The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 285

Cora’s flesh beneath her skin began to engorge and boil. Black, filamentous muscles broke through her skin inch by inch, spreading. A black, blood-veined bat wing unfolded behind her. Even her face was covered in viscous blood threads… like a demon from the abyss.

Suddenly, the black blood threads on Cora’s face parted, and a giant pale blue eyeball rotated within. A dark black vertical pupil in the pale blue iris stared intently at Ciel.

This pupil, combined with the black bat wing behind her… reminded Ciel of the eye-demon side of the Lucky Coin.

“How dare you… to usurp the authority of an Ascender!” Cora’s voice began to become indistinct.

And the next moment, Ciel’s “Precognitive Sight” in her mind had already predicted a scene 1.5 seconds in the future…

A pair of jet-black right hands with sharp nails pierced through her brain, sending brain matter splattering—

Instantly!

Ciel’s right eye, in the blink of an eye, switched to a silver watch face. She heard a crisp “click” in her mind, and “Echo of Time” had activated!

1 second passed… 2 seconds passed…

Ciel just quietly watched Cora before her, but Cora made no move at all. She didn’t even attempt to attack!

Or rather… she had already realized in that instant that her attack would have no effect whatsoever… it wouldn’t change Ciel’s fate in any way!

She was stalling for time!

The moment she realized this, Ciel understood that if she wanted this simulation to continue, she had to do something.

Silver light flickered, and a gun blade appeared in Ciel’s hand.

But just as Ciel raised the gun blade flintlock in her hand and aimed it at Cora before her, she noticed something was wrong.

At this moment, the blood threads on Cora’s chest swirled like a vortex, just like…

…like the bloody vortex constructed by Spiritual Summoning…

It was that pendant with the Other Side aura!

Crack——

The Deadly Blood Roland in Ciel’s hand was instantly overlimited. Clear cracks had already appeared on the gun blade. She quickly pulled the trigger.

Boom——

A bullet, carrying a dazzling silver flash of fire, blasted towards Cora.

Overlimit!

Headhunter!

The bullet whistled through the air, hurtling towards Cora’s head. But the next second, a hand emerged from Cora’s chest—

Click——

Gently, it gripped the seed bullet, then crushed it.

Silver fragments drifted down in front of Cora.

That twisted arm, which was now a complete blur of mosaic before Ciel, clung to the dining table.

A bizarre and terrifying entity was slowly crawling out of Cora’s chest.

Buzz——

A spiritual alarm, like a concussion grenade, blared in Ciel’s mind. She watched the twisted monstrous shadow before her slowly crawling towards her, but her body was paralyzed, able to maintain only minimal thought.

Giant insect wings unfurled behind the twisted figure. Black shadows almost obscured all light sources. Ciel was enveloped in darkness, trembling…

Yes… trembling…

Just as she had when she first witnessed the Other Side, she fully experienced fear.

“You will never replace me…”

Illusory, deranged screams of rage echoed wildly in Ciel’s mind.

“Never…!”

“Never!!!”

Chaotic, deranged noise echoed in Ciel’s mind. Her body had completely gone numb and lost control. Only her rationality continued to think, pondering the reason for the scene before her.

At this moment, before Ciel, only Cora’s desiccated corpse remained, along with a broken necklace and a shattered red crystal.

Ciel sat in her seat, almost as if drained of all strength, staring blankly at the desiccated corpse before her.

For a moment, Ciel saw a hint of color through the sky-obscuring black shadow and the maddening roars of rage, through the unspeakable distortion.

It was a supremely twisted, furious red pupil.

A strange sense of familiarity made Ciel feel a wave of confusion.

What exactly was it?

Why did it have such intense anger and hostility towards her…?

Under such intense anger and hostility, it could clearly have killed her instantly, but why didn’t it?

It’s an Other Side creature… It knows this way can’t kill me…

Why can I feel an intense sense of déjà vu from it…?

Why… would it command Cora, and then have her help itself?

If it hated her, it would never let Cora help itself…

Countless thoughts churned in Ciel’s mind. She couldn’t find any answer to this sudden situation.

At this, two white shadows and one black shadow appeared behind Ciel. One of the white shadows, after solidifying, quickly walked to Ciel’s side and said, “Lord Ciel, are you alright?”

“Just now…”

Percy and Eleanor looked at Cora’s desiccated corpse before them with some astonishment.

Tier 4… died instantly?

Just now, they had only felt a terrifying Other Side aura that chilled them to the bone, even making them hesitate about whether to come over.

By the time that Other Side aura dissipated, they dared to withstand the spiritual alarm and appear here… But by the time they arrived, it was already over…

At this moment, Tara was equally surprised.

She was quite far away and took a long time to get there, but when she arrived, the Mother Goddess had already slain the opponent… That undisguised commotion just now… was it the Mother Goddess regaining some of Her own power?

Other miscellaneous voices could no longer elicit any reaction from Ciel. At that moment, her ears and mind were still reverberating with heartbreaking screams and roars.

At some unknown point, Ciel had been helped back to her room by Tara.

Only after returning to her room did Ciel gradually feel herself recovering.

Was that an Ascender…?

At this moment, Ciel’s memory of that unspeakable entity from just now became even more blurred. If she tried to recall it, the images in her memory had all blurred into pure black, and even the words had begun to become indistinct.

This was a situation she had never encountered, not even when directly facing the Pure White Knight or the Grim Worm.

Was that an Ascender?

What kind of power did it possess?

Why did it target me?

I cannot replace it?

I wasn’t even thinking of replacing anyone…

Ciel raised her hand and gently rubbed her temple.

She stood up, turned around, and found Tara, dressed in Archbishop’s robes, still standing by the door, looking at her with concern.

“Lord Ciel, are you alright?” Tara looked at Ciel, took a step forward, and asked.

“I’m alright… Is the corpse still downstairs?” Ciel looked at Tara and asked.

“It is. Cora’s body and belongings have been collected,” Tara nodded and said, “The other servants… suffered mental breakdowns. Most of them have gone mad. They’ve been taken to the church for treatment.”

“Alright.” Ciel nodded and said, “Take me to see the corpse.”

Ciel wanted to see that pendant that could connect to the Other Side… This was the second time Ciel had seen something that could connect to the Other Side, other than the shield that was an “Other Side Node.”

When did Cora start connecting with this so-called “Sadhana”?

What was their transaction?

Ciel hoped to get some answers from the corpse.