Shadow of the Evil God

The man they had seen earlier was hiding in the farthest corner, looking out of place and unnoticed. He seemed a frightened local, while the others arguing were outsiders to the jungle, oblivious to his presence. Even if he was frightened, they dismissed him as a local superstition. The man studiously avoided looking at them, alternately turning his back to the wall and shielding his eyes.

Cesar observed the man for a while and realized that the two of them were now like the evil spirits in local folklore. Anyone who saw them would feel that they would be cursed, so they would not look, listen or respond.

"Ferius!" Cesar heard a muffled roar, but it seemed that it was not only anger, but also fear.

He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man with a furious frown on his face. "Listen, Firiels, it's not too late for you to stop and give up raising this beastman. It's not one of those lingering beastmen in the north. It's the source of a new race, and it might even spark a new war."

There was a long silence. Cesar noticed that the past Ferriers hadn't said a word, so the man's face became even more serious, and his eyes were almost bloodshot. "Listen to me," the young man continued, "there is something more noteworthy in that tomb. It was pulled there in the mother's womb, which means it can be used as a key. If we take it back, we can open the lock in the tomb. Don't you realize that the structure of those spells is completely different from the knowledge system of the Kuna people. It comes from another land! You, me, and we, the four of us, representing the two schools, have united together.

Come, by mutually verifying the knowledge of the two systems, we can open up new paths."

Another land? Cesar thought of the vast, sea-crossing Kasar Empire, their mad magic groups, and the recorded disasters. Thought plagues, land decay, and plate subsidence—each a catastrophic consequence of their own making. As for the two schools… the Xisai School and the Yesterlen School?

Ferriers still didn't say anything. At this time, the female mage next to her became impatient.

"A new path?" she asked. "Two hundred years ago, didn't the old king of the Kuna also want to open a new path? What happened? That lake is the Kuna people's grave. Existences that don't belong to the Kuna are sealed here. Doesn't this mean that the Kuna people have realized the harm it will bring? The north is still crawling with beastmen, but long ago, there were more evil monsters roaming the world. Exploring along the Kuna people's knowledge, we at least remember their past mistakes, but that other land—who knows what they did? How can you guarantee that it's not their own mistakes that are sealed in the grave? Or is it that the Kuna people have suffered the same harm that another land suffered, and now you want us to suffer the same?"

"We are the most talented wizards of this era. We are the chosen ones. We can overcome the mistakes of the past." said the young male wizard.

"I don't think so," the sorceress denied. "When the Kuna people perished, although their dynasty was corrupt, their research into magic and exploration of the soul were unprecedented. I don't think we can achieve what the Kuna ancestors couldn't."

Is that the lake the dark-haired Ajeh is exploring? Cesar wondered. What are they looking for?

He walked over to where Firiel was, hoping to find Ajeh, but couldn't find her. He looked behind Firiel and saw a masked mage-servant cradling a wolf cub. The man wore a brown mask with wood grain, which reminded him of a mage-servant from the Xisai School, though the pattern was different; he looked like a mage-servant from the Yesterlen School.

Cesar looked around and realized that there were four school mages, three masked mage servants, and a local guide in the treehouse. He continued to approach the wolf cub, but before he could get a closer look, Ajeh, who was on his shoulder, suddenly pounced...

She ate her past self.

Cesar watched in horror as Ajeh threw herself to the ground. After a ferocious thrashing, not even a bone remained on the wooden floorboards. At this point, the local guide could no longer bear it. He let out a piercing cry, staring intently at Ajeh, whose face was covered in blood. Others followed his gaze, looking towards Cesar and Ajeh, but seeing nothing, they looked away.

"What's wrong with this guide?" asked the female mage.

"He thinks there's something here," Ferriers suddenly said, as always, fascinated by the bizarre. "Locals have a legend," she said, "that some evil spirits hide themselves quietly, doing evil without being seen by anyone, because they are separated from all living beings by an impenetrable barrier—they look into the past from the future, and then do evil to the past. Their ancestors, troubled by this, sought out a being that existed from the beginning and always had, and asked it for the means to see through evil."

A cold glint flashed in the young male mage's eyes. "You mean those first creatures that fell from the True Dragon, those things that didn't matter whether they lived or died," he lowered his voice, a hint of evil in his voice. "I think we should—"

"I should warn you," Ferriers said, "that perhaps spirits from the future are watching us right now. If you still think you can talk without being noticed, you'll be the subject of some unpleasant rumors in the afterlife."

