Marcus moved.
His body emitted a piercing screech—the sound of gears overloading. On the mechanical half of his face, a red light flashed frantically, as if an alarm was about to go off.
Steam erupted.
White mist surged from every seam of his body, expanding, churning, and coiling around him like a cloak of steam. Even from a dozen meters away, Lu Yuan could feel the air distorting.
A heatwave washed over him.
The ground trembled, and from the cracks in the ore beneath his feet, countless tentacles suddenly surged out. As if provoked, they lunged frantically toward Marcus.
But Marcus had already sensed it.
With a heavy stomp, he transformed into a white meteor, not charging toward the tentacled mutant but leaping over it, heading straight for the winding upward passage behind the altar.
The tentacles emerging from the ground were scorched by the high temperature the moment they appeared, letting out a "hissing" sound as they recoiled in a twist. Those whipping in from the sides saw their skin fester instantly upon contact with the steam, unable to hinder his progress at all.
"He’s insane!" Alice’s voice was filled with shock.
Philip remained silent, merely gripping the holy emblem on his chest as a faint golden light shimmered between his fingers.
Lu Yuan stared into the depths of that passage.
The heart was in there.
The source of the Strange Dreams.
If it wasn't dealt with, the Strange Dreams would never stop.
He would end up like Laisen, or worse.
"Philip." Lu Yuan looked at the receding Marcus, his voice calm.
Philip glanced at him without a word, but the holy emblem lit up, and a layer of faint golden light covered Lu Yuan's entire body.
Lu Yuan pulled out his last three bottles of intermediate holy water, tilted his head back, and drained them in one go.
【Sanity: +7. +7. 70/70】
【You have received the Blessing of the Angel, stabilizing your Sanity for a short period.】
His left hand gripped the Timekeeper in his robe, while his right had already produced an Exorcism Gunpowder.
"What are you doing?" Gray grabbed Lu Yuan’s shoulder, frowning.
Lu Yuan didn't answer; he simply shook off Gray’s hand.
In the next instant, he charged out.
Accompanied by the clicking sound of the Timekeeper.
The world slowed down.
Everything around him felt as if it were stuck in a quagmire; sounds became low and movements turned sluggish. Only Lu Yuan moved within accelerated time.
In Lu Yuan’s eyes, Marcus's steam became a slowly spreading white mist, the writhing of the tentacles looked like slow-motion playback, and Alice’s action of turning to look at him froze halfway.
To him, the trajectory of the gunpowder was clearly visible, cutting through the air, bypassing the squirming tentacles, and landing precisely at the center of that mass of flesh.
"Boom!"
It was as if a sun had risen underground.
Blinding light instantly swallowed everything, and a scorching airwave expanded outward like a shockwave. Holy power exploded within the temple, seemingly intent on purifying all the filth there.
Every tentacle trembled simultaneously, twisting, contracting, and retreating frantically.
It was as if they were being burned.
The path to the Mother's heart was finally open.
Marcus seized this opportunity; steam erupted again as his figure instantly shot through that distance, disappearing into the ore passage behind the altar.
Lu Yuan followed closely behind.
It was a translucent passage formed entirely from condensed Deep Blue ore.
The passage wound upward, with blue light flowing within the ore, making the path ahead somewhat difficult to see clearly.
The moment Marcus stepped onto the passage, dense tentacles spread out from the cracks in the ore, blocking the way.
But Marcus didn't stop. His mechanical arm punched out, the steam carrying terrifying force as he forcefully hammered out a path.
The power released with every swing of his fist was even more terrifying than that of the Arbiter.
Lu Yuan followed behind; the blue light in the passage grew brighter and brighter, until it was blinding.
His headache began to intensify.
Images from the Strange Dreams flashed continuously in his mind.
【Sanity: -2... -2... -2... 64/70】
But Lu Yuan did not stop; he had to go in and find out exactly what all of this was.
Finally, at the end of the passage, Marcus stopped.
Lu Yuan stopped too.
Eyes. Countless eyes.
At this moment, they all snapped open.
Hidden behind the translucent ore was more than just a heart.
The heart was only a part of it.
It was larger, as massive as the temple hidden in the darkness.
The images before Lu Yuan's eyes began to distort; his mind was no longer processing what he saw.
It could not be looked upon. It was indescribable. It was incomprehensible.
His eyes were bleeding, and his body was trembling.
【Warning: An indescribable entity has been detected. Looking directly at it will cause a Sanity collapse and lead to irreversible mutation.】
【Warning: Sanity barrier at its limit.】
【Warning: Sanity barrier... Collapsed (0/3).】
【Sanity: 11/70】
Lu Yuan's consciousness began to blur.
His Sanity was about to shatter.
Marcus also came to a standstill.
That man, who had already modified himself beyond recognition, had red light flashing even more frantically on his mechanical face, as if he were on the verge of a breakdown.
But in the next moment, the aroma of cooked meat wafted over.
This allowed the nearly broken Lu Yuan to summon his last remaining Sanity.
Why was there such a smell?
It was coming from Marcus.
Marcus seemed to have been prepared.
In an unconscious state, the mechanical skeleton on his body began to burn with boiling red flames.
The extreme temperature instantly cooked the last remaining human parts of his body.
Flesh began to curl and peel, falling to the ground in large chunks; even his bones were gradually changing color.
And at this moment, Marcus finally locked in his last bit of Sanity, and his form moved once again.
His one remaining human eye flashed with a final spark of fanaticism before it burst.
Striding forward, Marcus rushed to the heart.
His mechanical arm transformed, extending a golden needle.
The needle was covered in runes and shimmering with a faint light; in the next instant, it pierced the heart!
The heart throbbed violently.
The entire temple began to vibrate.
Although it only pierced the edge, the massive size still caused the wound to spray a large amount of blue blood.
Marcus aimed a small vial at the wound and caught the liquid.
At the very moment Marcus pierced the heart's defenses, the countless eyes originally hidden behind the ore gradually closed.
One by one, slowly and heavily, as if falling back into a deep slumber.
The overwhelming mass of tentacles also stopped writhing.
They ceased their attacks and slumped to the ground as if drained of all strength.
For a moment, the entire temple fell into a peculiar silence.
Lu Yuan's brain was now a complete blank, but his bodily instincts still drove him to rush near the heart, where the wound from the golden needle was still seeping blood.
He pulled out an empty holy water bottle.
He caught some of the dark blue liquid, plugged the bottle, and tucked it into his robe.
【Obtained item: Blood of ██ (Small amount)】
Lu Yuan didn't have time to look at the prompt appearing before him; his remaining instincts urged him to leave, but his Sanity was nearing zero and his body had reached its limit.
With the deactivation of the Timekeeper, Lu Yuan could no longer hold on. His vision blurred, and his consciousness began to dissipate.
Just then, a mechanical hand grabbed him.
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