NOVEL NEXT Chapter 56 - Witness and Answer
Chapter 56: Witness and Answer
“Nightmare… So you’re the one I mentioned before…” Cass asked with heavy breathing.
“That’s right. A spawn of the Lord of Nightmare and a maid who serves Ms. Zamara.”
The other party smiled and nodded in reply.
“Therefore, Liliana’s soul is also…”
“I was the one who pulled her into the Nightmare Swamp. I originally planned on helping my contractor, but he didn’t seem to appreciate it.”
“You didn’t have to do such a thing, let alone tell him such nonsense…”
Simon suddenly spoke. The illusory snake shadow stuck out its tongue at the Nightmare Maid from behind.
The Nightmare Maid immediately nodded. Perhaps because its movements were too wide, its already unstable head rolled off its neck.
“Sigh, there’s too much damage to this mimic body…”
After a moment of silence, the head on the ground said helplessly.
Perhaps in response to its words, something cracked, and the charred body quickly turned into a black mist and began to dissipate.
A woman enveloped in a dreamy mist that constantly changed her appearance appeared where the charred body had dissipated.
The Nightmare Maid—who had returned to its original form—exclaimed strangely before looking up at the tomb’s ceiling.
“The connection with the Night Locust has been severed. Has that woman broken free?”
The perfect mimic of the Nightmare Maid required the main body of the disguised target to be imprisoned in the Nightmare Swamp, creating a dream that synchronized with reality for the other party. Only then could the true reaction and details of the mimic be perfectly restored, allowing for an impersonation that no one could see through.
However, since it didn’t take the initiative to remove its mimic state but returned to its original form, it could only mean that something had happened to its main body in the Nightmare Swamp.
Duke Simon said, “It’s time to begin the last part of the ritual. Hurry up if you want to receive your remuneration.”
The Nightmare Maid nodded and said, “Don’t worry. I’ve done all the preparations. That little faerie was captured by my subordinates the moment she left the tomb.”
Before it could finish speaking, a bolt of lightning attacked it.
At the same time, Duke Simon, who was standing beside the Nightmare Maid, attacked. The huge snake phantom behind him suddenly swung its tail, tilting the bolt of lightning in another direction.
With a bang, the lightning struck a sarcophagus at the side. Not only was the sarcophagus instantly shattered, but it also blasted a considerable hole in the granite platform.
Even though they were a few meters apart, the powerful blast still forced the Nightmare Maid to take two to three steps back.
After stabilizing its footing, it looked in the direction of the lightning.
Cass stood up from the throne. At this moment, he held Judgment 4. His entire body flickered with silver lightning, and his eyes shone with a dazzling light.
“Who did you say was captured?!”
Cass’s voice was the same as Duke Simon from before. It was like thunder from the high heavens.
After hearing their conversation, Cass held his sword and instantly entered a combat state. Instantly, the lightning runes on his skin lit up, and a violent, peerless, and surging power surged from the depths of his soul. Under his guidance, it wrapped around the sword in his hand.
He swung his sword through the air, and a bolt of lightning struck along the sword.
The King and Rebel ritual worked both ways. Since he had “stabbed” God King Oka, he was naturally the new owner of that power.
Of course, Cass himself didn’t know what was going on with this sudden surge of power.
However, since he had a sword in his hand, there was no need to say what he should do as a swordsman.
Duke Simon didn’t panic at all when he saw Cass stand up aggressively. He even teased the Nightmare Maid, “How is it? The other party is probably at the peak of Legendary but not the Divine Realm. Do you want to give it a try?”
As for the Nightmare Maid, it flew back more than ten meters and said anxiously, “He has Judgment equipment now. Don’t make me fight him head-on.”
Simon then turned his head to the Stumbling Demon, Grayrash, who hurriedly shook its head.
Perhaps because everything was going according to plan, Simon was very relaxed.
Cass’s current state was probably similar to when he obtained the God King’s authority. As he had restored the mirror image of the King and Rebel during the second ritual, his current level far exceeded the other party’s.
Moreover…
“I, Simon Walde, the new king of the Blackwater Kingdom, the commander of the Rotten Moon Tide, and also a loyal servant of the three Moon Realm goddesses, humbly pray for the three goddesses to bear witness here.”
Seeing that everything was in place, Simon pressed his hand to his chest and slowly bent down to shout.
The complicated pattern engraved on the ceiling of the tomb lit up, and deep darkness quickly spread out.
In less than a few seconds, the entire tomb’s dome was replaced by a night sky where no starlight could be seen. A bright moon hung in the middle.
Cass charged at Simon with Judgment 4 which flickered with lightning, but he was stopped before he could take five steps under the night sky.
A few strands of spider silk appeared on Cass’s hands and feet as he was lifted into the air like a puppet.
“The Weaver of Fate, the Goddess of Change, Beatrice!”
Looking up along the spider silk, a huge spider phantom appeared in the night sky. She occupied about a third of the night sky.
“The Guardian of Cycles, the Goddess of Rebirth, Camilla!”
A butterfly phantom with incomplete wings appeared. Countless flies circled Her, and the sound of countless flapping wings gathered into a symphony that made one’s scalp tingle. The butterfly phantom also occupied a third of the night sky.
“Gifter of Inspiration, Goddess of Art, Zamara!”
The last third of the night sky was enveloped by a constantly changing fog, and a pair of dazzling eyes slowly opened in the fog.
Three dignified voices drowned out all the noise in the minds of every existence present.
