Shadow of the Evil God

The ghoul hunting party gathered on the mountainside. The morning mist had completely dissipated, and the forest was in ruins after the massive impact. Trees splintered, rocks collapsed, and even from that distance, Cesar could see the massive, steel-clad bodies of flesh puppets writhing through the trees like a swarm of maggots swarming up the hillside.

The flesh puppet was slowly moving across the mountain when it suddenly noticed the impact point of the projectile gradually extended forward, eventually completely blocking its path. The rapidly falling behemoth, swathed in dense bone and flesh, crushed a large swath of forest, transforming it into a pool of blood hissing in filth and corrosion.

Although Cesar was not affected, he saw that one of the dog's arms was stained with blood, and the slender limbs were immediately corroded and disintegrated. He quickly picked her up and stuffed her into his armor.

Behind him came a burst of rapid screams, followed by an even more desperate escape.

Despite their relentless devastation, the corpse eaters refused to rest, aiming to blanket the battlefield in death. The blood-red sun had nearly obscured any sunlight, and the ground was devoid of any dirt other than dark red. A violent hissing sound filled the air, as if everything were being immersed in a pool of corrosive blood. A pungent odor filled the air.

How could their fortress be protected against such means...?

A disturbing roar drowned out the clamor of the soldiers' collapse and scattering, covering everything. The shamans' flesh puppets were still throwing more rapidly falling flesh and blood on the mountain, but the corpse-eating vanguard had already controlled other flesh puppets and appeared at the edge of the battlefield, exactly where the hybrid beastmen had launched their charge.

It is gradually moving forward, and the Corpse Eater Vanguard is also moving forward within this range.

Cesar realizes that the connections between the corpse eaters are closer than he imagined, and they can perform coordinated tactics that humans need long training to execute.

Additionally, there seem to be many varieties of Flesh Golems.

He leaped over a large pool of blood, leaped to a falling tree, and soared across the hills on the other side, using its branches to shield Soin from the splattering blood. He felt the ground tremble. The vanguard of the corpse-eaters, riding their massive monsters, rushed forward, stepping over the pools of blood and crushing the festering corpses. They rolled towards him like a flowing wave of blood.

The corpse-eating shamans mercilessly destroyed the soldiers, food, and all supplies in the area without a moment's pause. Their vanguard, mounted on golems the size of elephants, galloped forward. Cesar watched as the local stronghold was crushed and leveled, its towers quickly crumbling. The flesh golems that had smashed them pierced the smoke and dust, continuing their charge toward him.

He kept running, feeling the rocks and slopes whizz by, the battlefield behind him gradually leaving him behind. Soon, he had clambered over the steep cliff to the other side. He looked behind him and saw the bell tower of the stronghold had also collapsed, crashing forward in a cloud of dust. But the person emerging from the cloud of dust was not a corpse-eater, but a person standing on the head of a flesh puppet, his face covered by a snow-white mask.

The man appeared and disappeared, holding a black rat head in his hand and looking out. For some reason, the man actually looked at him and then disappeared.

A rather terrifying invisible assassin.

"That person is approaching!" Soyin whispered.

Cesar discerned a faint trail in the dust. He saw the person first skim across the uneven rooftops of the stronghold and land on the street, then leap onto the stronghold's wall and tumble down towards him. He didn't know how the person had found him, but there was no doubt that his whereabouts and intentions had been revealed. Isley?

Perhaps he should also bring back Isley's headless body. Regardless, this matter needed to be put on the agenda as soon as possible. If a person with hatred couldn't be killed, the best way was to keep her under control.

Cesar placed Soin back on his shoulders and leaped down the ravine. The figure was approaching, heading in the direction he had fled. He saw a branch suddenly give way, but no footsteps could be seen on it. Even the snakes coiled on the branch were undeterred. The figure was practically flying, leaping from the branch. Cesar couldn't even hear the fluttering of its clothes through the air.

He took a step back, bent down, and drew his sword. The invisible assassin also slowly descended, his toes tapping on a branch not far in front of him. He stood there motionless, observing his beastly posture.

