Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 356: Falling from the High Tower Once Again

Boom! Boom!

The previously serene illusion of peaceful times suddenly turned catastrophic. The sky erupted in thunder and torrential rain, the ground spewed lava, and monstrous sea creatures emerged from the ocean.

But this time, it wasn’t the Fiend bringing about a mental apocalypse.

This time, it was the secret guard who initiated the natural disaster!

“You seem to know a lot of information that Princess Lise Deya shouldn’t be aware of,” said the secret guard, standing amidst the storm and flipping open the Gospel Book. “But if you think these words can shake my resolve, you’re gravely underestimating a secret guard.”

“I only need to confirm two things: 1) You are not Princess Lise Deya, but a spirit deceiving and beguiling the princess; 2) I must kill you to escape this illusion.”

“Submit to the judgment of the Gospel. To eliminate phantoms like you who threaten the princess, I will pray for the harshest Gospel.”

Amidst the cataclysmic chaos, the sacred and solemn Gospel rang out clearly. Even as the overture to an execution, it granted the condemned a sense of despair without incongruity.

First came eight dark bolts of lightning, akin to black serpents. This was the Divine Intervention known as Orochi’s Teeth, which once pierced through hell, leaving eternal, unhealable scars. To this day, hell still echoes with the venomous hiss of these thunderous snakes.

Orochi’s Teeth instantly obliterated the Black Witch, but the secret guard had no intention of stopping there. The Gospel Book in her hand glowed with iridescent light, and the storm suddenly transformed into a golden downpour, converging on the Black Witch’s location to form a river of gilded rain that pierced the heavens and earth!

Divine Intervention: Golden Time Flow!

The Omniscient Weaver could summon a Golden Flow from the Time Continent, using time to destroy all tangible life in the world. Even spirits could not withstand the decay of time!

The secret guard turned to another page in the Gospel Book and suddenly moved thousands of miles into the sky. She gazed as a colossal meteor broke through the clouds, shaking the air and crashing into the ground!

Divine Intervention: Starfall!

Though it was an apocalyptic miracle of the Dark God from an exotic land, it was perfectly suited for this execution!

Then, a tsunami engulfed the continent, with countless frenzied waves forming a massive whirlpool. Within it, one could vaguely see the ocean transforming into two immense serpents, chasing and entwining each other, mercilessly crushing the continent and obliterating life!

Divine Intervention: Whirlpool Twin Serpents!

This was a Divine Intervention borrowed by the Omniscient Weaver from ancient history. It is said that the whirlpools and undercurrents in the present-day Sea of Knowledge are merely aftershocks caused by the ancient Whirlpool Twin Serpents!

From the murky depths of the sea suddenly erupted towering flames, forming a vast inferno fortress. Within this fortress, boiling lava heated the ocean, with scorching air currents spreading, hot enough to burn lungs—a terrifying scene akin to hell’s descent!

Divine Intervention: One Hundred Million Malevolent Spirits’ Molten Iron Hell!

This was a punitive Divine Intervention created by the Omniscient Weaver, capturing a fragment of hell’s landscape. With temperatures capable of melting steel, unbearable even for the dead, all emotions and thoughts would be vaporized, leaving only the purest knowledge and memories!

As the Molten Iron Hell gradually shrank and disappeared, the secret guard slowly closed the Gospel Book.

The clouds gathered around her, forming a majestic and sacred palace in the sky. She stood on the alabaster floor, overlooking the distant embers, as if gazing down from heaven upon hell.

In the Mental Illusions, Divine Interventions could destroy all tangible things but could not extinguish the intangible heart.

Just as Ashe’s ‘Fiend’s Intimidation’ created apocalyptic scenes to intimidate targets, the secret guard could only use Divine Interventions to torment the target, thereby stifling their mental light.

In the Mental Illusions, giving up was the only true failure.

However, the fear, pain, and torment brought by the Divine Interventions were not mitigated in the slightest. Merely witnessing them from a safe distance, the secret guard was herself shocked and terrified by the Divine Interventions she had prayed for. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the excruciating pain and the sheer despair the spirit, who faced the Divine Interventions directly, must have endured.

