Broadcasting Live From Inside An Eldritch Horror Game

Velmoira Northern District, Royal Mausoleum.

As the northern district of the capital city was located on higher ground, the miasmic flood did not seem to have affected it as much as the other areas of the city.

Most of the nearby colonies, houses, and buildings were already long gone due to miasmic corruption, but the graves in the royal mausoleum were still intact as if miasma had left them intact on purpose.

*Step* *Step*

"Ancestors from my family used to believe that burying the remains of the dead in a place with high spatial fluctuation interference brings a greater chance of being reborn as a royal vampire once again..."

Walking through the entrance of the mausoleum, Xinran explained the presence of the powerful spatial fluctuations in the area.

"Due to these beliefs, the royal mausoleum was built atop an area where a giant spatial fracture had happened in a distant past..."

As if noticing Zephyr’s confusion, Xinran continued,

"A spatial fracture occurs when for some reason the fabric of space-time gets violently broken and a massive spatial rift is opened to the void..."

"Violent spatial fluctuations leak out of the void and create void storms, completely eroding the nearby area with permanent spatial distortions. The royal mausoleum is that kind of place."

"Space here is distorted in many areas, and violent spatial fluctuations cause many weird phenomena... but thanks to this, miasma hasn’t been able to completely get a hold of this place either..."

Looking up in the sky, Zephyr noticed that the miasmic rain seemed to be blocked by violent spatial fluctuations in the air, causing it to not be able to fall on the ground here.

"Your ancestors chose one heck of a place to bury themselves... it’s impressive."

Xinran smiled at those words and replied in her usual calm voice,

"I know. But this is just temporary... with how powerful miasma has become in recent times, it won’t be long before it will manage to corrode its way through the space-time fabric and take over this place too..."

"The Law of ’Space’ and ’Time’ is powerful, but it cannot stop miasmic corruption for long; it’s only a matter of time before this place gets eroded too..."

Just when Xinran and Zephyr were walking towards the inner area of the mausoleum through the main path, several monkey-like creatures started gathering around the main path on both sides.

Some of them had twisted bodies, some had their limbs fused into each other in a weirdly eerie manner, and some had organs hanging out around their entire bodies like pendulums of a clock.

Seeing them gather around, Zephyr raised his fist in the air, but before he could take action, Xinran stopped him and spoke,

"Don’t look at them, don’t listen to them... just keep walking."

Zephyr was confused by those words, but since this was an ancestral mausoleum of Xinran’s family, he didn’t want to appear rude in this place and thus decided to agree with her words.

As Zephyr and Xinran kept walking on the main path while ignoring those deformed monkeys that were reeking of corruption, the strange creatures stopped on the edges of the main path as if they didn’t want to come too close.

In Zephyr’s confused eyes, the strange creatures opened their mouths and started roaring with an extremely annoying tone.

"Why did you not save them!?"

"Why leave like a coward!?"

"How can you be so selfish!?"

"You are a shame to the entire Yan family!!"

"You were always a cursed child!!! Kill yourself!!"

The noises were extremely uncomfortable to hear and seemed to carry powerful mental attacks within them; moreover, they were all aimed at Xinran for some reason.

"You are a disgrace to us!!"

"You have no right to set foot in this mausoleum!"

"Leave this place at once, you shameless wh*re!!"

The voices were so annoying and irritating that Zephyr almost went on a rampage, but Xinran kept holding his palm tightly along the way, so he could only calm his anger down and keep following her.

’These insults... they are all being aimed at her, and yet she’s still so calm? Her mental fortitude is insanely powerful...’

Zephyr was sure that if it were him being insulted like that, he would have surely destroyed all these ugly monkey-like creatures on the spot, but Xinran was different; she could restrain herself even in this situation, which was simply impressive!

Thankfully, the insults did not last for long; once the two walked through the entire main path and entered the inner area of the mausoleum, those twisted creatures did not follow them inside and just remained standing around the outer perimeter.

Once inside, Xinran took a long sigh of relief as she finally let go of Zephyr’s hand.

