Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2909: Chapter 2910: Consecutive Executions

"’Glutton’s Banquet’ is an alienated form of ’Greed Feast’. In essence, there’s no real change between the two; it’s more like a quantitative shift, so their exploration-percentage distribution should be identical."

"Since the exploration-percentage distribution is the same, it doesn’t matter whether we reason from Glutton’s Banquet or from Greed Feast; both work. On that basis, we can set Glutton’s Banquet aside for now and look at Greed Feast alone."

"It’s formed by the linkage of ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’. If we compare that to ’Feast and Banquet’, we’ll find that this is clearly no longer a mere quantitative change, but a qualitative one."

"Since ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ together constitute the current qualitative change, my first conjecture comes out: to reach 100% exploration, ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ should also each reach a perfect 100%."

When Glaipnir said this, Laplace also nodded along, expressing her agreement.

Angel, however, was completely lost. He understood the inferential premises Glaipnir had laid out earlier, but her logic still felt broken. He figured she had probably incorporated results from Astrology somewhere in the middle, skipping part of the derivation, which was why it felt like there were gaps.

But setting aside those logical gaps and listening only to Glaipnir’s final conclusion, Angel actually agreed with it.

To reach 100% exploration, perhaps they really did need to bring both ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ to 100% as well.

Even so, Angel still had some doubts in his heart: "But the current Special Dreamland is—Glutton’s Banquet. Inside this Special Dreamland, how do we get ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ to 100% exploration? They’re clearly different dreamlands."

Glaipnir: "Judging from the names, they do indeed belong to different Special Dreamlands. But the place where these three dreamlands occur is actually all here, in the very spot we’re standing right now."

Angel seemed to realize something and said softly, "In other words, this place actually gave birth to three Special Dreamlands in succession. And what you have to do is successively complete those three Special Dreamlands to 100% exploration."

Glaipnir nodded, then shook her head.

"You’re partly right. This place did indeed give birth to three Special Dreamlands in succession. But ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ are preconditions for ’Greed Feast’; they’re not parallel to it."

Angel: "You mean, we only need to bring ’Helen’s Dream’ and ’Bira’s Beautiful Dream’ to 100%?"

Glaipnir: "...You could barely call that correct."

Barely correct? What’s that supposed to mean? That what I said is wrong, you just don’t want to argue about it?

While Angel was grumbling inwardly, Glaipnir continued, "I won’t say much more; I’ll just go straight to my conclusion."

Glaipnir: "I think that as long as we find the answers to two questions, we might be able to reach 100% exploration."

"First question: in Helen’s Dream, exactly what are we missing that caused the exploration to stall at 99%?"

"Second question: in Greed Feast—or rather Banquet—the true subject is the Glutton. And who is the Glutton? Without a doubt, it’s Bella. So why did Bella become the Glutton? That’s the answer we need to find to the second question."

Laplace: "Is that what the Astrological Disk says as well?"

Glaipnir nodded: "Yes, that’s how the Astrological Disk displays it too. These two questions are indeed the reason why the exploration hasn’t reached 100% yet."

On hearing this, Laplace pondered for a moment and said, "...Then I think I might know the answer."

"...Huh?"

Ever since Glaipnir started her deductions, Angel had either been totally foggy or outright bewildered. He kept feeling that his way of thinking was completely out of sync with Glaipnir’s, as if they were two different species with entirely different logical structures... which, to be fair, they actually were.

But Angel had always felt that his frequency matched Laplace’s. At least, his conversations with Laplace up to now had been fine—very normal, with no logical gaps.

Now he realized he might have been wrong.

Laplace not only understood what Glaipnir was saying, she directly stated: she already knew the answer.

In the Crystal Origin of Dreams, Laplace and Glaipnir couldn’t communicate telepathically, so how did she know the answer?

There was only one possibility: she understood Glaipnir’s words and immediately worked out the key point.

And Angel had been listening the whole time as well, yet remained utterly clueless... so the Joker is actually me?

Angel did feel a bit woeful at first, but he quickly adjusted his mindset: he hadn’t personally experienced this instance, so it was normal not to know some of the details, and those details might well be the key... Yes, that must be it...

"So, what is the answer?" Angel put aside those irrelevant thoughts in his mind and refocused on the present.

Laplace didn’t speak. Instead, she answered Angel with her actions.

She stretched a little, loosening her muscles and bones, then slowly walked up to the meat-mountain Great Demon King—Bella.

At this moment, Bella’s eyelids were trembling nonstop, as if there were signs of Awakening.

However, Laplace paid this no mind. She gently plucked a thin shed scale from her temple hair.

Held between her thumb and index finger, the scale’s razor-sharp edge gleamed with silver light. Her movements gave Angel the illusion that what Laplace was holding was not a scale, but a scalpel.

The next second, the "scalpel" lightly traced across Bella’s fat belly.

Her belly was immediately slit open with an incision.

In Angel’s imagination, once a "mouth" was opened in this mountain of flesh, the greasy fat and intestines inside would surely gush out in a slick cascade.

But the reality was completely different from what he imagined. Not a trace of fat flowed out. Instead, a mass of green vines came drilling out of the opening.

