The ancient Necronomicon floated over Dr. Sven’s left hand, its pages turning on their own, emitting eerie ripples of force with every flip.
Her right hand hovered above the pages, her fingers rapidly tracing twisted sigils.
Intensely focused, her eyes remained fixed on the bizarre characters written across the pages as she chanted the tongue-twisting incantation in a voice like a crying infant.
It was the peculiar voice of a ghoul, every chanted syllable so strange that it sounded like the savage, pure roar of a creature from the ancient Savage Age.
It was the Yedd-Aitad Banishment, also known as the Banishment of the Sevenfold Void.
Amplified by the Necronomicon, she needed to complete a bizarre incantation nearly ten minutes long, after which burning the sigil representing the target would banish them into the depths of the void, never to return to the mortal world.
And during those minutes, Lynch and his group of four had to maintain the Nack-Tith Great Prison Spell together, holding out against the flesh tumor frantically hammering at the barrier.
Through the power of the arcana, the spirits of the four merged into one at this moment—gentle, upright, chaotic, and nimble. Their bodies and souls tightly intertwined with one another and bound with the barrier itself, firmly trapping Little Jack and Old Sven, who had turned into a monster, within its confines.
Four against one, the advantage was on... the enemy's side.
Although Lynch had set him back and kept him from reaching his complete form, having devoured uncounted sacrifices had raised his power to a staggering height. It was only by joining forces through the arcana that the four were barely managing to suppress his counterattacks.
His spiritual power was even more violent—perhaps augmented by a clone of an evil god's consciousness—and the psychic shocks blasting from within the prison placed immense pressure on the four. Fortunately, Lynch was a freak with terrifyingly high willpower, and Judy was a lunatic tempered daily beside the will of Great Old Ones; between them, they managed to hold off the wild offensive. Seeing that no amount of struggling could break him out of the cage, Old Sven suddenly ceased his attacks.
Four people and one monster stood at a tense standoff across the barrier.
“Well done, outsiders. You really have caused me a great deal of trouble.” For the first time, Old Sven attempted to communicate directly with Lynch's group. “I quite admire your capabilities. Since my disobedient daughter can't afford to be distracted right now, how about we strike a deal?”
“I don't think we have any basis for a deal.” Lynch reached back to take Officer Natalie’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Have you no idea what you just did?”
“Young human, nothing in this world is beyond trade. Even sworn enemies can do business as long as there is mutual interest,” the old ghoul said. “And what you need to do is very simple: just release this barrier or kill my daughter. She cannot interrupt her spellcasting right now, so this is your best chance.”
Lynch sneered. “Why on earth would we do that?”
“It seems you still don't understand your situation, outsiders. This is your only chance to survive. If you don't want to be cast into the depths of the Dreamlands, your only choice is to cooperate with me.”
Old Sven said unhurriedly:
“I've already heard about your condition. Heh, you've thrown everything into chaos by now. My ritual can no longer be stopped by you. You can't kill me anymore, and all she can do is banish me. But as long as I don't die, this ritual is theoretically not over. Although in practice it is practically over, you still won't be able to leave. You can only wait until the duration expires—or let me devour every person in the city, which according to him is a roundabout way to return to the proper track—or let me be banished and ultimately plummet into the Dreamlands yourselves. There is no third option. So you either cooperate with me—and as long as you hide outside the city, I won't have time to hunt you down—or stay here and wait to die. You outsiders ought to be much smarter than my daughter. I shouldn't need to tell you how to make your choice.”
Lynch fell silent. Although there was no way to tell whether the creature's words were true or false, the possibility couldn't be ruled out, and it wasn't particularly low either. If they accepted his proposal, as long as he kept his word, returning to the mortal world would be virtually guaranteed.
“There is nothing to hesitate over, outsiders. You've already gotten everything you wanted anyway, and whatever she could give you has been delivered. She no longer has any value to you. To risk losing your life here and leaving all your hard-earned benefits behind for a useless dead weight—not even the stupidest human in the world would make such a foolish choice.”
