Southwest Outskirts of Tivian, under the winter night sky.
A sudden, inexplicable thunderclap erupted, its deafening roar echoing across the land. A jagged, blinding streak of lightning tore through the darkness, illuminating the world for a brief moment.
Though the lightning lasted only an instant, it was extraordinarily bright. Within a radius of several kilometers, many who were still awake witnessed this strange phenomenon, including those in the distant Barrett’s mansion.
"What’s going on? Why is there thunder all of a sudden?"
On the third floor of Barrett’s mansion, Kenk, standing by the window, frowned as he gazed at the fleeting flash of lightning in the distance. It was the depths of winter, and the weather was completely unlike the kind that would produce thunder. The sudden appearance of this thunderclap was clearly unusual.
"Mr. Kenk... the direction of that thunder seems to be where the priest went. Could something have happened during his pursuit? Should we go and support him?"
At this moment, one of the Eight-Spired Nest assassins beside Kenk suggested. Kenk, however, immediately shook his head in response.
"No, there’s no need. Even as a derivative, the priest’s strength surpasses mine—he is beyond the White Ash rank. Unless the enemy has a Red Completion-rank presence, they can’t possibly handle the priest. But aside from Despenser and the church, any other Red Completion-rank individuals near Tivian would alert the archbishop of the Radiance Church. So, we don’t need to worry about the priest. We just need to wait for his message."
Kenk spoke with certainty as he gazed into the darkness. Hearing his words, the assassins around him nodded in understanding and said nothing more.
Indeed, Priest of Fangs was one of the few Spider Queen Priests in the Eight-Spired Nest, a true big man. Even though this was just a derivative and not his true form, his strength was beyond the imagination of small fry like them. There was no need to worry unnecessarily. They just needed to wait for good news.Sure enough, not long after the distant thunderclap, Kenk felt a sharp pain in his arm. After confirming the location of the pain, his expression turned serious. He then spread his palm, allowing a strikingly patterned Face Spider to crawl out from his sleeve onto his hand. This was the Face Spider the Priest of Fangs used to communicate with him!
Seeing the spider crawl onto his hand, Kenk didn’t dare delay. He immediately placed it on a nearby table and knelt respectfully. The assassins around him followed suit, kneeling as well.
Once on his knees, Kenk spoke to the spider in a reverent tone.
"Your Excellency, what are your orders?"
Kenk addressed the spider with utmost respect, while the other assassins around him knelt in silence, not daring to make a sound as they awaited orders.
Shortly after hearing Kenk’s voice, the patterns on the Face Spider began to twist, and the aged voice of the Priest of Fangs emerged from it.
"Kenk... go to the location of that thunderclap immediately. Collect the remains and bring them back quickly. Don’t linger."
"Remains? Uh... Your Excellency, are these the remains of that audacious puppeteer? Have you already dealt with him?"
Hearing the priest’s words, Kenk’s tone carried a hint of joy. However, the response he received was stern and severe.
"Do as I say! Don’t ask unnecessary questions! Dawn is approaching, and the Serenity Bureau could arrive at any moment. Move quickly!"
"Uh... yes, understood. I’ll set out right away."
Hearing the priest’s harsh tone, Kenk was momentarily stunned but quickly nodded in agreement. The assassins around him exchanged puzzled glances, sensing that something was off, but none dared to voice their concerns.
Just as Kenk was about to rise and take action, the Priest of Fangs spoke again through the Face Spider.
"Also, before you go, have the others prepare to use explosives to breach Barrett’s research chamber. Burn everything inside, along with the mansion. And on your way back after collecting the remains, retrieve one more item. I’ll guide you to its location."
"Understood, Your Excellency. I’ll act immediately!"
"Good. Dawn is approaching. Move quickly..."
After giving his final instructions, the Face Spider fell silent. Kenk, not daring to delay, quickly stood up and tucked the spider back into his sleeve. He then turned to his subordinates and began issuing orders for breaching the secret chamber and burning the villa. Once everything was arranged, Kenk transformed into a swarm of bats and flew toward the direction of the thunderclap.
…
Meanwhile, in a place far, far away from Tivian, within a small, blood-stained room filled with the scent of blood, a hunched figure in a long robe sat on a high-backed chair. His breathing was slightly labored, and his dark red eyes were filled with complex emotions.
