novelonline Chapter 3500 The End of the Pilgrimage
Chapter 3500 The End of the Pilgrimage
Chapter 3500 The End of the Pilgrimage
The fluttering pages danced in the mountains along with the snowflakes, and on each page appeared the face of the priest with the peculiar hairstyle.
His face was now grim, all traces of his earlier composure gone. As the numbers "1", "2", and "3" appeared on his face in sequence, pink and white dolls emerged from different pages.
"The Puppet Master's Script" can manipulate the fate of almost everything on a small scale. Combined with the ability of the "All Numbers Return to One" to manipulate probability through numbers, he thought he would have no rivals in this battle of the chosen ones.
I never expected that after being driven away by a man who seemed to be a "god summoner" outside the town, I would encounter three such troublesome women tonight.
The threads of fate had long since entangled them, but apart from the slightly older blonde woman, the fates of the purple-eyed fortune teller and the blonde elf were both incredibly peculiar. The elf's fortune was exceptionally good, a kind of world-blessed luck that, even when "The Puppet Master's Script" wove misfortune for her, was slow to take effect due to the resistance of her good fortune.
The purple-eyed fortune teller seemed to be immune to fate; the destiny written in the script was completely ineffective, and nothing was achieved except for the pages rapidly igniting.
Since weaving fate has failed, direct attack is the only option. The pink and white puppets, aided by "The Puppet Master's Script," can now fly freely beyond the mountain stone steps.
But even with such an advantage, three seconds later, they were still blasted into pieces by Emilia's swift "Natural Energy Impact".
A third of the scattered paper scraps have now been forcibly frozen in the air by the power of time. Miss Isabella has suppressed most of the power of that angelic relic on her own.
As for Luvia, after a few coin tosses, she pinpointed the hideout of the cultists from the "Unity of Ten Thousand." While "Miss Sabel" cast a spell controlling the countless pages, and Emilia enthusiastically attacked the puppets emerging from them, her purple eyes lifted to a roughly thirty-degree angle to her right. Through the illusions amidst the fluttering pages, she discovered a completely different hue:
"Snake molt!"
Luvia tossed the silver needle, already tucked between her left fingers, in that direction. This wasn't some extraordinary technique, just a simple trick using physical strength and mental focus. Luvia only truly began casting her spell as the silver needle pierced the snake's molt within the paper.
Ink spread outwards from where the silver needle touched the snake slough, followed by the complete emergence of the symbol "Infinite Serpent" on its surface. Sensing something was wrong, the priest tried to break free from the snake slough, but Luvia's spell was already complete.
The fine silver needle pierced the snake molt completely, and the entire molt immediately burst into flames amidst the snowflakes. The "priest's" true form instantly flew out of the molt and rushed to extinguish the fire.
However, Luvia's research into the properties of snake molts during this period gave her a deeper understanding of them. The flames were merely an appearance; their true nature was the burning of luck. Even if the fire went out, his luck would drop by at least two levels in a short period of time.
Now that the "priest" had appeared, Miss Sabel and Emilia's attack came immediately. He already understood that the opponents who had come here with the map were no ordinary people, so after carefully putting away the snake skin, which had been burned at most of its corner, he turned around to make a final stand.
The divine spell activated, and the dice that had been bouncing in the void materialized, clattering in the snow. Luvia realized that this wasn't just a spell from an evil god, but also the candidate's innate talent at work. The bouncing black dice stirred the torrent of fate, but her purple eyes saw something far more fundamental:
"His talent lies in guiding every story he participates in toward tragedy."
She tried to counter with a spell, but with a loud cry, golden light appeared from the steps below. The golden light emanating from the horns of Little Leona and Ellie struck the still-jumping twenty-sided die. The die exploded into dust in mid-air. The "priest," who was flying through the air on the pages, paled and stared incredulously at the two unicorns. Then, disregarding the map, he leaped off the side of the cliff and disappeared into the sea of clouds below in the blink of an eye.
A chaotic stream of light from Miss Sabel followed closely behind, and another scream echoed through the mountains. The scattered pages flew downwards with the "priest," but Emilia managed to snatch two pages in the chaos.
Seeing that her attack had hit its target, Miss Saber wanted to press her advantage and finish off this troublesome enemy in one go, but her right hand was grabbed by Luvia.
