Goddess Kaleidoscope

The fifth level of the maze is the largest in terms of area. There was originally a huge cave here, which the three sisters are using to transform it into an underground open world with a radius of ten kilometers. It is conceivable that when adventurers successfully pass through the first four levels and arrive here, they will be quite amazed to see this small world below.

In the very center of this area, which is also the very center of the entire spindle-shaped maze, the three sisters built a demon altar to worship Hedtaka. This is also where the fifth floor's BOSS room is located, but the three sisters haven't decided what kind of BOSS to place here yet, so it's currently empty.

Lude felt that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, they should find something here that wasn't on the blueprints!

End of this chapter

The fifth level of the labyrinth is still under construction. This is a natural cavern that Lachesis accidentally unearthed while digging downwards. The interior space is very large, about ten kilometers in length and width, and the maximum vertical height exceeds three hundred meters. Several underground rivers converge here, forming several underground lakes.

After conducting an on-site investigation, the three sisters decided to adapt to the local conditions and transform this place into the fifth level of the maze, codenamed "Little World".

When Lud arrived, the ecological environment here had been almost completely transformed. A large number of bioluminescent bacteria were planted on the top of the cave, providing illumination for the entire underground world, while many strange plants that even Lud couldn't name were planted at the bottom.

The eldest sister, Atropos, told Rud that because there was no sunlight in the cave, they initially thought of using their divine power to create a miniature "little sun," but they soon discovered that with their current power, they simply couldn't make something so advanced. They had to settle for second best and try to find shade-loving plants in the Virtual Forest that could grow normally without sunlight and transplant them to the underground world to build an ecosystem.

The three sisters mobilized their divine messengers and spent a long time searching for more than a dozen plants and fungi that met their needs. However, they unexpectedly discovered that these things, which did not need sunlight, all looked rather gloomy and were either highly poisonous or aggressive.

The three sisters used these plants to create a terrifying forest fraught with danger within the small world. They also released many vampire bats, giant spider centipedes, and piranhas to ensure that adventurers wouldn't feel too lonely after they came down.

Surrounding Rudd, the three sisters unleashed their divine power to scare away the "small animals" that tried to rush up and hunt them, while simultaneously giving a long and detailed introduction to this "theme park" that could easily lead to death. If the initial construction of the Abyss Labyrinth was due to orders given to them by Rudd, it was now clear that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Soon, the group arrived at the Demon Altar located in the center of the fifth floor. From a distance, Lude recognized that the building was modeled after the "Zerg Hive (Tier 3 base)" from StarCraft. The design was highly accurate, giving the impression that it was not a respectable place.

Furthermore, Lud noticed a floating gray orb of light at the very top of the hive, seemingly formed from the gray energy gathered within the labyrinth. The three sisters could only vaguely sense this energy; only Lud could see it.

At this moment, the female ghost Lacey, who was traveling with them, suddenly wailed and knelt on the ground, convulsing in pain.

"Lassie! What's wrong with you?"

Because only Rudd could clearly see the gray energy, the others present had no idea what was happening to Lacey. In Rudd's eyes, Lacey's spirit body seemed to be spontaneously combusting, constantly spewing out "gray smoke" and flying straight towards the gray sphere at the top of the altar.

The process was very brief, lasting only three to five seconds, and was over before Luther could do anything. Lacey, on the other hand, seemed completely drained, collapsing limply in Elijah's arms.

Seeing this, Ludwig and the three sisters were at a loss for what to do. Healing spells were definitely out of the question; divine magic was the bane of the undead, and a single spell would not only fail to save her but would also allow Lacey to pass away peacefully. Therefore, they could only watch helplessly from the sidelines.

But then something miraculous happened. Although Lacey, who had been drained, looked extremely weak, her withered and shriveled appearance, which had been like that of a starving ghost, began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye. In no time, she transformed from a hideous and terrifying female ghost into a young and beautiful woman. If it weren't for the fact that her body was still in a semi-transparent spiritual state, you would hardly believe that she was once a terrifying vengeful spirit!