Anger, surprise, confusion... all these emotions were etched on the face of the Priest of Fangs. At this moment, he was enduring the backlash of losing a derivative.
“So, that panicked escape... was it all an act? Was it all a trap to lure me in? Hmph... this time, you win.”
Sitting in his high-backed chair, the Priest of Fangs pondered, his eyes flickering. He was now convinced that the puppeteer’s escape had been a deliberate ploy to lure him into a trap set by the puppeteer and his companions. And that companion possessed a formidable Beyonder ability capable of destroying his derivative.
“An abnormally long range for flesh puppet control, the ability to inflict damage directly through spiritual threads... truly an unseen Chalice ability... In comparison, the wound-deteriorating Chalice ability that Berlit encountered, while rare, isn’t unheard of... If we only consider these, these people might have some connection to the Afterbirth Cult…”
The Priest of Fangs continued to ponder. After some thought, he recalled the blinding lightning his derivative had seen in its final moments.
“But... if they are truly Chalice... where did that powerful lightning come from? In my two hundred years of delving into the mysticism world, I’ve never heard of any method to summon lightning…”
“Did they... obtain some mystical artifact capable of summoning lightning? What is the true nature of this lightning’s spirituality?”
Sitting in his high-backed chair, the Priest of Fangs pondered deeply. He was already thinking about what to say at the next high-level meeting of the Eight-Spired Nest.
…
Southwest Outskirts of Tivian, on a tree-lined road.
A carriage pulled by two horses sped along the road toward Tivian’s urban area. Inside the swaying carriage, Dorothy sat wrapped in a blanket, shielding herself from the early morning cold. Having stayed up all night, dark circles hung under her eyes, and her face showed unmistakable fatigue.
"Ugh... what a long New Year’s Eve... But thankfully, it’s finally over..."
After letting out a long yawn, Dorothy sighed and muttered to herself. Her first New Year’s Eve in this world was destined to be unforgettable.
“From a little past ten last night until now, just before sunrise, it’s been non-stop... If this hadn’t ended soon, I might have collapsed from exhaustion... But at least the outcome is good. Although the process was a bit risky, the important goal was achieved…”
Rubbing her eyes, Dorothy thought to herself. She was now a White Ash-rank Arcane Professor, and her biggest goal over the past few months—advancement—had finally been accomplished.
The thought of finally reaching the White Ash rank filled Dorothy with joy, momentarily easing her accumulated fatigue.
After using the lightning strike to completely destroy the Priest of Fangs’s derivative, Dorothy didn’t rest. Instead, she immediately collected all the emblems, cleaned up the advancement ritual site, and stored Edrick, who had been used as a target, back into her magic box. She then quickly boarded the carriage and had the coachman marionette drive away immediately.
After the Red Completion-rank derivative was destroyed, the spiritual threads connected to it broke, so Dorothy’s escape this time couldn’t be tracked.
This time, Dorothy chose to leave the scene immediately after defeating the enemy, without searching the body. The reason was that the lightning strike had made quite a commotion. Although the distance meant it wouldn’t immediately attract official Beyonders, the accomplices in Barrett’s mansion would definitely be alerted.
The main reason Dorothy, after promoting to White Ash, was able to seemingly easily handle a Red Completion-rank derivative was that the enemy had, in order to track Dorothy, willingly absorbed her marionette, allowing Dorothy’s spiritual threads to enter its body. After advancing, Dorothy could use the connection of the spiritual threads to perform a series of actions.
Dorothy used the spiritual threads to inflict massive damage on the Priest of Fangs and finally bound him before destroying him with a lightning strike. If the enemy hadn’t willingly absorbed the spiritual threads beforehand, Dorothy wouldn’t have been able to deal with him so easily.
Barrett’s mansion housed a White Ash-rank Beyonder and an unknown number of Black Earth and Apprentice-rank Beyonders. With her spirituality depleted and no pre-established spiritual thread connections, Dorothy didn’t want to engage them and chose to leave. After all, she had seen that the derivative was formed from the erosion of a Shadow Facade. Aside from Luer, a Black Earth-rank Beyonder wouldn’t have anything valuable, and even if they did, it would likely have been destroyed by the lightning.
