Return of the Red Moon

Atop the web, flames raged furiously.

The obese Jeremy and the swarm of spiders had yet to realize the change, still waiting across the fire for their master, the Weaver, to feast on the delicious soul that had willingly offered itself up.

Officer Natalie had just regained a bit of her strength.

Sensing the gaze recede, she knew the tide of battle had turned, but Lynch's state worried her deeply. She struggled frantically against the web, desperate to get over and check on him as soon as possible.

For Lynch had made a few baffling gestures moments earlier, only to freeze in place with his hand raised, completely motionless.

Yet barely two or three seconds passed before she broke free from her bindings, braced herself against her rapier, and stood up, only for an unforgettable vision to suddenly unfold before her eyes.

Above was a profound, starless night sky; beneath her feet stretched a vast, boundless wilderness.

Dressed in formal attire and a top hat, Lynch knelt on one knee at the center of the wilderness, his head bowed.

Behind him, a massive red moon rose slowly into the sky.

Crimson moonlight washed over his back, shrouding him in a hazy, mysterious aura as if he had just stepped out from the moonlight itself.

As the red moon climbed, boundless majesty enveloped the surroundings. Distinct from the Weaver's eerie, terrifying gaze from before, the majesty emanating from the moon was filled with a sacred, noble, and gentle presence, as if a compassionate gaze were softly looking down upon the world.

The red moon hung high, eclipsing the stars until it seemed as though only moonlight would endure in all the world.

Crack. The vision shattered, and webs and flames filled Officer Natalie's sight once more.

Yet the majesty remained.

Lynch remained kneeling on one knee just as in the vision, an immense majesty radiating from within him. At this moment, it was as if the crimson full moon had merged into one with him.

“In the name of the red moon!”

Pressing the pendant in his hand against his chest, Lynch called out the holy name of the Crimson Lady.

Clang, clang, clang.

A sacred toll of bells echoed through the cave.

No, there was no actual sound within the cave; the chiming rang out inside the heart of every living being present.

Originating from the soul, holy and lingering, each chime resonated with boundless majesty.

Hearing the bells, every living being—regardless of faith or species—knelt and prostrated in unison, driven by instincts engraved deep within their souls to offer reverence to a higher existence.

In the next moment, the phantom silhouette of a blood-red full moon rose into midair from behind Lynch.

The phantom moon exuded an imposing yet gentle aura. Under the illumination of the crimson light, boundless might filled the cavern.

As the phantom reached its peak, an orb of light enveloped in crimson mist orbited it like a satellite. The permeating red mist was one of the symbols of the crimson moon, and it also symbolized the first authority Lynch had chosen from the fallen god of the red moon—Concealment.

Officer Natalie remained kneeling on one knee, her mouth slightly agape, completely dumbfounded to the point of forgetting to stand up.

She could understand that Lynch had somehow managed to complete his soul alienation right in the middle of battle, truly becoming a member of the Soul Severers.

But she could not fathom for the life of her how a mere soul alienation could cause such an earth-shattering commotion.

She had witnessed seven or eight newly awakened Soul Severers in her time, including herself, and none of them had ever produced such a spectacle.

Not only were there omens forming visions before the alienation, but a soul manifestation was also prominently displayed throughout the process with staggering momentum. As for that soul-crushing pressure, anyone would believe it if it were called a divine miracle.

This guy is just too absurd. It was one thing for his brains to be shocking, but did he really have to scare me out of my wits with this, too?

I had a hunch you'd be formidable in the future, but I never imagined something like this. What's happening right now doesn't look like soul alienation at all—it can practically rival a Divine Authority transfer.

In truth, the police officer had no idea what a Divine Authority transfer actually looked like, but that did not stop her from using the most exaggerated description she could think of to convey her inner shock. She stared blankly at Lynch until the rustling crawl around them snapped her back to reality—this place was far from safe.

Hundreds of giant spiders still circled them, and Lynch was clearly unable to move yet.

You came to save me, so now it's my turn to protect you.

Officer Natalie sidestepped a few paces to guard Lynch from the front. Facing the restlessly creeping spiders, her expression turned cold as she slowly drew her rapier, leveling its point at Jeremy amidst the swarm.

“Come on. The fight isn't over yet. Round two begins now.”

Yet from an angle she could not see, Lynch looked up toward the sky and smiled faintly. Immediately afterward, a beam of crimson moonlight suddenly shone into the cavern.

The female officer blinked, unable to comprehend. This was dozens of meters underground—how could this be possible?

And yet, defying all reason, the red moonlight pierced straight through the thick layers of earth into the subterranean cave, shining directly upon the red moon behind Lynch.

The red moon in the heavens and the red moon within the soul were linked tightly together with a single beam of moonlight as their bridge.

Sky and earth resonated across the distance.

The celestial omen manifested.

And so, the people across all of Rhine City bore witness to the anomaly in the night sky.

A faint ray of moonlight grew brighter and brighter, shining with the vivid radiance of fresh blood. Ignoring sturdy buildings and thick earth, it plunged straight into the ground. Then, an immense, boundless invisible force shot out from the timeless blood moon in the night sky, guided along the beam of moonlight past dozens of meters of earth, crashing down like a falling star heavily into the gloomy cavern.

The boundless power descended in complete silence, as if it were merely ordinary moonlight.

In the next instant, however, a terrifyingly colossal force swept through the entire cave in a flash. Before any living creature or mysterious organism within could even react, they were utterly swallowed by the light. The chilling moonlight seemed to carry the power to destroy all things, reducing everything in its path to a blurred smear within the radiance.

After a long time, the pillar of moonlight bridging heaven and earth slowly dispersed. The celestial omen faded, and peace returned to the mortal realm.

The subterranean depths returned to gloom as well. Still kneeling on one knee, Lynch gave his head a sudden shake, snapping out of his daze.

Just now, under the guidance of Lady Red Moon, he had taken advantage of the unique state during soul alienation to trigger a celestial omen. It could not be replicated, but the results...

Lynch turned his head, only to find the female officer staring at him blankly, her mouth open, unable to string together a single coherent sentence.

“What's wrong?”

The officer's lips moved, but no sound came out. She merely pointed around them.

Lynch quickly looked around, and his expression instantly turned quite colorful.

The results were surprisingly effective.

Carcasses of giant spiders littered the ground everywhere; not a single living thing remained in sight.

Most of the corpses were mangled and incomplete, their surfaces giving off the red mist that represented mystery, looking like lingering gunsmoke.

Lynch sucked in a cold breath. “If I said this had nothing to do with me, would you believe me?”

The officer simply shook her head vigorously.

The muscles on Lynch's face twitched, and he let out a deep sigh. “Fine, maybe it had a little to do with me, but—”

Before he could finish, a strange sound came from a corner. A rotund figure suddenly burst out, tossing aside a heap of spider carcasses, and fled toward the depths of the cave.

Jeremy.