Theoretically, under such intense bombardment of Divine Interventions, the spirit should have collapsed and perished within a second. Yet…

She still hadn’t escaped the illusion.

“Pain…”

From the burning embers came a chilling, sorrowful female voice: “It really hurts…”

The secret guard’s body trembled slightly, making it difficult even to hold the Gospel Book steady. She quickly flipped open the Gospel Book, causing a meteor shower to rain down from the sky, saturating the ashes below!

From the burning rubble emerged a fragile humanoid figure made of black smoke. With each light step she took, the black smoke began to solidify into bones; with the second step, flesh sprouts appeared on the bones; with the third step, exposed nerves grew; by the fourth step…

Eight dark thunderous serpents had already descended.

Then came the Golden Flow, thunderstorm, Starfall, vacuum distortion, black coffin corrosion, molten iron hell, nerve chaos… several, dozens, even hundreds of Divine Interventions capable of destroying cities and nations stacked on each other. However, their impact was as dull and flavorless as this straightforward description, instilling neither fear in the condemned nor reassurance in the adjudicator.

Useless.

Useless!

Useless!!

Now, the entire Mental Illusions had been ravaged into hell by Divine Interventions. The light here could melt all tangible things, the air would corrode all material bodies, fingernails would escape in the chaos, and neurons would rebel and harm their originals.

If not for the “Heavenly Palace” protecting her, the secret guard would be tormented to death by the ubiquitous curses in just a second of exposure to the outside air. Her body would spontaneously disintegrate.

Such despair would make any living being willingly give up struggling!

So she couldn’t understand at all why that spirit hadn’t given up by now, why it was still moving forward!

Whoosh!—

Surpassing countless Divine Interventions, as the shadow finally stepped onto the alabaster floor, bones first solidified, then blood and flesh grew, and nerves wove together until the figure resumed the form of the Black Witch.

The mere sight of this grotesque regeneration was enough to shatter most people’s mental defenses.

The secret guard stared blankly at the woman who had emerged from hell, her legs giving way and collapsing to the ground.

No armor could protect her frailty.

No great paradise could conceal her insignificance.

Her fighting spirit had long been crushed under the Black Witch’s advancing steps.

She murmured, “What exactly are you? How can you endure so much pain? Why won’t you give up?”

“The questions you’re asking, I actually want to know too.”

The Black Witch looked down at her own hands. “Unlike me now, she was only a year and a half old at that time, hadn’t experienced betrayal or setbacks, hadn’t seen disaster or death. She was like a flower in a greenhouse, only using her mouth to harden her resolve. Apart from a facade of strength, inside she was just an anxious young girl.”

“My heart is much stronger than hers. The pain she has to endure would be a thousand times greater for me; the torment I’ve gone through is just a trivial moment for her.”

“How did she crawl out of hell and drag you into the Abyss?”

The secret guard stared blankly at the Black Witch. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay. I’m not talking to you.”

The Black Witch’s lips curled into a smile as she walked over and squatted in front of the secret guard.

“Aunt, can you tell me why, even though I am your niece, you show me no mercy at all?”

“I…” The secret guard’s dazed expression showed a hint of conflict. “I just…”

The secret guard stammered for a long time without saying a word, but the Black Witch seemed very patient, not rushing at all. She reached out to touch her aunt’s head, holding the Black Knight in her arms, comforting her like a sister would.

The secret guard gradually relaxed, softening in the Black Witch’s embrace, her voice barely audible. “I… because I hate Lise Deya.”

“Why do you hate her?”

“Because she is the Empress’s chosen heir… she is the future Yisuo Empress… the future Mortal God, Gospel Incarnation, the Omniscient Weaver’s worldly avatar.”

The secret guard murmured, “Clearly, I am exactly like Lise Deya, even better than her… but why is she so fortunate, while I can only hide in armor, living as a nameless secret guard, forever detached from happiness?”

“I want to wear dresses, I want to fall in love, I want to be loved… What did I do wrong to deserve nothing?”

