On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

A rare flash of anger appeared on the young knight's face. Tamik could tolerate anything from Dulin and his master, but he could not tolerate Dulin's blasphemy against the goddess and his insult to his faith.

"Ha, what's wrong? You're angry now, all grown up, want to fight me? Fine, come on! Let me see if your goddess can grant you the power to beat me to the ground!"

As tensions between the two escalated, and both lost control of their emotions, the situation nearly spiraled out of control, threatening to escalate to an irreversible point.

squeak

The door to the ward was opened a crack, and a blonde woman in a hospital gown walked out weakly. She looked at the two knights who were already red-eyed with anxiety, and shook her head at the older one.

"Dulin, don't do this."

If there's anything else that could make this Cavaliers player instantly drop everything, it would only be his wife.

"Susan! How did you get out here? Damn it! It's all my fault, all my fault for being so loud, I must have woken you up! Quick, go back! The doctor said you can't get out of bed yet!"

Ignoring the anxious Dulin, the blonde woman, who looked weak but still tried to stay alert, turned to look at another person present.

"Tamik, yes, I'm sorry. Whatever your master said, I believe it was just said in anger. I apologize on behalf of Dulin for what he just said, and I apologize to Lady Sthiuthea. Cough cough cough."

Susan's cough at the end showed that she was really unwell. It was only with all her might that she managed to get to the ward door and stop the two from arguing.

"No, no, no, Sister Susan, it's my fault. It's not Master's fault. I was too excited. I don't know enough and I couldn't understand Captain Dulin's words."

"I'm fine now. You should listen to Captain Dulin and go back to bed!"

Susan's position in Tamick's heart was clearly slightly higher than Dulin's, and under the blonde woman's gentle words, the young knight immediately stopped arguing. However, in the end...

"Captain Shidulin, I won't bother you any longer, but I still want to tell you that I will not give up on the investigation into that C-grade Turbid item in Kaleva and Mr. Liao Ji! If the Knights don't allow me to do so, then..."

"I choose to leave the Knights! So what if they strip me of this uniform!?"

"Perhaps you are right, the Goddess is indeed gone, and Lady Styutia can no longer protect us as before, but so what? What I believe in, what I uphold, what I understand is not the Goddess or Lady Styutia herself, but her will, the determination she showed us five hundred years ago to drive away the calamities and open up a holy land for us!"

“The physical body may perish, but the spirit of the goddess will never disappear. Even if everyone in the church forgets, at least in me, in my Tamik, I still hold fast! The goddess has not left, and Lady Sthiuthia still lives in my heart!”

"That concludes my duties! Tamick, the 287th trainee knight, takes his leave!"

After saying this, the young knight gave Dulin a standard knightly salute, and then left the hospital without giving Dulin a chance to speak again.

With a pained expression, Du Lin helped Susan back to bed and covered her with the blanket. Then, the woman took Du Lin's hand.

"Du, don't you think he looks a lot like you?"

"What!? Susan, are you out of your mind? Me and that brat? Are you kidding me!" Dulin affectionately stroked the woman's blonde hair, making an exaggerated expression to try and make her laugh.

And Dulin did indeed succeed.

Pfft!

"Hehehe, look, you still say it doesn't look like it? Your stubbornness and argumentativeness are practically cut from the same cloth, hehehe... cough cough! cough!"

"Susan, stop talking. What you need right now is rest. Oh, and quick, take this medicine!"

When Dulin saw that his wife started coughing again after only a few words, his heart clenched. He then took out the medicine the priest had given him and carefully fed it to Susan with water.

"Honey, don't worry! This is a very special medicine that I specially asked someone to find for you. As long as we keep taking it, you will definitely get better! How about it, don't you feel much better now?"

Looking at her husband's concerned expression, Susan nodded at first, but quickly shook her head.

She stared at the ceiling of the hospital room and suddenly murmured, "Du, you know, when I had my surgery today, I wasn't completely unconscious. I could feel that no matter how much the doctors helped me, my life force was rapidly draining away, like a punctured balloon. At that moment, I really felt that I was going to die, that I would never see you again... cough cough."

"Honey, what discouraging things are you saying! You're perfectly fine! Trust Dr. Chenhui! And stop talking, just close your eyes and rest!" Du Lin scolded her a little angrily.

But the blonde woman stubbornly shook her head, enduring her discomfort to continue speaking:

"If you don't let me finish speaking, just when I felt I was really about to die, do you know what I saw? It was a goddess, it was Lady Sthiuthia!"

