Chapter 268 (2): Yellow Robe x Tentacles

Wayne’s eyes widened in shock, marveling at how disturbingly creepy the figure looked. If not for his mental fortitude, he would’ve kowtowed twice to his father-in-law.

Objectively speaking, the yellow robe and tentacles did sort of demand some kowtowing[1].

Boom!

The lead priest raised their arm. Three tentacles lashed out with tremendous invisible force, shaking Wayne and making him see stars. He nearly fell from mid-air.

The pure psychic impact held absolute power, alarming Wayne. Ember-like particles ignited around his body, condensing into a greatsword of fire elements. Firelight gathered from all directions. The sweltering air made the monsters cry out repeatedly, clearing a large space in the courtyard in an instant.

Wearing knight armor, Vera stood on the ground, occasionally teleporting to avoid the tentacles reaching out from underground. She looked at the lead priest in confusion. Although she sensed the Sun Knight’s power, it wasn’t as strong as before. It was so weak that it seemed false to her.

Vera posed her question telepathically. Wayne gave his theory: Cushing’s mind and body had both changed, so it made sense that he wouldn’t be able to properly use the knight’s power. Moreover, he seemed to have lost his memory.

“This isn’t the time to hesitate. I’ll deal with him. You and Valkyrie are faster, so you should handle the surrounding monsters. Watch out for their psychic power...”

Halfway through his sentence, Wayne stepped on air and charged out, swinging the fire greatsword to smash through layers of mental barriers, landing above the altar throne. At close range, the lead priest stood over four meters tall, with terrifying psychic power that materialized to envelope their entire body. Their presence was threatening.

Flutter!

A tentacle rolled over, wrapping around Wayne.

“Oh my, I’m caught!”

In an instant, dozens of tentacles swarmed up and grabbed onto him from all sides, rapidly contracting to drag him into the lead priest’s body.

The yellow robe fluttered. Everything quieted down.

=͟͟͞͞=͟͟͞͞(ŐдŐ|||)

Oh no, Wayne was eaten by her father!

Vera had just cut down a swath of monsters with her greatsword. Her face paled when she saw Wayne disappear. Just as she was going to rush over to save him, she heard Wayne speak through their telepathic chat.

“The plan is going smoothly. I’ve infiltrated the enemy’s camp...”

“The two of you, leave first. Don’t let the Golden City swallow you. I’ll be right there.”

Wayne’s transmission was spotty, confusing Vera. It was her first time seeing this method of infiltration. Objectively speaking, didn’t he just get swallowed?

Valkyrie hesitated before grabbing Vera’s hands to raise the knightly sword high. Brilliant light bloomed at the center of the Golden City.

Boom!

A devastating golden pillar of light rose from the ground, the intense light scorching the air as it surged up to pierce the clouds and drove down to penetrate the black nest. With the knight as the center, radiance spread across the ground, drawing an ornate and complex pattern of the sun. Wherever the light passed, intense heat waves incinerated everything, burning the swarms of monsters to ash.

Nonstop screams pierced through the air. The sonic boom shook Vera’s armored body. She blanched, blood streaking down from her nostrils. It felt as if a heavy hammer had struck her head. An indescribable fatigue overtook her body, compelling her to collapse and sleep.

She shouted lowly, her eyes glowing with golden light. Her body was like a small sun. Thanks to the armor’s buff adding fuel to her fire, she pushed her faith magic’s power to its limit.

Flames bloomed at the Golden City’s center, the blazing fire ravaging the nest and making it shake and convulse. The Venus flytrap was closing up dramatically faster!

At the same time, the lead priest raised their arm, their yellow robe fluttering despite the lack of wind. Gathering the psychic power of all thirty thousand monsters, they launched a precise attack at Vera.

Rumble!!

Psychic power isolated the space, blocking all of Vera’s escape routes. Not only was she pinned in place, but the intense flames were also locked down. Time seemed to have stopped. The flames froze, and wisps of fire were suspended in the air.

Crackle!

As the lead priest’s tentacles tightened, the space around Vera’s location exploded like a mirror. The small sun fell apart, the armor shattered, and Vera’s body broke into pieces as well.

Swoosh!

Golden light particles scattered before reassembling above the courtyard. Vera looked down at the lead priest with lingering fear, gripping her knightly sword for another use of her ultimate move.

“The Golden City is alive. This isn’t a good place for combat. Let’s get out of here first.”

Valkyrie grabbed Vera’s hands and guided her to transform into sunlight to rush out of the nest’s range. Looking at the slowly closing Venus flytrap, Vera said anxiously, “Teacher, is Wayne really alright?”

“He should be fine. His body and thoughts are unusual...”

