Chapter 271

Chapter 271

Aaaaaaaaah—

The mirror is screaming.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The mirror falls silent.

Though he didn’t lie to mislead, the act of shouting out the name seemed to have vented all of Hui Cui’s emotions, and he calmed down.

He dragged over a chair, sat down at the table, and undid the clasp to remove his helmet.

As soon as he took off the helmet, he shook his head, but the steamy, wet snow-white hair still stuck messily to his forehead and nape.

Between the wet strands, his finally unrestrained ear wings sprang open, revealing a faint red through the gaps in the feathers.

After returning from the dome, although Hui Cui had changed clothes and performed a simple purification, he hadn’t had much time to tidy up his appearance.

The crimson of the blood sea not only stained his ear wing feathers but also his short hair and cheeks, making the Dover Birdman look more menacing than ever. Leaning forward, he placed his hand on the helmet and stared at the Mirror Church, saying:

"Lin, you should understand better than I do that there's no time to waste."

The Mirror Church remained silent, and Hui Cui continued: "Or do you think the Pillar Gods can easily deal with your fall?"

After these words, the Mirror Church finally made a slight sound.

This church was essentially just a mirrored cube, with an eye pattern drawn by Neko at the top and the word "church" spelled out.

After the mirror stand-ins suddenly gained consciousness, to facilitate easier communication, Luo Qiao removed the front mirror, turning the church into an open box. The mirrors containing the other two stand-ins were placed in the middle.

Now, one mirror emitted a "gurgle," followed quickly by another.

The stand-in created during the battle against the Mushroom King, lagging behind the others, couldn't "gurgle" but instead poked its head out from the gap between the mirrors, cautiously looking at Hui Cui.

Hui Cui, who hadn't expected to see such a small Lin, twitched his eyes and heard this Lin weakly ask, "...Are you hurt?"

"Thank you for your concern, it's nothing serious," Hui Cui replied stiffly, not waiting for Lin to speak before moving on to the next topic, "Can you explain your current situation, Your Highness?"

It's over, thought this Lin.

It's over, thought the other two Lins.

Their identities seemed to be thoroughly exposed. One Lin was raging in impotence, one was observing Hui Cui, and one was humbly explaining their current existence.

"An avatar-type spell?" Hui Cui observed him, trying not to be distracted by the palm-sized Lin, and said, "But you look more like a clone."

"That's right," Lin crawled out from the gap, sitting cross-legged, his eyes shifting, "There must have been some problem with the original that led to this result. In any case... I don't know what happened."

"Do you also not know how many times you've lied to me?" Hui Cui asked expressionlessly.

This Lin fell silent, and another Lin emerged, awkwardly asking, "Well, we've given our explanation, Hui Cui... Can you tell us what's going on now?"

The third Lin followed closely, asking, "I heard Bai Li and Tadansa are fine, what about the others? Like, Teacher Moses, and..."

And Snow Claws. After their three-way discussion, they felt Snow Claws was in the most danger.

Lin wanted to ask but gradually fell silent under Hui Cui's gaze.

The situation seemed very serious, and they exchanged glances.

Perhaps, this would be the last peaceful conversation they would have with Hui Cui?

No, no, if Bai Li, Tadansa, and Grandma Luo Qiao haven't been immediately cleansed, it means there's still hope!

He doesn't want to break up! He doesn't believe the original would fall to such a degree. What happened?!

Their eye contact quickly became intense until Hui Cui coughed and asked, "Can't you use magic now?"

With the power of the Eye in the Mirror, as long as they could see Hui Cui, they shouldn't need him to explain things verbally.

"Can't..."

"We're just stand-ins."

"In concept, we're a save point, but in reality, we don't possess the original's powers or authority." The last Lin explained, "The mystical connection between the mirror stand-ins and the original has been severed. In this situation, even if we were shattered to trigger the save point effect, I doubt it would reach the original."

Save point effect? Hui Cui was trying to understand the new term when he suddenly noticed that the three Lins in the Mirror Church were all pressed against the mirrors, looking at him pitifully.

Hui Cui: "..."

Knowing what they were begging for, Hui Cui said, "I don't know what to say to you."

The three Lins were almost in tears, and Hui Cui, fearing they might misunderstand him as heartless, explained, "I don't know what exactly happened that caused your fall. If I tell you now, will you, as stand-ins, fall in the same way?"

"Hiss..."

"Ah."

"It's not impossible."

The three Lins looked at each other, and the last surviving Lin said, "Previously, Grandma Luo Qiao used a stand-in to cleanse her own pollution, so we might have a similar cleansing effect on the original."

The first surviving Lin continued, "But to cleanse the pollution, we, as stand-ins, must first ensure we are not polluted."

Lin Dao, preserved before contact with the ancient human remains: "Your concern is valid... but I've already survived the ordeal of the ancient human remains, and my parents' deaths... I've almost accepted them. What could suddenly make me fall so helplessly? I don't understand."

