870 Hidden Trap

As soon as Franca's figure materialized within the cabin's ruins, she saw Lumian, behind Voisin Sanson, turning pale. His eyes gradually became hollow, and only the Sword of Courage prevented him from turning into a corpse or triggering his Mirror Substitution. Voisin Sanson, despite having his back to Lumian, raised his left hand, and an indescribable radiance quickly gathered within his fist.

Franca knew she couldn't passively wait for the Mirror Substitution to trigger.

Perhaps Voisin Sanson's impending attack could bypass the connection between the substitute and the original, rendering it ineffective.

At their current distance, neither she, Jenna, nor Anthony could awaken Lumian or stop Voisin Sanson in time.

Even if they could, the threat from Higdon was even more imminent and closing in fast!

At this moment, Ludwig was the closest to Lumian and Voisin Sanson. He had just gotten up but still had twenty to thirty meters to cover before reaching them.

In a flash, Franca took a mirror out of her Traveler's Bag and instantly vanished.

Relying on Black Tear, she appeared in the mirror world, traversing a dark, void-like tunnel into the distance.

Meanwhile, Jenna watched as Franca's mirror fell to the ground, her attention shifting to Higdon, who was now only a few steps away. His face, mostly rotting and oozing pus, had reached her.

She felt that all the Demoness spider threads she had released had withered and decayed, losing their effectiveness.

At this moment, everyone except Ludwig experienced a moment of disorientation.

When Lumian, Franca, Jenna, and Anthony regained clarity, they found themselves back inside the cabin-intact and uncollapsed.

Franca felt a surge of joy seeing this.

Her "retreat in the face of battle" wasn't to escape but to trigger the Circle Inhabitant's effect, resetting the battle and freeing Lumian from Voisin Sanson's secret power and Jenna from Higdon's grip!

Enemy abilities could be used to their advantage!

Finding the trigger point, reverting an adverse situation instantly, meant any dangerous or fatal scenario could be retried. Of course, this was only if they had time to trigger it.

Never thought you could use the enemy's abilities like this... Jenna, momentarily stunned by this realization, saw the cabin decaying and collapsing again, revealing Voisin Sanson and Higdon approaching from a distance.

Lumian wasn't surprised. He had actively triggered the Circle Inhabitant effect back in Cordu Village, seeking a reset.

He quickly reached into the Traveler's Bag, retrieving the Black Tear forehead accessory and tossing it to Franca.

Franca shouted, "Stall!"

She had a plan for the current predicament: delay until circumstances changed!

Since they couldn't break Voisin Sanson's Circle Inhabitant in a short time, they could use it fully. If things went wrong, they could restart, delaying until the authorities in Trier noticed the anomaly or the Tarot Club's Major Arcana card holders found a solution and approached.

As long as the evil gods hadn't fully invaded this world and the apocalypse hadn't arrived prematurely, delaying would surely bring assistance to cleanse the heretics!

After all, this was the capital of Intis, Trier!

Franca thought this and acted accordingly. She caught the Black Tear forehead accessory and threw her Ice Talisman to Jenna.

This way, three people in the group could try to leave the area in different ways to trigger the Circle Inhabitant effect, without worrying about Voisin Sanson and Higdon each locking onto one of them, thus greatly increasing their margin for error.

When Franca suggested this, Lumian was about to retrieve the Sword of Courage, and Ludwig was already instinctively charging towards Voisin Sanson.

Lumian noticed that Voisin Sanson's expression remained unchanged, despite Franca discovering the weakness of the Circle Inhabitant and planning to delay until the end of the Project Vortex.

He suddenly had a thought. Combining his understanding of the Inevitability pathway, he formed an initial judgment: Voisin Sanson couldn't allow the Circle Inhabitant to loop infinitely. He likely set a predetermined end for it. Each reset would push everyone closer to that conclusion until it became unavoidable.

From the fact that they could retain their memories after the reset, it was clear that the Inevitability power attached to the Circle Inhabitant effect wasn't strong.

This endpoint wasn't far away.

Lumian immediately reminded Franca, "Only one more time!"

In the Inevitability pathway, the number "three" was sacred, with strong mystical symbolism. It represented the past, present, and future, and pointed to the beginning, process, and end. Additionally, the initial number of abilities gained by a Contractee fluctuates around three. Lumian suspected that after three activations of the Circle Inhabitant effect, the fourth reset would lead them directly to the predetermined end, with no way to reverse it.

In other words, three times was the limit, and the fourth would bring the final result. They had already triggered the Circle Inhabitant effect twice.

