"What is that thing!" Lorne's pupils contracted, staring intently at the terrifying giant hand.
The arm was ten meters long, covered in a sticky, Dark substance, with countless deformed protrusions wriggling on its surface: pale skeletal heads, bloodshot eyeballs, scarlet tongues with sharp teeth... The entire arm exuded a nauseating, putrid stench.
"Rose School of Thought!" The familiar evil aura made Lorne's hair stand on end instantly.
Unlike the previous seduction followed by evil, this time it was outright hostility.
It felt as if some entities were trying to seize an opportunity and had gone all out.
He suddenly grabbed Tracy's wrist: "Run!"
The two stumbled towards the exit of the burial chamber, a bone-grating creak coming from behind them, as if countless unimaginable aberrations were twisting and growing.
Damn it, why me again!
Oh, right, the pirates on that small pirate ship seemed to be from the Rose School of Thought.
Lorne didn't dare to look back, his heart pounding wildly, with only his own deafening heartbeat and Tracy's rapid gasps in his ears.
As they rushed into the narrow passage, a grayish-white figure suddenly flashed out from the corner ahead.
It was a four-meter-tall gargoyle with a head resembling both a goat and a hound, sharp fangs, fiery red eyes, and six pairs of grayish-white webbed wings, with corrosive mucus dripping from its fangs.
"Damn it!" Lorne instinctively raised "The Ripper," and just as he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly saw the Monster in front of him twitch violently.
Its stony skin cracked and peeled off at a visible rate, and foul black water seeped from within, as if it were rapidly decaying.
In just a few seconds, the originally ferocious gargoyle dissolved into a puddle of mud.
"This..."
Lorne turned his head and exchanged a glance with Tracy, both seeing shock in the other's eyes.
'No! Now is not the time to think.'
Lorne gripped Tracy's cold fingers tightly: "Keep running!"
When they finally rushed out of the ruins' entrance, the sight before them made both of them stop dead in their tracks.
The entire Black Forest was withering at an astonishing speed.
The leaves and branches of the trees rustled down, turning to dust the moment they touched the ground.
Screams, roars... countless sounds came from various parts of the island, but without exception, they all conveyed bone-chilling pain.
"This is..." Lorne's question was suddenly interrupted by a dull thud.
Tracy stumbled and fell to her knees, blood beginning to seep from the wound on her abdomen. Her pale lips trembled, and cold sweat trickled down her cheeks. She tried to prop herself up but couldn't.
Her pain had worsened in an instant!
"Are you alright?" Lorne bent down and supported her.
"Damn it!" Tracy glanced at the wound on her abdomen, then at the surrounding scene, her clear blue eyes dimming. She looked at Lorne: "You should run, I'm almost..."
She had given up hope.
In Tracy's memory, the most powerful Beyonder she had ever encountered was her Mother, but her Mother couldn't compare to the one causing this world-destroying scene; it was a qualitative difference.
"Don't talk like that." Lorne clenched his fists; he absolutely couldn't die here for no reason.
He put Lachi into his satchel, then supported Tracy, carrying her in a princess carry.
"I told you, you still owe me two lives. Don't even think about dying before you pay them back!"
"Mmm..." Tracy responded in a barely audible whisper, then, as if possessed, buried her head in Lorne's embrace.
To perish together like this, it didn't seem so bad...
As for Lorne, at this moment, there was only one word in his mind: run.
He moved his legs and ran towards the distance.
But... where could he run? The sea was all around. Even if he got on a ship, could he really escape this disaster?
...
"I can only divine..." Klein, being urged by Hugh to the point of no return, had no choice but to resort to his old profession as a Seer.
"They should be asleep..." After confirming that his two new housemates were asleep, he let out a long sigh.
"Is that so? You didn't encounter any danger, that's great! I see you're getting along well with the two ladies, why don't we just have Charles assign you all to one team?"
Meihua 5's words echoed in his ears...
Damn it, why do I feel like this superior is playing with me... Klein's expression twisted slightly.
And even if we're teammates, why do they have to live at my house!
...
Calming himself down, Klein sealed his room with a wall of spirituality, then walked four steps counter-clockwise to the Grey Mist.
Uh, thinking about the series of events he had encountered earlier because of Lorne, Klein, sitting at the long bronze table, hesitated slightly.
'My spiritual intuition hasn't reacted, which means my act of divination itself shouldn't have any major problems.'
"Sigh."
After a moment of hesitation, he materialized a pair of sunglasses and put them on, then divined:
"Lorne. De Senck's current location."
"Lorne. De Senck's current location."
"Lorne. De Senck's current location."
...
Strange?
Klein asked several times, but there was no reaction from the surroundings.
Just as he was wondering if he should try a different divination method.
A fragmented image suddenly appeared before his eyes, startling him into reflexively closing them. After waiting a few seconds and finding no abnormalities, he cautiously opened them.
"Is this at sea? But this image is too blurry."
In the image, Klein could barely make out an island, but the entire picture was like an old black and white television, intermittent and indistinct.
Just as Klein focused all his attention on this divined image.
In the depths of the endless Grey Mist, certain things began to stir, seemingly wanting to penetrate this barrier and come into reality, only this time more subtly and patiently.
...
There's no escape... Lorne slowly stopped.
Even without looking at the ruined landscape around him, the buzzing spirituality in his mind clearly indicated this fact.
"Meow..."
Lachi clearly sensed something as well, her meow carrying a hint of despondency.
"Sorry... I dragged you into this." Tracy in his arms let out a low moan, then completely fell unconscious.
"No, I dragged you into this."
Even without evidence, Lorne had a premonition that this disaster was aimed at him.
This scene felt somewhat familiar; he had witnessed a world-destroying sight once in Tingen. He hadn't expected to see it again so soon.
And this time, it felt even more terrifying than the last.
He tried to inject his spirituality into that playing card to open the space.
But he failed again... In fact, he had already tried when the disaster first struck.
But just like now, he didn't succeed. From the moment that giant hand descended from the sky, Lorne felt his spirituality was locked.
"Sigh, I didn't expect such an outcome..."
"All this 'Lucky One' stuff is fake..."
Feeling the increasing sense of oppression, Lorne glanced at his hand, planning to flip the Monster off at the last moment, just to disgust it.
Just as Lorne was preparing to accept his fate calmly, the crimson moonlight pierced through the clouds and shone on his face.
He looked up at the sky as if he had found a savior.
"The unique Red Moon, symbol of life and beauty, all spirits..."
"No, I can't shout it." The instinct for self-preservation stopped Lorne from shouting the rest of the words, and silvery-white light began to gather in Lorne's pupils.
...
'This is a Beyonder... No, it's him...'
Seeing the situation develop beyond his expectations, a certain person who wished to remain anonymous had to consider making a move.
However, just as he was about to drive away a certain bastard who had intruded into his script without permission.
Lorne did something that surprised him... He suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
He instinctively glanced over.
His clear gaze met Lorne's silvery-white eyes across the void for a moment.
"I remember now."
"The Transmigration Guide says..."
"At this time, I should, I should..." Lorne looked up at the sky and shouted in Hermes's ancient language:
"Leodero!"