"Phew~... Thank you; if it were me alone, I would not have been able to get through all of that easily. You being here with me has increased the toughness of my mental defenses..."

To Zephyr’s surprise, Xinran thanked him when it should have been him who should be thanking her for helping him endure those annoying voices.

"What are you even talking about? You are clearly the one that-"

Before Zephyr could finish his words, his intuition suddenly got triggered, and he took a defensive stance almost instinctively as his eyes turned to the central area where an unknown person had appeared at some point out of nowhere.

*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*

"You actually managed to make it through the ’Path of Humiliation’ without going berserk? It seems you have grown up Xinran... I am impressed!"

Dressed in a pure white dress, an extremely beautiful lady stood near the central area of the mausoleum.

Her facial features look so similar to Xinran’s that Zephyr almost mistook her for a clone of Xinran; her dark red pupils and hair shone with the same deep red brilliance as Xinran’s.

It was clear with just one look that this was a close relative of Xinran who shouldn’t have been here at all.

A palpitating pressure spread around in the entire area, and even the air felt like it had solidified into stone.

The unknown woman glanced at Zephyr, and her eyes narrowed, but then Xinran stepped forward to block her sight and protect Zephyr.

"Hoh? So the aloof little princess has actually found a man for herself?... How interesting. I almost thought you were impotent, but it seems that this mortal filth is actually the one you were waiting for all along..."

"I did not expect the talented princess Xinran to fall so low... You have gotten weaker, Xinran."

Hearing those words, a smirk appeared on Xinran’s face as she refused to back down and replied in a calm voice,

"I have indeed become weaker, but look at you, you have become even more disgraceful than you used to be, Mother."

Zephyr’s eyes widened in shock when he heard Xinran call the other party ’Mother’!

The woman in the white dress seemed almost identical to Xinran, as if she were a twin sister of Xinran! Zephyr didn’t expect her to actually be Xinran’s mother! She simply looked too young!

"Don’t be fooled by her looks; she’s an old witch that’s lived for several hundred years... no, it would be more accurate to say that she had lived for several hundred years before she died on the day of calamity."

A look of confusion appeared on Zephyr’s face briefly, but then he immediately realized the hidden meaning behind Xinran’s words.

"I see... I get it... no wonder she’s here then."

Xinran nodded her head at Zephyr’s words and stared straight into her mother’s eyes before declaring in a calm voice,

"Yes... I am one hundred percent sure that she... my mother, ’Yan Mei,’ is the newly born Demonic Vessel of Corrosion that we were looking for."

Hearing those words, a wide grin appeared on Yan Mei’s face as the aura of miasma around her became even more dense.

"Haha, you have really grown up, little Xinran... you even dare to speak my real name without feeling terrified like before... it seems you have forgotten the royal manners that I taught you."

The pressure radiating from Yan Mei’s body increased even more, and even the stone floor began to crack and fall apart from the pressure alone.

’So, this is the power of a demonic vessel? She’s strong, I can feel it with my intuition... she’s incredibly powerful... more powerful than Xinran’s current weakened form at least...’

Although Zephyr hadn’t seen Xinran’s full strength either, he could still instinctively tell that Yan Mei was in a league of her own!

"Stop pretending to be all high and mighty... you are not my real mother. She died ages ago! You are just a broken replica made by miasma to deceive others!"

"You have no right to teach me manners!"

Xinran handed over the space ring given by Layla to Zephyr with her telekinesis.

Although she did not say much, Zephyr could understand that she was telling him to do the work of putting the artifacts in their right places on her behalf.

"It seems that after finding a lowly pest as your man, you have grown wings of defiance! Such arrogance will not be tolerated, little Xinran~"

"Today, as your mother, I will beat some sense into you and correct your ways!"

Ignoring Yan Mei’s words, Xinran spoke in a quieter voice to Zephyr.

"The plan remains the same... it’s actually a good thing that she willingly came to this mausoleum; the power of spatial fluctuations will help us..."

"Get to work... I will hold her back first."

With a smile on her face, Xinran summoned her grimoire and stepped forward.