Chapter 511: Two Gospels

Sword Barrier!

Shadow Spirit's Touch!

Murderous Surge!

Virtual Wing Overload, Gunrage Storm!

Wind-Reaping Scythe!

Fuel Bomb!

Soul Dominion Sacred Realm!

The moment the vines burst out of Ashe's Book of Gospel, almost everyone attacked simultaneously!

Bound by the Ghost King Shackles, Harvey thrust his hands forward as part of his body assumed the form of a Shadow Spirit. All the shadows within the palace leapt toward the vines in a swift assassination assault.

Iger snapped his fingers. Blood vessels spread across his pupils as he unleashed his power, driving everyone into a murderous frenzy directed at the vines.

Annan abruptly tore off her purple amethyst earring, which transformed into Second Mistress Donna in her arms. A pair of purple wings appeared behind her with cannon barrels extending from the tips, unleashing a storm of bullets!

Evelyn raised her leg high and hooked downward. Her supersonic slicing kick whipped up waves of air, sending scythe-like currents shooting straight toward the vines.

Nona instantly became clothed in an oily sheen. Raising her firearm, she fired fuel bullets capable of burning for an entire day and night.

Summoning her Sacred Realm, Quinna rushed forward. The barrier expanded until it covered enough ground to contain the vines. The oppressive force within descended like a sledgehammer, bringing with it an abyss-like, hellish pressure!

After years of exploring the Distant Sky Domain and advancing her Space Class proficiency to Gold level, a Sacred Realm sorcerer could start attempting to integrate other sorcery classes into their Sacred Realm.

In Quinna's case, she had incorporated the Soul Class into her Sacred Realm. With her mana alone, she could suppress the souls of all living entities inside, driving sentient beings mad and causing plants to wither!

Faced with the Book of Gospel's anomaly, Ashe remained composed and acted swiftly.

Utilizing the Rainbow Tail Secret Poison, he converted his mana into the Prismatic variation and activated a Three-Winged-level Sword Barrier to protect himself and baby Pankey from the incoming Miracles.

Boom!

Shadows, bullets, flames, gales of scythes, and soul-suppressing pressure continuously drowned the vines. Different Miracles collided like a massive chain reaction, intertwining into a dazzling, explosive fireworks display!

Watching the surging waves of energy erupting around him, baby Pankey excitedly raised his hands and cheered. "Da, da!"

Meanwhile, Ashe stared down at the vines already wrapping around his legs. The Sword Barrier remained completely intact, yet it had done nothing to stop them from creeping in.

His pupils dilated sharply as he saw a small section of vine split away, extending straight toward baby Pankey. Ashe shouted, "Stop! Annan, catch him!"

At that, Annan lowered her submachine gun. She looked up to see baby Pankey flying toward her. Reacting instantly, she discarded Second Mistress Donna and reached out for him.

Panic caused her to lose her balance and stumble. Despite stretching her arms out as far as she could, she failed to reach baby Pankey, and her heart sank.

Just then, a crescent-shaped arc flashed through the air like a saving grace. "You really aren't agile at all, little moth. Why don't you change your name to little pig instead?"

It was Evelyn. She had made up for her late start with sheer speed, arriving first. Leaping down from above, she caught baby Pankey perfectly with one hand.

She landed gracefully in front of Annan, looking down at her best friend with a condescending expression.

Her glory was short-lived. In the very next second, she panicked as well. "Eh? Wait, why is he moving so much? Hurry! Get up and hold him!"

Ashe's shout came from behind them. "Annan!"

Hearing that signal, Annan dodged to the side without turning around, knowing the vines had launched a surprise attack at her. She rolled forward, jumped back, and retreated to Evelyn's side.

Only after taking baby Pankey back into her arms did she turn around, but the sight before her made her draw a sharp breath.

By now, Ashe had been completely covered by vines. Intertwining like thick threads, they formed a throne that forcibly pressed him down. They rapidly spread outward, using Ashe as the center point to construct a spherical fortress of woven green.

Besides Ashe, the vines attempted to wrap around Iger, Harvey, Quinna, Evelyn, Annan, and baby Pankey.

