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Chapter 4224 Starry Sky and Inscriptions
Chapter 4224 Starry Sky and Inscriptions
A moment later, all five colors were blended.
Ingres carefully picked up his paintbrush and filled in the missing tones in the blank spaces of the oil painting.
First, add the deep indigo nebula to "Starry Sky," then fill "Forest" with the emerald green canopy, followed by the bright purple of the dark lightning missing from "Lighthouse," the off-white of the dolls lost from "Princess Castle," and the rich red missing from "Stained Window."
With each stroke, the color in the blank space blends perfectly with the surrounding image, and even the transition of light and shadow is so natural that it seems as if it were always there.
The last stroke stops at the missing corner of the "flower window".
When the missing corner was filled, all five paintings trembled simultaneously, and then slowly floated into the air in front of Ingres, using "Starry Night" as the door frame and the other four paintings as doorposts, finally forming a wooden door made of oil paintings.
Standing at the entrance, you can see a different space.
Inside is a huge, decaying tree, its shape resembling a decomposing, bone-like firework after its bloom.
Although it is a dead tree, the branches are not bare, but covered with withered flowers and leaves that are reluctant to leave.
From a distance, it looks as if it is still in its prime.
Only upon close inspection can one see its inner decay, like a once-glorious nobleman now fallen into poverty, yet still clinging to a facade of prosperity, managing the drama of life where people come and go, maintaining a false sense of dignity even in death.
This is the last hidden space.
Angell took a deep look, then turned and strode upstairs.
Now that the hidden space has been opened, it's time to face the Book Demon.
It's still the classic battle trigger process: approach the book demon and drag the angry black ball into the pure white space without saying a word.
Angell always entered the Book Demon's challenge space with anticipation.
Each time, the Book Demon will use a book as the core to compose the prelude to the battle.
For example, when a battle is triggered, if the Book Demon takes out the book "Mastery of Fire", then the Book Demon will continuously unleash violent flames during the battle.
For example, the book demon that Angor encountered before brought the "Summoning the Siren" book into the arena, and then it actually summoned a siren to fight against Angor.
This system of different books corresponding to different battles makes each battle between Angel and the Book Demon a new and exciting experience.
There is a beauty in strategic game theory combined with the dynamic changes of a roguelike game.
Under Angel's expectant gaze, the book demon summoned a thick-shelled book from the void this time.
When Angell saw the cover of that thick-covered book, he paused for a moment.
He was familiar with this book; he had once owned a copy, which he eventually gave to Gleipnir.
Its title is: The Book of Stars!
"If it's the Book of Stars, then is this book demon's battle related to the stars?" Angor's eyes flashed with suspicion. "Is it a Star Spirit Warlock? Or someone who manipulates the power of the stars? Or perhaps..."
While Angor was still speculating, a huge, peculiar butterfly appeared beside the book demon.
The reason this butterfly is considered "peculiar" is that it only resembles a butterfly in outline, but both its wings and body are completely black, covered with various star-like dots.
Looking at this butterfly is like gazing up at the starry sky above.
The moment this "Starry Night Butterfly" appeared, Angor finally understood the core of this book demon's fighting style.
Like the previous "Summoning Siren", it is a summoning type.
This time, however, the Book Demon cosplayed as a Celestial Warlock and used the Book of Stars as a medium to summon a... Star Descendant!
Yes, this starry butterfly is definitely a star descender.
A hint of emotion flashed in Angell's eyes. He always thought that the "fun" brought by the book demons might be coming to an end, but then a new book demon would bring new fun.
This is an extremely rare Star Descendant!
"If Gleipnir were here, this battle would probably last at least ten hours," Angor thought to himself. Gleipnir would definitely study any Star Descendants he encountered, and even if he could kill one instantly, he would hold back and drag it out until the battle had no choice but to end.
Although Angor wasn't as fanatical about the Star Descendants as Gleipnir, he was still very curious about this being he had never fought before.
Just like when facing the siren before, Angor gave her enough respect, allowing the siren to continuously unleash her abilities.
This time, Angell made the same choice.
Instead of launching a direct attack, he allowed the opposing Starry Butterfly to initiate the offensive.
Of course, Angor wasn't overconfident. He knew there were mechanic-based monsters here. He'd previously faced a Ghost Fang Orc; if he didn't follow the mechanics, the orc was immune to damage. Similarly, if this Starry Butterfly was also a mechanic-based monster, guaranteeing a hit on the first attack or an instant kill, he'd be doomed.
Therefore, Angor had prepared the Nightmare Realm power around himself in advance.
In the Dream Crystal Plains, especially in the "Dreamland" which is born from the power of the Nightmare Realm, no matter how strong the mechanism of the monsters it creates is, it is impossible to suppress the fundamental power of the Nightmare Realm.
This is a crushing defeat in terms of status.
