Chapter 15: How to Seal the Coffin of a Celestial Sovereign?

“Delusions of resurrecting from within me…”
The Lady of Misfortune murmured, a sudden realization dawning in her eyes. Many things that had previously eluded her understanding now made sense in this moment.

“Have you found any clues?” Hermione asked, noticing the subtle change in the Lady of Misfortune’s expression.

The Lady of Misfortune lowered her eyelids and replied calmly, “The Gray Mist intends to compel me to consume the ‘King.’”

Consume the “King of the Demon Wolves”?!

Hermione strained to recall all she knew about the King of the Demon Wolves. In the Second Era, before the true birth of the potion system, the eight deities each held dominion over one or multiple paths.

The King of the Demon Wolves wielded the powers of the Fool and Darkness paths. Though neither path was complete, undeniably, the King possessed the singular essence of the Fool!

The Gray Mist sought to manipulate the Lady of Misfortune into devouring this unique essence of the Fool within the King of the Demon Wolves, along with the extraordinary nature of the Fool’s Path Sequence 1 contained there.

It might not even require consuming the entire singularity of the Fool.

If the Lady of Misfortune, suffused with the aura of the Source Fortress, could merely absorb the extraordinary trait of the Fool’s Path Sequence 1, the “Mysterious Attendant,” it might awaken the Will of the Celestial Sovereign within her!

Though the Lady of Misfortune’s path lies in Darkness, consuming extraordinary traits from non-adjacent paths would inevitably drive her mad. Yet, it is highly likely that her impending madness would not hinder the awakening of the Celestial Sovereign’s Will within her.

“Legend has it that this being wields powers such as ‘Mockery’ and ‘Grafting,’” Hermione said thoughtfully.

The Lord of Secrets, of course, possessed more than these powers, but Hermione cautioned the Lady of Misfortune to never consume extraordinary traits from entities like the King of the Demon Wolves under any circumstance.

Hearing Hermione mention these powers, the Lady of Misfortune, well acquainted with the King’s abilities, managed a faint smile toward her: “Thank you, Hermione.”

Not yet hardened and ruthless, still as tender as a green apple—the Goddess of Night…

Hermione sighed inwardly and asked, “Lady of Misfortune, may I know your name?”

The servants of ancient gods might not possess names, but the remnants of old days certainly bore their own.

The Lady of Misfortune sighed softly, a trace of nostalgia flickering in her gaze, then slowly spoke, “Amanisys. When no one else is present, you may call me that.”

Amanisys… indeed, thought Hermione quietly.

“Amanisys…” Hermione hesitated before continuing, “I have the ability to soothe through dreams. Perhaps I can ease your pain. Would you like to try?”

Amanisys hesitated briefly—she usually responded with decisive yes or no—but seeing Hermione’s earnest desire to help, she nodded. “Very well, let’s try.”

Amanisys waved her hand, dispelling the darkness that cloaked the room.

With the darkness gone came a gentle warmth nurturing both spirit and soul, leaving Hermione feeling somewhat hollow.

But she quickly adjusted to this discomfort. She first scanned Amanisys’s bedding, then watched as the graceful woman lay down.

Amanisys moved stiffly… Hermione noticed and averted her gaze, even leaning against a corner of the room.

Sure enough, once her gaze shifted away, she sensed Amanisys’s breathing steady.

When the elegant woman on the bed finally slipped into sleep, Hermione activated her ability to render her body ethereal, transforming into a dream sprite and leapt into Amanisys’s dream.

Yet, even with Amanisys’s cooperation, entering the dream of a divine servant nearly left Hermione with a sore head.

Rubbing her aching dream form, Hermione surveyed the misty surroundings—dream therapy for pain relief typically involved interpreting dream elements and helping the dreamer eliminate discordant phenomena.

But the dream, thick with gray mist, made it difficult for Hermione to discern any direction.

“Patience,” she reminded herself, wandering bit by bit through the dream, seeking the places where the mist thinned, hoping to find Amanisys’s true presence.

Alas, after a long time, she found nothing.

Sensing something amiss, Hermione paused within the mist, attempting to shape it into scenes.

From anthropomorphic cats and dogs with strange movements to vivid human portraits, then pastoral fields, hills, and rivers.

Though clumsy, it was not difficult to reshape the dream’s landscape to her imagination’s design.

Yet, the power of a Dreamwalker should not allow such profound alteration of a high being’s dream!

“These are not the gray mists Amanisys or Urollius described…” Hermione furrowed her brow. “This cannot even be called Amanisys’s dream.”

Amanisys’s consciousness was not here.

This was merely an empty shell!

Where had Amanisys’s true mind gone?!

With grim expression, Hermione withdrew from the dream and approached the bed, noticing the pained expression on the sleeping Amanisys’s face, and the illusory worms writhing among her hair before vanishing.

This was… the influence of the Source Fortress?

Could it truly reach such depths?!

Had Amanisys’s real consciousness been dragged into the Source Fortress?!

Hermione recalled more detailed information about the Source Fortress, her brother Zhou Mingrui’s various uses for it, and the fortress’s true master—the Celestial Sovereign…

Clearly, left inert by the Celestial Sovereign’s unknown methods, the Source Fortress forcibly intensified Amanisys’s yearning to unify with the Fool path, a non-adjacent path, attempting to compel her to find a way to rupture and consume the “Mysterious Attendant” trait from the King of the Demon Wolves!

The Source Fortress… one of Earth’s nine primal essences.

Even without a master, it transcended true gods, equating to the personae of the Old Ones!

She tried to awaken Amanisys, but she could not even accomplish that.

“I am but a mere Sequence Five…” Hermione’s mood darkened, not out of hope for the future, but despair at seeing Amanisys suffer in her sleep.

Sequence Five is already humanity’s highest tier, yet in this maddening, enigmatic world, it was still as powerless as a pitiable insect.

Must she simply await the unfolding of fate… wait for the Celestial Sovereign’s influence over Amanisys to dissipate on its own?