Valkyrie didn’t know how to describe it, but she had been shocked by his eerie form when she first met him. While he looked strange, his potential was undeniable. He had stubbornly endured an ancient god’s indiscriminate attack.

If even an ancient god couldn’t influence Wayne, the priest definitely couldn’t.

Rumble!

The nest transformed into a solid sphere of flesh over a kilometer in diameter. Eight thick black tentacles extended to prop up the nest as feet, lifting the massive black tumor off the mountains. Above the sphere, a black crack opened, revealing a twisted humanoid face. From what should be its mouth and eye sockets, hundreds of tentacles reached out.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The nest strode, waving its tentacles to unleash its psychic power, blasting Vera into fragments of golden light once more like a blunt weapon. Valkyrie didn’t strike back. After reassembling, she opted for kiting the nest and leading it away from the black mountains toward the distant plains.

The earth crumbled. The giant black monster moved on its tentacles, dripping viscous fluids along the way. Sweeping cold winds blew and spread the nauseating stench.

***

“Where am I?”

It was pitch black around Wayne. He saw nothing but wriggling black rotten flesh, babbling incomprehensible nonsense he could not decipher.

Monsters differed from each other. The nest’s words of wisdom sounded like nothing but noise to Wayne.

No emotional connection ≠ Refusing physical contact.

Wayne merged with the

Book of Greed

, growing to three meters tall. A massive single eye opened on his chest. With a shout, he interrupted the whispers and took over the floor, beginning to preach his truth instead.

Although he was speaking nonsense as well, since his voice was louder, suppressing the surrounding sounds, black rotten flesh turned white wherever his tentacles passed, the whiteness spreading rapidly like a virus.

The nest struggled violently. Black undercurrents surged within it as it screamed to expel the mutated parts of its body. The overreaction only accelerated the spread of the virus. White foam ravaged the nest, infecting and devouring it in large patches.

In the center, Wayne searched for the lead priest, trying to flush them out through viral infection.

With pure combat power, Wayne would have trouble taking down the priest’s mental barrier without borrowing the power of a chosen knight. But in a battle of bizarreness, he would confidently pound his chest and declare that his style was stranger than the priest’s.

Two minutes later, a quarter of the nest had fallen. At the Golden City’s core, the priest had no choice but to come forward and negotiate with Wayne.

One black tentacle reached his white tentacle. They intertwined to exchange information.

You’re one of us. This is a misunderstanding. How about we call it off?

Who’s one of you? Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re worthy?

Leave and don’t intervene with Thoggua’s awakening, or you’ll never get out of here.

Hand over the Sun Knight’s power and your body, or the entire Golden City will become like me.

The two monsters’ conversation followed no logical throughline. One moment, they were comparing seniority, trying to establish their hierarchy; the next moment, they started hurling threats and insults at each other.

While negotiating with his opponent, Wayne increased his output. He noticed that the more territory he occupied, the faster his corruption spread. He guessed that the Golden City and the monsters living in the city had a symbiotic relationship. By weakening one, the other side’s power would weaken accordingly.

In that case, there was no point in negotiating. He could just devour everything.

The lead priest’s psychic power rapidly weakened. Initially, they had left Wayne helpless and forced Valkyrie to run away, but now, they were helpless against him. The massive black sphere lay prostrate, its eight thick tentacles limp and powerless.

Moreover, the priest’s voice gradually fell silent as if they were dying. They agreed to hand over the Sun Knight’s power and the human body they inhabited. In exchange, Wayne had to leave and set the nest free.

If Wayne refused, the human body would be destroyed, and the Sun Knight’s power would sink into the black mountains with it.

“Deal!”

“...”

“Don’t worry. I’m known for my credibility. Just ask around. I would never lie to you.” Wayne once again pushed his corruption to spread faster.

Left with no choice, the lead priest handed over the body.

At the intersection of the black and white sides, a mass of black flesh was spat out. Wayne sent his tentacles to catch it. Thankfully, he had completed his mission and saved Vera’s father.

The black monster looked no different from Knight, which didn’t seem strange to Wayne. Outside of the lead priest, all monsters in the Golden City looked like this. He had a way to help him return to his original form, only his body would be slightly flawed after the surgery.

It wouldn’t be a big problem. Cushing’s survival was more important. Wayne believed that Vera would forgive him.

Wayne raised his hand and inserted it into the monster’s body, corrupting its evolution path and reversing it to return the monster to its human form. A brand new body thus appeared.

Long legs, slim waist, curves fully exposed—a dark elf with long black hair hovered in the white foam quietly.

(一`´≖;)

Vera, what’s the deal with your dad? You didn’t say that he was a dark-skinned hot girl.

No, this is a dark-skinned hot woman!

1. Likely a reference to Hastur, also known as The King in Yellow, an entity in Cthulhu Mythos. ☜