The Witch's Anatomical Notes

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Chapter 83

The Golden Index Finger of the Lord of Nightmares

Beneath the central magic array, deep underground.

Talia was using Symbiotic Mutation Studies to control the roots of the crying-faced tree, making them wriggle to either side and open a narrow tunnel.

Behind her, Lucy and Olivia were bent over as they advanced.

This scene made both of them recall the moment two months prior, when they had fled from the Principality of Kolo.

But at that time, neither of them could have imagined that one day they would take the initiative to plunge together into such peril. A sense of having lived another lifetime spread through their hearts.

At this moment, the air within the tunnel suddenly quivered, and the divine contamination intensified again.

"The anti-contamination effect of the crying-faced tree bark worked even better than I expected." Olivia stroked the crude armor woven from the bark covering her body. She did not feel any noticeable increase in the contamination value within her.

Back when they had just been teleported in, Lucy had discovered the property of the crying-faced tree bark to isolate divine contamination.

Judging by the present, this bark had proven quite effective.

"We are almost at the destination." Talia, at the very front, suddenly lowered her voice to remind them.

The converging roots on all sides were already nearing the end.

When the final layer of roots retreated under her control, an enormous circular cavity with a diameter of over two hundred meters abruptly revealed itself.

Countless crying-faced tree roots writhed along the walls, resembling veins tangled beneath skin.

And at the very center of the hollow, there floated a finger as thick as an ordinary person’s forearm.

That finger appeared an unhealthy ashen white, and a dim golden radiance glowed beneath the skin.

Its joints were swollen where the knuckles bent, the nail sharp and hooked. Even after a thousand years, the golden blood clinging to the edge still slowly flowed.

The fingertip trembled slightly. With each spasm, the surrounding roots contracted in unison, as if transmitting some kind of pulse, or perhaps drawing away the divine power the finger emanated.

"This place looks just like a power extractor meticulously prepared for a dead god’s remains." Olivia could not help sighing in awe.

Lucy’s eyes brightened.

"You guessed correctly. The birth of the Ghostface Forest may not have been accidental."

The two of them turned to look at Lucy.

"Mentor Fernando once said that because they wielded the power of the Laws, evil gods could not truly be killed. Destroying their bodies could only force them into slumber."

"When the divine power transformed from faith accumulated to a certain threshold, they would awaken once more."

She pointed at the writhing network of roots. "And this absorption system woven from the roots was continuously diluting the power leaking from the divine remains that was probably why the Lord of Nightmares had lain dormant here in Godfall Gorge for a thousand years without awakening."

Olivia asked, "But who designed this entire system?"

"Most likely that Star Ring Wizard who hacked the Lord of Nightmares into pieces."

The Pale Scalpel had mentioned in his travel notes that the Nightmare Plane had two main gods—the Lord of Nightmares and the Lord of Desires.

The former commanded the Sea of Nightmares and possessed the power to awaken fear in human hearts, while the latter ruled the Bay of Desire, capable of making people forever drown in lustful dreams.

A thousand years ago, the Lord of Nightmares descended in his true form by sacrificing the lives of tens of thousands of followers as an anchor, and his divine realm contaminated millions of mortals.

Later, a Star Ring Wizard arrived and destroyed him, ultimately leaving behind this colossal gorge that stretched like a basin.

The kingdom that once occupied this canyon had vanished entirely into the depths of the pit.

Talia swallowed hard, pointing a trembling finger at the hand suspended in the air. "So this is... the remains of a god?!"

"Strictly speaking, it is the index finger of the Lord of Nightmares."

Lucy’s explanation made a chill creep up her companions’ spines.

In a war of this scale, both formal wizards and mortals alike were equally insignificant.

"Enough about that," Lucy cut off their thoughts. "We need to figure out a way to deal with this thing."

"But what should we do?"

"Hehe." Lucy pulled the No. 3 Alchemical Scalpel of the Midnight Dissector from her toolkit, and a suspicious flush rose on her delicate face. "Of course, we are going to dissect it into a specimen!"

A quasi-divine specimen!

Even Mentor Fernando, who was already a mid-level wizard, would never have dared to imagine such a thing, yet she had stumbled into it herself!

Under Talia’s control, a thick vine slowly lifted Lucy closer to the floating “Golden Index Finger of the Lord of Nightmares.”

Clad in the crying-faced tree bark garments, Lucy’s gaze burned ever hotter.

Just as she focused all her attention and raised the scalpel—

Boom—

A violent tremor shook the entire cavity. Lucy lost her balance atop the vine and fell.

Fortunately, Talia reacted swiftly and immediately wrapped another vine around her waist to catch her.

Lucy shouted, "What’s happening?!"

Olivia’s expression changed abruptly. "I sensed the resonance of the Law’s power."

In an instant, countless witchcraft runes lit up across the chamber, which had been formed by the piled-up roots. The sudden brilliance flooded the entire space as though a blazing sun had descended.

Talia cried out in alarm. "The wizard of the Eternal Silence Blackthorn forcibly activated the witchcraft array!"

With so many of the array’s nodes damaged, no one could know what might occur once it was triggered.

Talia immediately transformed her right arm into a vine and plunged it into the wall, trying to open an escape route.

But a surge of wild divine power suddenly counterattacked through the roots. Before Talia could even scream, she fell unconscious.

Lucy hastily caught Talia as she collapsed, and just as she raised her scalpel to sever the vines that connected them—

The floating “Index Finger of the Lord of Nightmares” erupted with an immense halo of light that swallowed all three of them completely.

…

At the same time, in the central magic array—

"All of you… must die!"

The moment Branny’s fingertip touched the altar’s core, the incomplete array blazed with a blinding blue light that signified magical energy.

In an instant, the entire central magic array was engulfed in magical energy.

But the next second, the tremor from underground tore that brilliance apart. Golden divine power pierced the altar like blades and surged madly into her body.

"This... this is the divine might of the Lord of Nightmares?!" Branny stared in delirious awe at her veins glowing with golden light.

Terrifying divine contamination swept across the entire trial ground with her at its center.

At the mouth of Godfall Gorge—

Waves of magical energy detonated in the air one after another.

Two wizards from the Tower of the Four Sages were locked in aerial witchcraft combat against two wizards of Eternal Silence Blackthorn.

The fluctuations from formal wizards’ magical energy shook the entire space violently.

Rudolph Sanders, a scholar of the Occult Studies School whose skill was only at the level of a novice wizard, was struggling bitterly to withstand the barrage of spells.

His opponent, Mentor Fernando, merely wielded his Mithril Scalpel with effortless grace.

One fearsome witchcraft model after another took shape in rapid succession.

As a traveling wizard, Fernando was well aware of the methods favored by occult wizards, so he felt no urgency to kill Rudolph in a short time. Instead, he relied on the overwhelming volume of his mental strength to slowly wear him down.

"Sarah! We agreed to join forces against the Tower of the Four Sages!" Rudolph shouted in desperation under Fernando’s relentless pressure.

Sarah Baldwin of the Witch’s Cottage watched coldly. "But I never agreed to feed apprentices to an evil god."

She had already learned of their plot from an apprentice sent to report.

Suddenly, the upheaval in the trial ground made everyone halt.

Rudolph roared furiously, "Those bastards! They actually activated the array!"

He had spent more than two hundred years laying out this scheme to siphon the Law’s power of the Lord of Nightmares and find a path to advance as a Star Ring Wizard.

But now, with the array only seventy percent complete, activating it could only result in the Law’s power of the Lord of Nightmares being squandered in vain!