"As long as we stand high enough, we don't care what future generations will say," the male wizard said. "If I could become future generations themselves, I wouldn't care even more about their opinions. Your sister is the most promising person in your school to accomplish this. She has a chosen one by her side and could be a queen, enjoying all the resources of the world. Yet, you can only explore the tombs of our ancestors with us, wandering in the sewers like a rat. Don't you feel the slightest bit of jealousy?"

"The Emperor loved his teacher, Soler, more," the female mage said. "I heard it was an unhappy marriage."

Chapter 268: Enjoy the feeling of falling into the abyss

"I don't think so!" the male mage objected sharply. "With her status, she can easily obtain things that we risk our lives to obtain. Besides, we are mages. What does love mean to us? Isn't she the luckiest?"

This guy seemed to be saying that if he were Ferriers' sister, he would also become queen.

"No," Firiels denied. "She carries a blood curse. When Helgast's chosen arrived at the academy, her soul was already powerless to resist. Both Solaire and the academy's masters stood by and watched, allowing everything to happen. But we all know that with the birth of offspring, the responsibility of the bloodline shifts. How much of this affection remains is entirely up to them."

The young male mage's eyes flashed coldly. "Do you think you can escape the curse, Firiels? What if our emperor discovers he's been conspired and deceived? Once everyone is dead, your school's so-called bloodline duty will be gone. Think about it, won't you be next?" He raised his voice. "This isn't just about exploring another vein of knowledge, it's also about saving yourself! Kuna magic is too delicate and fragile, like a dagger made of glass. We need a more magnificent vein of knowledge!"

Cesar realized that the magic systems passed down from the Kuna to the present day had never caused disasters on the scale of thought plagues and land decay. The difference between the two seemed to be related not only to the limitations of the Origin Society, but also to the independent knowledge systems of the many mage groups that preceded the Kasar Empire.

Not only do they possess extreme political ambitions, they also possess the ability to spread magic like a plague—spreading from soul to soul, spreading across lands, ultimately leading to a situation completely out of control. While those disasters were caused by the individual mage groups themselves, the end of the Kuna dynasty felt more like a bargain with the devil, bringing a higher level of evil upon the real world.

As he pondered, Cesar noticed that the mages' arguments gradually became quieter and their figures became more vague. He realized that the past here was fading.

However, from what he had seen so far, he already knew a lot, such as the blood curse from Phyriels to Diana. It was not a plague with extremely strict requirements for the host, but more like a unique genetic disease. This curse would be transferred to the soul of the offspring and disappear from the souls of the parents. If the offspring died young, it would reappear in the person whose curse had ended.

If both her sister and nephew had died in the war that destroyed the dynasty, then the blood curse would undoubtedly have been transferred to her. Although she acted indifferent at the time, it is not surprising that when the time came, she chose to take the key and enter the tomb in order to overcome her own difficulties.

After all, if she didn't resist, she would be the one to follow in her sister's footsteps and dedicate herself to the God-chosen Emperor.

A Frank dynasty that collapsed after only one generation, and a completely vanished mortal god named Solaire—both are worthy of further investigation. However, even more worthy of further investigation is what Grandmaster Ferriers had obtained.

Indeed, Firiels had helped the empire of Kasar, which had crossed the ocean, gain a foothold, destroyed the Frank Empire, and later single-handedly promoted restrictions on local mages. However, based on what Cesar had just seen, he felt that she likely possessed the knowledge system that had caused disasters such as ideological plagues, land decay, and tectonic plate subsidence.

Did Ferriers master them? Had she carefully planned for millennia, intending to weave a spell she believed stable enough to alter reality, like the politically driven groups of wizards depicted in the annals of the Imperial Court?

What purpose did the princes and princesses like Artinia, Tussos, and Trisius serve in this, and what role did the Sanctuary play? Did they have some foreknowledge of Old Thane's True God ritual? Though they didn't know who was responsible, did they see the Beastmen marching south in large numbers and conclude that what was supposed to happen had already happened? Thus, they had reason to do things they shouldn't have done?

Cesar stood in the tree house, staring at Ajeh, whose mouth was covered in blood, in silence. He couldn't help but feel his head swell. Although he always said that things that were too far away didn't need to be considered, when the time came, he couldn't avoid it.

