Shadow of the Evil God

"Looking for another blood relative of yours?" Cesar asked her.

She was a little nervous and couldn't help but tighten her grip on his outstretched hand. "I wonder if the fragments of a dream need to complete themselves. When it was still dreaming, it was a complete person in the dream, but after it inexplicably woke up part of it, this incomplete and corroded dream dragon..."

"If Artinia is corrupted, she is seeking and hunting her brothers. If Trisius is corrupted, he is seeking and hunting his sisters."

"For ordinary humans, this is a disaster that is inevitable, but for them, it is a ritual that they voluntarily accept. If one person accepts the erosion and the other does not, and is therefore hunted by their blood relatives..."

"Will the other person accept it sooner or later in order to survive?" Cesar asked her.

"That's what I'm saying," Diana agreed. "I can't say what Trisius will decide, but Altinia will accept it sooner or later. Even if not at first, she will eventually. This guy has an inexplicable confidence in his willpower. While it allows her to struggle and find a way out and overcome difficulties in many desperate moments, it also fosters her pride... or perhaps arrogance. We were both arrogant back then. To put it bluntly, our acquaintance was a match made in heaven."

"I thought you were going to say birds of a feather flock together."

Diana slapped him on the head, then immediately covered her aching hand. "We'll settle this after I remove this armor from you, Cesar," she said. "Considering she was responsible for this whole situation, I'd rather believe she's the victor. She has no reason to be corrupted by the evil. But Trisius, the vanquished, must have. The harder he pushed her, the easier it became for her—I'm not saying waver, but rather blindly believing she could resist the invasion, and that she would be superior to Trisius as a dragon."

"From what I've observed, Aya has always felt that Trisius is inferior to her," Cesar said.

"Yes," her voice gradually deepened. "Being forced into this situation by someone she considers inferior, she would naturally wonder why Trisius did what he did, and think that if he could do it, she could do better than him... I can't imagine if she could ever change back if she really became a similar being. If not, many things will have to be reconsidered. Maybe we will even have to flee to sea with her to avoid disaster."

"How can I spank her if she turns into an evil dragon?" Cesar joked to her.

Diana rolled her eyes at him. "I hate to take your joke, but I can make you a bigger suit of armor. It just needs to be taller than her when she turns into a dragon."

Chapter 332: Corpse Eater's Lair

......

The unfathomable darkness was like a dark cloud pressing down on the sky, hanging low and spreading towards the Gular Fortress and the corpse-eater's lair. Fortunately, the glow made the entire inner city bright, barely resisting the invasion of the abyss.

Diana discovered that, like the humans, the Beastmen were also resisting the invasion of the Abyss, retreating steadily from the encroaching darkness, retreating towards the inner city of their fortress. However, the Corpse Eaters seemed unwilling to give them a front line. After retreating to the edge of the inner city wall, they continued to retreat gradually through the ruins of the outer city, which had been burned into a purgatory by the Xisai School. Finally, the Beastmen retreated to the street level with the human glow and slowed their pace, forming a massive formation.

A strange peace? Perhaps it was. Looking down from the city wall, she could clearly see the flesh-and-blood puppets of the corpse-eaters, and the shamans at their center. Those creatures with bloodshot eyes, rat heads and human bodies. There didn't seem to be many of them, a small group that didn't have time to return to their lair. Most had either perished in the tidal onslaught or, like the mages, had fled in panic.

She wasn't sure in which direction the Xisai School had fled, but the corpse-eating shamans must have fled to their lair.

Although for most creatures, the teleportation spell is a serious mental erosion, like a pile of salt grains forcing themselves to cross a river and take a terrible shortcut. However, in the moment of life and death, people often do not care so much.

She didn't know how many of the mages of the Xisai School would be severely damaged by this battle, but they would surely slow down the pace of the school war to allow for healing. It all depended on how desperately they escaped. Another thing worth considering was how many of the corpse-eating shamans had suffered damage in their hasty retreat to their lairs, reducing their combat effectiveness.

When the undercurrent ends, whichever side preserves its manpower better will gain a greater advantage.

Amorphous black goo hung in mid-air, weaving through the hellish ruins beyond the barrier. Sensing the souls and thoughts of countless beings within the inner city, it immediately reached forward. Its rapidity rippled through the air, creating arcs of black ink that, from a distance, resembled a vast spider web. The pressure on the protective spell suddenly intensified, and the black goo clung to the outer wall, flowing like grease spilling over an invisible surface.

They gathered more and more, and the pressure they exerted gradually increased. Pure beams of light rose up, repeatedly tearing through them, piercing through the rubble of the outer city. The mages fought hard, but they could not stop them from becoming more and more numerous and covering them more and more densely.

In between repairing protective spells and pouring out energy to tear apart the dark tide, reinforcements from the Grand Temple and the School finally arrived at the front lines. Led by the High Priest, the knights, priests, and mages raised a larger-scale defense, imbuing the soldiers' blades with a radiant light, encouraging them to thrust forward from this side of the barrier. Time and again, whenever a mage or priest stumbled back, fainting from the intense mental pressure, someone else would take their place.

The resistance of the corpse eaters in the outer city was becoming increasingly tenuous. With a startling crack, all the hybrid beastmen, flesh puppets, and corpse eater warriors were submerged, crumbling and disintegrating like salt grains in boiling water. The shamans disappeared first, abandoning their last vestiges of responsibility and fleeing.

Their defenses tended to stabilize, but they could not stop the darkness outside from continuing to spread. Fighting back against them was like pouring raging fire into the sea. Although it could evaporate some of the sea water into mist, it was meaningless overall.

