Eldritch Horror Theatre

“Ah—”

Unable to dodge in time, Serana had her remaining left wing forcibly torn off. Her body trembled violently as she let out a fittingly miserable scream.

Yet in the next moment, a streak of scarlet shot silently from her open mouth.

It was a short spear formed of condensed blood. Its speed was unimaginable, and the dark, eerie aura it carried was terrifying.

How could a dignified demigod just sit and wait for death? Her counterattack had clearly been premeditated, and her performance after taking that injury was flawless.

Now that her killing blow was unleashed, it reached Fu Qian almost instantly.

Unfortunately for her, Fu Qian was ultimately affected to a lesser degree than she was. Although he could not dodge entirely, he managed to turn his body slightly, causing this hidden fatal strike to only pierce his lung.

Even so, the wounded tissue withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

‘What a pity...’

Such an injury, even with the curse added, was not enough to make a demigod fall.Amid her regret, Serana suddenly noticed something strange.

As her last wing was torn off, her body suddenly felt incredibly light. The heavy confinement from earlier had completely vanished.

Surprised, she found that everything before her eyes was turning blurry and illusory before she even had time to press the attack.

The last thing Serana saw was Fu Qian discarding her second wing, then reaching back to tear apart the shadow-shrouded half of his own body.

...

‘It seems there really is an effect.’

Watching Serana’s body gradually turn translucent and disappear as if melting into the moonlight, Fu Qian mused to himself.

At this moment, he was holding his own shadow-covered left arm in his hand.

Coming from a demigod who had lived for hundreds of years, Serana’s desperate strike was not to be underestimated. In the blink of an eye, the struck area had withered like dead wood.

Of course, everything had its pros and cons; the benefit here was that tearing the limb off required a bit less effort.

Casually tossing the arm aside, Fu Qian felt his body become light once more.

Certain sounds and images also grew clearer and clearer.

Until a certain moment, blazing white moonlight completely engulfed his vision.

...

By the time his vision recovered, the Moonlight Glade from earlier had completely vanished.

In its place stood a seemingly familiar, magnificent building.

Serana, sporting two hideous wounds on her back, was standing in profile facing his direction, gazing upward in a daze.

The next moment, as if sensing something, she slowly turned her head and looked over.

“We seem to have entered a re-enacted scene of an ancient era.”

She did not start fighting immediately. Serana gritted her teeth as she looked at Fu Qian, her emotions rather complicated.

“I feel the same way.”

Fu Qian agreed casually, sizing up their surroundings.

Though this world’s fashion had always been chaotic, judging by the clothes of the people around them, this was genuine retro attire.

Indeed, in the place where the two now stood, in addition to the tall buildings clearly restored from ruins, they could even see people coming and going.

At a glance, the outfits of the men and women held a distinct, classical charm.

“The rapidly accumulating confinement concentrates on a specific part of the body. By directly severing that part, the rest of the body highly synchronizes with the moonlight, successfully allowing entry into this place.”

Serana sighed as she spoke, touching the wounds on her back, having seemingly figured out Fu Qian’s intentions from earlier.

“How did you know this?”

“I didn’t!”

Fu Qian shook his head.

“I told you we were using the process of elimination.”

“Fortunately, our attempt triggered an abnormal reaction. Even without confirming the specific cause, trying to amplify that anomaly is standard procedure for a researcher.”

He pointed at the wounds on Serana’s back.

“For example, if we removed the part where the shadow was concentrated, would it make the sounds we hear clearer?”

“Just because of a thought like that... you attacked me directly? I barely had enough strength left to break free just now. One slight misstep, and we both would have been trapped here to die.”

The more Serana listened, the more shocked she became.

She had originally thought this guy knew something that led to his shocking move just now. Who would have expected such psychotic reasoning?

“It’s fine, I know what I’m doing. If it hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t have interrupted your second escape attempt.”

“Given the unwavering resolve you showed earlier, this degree of action should be acceptable to you.”

Fu Qian shook his head slightly, pointing at the left half of his own body.

“Also, let’s be precise. It wasn’t just you; I did the exact same thing to myself.”

At this moment, his extraordinarily high flesh vitality was continuously repairing his body.

But after he regenerated half of his chest, the left arm that was previously covered in shadow simply wouldn’t grow back—exactly like Serana’s wings.

...

Faced with this lunatic who acted like all this was completely natural, Serana was left speechless for a moment.

“Of course, deducing backward from our current results, and combining it with the item’s name—Ancient Recollection—we can make some guesses now.”

Fu Qian pointed at the nearly identical full moon in the sky.

“There is reason to suspect that this omnipresent moonlight has been preserved since this distant ancient era.”

“And its illumination gradually synchronizes our bodies with the past, bringing about temporal Dislocation, from which the confinement stems.”

“Our previous acceleration method of standing at the boundary of light and dark made the two ends of this Dislocation distinctly separate on our bodies, which is why you heard the voices then.”

“After carrying out a relatively thorough severance, the part of us synchronized with antiquity finally surpassed a certain threshold, allowing us to enter this special spacetime.”

“...Fine.”

Fu Qian’s eloquent speech left Serana listening with a blank face.

However, she could think of no reason to refute his deductions.

‘So this is the secret behind the power of the Ancient Reminiscence... It is indeed a brilliant deduction, but the process is still a bit hard to accept.’

Studying the now one-armed yet completely unbothered Fu Qian, Serana suddenly didn’t envy Yuan Shan at all.

Dealing with this kind of guy might offer unimaginably powerful assistance, but sooner or later, it would drive a person insane.

Of course, having him as an opponent would be an even more terrifying prospect.

“You could have just explained it to me clearly...”

Recalling what had just happened, Serana couldn’t stop herself from speaking up a moment later.

“Would you have believed me? Agreeing to let me tear off your wings based on a guess?”

Fu Qian blinked.

‘That really wouldn’t have happened...’

Serana fell silent for a moment.

“Aside from wasting time, causing misunderstandings, and ultimately threatening our chances of escape, that kind of communication has no meaning.”

“So, what do we do now?”

At a loss for words, Serana asked cautiously a moment later.

“I can feel that our current state is relatively stable. We can still break out of here at any time, but I’m not sure what will happen if we drag this out.”

“Naturally, we hurry and continue with your previous plan.”

Fu Qian nodded, pointing at the magnificent Church nearby.

“Pay respects to the glory of your Progenitor.”