Shadow of the Evil God

"I will," the voice was cold and cruel, "but only after this is all over."

"You can finish this city, but I'm going to take her away."

"Take her away? No, Cesar, that won't do. You know, of course, that the great events of the past cast their shadows upon the generations to come. If the reverse were to happen, in these days of approaching darkness, and you allowed those shadows to rush back and disturb the past, you would be the greatest of those shadows. A tangle of circles—a tangle of circles! You know the word, but you don't know the harm it brings."

"Then why didn't you tell me that a god who saved the world would disappear from the world and disappear without a trace?"

"Your stupidity has led to your doubts, Cesar." The man's dull voice drew closer. "Your madness lies in your illusion that gods exist, believing they can remain in the human world. No, a god's destiny is the Age of Gods, even if she was once human! If Soleil can't adapt to the Age of Gods, that's her own problem. Every god stands still in eternal stillness, so why can't she? And I, we, we've been toiling for nearly a thousand years over the disasters she's caused by staying in the human world!"

Cesar felt that Soyin's eyes became confused, as if everything in that person's words revealed a lot of anxiety and fear to her, making her hesitate and even a little afraid for a while.

He raised his voice. "Why don't you tell me how she was forced into the Age of Gods? Why don't you tell me why this city, isolated on the edge of the abyss, was built? Isn't she supposed to guard the scars of this world, yet you are wantonly burning them, allowing the darkness of the abyss to invade? You have ignored Grandmaster Ferriers, so how dare you say that everything is Solaire's fault, and that you are the one who caused her so-called trouble in the future?"

Silence suddenly fell over there. The girl opened her mouth slightly and reached out to touch Cesar's cheek, her fingertips stroking the steel that moved with his mouth. Then, impulsively, she hugged his neck with both hands. Her slightly cool skin pressed against the dark armor, yet it felt like a refreshing warmth.

They leaned against a statue at the end of the corridor. Cesar stroked her head silently, watching her slowly raise her face, with some sparkling tears under her long eyelashes, but only for a moment before she stopped, her gaze seemed to want to see into his soul.

Suo Yin lowered his voice. "No matter how much of what I said just now was meant to fight back against him, I will take it as the truth, Cesar. And earlier, you told me that we would never be apart, and even if we were apart, you would definitely find me. Is this comfort? Will it be gradually forgotten by you as time goes by?"

"No," he lowered his voice, "Although my promises are always not fulfilled smoothly, I will always try to fulfill them before they are fulfilled."

"So it will be a very long time before we separate and meet again, just like every long period of history..."

"But it will always come true," he said. "We will keep moving in that direction while we are alive, just like chasing the stars. The weight of eternity is so heavy that it must cost a great deal and take a long enough journey to reach. If not, then it is just an empty promise. If it is, then it is an undeniable fact."

Chapter 322: Destined Responsibility

......

Regardless of the outcome of this war, it would mark the end of previous secular wars. With the temples of Clephas and Sagaros setting an example, the presence of schools of magic was bound to increase in future wars, and more and more temples would release their previous restraints for their own purposes.

Many times, the so-called order and constraints are so fragile. If someone takes the lead in breaking the established rules, the rest will naturally follow suit if they cannot be firmly stopped.

Altinya looked up and saw a boundless swirling cloud swirling around the towers of the Corpse Eaters' lair. A gossamer, blood-red curtain descended from the swirling clouds toward the city walls like wispy smoke. As it brushed past the walls, the soldiers stained with rotting blood let out screams. Their bodies swelled and twisted as if engorged with blood, their cries quickly transforming into the howls of bestial beasts. In a flash, a whole group of hybrid beastmen were transformed, so quickly that the soldiers huddled beneath the walls had no time to react.

But then the top of the wall was covered with the flames of the Hessaean school, tearing and setting all the people and beasts on fire.

Threads of molten fire stretched from the far side of the hills to the fortress's walls, forming a vast curtain that divided the battlefield. Clouds of crimson dust rolled like boiling rivers, obscuring the view. Columns of smoke, dark and sullen, rose to the sky like liquefied coal, clashing with the blood-red clouds of curse. Between these spells of destruction and damnation lay the trembling walls, the roaring nests, and the raging battle. Entire stretches of the wall had been transformed into an uninhabitable, calamity.

