Chapter 229: Chapter 229

Silent Church, Moonlight Observance Hall.

Looking at the guests whose expressions varied greatly, Sister Greta—who had just hurried over—was similarly puzzled in her heart, yet still maintained a calm demeanor on the surface, appearing very serious.

She was already aware that Her Goddess was in poor condition.

Otherwise, there would be no need to rush so much in finding a new vessel for the Divine Descent.

Even so, she absolutely refused to believe that, under the eyes of the gods in a place like Glostein, Her Goddess would encounter a crisis related to the demons.

Right now, the more important thing was to maintain the confidence of the guests and believers present, so as to prevent a chain reaction.

A single misstep could lead to a serious public relations crisis.

「Please remain calm, everyone.」 With that thought in mind, Sister Greta spoke loudly, 「The Goddess’s consciousness is about to descend. As for the mysterious omen you have witnessed, once the Moonlight Scripture concludes, Her Holiness the Saintess will personally step forward to address your concerns.」

Hearing these words from the sister, the guests in the viewing stands looked at each other in confusion.

No matter how one looked at it, the demonic shadow obscuring the moon above was real. The overwhelming malice emanating from it sent chills down their spines.

As eternal enemies, the word “demon” was like a forbidden zone in their eyes.

And now, upon the once sacred and noble moon appeared this ominous sign—

They could not help but overthink.

Meanwhile, those clergy members from other churches who had come for the ceremony, including the Church of Providence and the Fertility Church, exchanged furtive glances and whispered among themselves, as though they had seized an excellent opportunity.

Sensing the subtle unrest among the crowd, Sister Greta frowned.

Damn it.

She cursed inwardly.

Although she did not know what was happening inside the Rift of the Divine Moon, there had never been any mistake in countless previous Moonlight Scriptures. Why was there suddenly an accident this time?

She did not need to think twice: it had to be related to the filthy consciousness parasitizing the Goddess’s vessel.

At that thought, she took a deep breath.

Yet before Sister Greta could say anything more, a sudden change disrupted her intended plan.

Boom—!!!

Like the collapse of heaven and earth, a violent rumble came from deep underground, sweeping through the entire Silent Church like a storm.

It was as if humanity, still in a primitive and unenlightened era, was facing an apocalyptic calamity. In an instant, collective panic erupted.

The ground shook, bodies trembled, and cracks like spiderwebs appeared on the surfaces of buildings before they collapsed with a thunderous roar.

An earthquake?

No—it was far more terrifying than that!!!

And it wasn’t just in the Silent Church and the nearby city districts; when recalling this night afterward, the entire Glostein would be filled with lingering fear. People would use the word “doomsday” to describe the terror they felt at that moment.

Within the crowd, Yveste noticed that the puppy in Eleanor’s arms was showing unprecedented anxiety, even faintly exuding an evil aura. Suddenly realizing something, her expression changed dramatically, and she instinctively stood up.

Lynn?

Where…where are you now?!

Realizing that her puppy might be facing an unprecedented crisis, her heart could not help but grow flustered.

No matter how cold she appeared outwardly, the intense and twisted feelings she harbored for Lynn would never be extinguished.

「Woof!」

At that moment, the puppy in Eleanor’s arms barked, then broke free from her embrace and darted into the panicked crowd.

「Lynne! Where are you going?!」

In a panic, Eleanor rose to chase after it.

However, her action was halted by Yveste.

「Afia, take her away from here.」

Her Highness the Princess slowly stood up, gazing sternly at the spot where the puppy had disappeared.

Suddenly, she felt some kind of spiritual intuition welling up in her heart.

That intuition told her that if she followed that little dog all the way, she might find where Lynn was.

---

Could humans ever achieve boundless power?

Certainly not.

After all, “boundless” is but an illusory descriptor.

Yet under the boost of his core trait, Lynn still made such a wish.

He dared to do so because he had grasped the rules of the Wishing Jar.

After all, even a Level 0 Sealed Artifact cannot endlessly fulfill human wishes.

