Chapter 130: The Episode with the Highest Killing Spree Reward

The Episode with the Highest Killing Spree Reward

Berren City, Clock Tower Alley, inside a factory under construction.

The heavy rain, having fallen all night, showed no signs of stopping, instead growing heavier.

Large raindrops hit the temporarily erected tarpaulin roof, making crackling sounds.

Much rainwater dripped down through the gaps, falling onto the floor simply laid with wooden planks. The entire factory floor was muddy.

Dark clouds pressed down overhead. The few faint horse lanterns inside the factory became the only illumination.

And under the illumination of these kerosene horse lanterns, a shadow was infinitely elongated, cast onto the factory wall. The black shadow flickered and distorted with the firelight.

A petite figure knelt beneath that shadow, trembling slightly. She seemed to be rapidly chanting something in a low voice, but the sound was long drowned out by the rain.

If one moved slightly closer, they could hear the words she muttered... Seemingly reciting some prayer text, repeating it over and over.

Tap, tap, tap, tap...

Footsteps followed the shadow towards the girl kneeling on the ground. The girl with long dark green hair, looking around twelve or thirteen years old, mustered her courage and looked up, seeing the figure shrouded in a black trench coat.

It was a stunningly beautiful red-haired young woman. Her purplish-red eyes, faintly webbed, were full of weariness. Thick dark circles lay beneath her eyelids. Her lips looked as if poisoned, pale and somewhat purple.

The young woman just listlessly raised her hand, pressed the small bowler hat on her head, and said dejectedly, “Let’s go... tired...”

“La... La... Lady Ciel, then... what... what about me?” Tara’s voice stuttered. Anyone could sense the fear in her words.

“Go wherever you like...” Ciel sighed softly.

Since the potion finished digesting just now, emotions of world-weariness and pessimism had completely enveloped her.

Ciel discovered a point rarely mentioned by others.

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Poor potion digestion led to hearing more whispers in the mind, and the body would mutate. The whispers made the spirit unstable. The more unstable the spirit, the easier the body collapsed, forming a negative cycle.

But digesting the potion too well also caused problems.

Just as the name “Reconstitution” ritual implied, digesting the potion too well seemed to truly immerse her in the emotions within the potion, thinking its thoughts, feeling its feelings, perfectly reconstituting everything from emotions to thoughts... This made it easy for her to lose herself.

“Instigator” was like this, and “Coroner” was also like this.

Ciel fought against the urge to stab herself on the spot and end the simulated torture, while staggering towards the factory exit, passing the kneeling Tara.

Only after Ciel’s figure moved aside did Tara, who had been staring straight ahead, see the figure sitting on the table.

It was its shadow that had been enveloping Tara. The shadow’s source came from the few horse lanterns behind it—and the bloody severed limbs and remains piled up on the floor.

“Not enough... Tara... call your confidants over...”

“Still not enough... Tara...”

“Almost there... Tara...” Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“Tara...”

Piles of bones and minced meat stimulated Tara. Lady Ciel’s low words seemed to still linger in her ears. The whispers in her mind continuously intensified and echoed.

Plop—

An eyeball rolled off the wooden table, rolling on the mud-and-rain-stained wooden planks. The pale blue iris stared blankly towards Tara.

That was Gemma, Tara’s confidant. Strictly speaking, she was Tara’s student, someone Tara watched grow up.

And now, a part of her had also merged into the Mother Goddess’s creation.

Following the eyeball that rolled onto the floor, Tara slowly looked up towards the “person” sitting on the wooden table.

If this could even be called a “person.”

Its figure was tall, nearly 1.9 meters. Its whole body was pale like a corpse. Dry, curly white long hair hung down from the top of its head, tied in knots at intervals, falling onto the ground, looking like it was connected from countless people’s hair.

Black eyeballs rolled in its sockets, with only a single scarlet pupil in the center, sinister and terrifying.

Its belly protruded high, like a pregnant woman’s, except the huge belly writhed strangely, as if about to burst open.