"My sect belongs to the north, and we are not of the same lineage as Clefas." The invisible assassin spoke calmly. "As for you, Cesar, I bring a message from Grandmaster Ferriers. She wants me to tell you that you took the shortcut much faster than she expected. If you wish to understand the cause and effect of everything, then take all your achievements with you to the north. If they are of sufficient significance, she will not mind clearing the fog from your soul."

"That's quite arrogant."

"We've been watching you," the man said.

"Who are we talking about?"

"Almost every sect in the Holy Temple. We realized that Princess Altinia, under your guidance—"

"You were the ones who never helped her," Cesar interrupted. "Now, you're accusing me of raising a descendant of the royal family who wants to step out of the shadow of the Holy Temple?"

"Brother Kes was in charge of her care," the Invisible Assassin said, "but he became a member of Cliface's army long ago."

"Cleface is a high-ranking figure in one of your sects, am I correct? The old man thought he could use his authority and schemes to force her to kneel before his tent, thereby accepting the temple's gift in disguise. You kept silent at the time, and now that his plan has gone awry, you come to warn me on behalf of the other sects?"

"I only want to warn you, Cesar," the Invisible Assassin said. "The Cliface sect will follow the Corpse Eaters' path. The first of their number must have spotted those blood-red suns on the horizon by now."

Chapter 312: Beneath the Abyss

......

Cesar has already penetrated deep into the heart of the southwestern empire. Along the way, military strongholds are gradually increasing, and garrisons from all over the place are also flocking to this group of beastmen who suddenly appeared.

Cleface's assembled elite troops were marching towards Gural Fortress, having already crossed paths with the Corpse Eaters. The rest of the army hadn't even finished assembling when they were called upon to confront the invading Beastmen. Therefore, while these troops weren't completely defeated, they were still struggling against the staggering scale of the Corpse Eaters. They barely managed to establish some defensive lines, but they were quickly pierced like paper.

While Cliface was busy tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall, Cesar felt that the pace of the zombie slowed down a little. It seemed that although it was just some papers, it took the zombie a lot of time to poke through them.

He once again circled the mountain path near the Sheltered Abyss, following the steepest terrain. He hoped to avoid the monks of the Sanctuary and the Temple of Sagaros by taking advantage of the difficult terrain. When he finally reached the edge of the abyss, he could no longer sense any signs of human presence. He took a moment to catch his breath, then slept for a while after his day and night of travel.

Cesar hadn't experienced a dream in a long time. As for Sister Mira, her dreams were too vivid, lacking that indescribable feeling and the hazy, ethereal quality of reality, to qualify as dreams for him. But tonight, he suddenly had a dream. He felt a sun drifting over the earth, hanging low like the clouds halfway up the mountain, scorching everything in the world. And, somehow, he realized that this sun was a terrifying giant eye, its rays its gaze upon everything.

Hidden in the darkness of the abyss, he felt the light emanating from the giant eye as dazzling and intense as a furnace. Within that glare, it seemed as if nothing in the secular world was worth doing, nothing worth caring about. Everything seemed insignificant, including himself, gazing into that giant eye.

But because the Abyss—a vast, dark void that obscured everything—Cesar never reached the furnace's light. He vaguely realized that his proximity to the sheltered Abyss had allowed him to escape detection. Time gradually slowed, and everything seemed to him to be moving slowly. He recalled the most difficult night he had spent in the wilderness. After that night, he couldn't even tell if it had been months or years.

He suspected he was about to go through another long ordeal, spending months or even years in his dreams, but at this moment, the darkness of the abyss moved, as if the surging light of the furnace had burned it. Then the dream was shattered, and he woke up almost immediately with a start.

Something was rising from the Sanctuary Abyss. At first, Cesar thought his thought was absurd. He had lived on the edge of the abyss for so long, even Soyn and her family had lived there for over a decade, and they had always lived in peace with the Sanctuary Abyss. But soon, he realized that everything made sense—the light from the furnace was burning and stimulating the darkness, and Legosius had warned him that a dark tide was surging.

