Chapter 493 I Have Seen Through the Lord of Scales and Feathers
The elf called "Doctor" has also been quiet...probably there's no need to look for him.
Three people have been eliminated now. If the Stranger is fine, the Doctor must be dead.
Without Adaptors to search or divine, they can only use prayers or rituals to find things.
As an experienced ritualist, Olive is proficient in various alternative rituals. Even without using ritual circles, he can still use some simple rituals.
He took out his pocket watch and a bottle of woodpecker blood from his ceremonial bag, smearing it on his face. He then put on a white mask without eyes or a mouth, and put a rope around his neck as a noose.
"Lord of the Hanging, Mother of the Thread! Sixty-seven Illusions, I offer the blood of the Woodpecker!"
Olive summoned his magical powers and prayed loudly, reciting the name of a certain divine being: "Please watch over this place with endless mist and answer my questions!"
Aiwass knew that these were two other aliases of Gray Sky Si.
It's said that the Gray Sky Master has sixty-seven forms, but this is also a lie. At least the Gray Sky Master, drawn into the material world by the Tail Ring ritual, looks like a large gray spider. Atop that spider's carapace lies a beautiful woman, seemingly kidnapped by the spider, or perhaps controlling it.
Like the spider viper, the snake's tail is a lifelike spider. When a bird sees the spider and tries to eat it, it gets bit by the venomous snake.
Gray Sky's first stage is a woman, the second is a woman riding a spider, and the third is a giant spider. It seems like he's not acting anymore. But in reality, neither the woman nor the spider is the real Gray Sky. The true form of Gray Sky is actually the gray mist that connects them.
In the early stages of the game, Gray Sky Si will periodically spawn small mist spheres. If left unattacked, they will explode and significantly slow the player, prompting players to focus on the small spheres. In the final phase, when Gray Sky Si is at low health, it spawns a large number of small spheres, prompting many players to think, "Let's just kill the main character quickly and forget about these spheres; there's no time to clear them all anyway."
However, if you actually kill the spider at this point, it will trigger the team wipe mechanism. This is because the previous mechanism has hinted many times that the health bar given by the spider is actually fake. It will lose health at a constant rate as long as the battle is in progress. Its real health bar is actually the count of the mist balls that have been killed.
That's why its early mechanics look so simple and boring... Only players who are extremely sensitive to data and stop playing unexpectedly will feel that the speed at which the health bar drops is not right.
At this time, you have to go back and hit those small balls. You have to knock down a certain number of them within a limited time to trigger the mechanism and face the true form of Hui Tiansi.
——This is Gray Sky Secretary.
A celestial being neither true nor false, a celestial being without voice or words. He controls the realm of lies... things that are neither black nor white, words that are neither good nor evil. No matter what question you ask him, if he chooses to answer, it will inevitably tell a lie—which, in a sense, is also the truth.
Olive tied the noose to the end of the pocket watch, then swung the pocket watch like a meteor hammer and threw it out.
The pocket watch went straight through the beam and hammered onto the other end. It seemed to become incredibly heavy, directly hanging Olive up.
"Please...give me a lie!"
Olive struggled to hold onto the noose with both hands, trying to avoid being hanged. The old ritualist blushed and stuttered, "What Aiwass is looking for... is nearby—yes or no!"
Hearing this, he suddenly winked at Aiwass.
Aiwass understood what he meant, and a spark flew out from his right hand, burning the rope.
The olive and the pocket watch fell to the ground at the same time. The pocket watch rolled on the ground and turned upside down.
It means "no".
"Gray Sky said 'no', that's 'yes'! Very good..."
Aiwass had a clear goal and began to arrange the prayer ceremony: "Get ready, we might have to rush in a while."
...rush quickly?
Grape was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what it meant.
The consultant and Olive's expressions changed, and they had roughly guessed what Aiwass was going to do.
According to the surrounding environment, Aiwas chose to pray to Yan Tiansi: "I respectfully ask Yan Tiansi!
"Heavenly Master of scorching iron and burning steel, Heavenly Master of the crucible and the furnace!
"Give me the fire of life—spread like a snake, dance like a butterfly, seek like a dog!"
An endless supply of light and fire magic power gathered in Aiwas's hands.
Flames from the surrounding houses were constantly being drawn towards Aiwas, and the heat gathered together to form a white-gold fireball. It was so bright that it dimmed the surrounding walls.
Under Aiwas's prayers, it gradually took on a body and expanded rapidly.
It soon grew to the height of an adult's thigh, like a cheetah.
—It was a monster similar to a manticore. Its butterfly wings spread out like sparks, and its tail swayed left and right like a burning snake.
