Millennium Witch

"Why go to such lengths this time? I don't understand." Between the two, a square-faced middle-aged man asked while sipping tea, "Didn't you say it was just two ordinary test subjects? Oh, and Nameless... Could it be that you couldn't beat her?"

The man next to him was even thinner, with his brown hair tied in a ponytail. He said, "That 'Nameless' is indeed exceptionally skilled in combat, but she is completely insignificant. The two test subjects are the most important."

He paused, then added, "You should also be able to sense that Black Tower's attitude towards those two test subjects is quite subtle, right?"

“There is some truth to that, but is it really necessary to take it so seriously?” the square-faced man said. “I think Lin Tui and Hei Chao are doing the same thing, it’s just that the Black Tower failed to keep an eye on them…”

“But don’t forget, ‘Divine Metamorphosis’ is different. Although there’s no evidence for this, ‘Divine Metamorphosis’ is more special than the ‘Erosion Seed’ of the Qilin-Melting Creatures and the ‘Abyss’ of the Black Tide Company,” said the long-haired man with a ponytail.

He lowered his head, took a sip of his black tea, and continued, "Your Majesty and I both believe that this special quality is the reason why Black Tower Medicine is so eager for these two test subjects. We only need to obtain either one to know exactly what makes 'Divine Transformation' special compared to the other two. Therefore, this operation cannot afford to fail."

The square-faced man said, "But why me? You, the dignified Soulfire Saint, aren't you enough on your own?"

Soulfire Saint was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "It is indeed a bit strenuous."

The square-faced man looked surprised: "You're not kidding, are you?"

Soulfire Saint shook his head: "Although I'm having tea with you, all my other energy has been devoted to dealing with her... In short, she's not easy to handle."

Then he asked, "Did you find those two test subjects?"

“Found it,” the square-faced man said.

"That's fine then." Soulfire Saint closed his eyes and continued to manipulate the evil spirit clones on the battlefield below, engaging in fierce battle with the mysterious and powerful silver-haired girl.

……

The cool moonlight shone down from the center of the night, coating the surface of the abandoned blast furnace in the steel plant with a cold, hard glaze.

Standing on the open grass, Ducha Bessma looked at the two little girls in front of him with an irrepressible smile in his eyes.

Because of these two experimental subjects, one of the five major reincarnation priests was directly eliminated, and he happened to run into them as soon as he arrived. His luck was truly indescribable.

He said with a forced smile, "Are you going to come with me obediently, or should I knock you out, smash that metal lump next to you, and take you all with me?"

Upon hearing this, he saw obvious tension and fear on the faces of the blonde girl and the mechanical puppet, but the silver-haired girl next to him had no reaction at all, and even looked up at the sky, seemingly not taking him seriously at all.

Then he heard the blonde little girl ask, "Are you the mage in their true form?"

Ducha laughed: "Yes, I am the original body, but I may not be as fragile as you think."

Most necromancers are not strong in their physical form because this is essentially a summoning mage class, and fighting with summoned creatures is the proper path.

Coincidentally, neither Ducha nor his superior, the "Ghoul Saint," are pursuing the path of summoning. The zombie army is merely an auxiliary force; they prefer to refine themselves into powerful ghouls, possessing terrifying physical strength and the ability to pursue even longer lifespans.

Of course, this comes at a price; the downside is that it will almost certainly lead to mental illness in the future. But Ducha believes that at the end of necromancy, there must be a way to achieve immortality without becoming mentally ill, which is the direction that most necromancers dream of.

Seeing that Ducha had confidently given a clear answer, Liana said to Zero, "I can handle this, don't make a move yet."

Zero hummed in agreement and obediently took a few steps back, looking very compliant.

Then, after the fireflies had retreated a certain distance, Liana turned around and instantly transformed into a phantom, rushing towards Ducha. Three shadowy tentacles emerged from beneath her clothes, like sharp spears, each aimed at a potential vital point on the zombie giant's body.

In an instant, the two sides clashed. Liana's fighting movements were rather clumsy, but her speed and strength were abnormally powerful. She circled the giant zombie like a ghost, using the Shadow Touch as an anchor point and spring, performing all sorts of alien-like shifts, moving and twisting like a nimble squirrel.