Because her memories were erased, Lacey, though she regained her true name from Ludwig, still knew nothing about her past life. She only vaguely remembered being born into a wealthy noble family, but being sickly from childhood and dying in her early twenties. After death, she became a ghost and was captured by Dick, a gravedigger and ghost hunter.

It's quite a sad story. Although Lacey became a ghost, she wasn't originally a vengeful spirit. It was the necromancer Dick who captured her and tortured her with insidious necromancy, forcing her negative emotions to erupt and forcibly transforming her into the person she is today. As a result, most of Lacey's memories were erased.

But even with just a few remaining fragments of memory, Lacey is still certain that in her short life, she must have been very happy, with loving parents and relatives, and she married and had children with a man she truly loved.

She vaguely remembered nestled beside her husband after giving birth, holding the fruit of their love in her arms. No matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn't remember her husband's and child's faces, but she still remembered the feeling of being surrounded by happiness at that time.

It's not hard to see from Lacey's memories that the necromancer Dick had committed a lot of atrocities, harming both the living and the dead!

Generally, becoming a vengeful spirit is an irreversible process. When negative emotions and mental stress accumulate to a certain degree, it will inevitably change. Only rare exceptions like Elijah, who had a pendant that allowed her to sleep, were able to remain a spirit for hundreds of years without incurring any negative consequences.

This magical little pendant could only provide a place for sleepless spirits to rest, effectively preventing them from becoming vengeful spirits, but it couldn't immediately turn already vengeful spirits back; it could only alleviate the symptoms little by little. But fate is unpredictable, and a miracle happened to Rudd without warning!

Lacey, whose powers had been reversed, was still unconscious and unable to speak for the time being, but Lud, who had witnessed the entire process, vaguely understood something. The gray energy that only he could clearly see before might have been the negative emotions that the adventurers had developed while exploring the labyrinth, suffering from various traps and mechanisms. This energy was similar to faith, but not entirely the same.

It's worth noting that the necromancy book left by Dick contains descriptions of negative energy. This energy is both a tonic and a slow poison for the undead. It makes them stronger, but also corrupts them, turning them into terrifying vengeful spirits, ultimately driving them to madness.

However, the necromancers obviously hadn't actually seen what color this energy was; they had only confirmed its existence. Therefore, when Rudd first saw this gray energy, he didn't think about it.

"What the hell! Could I have accidentally created a demon?"

Having served as a priest for several years, Rudd was well-versed in how to create gods, but upon reflection, he was astonished to find that he seemed to have applied a similar process in creating Hedtaka, his "imaginary enemy."

If deities are born from the beliefs of mortals, and whether the worship is good or bad, it symbolizes a positive appeal and prayer, then it is not impossible that negative emotions could give rise to a reverse, demonic entity. These two can be considered of the same kind, subspecies of each other.

Thinking of this, Lud felt a chill of fear, because the "Hedtaka Miazaki" he had created was still missing one final step: establishing his appearance. No one had ever seen what this great demon actually looked like. Lud only claimed to have fought against him for most of his life, but he had never faced this demon directly. The public only knew that Hedtaka had committed numerous evils and that he had built a lair in the Void Forest called "Spiral Abyss." That was all the information they had.

Looking at the gray sphere above the altar and the energy constantly gathering towards it, Lud felt as if he had shot himself in the foot, unsure of what to do with it.

From a purely cautious perspective, the safest strategy would be to completely shut down the Spiral Abyss, prohibit adventurers from entering, cut off the Gray Sphere's energy source, and prevent it from continuing to grow.

But Lud was also somewhat curious, wanting to know what this gray sphere would eventually give birth to. His previous experience of "nurturing" several new goddesses had made Lud realize one thing: newly born gods may not be blank slates, but their thoughts are not actually complex, and their values ​​can be corrected through education.

Imagine if Aina had followed people like Narad of the Cult of the God of War or Evanrus of the Cult of the Four Seasons from the moment she was born, how could she have become as innocent and kind as she is now?

Therefore, even if a demon is eventually born from the gray sphere, Lud can raise him into a demon with positive energy!

As Lude was pondering, Lacey finally woke up. Eliven breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Lacey was finally out of danger. As the only undead companion in the temple, Eliven valued Lacey highly.

"Lassie, you scared me to death."