Of course, if this monster releases high-frequency, high-energy shockwaves, there's a small chance it could break through the Nightmare Realm's power. After all, even the strongest Nightmare Realm power will eventually be consumed.
But if it's used up, Angel can always replenish it.
Therefore, regardless of whether the opponent is a monster with a specific mechanism, the power of the Nightmare Realm can at least guarantee that he will not be defeated inexplicably.
The Starry Butterfly made the first move, flying high into the sky, its body constantly overflowing with starlight, as if it were preparing some powerful attack.
It was also worried that Angell would launch a sneak attack, so it deliberately kept flashing and rising higher.
But Angell just watched silently.
The starry butterfly seemed to realize that it had been underestimated. The starlight on its body suddenly intensified, even dyeing the surrounding void a pale purple. The starlight swirled and shattered around it, like stardust blown away by the wind.
These stardust particles eventually transformed into countless tiny butterflies under the influence of an unknown force.
Yes, at first glance, the Starry Sky Butterfly seems to have given birth to tens of thousands of tiny butterflies in an instant, densely covering the top of the pure white space, turning the pure white background into a surging starry sky.
When Angell saw the dense swarm of tiny butterflies, he couldn't help but swallow hard.
Could it be that the prediction came true? A high-frequency, high-volume attack on the very first strike?
Seeing the astonishing starry sky, Angor quickly deployed another layer of Nightmare Realm power around himself. Although he had considered not waiting for the opponent to attack and seizing the initiative, the Starry Sky Butterfly's momentum was now unstoppable, and the opponent was faster than Angor.
As soon as Angel added a layer of Nightmare Realm power to his body, the seemingly endless little butterflies transformed into a surging galaxy, rushing straight towards him.
From Angell's perspective, it was like a thick cloud of drifting stardust, sweeping towards him relentlessly.
Initially, protected by the power of the Nightmare Realm, the little butterfly's attacks did not have much of an impact on him.
Despite the high frequency of attacks, the amount of Nightmare Realm power consumed is not much.
Angell could even carry this "starry sky" with him and move leisurely in the pure white space.
When the Starry Night Butterfly discovered that these minor attempts were ineffective against Angell, it flapped its wings again, stirring up a new storm.
This time, the little butterfly is no longer just playing around.
Instead, he attacked Angell's side and immediately self-destructed!
The moment it explodes, it will carry a surge of mutated energy. The core of this surge should be the power of the stars, which is of a high level.
The protection and energy consumption ratio of the Nightmare Realm Power is much, much stronger than that of ordinary elemental energy impact.
A single self-destruction can consume a hundred times the Nightmare Realm power of previous minor skirmishes.
"This increase rate is too high, isn't it?" Angor muttered to himself as he quickly replenished his Nightmare Realm power.
After countless self-destruction impacts, Angell finally withstood the attack.
They held on until the moment when all those countless little butterflies perished.
However, his face was noticeably paler than before.
It wasn't that the power of the Nightmare Realm was being consumed too much. — The existence of the green markings allowed him to draw upon the power of the Nightmare Realm almost infinitely.
However, controlling the power of the Nightmare Realm requires consuming mental energy.
When the little butterfly self-destructs with the power of the starry sky, Angel needs to constantly replenish the power of the Nightmare Realm and make precise deployments and controls.
Don't be fooled by the fact that it was just a few seconds of impact and self-destruction; Angell had deployed defenses over a hundred times.
This process consumes a significant amount of mental and computational energy.
“I underestimated the Star Descendants…” Angel murmured to himself. He thought he wasn’t being arrogant, but in reality, he was still somewhat conceited.
Fortunately, the power of the Nightmare Realm withstood the impact.
However, if this were the real world, the clash between the power of the Nightmare Realm and the power of the Starry Sky might not have resulted in a significant difference in their power levels.
At that point, he might actually get injured, or even be in mortal danger!
Thinking of this, Angell reminded himself again: he must never underestimate the situation again.
When faced with an unknown entity that we have never encountered before, no matter how small it may seem, we should have more awe and more caution.
He looked up at the Starry Butterfly in mid-air—the dense explosion of small butterflies had clearly exhausted most of its strength. Now, its wings were flapping more and more sluggishly, and even its hovering was swaying slightly, clearly indicating that it could no longer fly steadily.
But Angell did not hesitate in the slightest, nor did he dare to be presumptuous in the slightest.
Almost the instant he saw the other's condition, the white mist around him suddenly surged, and several phantom limbs shot out like silver lightning, without any superfluous movements, aiming straight for the Starry Sky Butterfly's vital points.
The speed was so fast that its trajectory was invisible. With a soft "hum", the white mist phantom limbs had firmly wrapped around the wings of the starry butterfly, imprisoning it in place without leaving it any room to struggle.
