Chapter 687: The Secret of the Relic
The relic was a piece of transparent carmine crystal—a spindle shape, similar to the magic core in the maze ruins but far smaller, barely half a man’s height.
When Elena stepped into the chamber, it shifted. Its smooth spherical surface resolved into sharp right angles; seen from above, it resembled a quarter sphere. Like the magic core, it floated unsupported in the air.
She stood before it with confusion and something close to irritation at the deities who had made it.
According to Pasha, no one knew how the relic had entered the world—only that from the moment it arrived, it had been bound to human fate. If humanity lost it, everyone would die in an instant: witches and common people alike. To protect it, countless lives had poured out across countless battlefields. And through all of it, the deities had offered nothing—no guidance, no instruction. Only silence, as they watched and waited to see who would be left standing at the end.
Elena found the whole thing disgusting.
“Are you ready?” Zoe asked. “Remember what Pasha told us: control your mind. Never attempt to connect with the deities when moving the relic.”
Elena nodded. “I remember. I’ll count to three—we move it together?”
Zoe gestured: yes.
“One. Two. Three.”
They lifted the relic and moved outward. It floated, but floating was not weightless—the moment she took it in her arms, Elena felt an exhaustion she hadn’t felt in this body before, a bone-deep heaviness pressing through every borrowed muscle.
Pasha had warned her about this feeling. Without that warning, she might have thought some long-forgotten sense was returning to her after all these centuries. The sensation of fatigue was entirely mental.
The relic was attempting to connect.
Elena shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. Then she remembered: don’t empty your mind. An empty mind was a doorway. She needed something to fill the space.
A voice entered her mind, distinct and sourceless: What you want is sensation. Comfort. Joy. Pain. Cold. Heat. I can give them to you. Relax. Look at me.
Elena’s eyes went wide. Who was speaking? Was that the relic?
She turned to look at Zoe—and found her eyes empty. A shell. Whatever had been Zoe was no longer behind those eyes.
The voice came again: Don’t be alarmed. She is only following her own heart. She has integrated with me.
“Let her out!”
I can’t. You must enter to bring her out.
For a moment Elena couldn’t tell whether she was hearing the relic or some piece of herself she didn’t recognize.
Pasha’s warning flickered across her mind: Never attempt to connect with the deities.
But she could not simply stand and watch Zoe disappear. A shell without a soul died. She had to pull Zoe free.
She drew a breath and turned her eyes on the carmine crystal.
It distorted. Darkness folded around her. When she could see again, she was somewhere else entirely.
An impossibly vast hall. The dome overhead displayed a starry sky, and at its center hung a Bloody Moon—magic power flowing across its surface like boiling lava. Four enormous paintings hung around her, reaching floor to ceiling.
She had only heard of this place from Pasha. To stand inside it was something else entirely.
“Zoe!” Her voice echoed and died. No answer.
Only the paintings.
She forced herself to look at them.
The moment she did, they looked back.
In the first: a demon in fine armor rising from a throne, pupils burning red, moving toward her step by step.
In the second: a vast eye filled with pupils arranged in triangular clusters inside the eyeball, all opening at once like mouths about to swallow.
Don’t panic, she told herself. Moving pictures. Nothing more.
She lost her composure two seconds later.
Six or seven black tentacles erupted from the paintings—each tipped with a small hand—and seized her before she could react. The tentacles from each painting pulled in opposite directions, neither side willing to yield the prize to the other. Suspended between them, she felt herself being torn apart. The pain was genuine and absolute.
Wait… I can feel pain?
She looked at herself and found she had changed back. Her own witch’s body had returned.
So this is how it ends. At least I won’t die in an empty shell. Her consciousness began to recede as the pain climbed past bearing.
Just before the darkness came, she noticed something in the third painting—the one she hadn’t been able to look at clearly. Her God’s Punishment Warrior shell lay on the ground, limbs twitching. Zoe was there, gripping the shell’s legs, dragging it toward a trapdoor.
The hall collapsed.
The Bloody Moon, the paintings, the tentacles, the pain—all of it vanished at once. She blinked and found herself back in the library.
“Was that a dream?”
Zoe gripped her arm and spoke through clenched teeth. “What dream? You disappointed me. Pasha told you clearly—never try to connect with the deities. I reminded you before we moved the relic.”
“I saw you lose your mind—”
“I saw you get swallowed by the relic. It was nothing but an illusion the deities created. If I hadn’t pulled you out, you would have stayed inside forever.”
Elena thought about the tentacles. The demon. The eye made of eyes. It had not felt like an illusion. The things in those paintings had noticed her—had seen her—the instant she’d looked. Pasha had never personally experienced the relic’s interior, so she couldn’t have known to warn about those things. But whatever Elena had experienced, it was not simply a dream.
Betty broke in before anyone could continue. “I don’t mean to interrupt—but what do we do next?”
Zoe released Elena and looked around at the group. “Someone else will have to help me carry the relic out. The Prayer Room has been breached. We need to get it into the God’s Stone box as quickly as possible. Otherwise the demonic beasts will track us down through the underground caves.”
Chapter 687: The Secret of the Relic
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
The relic was a piece of transparent carmine crystal. Similar to the magic core in the maze ruins, it was also a spindle apparatus, but it was much smaller, only half a man’s height.
When Elena stepped into the chamber, however, it looked different. Its smooth spherical surface changed into a sharp right angle. From above, it seemed to be a quarter a sphere.
It stayed afloat by itself in the air as the magic core did, which proved it was uncommon.
“Is this the thing that determines the fate of the mankind?” Elena thought.
She was filled with doubts and at the same time felt a little irritated about the deities.
