Chapter 31
Chapter 31: The Chapter of Wrath
As if written by a withered bone finger dipped in blood, the characters spread row by row across Funis’s vision.
She couldn’t shake off those characters. No matter how much she rubbed her eyes, when she opened them again, they were still there, as if these bloody words had already fused with Funis, becoming part of her.
Hazy whispers echoed in the distance.
The writing began to change.
【Original Codex · Chapter of Wrath】
【Activation Ritual】
【The fallen angel Samael is watching you. He is the taker of human souls, yet you are beloved of the Lord. Fear not, be not afraid】
Samael?
The great demon Samael who stands at the end of the Path of Wrath?
After recognizing the content of the bloody writing in her vision, Funis fell into brief confusion, but then she heard the thunderous sound of waves crashing against reefs behind her. Instinctively turning back, she saw the vast darkness and countless stars torn open by mist-like substance, creating a rift.
Within the crevice was a pitch-black sea, with the sun burning dimly and lightlessly at the horizon’s end.
A heavenly ladder descended from the sky, and in the seventh heaven stood a colossal shadow—a height that would take humans five hundred years to climb.
From the crown on His head to the soles at His feet, His body was covered with shining eyes, and those countless eyes now all turned their gaze toward Funis on this side of the rift.
He was watching Funis.
A burning sensation in her chest nearly left Funis breathless. She clutched her heart and lungs, gasping painfully. An indescribable sense of oppression, as if a hand had strangled her throat at the soul level.
【Original Codex · Chapter of Wrath】
【Has received Samael’s favor and gaze】
【Activation ritual complete, transferring away from the garden】
Struggling to breathe, she saw the writing change again, the text unnaturally cold, completely unlike something written by any living person.
Transfer? Garden?
Funis couldn’t understand the meaning of these words, but she felt certain that everything she was experiencing must be related to the Witch’s Codex.
If her understanding was correct, the page in Funis’s hands was the “Chapter of Wrath,” and wrath was one of the fourteen paths, which corresponded exactly to the fourteen pages of the Witch’s Codex.
Each page was a chapter, corresponding to a path, and also corresponding to a great angel or great demon.
But what did this codex represent? And why did that “Original Witch” write it?
Funis had no way of knowing. She only felt a strange gravitational force pulling at her, as if trying to extract and separate her from this place.
She turned back.
Perhaps she should never have turned back.
That eyeball, more ancient and massive than the stars, met her gaze at this moment. Countless indescribable images and fragments flooded into her mind like a tide—every moment from past to future, connected as a whole.
Unspeakable whisperers surrounded that great being, singing and praising His supremacy.
He was both foolishly blind and omniscient.
【Warning】
Funis still hadn’t fallen into madness. She had inadvertently been infused with the entirety of past and future by that great being, yet something simultaneously forced their deletion, leaving her reason intact.
Bloody writing filled her vision.
【Warning】
【Excess information eliminated】
【Warning】
【Do not look directly upon the Lord】
A series of warnings occupied Funis’s entire field of view. Startled into a cold sweat, she finally lowered her head and looked away.
That strange gravitational force grew stronger and stronger, until finally, after a flash of bright light, Funis felt herself being forcefully thrown out.
In a daze, she found herself back in the original theater.
Rows of broken, abandoned old seats, crystal chandeliers bright with candlelight, ruins and rubble from battle damage, and Weiss, who lay crushed under brick and steel, no longer breathing.
And herself, sitting duck-like on the ground, holding the blood-stained parchment in her hands.
Funis didn’t immediately come to her senses.
She could touch the floor, her revolver was at hand, and the familiar metal casing felt reassuring to touch. This was reality without doubt—she had indeed returned to the grand theater from that darkness.
Yet she couldn’t determine that everything she had just seen was false dreams either.
Funis looked down to examine the parchment. The content depicted on it had been completely contaminated by bloodstains, unrecognizable.
Suddenly her palm felt scalding hot, and flames burst forth from the center of the parchment. In her panic, she let go and dropped it, helplessly watching as that precious codex fragment burned to ash and scattered in the wind.
“Huh?”
Just like that, it was gone?
Funis stood frozen in place for a full half minute. She hadn’t figured out where those flames came from—everything happened too suddenly.
She had originally planned to hand this page over to the Church. When Qixiya returned the fragment to her, Funis had even felt a little moved. Now it had inexplicably turned to ash, and she only felt that her previous emotion had been wasted.
However, just as Funis was lamenting and preparing to stand up, a wave of pain and dizziness struck her head.
Bright red blood drops splattered wildly in her vision before coalescing into writing.
【Original Codex · Chapter of Wrath】
【Ritual Recipient: Funis】
【Has received Samael’s favor and gaze】
【He was once a noble Seraph, receiving devout souls for the Lord; betrayal destroyed Him, and He fell in resentment and wrath, falling into hell; He will be suppressed, He will endure, He will lie dormant; He will eventually take revenge, His endless fury will then be cast upon this earth】
【Authority · Absorb Revenge】
【Level 1】
【Status: Available for use. Stored charges: 1/1】
【Effect: Nullify incoming attack damage and retaliate with double force】
【Note: Can only nullify attack damage within the authority level’s permitted range. Raising authority level can increase retaliation force and maximum stored charges】
【Switchable Path: Wrath Path Seventh Sequence – Gravedigger】
【Note: When switched to Wrath Path, normal advancement through potions and rituals is possible. Sequence advancement will bring corresponding improvements to authority level】
Funis read through it word by word.
Her head was spinning.
So she read through it again.
After confirming she hadn’t misread anything, Funis lowered her head and fell into deep contemplation.
As a steadfast and devout Kabbalist believer, she had always firmly believed in God’s existence, with angels managing the world for the Lord and maintaining order.
But until today, after personally witnessing a series of indescribable strange sights after being transformed into a succubus by peculiar magic, Funis was certain that the worldview she had built in her mind over forty years had collapsed.
More precisely, she felt her worldview was being pressed to the ground and ruthlessly trampled by these bloody words.
Because it was so shocking, stunning, and subversive, it made Funis think that rather than expressing doubt and trying to resist, she might as well lie flat and accept everything wholesale. Once she got used to it, it might even seem somewhat reasonable.
The “Original Witch” was no ordinary person. She was probably the first person in this world to establish contact with the whisperers, so it was quite normal for her relics to contain mysterious power.
That page hadn’t been burned to ash by fire, but had truly fused with Funis.
She had absorbed the “Chapter of Wrath.”