Chapter 812 — Predation

The gentle-mannered Pontiff Yuri Youheng had probably never once lost his composure like this in his entire life: "You brute! Do you always cast spells on pure subconscious instinct?!"

"I used to be a War God's priest—I'm used to casting on subconscious instinct, so what am I supposed to do about it?!"

"Don't use that as an excuse—it's not as if I've never met a normal War God's priest!"

The quarrel between the two pontiffs behind him left Gao Cen momentarily dumbstruck. He had never imagined that talents like these could exist among the dark cults. The pair could not help but remind him of Philip and Byron; he even suspected that if Yuri and Magnum ever made it to Cecil, they would probably become nationally acclaimed stand-up comedians within a year...

But a warm, clear lamplight cut through all the chaos. The lantern in Selina's hand blazed with a fierce radiance, and her voice rang out as though imbued with a power that could pierce through endless veils: "Quiet! Yuri, Magnum, you're being influenced!"

"The nightfall here is amplifying your personality flaws and negative thoughts, clouding your judgment!"

Yuri and Magnum, on the verge of sinking deeper into their quarrel, were touched by Selina's lantern and startled awake by her words. Their eyes flew open, and in an instant they recognized the subtle contamination and erosion.

The next second, an extraordinarily powerful psychic force erupted centered on Magnum, stirring up a true "storm" across the entire building and a considerable area around it.

Meanwhile, more shadows were still gathering from all directions, and more lights were being kindled throughout the streets and alleys of Nym Sandro. Light and shadow seemed to weave themselves into a lattice, spreading from the Temple District as its center across the whole city, and eerily even beyond the city, out into the entire desert...

Seen from the air, Nym Sandro and a vast stretch of the surrounding region were shrouded in this lattice of light and shadow like a spider's web, and the little psychic storm Magnum had raised sat at the very center of that immense web, like an insect struggling, like a prisoner caught in the strands...

In the darkness, farther from Nym Sandro than anyone could tell, on a bizarre peak that jutted abruptly from the desert like an inverted jointed limb, a battered paper lantern suddenly sliced through the dark, and in its dim yellow glow the figures of Duval and Naretiel came into view.

The former held the lantern and gazed quietly toward Nym Sandro, where the city had been completely enveloped by an enormous spider's web, with vast spider shadows slowly patrolling its edges. The latter sat cross-legged on the ground, arms wrapped around her knees, still gazing spellbound at the sky, watching the stars that the Sandbox had simulated across the heavens.

"The final hunt begins, Naretiel," Duval said, his voice low and gentle. "Won't you come and watch?"

Naretiel sat unmoved, speaking with a kind of sulky stubbornness: "I want to watch the stars."

Duval frowned: "They're all fake. What's there to see?"

"But to me... they're real..."

Duval frowned at Naretiel for a moment, then slowly shook his head: "It doesn't matter anymore—after the hunt, the real starry sky will be waiting for us."

Naretiel fell silent, quiet beneath the night sky for a long while, before she suddenly began to murmur softly: "The cake was delicious. The wine was not."

Duval had not caught it clearly: "What did you say?"

Naretiel said no more.

Duval lowered his head and looked at Naretiel for a long time, then finally shook his head in resignation: "...It doesn't matter anymore."

Then he drew back his gaze and once again looked toward Nym Sandro, toward that final hunting ground at the end of the world.

The web woven by the Upper Narrator would at last ensnare that faint gleam of light from reality...

The shockwaves of the psychic storm raged between the streets, wantonly tearing at this world held up by dreams. Countless spider shadows were annihilated in the surges of energy, and even the nearby houses and flagstone streets crumbled to fragments and scattered after several rounds of the storm.

Yet the shadows were endless. The lights scattered throughout Nym Sandro lit up great swaths of the night sky, and in that star-dimmed darkness, vaster and more abstract shadows were gathering, closing in on the Temple District like some great beast come to feed.

"There's something strange about these things—we can't kill them all!" Magnum called out from the heart of the storm. "They must have a source, hidden somewhere we can't see!"

Yuri, maintaining the golden runes of protection, likewise raised his voice: "We should find a way out of this city—the whole place is probably a trap!"

And while struggling to deal with those spider shadows and the ubiquitous psychic contamination, Yuri and Magnum turned their heads almost in unison, looking toward where Gao Yang stood—

The Upper Narrator had already begun to act. Wanderer from Beyond... wasn't it time to do something?!

"Isn't it time you took action?!" Magnum could not hold back any longer and shouted. "We can't hold out much longer—"

Gao Yang stood not far from Magnum and Yuri, beside Selina Gerald. From first to last he had made no move at all, only watching quietly as the shadows closed in, watching Magnum and the others launch their counterattack, observing the chaos with the calm of a bystander.

His stillness unsettled Selina, and made Yuri and Magnum more and more anxious.

What was the Wanderer from Beyond waiting for? Why had He still not acted?

Just as such doubts swelled ever greater, nearly shaking Magnum's confidence, Gao Yang finally let out a soft breath.

"So that's how it is..."

(Oh my god!!!!)