Ducha quickly became a little confused. His ghoul body was over three meters tall, while Liana was less than 1.5 meters tall. Coupled with the speed difference, he made several attacks, but apart from creating craters in the ground, he couldn't even touch a hair on Liana's head.

However, it wouldn't be easy for Liana to harm Ducha. After long-term training, Ducha's ghoul body had become as hard as iron. Even without any defensive spells, he could withstand the heavy cannons of the magical mechs head-on without being harmed. Liana's tentacles were sharp enough, but if they didn't pierce vital organs like the eyes, they could only leave minor scratches on the opponent's skin.

"Should we do something? There are more and more zombies around..." Firefly walked up to Zero and asked in a low voice.

Because Ducha was fully focused on hand-to-hand combat with Liana, the surrounding zombies, though encircling him, remained stationary, making it seem like a good opportunity to clear them out.

"Why don't we wait until Liana wins? These zombies will be uncontrolled and will all die." Zero squatted down, rested his chin on his hands, and revealed a mocking smile.

Can we really win?

"Of course, I will always believe in Liana."

"What about you? If you go up, can you defeat Ducha?" Based on past experience, Firefly was more confident in Zero.

Zero's smile deepened, but for some reason, beneath her long eyelashes, her dark red eyes held a strange and complex emotion.

“Of course.” She looked down at the ground and said with a smile, “But I can’t take care of her forever, and you too. The future… is still very long.”

Firefly didn't understand what she was talking about, but she felt that Zero had become increasingly strange since Fusijiang arrived, and she had even had this feeling before her sister appeared.

Is something about to happen?

But what exactly is it?

Why doesn't she say it?

Humans are indeed complex animals... it sighed silently.

……

A few minutes later, a heart-wrenching scream echoed through the deathly silent, abandoned steel plant.

When the firefly looked up, it saw a shadowy touch, as dark as ink, pierce through Ducha's chest, shattering his magical core and several key magical furnaces. This caused elemental mist, like steam, to continuously seep from Ducha's body, making him look like a bomb about to explode.

Immediately, Liana nimbly jumped off Ducha, creating some distance between them. She was breathing heavily, her face pale, and her golden hair was soaked with sweat.

During the fight, she precisely targeted a specific point on Ducha's chest. After some time, she finally broke through that single point, destroying important components such as the artificial magic core and magic reactor inside Ducha's body.

Although they didn't manage to kill Ducha, with most of his magic core gone, Ducha's power rapidly deflated like a punctured balloon, and his combat strength was naturally reduced to less than one-tenth.

"Wow! We really won!" Firefly cheered as she looked at Ducha, who was kneeling on the ground, extremely weak.

Almost simultaneously, the densely packed zombie army within the encirclement fell like wheat being cut down. Clearly, without its master's magical supply, the undead army was completely paralyzed.

The situation reversed instantly!

"I'm out of strength, Yvette, you finish me off." Liana's legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, speaking weakly.

In the battle just now, she had exhausted her magic and physical strength. If it were a one-on-one fight, she would be the one getting finished off now.

Fortunately, Ducha's orders were to capture her alive, which made him hesitant to kill her in the fight; otherwise, she would have had absolutely no chance.

"I'll do it! I'll do it!" Firefly quickly raised the muzzle of her gun and aimed it at Ducha's head.

But just as the call to counterattack was sounded, a strange noise suddenly appeared in the night sky.

That wasn't thunder, but rather the piercing shriek of some enormous creature tearing through the clouds at an astonishing speed.

Ducha, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly looked up. His zombie-like face was first taken aback, then he grinned with a vicious and mocking smile, staring intently at the two little girls in the room.

Liana and Firefly also subconsciously looked up at the night sky.

Then they saw, under the vast starry sky, a massive bone dragon with ghostly blue flames burning in its eye sockets, emerge from a patch of black clouds, descending towards their location like an ancient, resurrected ferocious beast.

Publish first, then revise later; there's no time to do it.

Chapter 130 One Glance

The cold wind whipped up dust, which slapped against Liana's pale face, but she was completely unaware.

As she watched the massive bone dragon, as huge as a warship, tear through the night sky and descend, her mind went completely blank. She could only sit there dumbfounded until she was swallowed up by that enormous shadow.