Clearly, Bella herself was still in a half-comatose state, yet these vines seemed to possess a will of their own, lashing about wildly as they tried to attack Laplace.

Only, these whip strikes that looked vicious beyond compare were all easily neutralized by Laplace.

With each flicker of silver light, the ground was left littered with lengths of vine. Some vines, severed by the scale, fell to the floor and, like earthworms cut in segments, still tried to wriggle—only for Laplace to stomp down on them with a single hoof.

Green sap exploded, splattering all over the ground.

With visible distaste, Laplace minced her steps in a sizzling circle, then kicked the now-wilted vines to the side, and continued her "operation" on Bella’s belly.

With the second cut to the belly, by all rights, some organs should have spilled out.

But none did; it was still a torrent of vines. Only, these vines seemed to realize Laplace was not easy prey, and abandoned close-quarters entanglement. Instead, they bloomed into a mass of gaudy flowers.

These bright red blossoms were plainly Big Mary Roses. They looked as though they had drunk their fill of human blood, scarlet and ready to drip.

And as the Big Mary Roses fully bloomed, Bella’s mountain of flesh visibly shrank by a ring, as though all the nourishment of these roses came from Bella herself.

After the Big Mary Roses blossomed, they did two things.

First, they released a vast cloud of red powder from their centers, the dust forming patches of vivid red Mist in the air.

Regardless of whether this powder was toxic, even without poison, inhaling such large particulates into the lungs would absolutely not feel pleasant.

Clearly, this was the Big Mary Roses’ first tactical ploy: using the powder to deal with Laplace.

Yet once the powder appeared, it couldn’t get anywhere near Laplace at all.

Because the shed scales came with a defensive field of their own; any foreign object that Laplace did not permit was simply unable to approach, and could only slide past around her.

These vivid red mists were equally ineffective against Glaipnir in the distance, because she was also wearing the Second Shed Astrological Disk. The scale’s defensive field protected her as well from any external foreign intrusion.

With the Mist rendered useless, the Big Mary Roses immediately carried out their second action: the blossoms flared fully open, their petals turning into blades, lashing out indiscriminately in all directions.

Judging from the intensity of the petal-blade assault, it was basically on par with a volley of Wind Blades, falling between a Second-Level Trick and a Third-Level Trick. If the number of petal blades was great enough, and the coverage broader, it could even reach the peak of Third-Level tricks.

This would be effective against ordinary people, or against some Apprentices, but against Laplace and Glaipnir, it was still useless.

Shed scales were a Transcendent structure capable even of blowing up an Official Wizard. How could they possibly fail to guard against these trick-level attacks?

Petal-rain fell in great drifts, while Laplace truly achieved what it meant to pass through a riot of blossoms without a single leaf clinging to her.

Silver light flared; the vines bearing the Big Mary Roses once more met defeat, reduced to puddles of sap beneath Laplace’s hooves.

Laplace did not hesitate, and continued cutting open Bella’s belly.

As the third layer of peritoneum was sliced through, Bella’s body rapidly shrank, transforming from a flesh-mountain Great Demon King into an ordinary flesh-mound.

The reason being—

Six human-headed roses crawled out from her belly.

The appearance of these human-headed roses was the same as the roses with human heads that Angel had seen growing on the Crystal Creations outside; however, the faces on these roses were neither Bella’s nor Helen’s, but belonged to other people.

Three male, three female.

Among them, the eyes of two men and two women were open, brows knotted in fury, faces twisted and terrifying. The remaining man and woman had their eyes closed, and looked much calmer than the other heads.

Angel also saw the faces of these heads and couldn’t help saying, "These heads seem to be..."

Laplace: "The people from this manor."

As Laplace was speaking, one of the male human-head roses suddenly let out an angry shout, seized control of the surrounding vines, and launched an attack at Laplace.

Laplace, without the slightest effort, easily sliced apart the nearby vines, and before he could continue to manipulate the remaining ones, a scale pierced straight into the center of his brow.

With a wisp of red smoke, the first human-head rose was completely destroyed.

At the same time, Laplace and Glaipnir seemed to sense something, froze for a second, then glanced at each other.

Angel also noticed their abnormality and asked in puzzlement, "What’s wrong?"

Laplace said in a low voice, "Ninety-two, exploration is up to ninety-two."

Angel was stunned. The exploration progress had been 91% before, and now it was 92%? Was it because they killed this human-head rose?!

Glaipnir also spoke at this moment: "I got a prompt as well. According to the prompt..."

"Special character ’Butler Whose Heart Wasn’t Black Enough’ in the process of execution..."

"Special character ’Butler Whose Heart Wasn’t Black Enough’ has been executed."

"Having a black heart is not wrong; what’s wrong is not being black-hearted enough. — Former Butler of the Fan Family."

"Current exploration of Special Dreamland ’Glutton’s Banquet’: 92%."

The human-head rose that had just been killed was precisely the Butler of this manor. Angel had also seen his portrait before. And the instance’s prompt confirmed this: he was indeed the Butler, only his name seemed to have been replaced by a nickname.

It had become: Butler Whose Heart Wasn’t Black Enough.