Or, to put it another way, most desires—like “unlimited wealth,” “eternal life,” or “becoming the most beautiful person in the world”—are impossible to realize.

Take “eternal life” for instance: not even gods can achieve that.

However, when the Wishing Jar was first created, it was given a fundamental directive that said: “No matter what the wish is, it must be fulfilled.”

Because human greed is infinite, but the capacity to contain that greed is limited.

For example, the ancient emperor who once wished for “eternal life” was turned into a writhing mass of flesh with an extended lifespan by the Wishing Jar.

Although it still wasn’t true eternal life, that didn’t mean it was impossible. It was simply that his human body was far too fragile.

In other words, if the wisher asks for something outside the rules or utterly unattainable, the Wishing Jar won’t refuse—it will manifest the wish in the most distorted way as a “prank.”

Hence, at the peak of his fury, Lynn wished upon the core trait within him for “unlimited strength.”

At the same time, the core trait responded to his plea, transforming the part of Lynn’s body wrapped in black mire into a grotesque form. At that moment, his power indeed surged dramatically.

And he truly threw that punch.

His tattered demon wings, blotting out the sky, gently flapped as Lynn maintained his airborne stance. He gazed at the fractured spatial turbulence before him and the utterly twisted, surreal scene that looked like a scrambled egg.

Because the Rift of the Divine Moon functioned as a passage connecting the Silent Church and the Silver Moon Divine Kingdom—a sort of buffer zone between illusion and reality—it possessed attributes of both.

And now it had been struck by Lynn’s most extreme brute force, resulting in this chaotic spectacle.

A single glance revealed an indented and distorted land, where the once-brilliant moonlight aura had dimmed significantly, seemingly no longer able to maintain the Goddess’s humanoid form.

It hung quietly in midair, flickering weakly, as though gravely wounded.

「Heh…ha…」

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Lynn’s forehead as he panted heavily.

At this very moment, the extreme emptiness inside his body made him unsteady, almost unable to remain aloft.

A glance showed that the monstrous, tumor-like giant right arm, which had inflated in an instant under the core trait’s influence—

Was now completely gone without a trace.

Not only his right arm, but even the half of Lynn’s body that had been wrapped in black mire seemed to have been blown to ashes by the cataclysmic impact that could have destroyed an entire city.

Fortunately, with the slow writhing of the black mire, the missing parts of his body continued to regenerate.

By all rights, given his Second-Level Ability, he should have died after sustaining such severe damage.

Perhaps, after integrating the Wishing Jar into the core trait, he had already fully mutated into a monster, no longer related to humanity at all.

This is the price for using the Wishing Jar.

Under the circumstances back then, he had only two choices.

The first was to allow his right arm to keep swelling and deforming, until the core trait fulfilled the wish in the most twisted manner.

The second was to release the power accumulating in his right arm. However, with the fragility of a human body, there was absolutely no way to endure the terrifying recoil of that power.

At the critical moment, Lynn once again entered Fate Puppeteer Mode, transferring part of the damage to the slime that had already merged with the black mire on his body, barely managing to stay alive.

Even so, the power that the core trait could lend him was not endless.

Each passing moment he wielded that strength, the residue of the Creation Demon’s power devoured and transformed his body at a horrifying rate.

The black mire squirming on his skin was the clearest proof.

Initially covering only “half his body,” it gradually spread over Lynn’s entire form.

Such is the horror of a high-dimensional demon.

Even if Yuwelia’s consciousness had already been obliterated by the End Witch, the power itself would not vanish.

Once Lynn was fully transformed, the Creation Demon would be reborn in a brand-new form.

Sensing Lynn’s condition, the Silver Moon Goddess had tried to distance herself from him earlier. Facing such a crazed, self-destructive entity, all she needed to do was stall for time, and he would destroy himself.

The young demon gently flapped his mangled wings as he slowly descended. Meanwhile, his missing right half was gradually restored to its original appearance by the black mire.

Nevertheless, Lynn’s current form still exuded madness and distortion, enough to send chills through anyone watching.

