"...Exactly how many clansmen have you... secretly bewitched?!"
Patriarch Thorne looked down at the black mist spreading through the valley like a plague. His voice trembled violently due to extreme anger and heartache, practically squeezing this question out from between his teeth.
The scene before him meant the clan's foundation was being corrupted and dismantled from within, bringing a biting chill far surpassing any external invasion.
Before his words faded, the staff in his hand flashed again, and a formless mental shockwave shot toward Valin, who was shrouded in the black mist, attempting to directly interfere with his will.
However, this spell, sufficient to cause an ordinary powerhouse's mind to collapse, failed to stir even the slightest ripple when it touched the churning black mist, being completely swallowed by that profound darkness once more.
"Even the mental magic most adept at penetrating defenses is useless..." Thorne's heart sank to the bottom, and his expression turned exceedingly ugly.
This black mist seemed to possess an absolute "insulating" property against all forms of magical energy, making this legendary mage feel a sense of helpless intractability and powerlessness for the second time in his life.
And the last time he felt this way was exactly when facing the Emissary of Death beside him.
"Patriarch Thorne, please step back for now and let me handle this."
At this time, a calm voice broke the stalemate. Castorice stepped forward slowly, no ripples in her purple eyes, as if the crisis sweeping the valley before her was nothing but ordinary scenery.
Thorne was slightly taken aback upon hearing the voice. A trace of struggle and reluctance flashed across his face, but he ultimately bowed and took a few steps back as told, yielding control. "...As you command, Lord Emissary." His voice carried suppressed heaviness. Guarding the clan was his bounden duty, yet at this moment, he had to rely on an external force, filling his heart with complex emotions.
Castorice nodded slightly, her gaze returning to the thickest mass of black mist.
"Your name is Valin, correct?" Her voice was clear and steady, devoid of any emotion. "You just declared that the power you obtained originates from the 'supreme mighty power' of that 'Nether Moon'." She said this while turning slightly and pointing to Crescent Lake below, which had just experienced a battle of gods. "Then, I am very curious, what exactly is the relationship between this 'Nether Moon' and the 'Eye of the Nether Moon' that was just destroyed?"
Valin, who had maintained a posture of silence and resistance, had his shrouding black mist visibly fluctuate when the revered name "Nether Moon" was mentioned again.
He raised his head. Those non-human eyes, completely occupied by blue light, pierced through the barrier of the black mist and stared dead at Castorice.
After listening to Castorice's question, a twisted and bizarre smile stretched across Valin's face, and a hoarse, distorted voice came from the black mist:
"Judging by the names alone, isn't the answer obvious? The 'Eye of the Nether Moon'... was originally a sub-entity derived from the extension of Lord 'Nether Moon's' power, a vessel and tool carrying a portion of its will."
He paused, his tone carrying an almost fanatical worship.
"You keep calling it an 'Evil God's Progeny'. Since there is a 'progeny', there naturally exists a 'mother body' that nurtured it, and the great Lord 'Nether Moon' is the origin that granted existence to the 'Eye of the Nether Moon'! Everything it is stems from Lord 'Nether Moon's' will!"
"I see. Then, I understand even less."
Castorice was unmoved by this truth. Instead, following his logic, she pointed out a sharp contradiction.
"According to you, your beloved Treya had her life devoured by the 'Eye of the Nether Moon', and the 'Eye of the Nether Moon' is completely controlled by the 'Nether Moon', serving as the executing tool of its will..."
Her tone remained flat, yet like a precise scalpel, it dissected the core paradox in Valin's behavioral logic.
"Doesn't this mean your true enemy has been the main body of the 'Nether Moon' all along, and not merely a manipulated tool?"
Speaking of this, a faint curve appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"Then, for you to go to such lengths now, even sacrificing yourself, to borrow the power of your true enemy to exact revenge on a 'tool'... Valin, don't you think this is a huge irony in itself? Are you avenging Treya, or are you becoming your enemy's accomplice, trampling upon the meaning of her sacrifice?"
However, facing Castorice's soul-piercing interrogation and merciless mockery, Valin not only showed no trace of anger or shame but instead let out an even deeper, twisted sneer. The laughter was full of paranoia and despair.
"Hehe... As a powerful and lofty Lord Emissary, how could you possibly understand the despair and struggles of small fries like us who lack any power?!"