Cesar took a deep breath, feeling something like mud spreading outward, surging across the canyon. It seemed to be just mud, but also seemed to be some aimless, unknown existence. Soon, it would overflow to the cliff where he lived, and it was these things that cut off the gaze of the Eye of the Furnace and caused the dream to collapse and disintegrate.

The dream he'd had recently was not normal. It had not only severed his connection to the wilderness but had also placed him under the gaze of the Eye of the Forge. Causally speaking, he should be grateful to the beings that had broken his dream, but they were likely simply reacting aimlessly to the forge's burning. If he didn't leave quickly, he would undoubtedly be affected.

Cesar picked up Soyin and draped her over his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Then, with all his might, he leaped to the higher slope, with the dog following behind him. He glanced back and saw something like black sludge spreading across the canyon. Because it couldn't cover the entire surface, it had broken apart, sprouting sharp branches that resembled protruding black veins wrapped around grayish skin.

He found that the silt seemed to be spreading aimlessly, and the veins like blood vessels were extending in all directions, but they became denser and denser as they moved towards him, and their target was extremely clear.

At first, Cesar thought they were following his scent, but as he lost himself in thought, their spread suddenly accelerated. The slow divisions suddenly converged, gathering in his direction like the tangled roots of a tree—were these things searching for his thoughts? As his thinking quickened, their direction suddenly became more precise?

He struggled to contain the thoughts racing through his mind. Realizing this, they raced even faster. In an instant, they spanned nearly a hundred meters, thousands of veins and arteries rapidly intertwining and merging, rising like a gushing stream of black oil, threatening to engulf him. Cesar leaped upward again, his steel-clad claws digging into the rock before leaping higher.

The shapeless black slime hit nothing, collapsing beneath the rock, quickly disintegrating and scattering. Then, more veins like blood vessels spread along the cliff, almost covering the entire mountain.

Cesar could no longer comprehend what was happening before his eyes. He swung his sword into the rock beneath him, deeply severing a blood vessel, but more blood vessel-like veins had gathered from all directions. Was there any point in swinging the sword in this place?

He admitted

He scaled a massive tree, and in the briefest moment when the plague-like blackness seeped into the trunk, he leaped upwards, leaping into the night.

All night, Cesar ran blindly through the mountains and forests, feeling the amorphous matter that searched for his thoughts spreading wildly behind him. He couldn't escape the abyss, as the Eye of the Furnace was searching for him, nor could he escape into it, for obvious reasons. So he could only run north, desperately trying to climb higher and higher, towards the peaks.

When morning came, he had run to a forest where he didn't even know where it was, and Soyin was in his arms - the girl had fallen into a deep sleep, unable to contain herself.

Even when the corpse-eaters were hunting him, he had never run so frantically, a constant series of leaps and falls. As he kept fleeing towards steeper, higher ground, he now stood at a precipice so steep that even the darkness of the sheltering abyss could not reach him. Cesar had no idea what these formless, shapeless substances would do to people, but judging by Legosius's tone, the consequences would undoubtedly be catastrophic.

Will they affect the course of the war? Cesar really couldn't say.

Chapter 313: Siege

......

The blood-red sun plummeted from the clouds, and flesh and bones, stained with rotting blood, slammed against the city walls and the city itself, staining the towers and building facades a dark crimson. It must be said that after every surface was stained with blood, Gural Fortress looked more like a city from another world than a city-state in this world.

This is the seventh day of the plague, and also the third day that the flesh and blood puppets have been entrenched on the mountain top and bombing the fortress. Apart from the great panic caused on the first day, the situation yesterday was almost the same as today.

As the sun lingered in the sky, the corpse-eaters hurled diseased flesh into the city, rendering the fortifications atop the walls completely untenable. When the sun set, Artinia called in men to repair the walls and towers, overseen by the temple priests to deal with the foul blood that had seeped into the buildings. They piled the corrosive slime in an open area and burned it en masse. As for the blood on the outer walls, they would have to wait until after the battle.

On the seventh day of the siege, the smell of burning mixed with the stench of corruption filled the air. In the early hours of the morning, trumpets blared through the city, abruptly waking all who were dreaming.