She had heard Firefly describe the Bone Dragon and knew that it was one of the core secrets of the Holy Spirit Cult. It was not a necromancer like a skeleton, but a genuine magical creature with its own will and wisdom.

Legend has it that this is the world's second most powerful weapon of war after the space carrier. The entire Holy Spirit Cult possesses no more than four of them, and each one must be crafted from genuine ancient dragon fossils. Their bones are so strong that they can withstand super missiles without being damaged, and they can even use some innate magic that humans cannot understand.

How could such a monster appear here?

A moment later, flapping its wings, the bone dragon landed. With exquisite control, it silently stopped in the center of the open space, looking as light as a feather.

It was only then that Liana noticed that two middle-aged men dressed in priestly robes were standing on the skull of the bone dragon.

But this is a bone dragon from the Holy Spirit Cult, one of the technological symbols of necromancy!

Who is qualified to stand on the head of such a monster?

“I am Will Leopold, the ghoul priest of the Holy Spirit Cult,” said one of the two men. He had a square face and a cold expression, giving off an aura that kept people at a distance.

After saying that, he didn't give Liana and Firefly a chance to speak. He immediately looked at the weakened High Priest of Reincarnation, Ducha, and said coldly, "How did you get into this state?"

"Lord Saint, I... I was careless... I'm so sorry..." Ducha said anxiously.

The Corpse Demon Seiji glanced at him indifferently, then his gaze returned to the two little girls in front of him. But when it swept over the fireflies, he exclaimed in surprise, "A mechanical puppet with a spirit? Could it be an awakened AI?"

"...Unexpectedly, such a coincidence. Lucky you." Soulfire Saint also looked over.

Awakened AIs imbued with spirits by the Fire Stealer program are extremely rare because they are very good at hiding themselves and are difficult to detect. However, these awakened AIs are very important in the study of necromancy. By studying how they can support spirits on insulating materials, the Holy Spirit Cult may find new technological directions for the future of necromancy.

With that in mind, both priests smiled, which looked somewhat eerie in the dim moonlight. They made no attempt to hide their conversation, because with the two priests present and a bone dragon present, it was hard to imagine that such a mission could possibly fail.

But then, a clear and firm voice rang out, attracting everyone's attention.

“I can go with you, but you must release Yvette and Firefly.”

Shiki Seiji looked down and saw the blonde girl codenamed "Number One" holding a runic gun, which she must have taken from the puppet next to her.

However, she didn't point the gun at the two priests on the bone dragon, but at her own temple. Her small face was tense, her expression resolute, looking both frightened and strong.

The Corpse Demon Seiji narrowed his eyes, staring at Liana without saying a word, while Hotaru beside him was already shocked: "Liana, what are you saying? Have you gone mad?"

Liana didn't answer Firefly's question, but glared at the Corpse Demon Seiji and repeated, "Let them go! Or I'll shoot!"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became quiet, with only the cold wind still sweeping around.

"Number One, you should know very well that death is meaningless in front of a necromancer. You will be resurrected as a zombie, taking all your secrets with you." The Corpse Demon Saint revealed a mocking smile and said calmly.

“But there’s definitely a difference between me as a living person and me as a zombie,” Liana said without backing down.

“But even if you die, Zero will still be alive, and the result will be the same. We will still get what we want.” The Corpse Demon Saint smiled. “Besides, being alive is always better than being dead. While you are alive, you have value, and the Holy Church will naturally protect you with the highest standards. Apart from having less freedom, you will be very comfortable. What’s so hard to accept about that?”

Then he changed the subject, his expression becoming cruel and sinister: "But if you commit suicide, Zero and that puppet will still fall into our hands. But because of your actions, we are very angry. Guess what? Will we vent these emotions on your friends?"

"After you die, your friends will live in torture every day, being tormented again and again. That broken, rotten soul will be extracted and scorched by soul flames all day long. As for Number Zero, we will keep pulling out her fingernails, then repairing her, enjoying her screams... And the reason they have to endure all this is because of you, it's all your fault. They will hate you, hate that you only cared about your own pleasure, but ruined them..." The Corpse Demon Seiji asked with a smile, "Now, do you still want to commit suicide?"

"How could you do this..." Liana's voice trembled with anger. She never imagined that a priest, respected, praised, and worshipped by countless believers, could be so wicked, so despicable, so utterly shameless—it was far beyond her comprehension.