According to Pasha, no one knew how it had appeared in this world, but the moment it had come, it had been bound to the fate of human beings. If the mankind loses it, all people including witches and the common people would die in an instant. In order to protect the relic, countless people had fought bloody battles against demons and died on the battlefield. Seeing the suffering of the mankind, deities, however, had never given people any instruction. They just kept watching what was happening in silence, waiting for the ultimate winner.
Elena felt disgusted at this game.
At this moment, Zooey asked her, “are you ready? Remember what Pasha said to us? Control our minds and never try to connect with the deities when moving the relic.”
Elena replied with a nod, “don’t worry. I remember. I’ll count to three and then we’ll move it together?”
Zooey gestured a “yes”.
“One, two, three.” They lifted the relic while moving outward. It could float in the air, but was not as light as a feather. With a strong body of a God’s Punishment Warrior, Elena still felt it very heavy on her arm when she lifted it. It was exhausting.
If Pasha had never told her the truth about this feeling, she would have been thinking that it’s her senses long time forgotten coming back to her after hundreds of years.
This “sense of fatigue” was mental.
The relic attempted to connect with them.
Elena shook her head, trying to banish those thoughts, but suddenly she remembered that she should not empty her mind. Given that, she thought she had better think about something during this process.
What should I think now? A man… or tasty food… or a soft bed?
A voice got into her mind all of a sudden. “What you want is feelings, comfort, happiness, pains, coldness, hotness, and so on. I can give them to you. Relax and look at me…”
“What to look at? No, no!” Elena’s eyes widened in surprise. “Who’s talking? Is it the relic?”
She turned to look at Zooey and found her eyes dull. Now she seemed like an empty shell without a soul.
“Damn it, what’s going on? Pasha didn’t tell us that something like this would happen!” Elena thought anxiously.
The voice in her head started again. “Don’t worry, she just follows her own heart and integrates into me.”
‘Let her out!”
“I can’t. You must come in to take her out…” The voice in her head started to change, from a raucous sound to a soft female voice. For a moment, she could not tell whether she was communicating with the relic or with herself.
“Get in to take her out?”
At this moment, Pasha’s warning flashed across her mind.
“Never try to connect with the deities.”
But she could not just stand by seeing Zooey lose her mind. A shell without a soul would die soon. Given that, she decided to pull Zooey out of the relic first.
“I just need to look at the relic?” she wondered.
She took a deep breath and then looked at the carmine crystal.
She saw it distorting, and then darkness possessed her. When she started to see things again, she found she was in a totally different world.
It was an incredibly lofty and spacious hall. Its dome was the scene of a starry sky with a Bloody Moon in it. She could see magic power flowing on the surface of the Bloody Moon like boiling lava, and then four giant paintings silently draped and surrounded her.
The hall, the Bloody Moon and the paintings filled her with awe beyond description. She had only heard about this world from Pasha. This was the first time for her to witness such an unbelievable scene.
“Zooey! Where are you?” she shouted.
But no one answered.
The paintings were the only things in the hall now.
She forced herself to calm down and look at the paintings.
Immediately after she cast a glance at them, she felt her back was covered with cold sweats, as she found they were looking back at her at the same time.
In the first painting, she saw a demon wearing fine armors stood up from its throne. Its pupils were giving out dreadful red light, and it was moving toward her step by step.
In the second painting, she saw a giant eye, in which there were many pupils arraying in a triangle shape in the eyeball. They opened at the same time like giant mouths that were going to devour people up.
She could not help moving backward, but she still encouraged herself in silence, “don’t panic. They are just moving pictures.”
However, she lost her composure in just a few seconds.
All of a sudden, six or seven black tentacles which had small hands at the end poked out from those two paintings, trying to grab her.
Too frightened to react, she was caught by them.
Each group of tentacles tried their best to pull her into their own painting, not wanting to give her to the other group as if she were a rare trophy. Hung between the two painting, she felt she was going to be torn apart. The unbearable pain made her scream.
Wait… I feel the pain?
At this moment, she was shocked to find her appearance had changed back to a witch again.
So the last feeling I get before death is the pain of being torn apart. That’s alright… at least, I won’t die in an empty shell, in a God’s Punishment Warrior’s body. Her consciousness slowly escaped her as the pain increased.
Before she blacked out, she found something strange in another painting.
She saw that the God’s Punishment Warrior shell she had was lying on the ground with twitching limbs, and Zooey was holding her legs and dragging her toward a trap door.
She wondered, “what’s going on? Didn’t that silly girl merge with the relic?”
Right at the moment, the hall collapsed instantly. The Bloody Moon, the paintings, the tentacles and her pain all disappeared in a sudden. She blinked her eyes and found she was in the library again.
“Is that a… dream?” she murmured.
Zooey gnashed her teeth and said, “what dream? You really disappointed me. Remember what Pasha told you? Never try to connect with the deities! I reminded you before we moved the relic!”
“But I saw you lose your mind…”
Zooey interrupted impatiently, “and I saw you being swallowed by the relic. It was nothing but an illusion created by the deities! If I didn’t pull you out, you would stay inside forever.”
Thinking of the powerful tentacles, the demon and the giant eye in the paintings, Elena found it hard to believe they were just illusions. She still felt uncertain. Since Pasha had never personally experienced the relic, it was reasonable that she had not reminded her of those illusions. However, based on what she had experienced just now in the relic, it was not an illusion at all, as the things in the painting had noticed her the moment she had glanced at them.
Betty interrupted, “sorry, I don’t mean to butt in, but what should we do next?”
Zooey glanced at Elena again and said, “someone else need to come here to help me move the relic out. The Prayer Room has been broken in. We’ve got to put the relic into the God’s Stone box as soon as possible, otherwise, those demonic beasts will follow us to the underground caves.”