Besides its humanoid appearance, no part of it could be called human anymore.

Plop—

It landed on the ground. Its huge belly split open. Six slender arms, pieced together from human arms, supported it on the ground. Its legs bent and merged together at this moment, hanging behind it, like the huge abdomen of a spider.

The “human spider” raised its head high, looking towards Tara, seemingly somewhat puzzled.

It used its hands and feet, slowly crawling towards Tara.

Tara, seeing this terrifying giant creature approaching her, felt fear continuously amplifying in her heart. She retreated backward, fell sitting onto the ground, her body trembling, even forgetting to use her abilities.

The “human spider” dragged its pale, knotted long hair, crawled before Tara, stiffly revealed a terrifying smile, slowly opened its mouth, emitting layered, overlapping voices: “Tea... cher?”

“Arch... bishop?”

Tara’s eyes widened. She herself didn’t realize tears had already streamed down from the corners of her eyes.

At this moment, a certain nerve deep within Tara’s mind seemed to instantly fuse. Frantic whispers almost instantly crushed her. Everything before her eyes began to twist and deform.

“Ahhh!!!!” Tara screamed madly. The deepest faith in the Mother Goddess in her mind became the only pillar supporting her. She scrambled towards the factory gate on all fours, rushing directly into the pouring rain.

Soon, Tara caught up with Ciel, who had just left. She fell directly kneeling before Ciel, kowtowing madly, screaming heartbreakingly, “Lady Mother Goddess... Don’t abandon me! Lady Mother Goddess! Please don’t abandon me!”

At this moment, Tara was almost completely mad. As the person with the firmest faith in the entire Divine Advent Church, as if triggering some brain protection mechanism, she selectively forgot everything else, her mind filled only with “Mother Goddess Ciel.”

“Get up...” Ciel sighed softly.

She could somewhat sense Tara’s emotions at this moment, but under the influence of the potion and Reconstitution Ritual back then, Ciel couldn’t control her own emotions at all.

By the time she came back to her senses, everything had happened naturally, like water flowing into a channel. Not a single Divine Advent Church member guarding outside remained; all were killed by her without any resistance.

No, rather than killed, it was more like voluntary sacrifice.

In the heavy rain behind her, a flesh-colored, palm-sized spider crawled out from the factory, climbed up Ciel’s trench coat, and finally burrowed into Ciel’s hat. Behind her, the terrifying human spider figure was long gone.

“Sigh...” Looking at Tara kneeling on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, Ciel sighed.

Too troublesome...

Ciel remembered her initial explanation to Uris about the dream.

Ciel didn’t say much, just bent down, grabbed Tara’s arm, pulled her up, forcing her to look at herself.

“Tara, look at me...” Ciel took a deep breath and patiently said, “This is all just a divine oracle dream... In the real world, none of this happened. Your confidants are all still alive and well.”

Tara stared blankly at Ciel, unsure if she had taken Ciel’s words in at all.

Ciel sighed softly, then reached up, pressed the brim of her hat, and looked up at the sky.

One hour left... Did misfortune skip work... Why isn’t it here yet...

-

Ciel’s left hand released Tara’s arm, reached into the pocket of her soaked trench coat, and took out two sealed artifacts.

The “Evil Eye” and the “Strong Luck Coin.”

Although the process was vastly different from what she imagined, in terms of results, she still perfectly obtained these two sealed artifacts that could potentially unlock the mystery.

“Sigh...” Ciel felt she had sighed more in this one hour than in the past three years combined.

Negative emotions constantly shrouded her mind. She felt like she barely had the strength to breathe.

“If I die, I die. Let me see what exactly you are...” Ciel’s right hand also reached into her pocket, taking out an ancient silver stopwatch.

Ciel’s exclusive sealed artifact, 【Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder】.

She brought her hands together. The three sealed artifacts touched each other in her hands, soaked by the rain—but nothing happened.

Why...

Aren’t the others already dead...

