Chapter 778: The Quill of Fate, Writing the Future

"Quick!"

Lynn struggled, blood vessels crawling through his eyes like cracks in dry earth, his teeth clenched so hard his jaw ached. Every shred of flesh across his body began convulsing uncontrollably within the rumbling black storm, transforming without his consent, bubbling like boiling water, while a sledgehammer seemed to pound relentlessly against his skull.

And as his sanity plummeted at terrifying speed, the protective measures of the Colossus's Heart finally activated.

Thump—

It wasn't until his heart began beating again like a war drum that he managed to barely suppress the violent madness.

"It's already... too late..."

And at last.

Inside that small room in the Abnormal Creature Center.

An aged parchment slowly unfurled across the table, and that quill gently dipped into the inkwell, absorbing a droplet of blood-red ink before settling onto the scroll that already bore so many lines of writing.

【The Holy Archangel should have been able to suppress the resurgence of that evil personality, but the visit of a certain Jailer ultimately spelled failure. The evil personality once again seized control of her primary consciousness, and decided to bestow a grand gift upon those victorious ones who had returned.】

【The quill unconsciously recorded that event due to the fluctuations of the curse, but whether the record came before the event or the event came before the record, even the quill herself finds it difficult to say, for she remembers nothing.】

【But things did not develop in the direction the evil personality had envisioned.】

【Because she reveled in the thrill of control, she did not activate the Magic Circle immediately, and this not only gave that mysterious human youth an opportunity, but also allowed her primary personality to fuse a strand of power into the struggle against her, a power that might change the entire course of events.】

The quill gazed absentmindedly at the ink that seemed, not long ago, still wet.

She turned to the next page of the scroll.

And then she began to write.

【And so, at the moment the Magic Circle activated, that strand of power finally fulfilled its purpose.】

...

And almost at that very same moment.

In the underground hall, that angel seeming to hail from the abyss gazed down upon them, her breathtakingly beautiful yet ice-cold face dripping with mockery and derision, while dense chains blocked the silver-haired girl's attacks.

She extended her hand, pale as exposed bone, and said softly:

"Alright, it has already begun. Now let us witness this conclusion together. I'm certain you'll absolutely adore the gift I've prepared for you, and from this day forward, Nightfall City will become a city of complete madness."

"You may kill them, but if your hearts cannot bear to strike them down, then under my command, they will spread their madness even further throughout all of hell."

"And the Night Doctors will become history."

Her pitch-black pupils brimmed with icy coldness.

And in that very instant.

Viscous, pitch-black hellish fluctuations erupted from within her body, and that violent surge of power actually linked in resonance with the ritual Magic Circle. In the blink of an eye, it blasted the Godweaver Head, who had been desperately restraining the ritual formation, clean off and sent her flying.

Under their trembling gazes, a beam of pitch-black light shot up from that Fallen Angel, piercing through the earth and the High Tower, stabbing straight into the heavens.

And the activation of the Magic Circle.

It was actually causing her power to skyrocket at an unimaginable rate!

Not only was she transforming every living creature in the entire city into her maddened servants, but she was also using the formation as a conduit to devour their life force and replenish herself!

"Stop her!"

At this moment.

The Godweaver Head's expression twisted ferociously, and she finally abandoned all pretense of suppressing the formation. Together with the Colossus's Brain, she launched a full-power assault against that Fallen Angel.

But with the surge in power brought by the activation of the formation, the Fallen Angel slowly raised her hand. Her fingers twitched slightly, and countless chains burst forth from the ground with a deafening clatter, forming thorny curtains of iron before them.

"Useless. You cannot kill me, and even if you somehow managed to suppress me, the ritual would not end. From the very beginning, you should have understood that everything you do is nothing but—"

But it was precisely at this moment.

Hum—

A barely perceptible golden glimmer seemed to flash through her mocking eyes, and her outstretched hand instantly froze mid-air.