When Artinya awoke, she found everything shrouded in smoke. Looking out the window, the city was hazy, with the occasional magnificent building stained with rotting blood, a terrifying sight. Another batch of diseased corpses were piled in the open field, to be burned separately from the rotting blood. Another batch of victims, their faces blurred, had melted into the rotting blood, their shapes barely discernible, and were to be burned along with it.

She wasn't ill, but the smoke seeping through the windows made her feel uncomfortable and had a persistent headache. The smell of burning was everywhere, so thick to mask the stench of rotting blood that it was already disgusting. As the smell grew stronger, her headache worsened, almost making her feel nauseous.

When Artiniya stepped outside, the air was still damp and warm, like staying in a bathhouse, making her feel even more stuffy. This was the most common climate in the northern region of Olidan, and it was particularly evident in the location of Gural Fortress.

Although it wasn't raining, water dripped from the roofs, the towers, and the tarpaulins covering the guns. Ensuring the shells were protected from moisture was a crucial requirement of the Gural Fortress. Although the sky was clear, she was convinced that the blood-red sun would soon set. A murky yellow mist filled the air, a burning smell that countered the stench of rotting blood.

The morning bugle call had already sounded, demanding the soldiers take up their positions quickly, even if the platforms on either side of the bastion were difficult to use, and to check and prepare the guns mounted on the firing embrasures in the towers. Even so, she looked at the soldiers' faces and felt that many of them were like hers—they were all very uncomfortable, their brains numb, and they wanted to wake up, but it was difficult.

The crowd murmured, talking of plague and burnings, of blood smeared on building walls and mangled corpses hanging from towers. Though only fragments of these words reached Artinia, they were enough to let her understand the shift in the city's atmosphere. Since it was difficult to breach the heavily guarded fortress walls, they would have to breach the people within.

The stronger the smell of burning human bodies and rotting blood, the worse the overall combat capability of the Gural Fortress.

Altinia quickened her pace, trying to shake off the murky yellow fog, but the odor of burning followed her, making it difficult for her to breathe. The smell practically seeped into her lungs, making her feel sick. She couldn't remember how she reached the upper castle and entered Diana's sanctuary. Diana let her in, and the bed collapsed, but Altinia couldn't sense anyone there.

"We must find a way to deal with the monsters lurking on the cliffs," she said to Diana. "The plague is subsiding, but the damage to the fortress from the flesh projectiles will gradually accumulate. We can't keep burning forever. In the end, the entire city will be filled with smoke, choking us all to death."

"I'm actually preparing ventilation measures," Diana said, "but if you want to launch a surprise attack, we have to consider the extent of our ability."

"There's no need for a surprise attack," said Altinya. "Have you noticed the local climate? It's the wettest time of the year, and it could rain at any time. The mountains on either side of us are almost treeless, and the soil is actually very dangerous."

"You mean a landslide?"

"The last recorded landslide in this area was about ten years ago, and I think it's time for another one. I've dug up the local geography and marked the records and locations of landslides over the years. I hope you can analyze the current terrain that is prone to landslides, as well as what spells we need and where we need to use the city defense artillery to bombard a large area of ​​landslides."

"That's not going to be easy," Diana said. "You'd better use artillery to test a few locations and give me the specific reaction of the mountain. Then I can give you the results of the analysis."

After giving her instructions, Artinya set out again, heading for the highest tower, seeking the artillery commander. While the spread of the plague had been contained, the recovery of those already afflicted depended almost entirely on fate. Even if the physicians and temple monks did everything they could, the chance of survival was only 50%. The physicians hurried, either pouring herbal syrups on the gasping victims or checking the remaining medicine supplies.

Almost all the used medicines

They piled up into small hills and there was no time to deal with them.

From time to time, people died, some died quietly, while others let out a loud and shrill cry before dying. Every once in a while, a wheelbarrow would carry the bodies away and burn them in a centralized manner.

Currently, half of the artillerymen are unable to deploy, and although some have recovered, they still face a period of weakness after recovery. Given the current widespread smoke, recovery is likely to be a very slow and worrying process.