Artinya ordered the soldiers to retreat. The outer city walls were no longer suitable for defense.

"Good point," someone said. "If we retreat even a little bit now, the losses between the two sides outside the city walls will only increase."

The princess turned, about to question who had come here, when she saw a figure shrouded in frost drifting over. Their hair resembled blue frost, their skin white, their long eyelashes seemingly dyed from ice and snow. "Icy skin and delicate bones" was a figure of speech for Diana, but a direct description for her mother.

She no longer looked completely human.

"Diana left everything to you?" asked Altinya.

Bernadette ignored her, floating to her side and gazing up at the sky, as if observing the spell's unfolding. "If you're not concerned about casualties, Your Highness, I'd like to wait until the battle line retreats to the inner city walls before I deploy the protective spells," she said. "Once those molten fire spells reach beyond the outer walls, the threat will be greatly diminished. If the Hisai School doesn't advance, then the best they can do is extend the spells to the outer city's buildings."

"I need more reasons, ma'am."

"Given the enemy forces to the front and rear, the Corpse Eater Shamans will definitely not leave their lair. Once the battle line retreats to the rear, where the corrupted blood has not yet covered it, their curses will no longer be able to penetrate protective spells. If they encounter resistance here, the Corpse Eaters, who have already determined they have occupied the outer city, will turn back and change their main attack direction to the Imperial Army and the Hisai School."

Altinia pondered. "If we retreat to the inner city, and let the corpse eaters think the outer city already belongs to them, while the Xisai School is just burning the outer city and killing the beastmen who occupy it..."

"Showing weakness and hiding is necessary, right?" Bernadette said. "Of course, I don't deny it, it's because I don't want to be exposed. Our men can cast protective spells on the outer walls, but that would reveal my school and my identity. If we retreat to the inner city, we can use the most basic protective spells to resist the curse. As long as the Hisai School believes that we are just some insignificant mercenary wizards in the fortress, and the corpse eaters believe that we have suffered heavy casualties and can only retreat to a corner, we can deal with them after the incident is over. Then, all threats will be alleviated."

"That's possible," Artinya agreed, "but I want the northern army completely destroyed."

Bernadette blinked. "What do you want to tell me? A heroic story? Or the glorious history of the Kasar Empire? I'm guessing it won't be a rational analysis, because we both know that's impossible."

The princess shook her head and said, "It is a perfect opportunity, ma'am, for you to be my accomplice."

She unfolded a map centered on the Sanctuary Abyss and placed her index finger at Gural Fortress. Following the contours of the mountains west of the fortress, she traced a path northward and then westward, tracing a gradually sunken path through the depths of the abyss. After a heartbeat, Bernadette slowly nodded. Just as Diana had said, Bernadette's rational mind reigned supreme. If she believed it was feasible, then it was.

"The Sanctuary Abyss in this area has indeed been moving, and Diana has noticed it," Bernadette nodded. "If you have the means to trigger the dark tide, the abyss's invasion will occur here sooner than expected. The darkness will flow along this valley-like depression to the north of the fortress, covering a large area of ​​hills. However, there is also the risk of it surging to the south. You'd better wait until the people from the Grand Temple and my school arrive before doing this. With the Temple and us resisting together, we can stop the invasion outside the city walls until it retreats into the abyss."

"I'll wait for the right time," said Altinya.

Bernadette saw nothing but

Judge and consider. "Who will do this, then, Your Highness?" she asked. "This is a one-way trip."

"I will do it myself," the princess said. "I will personally lead a cavalry assault on the mages of the Xisai School. As for the charge, I have already prepared the personnel."

"You can't survive in there."

"No," she said, "for reasons you don't understand, I can, and so can every one of my blood relatives."

"Even if you can survive the invasion of the abyss, you can't survive the empire's army with your pitiful troops," said Bernadette.

"Both Trisius and Clefas aimed to capture me, and I simply handed myself over to them," said Artinia.

With unimaginable horror and death.

Bernadette floated beside Altinya, sitting in the void, bending over her, head tilted, observing her expression and emotions with a questioning look. Though unseemly, she looked like a curious woodland spirit. If fey still existed, perhaps they would look like her now. How much of this person's soul still belonged to her?

