The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 858

Chapter 857
Leah, Meteor Fire!
The intensely burning flames erupted from within, their waves spreading seven to eight meters outwards, covering nearly half the top floor of the bell tower!
The Gray Falcon didn’t even have time to scream before it was shredded to pieces by the inferno and turned to ashes.
Laro was also burned – the fire spread onto him. But he seemed to have anticipated this, and the moment he emerged from the trance of precognition, he immediately lunged forward. This allowed him to narrowly dodge the initial explosion, only to be scorched by the flames.
He rolled on the ground without hesitation, quickly extinguishing the fire.
—In just one exchange, they had already lost one member out of their four!
When it rains, it pours—just then, they coincidentally met the conditions for a special victory!
[Choose One: When only three ritual participants remain, one must be eliminated within a time limit, otherwise all three will be considered defeated.]
A ten-minute countdown simultaneously appeared in the minds of the remaining three.
—The battle was already incredibly difficult, and now they were forced to eliminate another person!
They instinctively exchanged glances.
Before the other two could say anything, Laro practically leaped up from the ground and declared, “I’ll do it!”
“No, Laro!”
The Crown Princess cried out urgently.
“Heh…”
Even in the face of this desperate situation, Laro maintained his playful grin. “I can just surrender.”
He looked at Alistair, speaking with utmost seriousness, “Remember the prophetic poem I just recited—that’s the ‘Starry Sky Prophetic Poem’ of the Midnight Poet!”
“…I know.”
Alistair nodded solemnly.
She certainly knew of that profession.
It was a rare profession that Bards of the Path of Beauty could advance into, by taking on Astrology or Prophet as a secondary path of Adaptation.
When combat began, individuals with this profession would enter a trance state and recite a “prophetic poem,” which would last for six seconds.
When fighting a BOSS, it typically revealed the boss’s special mechanics; in group PVP, it would highlight the strongest player among the opponents; and in one-on-one battles, it would warn of the opponent’s highest damage skill.
However, players who chose this profession usually did so to maximize their damage output. Its combat power was incredibly formidable—that was the value of being able to control oneself for six seconds at the start of a fight and still be viable.
Every six seconds, this profession triggered “precognition of the future.”
This effect had three possible outcomes: automatically dodge the next non-critical attack, be guaranteed to not be critically hit on the next critical strike, or have the next attack be a guaranteed hit with a critical strike. Furthermore, after triggering, they would gain a six-second “increased evasion rate,” “reduced critical hit rate,” or “guaranteed hit and increased critical hit rate” delayed buff, respectively.
If, during the duration of a buff, the next “precognition of the future” randomly resulted in the same buff as the previous one, the delayed buff’s duration would refresh, and another stack would be added.
A “European Emperor” Bard could theoretically stack six identical buffs, leading to extremely terrifying burst damage in the extreme. Coupled with high-burst weapons like dual blades, polearms, or dual staves, they could unleash all their burst skills during the “guaranteed hit plus increased critical rate” state through flexible rotation… while in the meantime, they would use support skills to sing and increase damage or speed.
As long as they weren’t so unlucky as to never trigger this state, the Midnight Poet could deliver quite impressive damage.
Laro clearly lacked any offensive capabilities.
Therefore, even if he entered the “Vow of Vengeance Midnight” state that increased critical rate, he obviously couldn’t deal much damage.
As a support profession, the most he could do in the end… was to provide some minor buffs to Alistair and the others.
“With a spear in hand, strike the enemy.”
He began to sing a mournful battle hymn, his hands clapping rhythmically like drumming, “For hearth and home, for nation, step onto the starry path…”
In an instant, storms and yellow sand swirled around them.
A circle of fine sand rings, like stellar rings, condensed around everyone—this was a sand armor capable of resisting damage.
Meanwhile.
The “Angel” that had shattered Gray Falcon with a single punch slowly retracted its hand.
At this moment, the “regular tetrahedron” representing fire still hung behind it, but this time, no crystals materialized on its surface.
…Was it because it transformed from wind into fire?
The Crown Princess realized this might be an opportunity.
Her clasped hands squeezed together tightly, her fingers turning white, and the pupils of her eyes lit up with the bright yellow firelight of the Hourglass Deity. The veins on her forehead bulged.
The black smoke constantly emanating from her body caused the entire bell tower to vibrate with a rumbling sound.
—She intended to forge the entire bell tower into an immortal rune giant!
Seeing this, the Angel turned its head to look at her.
[Alchemy?]
It spoke with a mocking tone.
The Crown Princess’s heart tightened—she remembered how Gray Falcon had died!
But at that moment, the King of the Wild Hunt stepped forward and charged.
Helchin transformed into lightning and charged forward with a roar—with a single strike, the unprotected Angel was severely wounded and sent flying!
Excellent, taking this opportunity…
Crown Princess Noel’s heart settled.
But then, her alchemical operations suddenly became sluggish.
It was as if a roaring machine had suddenly stopped, as if she heard the creaking sound of gears slowing down under heavy load—she coughed up blood violently and knelt down powerlessly. The black smoke on her body also dissipated instantly, and the rumbling vibration from the ground vanished as if it were a hallucination.
It wasn’t that her power was stripped away, nor was her authority locked.
Rather, the one struggling against it was forced to stop by a greater power—like a household car pushing with all its might against a fully loaded heavy truck, burning out its engine and making no progress.
[I come by order of the Endless Knot—]
[Alchemy is useless against me, girl!]
The layered voices echoed.
More like a reminder than a threat.
Following that, the King of the Wild Hunt charged again, engaging the Angel in a fierce battle!
“…Or-order?”
Crown Princess Noel coughed uncontrollably as she stuttered out her doubt.
