Chapter 211: Don’t Trust Otto!

The others held their breath, seemingly oblivious, but Litt, standing at the central Core of the magic circle, felt it—a chilling malice hidden beneath the sacred exterior.

‘Something is wrong…’

Litt’s intuition told her that nine times out of ten, the current situation was highly suspicious.

At that exact moment, a sudden change occurred!

Into that originally warm and sacred golden Light, a trace of undetectable dark red—resembling foul blood—suddenly bled in!

The lines of the Magic Array seemed to come alive.

No longer gentle pathways for energy, they transformed into countless chains flashing with red light.

With an incredibly overbearing suction, they began to frantically plunder the Mana from the surrounding believers.

Their bodies shook violently, their faces turning pale at a visible rate.

Their eyes were filled with unbelievable fear and pain.

“Argh—!”

“Th-this is…?!”

“My Mana… it’s out of control!”

The believers screamed and wailed, collapsing into unconsciousness one after another.

After realizing something was wrong, Litt didn’t care about anything else.

She immediately reached out, attempting to tear the mask off her face.

As long as she took out her Cross, she could completely settle even this Mana that had gathered into a storm.

However, the mask that used to be so easy to remove… she couldn’t feel it.

The Mask and her face seemed to have merged.

It had become extremely soft; no matter how she reached for it, she couldn’t touch the physical entity of the mask!

Even more terrifyingly, even though Litt wanted to circulate her Mana to force the mask to break, she couldn’t do it.

Litt felt as if the Mana in her body hadn’t been sucked away by the Magic Array, but rather, as if it had never existed at all…

Clang!

At this moment, Litt fully understood.

The side effects of the Disguise Mask were beginning to manifest.

She couldn’t change back to the appearance of Letia!

‘I barely wore it during these 5 days, so why can’t I take it off?!’

Litt’s mind raced, and finally, she thought of a terrifying possibility.

‘Perhaps… Otto lied to me.’

The side effects didn’t start manifesting after 5 days.

Instead… after 5 days, once she put it on, she could never take it off again!

A blinding light erupted from the center of the Magic Array.

The storm of Mana poured continuously into Litt’s body.

The energy for the Teleportation Array was fully charged, and the light grew brighter and more piercing.

With a loud boom, the light finally vanished.

The Mana of the White Church members in the Sanctuary had been sucked dry, and they were all completely unconscious.

As for Litt, who should have been standing in the center of the circle, she was nowhere to be found.

Cough, cough, cough!

To Litt, when the light dissipated, she felt as if she had suddenly fallen.

She barely managed to keep from collapsing onto the ground.

At this moment, her head was heavy and her body was swaying.

That unstable Teleportation Anchor Magic Circle felt like being thrown into a washing machine for 3 minutes; it was absolutely lethal.

“Where is this?”

Litt struggled to open her eyes.

Because she had been exposed to the intense light, her vision was still blurry, making it impossible to see clearly.

She could only vaguely see that the surroundings were very dark and damp, the air thick with a heavy smell of mold.

Litt understood then—it seemed she had been teleported into the Dungeon.

Normally, she would have calmed down quickly, but now… horror, fear, and despair surged into her heart.

No matter how hard Litt tried, she couldn’t suppress them.

Litt finally realized that, unlike before when it merely amplified her emotions to help her mimic a character, the mask’s personality was beginning to take a dominant role.

It was even distorting and changing her thoughts.

It would continue until she completely became “Litt.”

In this dark and eerie Dungeon, what “Litt” expressed was naturally helplessness and fear.

In her setting, she wasn’t a combatant, so it was impossible for her to calm down.

But Letia knew that if she didn’t calm down now… she would surely die!

“To hell with this…”

Litt tried to use foul language to let her original personality regain dominance.

This did have some effect, but she knew that if she didn’t do something, she would eventually cease to be herself.

During this brief moment of clarity, Litt tried to figure out her current situation.

Just then, her Communicator Crystal unexpectedly rang.

Judging by the sound, it seemed to be a call made through a boosted signal.

Only the Royal Family possessed such boosted signals, capable of calling the surface directly from the Dungeon.

Who was calling?

She picked it up and gripped it in her hand.

Litt saw the caller’s name—Red.

Her hand began to tremble involuntarily, like a weak and helpless girl grasping at the final straw.

The call connected.

“Litt! It’s Red! Can you hear me?!”

Red’s voice sounded quite anxious and uneasy.

“We received very important news from Tos… Dammit!!”

If one listened closely, it sounded as if Red was in the middle of a fierce battle.

The roars of Monsters and the sounds of magical explosions echoed faintly, even interrupting Red as he spoke.

After waiting for two seconds, Red didn’t seem to care about the chaos anymore and said straightforwardly.

“Leave the Sacred Heart Monastery as soon as possible! Do not trust Otto… I repeat, do not trust Otto!!”

However, with a beep, the communication signal was forcibly cut off by something.

***

Going back to 30 minutes ago.

Red woke up from his sleep.

Just as he was about to pack his sleeping bag and tent, he suddenly heard a rush of footsteps outside.

The footsteps weren’t heavy, but they weren’t light either.

Judging from the sound, it was like the footsteps of a marathon runner sprinting through the final stretch of the track.

This made Red a bit confused.

He stopped packing and left the tent to look outside.

He then saw Tos, who was pale and breathing erratically, running toward him.

When Tos saw Red, a joyful smile appeared on his face.

But perhaps because he had suddenly relaxed upon seeing Red, he collapsed heavily to the ground.

Even so, he panted heavily and struggled to lift his head.

“Re… Red.”

“Take it slow, don’t rush.”

Red hurried over to help Tos up and handed him his water bottle.

Because Tos had covered 3 days’ worth of travel in 1.5 days, his lips were already cracked.

But even when Red’s water bottle was placed in front of him, he didn’t take it.

Instead, he spoke while gasping for air.

“Listen to me… Otto… Otto’s target is Litt…”

“That thing under the Sanctuary… isn’t… a God-Praying Magic Circle at all… It’s… it’s a Teleportation Array leading to the Twenty-fifth Floor!”