Compared to the VVIP treatment Ashe received, the vines treated the rest of them like unwelcome freeloaders, giving them bare-minimum, half-hearted service.

Quinna stepped aside, avoiding the vines' invitation. With a solemn expression, she said, "Shadow-attribute attacks are ineffective. Bullets are ineffective. Fire is ineffective. Wind blades are ineffective. Even pressure on the soul isn't enough to suppress the spirituality within. None of our attacks can inflict any damage. This is..."

"A Divine Miracle." At some point, Dia had already stepped down from the throne. As she walked toward Ashe, the vines did not reach out for her, yet she could not breach the barrier either. These nearly invincible vines had completely isolated Ashe from the outside world.

Without needing the Book of Gospel, Dia could now receive the Gospel's answer directly through her thoughts. "This is a Miracle used for summoning. A force completely unknown to us is forcibly summoning Ashe, attempting to teleport him somewhere else!"

Iger asked the question every family member of a terminally ill patient would ask. "Why him? Why would he suddenly become the target of a summoning Miracle?"

Ashe couldn't move a muscle, save for his head.

He noticed that while the vines attempted to pull the others inside, their enthusiasm varied between targets.

Evelyn, Nona, and baby Pankey received the lowest priority, with only one vine pursuing each of them.

Quinna and Anphel received slightly better treatment as two to three vines pursued them.

Annan, Iger, and Harvey received an even higher priority. Five to six vines surrounded and chased them down.

The only person not invited by the vines was the future Empress, the host of Gospel herself.

Ashe watched Dia's face go pale, and a cold realization hit him. "Has the Omniscient Weaver tricked us?"

Hearing Ashe connect that supreme title with such a shameless accusation, everyone froze for a moment.

At that instant, Iger grabbed the stunned red-haired little angel beside him and carried her away, dodging the vines that had suddenly accelerated their attack.

Anphel blinked. "Thank you."

Iger put her down immediately once they reached a safe place. "Be careful. Don't drag others down."

Inside the green fortress, Ashe continued his explanation. "The vines' desire to attack you corresponds exactly to your rankings in the Woven Festival. Pankey, Miss Nona, and Miss Evelyn only obtained one ranking, so a single vine chases each of them. Miss Anphel and Miss Quinna hold two to three rankings, which is why two to three vines target them. Annan, as well as the two of you, hold only two rankings, but all of you share the honor of taking first place.

"That is why the vines desire you so strongly. Still, compared to me, you are merely bonus items. From the very beginning, this Miracle targeted me. Right now, it is checking whether it has a chance to take away a few more Echoers recognized by the Gospel."

"There is a flaw in your logic," Harvey said, running a few steps before catching his breath. At that moment, he looked frail enough to be knocked over by a gust of wind. "Ashe, you did not occupy any ranking in the Woven Festival."

Ashe narrowed his eyes. "I was once ranked first on the most valuable ranking in the Woven Festival." A trace of resentment surfaced in his voice. "That is why, to these vines, I am the most valuable prey."

By now, Dia had collapsed onto the ground. "The Gospel's First, Aine!"

She stared blankly at the scene before her as the Bell-Attuned Angel's teasing voice echoed repeatedly in her mind. "Will you become the witch seeking something forever unattainable in that story, or the princess living happily ever after?"

At the time, she had thought it was a question. She never expected it to be an answer.

Everything had been intentional, from the Incarnation of Secrets and the Gospel Divine Spirit to the Angel's wish and the summoning Miracle. Even without the sharpest mind, Dia noticed the anomaly once White Queen and Black Butler connected all the pieces of information for her. They had never escaped the closed loop woven by the Omniscient Weaver. Perhaps from the moment Ashe obtained the Incarnation of Secrets, the Omniscient Weaver had already begun weaving a special web meant only for him.

Since Ashe was already inside the Gospel Kingdom, the Omniscient Weaver would never allow him to simply leave with the Incarnation of Secrets. Who, then, was up for the task of retrieving the conceptual incarnation? The answer was straightforward. The Gospel's First, or more precisely, whoever possessed the Incarnation of Secrets would become the Gospel's First.

