect to the baby’s struggling.
Unable to maintain itself, the baby completely dissipated in front of the approaching black forest.
At the same time, the flood of information that Bernadette had transformed into had entered the Black Emperor mausoleum’s interior through the heavy stone door as she reformed her original body.
During this process, she seemed to see a black shadow.