Ajeh grinned. Her body had grown a little, her breasts had taken on a little more definition, her cheeks less childish, as if she had grown by consuming her past self. "That's the fun of exploring the past," she said. "I hope you enjoy it, Cesar. There's so much to discover."

"You just stood there and watched?" Cesar asked her.

"You'll get used to it soon." She bit her own skull into pieces, a miniature wolf head. "I'm enjoying the feeling of falling into the abyss. It would be great if you could experience it too."

"I would rather you tell me everything you know, Ajeh."

"Do you want to know?"

"What do you say?"

"I'm in such a good mood I don't want you to know."

"The last time you turned me down, you said you were in a bad mood and didn't want me to know," Cesar pointed out.

"Then I'll have to find a more unique reason next time." Ajiehe shrugged.

......

塞萨

Er continued forward, his mind full of thoughts, not bothering to ask Brother Shiloh what traces he had found. However, he understood that the reality of the jungle north of Gular Fortress was unstable. It seemed that mages often wandered in unstable places, and entering the wasteland in dreams was only one aspect of this.

Amidst the ruins of a village abandoned for centuries, tribesmen long since lost walked through the woods, passing by travelers who strayed into their path, creating this strange and inexplicable illusion. As the sun gradually set, they came to a dilapidated altar, filled with a spring that looked like it could be drunk freely by travelers.

At that moment, Diana gestured at the altar, and the pool suddenly changed. The water became murky, teeming with maggots and emitting a foul stench. The surrounding muddy ground vaguely revealed the skeletons of travelers who had died nearby, perhaps having drunk the seemingly clear water.

"This isn't anyone's magic," Diana explained. "Historical memory obscures the present reality, but anyone who drinks it will still die."

This place was even more uncomfortable, but it wasn't surprising that some hermits were trapped here, trapped in a cycle of death and resurrection. Brother Shiloh was a typical victim. If the Kingdom Knights hadn't brought him out, he would have likely been trapped in the jungle, dying and resurrecting until the war ended.

"I can feel it." Shiloh suddenly said, "It's very close, but there's some inexplicable obstacle between us."

Chapter 269 Spanking

......

Although Brother Shiloh said his compatriots were only a short distance away, they searched late into the night and found nothing, so they had no choice but to spend the night in the jungle. He set up his tent and lay down against a rock. The lush branches of the trees in front of him obscured the night sky, like dense weeds covering a dark pool. The white moon slowly floated in the pool, making people feel like they were looking down at their reflection in the water.

As usual, Cesar was about to go into the wilderness, but Diana took him to the campfire. Altinia nodded and smiled at him, and Brother Shiloh also nodded to him. Fiers was already drowsy at the time, and at first he didn't understand why, but he soon realized what they were going to do.

"Brother Shiloh's compatriots are staying in another dimension, which appears to be a sanctuary," Diana said. "We need to use the wasteland as a bridge, and Altinia, as the princess, must also cross."

Cesar found the monks and mages truly bizarre. Not only was their existence incomprehensible, but their location was also bizarre. Without Diana's meticulous search, he would have been unable to find them. However, to reach their sanctuary, Brother Shiloh was the key, and Artinia was the authority that commanded obedience; both were indispensable.

Diana pulled him to sit beside the campfire, seemingly oblivious to the gazes of others. They formed a circle around the fire. She began by humming words unutterable by human throats, then a deep blue light streamed from her mouth and eyes. The light seemed to possess substance, like a dark river of starlight flowing through the void, stretching and branching, forming curved arcs that surrounded them all.

Cesar found himself in a trance, like a mythical sailor lost to the sirens' song. He felt he could resist, but there was no need. Everything was different. The veil of reality faded in the light, and Diana beside him was completely gone.

He found his mind and heart surrounded by Diana, feeling like a fish in invisible water. Brother Shiloh and Firth were outside this water, supporting the spell in their own way. As for the other person, their princess, who couldn't support it, he couldn't find her at first, but then he found her standing behind him. One moment he felt her hand on his shoulder, the next he felt her breath on his ear, a barely audible whisper.

Diana's waters suddenly stirred. Artinia withdrew her hand as if nothing had happened, but Cesar felt his thoughts being hurled into darkness by her. The sensation of falling was intense, like falling off a cliff. He could see that there was a subtle emotion between the two of them. If it were someone else like Artinia, her reaction would not be so intense.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying between two bookshelves, his mouth still sticky from biting his tongue, saliva and blood mixed in. He struggled to stand up and found no one nearby except Ajiehe, who was staring at his hand, as if examining a corpse.

