“Damned bitch...”

  Andreas furiously cursed Elysia, who was thrown through the air like a rag doll.

  The first time, he had merely had an ordinary collector’s impulse, wanting to gouge out her two eyes, but she broke the hypnosis by mutilating herself.

  And this time, she had even used the very magic he had cast against himself. Was that the ability of a Saint?

  What Andreas couldn’t understand was how she had managed to save herself twice in a row through self-mutilation, each time more cruel than the last.

  Honestly, he had never seen someone be so ruthless toward themselves.

  Even though the Church of the Goddess of Hope was famous for its divine healing arts, he had never seen someone capable of injuring themselves in such a way.

  But fortunately, now, even if she had flown out of the monastery, when she fell she would be severely injured and wouldn’t be able to escape very far.

  Thinking this, Andreas quickly picked up the candlestick from the ground and ran out of the monastery.

  ....

  On the other side, after being hurled over the monastery by the force of the gale, Elysia violently crashed into the ground, nearly fainting on the spot.

  Fortunately, she still retained consciousness.

  “System... clown...” Before her consciousness completely disappeared, she could only send one last signal to the system, and then her mind began to blur.

  In her dazed state, Elysia saw a card emitting white light shatter into the void.

  The pain in her body disappeared, and the fractured bones seemed to have been restored as if they had never broken.

  But Elysia knew that her original body had not been healed; it was still gravely injured. She had merely switched bodies.

  She just didn’t know how long that situation could last. Or maybe, as long as her original body didn’t appear, she could stay in that space indefinitely, until she found a way to heal it.

  Before she could think any further, that crazy and bizarre urge surged back into her mind once again.

  The intense pain and shock she had just suffered had already consumed a large part of her mental energy.

  Now, the character’s mental pollution started affecting her again, and Elysia could no longer resist.

  “Hee... heehee...”

  Behind the monastery was a vast wheat field. Elysia sat collapsed among the wheat, her head lowered, laughing softly like a lunatic.

  She tried to stand up several times, but due to the lack of coordination in her body, she fell again, crushing large patches of wheat.

  With her comical clown outfit and strange makeup, she looked like a drunken circus performer.

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  I need to get out of here... as fast as possible...

  Elysia had already given up on controlling her facial expressions and speech, concentrating all her strength solely on moving her body.

  But before she could do so, the pursuers had already arrived.

  ...

  Andreas was running wildly.

  Because he had infiltrated the Church, in order not to arouse suspicion, both his divine arts and his conjuration techniques had not reached the intermediate level.

  Naturally, he lacked the advanced mobility skills granted at the intermediate level.

  Finally, Andreas arrived at the wheat field behind the monastery.

  Upon seeing the flattened area of wheat, he finally let out a sigh of relief and sneered.

  “Even without knowing how to use divine arts, without any supernatural ability, you still managed to leave me in this state. To be honest, you really are a...” Andreas walked toward the figure in the field.

  But the closer he got, the more he felt that something was wrong.

  Green hair...?

  He no longer dared to be careless and quickened his pace toward the figure.

  “Hehe… ha ha ha...”

  The closer he got, the stronger the unease in his heart became.

  This... isn’t the Saint!?

  Seeing the woman in front of him stagger to her feet and fall again, seemingly without any injuries, Andreas raised his hand and began casting a spell.

  “Woman, raise your head,” said Andreas, his voice filled with anger.

  Upon hearing Andreas’s voice, fear immediately enveloped Elysia’s heart.

  She wanted to escape as quickly as possible, for she had no ability to counterattack. But under that crushing mental pressure, she could not properly control her own body.

  In an instant, despair spread through her heart, and the clown infinitely amplified her inner emotions.

  In the end, she looked at Andreas, slowly stood up, crying and laughing at the same time.

  “Uuuuh... hehe...”

  Andreas looked at the woman before him, who seemed like a lunatic, and the corner of his mouth twitched. The magic in his hand was released.

  A ball of water shot toward Elysia’s face at high speed, throwing her away and making her fall to the ground.

  But the makeup on her face was largely washed away by the water ball.

  “Damn!” Upon seeing that face, Andreas knew he had probably failed.

  The information must have already leaked, causing the Saint to have been rescued.

  Although the madwoman before him also had a pair of beautiful eyes, now there was no time to collect them.

  Escaping was more important.

  Perhaps imagining the consequences of mission failure, a feeling of fear grew in Andreas’s heart. Before leaving, that feeling was transmitted to the madwoman lying on the ground.

  【Fear Absorption】

  With Andreas’s departure, the kidnapping crisis was over, the danger surrounding Elysia still remained.

  To resist the insane murmurs in her mind, Elysia, who had been experiencing extreme highs and lows, no longer had any energy to care for her own body.

  Her hair and clothes, soaked by water, dried under the sun, while fleas and various insects crawled freely over her body.

  From the scorching midday sun until nightfall, with insects beginning to chirp, groups from the Church repeatedly passed by the wheat field nearby, searching for the missing Elysia, but found nothing.

  No one knew that the person they were desperately searching for had been in the nearby field the entire time, fighting a mental battle for survival.

  Until night fell and everything grew silent, Elysia, who had been smiling hysterically in the wheat field, finally stopped her hoarse laughter.

  Whether she had surrendered to the character card or had been devoured by the character’s will, Elysia successfully stood up, her movements smooth, nothing seeming to indicate a mental disturbance.

  In the darkness, she slowly stretched her stiff body, as if dancing alone under the moonlight.

  But with her ridiculous outfit and the large smear of red makeup fixed and running down from her mouth, she looked like a cannibal ogre with blood dripping from the corners of her lips, terrifying and at the same time beautiful under the moonlight.

  “Your fear, I received it.”

  “Mr. Andreas.”

  “Did you hide well?”

  Elysia’s voice was hoarse.