Chapter 1333: Chapter 1333
"It's useless. Even though the shadow power erupting from the cat aided the explorers, the Titan's eyes can pierce through both shadow and mist."
As he spoke, Corpse Gentleman tossed two dice, rolled them a second time, and then announced:
"The Titan couldn't spot them with its eyes, but it saw through the trajectory of the shadows and found the explorers. It swung both its fists."
The cat stretched out a paw, wanting to roll the dice as well, but they were far too heavy for it. Hathaway mustered her courage, picked up the dice from under the cat's paw, and rolled them on its behalf.
Since no one understood the feline tongue, they had no idea what the cat had said or why it was making an additional check. The result, however, was reflected on the game board: the Titan's fists swung wide, merely tearing off the top three floors of the main building.
This was the first round where the players had been unable to control their characters.
"The Titan has slumbered here for over ten thousand years. It is the master of this land, and nothing that happens here can escape its perception."
Corpse Gentleman raised a hand, drawing the players' dice into his palm before casting them.
Vanilla meowed once more, then glanced at Hathaway. Taking the hint, she picked up the dice that had been tossed over and rolled them.
On the board, the shadows had retreated under the Titan's influence, revealing the four explorers. They stood there, dazed. But as the Titan brought a bolt of lightning down from the sky, the figurine of the cat flying above them intercepted the strike. After taking the full force of the blast, it lost power and fell to the ground. A deep crack appeared on Chocolate's figurine, nearly splitting it in two.
Hathaway couldn't help but cover her mouth, crying out in worry. Vanilla, on the other hand, showed no concern for the fate of the miniature cat. Its large, bright eyes remained fixed on Corpse Gentleman. The explorers' second round of inaction had now ended.
"Countless years of waiting, countless years of preparation... The Titan's plan is meticulous beyond measure; it cannot be ruined by a single cat. To absorb and assimilate the evil deep within the earth, to prevent its plan from being shattered by gods descending upon the material world, everything in this land has been branded with its indelible mark. It is the true master here. Everything—including the curse of that evil power—is its possession. Misfortune descends upon the explorers. Lightning strikes from the heavens, stones rise from the ground to block their escape, and the surrounding buildings begin to topple. The fallen cat, battered by the lightning strike and the backlash from its own shadow power, lies motionless."
He rolled the two dice four times in succession, each roll resulting in a successful check of under ten.
The cat hesitated for a moment before letting out a soft meow and looking at Hathaway again.
Hathaway felt as though she was being used as a mere tool, but the thought also crossed her mind that perhaps she should get a cat of her own after this.
The two dice felt heavy in her hand. The first two rounds of action, driven by one "person" and one "cat," had taken a full half-hour just to set the scene on the board to their liking.
Now, as the third round was just beginning, the hospital had been almost completely leveled. Hathaway controlled her wrist and tossed the dice. They came up as a 10—an undeniable success.
The strange phenomena on the board were suppressed. The senseless malice vanished in an instant, and even the dense fog began to thin.
"What exactly are you?"
Corpse Gentleman hesitated before asking the little white cat, aware of the miracle that had just occurred on the hospital grounds. Chapters fırst released on N()velFire.net
The cat replied in a language no one could understand. Not even the Titan's true self could necessarily recognize it, as it had been born after the Third Epoch, long after the Titan's burial. To say nothing of the mortals before it, controlled by their thoughts; it had no fear of exposing its identity.
Another roar echoed from the horizon, but this one sounded different from the Titan's. Magic Miss, closest to the window, and Hathaway, with her keen ear for music, both glanced outside. To their astonishment, a fearsome giant had appeared beside the clock tower in the dim city.
Roaring, it swung its arms and ran out of view. In that fleeting glimpse, Magic Miss thought she saw the faint silhouette of a person on the giant's shoulder.
They both opened their mouths to ask what it was, but the rhythmic tremors shaking the ground already confirmed that the giant was no illusion.
"After three rounds of inaction, the explorers have shaken off their fear," Hooded Man declared, his voice sharp. "They must escape the hospital now!"
Hooded Man spoke quickly. He and Mr. White Cat had been focused on the changing scenery of the game board and hadn't yet noticed the astonishing sight the two women had witnessed.
"Roll the dice for an [Agility] and [Luck] check."
"Quickly, everyone roll before the Titan makes its next move! Whoever can get away should run. Don't worry about the others—anyone who escapes now is lucky!"
He said this and was the first to grab the dice, but before he could even toss them, he froze, stunned by the scene before him.
He cried out. There, at the edge of the game board, a bone giant nearly the same size as the Titan had appeared before them.
"Even after all the outrageous things that have happened today, this is just too much! Where did this monster come from? When did this world get so insane? Wait... is that..."
Hooded Man exclaimed, only then noticing the familiar figurine standing on the newly appeared bone giant's shoulder, gazing at the hospital ruins.
Jenkins, having returned from the Doomsday Illusion, had brought his bone giant with him back to the abandoned hospital on the outskirts of the city. He had entered the realm so abruptly that he couldn't think of a better plan, so he had simply used every dry bone that would respond to his power to construct the behemoth.
But this action seemed to have had an effect on that world. As bones flew from the nearby streets of the apocalyptic realm, assembling the bone giant piece by piece, the bright yellow moon—just as Silver Flute Miss had once described—suddenly plummeted from the sky and vanished.
Jenkins didn't know what he had done, but he remembered the nameless fear that gripped him when the only light in the sky vanished, plunging the apocalyptic ruins into total darkness. An instinctual urge to flee that terrifying place had overwhelmed him.
And then, he and the giant had simply appeared in rain-swept Nolan. Jenkins himself had no idea how he'd done it. Of course, if he'd had time to carefully examine that desperate urge to escape, he would have realized that after gaining his first believer, even without having condensed his own divinity, he was already capable of feats only a god could perform.