The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 232

Most of the contents were vague. Like most other first-person descriptions, the vast majority of the space was dedicated to describing the pain and oppressive feelings in the Other Side, and the hallucinations seen after mental breakdown.

However, in most people’s logs, a black castle was mentioned… This indicated that they all entered the same Other Side space through this node, and through the trials and errors of different people, they gradually figured out a relatively safe route to the entrance of the castle.

This was a path paved with lives.

However, in the first-person account after Nia’s, Ciel finally saw some useful information.

That person brought something out of the Other Side—they brought a polluted brain out of the Other Side.

So it wasn’t written materials? It seems Lafayette also didn’t know the truth…

“You researched that brain and obtained the ‘Artificial Divinity’ information from it?”

Ciel continued flipping through the pages, asking casually.

“Precisely.”

The Pope did not shy away and said directly, “This is our main research direction for now… There are more similar items inside, but subsequent Saints have been unable to approach further.”

Their mental power was ultimately limited. Even after exploring a relatively safe path, they still couldn’t go deeper… Going any further would likely result in getting lost inside.

Even the Saintess who got lost inside before and went mad would become an obstacle for those who came later.

It was clear that the Pope hoped for someone to bring back another sample of that brain.

Ciel flipped back in the notebook in her hand, returning to the page about the discovery of the brain.

【I can’t believe what I saw… Dark green brains were connected one after another, adhering to the drawbridge in front of the castle like tumors. Just getting close, horrifying illusions and phantoms appeared before me…】

【I gave it my all, crawled over, and dug out a piece with my spiritual blade… The entire castle seemed to boil. Piercing wails and screams echoed in my ears. This almost caused my mind to completely collapse…】

【I ran back frantically. Besides fear and escape, there was no room for any other thoughts in my mind… I have brought the brain out… Please, please, don’t let me go back in…】

This was the last entry left by that person. The concluding remark read “lost,” meaning they were likely thrown back into the Other Side and were completely lost inside, unable to find their way back.

Ciel looked at the notebook before her, deep in thought.

She asked seemingly unintentionally, “Has Forte seen this note?”

Hearing Ciel’s question, the Pope slightly paused, but still chose to answer, “No, only I am qualified to read the entire note. Forte has only seen the part you are looking at now.”

Forte hasn’t seen the complete note?

This gives her a lot of room for maneuver…

She could use this as an entry point to deceive Forte. The complete “Uniqueness” is inside. Tell him to go in and get it himself. This would give Forte a reason to enter the Other Side node.

With the door to the Other Side before, Forte wouldn’t actively delve deep, so he could choose to escape if he felt danger.

But if he was truly lured deep inside by the “Uniqueness,” as long as Ciel could last longer than him, all that awaited Forte was getting lost inside.

However, in reality, Ciel wasn’t entirely sure if contacting the Church of the God of Order was a good choice—it wasn’t as easy to control as the Church of the Savior Goddess and the Divine Advent Church.

Ciel closed the notebook and handed it back to the Pope. At the same time, she asked one last question.

“One last question,”

Ciel looked at the Pope of the Church of the God of Order and asked, “Has Forte seen this Other Side node?”

“He has seen it.” The Pope nodded.

“Any qualified collaborator can see it.”

As long as he has seen it…

Daring to let Forte see this thing, it seems the Pope is very confident that even Forte cannot steal this Other Side node.

As long as she could perfectly replicate this Other Side node, Ciel would have the final piece of the puzzle to take down Forte.

Driving others mad in the Other Side, making them go mad in reality as well… For some reason, this method reminded Ciel of a familiar system skill.

【Nemesis】

The ability of Nemesis seemed to have a similar effect to the pollution of the Other Side. However, 【Nemesis】 required eye contact with Ciel as a trigger, but the Other Side didn’t require any trigger condition.

“Lend me a knife.”

Ciel extended her hand towards the Pope.

“Uh… what do you want to do?”

The Pope’s voice sounded from inside the iron armor. They seemed to have figured out what Ciel wanted again and reminded her, “Sacrifices require complete transcendent corpses of at least Tier 3. If you want to activate the node, I can arrange it for you, Your Excellency.”

Although they said this, the Pope still raised their hand and forged a dagger, handing it to Ciel before them.

They also wanted to see what method Ciel wanted to use to activate the Other Side node before them.

Ciel reached out and took the small knife, holding it in her right hand. She directly grasped the blade with her left hand and gently pulled with her right hand.

A bloodstain appeared in Ciel’s left palm.

【Spiritual Summoning】

Ciel looked at the Other Side node before her and directly raised her left hand, pointing it at the node.

Spiritual Summoning was activated. Ciel’s blood was continuously drawn out and condensed into blood threads. The scattered blood threads began to rapidly construct according to the blood ritual array on the shield before her.

Ciel held her breath, focused her mind, and controlled each thread of blood to land precisely where Ciel wanted it.

Soon, an identical blood ritual array, only lacking the shattered shield, appeared before Ciel.

The Pope watched the two almost identical blood ritual arrays before them with wide eyes, and the fist-sized blood-red vortex in front of Ciel’s blood ritual array that had begun to swirl…

“This is impossible…”

The Pope murmured.

They had tried to copy the blood ritual array on the shield using transcendent blood, but it had basically been useless. Other high-ranking members, like them, were almost unanimously convinced that the shield fragments on the blood ritual array were key, and this Other Side node was not replicable.

But the reality before them was that the Other Side node they had once believed to be unreproducible was “casually” replicated by the red-haired girl before them…

However, the appearance of the second blood ritual array caused the Pope’s already wavering mental power to fluctuate violently… They didn’t even have time to say anything before completely abandoning control of this iron-armored body. Their mind rapidly dissipated, leaving this damaged shell.

Ciel at this moment was focused and calm. She didn’t notice the abnormality beside her. She was still feeling a little relieved that she had successfully constructed the blood ritual array.

It could be replicated… As long as she forged some of these shield fragments, she could replicate an identical Other Side node, 1:1.

The plan was nearing its conclusion…

“Is it fun?”

An ethereal, illusory voice echoed beside Ciel, making Ciel slightly stunned.

“Is it fun? Helping, humans, invade… our world?”