The Warden of The Witches

Chapter 123:

Cognitive Dissonance

A gun?

Why would Priscilla be carrying a gun?

Aiden was momentarily perplexed.

"Rebecca" was currently suspended and under continuous surveillance by Harold's people. Normally, she wouldn't have had the opportunity to obtain a firearm.

However, the silhouette revealed under the opponent's upper garment unmistakably outlined a gun. Priscilla had actually concealed a gun behind her, like an undercover agent...

Wait, was the person he had just dealt with really Priscilla?

In a moment of doubt, the "illusion" unraveled.

With just a blink, Aiden realized that the person before him had changed.

Although he couldn't see her face from behind, her hair color and length were completely different from the "Rebecca" who had appeared before him just now.

He... had actually "misseen"!?

This hair color was the same as the investigator who had just appeared under the streetlight.

Realizing something, he reflexively aimed the gun in his hand at the woman who had been standing under the streetlight just moments ago.

As his vision shifted, the person under the streetlight had astonishingly turned into the "Rebecca" he had knocked down!

"You're two steps too late."

"Rebecca," or rather Priscilla, stood beneath the streetlight, giving him a triumphant, shallow smile.

Almost reflexively, Aiden prepared to fire his gun, the situation having escalated to the point where he could no longer consider minimizing harm to Rebecca's body.

But in the next moment, his field of vision suddenly twisted into an incomprehensible jumble of code, and the sounds around him morphed into unrecognizable noise.

Although he could still see and hear, his mind couldn't process the sensory information.

In the few seconds when Priscilla had deceived him, he had fallen completely under her mental spell.

He could only instinctively fire the gun, but the demonic bullet that emerged barely grazed the lamp post. In his momentary mental and sensory disarray, Priscilla had already dodged from in front of his gun barrel and swiftly circled around him, taking cover beside the unconscious observer.

Panicked, Aiden attempted to summon shadow demons and guardian spirits for attack but received no response - his mental connection with these summons had been severed.

Priscilla stood beside Aiden, staring at him as if assessing a piece of fish on a cutting board.

The "sensory disorientation," which made it impossible to comprehend the sensory information, and the "mental block" that sealed off his mental and external sensing capabilities - the two mental spells she had cast on Aiden after closing in on him - rendered him unable to aim with his gun or use any magic beyond self-targeted spells.

While Priscilla was somewhat surprised by Aiden's proficiency with demonic summoning and necromancy, ultimately, she emerged victorious.

It was fortunate she had made extra preparations...

In order to deceive Aiden and the monitors from the Inquisition, she employed a low-level mental spell called "Cognitive Dissonance."

This spell simply amplifies the cognitive dissonance of "seeing something wrong at a glance" or "mishearing something for a moment." Those affected by the spell will mistake an object for something their subconscious believes they should see or hear instead.

It's like placing a cat inside a closed box, where the person under the spell, if they, for some reason, believe that a dog should be inside, upon opening the box, will see a dog. Even if they hear a cat's meow, they will still misinterpret it as a dog's bark.

The effectiveness of this low-level spell is quite weak. Firstly, it requires aligning with the target's mental habits to take effect. Secondly, as soon as the affected person becomes aware of their mistake in seeing or hearing, the cognitive dissonance is immediately corrected. Therefore, it can only substitute similar objects and cannot be directly used face-to-face.

However, precisely because it is a low-level spell with severe limitations and weak power, its casting range is much longer than those powerful offensive mental spells.

She had long been aware of being monitored by the Inquisition. The rotating surveillance personnel would regularly report back, and any tampering with them would immediately expose her.

However, this time, when she resolved to make her move against Aiden, she decided to utilize the methods of this monitor.

Initially, she and the monitor waited near a street close to the prison, using an animal familiar to monitor Aiden's departure from the prison and his movements.

Fortunately, the familiar she used happened to be a crow, which when flying over the streetlights, did not cast a shadow on the ground. Even Aiden, equipped with Dailey's summoned shadow demons, failed to detect the animal surveillance.

Of course, being just an animal familiar, it posed no threat to him whatsoever. To attack Aiden, Priscilla had to personally approach him.

After confirming Aiden's movements, Priscilla set off to track him midway.

At the right moment, she quickly distanced himself from the monitor, swiftly turning into an alley to conceal himself, and temporarily disappearing from the monitor's view.

When the monitor under the influence of the "Cognitive Dissonance" spell hastily caught up, she saw Aiden walking ahead.

In that moment, she believed that the person she should see after turning the corner was her tracking target. So, under the spell's effect, she mistook Aiden for "Rebecca," who Harold had ordered to be monitored, and didn't search for her hidden tracking target, and instead she following closely behind Aiden.

As the monitor began to tail Aiden, and closing in, Aiden sensed the pursuer and identified them as Priscilla, who was intending to harm him.

Using simple mental spells, Priscilla induced a scenario where both individuals mistook each other for herself, engaging in a battle of wits and ambush. She seized the opportunity to become the hunter after the prey was caught.

She didn't have full confidence in confronting Aiden head-on, but she could swiftly close the distance and unleash powerful mental attacks unexpectedly when his attention shifted to the monitor, leveraging his cognitive dissonance.

As it stands now, Aiden has lost all means of retaliation and is at her mercy.

Next, all she needs to do is completely seal his memories, then swap consciousness, and she will claim his body!

Priscilla began casting her spell, and suddenly, Aiden felt countless cold, hard chains from the depths of his consciousness, like a swarm of snakes, targeting and entwining his memories, locking them away.

His Memories began to blur - he realized he was about to meet the same fate as Rebecca.

At this critical juncture, he frantically searched for any lifeline in his mind, until the strange divine incantation taught by Abigail suddenly surfaced in his consciousness.

The divine incantation! Though unsure of the effects of uttering this divine phrase, this unknown effect was his only hope for salvation.