"I'm sorry, I don't know either... what's wrong with me?"

After waking up, Lacey quickly noticed the changes in her body, and Atropos even thoughtfully took out a small mirror for her to look in.

In the mirror, Lacey still looked like a pale, ghostly figure, but at least she had regained her appearance from when she was alive. Seeing herself in the mirror, Lacey seemed frozen in place, completely stunned.

In that instant, she felt as if she had regained all her lost memories.

"I... I remember now, I remember everything!"

It seems that because all the accumulated negative emotions were drained by the gray ball, Lacey miraculously broke free from her vengeful spirit form and returned to her original pure state. At the same time, as if breaking a seal, she also regained all her lost memories.

"Incredible! This gray ball might be useful as a mental dumping ground!"

Having unexpectedly discovered the wonderful use of the Grey Ball, Lud suddenly understood where the missing Dick and his few dead slaves had gone; they had most likely been absorbed by the Grey Ball as a "powerful tonic."

The three sisters could only vaguely sense its presence and felt that this energy made them uncomfortable, but unlike Lud, they could not directly confirm its location through sight. So they were in the dark, unaware that this thing was hanging directly above the altar they had built.

Lude recounted what he had seen and his speculations to the three sisters, then took out his paintbrush and sketched the strange sights he had witnessed in his notebook. The three sisters repeatedly compared the sketches with the altar, but still could not sense the presence of the gray energy sphere.

"This is unbelievable, we can't see that thing at all."

"Perhaps your spiritual vision isn't strong enough. We need to think of a way to study this thing."

After standing below the altar for a long time, Lude discovered that the gray sphere was like a range hood, slowly absorbing the gray energy within the maze.

By this time, Lacey had recovered. She told Lud that she had just been drained of energy by the gray ball. Although she was completely drained, she had unexpectedly established a strange connection with it. She still couldn't see it, but at least she could clearly sense its existence.

Lacey tells Lud that, at least for now, the Grey Sphere has not yet developed a clear sense of self, but through establishing a bond with it, Lacey can sense that it is "alive," like a gluttonous little animal that is not interested in anything except absorbing negative energy.

Interestingly, although both are undead, Eliven was not absorbed by the gray orb. She had almost no negative energy on her body, and her mental state was well preserved, which speaks volumes!

At Ludd's request, Lacey tried to communicate with the Grey Ball, but the responses she received were quite subtle. Lacey described her interaction with the Grey Ball as like teasing a cat; she would say hello to the Grey Ball, and the Grey Ball would give a meaningless "meow," a simple response without any information.

It feels a bit strange, but subtly kind of cute!

But at that moment, the previously calm gray sphere suddenly reacted. As if in response to Lacey's greeting, a dark hole suddenly appeared on the chaotic surface of the gray sphere, and then a human-shaped thing fell out of it.

The three sisters were startled. They couldn't see the gray ball, but they saw a person fall from above. The eldest sister, Atropos, reacted quickly, using her divine power to catch the person steadily. Rudd went closer to take a look and discovered that it was none other than the necromancer Dick, who had been missing for several months. His incredibly ugly, deformed face was so distinctive!

After several months apart, Dick didn't seem to have changed much at first glance, but Lud quickly noticed something was wrong. The guy still had the huge hole that the old butler had poked in him a few months ago, right through his heart, so clear that it was impossible to tell from front to back. Normally, a person with such a serious injury would have been dead long ago.

But Dick in front of him was not dead, nor could he be considered alive; he was in a state between life and death, as if the Grey Ball was intentionally keeping him on his last breath.

Seeing this, Lude couldn't help but hesitate.

The more Ludd learned about Dick's past actions, the more certain he became that Dick was a complete scoundrel whose crimes, if committed on Earth, would be enough to warrant a five-minute execution.

But the problem now is that if they want to deal with the Black Hand Brotherhood, Rudd really needs this scumbag.

End of this chapter

After much hesitation, Lude finally decided to give it a try and used healing on the half-dead Dick. The effect of the two divine spells was immediate, and Dick really opened his eyes.

Dick, who had just woken up, was clearly not in good condition. He lay on the ground with his eyes wide open and his mouth agape, looking just like a fish that had come ashore.

