Chapter 110
Chapter 110
The witches used a forbidden art and brought everything to a halt.
The prince’s pupils widened slightly.
Tears in their voices, the girls cried, “Your Highness, everything will be all right. We saw Lande’s pact with the divine race. You want to bear the consequences alone, but didn’t all of this happen because of us? Why should you bear those consequences? No! If someone must pay the price, it must never be you!”
The witches could divine the future and peer into the past.
That was one reason others treated them as outcasts.
It was difficult to keep a secret around them.
They joined hands, and intricate black patterns began appearing across their bodies.
“You gave us a home. Everything we have was bestowed upon us by you. The soldiers will not have died in vain! They will live. We will make sure they live.”
As the last word fell, magical power erupted in every direction with the eight girls at its center.
Light appeared beneath the survivors’ feet. Their eyes widened as their memories were erased in an instant and they were transported somewhere safe.
The Kingdom of Lande’s broken walls and ruins scattered like sand. “All things move through cycles of cause and consequence. Let us bear this consequence.”
They spoke in unison, and the golden sheets engraved with words glowed inside their pockets.
How could the prince fail to understand? These foolish children intended to break the chain of cause and consequence, shoulder his fate, and become game characters with no freedom of their own.
He bit through his lip. Blood welled out as he dove toward them.
Just before his strength failed, the scene cut off. Countless beams of blinding light descended, and Xiao Huai narrowed his eyes with a slight frown.
Without him noticing, the time before his eyes had become [2:55].
Two fifty-five in the morning.
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
A blood-red alert appeared on the system interface.
[Large quantities of contamination and curses detected at your current location. The seal will be released in five minutes. Player, prepare for what is coming!]
[Friendly Reminder: Since you chose to enter the Lost Land, please prepare yourself for the possibility that you will never leave.]
Xiao Huai laughed. There was nothing friendly about that reminder.
Night replaced day, and the scene transformed once more.
Everything he had seen moments ago vanished. An endless sea of blood, mountains of corpses, and shattered ruins appeared before him.
No living creature remained, yet the clash and slaughter of the battlefield still filled the air.
A curse was born in the heart, arising wherever resentment, regret, and unwillingness gathered.
A curse destroyed the human mind, stripping away reason and control until its victim lost the path forever.
A curse shaped monsters, carrying a person across the boundary between human and creature and casting them into an endless fall.
This was the Lost Land, a place filled with resentment, curses, and monsters. A brutal battle was inevitable.
A brutal battle that might continue for no one knew how long.
Xiao Huai stood alone at the center of the battlefield. The corpses around him had already begun slowly coming “alive.”
The Bond of True Friends could help him, but curses destroyed the mind. If he lost control immediately, his friends and companions would be the ones in danger.
He would not summon them lightly. At the very least, he himself had to endure longer than anyone.
Black vapor amassed from every direction, fierce as a surging sea intent on swallowing everything, like a horde of rakshasas returning from hell.
It rolled endlessly through the air, roaring like evil spirits. Like venomous snakes, the resentful ghosts from the abyss shot into the surrounding corpses.
Once invaded by the black vapor, the formerly motionless bodies began to twist and deform with sounds that made the blood run cold.
Severed limbs reassembled. Rotting flesh writhed as the corpses stood once more, sickly green light shining from their eyes while ruined lips opened and closed.
Again and again, they muttered, “The living. The living.”
An eerie hurricane rose. Countless undead monsters revived under the black vapor’s control, and windblown sand mixed with the stench of blood.
The monsters closed in from every direction. Their steps were heavy at first, but the more black vapor gathered, the more agile their limbs became. Soon they were charging madly at Xiao Huai.
He swept them with a cold glance. The scattered vapor tried to invade his mind through every possible opening, yet he showed no fear.
At that moment, numerous evil gods stopped before Xiao Huai’s livestream. The high-end player feed was filled with blood and violence.
What evil gods loved most was watching the strong fall. Nothing delighted them more than seeing someone driven to absolute despair and humbly begging for their protection.
They gathered there, deriding Xiao Huai for reaching the high-end player feed when he was not even strong, yet also expressing surprise at his livestream’s reputation.
A group of gods within his livestream seemed to hold him in exceptionally high regard.
While the newcomers were still wondering why, countless brilliant rough black diamonds flooded the screen. Pale gold rose within Xiao Huai’s dark red eyes, and with a sweep of both hands, fierce flames erupted from his palms.
That was Lethal Lotus!
The evil gods who had just arrived froze slightly. They had never expected Xiao Huai to possess the Goddess of Slaughter Victoria’s supernatural ability.
They held their breath and stared without blinking.
The flames spread rapidly and formed a searing wall of fire around him. Firelight illuminated the ancient desert battlefield as though daylight had fallen, and waves of heat rolled outward.
In that instant, the fire resembled a phoenix unfurling its wings, magnificent and lethal. Every fiery feather blazed with dazzling light and irresistible force. Not one monster charging him stopped, and all were swiftly reduced to ash within the devouring flames, their shrieks piercing the air.
The raging fire seemed alive. It leaped with uncanny grace, its light playing across his face and illuminating his calm, resolute expression.
The gods stared. Under the flames, the battlefield appeared shrouded in golden radiance, filled with the beauty of destruction.
Xiao Huai stood at its center, controlling the fire that burned the heavens. Before him, monster after monster became dust and scattered on the wind.
Flames danced around him. For one instant, the gods’ blood boiled. They almost felt their eyes had been scorched as the fire outlined his perfect form.
Their hearts leaped with his every movement.
Rough black diamonds scattered in every direction and severed the black vapor, yet the monsters continued surging endlessly forward.
Xiao Huai clearly heard the system’s constant warnings. The curse had begun.
[Warning! Warning! Shared-Pain Curse detected around you. Whenever you kill a monster, there is a chance you will receive one percent of its pain.]
[Note: The more frightening something is, the more you must face it. Isn’t that right?]
[Friendly Reminder: If you want to give up, you can always choose suicide.]
Xiao Huai frowned. So while he had been unleashing Lethal Lotus, the black vapor had already seeped into the entire ground.
It had formed a vast, intricate totem beneath his feet.
As time passed, the creatures appearing were no longer simple beasts that charged straight ahead. Figures with guns and only half a face began crawling from the ground.
Black vapor covered every bullet they fired as they tried to pierce the wall of flame and strike Xiao Huai.
The first shots could be blocked. But more and more bullets followed, like ten thousand arrows loosed at once. Xiao Huai’s pupils widened slightly, and he raised a hand, splitting every rough black diamond apart and sending the shards toward the gunmen.