“Millie… get up, I can’t breathe…”
Hearing the desperate plea from below, Millie finally realized what was happening.
Straddling Mu Xuan, Millie looked down at Mu Xuan’s flushed face and couldn’t help but let out a silvery laugh.
“I can’t help it, Your Holiness Mu Xuan is just too adorable~”
Sitting atop her in such a strange posture, Mu Xuan gasped for breath, her small chest rising and falling.
Adorable? What nonsense!
I am the Pope—dignified and imposing, the great Pope!
As she thought this, Mu Xuan puffed out her cheeks, making the silver strands of hair that had hung on her face slip away.
Seeing Mu Xuan puff up her cheeks, Millie found her even cuter and couldn’t help but reach out to pinch them.
This made Mu Xuan extremely displeased. No, I have to be the one on top!
She then pushed with both hands, shoving Millie to the ground and seating herself on top of Millie.
“Hmph, don’t think I won’t dare teach you a lesson!” Mu Xuan huffed, tugging her loose clothes tighter.
Watching Mu Xuan’s angry face, Millie, lying on the ground, only smiled more brightly.
“Alright, alright, please calm down, Your Holiness Mu Xuan. It’s my fault.”
As she spoke, Millie put her hands together, making a pitiful gesture.
This instantly softened Mu Xuan’s heart. She let out a “hmph” and stood up.
At this moment, Millie had already changed into a new nun’s robe. Perhaps feeling that her hollow eye sockets looked a bit frightening, she had wrapped her eyes with a band of white cloth.
“Millie, after I left, did you feel anything strange?”
Picking up the Holy Sword that had fallen to the side, Mu Xuan sighed and looked at Millie, her tone serious.
He didn’t think Millie could miss the changes he himself could sense. Moreover, now that all the divine artifact fragments had been taken by him, Mu Xuan had a vague feeling in her heart that something bad was going to happen.
“Strange feeling… I just missed Your Holiness Mu Xuan terribly…”
Seeing Mu Xuan’s face darken, Millie hurriedly smiled and said, “Alright, I’m not joking anymore.”
“After you left, I couldn’t sense the outside at all, as if some power had cut off the cathedral…”
“And also, the cathedral became so dark, and I lost control over it… Like someone wanted to throw me out from here…”
Hearing this, Mu Xuan asked a little anxiously, “Why didn’t you contact me!”
“I wanted to, but I just couldn’t reach you…” Millie said, aggrieved, pinching the corner of her robe.
Sigh…
Mu Xuan realized her tone had been too harsh. Failing to contact her was normal—there was no need to blame Millie for this… she’d just been too worried.
Fortunately, Millie was fine.
The timeline of these stories wasn’t exactly the same; being cut off was normal.
Still, at least this place wasn’t horrifying to the point of truly dividing time itself. The time here was more like a storage of everything from the past, then constructed by some power—a false time.
Even so, it was still more than Mu Xuan could handle.
“Try to sense what’s happening outside now…” Mu Xuan couldn’t be sure what changes might occur in the town after the divine artifact fragments were taken.
Millie tilted her head, concentrating for a moment, then replied, “Outside… there’s something really terrifying…”
!?
Mu Xuan’s delicate brows knitted slightly. What could possibly frighten even Millie…
Seeing Millie hesitate, as if too scared to speak, Mu Xuan stepped forward and embraced her, gently patting her back.
“It’s alright, you don’t have to tell me what it is.”
Whatever it was, Mu Xuan didn’t think she could handle it anyway. Knowing more wouldn’t help.
“No, it’s… it’s right at the cathedral door…” Millie steadied her mood and quickly spoke up.
As she spoke, she grabbed Mu Xuan’s hand, trying to pull her deeper into the cathedral.
The cathedral… door?
Mu Xuan didn’t resist, letting herself be pulled along, but still glanced instinctively toward the entrance.
!!!
A pair of huge, blood-red eyes… That thing was tilting its head, wearing a bizarre smile, staring at Mu Xuan and Millie through the cathedral’s main door!
The moment their gazes met, Mu Xuan instantly felt the power of light within her spiral into chaos. Like boiling water, it surged uncontrollably out of her body.
Her mind felt as if it had been struck by a massive hammer, exploding into sharp, unbearable pain.
With the pain came a sweet metallic taste in her mouth. Before she could react, a mouthful of blood gushed out, like a breached dam.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Mu Xuan turned her head, twisted the Holy Sword in her grip, and slammed the hilt hard into her own forehead.
A burst of dazzling white light filled her vision, and the stabbing pain immediately subsided.
“Your Holiness… are you alright…”
Noticing Mu Xuan’s state, Millie stopped with her in the corridor, her worried gaze mixed with guilt.
It’s all my fault for not warning Her Holiness that this thing is so dangerous—she shouldn’t have looked…
Mu Xuan withdrew her hand from Millie’s grasp, rubbed her brow, and wiped the blood from her lips with the loose clothes hanging off her body, managing a strained smile.
“I’m fine, not dead yet…”
This aberration also had that same ‘unspeakable’ property!
The first aberration with that property had been the terrifying angel-like creature at the start of her memories… she hadn’t expected to encounter another one now…
Mu Xuan couldn’t determine its level, but this aberration was definitely not weak! Very likely, just like that angel, it was an existence at the Moho Layer!
“But…” Seeing Mu Xuan’s pale face, the red mark on her forehead from the sword hilt, and her body still trembling from what just happened, Millie became anxious.
How can that possibly be called ‘fine’!
Thanks to the Rule Core within her, Millie was naturally immune to some extent against aberrations. But that thing outside made her feel as if she was facing an ocean of pollution, with nowhere to hide.
That only made Millie even more aware of how terrifying that thing outside was.
Watching Mu Xuan try to force herself upright, Millie hurriedly moved to support her.
Though Millie wanted to see the tiny, trembling Mu Xuan fall down and cry, when it came down to it, she was scared Mu Xuan might get hurt if she really fell.
“Your Holiness Mu Xuan… should I heal you?”
“Heal?” Mu Xuan gave Millie a strange look.
Was healing something a nun had to know? And was she sure she could heal?
In Mu Xuan’s impression, healing was a priest’s compulsory subject. Nuns, more often than not, assisted from the sidelines.
“But… Your Holiness, the pollution from that thing outside is really severe…”