And even within that pitch-black ritual Magic Circle, at several crucial nodes, faint golden threads began to emerge simultaneously, weak yet tenacious.

"Th-this... what is this..."

【That evil personality finally realized the problem. She finally discovered that during the period when she believed she had suppressed the primary consciousness and was inscribing this terrifying formation, the primary consciousness had also left her own traces upon the most crucial nodes of the formation.】

【And a purely corrupted formation cannot tolerate any impurity, especially at the vital core points. Even the contamination of a single speck of dust could potentially cause fatal errors in the formation's operation.】

At the quiet desk, the quill wrote those lines of blood-writing as if no one else existed in the world.

【And very unfortunately, yet also quite coincidentally, that strand of power truly seemed to have fulfilled its purpose, introducing a single imperfection into the formation at the moment of its full eruption.】

And in the underground hall.

The Godweaver Head, who was extremely sensitive to fluctuations in magical energy, also instantly detected that faint, barely perceptible holy fluctuation within the formation at that very moment.

The malice in her eyes transformed into sheer shock in an instant.

"This is—Older Sister—"

She immediately realized what had happened.

And Sir Aiwen, whose mastery of magic circles was extraordinarily profound, also caught that unusual trace at the same moment and instantly discerned the fatal breakthrough point that the formation had just exposed.

"There's a residue of the Matriarch's power inside this ritual Magic Circle?!"

His entire body trembled.

This sudden change made him see hope almost instantly. As a sage of magical formations, he naturally understood perfectly well that if impure power were mixed into the most critical core nodes during the construction of a formation, it would prove fatal to the formation's overall operation.

And the moment he sensed that aura, he understood everything.

The fluctuation of that holy power was proof that the Matriarch's consciousness had imposed her own influence upon the inscription of this formation during her struggle against that personality!

"Godweaver Head! Quick! Do exactly as I say, use your power to attack the nodes I mark! The power the Matriarch left inside will become our breakthrough! Hurry!"

Sir Aiwen gritted his teeth.

Without a moment's hesitation, amidst the surging psychic energy, he immediately launched into full-scale calculations.

No matter what kind of formation it was, as long as it had even the slightest flaw, as long as they could seize upon it, that flaw would become the single crucial straw that brought down the entire formation!

The situation shifted abruptly.

The Godweaver Head immediately redirected her target, coordinating fully with Sir Aiwen. Without any hesitation, following his instructions, she used her voodoo to launch strikes against several nodes of the formation.

"Impossible!"

That Fallen Angel suddenly snapped back to attention, her lips trembling as she sensed the holy points of light gradually emerging within the ritual Magic Circle.

"I already conducted a comprehensive inspection, and her consciousness was suppressed by me. When could she have—"

But this sudden upheaval left her no time to dwell on it.

She abruptly raised her head.

Murderous intent blazed within her eyes.

"But it doesn't matter! Even at this stage, you won't stop my plan!"

In an instant, she thrust out her hand, and powerful hellish fluctuations burst forth. She wanted to forcibly trigger the entire formation through sheer accumulation of power.

So what if a strand of that angel's power had infiltrated it?

When the floodwaters break through the dam, even if unexpected flaws appear in certain details, they have no effect on the bigger picture.

"Activate!"

Her ice-cold voice, carried by the hellish power, reverberated throughout the entire hall.

【The Fallen Angel had also noticed that slight imperfection, but she paid it no mind. She intended to rely on her dominant position and overwhelming power to forcibly detonate the formation. Under normal circumstances, she could absolutely accomplish this, for she had inherited the memories and knowledge of the Holy Archangel, and her understanding of magic far surpassed most Roots in this hell.】

【But perhaps because she was too deeply invested, she seemed to have forgotten that pouring all her power into driving the formation would inevitably weaken her suppression of the primary consciousness within her body.】

The quill set down her stroke gently.

【And so, at this critical juncture.】

【The Holy Archangel gained an opportunity to reclaim control of her body, and she took it.】