The black mist violently churned with his emotions, becoming even thicker.
"To seek revenge, to tear apart this sickening fate! I can only grasp whatever is in front of me! Even if it's power from the abyss, even if it's taking a loan from a devil! As long as I can gain power, as long as I can destroy the 'entities' that took Treya away, whether it's the tool or the main body, I don't care about the cost! This is the only... ultimate rebellion we insignificant beings can make!"
As his words fell, the black mist around Valin, as well as Corvin and Elidur beside him, surged violently again! The intense darkness instantly swallowed the last trace of elven silhouettes, completely engulfing the three of them and melting them into that continuously expanding darkness.
Subsequently, Valin's completely dehumanized, blurred roar, mixed with countless static noises, came from the churning black mist:
"Furthermore... even without your sudden intervention, 'Lord Emissary', my plan was always to make them... all pay the price! Not a single one... will escape!"
After these final words resembling a declaration were spoken, a chain reaction began!
It wasn't just here at the center of the lake. In every corner of the entire Shadow-fold Valley, wherever black mist was rising, the same horrifying scene was playing out.
Those corrupted elves, regardless of what they were doing previously, now seemed to have their souls and flesh drawn out. Their forms rapidly blurred and disintegrated, ultimately completely turning into wisps of pure dark energy, shedding their physical forms, and ascending toward the sky in unison!
Boom—!!!!
The instant all the scattered black mist converged at a critical point high in the sky, a muffled explosion erupted from the core of that incredibly massive darkness!
After the loud explosion, that massive black mist blotting out the sky actually seemed as if it had been instantly erased by an eraser, disappearing without a trace!
The sky suddenly restored its "clarity".
However, this was no ordinary night sky. The afterglow of dusk had long been completely swallowed, replaced by a night as deep as ink.
In the firmament, there were only... two moons.
Thorne and the three elders beside him held their breath. Their gazes were firmly locked on that sky which had just undergone an earth-shattering anomaly, vigilant against any subsequent changes that might occur.
Time passed in deathly silence for a dozen seconds.
"How come... it seems... nothing happened?"
At this time, an elven elder, with an uncertain tone, cautiously broke the silence. His gaze swept back and forth across the night sky, trying to find a trace of abnormality.
"Yeah... I also... haven't detected any new energy fluctuations or physical entities appearing..."
Another elder hesitantly echoed, his face full of confusion and unease.
"No."
At this time, Patriarch Thorne's trembling voice suddenly sounded, instantly attracting everyone's attention.
This ancient elf, who had lived for ten thousand years, was currently staring dead at the sky, his gaze frozen on one of the two moons.
His body trembled slightly from extreme fear. The finger he pointed out carried an uncontrollable tremor, pointing in that direction.
At this moment, his voice was filled with indescribable horror:
"I saw it... I saw... one of the 'moons'... moved..."
He swallowed hard, his pupils rapidly contracting due to the terrifying scene reflected within them.
"It... it's 'looking'... over here at us."
The instant Thorne's horror-filled words slipped out of his mouth—
"Ahhhhhhh—!"
"Get away! Don't come near me! Don't come over!"
"Flee... flee quickly—!"
"Why... why can't we destroy it?!!"
"It hurts! My head... is splitting apart!!!"
"No! Save me, save me!!!"
Countless chaotic, piercing roars and ravings, full of extreme fear and pain, directly exploded in the depths of the minds of everyone looking up at the sky like a plague!
This was not a single voice, but a mental storm synthesized from the echoes of thousands upon thousands of tortured souls, enough to cause any sanity to collapse!
In the sky, that "moon" pointed out by Thorne seemed, from ordinary visual observation, to be no different from usual, still radiating a clear and cold glow.
However, the instant its "gaze" fell, casting that seemingly bright and clean "moonlight" onto Shadow-fold Valley, all living beings touched by this light, whether voluntarily or not, had a scene far more terrifying and real than reality forcibly branded into the depths of their consciousness.
The maddening true face of that "moon" after peeling away its disguise!
That was no celestial body at all!
That was a massive sphere forcefully aggregated from countless swollen, rotting, and constantly squirming grayish-white flesh and blood!