“I hate Lise Deya, I’m jealous of Lise Deya, I hate myself for not being Lise Deya… so, so I…”

Hearing the sobs in her arms, the Black Witch gently stroked her aunt’s hair, whispering softly, “I understand, I understand it all. I know what it feels like to want something so badly but never get it.”

“So, I hope you can understand me too.”

The secret guard stared blankly at the Black Witch, who cupped her face and wiped away her tears with her thumb. “Someone once told me that ‘making up for regrets’ is actually just ‘self-consolation.’ I understand that even if I seek revenge here, it won’t lessen that person’s pain one bit.”

“But I’ve always wondered, if it hadn’t been the Scarlet Dead Apostles who died that day, but me, would everything be different? So, I’m not here to make up for regrets, nor for revenge, but to…”

“Make a different choice.”

Whoosh!

Four murky black wings unfolded behind the Black Witch. The secret guard, held in the Black Witch’s arms, watched in indescribable shock.

Four Wings… a spirit?

“Thank you, Aunt.”

The Black Witch held the Black Knight tightly as the Heavenly Palace began to collapse, and they both fell into the burning world.

“You’ve granted my wish.”

“Ahhhhhh!”

The Black Knight suddenly let out a roar, and a shockwave burst forth, sending Ashe flying into the wall.

With a groan, he cast a ‘Joy Sword’ on himself, ready to continue fighting, but saw the Black Knight clutching his head, rolling on the ground, screaming hysterically.

Ashe immediately thought of his ‘Fiend Trench Coat’ and breathed a sigh of relief. “Hmph, anyone who dares look at me ends up like this!”

Deya was also a bit bewildered. Could the Weaving Festival’s reward really be so powerful that even a Royal Family’s secret guard couldn’t withstand it?

At that moment, the ceiling near the window suddenly collapsed, creating a small opening. Igor’s dust- and blood-covered hand reached out from it, shouting, “Get up here! The secret guard has a Miracle blessing that absorbs all damage. You can’t kill her, run!”

Damn, an invincibility blessing? How are we supposed to fight that? Ashe immediately rushed towards the hole, signaling Deya to hurry up.

“Ugh… ahhh…”

The secret guard felt her once-light armor now become unbearably heavy. The stomach acid she retched up collected inside her helmet, burning her face. She felt like every bone in her body was decaying, every nerve twisting, every blood vessel reversing flow. The immense pain from deep within her soul permeated her entire being, even affecting the reality around her.

She vaguely saw the princess running towards a man, her jam-like consciousness squeezing out a sliver of remaining clarity.

Four-winged Spirit, Lise Deya, Yisuo Royal Family, Gospel Incarnation, jealousy, dissatisfaction, yearning, loneliness, Weaving Festival… The chaotic thoughts and emotions made her soul swell and bloat until she recalled a conversation before setting out:

“If an unforeseen event occurs that even the Gospel can’t foresee, and the princess is about to fall into someone else’s hands forever…”

“Then she will no longer be the princess.”

The secret guard shakily raised her right hand, and the Gospel Book appeared loyally before her.

“For the…” The secret guard didn’t even notice she was speaking out loud. This was her first spoken word in reality in over a decade: “Gospel.”

As the secret guard pressed her hand onto the Gospel Book, her consciousness plunged into an endless abyss of pain.

Deya, running towards Ashe, suddenly lost her balance.

She missed her step.

The ground beneath her crumbled into the finest dust, layer after layer below it disintegrating like ancient tomb relics, turning the Senhaeser Building into a gaping hole allowing the night to flood in.

Ashe, having grabbed Igor’s hand just in time, didn’t fall. He saw Deya’s misstep and immediately turned the Honey Sword around, grasping the blade tightly with his palm, extending the hilt towards her, hoping she could grab it.

Deya gritted her teeth and reached out. Never had she hated her own smallness more than at that moment.

However.

However.

It wasn’t even a matter of regret. No matter how much strength Deya mustered, no matter how much she wished her arm would dislocate, her fingertips were still over a meter away from the hilt.

The only thing that crossed between them was their gaze, and then she fell into the embrace of the night.

She fell from the high building once again.

But this time, there was no Bronze Dragon watching over her.