"Clear the mess on the floor," the officer was shouting. "Also, watch our shells. These black things are our life now. Where are all the engineers? Our 13th Artillery needs seven more men! Where are the sick lists? Who has the sick lists? Some of them have been lying in bed for a long time. It's time to go to the battle!"

Altinya arrived at a newly cleared triangular platform and watched as an engineer inspected the city defense cannon. It wasn't long before they were operational again. She waved the engineer away and stood aside, supervising and directing the soldiers to adjust their positions. Quickly, applying her knowledge of geometry, she bombarded one side of the mountain, shattering the rock and sending dust flying.

"If you want to bombard the mountain," a soldier said, "solid rounds are the best. But we can only bombard halfway up the mountain, and that's all we can do is break some rocks."

Artinya nodded. Perhaps it was because she was standing outside the city walls that she felt much better. At least she no longer had to endure the murky yellow fog and the smell of burning. Even the roar of the cannons beside her was less painful. That night, someone came to tell her that someone had spent the night on the city walls and had been corroded. Because they couldn't bear the burning smell, they had sneaked up, and the resulting bloody projectiles fell all over the triangular platform, splattering the corrupted blood everywhere, and a large amount of it splashed all over those people.

She did hear the news, but she didn't feel it at all, because now she had to endure the turbid smoke under the cover of the city wall, endure the torture of her sense of smell, and maintain her composure and endure the torture of her hearing amid the echoes of artillery bombardment on the ground and bloody projectiles falling into the city.

For a long moment, she couldn't focus or think. The sound seemed to reach from her heels to her eardrums. Of course, she knew this was the Corpse Eaters' strategy, to suppress their will and spirits, forcing them to leave the city and fight. If they didn't, they would saturate the city with further disease and more corrupted blood, ultimately rendering them completely unable to hinder the advance of the Flesh Golems.

Until they dragged the corpse-eaters' nests against the bastion, turning the two cities into connected warships.

The temple's priests and physicians are currently working on isolating the disease, and more research results will soon be reported from Sodoris. Air circulation will likely require magic, something Diana could accomplish alone, but she's currently under immense pressure. With the presence of her school, Diana's condition would be much better. At this thought, Artinia realized that Diana had a young ancestor, invisible to others. She had no idea how much help that person could provide, and she couldn't even touch their presence.

"How can you help?" she asked the Black Sword mercenary.

"You overestimate me, Your Highness." The One-Eye Man spread his hands. "For a proper mage, mastering a spell that benefits humanity is unthinkable. Personally, I know nothing but vicious curses and burnings. That young lady said she knows a spell that can be maintained stably and is completely harmless to humans. Their school must have some unspoken secret."

"Okay, so what do you think of the Yestren School?"

"Not good," said the one-eyed man. "School wars, at best, involve sending spies to each other for assassination, at worst, plotting assassinations. Ultimately, the goal is to plunder knowledge and wrestle for power. But with the Hisai School, it's more than just that. Backed by Clefas, they aim to destroy the Yesterlen School itself. I suspect there's a deep-seated hatred and conflict between them. Because of this, the Yesterlen School will be cautious. If they see no hope here, they won't intervene easily. If they don't, the Hisai School might melt Your Highness's walls like paper."

Chapter 314: The Girl Among the Stars

......

Cesar woke again from his sleep, from the gap between the abyss and the furnace. A drizzle of rain fell through the branches, brushing against his cheeks, leaving him momentarily dazed. Soyn was still sleeping beside him, held together by the ropes tied around their wrists. He rose as gently as he could, wrapped her in his cloak, and held her in his arms before calling to the dog to leave.

As he packed, he recalled his dream and realized he had dreamed of a maze, a maze unlike any he had ever seen. It was composed not just of winding corridors, but of shattered mountains and rivers, fallen kingdoms, and the memories of the dead. It was a maze made up of many mazes, not only intricate and nested, but also constantly being created and destroyed, seemingly encompassing everything in the past and, in some sense, even involving the future.