Under Aiwas's prayer, the elemental creatures from the Flame Sky Division's domain were summoned by Aiwas.
This was a third-level prayer, summoning a secondary elemental creature. The monster, called Flame Tail Beast, typically only lived within volcanoes in the material world.
The summoned elemental creature is only at the second energy level, which is relatively weak, and can only exist for ten minutes. Its only advantage is that it burns with fire and is very intelligent.
Aiwass summoned it now because it possessed the ability of "treasure smell." And most importantly, its special ability, "flame vision" - it touched fire like a shark touching seawater. When it touched fire, the entire surrounding flames were seen as an extension of itself.
"Help me find a dagger. It should be nearby. Its characteristics are..."
Aiwass lowered his head and explained to it.
Soon, Flame Tail Beast nodded, indicating that he fully understood.
It leaped in, into the flames in the corner of the wall.
After just two or three seconds, it jumped out and ran away quickly.
Aiwass followed without hesitation, and the other three followed closely behind Aiwass.
Grape was the slowest runner among them, even slower than Sherlock - Mycroft's bulky body made it extremely difficult for him to run in this environment.
But she had no choice but to run—she was stunned to discover that the previously blind knights and servants seemed to have sensed their presence and were gathering from all directions. The entire palace seemed to have come to life, and the surrounding walls began to burst into flames again... The cracks in the wall spewed fire rhythmically, like breathing. She had to dodge the flames in a steady rhythm to escape without getting burned.
"What's going on—"
"The flames in this area belong to someone!"
Sherlock gasped for breath and shouted, "The Balrog has sensed us!"
Now that he was exposed, he no longer needed to conserve his mana. So Sherlock cast the spell "Pure Water Curtain" around him, and for a moment, he was shrouded in smoke, a cloud of white mist enveloping him, making it impossible to see the person inside.
Even so, running was a bit difficult for him—especially since Aiwass was running so fast. Aiwass, who was extremely resistant to flames and high temperatures, was not afraid of fire at all. He followed closely behind the Flame Tail Beast, completely ignoring the flames. But the three of them couldn't completely ignore it; they had to wait.
The consultant ran furiously, panting heavily, but was eventually stopped by the flames.
He looked back at the approaching knights and couldn't help cursing in his heart:
——Why the hell wait for me!
...But then he thought, there was no point in telling the natives of the ceremony. Aiwass was running so fast, this must be a test from the Lord of Scales and Feathers. He had to keep up!
As a result, Sherlock ran all the way and found himself in a very familiar place in despair.
The underground ceremony room.
This is the place where I was first rescued.
How come I didn't see there was something else to take?!
"Detective, open the door!"
Aiwass turned around and saw him coming, and shouted from a distance.
——Why are you running so fast when you can’t open the door!
The consultant thought with gritted teeth.
Although he had no staff at hand, he still chanted the spell skillfully in a low voice.
The magical powers of wind and earth converged, forming a strange wave. The moment they converged, Sherlock's magic forcibly unlocked the previously closed door.
——Lock picking technique!
He rushed in right after Aiwass.
In addition to the three ritual platforms, the underground ritual room also had a large number of cabinets for storing ritual materials - nearly twenty cabinets, each with many drawers. From the outside, nothing could be seen.
Flame Tail Beast rushed directly to somewhere and stopped in front of a cabinet.
The consultant unleashed a gust of wind as sharp as a knife, blowing it towards the cabinet. This was an "exposure projection" designed to destroy packages, with a particularly strong effect on containers. In an instant, it shattered all the cabinets, spilling everything inside.
Aiwas immediately found the dagger he was looking for, rushed over and picked it up.
"Got it, retreat!"
"Maybe it's not...not easy to retreat..."
Grape, the last one to rush in, said breathlessly.
He immediately closed the door after entering. With a flash of ochre light, the "Preservation Spell" took effect, instantly strengthening the tightly closed door.
The next moment, tiny sparks began to fly from the crack of the door. Standing inside, they all heard a distinct vibration coming from the door.
Someone is attacking the door!
If Grape hadn't urgently reinforced the door with protection magic, it would have been breached immediately!
"Those people outside are only at the fourth energy level at most. It's not that easy for them to break through my preservation technique... But how do we get out now?"
Grape looked at the consultant nervously.
The consultant immediately glared at her in return.
Why are you looking at me!
——You are my brother now, my brother!
"Then... leave it to me."
Aiwass said softly, pulling out a red card with his fingertips.
"Liya, guide the flame flow!"
Feeling the terrifying heat and pressure in the air, the consultant was suddenly shocked.
——I knew that as long as I followed Aiwass, there would be no way to die!
I have completely seen through the Lord of Scales and Feathers' arrangements!
Update completed!
(End of this chapter)
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