"Is this teaching or your own will?" Bernadette asked her.

"Maybe both," she said. "Maybe it's just fate."

Chapter 323: The Moment of Dividing Life

......

At the end of the corridor was a statue, undoubtedly Soleil's. When Soyin reached out to it, it felt like something incredible had suddenly appeared, suddenly distorting the trajectory of the world between two time periods.

Cesar believed that if time was truly discrete and there was indeed an indivisible smallest unit of time, then this event must have occurred on this scale.

The eyes of Soler's statue suddenly opened, their pupils absent, revealing a star-like azure glow. An indescribable sense of oppression enveloped everything, influencing his soul. For a moment, he could neither think nor move, as if trapped in a single unit of time, cut off from all past and future. He could neither move forward nor backward. He was frozen in place on every level, and nothing could alter his current state.

Ajeh's roar suddenly shattered this utterly terrifying feeling. Shadows squirmed within him, expanding the armor even more, transforming it into the form of a pitch-black wolf. He felt her sharp claws extend over his wrists, her sharp teeth grazing in his mouth, gnawing a gaping hole in the restraints and then carrying him free.

She seemed to be able to devour everything.

Though Soin still held the statue's hand behind him, Cesar couldn't care less. The monks from the temple had already rushed into the room, leaving everything in ruins. In Ajeh's view, the monks weren't even human; some were even more indescribable than beastmen. Some, like the deceased, had two heads that muttered to themselves and possessed several arms invisible to ordinary humans. Some had flesh and blood merely disguised, their internal organs invisible, their shells brimming with molten fire. Some had only half their bodies left in the human world, the other half standing in an alien realm, their form blurred.

He had to admit that the monks who had encountered the otherworldly realms were all inhuman beings of varying degrees. This wasn't just him; every monk was the same. Furthermore, Cesar observed that his own soul, compared to theirs, was actually more similar to a pure human. This distance, in fact, was the distance between fully accepting the path and abandoning the past.

As the statue of Soleil opened its eyes, the statue of the knight at the doorway began to move. Before Cesar could even leave the corridor, the black-armored knight had already cut down a monk. It was an unexpected and deadly strike. The starlight burst from the blade shattered the man like a porcelain doll, and the remaining monks retreated.

Cesar was actually puzzled. The statue was clearly empty, so how could it still fight? But many things here defied rationality. Even the monks of the temple were caught off guard and dealt a fatal blow. If Ajeh hadn't bitten through the shackles of time, he would have been trapped within it, oblivious to everything.

He glanced behind him and saw that Soyin was still touching the Soler statue. At the same time, the roar outside the corridor became more intense, as if the person could no longer tolerate what was happening. He thought, no matter what, he must at least wait until she completed this ritual.

The cold rain gradually slowed, but several walls had already crumbled and shattered in the fierce clash between the knight statues and the monks. The interwoven rain curtains drifted in like a curtain, landing on the shattered fragments of a statue. The monk with several pairs of invisible arms shook his head at Cesar and took a step forward. The monk, whose body was devoid of internal organs, also stretched out his arms, pulling his fingers, dripping with molten metal, from the broken statue.

More statues rushed forward, but aside from the monk caught in the act, nothing was accomplished. He couldn't describe the ferocity of the battle. If the statues hadn't distinguished friend from foe, and if Soin hadn't been on his shoulder, he wouldn't have wanted to just stand by and watch. By the time it was over, the ground was littered with shattered statue fragments. Recalling the battle, he felt a strange resemblance between their sword-wielding movements and those of Cecia, his swordsmanship teacher.

It seems that many superb swordsmanship skills have their own inheritance.

The cold rain thinned, and the searing light grew brighter, illuminating the corridor floor through the gap in the wall. When the battle outside the corridor ended, Cesar watched intently, but the monks didn't take a single step forward. He suspected Soin had completed some mysterious ritual, or that the monks had decided the situation was hopeless and were retreating.

At this time, fierce light enveloped everything.

The cold rain faded, evaporating completely into mist. For a moment, he saw the light of the stars spill into the corridor, like the white light that illuminated the theater stage in his dreams, trying to reach Soler, the center of the stage. But soon, it was pressed back by the fierce light and gradually dimmed. The two lights clashed before him, reflecting a scene so strange and captivating that he could have stared at it until his death.