He didn't know why he'd dreamed of such a maze, but he couldn't help but immerse himself in it. It wasn't because he was keen on exploring mazes, but because someone was there with him. He could always see Soyin, draped in black, floating not far from him, like an ancient ghost. Stars slowly spun around her in long, slanting, winding paths, surrounding her like a blue halo. A gentle breeze blew from afar, bringing a chill to his lost soul.

Cesar remembered that no matter how far he walked, Soyn would drift away, like an annoying phantom, forever out of reach. He didn't want to chase the phantom, but the stars floated around her, and when he hesitated, many of them would fall towards him and fall into his hands.

They flickered in his palms, emitting a flickering glow, attracting him to keep moving forward.

He could barely recall how far he had traveled, only remembering passing through shattered histories and fallen nations. But the girl, like a true star, hung in the sunset-soaked sky, seemingly forever unreachable. In his dreams, he saw only a ghost stumbling forward, bloodstained, its feet leaving a trail of bloody, misty tracks, his very path.

At that moment, Cesar thought he would pursue his goal until he was reduced to a bloody mist, forever stumbling, and the girl to a star eternally twinkling in the night sky. But soon, the fierce light of the Eye of the Forge pierced his dreams and the maze, sweeping towards him. It also once again scorched the Sanctuary Abyss, causing darkness to encroach, and dreams to shatter and vanish.

If you think about it carefully, it was actually the Eye of the Furnace that cut off his connection with the wasteland, and it was also the Eye of the Furnace that was looking for him - but was the Eye of the Furnace really looking for him?

He wasn't sure, but at the moment, there was no other possibility except him.

Under the dense shade of trees, Cesar, dreamless for a long time, was left dazed and dizzy by his long dream. The pale morning light was already spreading across the ground, and he decided to set off before the darkness of the abyss engulfed him. By the time he had finished packing, the girl had woken up and sat on his arm, her sleepy eyes open. Cesar decided to continue north, until he reached the place he had agreed to meet with Diana—somewhere on the edge of the prairie, where she would use a teleportation spell to bring him back.

But the problem was that his connection with the wilderness had been cut off by the temple. How could he tell Diana that he had arrived? He had no other choice but to take things one step at a time.

"Will those invisible people come to kill you?" asked Soyin.

Cesar wasn't sure either, so he could only tell her not to worry. If there was truly no other way out, he would draw his sword and resolve the situation. He was deeply concerned. He feared the girl would vanish like a phantom if their hands parted; after all, they didn't exist in the same era. And if he held her hand, he couldn't guarantee he could fight with all his might.

"Is the creeping darkness still looking for us?" she asked again.

"As long as we're thinking, they'll find us," Cesar said.

"I grew up on the edge of the abyss and have never seen..."

"That eye, radiating a fiery light like a furnace, burned away the darkness in the abyss, just like using fire to awaken a sleeping person."

"If that's the case, why doesn't it burn to the bottom and drive away the encroaching darkness?"

"It doesn't care about darkness invading the world," Cesar said. "It's either a god or some kind of creature that carries out the god's will."

The girl was silent for a long time, then asked, "Where does it come from, Cesar? Why can it burn away the darkness without caring about its invasion, while we are harmed but unable to do anything about it?"

"Do you remember the story I told you? They are outside this world, a place where mortal time has no meaning. Mages call that place the Outlands, and those who believe in it call it the Age of the Gods. They say that from the perspective of the gods, this world is impenetrable. When we look at the gods, they too appear to be motionless."

"So someone called upon the Eye of the Forge to find us?"

"It means the same thing."

"Since the person who summoned it doesn't care about the invasion of the abyss and only wants to capture you, then he is a bad person?"

Cesar shook his head slightly, "I am also using the beastmen to interfere with another tribe. According to your meaning, I am also a bad person. I don't mean to defend myself, nor do I want to deny your opinion. I am indeed. Many times,

In order to keep the fire of my own tribe burning, I will do bad things to other tribes."

Thorin hugged his neck, resting his chin on the cloak on his shoulders, and fell silent again. Of course, Cesar knew that he was committing evil, but people couldn't always do good, especially to everyone. He could only consider the extent of evil when he had to do it, and refuse those that were particularly evil and terrible—especially those whose costs were unclear, perhaps even unimaginable.