She had already gathered the three “Fate Vessels.” She even violated countless rules before, seeing numerous second and third-tier transcendents.

Just as Ciel was about to sigh, she suddenly sensed something unusual.

The rain stopped.

More accurately, the rain around her stopped.

Ciel looked up at the sky again.

If she could look down from high above, she would surely find that the area without rain formed a projection, and the content of the projection was a giant raven.

“Tsk...” Ciel felt somewhat deflated.

If it didn’t come out this time, Ciel could have happily muddled through the last hour of this simulation and returned to reality.

The storm suddenly intensified. Amidst this fierce wind, a feather, entirely black with its tail gradually transitioning to azure blue, slowly drifted down from the sky.

Not just Ciel, even the spiritual alarm in Tara’s mind suddenly blared. Ciel looked at the feather somewhat incredulously.

Third-tier transcendents had never given Ciel such a threat.

Ciel subconsciously tightened her grip on 【Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder】 in her hand, her thumb resting on the knob at the top of the stopwatch.

This simple action by Ciel seemed to startle the feather.

It could no longer bother with elegant drifting. It transformed into a feathered arrow, almost instantly piercing through Ciel’s head, drilling into her body.

“Ugh... cough...” A mouthful of blood spurted from Ciel’s mouth. She didn’t even resist much, casually throwing away the three sealed artifacts in her hands, letting them fall onto the muddy ground.

At this moment, Ciel felt a large amount of strange, bizarre knowledge frantically pouring into her brain. Accompanying that knowledge was a powerful consciousness.

The powerful Ciel, before this immense consciousness, had almost no ability to resist, directly falling into a strange state—she completely lost control of her body, but could see and hear everything happening outside through her eyes and ears.

Like watching an extremely realistic movie.

“Lady Ciel! Lady Ciel! What’s wrong with you?!” Tara’s eyes widened. Seeing Ciel covered in blood, she instantly panicked. Ciel was her only spiritual pillar now. If Ciel was gone, she would truly go completely mad.

In Tara’s vision, Ciel’s originally red long hair was instantly dyed black from the roots, then gradually transitioned from the middle section, finally turning azure blue at the ends.

The familiar, warm Mother Goddess aura also vanished, replaced by a more aggressive aura.

At this moment, “Ciel” slowly raised her right hand, looked at her slender fingers, a satisfied smile appearing on her lips, seemingly very pleased with this body.

Then, she turned her gaze to the three sealed artifacts on the ground, directly reached out, and picked up the silver stopwatch.

“(Old Ansu) So you were part of me... No wonder you knew so much.” “Ciel’s” mouth uttered Old Ansu script, which she had never learned before and few could even pronounce now.

“(Old Ansu) I will become more complete...” “Ciel” looked obsessively at the stopwatch in her hand. Above her head, the raven shadow dissipated without a trace, and the torrential rain continued to fall.

She held the stopwatch, rubbed it against her cheek, then directly raised her hand and pressed the knob at the top of the stopwatch.

Nothing happened.

“Hmm?” “Ciel” made a puzzled sound.

Why didn’t it work?

She bit her finger, smeared blood directly onto the ancient silver stopwatch, but the blood was quickly washed away by the rain, and still, nothing happened.

“Ciel” frowned tightly, seemingly not anticipating this situation.

Sensing the weak struggle from the spiritual body’s consciousness, she curled her lip and said, “(Old Ansu) Stop struggling. In another day, you will completely dissipate.”

“(Old Ansu) And I, at least, still have three hundred years to research how to repair the body... Although time is short, it’s enough.”

“(Old Ansu) Just quietly await your death. As a vessel, you should feel honored.”

Holding the stopwatch, “Ciel” lifted her leg, preparing to leave. But just then, a white shadow blocked her path.

“You are not Mother Goddess... Who are you?” Tara’s voice came from behind.

After the Mother Goddess’s aura suddenly disappeared, Tara realized something was wrong. She blocked the path of “Ciel” before her, her hoarse voice filled with anger.