At first, she opened her mouth, and Cesar thought she was going to lick it with her tongue, like a dog, but she bit down. Before he could react, his hand had been severed in her mouth, flesh torn apart between sharp teeth. The blood seeped out and stained the wolf's face, gradually revealing a human face biting his severed hand, as if human paint had been dripped onto the beast's face, causing ripples to spread.

"I'm not dead yet!"

Coughing, Cesar struggled, grabbing the beast's ears and pulling her away from his broken wrist. Because the human-like paint hadn't yet fully spread, the furry creature felt quite pleasant, curling softly in his hands. He gained momentum, keeping his distance from her sharp teeth as he pinned her to the ground and pinched her ears, causing them to flutter like wings, trying to escape his grasp.

It was difficult to give a clear definition of Ajeh's current appearance, as her form shifted back and forth in his splattered blood, as if the paint depicting two existences were suffusing and battling back and forth within her soul. Although she would eventually return to her slender wolf form, the presence of his blood kept this battle at a stalemate.

Cesar grasped her wolf claw with his blood-soaked hand, a bone that hadn't yet developed skin or flesh. He felt the sharp claw retract, the blood-stained fur and pads vanishing, revealing a small, delicate human hand. Ajeh tried to scratch him with her other claw, but the sight of blood turned it into a limp, human hand, even its nails short, which only intensified her reaction. She ignored his tug at her ear and leaned forward, biting his face with her fangs, intending to gnaw away his entire face, leaving only a bloody skull.

He pushed her back and grabbed her wolf tail, pulling her up. "You look a little too excited, Ajeh," he said. "Besides, do you know what the people behind her would do if a disobedient child got into that position?"

"I was just made like this by Ferriers!"

Cesar grabbed her tail and twisted it around his hand twice. The tighter he gripped her, the wider her eyes widened. "If I say you are, you are, Ajeh. And when I push you upside down, it means I'm going to spank you."

"I've never heard of that," she said. "Are you trying to humiliate me?"

"You've heard it now," Cesar said.

The sky bit me three times, and I will bite you three times."

As he spoke, Cesar reached down and slapped her wolf-haired buttocks. Her tail, wrapped around his hand, quivered, the end of it sticking straight up between his fingers. A crisp sound spread across the bookshelves. She turned back, eyes wide open, and scratched his arm with her claws, which had lost their human form. Several deep, flesh-piercing gashes appeared, and blood splattered everywhere.

He raised his hand again, this time covered in blood, and with even greater force, the sound drowning out her screams. When he finally lifted his hand, her narrow, white bottom, trembling slightly, was etched with a bloody handprint. Without the wolf fur, her buttocks were quite lovely, but he had no intention of stopping, and gave her a final, unceremonious slap.

Ajiehe's body shuddered, and she was momentarily dazed. Her buttocks, lifted high by his grip on her tail, were bright red and swollen. After a long moment, she turned her head, her erect, animal eyes fixed on him. Cesar guessed she was about to bite again.

"You can do whatever you want. You can hurt me any way you want until you're done." Cesar said as he helped her up. He felt her slender waist and her whole body seemed to have no strength left. "We can continue to discuss how many more spankings you can take later," he said. "But don't think I'm targeting you. If our princess makes a big mistake, you can watch her experience it from the side. It will be very interesting when it comes to her turn, really."

"I'd rather know when it's your turn," she said.

Cesar tugged at Ajeh's tail, pulled her up, and put the tattered clothes on her, because just now these strips of cloth fell off with a slight tug. They were not so tattered at first, but the longer they were worn on her, the more tattered they became, and he could not do anything about it.

He looked around and saw they were surrounded by a hexagonal corridor, though only two bookshelves held a few books. As he walked with Ajeh for a while, the corridors seemed endless, their layout unchanging, like a boundless honeycomb maze. After a long time, he finally reached a different corridor. The ceiling and floor were bare, and spiral staircases stretched from top to bottom, with no end in sight, like a vast well, reaching from the endless sky to the bottomless abyss.

The guardrails at the edges of the hexagon were very low, and the spiral staircase had no guardrails at all. Although each wall was lined with long bookshelves that were as high as the floor, there were not enough books to fill them, and some rooms were even empty.