Meaning this Butler was black-hearted, but hadn’t gone quite far enough in that direction?

Also, there was another line in the prompt: Having a black heart is not wrong; what’s wrong is not being black-hearted enough. — Former Butler of the Fan Family.

The point of this line isn’t the words themselves, but the person who said them.

Former Butler of the Fan Family.

If Angel remembered correctly, the protagonist of Helen’s Dream, that is, Helen, was named: Vilaaf Fan Helen.

The Fan Family was the family of Helen’s parents, a minor Nobility.

Later, this family suffered a misfortune; Helen was raised by the former Butler of the Fan Family, and this former Butler of the Fan Family is the current owner of this manor.

From all the details discovered so far, it was clear this manor’s owner was no good man; his dream was to inherit a noble title.

So having him say "Having a black heart is not wrong; what’s wrong is not being black-hearted enough" makes sense. Because he himself is the true embodiment of a black heart.

While Angel was thinking, Laplace killed the second human-head rose as well.

And the face of this human-head rose was exactly that of the current owner of the manor, the former Butler of the Fan Family.

His ability was to spit out razor-sharp, poisoned blades from his grinning mouth.

A true honeyed mouth with a sword in the belly.

When he was killed, Laplace and Glaipnir received new prompts again.

"Special character ’Ambitious Man of False Appearances’ in the process of execution..."

"Special character ’Ambitious Man of False Appearances’ has been executed."

"For the future glory of my descendants, how can having ambition be wrong? — Former Head Maid of the Fan Family."

"Current exploration of Special Dreamland ’Glutton’s Banquet’: 93%."

Setting the other information aside for now, just in terms of exploration, it had increased by another point!

And there were still four human-head roses remaining at the scene. Did that mean that if all these human-head roses were executed, the exploration could reach 97%?!

Though 97 was still some distance from 100, it was much closer than the earlier 91.

With that in mind, Laplace unhesitatingly killed the third human-head rose.

This human-head rose was the very former Head Maid of the Fan Family who said "For the future glory of my descendants, how can having ambition be wrong," and was also the current mistress of this manor, Bella’s mother.

It was worth mentioning that Bella’s mother’s ability was: breathing fire.

With her death, a new prompt appeared:

"Special character ’Arsonist Hypocrite’ in the process of execution..."

"Special character ’Arsonist Hypocrite’ has been executed."

"Setting a fire is easy, but how do you keep the ones who deserve to die from running away? Perhaps, poison them first! — Former Cook of the Fan Family."

"Current exploration of Special Dreamland ’Glutton’s Banquet’: 94%."

After seeing these prompts, they more or less understood the past of this residence, the story of the once-existing Fan Family.

Previously, Laplace had found a book in the owner’s study. The illustrations in the book told of the sorrowful end of what had once been a happy noble family.

And the cause of this noble family’s collapse was a great fire.

The blaze killed the head of the Fan Family and his wife, leaving only one pitiful child, Helen. Helen was taken in by a Butler who appeared loyal but was in fact filled with ambition. After that, Helen suffered all kinds of hardships and was even driven to live in a cramped, filthy attic.

Helen raged against his own circumstances, but with his strength he had no way to resist the former Butler, now his "stepfather."

He could only, in his dreams, conjure up the masked man to kill, again and again, those who abused him.

The broad outline of Helen’s Dream was like this.

However, what Helen probably didn’t know was that the one who actually set the fire back then was his current stepmother, the former Head Maid of the Fan Family.

And this piece of information had been exposed, and seen by everyone, after Helen’s Dream and Bira’s Beautiful Dream were linked together.

It had to be said, this was a tragic story.

Even if they killed these human-head roses here, even if they killed the former Butler and former Head Maid of the Fan Family, all of it was happening inside a dream. What the situation was in reality remained unknown.

Still, that didn’t matter for the moment. This dream might be showing events from decades ago, or even centuries ago; there was no need to overthink it.

What mattered most to Laplace right now was the exploration progress.

There were three human-head roses left. Of these three, Laplace temporarily shifted her focus away from the two people with their eyes closed.

Instead, she focused her attention on a woman.

Earlier, Laplace had seen a strange woman on the gate rail of the Rose Garden, but had never found the answer to who she was.

Now, this woman had finally appeared, in the form of a human-head rose, right before their eyes!

Laplace did not hesitate and attacked her directly.

The woman did resist, using a kind of poisonous mist to fight back, but before Laplace’s overwhelming strength, her resistance was negligible.

With her death, the last piece of the backstory of Helen’s Dream snapped into place.

"Special character ’Jealous Poison Hag’ in the process of execution..."

"Special character ’Jealous Poison Hag’ has been executed."

"You treat me like a sister? But you can bask in wealth and honor, while I’m just a lowly cook stoking the fires; you’re beautiful, the object of countless people’s admiration even after marriage, while I am plain and ugly. How can we be mentioned in the same breath? This so-called sisterhood you speak of is an insult to me! An insult! I want you dead! Only if you die and I live can my jealousy be balanced! — Former Cook of the Fan Family."

"Current exploration of Special Dreamland ’Glutton’s Banquet’: 95%."