Dia, attempting to break that fate, temporarily reclaimed the position of Gospel's First through Sleeping Beauty and the Bronze Dragon's blessing, but this action only forced Ashe to voluntarily hand the Incarnation of Secrets over to her. They had never truly escaped the Omniscient Weaver's web.

Still, that was not enough. Whether planned long ago or decided on a whim, the Omniscient Weaver had actually attempted to sell the Gospel's First. This summoning Miracle could never attack Ashe directly through the Book of Gospel without the Omniscient Weaver's permission, as the Book of Gospel itself was an extension of the spiderweb within the Heaven of Omniscience.

The Omniscient Weaver sold the Gospel's First, but only part of it. The divine entity never intended to honor a fair trade. After all, the Gospel's First possessed a Divine Spirit and the Incarnation of Secrets, forming the very foundation of the Gospel Kingdom's civilization. Endless reasons existed to refuse to give it away.

Fortunately, this round's Woven Festival provided the perfect opportunity to sell counterfeit goods because this year's Gospel's First had two candidates. Dia could almost imagine the Weaver's thought process: "You want the Gospel's First, but you never specified which one. I will simply pick one for you, guaranteed fresh and authentic."

At that moment, the Gospel Divine Spirit and Incarnation of Secrets were both inside Dia. Ashe was merely an empty shell carrying a false title, yet he fulfilled the requirements of the transaction and could be sold for a high price. Naturally, the Omniscient Weaver used him as a replacement product.

Another possibility existed. The moment the Gospel Rankings appeared, the Omniscient Weaver had already signed away the product named Aine. The buyer walked away satisfied. No one could have foreseen that such an exquisite trophy would prove to be a hollow shell a day down the line.

In hindsight, the brief moment Ashe was selected as the Gospel's First by the Gospel Rankings served to inflate his value, much like giving an ordinary crab a bath in a famous lake or placing a luxury brand label onto ordinary clothing. It was a ceremony designed for a later fraudulent transaction.

Even that was not enough insurance. That was why they encountered the Bell-Attuned Angel inside the Heaven of Omniscience, and the Angel had kindly granted Dia a wish. She helped Dia hide the Gospel Divine Spirit and Incarnation of Secrets! At the time, Dia believed that despite her terrible personality, the Bell-Attuned Angel possessed some kindness deep inside. That too was part of the deception. Had Dia not wanted to conceal her secret, the Bell-Attuned Angel would have hidden her spirit situation anyway.

The influence of a Divine Spirit over a sorcerer was simply too significant. If the Gospel Divine Spirit inside Dia's soul remained unhidden, the buyer could easily discover it before the transaction even began. Therefore, the Angel's wish was an inevitable coincidence with a true purpose to erase the difference between Dia and Ashe. Only then could the trade proceed.

This logic explained why the vines ignored Dia. From the perspective of the Divine Miracle, Dia was merely an ordinary little girl, clearly not worth wasting energy to summon.

Deception could only last so long. The entity trading with the Omniscient Weaver had to be a great being of equal level. The Weaver surely risked furious retaliation upon the discovery of this trick.

Dia took a deep breath. None of that mattered anymore. After quickly communicating with her sisters and reaching a unanimous decision, she gathered her mana into the Fairy Tale spirit within her soul. Inside the Fairy Tale garden, the Gospel Divine Spirit seemed to sense something. It put down the Conjuring Spirit and quietly waited for its host's decision.

Just as Dia attempted to tear apart this newly formed fairy tale world and completely expose the Gospel Divine Spirit, she suddenly heard Ashe's voice. "Lys, if I am not wrong, the Omniscient Weaver made me the scapegoat and targeted me for the summoning in your place, right?"

Dia froze and promptly replied, "Yes! But I have already thought of a solution."

"Is it a solution where both of us can stay?"

Dia opened her mouth slightly, but no words came out.

Ashe smiled. "Then I have a suggestion. You stay in the Gospel Kingdom, find a way to take control of the Gospel, and then come find me. After that, we will go together and burn the Heaven of Omniscience to the ground. We will burn away the entire web of fate and take our revenge. What do you think?"