Franca didn't understand why Lumian was denying her proposal, why he said they could only use the Circle Inhabitant effect one more time. But she knew Lumian understood the Inevitability pathway better than she did; he was the expert in this area, so she should heed his advice.

Thud!

As Ludwig fell again, Higdon, whose age spots had not yet festered, slowly raised his arms.

He clearly remembered the battle from the last loop and chose a different approach this time.

Higdon's aura suddenly weakened, as if he was on the brink of death but not quite there yet.

The age spots on his face festered, and his body emitted a strong smell of decay.

He was quickly covered in a thick, disgusting, greenish-yellow pus.

Higdon then vanished, seemingly disintegrating into countless pathogens.

Seeing this, Lumian gripped the Sword of Courage, and blazing white-blue flames ignited around him.

The flames quickly spread, circling Franca, Jenna, and the others, protecting them in the center.

Meanwhile, Anthony, who had been observing, solemnly reminded his companions, "Higdon feels very similar to the 'Winter is Coming' revolver."

"Winter is Coming?" Franca and Jenna both tensed.

They remembered very clearly that the Winter is Coming revolver had two very powerful abilities: Certain Death and Sure Hit.

The former meant that if hit, even a Saint-level Beyonder would be critically injured and gradually die, while those below demigod level would die instantly unless they had a substitute. The latter meant that unless they used a substitute before the attack or had a special ability, they would be inevitably hit, and the substitute would fail.

If Higdon was indeed as Anthony described and similar to Winter is Coming, the two Demonesses had to be wary of the Sure Hit ability. After all, their physical strength was certainly not comparable to a Hunter of the same sequence. If the substitute failed, even if the attack wasn't Certain Death, it would severely injure them!

Protected by the white-blue flames, Franca raised her guard and came up with a new plan.

She glanced at Lumian, who was ready to charge at Voisin Sanson, and quickly told Anthony, "Work with him! Certain Death!"

Franca meant that, with Lumian and Ludwig distracting Voisin Sanson, they should find an opportunity to use the Certain Death ability of Winter is Coming on the Inevitability believer, to see if it could kill him outright, or if the Certain Death effect would be reset by the Circle Inhabitant ability.

As soon as Voisin Sanson died, the Circle Inhabitant effect would naturally be nullified, removing any hidden dangers!

Just as Franca finished speaking, behind her, a greenish-yellow glow quickly condensed within the white-blue flames, forming Higdon covered in thick, disgusting liquid.

The old man was ignited, but he still lashed out at Franca with his arm like a whip.

Sure Hit!

As Franca's spirituality warning triggered, she immediately used her Mirror Substitution.

Smack!

Her body transformed into a mirror, struck by Higdon's thick arm, quickly darkening and shattering, falling to the ground with no trace of light, as if buried in soil for a hundred years.

As Lumian prepared to charge at Voisin Sanson, he suddenly pulled back and swung the Sword of Courage at Higdon.

Courage could be strategic too!

Lumian wasn't afraid of Higdon; he was just concerned that the enemy would flee too quickly, leaving no time to hit his body, so he feigned an attack on Voisin Sanson.

Boom!

As Ludwig fell again, Higdon's arm, unable to escape, was severed by the explosive and sharp sword. The thick, greenish-yellow liquid covering his body was engulfed by the blazing white-blue flames.

Smack!

The severed arm fell to the ground, wriggling and growing rapidly, turning into another Higdon.

Now, there were two Higdons.

The flames covering them quickly dimmed, decayed, and extinguished!

The two Higdons pounced on Franca and Jenna.

Meanwhile, Voisin Sanson, who had planned to magnify a tributary of Franca's fate to make her substitution fail, suddenly felt a ripple of destiny.

He instantly had an epiphany: No more delays, time is running out!

Voisin Sanson frowned.

He didn't want to do what came next; it would be extremely painful.

Let it be an accumulation for the Sufferer stage... Voisin Sanson raised his right hand, pressing it to his temple, gathering an indescribable radiance.

As the source of the Circle Inhabitant effect, he couldn't trigger a reset by leaving the area; that would mean truly leaving. He had to kill himself!

Seeing this, Franca and the others felt a strong sense of foreboding.

At that moment, the radiance in Voisin Sanson's hand strangely dissipated, as if twisted out of its composition.

Similarly, the two Higdons missed their targets, and Lumian's Sword of Courage struck nothing.

The sky darkened, and a majestic voice echoed in everyone's ears: "People of Intis, your emperor has returned!"