The purple eyes continued to gaze higher up the stone steps:
"No need. You're not one of the chosen ones. Even if you catch up, you'll most likely only severely injure him and let him escape. Besides, once you leave this path, you'll never be able to come back. There's no need to waste your chance to reach the end for the sake of this cultist."
"Let's keep going, Emilia. What are you holding? A piece of paper? No, no, I don't need it. You keep it, but remember not to misuse it. Call Ellie and little Leona who are hiding behind us. Stay close to me for the rest of the way."
Encountering the cultists of the "Ten Thousand Numbers Return to One" was just a minor incident; the rest of the journey was still led forward by Luvia, who was holding a map.
In another very short cave, they were blocked by a lake inside the cave. Even at night, the two ends of the cave could still see each other, but unfortunately, the lake left them no way to proceed.
Luvia then said:
"This is where pilgrims bathe; we can just walk through the water."
The water was unusually calm. When Emilia, walking on it, looked down, she saw a series of phantom images beneath the surface. She saw herself studying at the academy, continuing to study there, growing older, and then suddenly dying in some kind of disaster—a rather boring life.
"This is."
"It's just a possibility, similar to the effect of the [Kaleidoscope of Crossroads], so there's no need to worry about it too much."
Luvia said, without looking down, but the witch beside her looked down after hearing her words. Then Adele Isabella saw herself kneeling dejectedly before Claire's corpse, next to which was Luvia's reflection in the water, and the reflection's hair was clearly long.
"possibility."
Emerging from the cave, she found herself back in the snow, braving the wind and snow to continue forward. Higher up the mountain, the path connecting the upper and lower sections ended abruptly. The break was over ten meters long, suggesting she would have to find a new path, but Luvia simply strode across it.
"The road is under your feet, not in your eyes."
Even though the Great Witch of Time couldn't sense any invisible paths or stairs, she was indeed walking on thin air. Emilia then stretched out her boots to test the way, and only dared to follow after confirming there was a path. The blonde witch, on the other hand, was very curious about everything around them.
As for the two unicorns, they were quite bold. Seeing Emilia stepping on thin air, they jumped right up on her and walked without the same caution as Emilia.
After crossing the transparent bridge, the wind and snow suddenly intensified. The fierce wind made the slender girls unsteady on their feet. Luvia stretched out her arm to shield herself and struggled forward, stepping through the snowdrifts.
She had only taken less than twenty steps when the snowstorm suddenly stopped again. But when she looked around and behind her, Adele Isabella, Emilia, and the two little unicorns were no longer there.
The girl with purple eyes stood there for a moment, lost in thought, then brushed the snowflakes off her shoulders and walked away alone.
There was no road ahead, only a steep, upward-sloping snowdrift. As she climbed alone, she reflected on her life as a fortune teller, and the choices she had made in those pivotal moments of her life.
"If I had made a different choice, would I still be here?"
She asked herself the question in her heart, and the long-haired girl answered "yes," that she would definitely get here.
One by one, familiar objects appeared in the snow: a crystal ball half-hidden in the snowflakes, divination cards scattered across the snow, an obsidian pendulum reflecting starlight, and a water basin upside down in the snow.
She walked past the divination tools and continued climbing. It seemed to be a test for pilgrims on the pilgrimage route, but it had little effect on Luvia. She simply moved forward with reminiscence until she saw an archway standing at the highest point of the snow slope.
The archway was about three meters high, constructed from stones of various colors. Each color of stone was square, and each was engraved with different runes. On the very top stone of the archway was the emblem of the ancient god of fate.
She could have continued forward by going around the arch, but Luvia had a feeling that she had to go through the arch to reach the end of this pilgrimage.
The so-called "archway" obviously didn't have a door, but the interior was a layer of ethereal, transparent color. Her right hand rested on it, and a voice identical to hers, amidst the mountain winds and snow, asked Luvia the final question:
"Pilgrimage-seeker, what is your greatest achievement in your life's struggle against fate?"
So the girl with long hair and the girl with shoulder-length hair gave the same answer:
“Shad Hamilton came because of me, and the audience outside of fate took their seats because of me.”
In the snowy night, someone seemed to be laughing contentedly. The ouroboros symbol above the archway shone brightly, and the illusory, transparent barrier vanished. Luvia's boots then touched the snow behind the archway. She took a few more steps forward, looked at the scene before her, and sighed deeply.