Looking at Dick lying on the ground, convulsing uncontrollably, the female ghost Lacey's expression was quite complicated. This damned scumbag had prevented her from finding peace even after death. As a ghost, she had suffered endless torment at his hands, even losing all her memories and falling into the form of a hideous and terrifying vengeful spirit, driven by him to harm others.

If Lude hadn't said that this scumbag was still useful, Lacey would have loved to tear him to pieces to vent her hatred.

Thinking of those terrible days, a hint of resentment unconsciously welled up in Lacey's heart again, and her face, which had returned to normal, quickly changed, as if she were about to become a vengeful spirit again.

Fortunately, the gray ball reacted at this moment. It must have sensed that Lacey had generated negative energy again. Without saying a word, it took another "suck" and absorbed all the resentment that Lacey had just generated.

Lacey felt a sudden jolt, her previously agitated emotions abruptly cooling down, as if she had been forcibly plunged into a state of sagehood. Looking at Dick lying on the ground, although she still found him extremely annoying, she no longer felt the urge to tear him to pieces as she had before.

Lude witnessed all of Lacey's reactions. As soon as she showed signs of becoming a vengeful spirit, Lude keenly sensed the change in her energy. Then he saw the charming and lovely face of this ghostly young woman melt away, becoming increasingly ferocious and terrifying, until the gray ball took action and absorbed the negative energy that had just been generated in her body, and she returned to normal.

The entire process of change left Lud completely dumbfounded!

The reaction from Lacey made Lud realize that this ghostly young woman had not completely shaken off her vengeful spirit state, but was on the verge of becoming a wraith. As long as a little negative energy accumulated, she could fall back into her previous vengeful spirit state. This was when Grayball needed to intervene.

At this moment, Dick, who was lying on the ground convulsing, suddenly sat up, took a deep breath, and finally stopped shaking. Then he turned to look at Ludd.

"Master?"

Seeing that the other person recognized him, Lud thought to himself that this guy probably didn't have amnesia, but soon Dick noticed his hands, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. He then hurriedly touched his head and face, appearing somewhat panicked.

"No! This is... how... how did I become like this!?"

"It's turned out like this..."

Noticing that Dick's tone was a bit off, Lud also vaguely realized something and a strange thought flashed through his mind.

"who are you?"

"I...I am Trin! Trin Navarro. Master! How did I become like this? Is this a curse!?"

Hearing the "Dick" in front of him identify himself as Trilling, Lud thought to himself that he had actually guessed correctly. Although he didn't know exactly what had happened, it seemed that Trilling's soul had entered Dick's body.

In a sense, this also explains why when the Navarro family guards brought the unconscious Trin to him, no amount of magic could revive him, because he was just an empty shell without a soul.

Since Trinn had never seen the necromancer Dick's true face under the mask, when he discovered that he had become an ugly deformed person, he subconsciously thought that it was some kind of curse that made him ugly, and did not think about the possibility that his soul had been replaced by another body.

Lude raised his hand to offer a mental reassurance, trying to calm the guy down, while secretly plotting what kind of story he could come up with to fool him.

"Calm down, Trin. Although I don't know exactly what happened to you, believe me, I will definitely help you."

The comforting words and calm, reliable advice calmed Trillin down a bit. He looked around and found himself in a strange place, surrounded by bizarre plants. Behind him stood a creepy building, and above him, at first glance, it looked like a starry sky, but upon closer inspection, he discovered that the "stars" were interspersed with many sharp stalactites.

Even in his nightmares, Trin had never seen such a scene.

"Master, where are we?"

"This is the labyrinth known as the Spiral Abyss. We should be on the fifth floor right now."

"A maze!?"

Upon hearing Lude mention the maze, Trilling, who had barely calmed down for half a minute, immediately panicked again. But what surprised Trilling even more was that Master Lude, who had saved him, said they were now on the fifth level of the maze!

Trin had witnessed firsthand how treacherous the Abyss Labyrinth was. After all, he had been naive and had insisted on venturing in, which allowed that damned necromancer to take advantage of them and ambush them when they were in deep trouble, killing the old butler who could have instantly killed the necromancer.