“Ciel’s” steps didn’t stop. A flesh-colored spider emerged from under her hat, rapidly expanding as it fell to the ground, undergoing a horrifying transformation.

The fully formed tall human spider directly pounced towards Tara. Under such desperate circumstances, Tara could only recall the white shadow, barely blocking it in front of the human spider.

“(Old Ansu) Why does it have to be the power of nature...” “Ciel” shook her head, seemingly dissatisfied with this path, but she seemed to have no better choice.

She just continued walking forward, disappearing into the rain screen.

...

Click—

Click click—

“Ciel,” walking on the road, continuously pressed the stopwatch, but still received no response.

If she didn’t feel this was the real sealed artifact before her, perhaps she would have thought she took the wrong one.

“(Old Ansu) Do I have to wait until her consciousness completely dissipates... Having waited so long, a few more days don’t matter.”

She put the stopwatch back into her pocket, continuing to walk aimlessly. The task of finding the repair fragments was complete; she no longer needed to take any other actions.

Just wait.

Right...

Although this body had undergone huge changes in fate and possessed strong resistance to fate, essentially, it was still a fragile body.

If she kept getting drenched in the rain here, although not fatal, she would likely fall seriously ill.

Must find a place to shelter from the rain...

If her memory served correctly, this body’s home should be in this direction...

She walked forward step by step, seemingly unaccustomed to the human walking posture. It took a long time to increase her speed to a normal walking pace—though the posture remained somewhat strange.

By the time she reached the house she had previously monitored, nearly an hour had passed.

“Ciel” reached out, fumbled in the large pocket of her trench coat. Besides finding a bottle of potion, she also found a key.

She took out the key, took a few seconds to align it with the keyhole, inserted the key directly, and slowly turned.

Click—

The sound of the lock opening echoed.

And before Ciel’s door, there were no longer any figures or traces, only a single black and blue raven feather, slowly floating down onto the water surface in the rain.

An azure light flashed. A raven clad in black and blue feathers appeared on the spot. Its wings supported the ground, its head continuously turning. Its round eyes gradually shifted from confusion to shock. Its beak opened wide, uttering human-like language.

“(Old Ansu) Impossible... This is impossible!!!”

“(Old Ansu) You are fake! I am the real one!!!”

-

A silver light flashed.

Ciel felt she regained control of her body.

At this moment, before her eyes was a familiar silver-white world. And standing before her was herself with black and blue long hair and purplish-red pupils. She just looked into Ciel’s eyes, making no effort to hide the decadent and world-weary aura about her.

【Save character file?】

A system message appeared before Ciel, pulling her back from her previous state.

She raised her hand, looked at her own hands... In this space, her hands could move freely as she wished.

Recalling the experience just now, Ciel still felt waves of lingering fear.

That situation of being unable to control her body, only able to watch helplessly as she did things completely contrary to her thoughts... Even if the feather wanted to control her to kill loved ones then, Ciel would have been completely unable to resist.

What was that... possession?

Since Ciel didn’t understand Old Ansu script, she had no idea what the feather-shaped sealed artifact said using her body just now.

However, she roughly memorized the words. If she heard them again, or learned Old Ansu script, she would know what the other party said.

She felt that must be the key to resolving the predicament.

“System, in this save file, is that feather still there?” Ciel asked the system directly in this silver-white space.

Ciel wasn’t in a hurry to save directly. The flow of time in this space was like the flow between simulation and reality. She could use this time to ask more questions and think a bit longer.

Every extra second spent was a gain.

【Things parasitizing the host’s body are not considered part of the host itself, so... of course not】

【This save file, at most, just has a severe injury effect. After all, the head was blown open, gotta stitch it up yourself ^^ D】

“What was that feather just now? What’s its relationship with you?” Ciel pressed on immediately.

【Can’t you just look it up in the system mall yourself... You’re stalling for time, aren’t you!】

【Save or not? Suit yourself!】

“Save, No.4.”