We shall bear witness.
With that said, Cass—who was controlled by the spider silk—sat back on the throne like a puppet. A fog enveloped him, and rotten vines tore through the tiles and extended to his entire body, firmly binding him to the throne.
Simon bent down and said, “Sovereigns, please bear witness to the final stage of the King and Rebel Conversion and the rebirth of the God King and the solitude of Death.”
The end of the King and Rebel Conversion myth was witnessed by the gods. Death, who was originally the dead, was reborn as a God King, and the God King, who originally lived high in the sky, became Death.
This was a state that none of the King and Rebel rituals in the past had restored.
However, under the witness of the three Moon Realm Void Sovereigns, Duke Simon—no, the new King of Blackwater—was going to push this ritual to an unprecedented level!
The tomb door opened, and a floating Fog Nightmare imprisoned Liz as it moved to the throne.
“C-Cass? What… What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
Liz looked at the man imprisoned on the throne and couldn’t help but ask in panic.
Under normal circumstances, Cass might have been in the mood to mock the other party for not reading the situation and reply with something like “Do I look fine?”
However, other than panic, he didn’t have any other emotions.
He kept exerting strength in his hands to break free, but they were drained under the vines.
The Nightmare Maid—who had been hiding far away—came over. It grabbed Liz from the Fog Nightmare and came in front of Cass.
Cass couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of unease when he saw it approach.
He shouted at the Nightmare Maid who had disguised itself as Nizemar, “You just needed me to help you complete that ritual, right?! I’m a descendant of that Black Swordsman. It has nothing to do with her. Let her go!”
However, the Nightmare Maid only chuckled mockingly at him. Its smile was 70 to 80% similar to Nizemar’s.
It said to Liz, “Do you still remember me telling you that you didn’t have much life force left? Don’t waste it in such a place?”
Liz looked at the constantly changing Lunar Monster in front of her in confusion. From her expression, she was probably still wondering why it had mentioned what Nizemar had said to her.
However, Cass instantly understood what the other party was up to.
He struggled with all his might, and lightning runes appeared on his skin again, but the fog surrounding him only circulated slightly before dissipating the lightning.
“No… Don’t do this… Please! None of this has anything to do with her…”
The Nightmare Maid smiled and released its grip. Liz quickly flew in front of Cass’s throne, but a transparent barrier separated them.
“Run, run!”
Cass shouted at the faerie in front of him.
Liz didn’t say anything. Instead, she hurriedly slammed into the transparent barrier.
Cass opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, he suddenly felt an abundance of life begin to enter his body through the invisible link between the two of them.
His heart sank.
Liz stopped what she was doing and looked at her hands. Golden scale powder kept peeling off her body uncontrollably before disappearing into the void.
“I see…”
Liz looked at Cass at the other end of the barrier in realization before smiling at him.
She turned to look at the Nightmare Maid and said softly, “If you wanted me to save him, you didn’t need to go through so much trouble.”
With that said, she looked at Cass again and asked with a smile, “So, what’s your answer? Have you considered helping me take care of the garden?”
Cass choked. He looked at Liz, who constantly had golden dust peeling off and whose face was aging, and slowly said, “Then, are you willing to hear the truth?”
Liz’s eyes widened.
“Please, I’m about to die! Even if you’re unwilling, can’t you lie to me?”
Cass forced himself to smile and say, “The truth is that I’ve always planned on helping you tidy up the garden after all of this is over.”
“Really?! Are you telling the truth?!”
Liz, whose face was as shriveled as a skeleton, shouted with light in her eyes. She even planned on flying up to celebrate as usual.
Unfortunately, she was already too weak. She didn’t fly for more than a few seconds before landing shakily on the ground.
“What a pity…”
Liz sighed and said with a self-deprecating smile, “Well, it’s not that much of a pity? After all, I was the one who should have witnessed your white-haired death and regretted it for the rest of my life. Now, it’s the other way around. This might be a unique and wondrous experience among faeries… Cough, cough…”
After coughing weakly a few times, she smiled at Cass and said her final words, “However, don’t regret it for too long. After all, we faeries are very open-minded about life and death…”
With that said, the old faerie slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep…
Sensing the last trace of life force flowing into his body, Cass looked at the delighted Nightmare Maid and slowly asked, “Actually, even if Liz isn’t here, you can transfer her life force to me through our life connection, right?”
His life connection with Liz was invisible and wasn’t restricted by distance.
The Nightmare Maid took a deep breath and revealed a deeply intoxicated expression. Then, it replied, “Yes, actually, it doesn’t matter if she’s here or not.”
“Then why did you bring her here?” Cass asked calmly.
The Nightmare Maid replied happily, “Because this is the remuneration I negotiated with the duke from the beginning. Do you know what’s the most important thing to a Nightmare?”
Cass didn’t say a word.
The Nightmare Maid replied, “Helplessness… A feeling of helplessness that you can’t change a thing. This strong feeling is strong sustenance to us.”
After a moment of silence, Cass suddenly roared in anger.
The Nightmare Maid looked at the collapsed man in front of it and saw the veins on his right hand that was tied to the throne bulge as he tried in vain to break free from the Void Sovereign’s restraints.
A satisfied smile appeared on its face.
This smile stopped when the other party broke his right hand free.
Is this person crazy? It thought.
Then, the Nightmare Maid saw the other party reach into his pocket with his freed right hand and shakily take something out—a Demon Sealing rune that flickered with lightning.