“Susan, that’s an illusion, you should…”

"That wasn't a hallucination, because... cough cough, actually this isn't the first time. Every time I have a relapse, I see the Goddess. She envelops me in holy light, and every time she brings me back to life, saving me... cough cough."

"Susan."

"Du, do you remember how we met and fell in love? We met under the statue of the goddess in the church. I remember I was researching a thesis at the time. The title of the thesis was: The Love Story of Lady Styutia and the Emperor. Cough cough. Looking back now, it was really good to be young. Even if it was something so embarrassing and childish, I could really devote myself to it wholeheartedly."

"We arranged to meet every day at dusk to discuss my thesis. I still clearly remember how red-faced you were, arguing with me, saying that your goddess was pure and innocent, and would never fall in love. You also said that Styutia would never like that emperor... cough... cough cough cough."

No matter how much Susan coughed and how much she suffered from illness, it couldn't hide the beautiful memories of the past on the woman's face.

"The moment I truly fell for you was on our first date, Du. I wonder if you still remember how I dressed up carefully and waited for you for more than two hours at the agreed place, only to be greeted by a clumsy knight with bandages on his hands, covered in dirt, and bloodstains on his clothes."

"You kept apologizing to me, saying that you suddenly received a report that a family's child had been taken away by human traffickers, and that you only remembered you were supposed to go on a date with me after you led your team to bring the child back from the criminals. Hehehe. Every time I think about that scene, I just want to laugh, cough cough cough."

“Yeah, I was thinking to myself, ‘That’s it, there’s no chance at all,’ but then I saw you, you actually…” Dulin was also reminded of the past by Susan’s words, and shook his head and sighed.

"Yes, I kissed you, Du, because you have no idea how radiant and handsome you were in my eyes at that moment. This is the Du I love—one who would argue endlessly with me to protect the goddess, and one who would unhesitatingly forget our first date to protect the people."

"What I'm trying to tell you all this is that, Du, I've read through many books and found that before she met the Great Emperor, the Goddess was very fragile and incomplete. It was the Great Emperor who filled some of the void in Lady Sthiuthia. Now, five hundred years have passed. I believe the Great Emperor's disappearance will be a great blow to the Goddess. Just like if I disappeared without saying goodbye one day, what would you do, Du?"

"I can sense that the Goddess's power is waning day by day. Lady Styutia is struggling to hold on. At this time, we should blame the Goddess for being unable to protect us or cleanse us of evil. We should help the Goddess; it's our turn to save Lady Styutia, just like the Great Emperor did back then. Cough cough."

"Stop talking, Susan, I, I..."

Does Dulin not understand these things? Yes, he does, but he's running away from them.

And the reason he ran away was

Susan's hand touched the captain of the knights' face, gliding across his cheek and his beard.

"Du, if one day you have to choose between faith and me, I hope you will choose the former."

"Because that's the Du I like, that's the Du I truly love."

After speaking, Susan's eyelids began to droop. Speaking so much in one breath had completely exhausted her energy, and with the effects of the drugs taking hold, the woman's hand fell limply down from Dulin's face.

Susan turned her head and fell into a deep sleep on the hospital bed.

All that remained was the Knight Captain, clenching his fists, his face a mixture of struggle and confusion, in the silent intensive care unit.

Chapter 50 Leave him to me... One person will suffice (Part 1)

"Old fogey, come closer to me, what the hell is this place?!" Irene whispered to the young man beside her.

They are now walking through a dark, damp, abandoned sewer.

Besides the filthy puddles at her feet, there were moss plants that Irene had never seen before, with an indescribable appearance, and echoes in her ears, seemingly coming from all directions, or more accurately, from the sewers.

A low, hissing roar.

That sound could never be made by a human or an animal. Irene had heard it twice, and both times she remembered it vividly, because it was...

The sounds that only a corrupted corpse could make.

Irene remained on high alert, protecting the young man beside her. She had not forgotten her duty, and the object of the girl's vigilance was not only the dangerous abandoned sewers at hand, but also the nun leading the way.

Maria suddenly stopped and gestured to the two people behind her. Irene looked over and saw two rotten corpses with festering sores, bulging arms, and thick muscles twisted into a braided shape, which had eventually transformed into fleshy pincers, wandering around at the fork in the pipe.

This is their only way through, and clearly, a battle is inevitable if they want to get through.

"Don't worry about me," Liao Ji said in advance to reassure Yilin.

