The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch
Chapter 160 - Grim Worm, the Mother Goddess’s "Overseer" (2/2)

Lucy suddenly turned back and saw several ordinary people standing behind her at some point. One of them, a burly man with a fleshy face, held a revolver in his hand, pointing directly at the others.

“I... I’ve had enough! You bunch of failures!”

Bang bang—

Bang bang bang—

The trigger was pulled frantically. Fire snakes spewed from the revolver’s muzzle, quickly taking the lives of those people.

Even the transcendent who had been following her from a distance was now stopped at the end of the street, swaying, seeming to have lost control.

The gunshots seemed to completely activate the entire street. The street, which had been quiet at night, began to echo with roars and screams.

“Ahhhhh—”

Clang—

The sound of glass breaking. A woman fell from the third floor, hitting her head on the ground, dying tragically before Lucy. Following closely behind was a man.

He also jumped from the third floor, hitting the ground. There was a crisp sound of his leg bones breaking upon impact.

The man seemed completely oblivious to his leg, where bone fragments were exposed. His eyes were bloodshot as he crawled towards the woman, cursing morbidly.

“I told you not to listen to me... I told you not to listen to me!!!”

A scene of madness unfolded in every street and alley.

Ordinary people who couldn’t even sense the spiritual alarm and shouldn’t have reacted to this at all, seemed to have fallen into madness. Chaotic, even distorted, unprovoked hatred festered in their minds, driving them to commit horrifying atrocities.

“For Orlando!”

A group of people, waving the firearms in their hands, ran out from another alley, directly pulling the trigger on a patrolling detective.

Their eyes were morbidly bloodshot. Saliva drooled from their mouths, and they seemed completely unaware. Reason had fled, leaving only complete madness festering in their minds.

What happened?

Lucy, who was not yet affected, watched all this in shock.

She had investigated cult summoning rituals. She had also seen scenes where some eerie sealed artifacts automatically activated. But never had any sealed artifact or ritual’s influence covered such a wide area.

Moreover, all this happened in an instant. Before this, most people were still in dreamland.

Clop—

Suddenly, a clear set of footsteps sounded in Lucy’s mind.

Looking forward along the chaotic street, a terrifying figure slowly walked towards her from the end of the street.

It was a seemingly ordinary “person” shrouded in black robes, their face covered by a blood mist.

But behind this “person,” countless blood threads, like withered branches, extended. They were entangled with countless bloody corpses behind them—some were even still struggling living people—draped behind them.

As if wearing a massive cape formed by endless blood and sin.

The moment she saw that figure, a frantic buzzing almost completely overwhelmed Lucy.

What is that thing?!

Transcender? Ascender?!!

No... It’s impossible. Even a Tier 4 transcendent couldn’t make her almost collapse just by looking at them from a distance!

No... That thing is not something I can resist.

Let alone a very small chance of obtaining a great gain, that thing... It is an existence capable of overturning the entire gambling table. There is absolutely no possibility of gambling!

Lucy’s courage was instantly shattered. She instinctively turned to flee, but the moment she turned, her pupils slightly constricted.

Behind her, stood a black figure almost identical to the figure at the end of the street.

Its face was covered by a black distorted vortex. And behind it, the entire alley was almost filled with blood threads, hanging with countless struggling humans and corpses.

Lucy couldn’t even let out a scream. Her legs went weak, and she knelt on the ground.

In her terrified vision, the withered branch-like blood threads behind the black-robed figure pulled the corpses, continuously contracting, slowly merging into eight pairs of twisted black insect wings behind it. The withered branch-like blood threads became the patterns on the insect wings. And those bones and flesh became countless twisted human faces on the insect wings.

It was as if just by looking at the insect wings, endless wailing and roaring would echo in one’s mind, never stopping.

Lucy’s spirit completely collapsed.

...

“Lord Ciel... Lord Ciel! The ritual did not fail. The summoning did not fail!”

Tara looked at the direction of Berren City in the distance with fanaticism, excitedly pointing.

Berren City in the distance was already covered by a blood mist. In Tara’s field of vision, she could see a giant grim worm phantom, prostrate in the center of Berren City, spreading its giant insect wings.

It’s a Holy Spirit! Absolutely a Holy Spirit!

Tara forcibly resisted the urge to kneel and bow in that direction. The Mother Goddess was right beside her. It wasn’t appropriate to bow to another Holy Spirit at this time. If she was going to bow, she could only bow to the Mother Goddess.

At this moment, Ciel looked at the phantom in the distance, feeling a wave of apprehension in her heart.

Good thing I ran out beforehand...

The sacrifices this time were also people from the Divine Advent Church and the Church of the Savior Goddess. Without any accidents, it was highly likely that an Other Side being related to this church was summoned.

But this time, Ciel didn’t feel any sense of kinship towards this Other Side being.

“Can you tell what it is?” Ciel asked.

At this moment, the excited Tara didn’t notice anything unusual, only thinking it was Ciel’s test. She realized she was too excited. She stood back behind Ciel and lowered her head, saying, “This Holy Spirit is recorded in the Holy War era scriptures. The Ansu translation might not be entirely accurate...”

After stacking countless layers of defense, Tara finally said:

“We refer to it as the ‘Grim Worm.’ Legend says it is the Mother Goddess’s... that is, the foremost of Your six ‘Disciplinarian Saints,’ the saint closest to a demigod.”

“According to the scriptures, wherever it descends, all the sin and greed deep within people’s hearts will be amplified and released. After all sin and greed are released, the remaining pure souls will be taken to the Divine Kingdom, leaving behind only the remains filled with sin...”

“The concentrated release of sin can ensure the minimization of suffering for everyone... This is also a way to quickly release prolonged suffering—this is the doctrine as I understand and interpret it.”

Translated, it means turning people into sinners and then killing everyone so there is no suffering in the world?

As expected of the Divine Advent Church. Their doctrine is sinister enough, completely opposite to the somewhat gentler atonement doctrine of the Church of the Savior Goddess.

“What are ‘Disciplinarian Saints’?” Ciel asked.

She wasn’t worried at all that her questioning would cause Tara to become suspicious. Tara always found the most suitable explanation for herself, covering for Ciel.

“Hope the ancient scriptures didn’t misinterpret Your meaning...”

Tara said, “They describe it like this—’Disciplinarian Saints’ are the Mother Goddess’s ‘Overseers’ and ‘Executors.’ They will punish and judge every being who defiles the Mother Goddess’s faith, causing their souls and bodies to suffer eternal torment.”

Ciel: “...”

Now I understand why there was no sense of kinship.

Turns out it was the real “inspector” from the Mother Goddess’s seat who rushed out of the Other Side. If I hadn’t run in time, I might have been the first to die.

After all, I was genuinely impersonating the Mother Goddess. Who knows what the other party would do when they saw me?

The actions of these high-tier spiritual beings usually have some logic. It’s possible they might really drag Ciel directly back to the Other Side for judgment.

“Lord Ciel, what should we do next? Do we need to go welcome the Holy Saint?”

Tara asked, unable to suppress her excitement.

Because in Tara’s eyes, serving beside the Mother Goddess made her the most loyal person, and she would definitely not be judged by the Grim Worm. She wanted to go and pay homage to the Grim Worm from the scriptures.

“No, go to Ansu.”

Ciel said decisively.

At this moment, only by going to Ansu could she be sure she could really survive for 24 hours.