"Little friend, is this your first time seeing this world?" Seiji the Corpse Demon asked teasingly.

Liana fell silent. Since leaving the Abyss Base, all the darkness and malice had been kept out by Zero. Like an ordinary little girl, she had beautiful fantasies about the world. She even thought that Zero's sleepiness was a good thing, as it finally gave her the opportunity to show her skills and experience the world. But she never expected that her first mission would be such a blow.

Under the moonlight, the abandoned blast furnace of the steel plant cast a pitch-black shadow. Standing there, she felt as if everything around her had disappeared. She could not see any light, and she was isolated and helpless. All that came from all directions was boundless cold and suffocation.

Until someone suddenly hugged her, bringing a warm current of comfort.

Liana turned her head and saw Zero's beautiful face. She smiled and said, "Idiot, once you die, you lose everything. How could you make such a stupid decision?"

Liana didn't know why she could still laugh at this moment, and said aggrievedly, "What can I do?"

"Of course, survival comes first, and we can talk about the rest later," Zero said with a smile. "I've said it many times: living is the most important thing. Once you're dead, you lose everything. There's no one in this world worth risking your life to protect, including me."

“At a time like this, you’re still saying things like that…” Liana’s eyes were red, and she looked like she was about to cry.

"Don't rush, let's talk slowly." The Corpse Demon Saint stood on the head of the bone dragon and said cheerfully. As long as he could persuade Number One to give up his will to live and drop the gun, he was not willing to waste any more time.

But what Shiki Seiji didn't expect was that his interruption would attract Zero's attention.

She turned her head, and the charming smile on her face vanished, replaced by eyes colder than the snowy winter.

The next second, Shiki Seiji felt his thoughts explode!

The world before him suddenly transformed into a kaleidoscope, spinning, tearing, and collapsing wildly. At the same time, he felt as if millions of ants had suddenly invaded his body, frantically attacking and devouring everything within his iron-hard corpse demon body!

"Aaaaaahhhhhh—" he screamed as he fell from the top of the bone dragon's head, rolling and convulsing wildly, attracting everyone's attention.

Soulfire Saint quickly snapped his consciousness back, preparing to ask a question, but found that the Corpse Saint's appearance had become extremely bizarre. Countless purplish-red flesh and blood rolled and writhed on the surface of his body, making his body, which had been a pale corpse demon, look even more like a deformed monster. His eyeballs moved strangely, sometimes in pain and fear, sometimes blank and wooden, as if he were fighting with another personality for control of his body.

How could this be?

Soulfire Saint was stunned, and then he saw the Corpse Demon Saint suddenly stop moving and turn his head 180 degrees like a real zombie, aiming at him with lifeless, dull eyes.

In an instant, Soulfire Saint's pupils contracted sharply, an unprecedented and immense terror gripping him, prompting him to immediately convey his thoughts to the bone dragon, urging it to take off quickly.

At the same time, the Corpse Demon Saint, who had completely transformed into a mutated creature, also moved. He lay on the ground like a hunting dog, then used his limbs to leap up, and at the same time his head split open from the middle, transforming into a giant abyssal maw covered with spiral serrations, which he lunged at Soulfire Saint.

Chapter 131 Another Me

This was an unexpected turn of events. Soulfire Saint couldn't have imagined it, nor could the Reincarnation High Priest Ducha. Liana and Firefly were completely stunned. It wasn't until a moment later that they realized that Zero had managed to cause a powerful figure like the Corpse Demon Saint to mutate on the spot, displaying a strength that was simply divine.

Seeing the mutated Shiki Seiji and Soulfire Seiji fighting each other like two wild dogs biting each other, Zero revealed a bright smile, as always mocking, cruel, and full of malice.

But when she turned her head and looked at Liana again, the evil on her face immediately disappeared, replaced by a gentle, spring-like tenderness. She said softly, "I have to leave for a while, Liana."

"Where...where are you going?" Liana sensed something was wrong in her tone. "I'm going with you!"

"No, I'll be back soon." Zero leaned closer and nuzzled her face affectionately. "Don't worry."

"I don't understand," Liana thought. "If you're only leaving for a short while, why do you look so sad?"