Free Web NovelChapter 27: Chapter 27: Twisted Realm
Lloyd had experienced the specific effects of this new skill firsthand—nine times in a row, in fact.
And each time, the sights he saw, the whispers he heard, and the temperature and atmosphere he felt against his skin grew clearer and more real than the last.
Lloyd couldn’t help but recall the last time he had encountered a foul ritual.
It had happened over two hours ago, inside a warehouse at a freight train station in the West City District. The moment Lloyd walked in, he felt as if he had been plunged into a bloody Purgatory.
He saw that the ground beneath his feet was covered in heaps of skeletons and severed limbs, all of them warped by some strange force into indescribable, grotesque shapes. They stretched on endlessly to the very edge of his vision, like tangled threads weaving together a massive tapestry.
Standing amidst it all, Lloyd felt like a tiny drop of ink, unable to grasp the full picture.
Beneath the skeletons and severed limbs lay a Wilderness soaked crimson with blood. It was like a landscape built of flesh and organs. Stepping on it felt soft and sticky, and it seemed to be alive, slowly writhing and churning, causing the entire scene before him to constantly Twist and shift.
At the far end of this scene, at what seemed like the edge of the world, stood something dark and massive. It was shrouded in a viscous blackness, soaring into the clouds and connecting heaven and earth. It looked like a majestic tower against the night sky, or perhaps a sublime monument in the darkness.
Lloyd couldn’t make out its full form, either. Maybe it was too dark, maybe it was too far away, or maybe he simply couldn’t see it clearly...
The low, fragmented whispers in his ears had now become a high-pitched, resonant hymn, repeating the same few words in a strange rhythm and tone:
"Fall... into the Abyss..."
"Touch... the truth..."
"Embrace... madness..."
"Revel... in chaos..."
"Face... Chaos..."
Immersed in these sights, sounds, and sensations, Lloyd didn’t dare waste a second. While the stabbing pain in his head hadn’t yet affected his Thoughts and Rationality, he quickly struck several matches and tossed them around him.
With a series of sharp CRACKLES, a strange pattern of scorch marks appeared at his feet.
Lloyd had no time to examine it closely. He quickly reached out and touched it. The black lines came to life, burrowing into his back like threadworms. He then circulated his Spiritual Power to flush them out, and a notification finally sounded in his ear:
[Ding! Madness Value +500, Skill Fragment +1]
[Sufficient skill fragments acquired. Skill unlocked: Twisted Realm, LV2]
Only then did Lloyd’s senses gradually return to normal, finding himself back in the ordinary freight warehouse.
From a distance, a milky-sounding cry could be heard:
"Meow, meow, meow!"
Then, the little kitten wriggled toward him like an adorable inchworm.
The little guy hadn’t even followed Lloyd inside, hiding outside the warehouse the whole time.
Lloyd didn’t blame it, though. The situation this time was truly dangerous. When he had performed the final Divination earlier, the matchstick had danced around like a noodle, creating an indescribably bizarre feeling.
Even for an optimist like Lloyd, there was no way to interpret such an Omen positively, so he had made extra preparations before walking in.
"Good, the situation is still under control... but it’s time for us to go home."
Lloyd said to the kitten, tucking it into his pocket and preparing to head home.
He didn’t know if there was a tenth, an eleventh, or even more of these foul rituals out there, but this was clearly beyond his Ability Domain.
Dealing with this ninth one had already been fraught with peril. He’d just have to leave the rest for the anonymous letter to handle.
That was Lloyd’s experience from two hours ago. He had written it all down clearly in the anonymous letter. ’Surely that will get the Saint’s Grace Court’s attention, right?’
"I still have five points to allocate. Might as well use them now."
Lloyd muttered to himself, called up his panel, and was immediately caught in a dilemma.
From the previous two times he allocated points, his Rationality, Spiritual Power, and Cognition had all reached 35, but his Inspiration was still only at 30. According to his original plan, these five points should go to Inspiration to maintain the aesthetic of a well-rounded build.
But after careful consideration, Lloyd decided to put all five points into Rationality instead.
[Ding! Points allocated.]
[User: Lloyd]
[Status: Normal]
[Madness Value: 266/1500, Limit: 4000]
[Rationality: 40]
[Spiritual Power: 35]
[Inspiration: 30]
[Cognition: 35]
[Path: Twist LV1]
[Mastered Skills: High-Efficient Learning; Probe; Divination LV3; Dizziness Resistance LV3; Precise Dissection LV3; Twisted Realm LV2]
’Ahem, this absolutely doesn’t mean I’m a coward. As a passionate young man dedicated to justice, I will never compromise in the face of danger! And it’s not that I’ve given up on my well-rounded, healthy build. It’s just that... my Inspiration is sufficient for now. I should invest my Attribute points where they’re needed most...’
Lloyd rationalized to himself, then looked again at the skills he had mastered.
Among them, [Twisted Realm] looked completely out of place listed next to the other normal skills...
It wasn’t a formatting issue. The two words themselves were written in a crooked, distorted script.
It wasn’t just here; the skill description and the more detailed knowledge in his mind were also in this same crooked script. It was as if he were looking at them through a curtain of water. If he stared for too long, they would seem to writhe ceaselessly, as if they were alive and might leap out to bite him at any moment.
In any case, just looking at these descriptions made Lloyd, this passionate young man of justice, feel like he was straying further and further down the path of a Villain. It was no longer a matter of accidentally going astray; he was now deep in treacherous territory...
As for the skill’s more specific applications, they were standard Villain abilities.
One use was to activate the skill, continuously consuming Spiritual Power to create a domain of [Twist] around himself. Anyone within it would have their senses, Rationality, and Cognition distorted.
The other was to set up a foul ritual. This required numerous Spiritual Objects and various materials, one of which was particularly eye-catching—
The blood of a mother cat that has just given birth...
Lloyd didn’t understand the specific principles at work or why such a cruel ingredient was necessary, but he could guess why the little kitten had been so insistent on staying on top of that crate and refusing to leave.
’In any case, I’ll probably never use this second function. I probably won’t use the first one, either.’
’It’s said that power itself is neither good nor evil; it all depends on the user and their purpose. But how could I explain that to anyone and make them believe me?’
’Everyone, listen to my explanation!’
’We don’t need to play by the rules with a heretic like you! Everyone, get him!’
’Explaining things... is really hard...’
Lloyd shook his head helplessly, his gaze finally falling on the 266 [Madness Value] points he had accumulated.
’Speaking of which, I heard the whispers and felt the headache earlier, so why didn’t I gain any [Madness Value] in small, 1-point increments?’
’Could it be that this foul ritual only distorts one’s senses and doesn’t cause Spiritual Contamination?’
This discovery made Lloyd feel that his ’Villain aura’ had diminished quite a bit.