Having her thoughts discovered by the system, Ciel didn’t delay further, directly saving the file to No.4.

Soon, the originally blank No.4 slot flickered, and a line of text was imprinted on it.

【No.4: Ciel Coroner】

After the save was successful, the Coroner Ciel before her erupted in a dazzling silver light. Ciel briefly lost consciousness.

...

【Reality】

【Holy Year 741, June 24th, 08:11】

【Evaluation: Well, you turned a perfectly good stitching scene into a transcendent slaughterhouse. Look how scared the kid got, completely lost her mind】

【Regardless, this is your most glorious achievement yet. Not only did you slaughter over a dozen transcendents unscathed, but you also successfully completed the “Coroner” Reconstitution Ritual】

【The answer seems close to surfacing... But how will you solve it?】

【Don’t startle it—this point, I shouldn’t need to remind you, right?】

【By the way, I just thought of a joke】

【Know why “Coroner” Ciel is so depressed? Because her path is called “World-Weary Officer” ^_^】

【Laugh? Why aren’t you laughing? Is my Chinese joke not funny?】

【Take it, this is deserved based on your performance.】

【Reward: Fate Points ×77, 【Headhunter Lv.2】, 【Endless Manual of Instant Forgetfulness】, 【Inventory】 +2】

【Fate Points: 166】

Ciel slowly opened her eyes, looking at the system settlement screen before her.

Slaughtering so many transcendents, plus successfully completing the Reconstitution Ritual to become a transcendent—these two major rewards combined actually brought the Fate Points reward directly to 77, even higher than when she broke the Fated Death last time.

Fated Deaths also varied in significance. Such a high reward, the most important factor must be that she obtained new intelligence.

The previous high reward was because the Fated Death originated from a third-tier bishop. This time, receiving such a high reward without resolving the incident indicated the opponent’s rank couldn’t be low.

Besides the Fate Points reward, what surprised Ciel somewhat was that 【Headhunter】 actually leveled up too... Was it because she chopped off so many heads?

Ciel thought again of the blue feather, feeling a bit of a headache.

This was going to be a tough battle...

The opponent was a sealed artifact, and an intelligent one at that. It had even been observing her all along... Ciel could no longer let Avena translate Old Ansu script for her. Even her thought process, it was best not to write it down on paper anymore.

Fortunately, Ciel previously only dared to confidently list plans on paper during simulations.

Ciel suddenly thought of something. She quickly opened her eyes, found her notebook, directly lit it with candle fire, threw it into the metal trash can, and waited for it to burn completely inside.

The notebook couldn’t be used anymore... Ciel didn’t know to what extent the opponent grasped information about her.

She had to find a new method or item to replace her notebook.

Right, the system rewards...

Ciel looked at the system reward 【Endless Manual of Instant Forgetfulness】. At this moment, it lay quietly in Ciel’s system inventory.

The system inventory increased from 4 slots to 6, allowing Ciel to store more things. This could also be considered one of Ciel’s trump cards.

In the new empty slot, an ancient, black-covered manual lay quietly.

As Ciel gazed at it, a system description appeared before her.

【【Endless Manual of Instant Forgetfulness】】

【Ability: A transcendent manual that can be flipped through infinitely downwards, things can be recorded on it】

【Side Effect: When the manual is closed, creatures who have seen the manual will forget its contents】

Ciel: “...”

Forget it right after writing and closing? Then what’s the point of writing?

No...

In Ciel’s vision, the system inventory interface still existed. But as her thoughts flipped, the endless manual inside the inventory slowly turned a page.

Although the icon was small, if the words were written larger, they could still be seen.

She could write, then flip through it directly in the inventory?

Ciel seemed to understand its true usage.

There were too many things to do. Ciel closed the system inventory interface.

She opened the system’s store interface. All the new items appeared before Ciel.

And the 【Basic Disciplines】 column also showed a highlighted red dot, indicating new things were available for learning.