At first, Cesar wandered aimlessly, then Ajeh led the way, and then she climbed onto his shoulders, sat down, and showed him the way. Her legs swung restlessly, kicking his chest from time to time, and her tail lashed wildly, like a broom slapping his back, making it difficult to read her subtle emotions. One moment she scratched his mouth with her human hand, the next she scratched his cheek with her claws.

On the way, Ajiehe suddenly bent down, grasped his chin with her hand, made him look up, and gave him a numbing kiss. He felt her tail tightly wrapped around his neck like a fur scarf, getting tighter and tighter, almost making him lose consciousness.

When Cesar lowered his head, he found that Diana was looking at him with her head tilted, her index finger lightly touching her chin without saying a word, and he couldn't help coughing.

He was about to compose a poem, perhaps even longer than the rainy morning, when she came forward and brushed his forehead with her finger. Her movement was so gentle that he fell to the ground, his hip hurting so much that his bones seemed to crack. Then she asked him to follow.

It looked like everyone had already arrived. Diana had abandoned him midway, so he had to set out to find him. Ajeh had followed Diana's scent, leading him to meet her, and had given him an inscrutable kiss just beforehand. "You were the one who first said this guy was my lover in a past life!" Cesar stood up and shouted at her back.

"I don't think so," Diana said, turning back. "Besides, you should at least have her over your knee, as is customary. Putting her on the floor would be a different matter."

"It's an interesting idea, but I'm afraid my knees will turn into broken bones after this," Cesar said, following her.

Chapter 270 The Best Day of My Year

"I can imagine it without you telling me," Diana said. "But it's also because you recover so easily. She gnaws at you like a lizard's tail. What do you think, Ajeh?"

"You are more annoying than Ferriers." Ajiehe replied.

"Oh," she raised her eyebrows slightly, "which means I've surpassed my ancestors in at least this respect." She opened her hand, and a dark blue crystal, half-real and half-real, emerged from it. It looked like a flawless prism. "Take it, Cesar. Place it in your palm and let it sink into your soul."

"What is this crystal?" Cesar asked her.

Diana sighed. "You have so many questions."

"My soul is my private property, and I have a right to know what is on my private property," Cesar declared.

Diana glanced at him sideways. "You're really good at talking."

"So what is it?" Cesar asked again.

She glanced at the crystal in her hand. "I have many more of these crystals," she said. "This one holds memories of our journey through the icy snow-capped mountains yesterday."

"yesterday?"

"I have made myself perfectly clear, Cesar. If you were to tell me that you have forgotten everything you have said, we would have a great deal to discuss."

"Of course I remember it, but I didn't expect it to be so well categorized and detailed."

"Yes."

"In one crystal, all of it?"

Diana tossed the crystal, and it shone brilliantly in mid-air. In that moment, it felt as if an icy spirit rose from it, reaching out with cold hands to wrap around his heart. It held more than just images of the past; it seemed to absorb the light of the entire world as he saw it then. Its pale sunlight completely obscured the bookshelves and the room, creating a howling blizzard, a bone-chilling chill that felt like a return to the past. The deep blue crystal in her hands was sometimes calm and still, sometimes rippled.

"Hold it," Diana said.

"Will it get colder if you hold it, Diana?" Cesar asked her.

"That's a good idea," she nodded. "If I change a few details, it'll be so cold you'll lose consciousness. But I didn't have time to think of it at the time."

"Maybe I shouldn't say that."

"Don't worry, Cesar. I've made a note of what you said. If you have to endure this kind of pain in the future, it's your own fault."

"It's not necessarily all my fault!"

Diana smiled at him. "You hold it first."

He reached out and touched it, feeling his fingers pass through a layer of water, sinking into a shimmering, deep blue curtain of water within the crystal. It blossomed with an even brighter brilliance, like a thousand snow-covered ancient trees reflecting sunlight on a winter's day. It seemed peaceful and tranquil. Within this, a hint of warmth lingered around him, a throbbing languor.

"I made this on the best day of my year, I guess," Diana told him. "I usually don't just record what I see and hear. I brush away the colors and sounds, the beautiful words, and the feelings contained within them are what I need to pay attention to most."

"I didn't think it was that deep." Cesar looked at his fingers sinking in.

"It's like making wine," Diana reached out and touched the crystal, then touched his fingers. "The exquisiteness of the crystal bottle can create anticipation, but the flavor still comes from the wine inside. Consider this crystal a gift from me. A touch of your finger will completely recall the feeling at that time. But the same cannot be said for the future."

"There's a real difference between what you say and what you feel," Cesar murmured.