After a night of exhausting work, Dorothy was extremely tired. The advancement and battle had drained her spirituality significantly, so she didn’t want to linger. She chose to leave immediately. Given her poor condition, Dorothy didn’t even plan to compete for the remaining materials in Barrett’s research chamber. All she wanted now was to find a bed and get some proper sleep.
And so, in her exhaustion, Dorothy drove the carriage quickly toward the city. Along the way, she finally had a chance to properly assess her current state.
Dorothy was now an Arcane Professor of the Pure Reason Path, simultaneously simulating the branches of Threadweaver Shaman and Thunder Summoner, two Revelation-path branches, and had acquired the main abilities of both.
The abilities of the Threadweaver Shaman need no explanation—they revolve around damage transfer. Dorothy could now transfer various types of damage between targets connected by her spiritual threads.
However, this transfer had some limitations. She could only transfer damage sustained within the last day; older injuries couldn’t be transferred.
Additionally, the transfer was based on the size and extent of the injury, not its location. Larger injuries consumed more spirituality. Earlier, Dorothy had transferred three gunshot wounds to the Priest of Fangs. Although they were in vital areas, the injuries weren’t extensive, so each gunshot wound only cost 1 point of Chalice and 1 point of Revelation, totaling 3 points of Chalice.
Another key point was that damage transfer couldn’t reverse death. If someone died from a fatal injury, transferring that injury away wouldn’t bring them back to life. All that would remain was an intact corpse.
Aside from damage transfer, Dorothy’s original Marionettist abilities had also been enhanced in various ways. For example, her maximum control radius for marionettes had increased to twenty kilometers. Within ten kilometers, she could simultaneously control thirty marionettes without significant spiritual consumption. The size range for animal marionettes had also expanded, allowing Dorothy to attempt controlling slightly smaller or larger marionettes.
Additionally, Dorothy’s Marionette Mark had been strengthened. She now had greater control over living marionettes, and the spiritual cost of controlling them had decreased. Each point of Chalice could maintain control over a living marionette for one hour.
Aside from the Threadweaver Shaman abilities, Dorothy’s new power was the lightning abilities of the Thunder Summoner.
Dorothy could now generate electricity by consuming Stone and Revelation spirituality. At the Black Earth rank, this ability was primarily self-based. For example, Dorothy could enter a state where electricity flowed through her body, increasing her resistance to lightning while allowing her to discharge electricity upon contact with enemies. She could also release arcs of electricity from her hands to attack enemies at a range.
At the White Ash rank, this ability gained a more powerful application: summoning lightning strikes. Dorothy could now call down lightning strikes anywhere within a seven-kilometer radius. These strikes were immensely powerful but required a charging time, which varied depending on the weather.
If the weather was suitable—meaning there were thick thunderclouds or rainclouds in the sky—the charging time would only take one or two seconds. Under normal cloudy conditions, it would take four seconds or more. If the sky was clear and cloudless, additional spirituality would be needed to create thunderclouds. The power of the lightning strike could also be enhanced through additional charging and spirituality.
For example, the lightning strike Dorothy used to destroy the Priest of Fangs consumed 3 points of Stone and 3 points of Revelation. The electric arc she used to intercept the priest’s blood spear cost 1 point of Stone and 1 point of Revelation.
After completing her advancement and the battle, Dorothy’s current spiritual reserves were as follows: 1 Chalice, 6 Stone, 5 Shadow, 2 Lantern, 14 Silence, and 0 Revelation.
In a sense, she had returned to poverty overnight.
"Sigh... back to square one..."
Sitting in the carriage, Dorothy couldn’t help but lament as she looked at her current spiritual reserves. Previously, most of her reserves had been in the double digits, but now, aside from Silence, they were all in the single digits, with some as low as 1 or 2.
At times like this, she envied hybrid spirituality Beyonders, who had two spiritual reserves. They could use their abilities freely, and their spirituality would replenish after a few days of rest.
After promoting to White Ash rank, Dorothy could foresee that, aside from Chalice, she would also become a major consumer of Stone.
But thankfully, she had a good relationship with the White Craftsmen’s Guild. They had no shortage of Stone mystical texts. As long as she had enough money, they would ensure she had enough spirituality.