Laro jumped in fright. He immediately began singing a hymn in praise of the Candlemaster, attempting to heal Noel’s injuries.
However, the flip side of a Bard being proficient in everything was also being mediocre at everything—whether as protection or healing, they were somewhat inferior to their primary profession. Under the treatment of a Fourth Tier individual, Noel’s coughing only slowed down, but she did not fully recover immediately.
Hearing this, Alistair hesitated for a moment.
Combining it with the previous prophetic poem, she suddenly seemed to understand something…
“…In that case. To live, Laro.”
At this moment, Crown Princess Noel suddenly reached out and pushed Laro away.
Her gaze turned resolute. “Kill me, Miss Alistair!
“—Release His Majesty the Pope!”
Alistair, upon hearing this, merely looked back at Noel silently. Her gaze was so complex that Noel found it difficult to understand.
She said softly, “If you are still here, then curse Noel…
“Consider it for my sake, okay?”
But nothing happened.
At that moment, a glimmer of tears appeared in Alistair’s eyes, but she blinked them away, her resolve hardening into a fire of vengeance.
“…Your Eminence the Pope! If you don’t curse me soon, I’m forfeiting as well!”
Crown Princess Noel raised her hand and declared loudly.
As an Alchemist… she realized that the Angel was right. To it, alchemy was meaningless. Her initial success in alchemy was merely because it “allowed” her to perform alchemy.
Because she had experienced this feeling before.
—When she was young and just learning alchemy, she was stopped by her father, who had reached the Fourth Tier. Alchemy belonged to the Path of Balance, and the Path of Balance had the ability to “dispel” all extraordinary abilities of other paths—which, in alchemy, manifested as the ability to analyze something.
Similarly, it must also have the ability to dispel or suppress its own abilities—alchemy itself could be “dispelled” and “demystified”!
Like an hourglass flipped over, a stronger balancer would prevent the weaker from acting.
In a sense, the Path of Balance was a path with a more rigid hierarchy than the Path of Authority.
The Angel possessed alchemy capabilities far exceeding her own, which meant her abilities were useless!
In this situation, leaving Laro, who could provide group buffs, was the best option.
—But even at this point, no curse had descended upon her.
“…Forfeit, Noel.”
Alistair said in a low voice.
She looked at the Angel, her gaze trembling for a moment.
She clenched her right fist, then released it again.
…So that’s how it is, this degree of mental abnormality… is it the Shepherd’s Method?
So this is what it’s like to be nurtured…
In this world, the Fallen Heavenly Envoys were not dragged down by the Ouroboros Ring.
Thus, the foundation of the Path of Metamorphosis became the Geometric Heavenly Envoys’ jewels scattered throughout the Material Realm…
But… where would a Ring Heavenly Envoy get the desire for Devotion?
She remembered the Boss mentioning that the Ring Heavenly Envoy had already transferred all of the Path of Devotion to Eivass.
Without the desire for Devotion, the Shepherd’s Method should not have been completable at all!
She had tried it before—using the Shepherd’s Method in a state of unbalanced paths, although she managed to perform it, it had no effect.
Wait…
“The ancient shepherd offered his blood…”
Alistair murmured softly, “Could it be…”
She was already the same person as Eivass and the Ring Heavenly Envoy, so their thought processes would have similarities.
In that moment, she faintly grasped the key.
Blood…
Ancient blood… shepherd… offered blood…
Alistair subconsciously reached for her necklace—she would always clutch it when she felt uneasy.
And in that instant, Alistair froze.
She looked down and saw the liquid soul stored in her necklace.
“—I admit defeat, I forfeit.”
At this moment, Noel raised her hand without hesitation.
The next moment, her body suddenly disintegrated like a foamy mirage.
On the other side, the Angel had been severely wounded by the relentlessly pursuing King of the Wild Hunt. The wounds on its body healed, only to reappear.
The radiance behind it transformed into green, and in an instant, it became a hurricane again and vanished into the sky.
Immediately after, the King of the Wild Hunt followed suit, disappearing again.
The two then reappeared simultaneously from another location. The lightning-streaked halberd collided with the right fist entwined with a hurricane, pushing the Angel back once more!
“—Bare hands, ultimately, cannot compare to divine weapons.”
Helchin sighed.
[Is that so?]
At this moment, a card appeared in the Angel’s hand.
[Then let’s enter Phase Three, Helchin—]
The Angel suddenly called Helchin by name.
Only then did Alistair confirm everything.
[—Leah, Meteor Fire!]
The Butterfly of Paradoxical Flames, and it appeared from within the vortex of flames—
However, this time, it was on the opposite side.
In an instant, time froze once more.
This was the seventh question.
Apart from this, there were only two more opportunities to answer.
If this painting could not be completed before then, this Ascension Ritual would fail.
And this question was the shortest of this entire Ascension Ritual:
[—Who is He?]
And there were three answers, equally brief.
[—Emperor of Elements]
[—Disciple of the Mortal Realm]
And…
[—Eternal Pope]
Why could that “Angel” completely forgo chanting and casually use such a powerful spell comparable to the Sixth Tier; why was the Angel itself so fragile, capable of using Sixth Tier power but becoming so disheveled once the King of the Wild Hunt got close; why did it have such powerful regenerative abilities, unable to be killed even when pursued by the King of the Wild Hunt; why did it have that peculiar halo pattern behind it… and why, even at this point, had the host not stopped the ritual.
This indicated that the ritual was still under control, meaning the opponent was still using Fourth Tier powers.
That was not some kind of “Metamorphosis Technique.”
—That was a High-Tier Divine Art only resonating with the “Endless Knot”!
(End of this chapter)