If not for the fact that the left half of his face still retained a human appearance, no one would be able to tell him apart from an evil god.

In the distance, the Goddess’s consciousness seemed stunned by that punch. It hovered silently in the air—

And showed no further reaction.

Seeing this, Lynn, surprisingly, did not press his advantage. He merely cast a cold glance in that direction before slowly turning around.

He had intentionally protected the area where Tiya was, so she had not suffered any harm from that violent shock.

At this moment, the girl who had been lying on the ground just moments before was struggling with all her might to rise.

But for a consciousness that was on the verge of dissipating, merely moving her body at will was already the limit.

Her soul had been left in tatters by the torture of the Realm of Pain and by Beatrice’s deliberate persecution.

From Lynn’s sudden appearance to the dramatic twists and turns that followed, everything far exceeded the girl’s expectations.

His presence was like a beam of light, piercing through the despair and darkness in her heart.

Tiya felt her eyes burning, and the tip of her nose stung with the urge to weep.

It was peculiar indeed.

They had only recently been irreconcilable enemies.

Yet after everything, the future that had once seemed doomed to gloom for both was now heading toward a new and unknown direction.

Whether this change was good or bad, she did not know.

She only knew that there were so many things she wanted to say to him right now.

「Ah, sorry.」 Unexpectedly, in the very last moment before reaching her side, the young man stopped, hesitatingly scratching his head. 「My body probably looks hideous right now. I’m sure you’re afraid.」

At the instant those words reached Tiya’s ears, her pent-up emotions burst out, tears streaming down her face.

Indeed, there was so much she wanted to tell him.

She wanted to say she was sorry. She wanted to pour out the grievances she had held in her heart recently, to tell him just how frightened she had been. She also wanted to cautiously probe his true feelings about her.

Tiya was not the type to be unreasonably tsundere. Having realized her own heart, she would choose honesty.

Hence, she had countless things she wished to say to him.

But all those words converged into a single, utterly simple phrase once it reached her lips.

「Lynn…」 Tiya’s voice trembled, choked with sobs as she slowly opened her arms toward the young man before her, 「…Hold me.」

【Plot Deviation for the S-level storyline character “Tiya Yuhesti” has increased to 67.55%.】

---

Inside Elohert Palace, as he lurked in the shadows, Shia suddenly felt a chill that cut to his very bones.

It was a sensation that overwhelmed his entire body with discomfort, as though, in a mere instant, he had lost something infinitely precious. His limbs felt weak, even causing his legs to tremble.

Yet there seemed to be nothing he could do except endure it.

Shia stood there in silence for a long while, wordlessly sensing the changes within.

He did not know how much time had passed before, bloodshot eyes wide, the young man abruptly snapped back to awareness. He gazed up at the towering Holy Spirit Tree that pierced the sky in the distance.

It had already been two days since he stormed off from Tiya.

During those two days, he had searched tirelessly for the whereabouts of Lynn Bartleon.

Each time he recalled how Tiya had been so distant and dismissive of him, Shia wanted nothing more than to cut Lynn down on the spot.

Yet his target had seemingly vanished from Glostein, as though he no longer existed in this world.

The inability to find him tormented Shia greatly.

He thought that was how things would remain.

But just now, he was overcome by a sudden flash of insight.

Somehow guided by a distant voice—like a mighty presence secretly watching over him—Shia had unconsciously arrived at Elohert Palace.

Only then did he finally understand what was happening to him.

Setting aside that dreadful, bone-chilling sensation for the moment—

Looking at the Holy Spirit Tree now just a short distance away, Shia clearly realized a certain reality.

Because the nature of this sacred tree defied normal methods of detection, those not chosen by it could spend a lifetime without ever standing before it.

But Shia had easily reached the tree, becoming one of the few in this nation capable of doing so.

In other words—

He had gained the approval of the Holy Spirit Tree and become the prophesied Hero.

TL: Someone explain to me how the black slime can absorb any damage. I thought it was suppose to be the weakest lifeform?