The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 153

At this moment, Merritt was frozen in place, terrified. She looked at the cultist leader whose face was half-covered in blood, smiling terrifyingly at her, feeling goosebumps all over her scalp.

Lunatic… This is definitely a lunatic!

She only needed to brainwash them, and they would reveal their true thoughts. There was no need to kill! She… she just wanted to kill!

Look at her completely unconcerned, even smiling expression… How many people has she killed?

At this moment, Ciel looked at Merritt’s expression, knowing there was no need to continue probing.

She walked step by step, leaving bloody footprints, to Merritt’s front, her gaze slightly shifting towards the tabletop, gently shaking her head.

Ciel reached out, plunged the blood-stained kitchen knife into the heart in the wooden bowl, slowly lifted the pig heart, brought it to Merritt’s mouth, and said, “It’s not good to be a picky eater, Miss ‘Leticia’.”

The heart, emitting the aroma of meat, drew closer and closer. Blood from the kitchen knife mixed with the broth slid down from the heart. Even though she was in a dream, Merritt felt waves of nausea.

That heart got closer and closer to Merritt’s lips. Her heart rate rapidly increased, as if a bloody, still-beating human heart was approaching her.

Just as the heart was about to touch Merritt’s lips, she finally couldn’t hold back her emotions.

“Miss Ciel.”

Merritt leaned back. Simultaneously, she looked up, directly meeting Ciel’s eyes and said, “Please wait a moment, Your Excellency…”

In Merritt’s light brown pupils, faint blue and purple light flickered. She slowly spoke, continuing, “From the moment this started, you have been asking me questions… Now, isn’t it my turn?”

This is…

Instantly, Ciel felt the area around her eyes plunge into darkness. The light brown-haired young girl before her became the only figure in the darkness.

Her figure continuously twisted and became illusory, dispersing into layers of superimposed images before Ciel.

This was the ability Avena used on her in the previous simulation.

It’s the “Listener’s” ability!

Only, compared to what Avena used, the “Listener’s” ability used by the young girl before her was more terrifying. It even rendered Ciel powerless to resist, plunging her into this hallucination.

Is this because she’s in a dream?

In a dream, would the “Instigator” or “Listener’s” ability to disturb sanity be enhanced?

However, at this moment, Ciel wasn’t panicking at all… She still maintained control of her body, just found it difficult to maintain focused thought.

If this were in reality, she could even directly spend 5 Fate Points to switch save files, causing the control to instantly fail… Looking at it this way, the system’s existence and abilities almost perfectly counter these transcendents who use mental attacks as their means.

But Ciel’s current performance, in Merritt’s eyes, meant she had completely fallen under her control.

After all, she was just a Tier 1… It was simply too easy.

Merritt leaned back against the chair, breathing heavily. In the living room at this moment, Tara, the black-robed people, the tied-up young people, all seemed like puppets without puppeteers, frozen in place, eerily still.

She looked at the beautiful red-haired young girl standing before her, her eyes completely unfocused. After her breathing gradually calmed, a smile appeared on her face.

“Come… Let me see first, your past, you lunatic…”

Merritt slowly raised her hand, reaching towards Ciel’s brow.

Although she knew this was the best time to obtain the other party’s body data… there were more important things to do now. This wasn’t urgent…

The instant Merritt’s hand touched Ciel’s brow, the dream constructs around her instantly collapsed, turning into three-colored streams of light and dispersing instantly.

What’s going on?

What happened?

The chair beneath her vanished. Merritt fell to the ground. This simple action seemed to stir up the entire world.

Terrifying spiritual alarms blasted in Merritt’s mind.

She looked up in terror towards Ciel, but found Ciel was still standing motionless. Only, the skin on her right hand began to tear inch by inch, and tentacles drilled out from within.

This is…

Silver-white streams of light began tearing through the surrounding three-colored streams of light, charging directly towards Merritt’s brow. Before she could even realize what was happening, a vast, indescribable amount of giant knowledge directly flooded into her mind.

Her body twitched convulsively. Her will to resist almost collapsed instantly. The immense knowledge had completely buried her. She could no longer distinguish who she was.

In the final moment of her consciousness dissipating, she realized why so many middle and high-ranking members of the Divine Advent Church would be so obedient to this young girl who was only Tier 1…

Meanwhile, in Ciel’s living room.

Ciel, who had fallen asleep leaning against the chair back, slowly opened her eyes, looking at the two people by the dining table.

Tara was lying face down on the table, her hands cushioning her head, her face turned towards Ciel, a strange smile on her face, and a drop of crystalline saliva hanging from the corner of her mouth. She seemed to be having a beautiful dream.

And the young girl sitting opposite Tara vomited a large mouthful of black viscous blood. Afterwards, the skin all over her body began to shrivel.

Her hair began falling out strand by strand. Her skin and muscles almost melted together, sagging down from her body like a non-Newtonian fluid. Her entire skeletal structure made popping sounds, and she hunched over.

Her legs were almost fused together. Rather than a snake, she resembled a slug or snail with a viscous, writhing body. And she was still continuously melting, twisting, and fusing.

In just five or six seconds, a young girl who was originally pretty transformed into a horrifying monster covered in human skin.

But Ciel looked at this monster, her brow slightly furrowed.

This is…

How is this so similar to the monster covered in mud and mucus that appeared after she sacrificed the “Substitute Death Relic”? Only its melting wasn’t as complete.

Monsters are uncontrollable. Ciel quickly raised her hand, directly stood up, grabbed Tara by the back of her collar, and lifted her directly.

“Tara, wake up!”

Tara, who was still immersed in the dream, woke up slowly. After slurping the saliva from the corner of her mouth, she saw the monster before her. The spiritual alarm in her mind instantly blared, making her completely sober.