If Ajehe's minions had not scratched his bone marrow again, he would have taken a step towards the abyss of death.

For the man was descending from the vortex torn open by the Eye of the Furnace.

......

At the sound of a bugle call, the defenders fled down the city walls, retreating towards the inner city, leaving behind corpses and the howling, recently transformed hybrid beasts. Altinia watched as the beastmen finally gained a foothold on the outer city walls, pouring into the city with a blood-red cloud of curses.

The Xisai School's position spell is working steadily.

The line of molten fire grew longer, climbing over the city walls and reaching the outermost buildings. A recently erected medical ward collapsed in the flames, its rubble floating in the air. Dark red lava erupted beneath the streets, sending up waves of searing heat that washed over the ancient masonry and tore through the bodies left behind, burning them and the cloth covering them to ash.

If no one restrains them, these mages of the Hisai school will really burn the city with fire, turning the entire Gular Fortress into coke and ash in the furnace.

Thick smoke gradually spread, and acrid black ash fell like heavy snow, obscuring the blood-red curse of the corpse-eaters. Fortunately, the people in the fortress had long been accustomed to the ordeal of burning corpses, so they could easily tolerate the odor. The soldiers retreated into the inner city in an orderly manner, encountering several bloody battles along the way, but their adaptation to the thick smoke and the stench of burning gave them a certain advantage and prevented them from suffering serious casualties.

The rumors arranged by Artinia gradually spread, describing how Clephas condoned the reckless behavior of the Hisai School, how the crimson city burners burned an entire city and all the humans in it, and how the cavalrymen in silver armor and gray robes watched indifferently while waiting to take over a dead city.

Rumors don't necessarily originate in this way, but they are certainly shaped in this way. As long as the rumors she weaves are alarmist enough, and coupled with a catchy name like "City Burner," her rumors will surpass all other rumors and become the most true and convincing of all.

As Cesar said, people's hearts are not only bought and appeased, not only with passionate speeches, but also with the many speeches that subtly influence people's views and emotions. When it is time to take advantage of something, we should seize the opportunity to do so.

News came that the vanguard of the Great Temple of Hier arrived, and several mages from the Yesterlen School also arrived at the fortress and the inner city castle that Bernadette had marked while she was setting up the protective spell.

Altinia took up the banner and summoned the soldiers she had long awaited—Brother Keith, who had claimed to be at her side and guiding her, the soldiers who followed Brother Keith, and the officers and soldiers originally from the fortress. Although their composition was extremely complex and all had ties to Cliface, in terms of military prowess, they were only slightly inferior to the Black Swords.

She had assembled a total of around two thousand men, many of whom held their heads high, possessing a considerable degree of confidence in the prospect of marching out of the city. This wasn't surprising; the mages hadn't yet taken action, and only a few knew of the Temple's support. The situation within the city was even more desperate. Compared to being burned to death within the city walls, a desperate struggle offered more hope. Furthermore, many of the soldiers she had assembled would likely surrender upon reaching the Imperial positions, and some might even turn against the Empire, especially those members of the Kingdom's Knights, who had received financial support from the bank.

There has to be a way to reorganize the team, and now is the best time.

Altinya had expected a long wait, but the moment had arrived. Close combat had spread to the gates of the inner city walls, where hybrid beastmen and soldiers engaged in frantic clashes, leaving piles of corpses rising higher and higher. Only a fraction of the previously numerous flesh golems had entered the outer city; the rest hesitated briefly before sprinting towards the Imperial positions. The deadly curses of the corpse-eating shamans were also shifting northward, leaving only a few protective spells to ward off the remaining inner city.

She gathered her troops and launched a charge from the side gate, easily breaking through the road leading to the city gate. There were not even flesh puppets guarding this road. Only a large group of hybrids were running aimlessly, howling, and slashing into the empty outer city buildings. Perhaps in the eyes of the corpse eaters, the city gate was simply a meaningless thing.

The cavalrymen defeated the hybrid beastmen on the road, and more soldiers hurriedly followed, following her direction and running towards the city gate, trying to escape from this burning city.

Now, Artinya has finally thrown herself onto the scales of life and death as a bet. The rest depends on the huge disaster that will be caused after everything is revealed.