This Lin seemed a bit lost, "The ratio of my believers to professionals is quite high, and you're here too. Even the Fallen Heaven, which can corrupt gods! Even the Fallen Heaven... what did it do?"

What did the Fallen Heaven do?

Hui Cui recalled the supposed ashes of Lin's mother, which were still outside Spire City.

They should have been sealed by a professional Bellringing Frost Crow, but Hui Cui had forgotten to deal with it while in Spire City.

"..." His tone softened, he asked, "'Baba,' what does that mean?"

"Huh?" The three Lins were puzzled together.

"Before your fall, you shouted this word into an empty space," Hui Cui said, "What does it mean?"

"Oh." Lin clenched his fists, "It means 'father.' But even if the Fallen Heaven desecrated my father's remains... sigh, even if He did that, my reaction should have been anger, not falling."

"You were merging with the authority of desire at the time," Hui Cui, whose anger burned as fiercely as Lin's, changed the subject, "You told me that the dome above the dome is not a dome, but the sky."

Sky, Hui Cui repeated the word, which came from the word for "vast," combined with the latter part of the Fallen Heaven's name.

From the perspective of Common language grammar, it means the vast sky.

"There were colorful and brilliant light points flying up into the sky," it was very beautiful, even Hui Cui had to admit this amidst a hint of fear, "Then you explained that they were—"

He stopped there.

The anxious Lin, eager to know more, didn't understand why he stopped and pressed, "What were they?"

"..." Hui Cui frowned, realizing something was wrong, "Didn't you say it? Yes, you said something, and I heard it, but I can't remember... Right, the light points?"

Lin was confused.

"The light points flying up into the sky," another him said, "Could they be fireflies?"

"No, no, no." The other two disagreed, one saying, "If they are described as brilliant, they must be ■■!"

A string of incomprehensible sounds rolled past their ears.

"Eh?" Lin repeated, "■■?"

Still, the sound couldn't penetrate his mind.

The three Lins fell silent, and after a few seconds, one of them screamed, "Wait, wait, wait, what's going on here!"

"Why can't we say ■■?" He was shocked, "Not only can't we say it, but it also sounds strange."

"Calm down," the third Lin, who was also a bit panicked, said, "We've encountered this before. Some rituals use 'toxic knowledge,' which has a similar effect. We can say it in Common, like 'stars' or 'star.'"

This time, Hui Cui finally understood.

The first word, distant tiny light points.

The second word, the suffix of the pattern noun for a star with several points.

How did these two completely unrelated words get connected in Lin's mouth? Hui Cui struggled to think, even though it caused him a headache.

He wanted to follow and understand, so he said, "The 'stars' you mentioned seem to be projections of your desire authority in reality."

"Ah, that makes sense," Lin said.

"True to form," Lin agreed, "A fitting image."

"So what's the problem with ■■?" Lin was troubled.

As soon as he finished speaking, the three Lins suddenly felt their church shaking.

Amidst screams of "Be careful, it's going to break!" Hui Cui jumped up, holding the church in one arm and raising a gun with the other.

The spatial lock suddenly lifted! An outside teleporter pushed open the door and shouted, "Apostle! Enemy attack!"

"Go protect the civilians," Hui Cui said, rushing out of the room and following the bright light emitted by the Hunter's spell, looking down the corridor.

He saw clouds of smoke, pink and red at the center, white, green, or blue at the edges, surging into the corridor, engulfing the Hunters.

The Hunters emitted an extremely strong light within the smoke, the intense glow that occurs when purifying magic strongly resists corruption!

Even a Fiend practitioner wouldn't cause such strong pollution. Was it a Fiend, or some kind of evil deity's avatar?

Guns appeared behind Hui Cui, their muzzles pointed forward, emitting contradictory scriptures that illuminated this end of the corridor.

Countless magical bullets were ready to fire, but then Lin shouted, "Wait!"

For a believer of contradictory twins, how could they stop just because an evil deity shouted not to attack another evil deity?

But the one shouting "wait" was Lin, the current Lin—was he still trustworthy?

Hui Cui, torn by conflicting thoughts, barely stopped his actions. At this moment, he noticed that although the Hunters' purifying power was clashing with the approaching smoke, the smoke itself wasn't doing anything, allowing the Hunters to attack and swords to slice through it.

...It really doesn't seem to be something that just wants to kill, Hui Cui's face tensed as he watched the smoke approach.

A voice, like a non-human murmur, echoed from the smoke.

"You called me..."

The indistinct words, barely audible, continued, "I heard, and now someone else is calling me... calling my true name."

"Who are you?" Lin inside the Mirror Church asked.

"I?" the smoke said, "I am the embers of ■■, I am the dust of ■■, but now, everyone calls me the Nameless."