From the moment he made his move to the moment he subdued his opponent, it was all over in an instant, swift and decisive, giving the opponent no chance to catch their breath or retaliate.
As the Starry Butterfly's body was pierced, it dissipated into specks of starlight. The Book Demon hidden within the Starry Butterfly fell from the sky.
The moment it landed on the ground, the surrounding pure white space slowly disappeared, returning to the real view of the 30th floor of the glass tower.
The book demon, carrying its nearly broken body, flew slowly but resolutely downstairs.
Destination: Hidden Space.
……
Gray Porcelain stood guard by the rift, waiting for Angel's return while patiently trying to dissuade them in the team chat, presenting facts and demonstrating their capabilities, and analyzing evidence that they could not defeat the Abyss Demon.
Even with Gabriel's constant reminders, it was still not certain that it was an Abyss Demon God.
But Gray Porcelain always retorted: "Not being afraid to speculate on the worst possible outcome is the true essence of how I've survived until now."
Gabriel: So now you've become a coward and a timid coward.
"Gray Porcelain: But I also gained the talent of 'danger sense' because of it!"
Gabriel: Simply hiding isn't a solution; there are always dangers you can't avoid. Take, for example, the Puppet of Calamity.
"Gray Porcelain: If you can't avoid it, just lie down. I think I'm fine now. Even if my body dies in reality, I can still live here... So, I definitely can't die here."
"Gray Porcelain: I need to be more cautious than in reality to properly protect my second life."
Gabriel: But the problem is, you're not even dead yet, are you giving up on starting a second life so soon?
"Gray Porcelain: I can't solve the calamities of reality, so I can only see if everyone can save me. But I can control my life here, so I can only control the present version of myself."
Gray Porcelain explained his reasoning to Gabriel in a very serious and methodical manner.
Gabriel could hear the fallacy in it, but he didn't know how to refute it.
All I could do was silently say, "I give your twisted logic a score of 0 out of 1000!"
Gray Porcelain just hummed and ignored it.
Just then, Angel suddenly spoke up in the team chat: "I've got the last piece of wisdom."
"Rabbit Hole Commander: Any new information?"
"Angol: I'm pretty sure now that we've identified who we're going to seal away."
"Rabbit Hole Commander, Gray Porcelain, Gabriel: Who?"
Instead of giving an immediate answer, Angell posted his last piece of advice in the team chat channel.
—I copied the inscription to spread His true name when He came into the world.
Gray Porcelain and Gabriel studied the proverb for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out, their faces full of doubt.
The team chat channel remained silent for a while before the rabbit girl finally broke the silence: "Rewrite inscriptions...you don't mean inscription writing here, do you?"
"Gray Porcelain: Commander, what is Inscription?"
"Rabbit Hole Grand Master: Inscription is a transcendent discipline, much like rune magic. I remember inscription was once very popular in the Southern Region, but it was later banned by extremist sects who said that this knowledge would shake the purity of wizarding civilization..."
"Angol: Extremist sects do indeed ban inscription. Saying it shakes the wizarding civilization is a bit of an exaggeration; the main reason is that inscription can provide shelter for those who stow away from other worlds."
Generally speaking, when people who stow away to another world enter a new world, they are affected by the world's will, and their bodies become weak involuntarily, and they may even die from illness as a result.
This effect is known as—Otherworldly Invasion.
Jon is in this situation.
However, there is a way to mitigate the extent of otherworldly corruption: inscriptions.
The reason is actually quite simple: "Mingwenxue" has powerful backers.
For the world's will to not reject outsiders, there must be an equally powerful world as its backing. Inscription literature has such a backing, not only providing protection for its users but also enhancing its own status to a certain extent.
With the elevation of one's rank, the invasion from another world naturally disappears.
For extremist sects, otherworldly intruders are an absolute taboo. They firmly believe that these outsiders will disrupt world order and pollute the foundations of wizarding civilization. Therefore, inscriptions, which can weaken the otherworldly invasion and provide shelter for intruders, are naturally labeled as "heretical technology" and are completely banned along with related texts.
Even if knowledge itself is not wrong.
However, on the other hand, while knowledge itself is not wrong, the knowledge of inscription literature was actually "poisonous" from the very beginning.
The creation of inscription literature was not intended to help anyone.
He simply wanted to use this technology to sow his "mark" in countless other worlds: as long as someone learns and uses inscription, they will unconsciously become his "megaphone" and help him expand his influence.
Once He has accumulated enough influence, He can follow these "marks" to tear open the dimensional barriers and descend into worlds that do not belong to Him.
This knowledge, which was tainted with malice from the very beginning, originally had a much more straightforward name than it does now.
—Abyss Inscription Literature.
This was its original name.
Its creator was none other than the abyssal demon god known for plundering knowledge and spreading chaos—the Cruel Scholar!