After all, it seems that among the trio, only Irene is a melee fighter, and once the girl rushes forward, the nun will be the only one left by his side.

Irene didn't choose to use a gun. In a place like the sewers, even the slightest noise would be amplified many times by the echo, spreading from the girl's body and eventually forming a blood sword, which Irene held in her hand.

This wasn't the blood-red greatsword from the Kaleva factory; it was much smaller in both width and length. Clearly, in Irene's opinion, the two murky corpses weren't enough to make her use her powers.

With a flash, Irene had already stealthily crept over. When she got to within about ten meters, the two wandering turbid corpses seemed to have smelled something and turned their heads in unison, aiming at the shadowy spot where the girl was.

Seeing that she had been exposed, Irene did not hesitate. Ten meters was enough for her. She stopped crouching and sprang forward. In less than half a breath, she had already rushed to the front of the first giant pincer-like corpse and used the momentum to send the blood sword directly into the neck of the creature.

puff!

After rising to the "dangerous level", the girl's strength has indeed increased a lot. The power of this sword directly cut off the head of the turbid corpse. Then, when another one pounced from behind, the girl bent down, dodged the opponent's swinging claws, kicked it down, and then followed up with another sword, stabbing it straight into the forehead.

The battle was clean and efficient, a double kill in seconds.

"Miss Irene, so strong!" As the three of them continued to advance deeper into the area, Maria, who had just witnessed the girl's battle, couldn't help but express her admiration for her.

"well enough."

"May I ask what Miss Irene did before she became a Calamity-Binder?"

Perhaps because of the overwhelming battle that had just taken its toll, Maria's sense of crisis had lessened considerably. In this environment, Maria seemed to have been opened up and started chatting with the girl.

Irene hadn't intended to answer, but seeing that Liao Ji beside her seemed completely unconcerned and even encouraged them to communicate more, she paused before replying:

"Scavenger".

"Eh? So how exactly did Miss Irene become a Calamity-Binder? And how did she meet Mr. Liao Ji?"

Faced with the nun's curious question, Irene didn't know how to answer and stammered. Fortunately, Liao Ji spoke up from the side at this moment.

“Irene is the most skilled scavenger in the Black Hole, so I hired her to go down into the underground caves with me to explore the ruins. We were lucky enough to find some treasures, but during our retreat, we were targeted by the kobolds of the caves. At the critical moment, I don’t know if it was the power of the treasures that awakened Irene’s superpowers, making her a Calamity, which is why we were able to come out alive.”

As Liao Ji spoke, the nun clenched her small hands, looking tense. She only breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the story reach its peaceful ending.

However, Maria stopped talking and the conversation fell silent. Soon, as they went deeper and saw more and more murky corpses wandering in the waterways, the three of them stopped chatting and focused on their exploration.

Although there were many corpses, fortunately, thanks to Irene's combat prowess, the three of them were not delayed much along the way.

After turning the next corner of the passage, Maria told them that Irene's mother was nearby.

This immediately spurred the girl on. When she saw the horde of murky corpses blocking her way again, she couldn't wait to rush forward and sweep them away, even though this time there were more murky corpses than before, a total of seven or eight.

The first one or two were fine, just like many previous battles, they were all killed instantly. However, what happened next in the horde of murky corpses was something that Irene had never expected.

Before the girl could even get close, the turbid corpse, which was at the very back and significantly larger than the others around it, beat her to the punch and slammed its mutated, heavy fist at its fellow corpses.

puff!puff!puff!

With each mortal corpse it killed, the murky red mist surrounding it intensified, the muscles beneath its rotting skin bulged, and numerous spikes continued to emerge, instantly raising its power to a whole new level.

It roared and charged toward the girl. Because of the angle, Liao Ji, who was facing away from the mutated corpse, could see two emblem marks on its bare back.

That wasn't a real emblem; it looked like a mark left after it had been used once.

Even the emblem's imprint was now shimmering with an eerie light, seemingly the source of this turbid corpse's sudden mutation.

Irene tried to conserve her strength, refraining from unleashing her special ability and continuing to meet the attack with her blood sword in its normal state. However, when the mutated corpse charged at her, it unleashed a tremendous force several times greater than that of the ordinary corpse, completely exceeding Irene's expectations. She almost lost her grip on her sword and was blasted away by the corpse.

Fortunately, the girl lost control of her body immediately.

The sword that wanted to fight the corpse head-on forcibly changed its trajectory, turning into a defensive stance and blocking the corpse's next punch.