The details that had previously been blurred by the brain's self-protection mechanisms were now presented incredibly clearly in everyone's "field of vision":
Those depressions called "craters" were actually unimaginably huge and continuously festering, pus-oozing sores. A dark yellow fluid, a mixture of viscous, pungent sulfur and corpse putrefaction, flowed slowly like asphalt;
And those flat areas called "lunar maria" had turned into a translucent layer, like a membrane of biological internal organs. Beneath it, countless thick and deformed blood vessels and nerve bundles flashing with dark purple filthy light could be clearly seen twisted and entangled together, beating like a giant, sickly heart.
Even more spine-chilling was that on the "surface" of this massive ball of flesh, there were also countless minuscule, blurry protrusions continuously squirming and struggling!
Those were half-melted humanoid silhouettes forcefully embedded within the "surface" of the ball of flesh! They looked like insects sealed in amber, appearing as if they had been sewn alive into this grayish-white flesh and blood. Their twisted limbs scratched in vain at the grayish-white fleshy walls imprisoning them. On their blurry faces, their mouths were silently stretched to the limit, frozen in eternal pain, fear, and despair.
They were the soul dregs finally assimilated after being captured by this eerie "moonlight" in the past, becoming ever-lasting decorations on the surface of this terrifying entity.
And the areas originally seen as "dark spots" on the moon now also revealed their horrifying true nature—
Those were its "eyes".
But this was absolutely no eye structure comprehensible to any known life form. There were no pupils, no irises, not even reflections, only an area of "nothingness" devouring all light and hope, an area of cold, dead silence, as if connecting to the abyss at the end of the universe.
And at the edge of this all-devouring nothingness were countless overlapping, rotating fleshy valves covered in densely packed, jagged black fangs!
They continuously opened, closed, and rotated like some sort of living mouthparts. Every opening and closing would directly trigger a silent shriek reaching the deepest part of consciousness on the soul level of all observers, a sound like countless souls being simultaneously thrown into a millstone to be ground and torn apart!
Just "perceiving" this shriek was enough to instantly and completely destroy many fragile minds!
"Ugh, ahhh—!!"
As one of the few entities who had looked directly at the true face of the "moon" before the warning was issued, Patriarch Thorne bore the brunt of it.
The instant that "moon" turned its gaze this way, an indescribable tearing agony fiercely pierced through his head!
He let out a painful muffled groan, both hands tightly clutching his head. Unable to maintain his standing posture any longer, his knees went weak, and he collapsed heavily into the enchanting sea of flowers with a "thud".
Deities cannot be looked at directly! Especially such an evil god filled with malice and distortion!
Just this one look brought an incredibly tragic backlash. Two shocking trails of bloody tears, mixed with some kind of almost physical mental power fragments, gushed out from his violently trembling eye sockets and slid down his aged cheeks.
His mind suffered an unprecedented heavy blow. In his field of vision, only that continuously squirming grayish-white ball of flesh emitting ultimate filth remained, flashing madly.
Amidst this extreme pain where he could hardly save himself, Thorne's remaining rationality and sense of responsibility made him suddenly remember something.
Using the last of his strength, he roared at the three elders beside him:
"No—!!! Close your eyes!!! Don't... don't look at that moon anymore!! Close your eyes quickly—!!!"
His voice was hoarse and distorted due to severe pain, filled with a desperate warning.
However, his warning was ultimately too late.
Among the three elders, two had already cast their gazes toward that terrifying sky earlier, back when the "moon" looked over.
The instant that "moon" completely "gazed" over, they similarly saw that horrifying scene enough to reduce sanity to zero!
"Gasp... gasp..."
One elder's body collapsed limply as if all his bones had been pulled out. His eyes instantly lost all luster, becoming completely hollow.
He slumped among the flowers, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably splitting open as he let out bizarre laughter of unknown meaning. Saliva mixed with white foam flowed from his mouth. Clearly, his mind had been instantly and completely destroyed by that silent shriek and indescribable horror, plunging into mental madness.
And the other elder didn't even manage to make a sound. The instant the visual and mental impact arrived, his eyeballs bulged outward violently, covered in bloodshot veins. Then, his body violently spasmed a few times before completely losing consciousness, fainting on the ground, his fate unknown.
Just a glimpse from the starry sky, and the high-end combat power of the Moon-marked Clan was almost completely wiped out.