Officer Natalie's lips quivered, but in the end she said nothing, merely gripping Lynch's hand tighter. Miss Diana held his other hand, communicating her unconditional support through her gentle warmth. As for Judy... Judy was busy doing simultaneous interpretation, not even bothering to glance at Lynch.
“Whew. You're right. Even a fool knows how to choose, and I'm certainly no fool. We want to live too.” Seeing the wolfish face of the old ghoul split open into a satisfied laugh, Lynch suddenly let out a cold chuckle. “But I refuse. I'm the kind of person who loves saying no to self-important snobs.”
The laughter came to an abrupt halt, and the old ghoul froze.
“Indeed, what determines whether a deal happens isn't alignment,” Lynch grinned. “It's whether I'm willing. Now I'm telling you loud and clear: I'm not willing!”
“Before today's events, there might have been a slim chance of cooperating with you. But after today, absolutely not. Natalie already died by your hand once. If not for Dr. Sven's gift, I would have lost someone deeply important to me. We just owed her our lives, and you expect us to turn around and betray her? Dream on. Whatever reason you give, I have only one answer: impossible. Today, we are set on being your enemy.”
Old Sven's wolfish face contorted as he roared, “Morons! You'll die too! This is suicide!”
“In a person's life, there are always principles worth risking one's neck to defend. And my principle just happens to be keeping clear records of debts and grudges.”
“Then die!”
Knowing the negotiation was completely broken, Old Sven let out a wild roar. His tentacles and upper body rapidly retracted inward until only a single flesh tumor remained, concentrating all his strength within his body. In the next instant, a powerful wave of spiritual power burst forth, slamming head-on into the barrier confining him.
Dazzling lights and shifting colors erupted across the scene.
Two eerie forces clashed in midair, colliding into distorted swaths of color.
Old Sven was putting everything on the line, channeling even the power of the container into his mind to launch a supreme assault. For a moment, Lynch and the other three fell into a disadvantage, forced back step by step.
Hating Lynch to the core, Old Sven focused all his mental power on him. Taking advantage of the clash of wills, he forcibly eroded Lynch's defense line with psychic force, attempting to destroy his soul directly.
Yet it went shockingly smoothly—it was as if Lynch had intentionally relinquished his soul's defense, letting him drive straight through all the way to the innermost core of Lynch's soul.
Whereupon, he beheld a crimson full moon.
“Aaargh!”
In the next moment, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from inside the flesh tumor, loud enough to be heard across half the city. The disgusting lump rolled wildly across the ground and bounced up and down, frantically smashing against the barrier as if completely insane.
The ladies looked at Lynch in bewilderment, while Lynch merely shrugged innocently.
Why did someone always have to actively seek death?
Gazing directly upon the Supreme—how pitiable. Hopefully he still gets a chance to recover.
Beside them, Dr. Sven's chanting came to an abrupt end. With a turn of her palm, a fang in her hand was consumed by fierce flames. She then pointed her claws toward the ball of flesh inside the barrier.
【Arcana: Yedd-Aitad Banishment】
A pitch-black portal opened behind the ball of flesh. Immense suction tugged at the flesh tumor, slowly pulling it toward the opening. The tumor struggled frantically, yet it could not overcome the black hole's gravitational pull and was drawn closer and closer. Old Sven's hoarse, desperate shrieks echoed from within the lump.
“Don't celebrate too soon! You'll die very soon!”
“Is that so?” Lynch suddenly narrowed his eyes with a mocking smile. Uncaring whether the other could hear him, he drawled lazily, “Who gave you the confidence to assume that we really can't leave and are bound to fall into the Dreamlands?”
Boom.
Amid Lynch's taunts, the flesh tumor was sucked into the black hole. The portal closed immediately afterward, and everything returned to silence.
Rate on N.U.
