Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was this really the First Apostle, back in action in full gear?

To Fu Qian, such strict obedience to orders all but confirmed his earlier guess.

The grafted ones had finally been grafted themselves; Elder Lu and his companion seemed to have been turned into spare parts for the First Apostle.

At the same time, because the First Apostle’s mental state was in poor shape, nothing seemed left of him but an instinct to follow the crimson moon alone.

Even if that moon was merely Annalise’s Lies.

All in all, it actually brought Brother Ariel to mind.

’Heh heh heh... So all that time consulting Excellency Nepheli wasn’t wasted after all? Have I actually refined a puppet of my own?’

Compared to Ariel, though, this one was closer to a virtual idol.

Inside the dream, its presence was terrifying; outside the dream, there wasn’t even a shadow of it to be seen.

It could only be said that even in a rebirth like this, Excellency Herbert had stayed true to his original aspiration, fully deserving the title of Dream Chaser.As for why this had happened, it made sense on closer thought.

It was excessive contamination from the dream that had turned him into a mollusk in the first place. And precisely because of that, Herbert had fatefully breathed one last breath of life into the shattered Divine Dream, pulling Old Man Lu and his companion along with him while he was at it.

”Pulling them along” even cut both ways. On one hand, Lu Ming and his companion had been betrayed by a traitor and had Herbert’s skeletal remains stuffed into their bellies, dragging them into the mess along with the contamination that followed—that was pulling them down.

On the other hand, if they hadn’t been dragged into the water like that, facing Old Man Ibu’s thunderous wrath back then, those seniors would probably have passed on long ago—and that was pulling them up.

All told, the fact that the two of them had been able to banter like a comedy duo just now, and stood here looking so lifelike right this moment, was all thanks to Herbert.

Every coin had two sides, though. Under his influence right now, it looked like they could forget about ever leaving the dream.

Still, as the saying went, always look on the bright side.

At the very least, after swapping in that pair of blood-red eyes, their presence had actually improved a little.

Specifically, on the side where the two heads sat close together, the inner eye on each was now crimson. Not only did that make them look more symmetrical, it almost seemed to piece together an extra person between them, radiating sinister menace.

”Good work.”

In the blink of an eye, the two-headed vampire had gone and returned. Sizing up its peculiar design, Fu Qian had no complaints about its two empty hands.

He had only meant to test how well it carried out orders, and the result proved that not only did it act without hesitation, it even knew to come back and report.

The only pity was that it didn’t seem to like talking. A leader as important as Professor Fu had just thanked it for its hard work, yet it simply stood there without a single reaction.

”Attack me with everything you have.”

A leader naturally had a temper, so Fu Qian gave a snort and handed down punishment on the spot.

...

The punishment was clearly severe; even a mindless puppet seemed to hesitate for an instant.

That was where the advantage of talking less showed itself, however. In the end, the two-headed vampire did not question the order and vanished on the spot.

Rip—

When it reappeared, a vicious claw of light had already torn apart the afterimage Fu Qian left behind.

As the absolute master of the current dream, setting up targets like this could not have been simpler.

Appearing again not far away, Fu Qian had his figure torn to shreds once more while heaping praise on the two-headed vampire.

As expected of a creature deeply fused with the dream, its concealment was already nearly half as good as the First Generation Dark Moon’s. Most Tier 2s would probably find it a headache to deal with.

At the same time, its lethality was no slouch either. This classic Blood Clan Darkness Claw was a classic for a reason.

Even if he had taken that head-on with his real body instead of a phantom, he probably couldn’t guarantee walking away completely unscathed—wait a second, why was a Darkness Claw glowing?

Snap—

After the third illusion in a row was shredded, Fu Qian snapped his fingers and simply conjured three more.

Admiring the iron-blooded slaughter as the two-headed vampire flickered in and out of sight among them, Fu Qian noted that those flying claws actually carried something of a Chastisement Knight’s flair.

What gathered over its palms was no longer black mist thick as ink, but an aura of radiant sanctity.

The lines were straight and razor-sharp too, flashing like a grating in motion—yes, that kind of optical grating.

”Stop.”

In the blink of an eye, the two-headed vampire had once again scored a clean sweep of one against three, and Fu Qian called a halt in satisfaction.

There was really no faulting its discipline. The instant he revealed himself, he was locked onto, yet the glowing Darkness Claw came to an abrupt halt less than a body’s length away.

”Brother Sanxun, still haven’t headed back at this late hour?”

At such close range, he could see everything all the more clearly. Having kept his eyes fixed on those gleaming claws right until they faded away, Fu Qian beamed and switched how he addressed it.

...

”Who... are you, really?”

The dream was quiet, though the silence did not last long.

At a certain moment, this newly refined puppet actually spoke.

More than that, the voice did not come from either of the two heads; instead, centered on those two blood-red eyes, a ghostly outline sketched itself into the air.

The outline might have been blurry, yet Fu Qian was still quite certain that those were not the features of the First Apostle, but of the Third Follower.

That explained it. Strong as Excellency Herbert’s will was, at most it was a wisp of lingering obsession—and with his wish already fulfilled, where would he have found the strength to Fashion a little effigy like this at the very end?

So the core power driving this puppet in front of him didn’t come from the Blood Clan at all, but was supplied by the great apostle of the Law, merely borrowing a Blood Clan frame?

And that was why such a bizarre attack as a Darkness Claw of Light had shown up?

Even though he had unlocked the puppet-refining achievement earlier, Fu Qian had kept feeling that Herbert’s vitality was a little too tenacious.

Now, everything made much more sense.

It wasn’t that Herbert’s final trace of strength had saved Old Man Lu and his companion when the dream shattered—it was Brother Sanxun who had been dragged over here.

At first listen, it sounded outrageous. After all, even Excellency Patches had certified that as an emissary of the Law, someone like the Third Follower truly qualified as an unconventional kind of immortal.

So in Fu Qian’s understanding, what happened over by the White Tower Codex could pretty much be understood as Sha Ming drawing on his grasp of the Law to use the rules to invite a holy envoy into Descent.

Even if the Codex was destroyed in the end, an existence that belonged to the rules themselves would simply take its leave without suffering any real harm.

Yet the scene before his eyes seemed to offer a different train of thought.

Belonging to the rules themselves might make one ”immortal,” yet it also made one just as easy to exploit as the rules, regardless of personal will.

And the dual attributes of moon and Law within the Divine Dream seemed to have triggered a similar effect the moment it shattered.

The Third Follower had probably been deeply unwilling, yet regardless of his own will, he had still been stuffed into the puppet and turned into its power core.

Logically it seemed to hold water, even if the final product was more than a little perverse.

A Holy Light Two-Headed Vampire?

Or should he call it the Two-Headed Blood Fiend of Light?

”Who dares make trouble before my Rebirth Club?”

Sizing up that overly distinctive design, Fu Qian simply stood with his hands clasped behind his back in response to the Third Follower’s cry of shock, looking every inch the imposing master.