This is the most interesting part of a person's life. After everyone dies, it is time for her to separate her life from her blood brothers.

Chapter 324 You Can Stand Still and Wait for Death

......

Cesar had never experienced divine feelings or religious miracles, but if anyone ever asked him about it, he would surely recall the scene of the man descending from the vortex of the Eye of the Furnace. The man's body was completely incandescent flames, his body leaning forward, his head tilted back, his face and chest almost horizontal, and a long line of flame pierced the sky from the center of his face to the center of the vortex of the Eye of the Furnace.

Dazzling red metal dust descended from the vortex, swirling around him in a series of intersecting arcs, like the orbits of stars. The metal fragments gradually coalesced over the flames of his human form, forming a seamless shell.

The man lowered his head, his face calm and serene, holding a scepter in his right hand and a long sword in his left. Both the blade of the sword and the tip of the scepter were swirling with red-hot metal dust, surrounded by extremely dazzling light.

The monks bowed to him, like a group of lowly courtiers watching a chancellor emerge from the temple. Considering that the gods, as their emperors, were suspended in the Age of Gods, maintaining an eternal and immovable state, perhaps the masters of the temple were these chancellors or generals.

Cesar felt the cold was receding, and the fierce light he brought burned everything around him, causing everything to melt and collapse, just like taking the heart of the furnace to a cold plain covered with ice and snow.

Considering that this person had constructed a body from nothing, Cesar felt that perhaps the being before him wasn't really him, and that his existence itself couldn't last in reality. Perhaps it was just a puppet, perhaps just a figure for him to rely on. In any case, it was only a limited part of him, not as terrifying as the Grand Master Ferriers who still existed in the world.

His self-persuasion was not very effective, but at least it steadied his steps and prevented him from turning around and running away in panic.

Cesar watched the man slowly descend, all around him eerily silent. His frame wasn't as massive as the beastman Nauzog, nor as small as a normal human; it was about the same size as he was now. However, the rising temperature as he approached was unbearable—it was no different from being roasted in a furnace. The man's presence was utterly beyond reality. While distant buildings merely scorched by the intense light, those nearby began to blacken and curl, like paper crumbling to ash in the flames.

Many people had told him that people like Ferriers shouldn't exist. Now he understood. Someone like her, even approaching someone without cause, would turn them to dust. The most incredible thing about Ferriers wasn't her accomplishments themselves, but the fact that she could still walk around in the real world.

"You can stand there and wait for death, Cesar. After all, I don't need to do anything to you." The man lowered the scepter to him, and the scepter head flashed with an increasingly scorching light. "It's time for you to comprehend a question you have never considered before - why did fate make you cross half the continent, constantly facing the pursuit of corpse eaters, facing the bottomless abyss created by the world's rupture, and the shadows of ancient gods? Why did fate make you bring her from the past to the present, to meet her own statue? You must know that every gear that drives the machine to operate feels that it is particularly important. Will you be a gear, Cesar? Even so, I still pay tribute to your struggle and operation."

The scorching light grew warmer, and Cesar realized it was a gesture of greeting, like a farmer paying tribute to the wheat beneath his scythe.

He wanted to retreat toward where Soyn lay, but it was completely inaccessible, like a star that was just out of reach. She seemed encased in a sealed matrix of time and space, separated from all past and future. They seemed so close, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close the distance.

As the man landed in the corridor and stepped forward, Cesar felt a resolute will he couldn't comprehend or control grip him. It wasn't for Soin, nor for any other convictions, but simply an inexplicable determination to stand still and confront him. All his emotions—the hesitations, doubts, contemplations, desires, and fears—dropped from his soul like dregs, as if a raging fire were searing and reforging his very being, stripping away all that was unnecessary like dregs.

He had heard of the Holmonks—those slags of the forge—and their relationship to the monks of the temple of Sagaros. At the time, he'd thought it was an exaggeration, a large dose of rhetoric, but now it seemed true. The many emotions that fell from him could indeed constitute an incomplete Holmonks, possessing incomplete desires and feelings.

Cesar retreated, but the matrix enclosing Soyn couldn't get any closer, and the corridor seemed infinitely long. The scorching figure, emitting a fierce light, pressed him back until all he could see was an endless corridor, yet he still hadn't reached the end.

Behind him is the statue of Soler, who is so close yet seems to be extending infinitely and moving away infinitely.

Cesar gradually understood one thing: ever since Soleil's statue had sealed Soin inside, not only was he unable to approach, but even the beings that had descended from the Eye of the Furnace couldn't easily approach. Otherwise, this person would never have walked with him along the infinitely extending corridor.

Doubts and thoughts arose again, as if everything just now was an illusion. He gripped the sword tightly and cut his wrist, absorbing the blood.

The sharp teeth and blasphemous intent of the sword clung to it, shaking the infinitely stretched corridor. As the blade passed, the floor beneath his feet suddenly buckled, and the delicate walls dissolved like grease in water, looking inexplicably eerie.

"Blasphemy!" the man shouted, raising his staff at Cesar. The intense light oppressing him suddenly tightened, transforming into numerous beams that pierced his vital points. A large section of the wall collapsed under the burning light, revealing the ethereal light of stars beyond the wall. They were no longer in the city.

Cesar leaped back, his movements like a wild animal, dodging the oppressive force of the blazing light in an instant. He knew full well that the man's scepter held the fiery light of the furnace, and a single blow would leave him with no chance of survival. Yet, the man's eagerness to erase the crimson filth he had created proved that his current existence could not tolerate the so-called desecration from the Crimson Realm.

The body he possesses can be destroyed. As long as one can overcome the oppression of the fierce light and pierce him, the body he has taken so much trouble to descend from the Eye of the Furnace will collapse.

"How strange," Cesar said, "why am I retreating step by step, sir? Should I stand firm and face you with unwavering faith, and then become a corpse under your sword?"

"Cursed creature!" He slammed his staff down the corridor. "If the fire of the furnace cannot wash away your filth, I will flay you from head to toe!"

Chapter 325: Slap Her Butt

Cesar saw that they were both thinking the same thing, and they were both well aware of each other's fatal weaknesses. So he raised his staff high and struck the ground with it with every step he took. With each strike, many incandescent lights pierced out from all around Cesar, causing the walls to collapse and the ground to shatter, revealing the nothingness outside the infinite corridor.

Throughout this process, a sense of oppression gripped his soul. If the endless doubts and speculations within him slowed even slightly, they would quickly dissipate, forcing him to stand still with an inexplicable conviction. A heavy roar reached his ears, and Cesar saw the molten fire at the top of the scepter and thought of the vortex formed by the Eye of the Furnace piercing the city. He felt that the Eye of the Furnace had built a bridge to this place through the scepter.

Like a lens, the intense light does not originate from the scepter, but is refracted through it.

The roar of the scepter grew heavier, closer and closer to the sound of the Eye of the Furnace piercing the city. The fierce light also grew brighter and more intense. From the beginning, it had almost turned from a drizzle into a torrential rain. A continuous, high-pitched sound suddenly echoed through the corridor, reaching his eardrums and piercing his mind.

The long whistle wasn't fatal, but it was enough to distract him. In an instant, a storm of intense light enveloped him, shooting at every part of his body with the force to shatter everything. Cesar lunged to the side, facing the few remaining beams of light, feeling the furnace's light tear through his cheeks, pierce his belly, and carry curls of black ash into the shattered wall, completely unstoppable.

The entire corridor was shattered in the interlaced fierce light, and the red-hot fragments flew everywhere. Some pieces even brushed against his armor with hissing heat.

Seeing him wounded, the man shouted blasphemy and strode forward, first striking the corridor with his staff, then leaping across the shattered void and slashing down with his sword. He sliced ​​the entire corridor diagonally, his blade not only splitting the walls and floor in two but also carving a massive scar in the very void within. The edges of the scar burned with molten fire, revealing within it the rain-drenched clouds and rolling mountains beneath them.

The interlacing blaze of light had become endless, forcing Cesar to retreat constantly. If the corridor hadn't seemed infinite, he would have reached a point where he couldn't retreat. The man, gaining even greater advantage, swung his staff and slammed it against the wall, sending a torrential downpour of blazing light that forced him to flee. Then, with a longsword swirling with metal shards, he split the ceiling, revealing the Eye of the Forge above them.