Soon, the crumbling and disintegrating beastmen also transformed into amorphous slime, circling the inner city's barriers in a black trail. They sought any crack to penetrate. False beastmen roared, false humans called out, and false flesh puppets crawled above their heads. The people stared at the seemingly imaginary amorphous slime, their nerves tense.

Suddenly, a loud noise erupted from the distance, sending many into a state of panic, yet the darkness obscured any clues. Diana suspected that the noise was caused by Trisius's incarnation as an evil dragon, perhaps even from the corpse-eater's lair. If the corpse-eaters trapped in the outer wall couldn't withstand it, they would be next. It was clear that the corrupted dream dragon threatened not only Altinia but all of them.

Where has Altinya fled to now? Has Cesar found her again?

The pressure was mounting, and Diana realized she had to find a way to channel the undercurrent. The school wouldn't do anything hopeless. If the pressure intensified, the Sisai School's escape would surely happen again in the fortress. She couldn't bear the thought of a similar situation happening to them.

......

Seeking a hiding place, Altinia eventually infiltrated the lower levels of the corpse-eaters' lair, but once she entered, the abyss's invasion had seeped in. It seemed their lair was too vast, and the shamans had abandoned the lower levels and retreated, concentrating on defending only the upper levels and even their own towers.

The lower levels of the corpse-eaters' lair weren't as foul as she'd imagined. It was more or less an anthill, a slum with a more complex and denser structure, full of intertwined alleyways, many of which had collapsed during the infernal burning of the Xisai School. She casually peeled a wolf skin and put it on her head. Soon, she had blended in with the group of hybrid beasts fleeing to higher ground.

Many of these deranged hybrids don't have

Despite their lack of intelligence, most knew nothing beyond desire, engaging in either mating or blood sacrifice. Tricking them was easier than one might imagine. Despite this, they possessed the instincts and intuition of bestiality. Feeling the encroaching darkness, they suppressed all desires and focused solely on escape. Although they were simply supporting each other for survival, she still felt an indescribable sense of absurdity when a hybrid beastman, noticing her stumbling steps, dragged her up a higher ground.

This world is crazy.

Altinia followed the hybrids, avoiding numerous dead ends and searching for a path upward through the dim, dark den. Just then, several more hybrids, hardly beasts at all, streaked past, dragging their hideous young. As they ran, they shouted in the northern dialect of the Empire, words she could barely understand. It seemed these were a race that had adopted the language of the Empire. Perhaps they had once been citizens of the Empire, a past that could have been far away, or perhaps even more recent, perhaps even the year the Corpse Eaters moved south, transforming them from humans into hybrid beasts.

Chapter 333 What am I doing?

How many human souls do these hybrids still retain?

Altinya shook her head, suppressing these thoughts and continuing to climb. Now was not the time to be lost in thought. She knew what had happened, and she knew what would happen next. The entire corpse-eater lair was submerged in a lake formed by the converging undercurrents. Now, it was struggling to hold out, relying solely on the protection of the shaman and the lair itself.

Considering the corpse-eating shamans were shrinking their spell barrier, this meant the lair's own protection would no longer hold. It would inevitably gradually collapse, and then the dark tide would completely submerge the isolated island, completely destroying it. The shamans might find a way to transport their people, whom they couldn't abandon, elsewhere. The remaining beastmen would naturally have to endure the fate of collapse and disintegration.

If this were to happen, the threat to Gural Fortress would be further eliminated, but for her, it seemed to only delay her decision. If she didn't make a decision soon...

What is she waiting for?

In fact, there is no longer any opportunity to hesitate.

Altinya stumbled upwards, entering an even more winding corridor, and saw a group of mixed-breed beastmen wearing filthy armor and carrying sharp blades. When they saw her in armor and holding blades, the beastmen glanced at her, but immediately ignored her, as if they thought she was a beastman protecting her offspring.

It seemed that the place where she sneaked into the nest was where the breeders and their offspring stayed. Not far away, there were also beastmen bringing breeders and their offspring up, but there were not enough people, causing the entire group to slow down.

What a disaster! Altinia could almost hear the dragon's roar, and those seemingly tempting sounds were approaching...

She gripped her sword tightly, wanting to get ahead, but it felt like swimming against the current, as this group of incomplete beastmen had come to a standstill due to their arguments. She could hardly understand what they were doing.

Arriving at the edge, Altinya was startled to find the hybrid beastmen blocking her path, preventing her from advancing. The other sword-bearers had already separated, clearing the way, but only the nurturers and their offspring were allowed through. Considering that death was meaningless to the beastmen, and that even life itself was a grand ritual offering to the gods, something became clear.

These hybrids wish to resist on the spot and require all those wielding blades to join them in the resistance.

What should I do? Should I start here?

Altinya suddenly felt a furry hand tugging at her clothes. Looking down, she saw a cat-headed beastman dressed in the garb of the northern empire, its body shrunken with many atrophied appendages and a hollow cat face. It had been the same creature that had helped her along the way, and strapped to its back was a cub with a face remarkably similar to its own, indicating it was also a caregiver. While its status as a caregiver allowed it to carry cubs through this area, it insisted that Altinya take them both.

She felt that things were becoming increasingly absurd. She had originally wanted it to stop wasting time here, but she felt that the beastman before her seemed to recognize her. Or rather, it recognized her sword and armor. It wanted a being it considered noble to take away its offspring, whom it had determined had no hope of survival.

Altinya stared into the old hybrid's plum-sized eyes, but could see nothing. The situation was becoming increasingly urgent. She hesitated, took the bag from its back, and then, under the gaze of the sword-wielding beastmen, crossed the passage and caught up with the other fosterers.

......

With the Beastman offspring on her back, Altinya navigated the numerous checkpoints within the Corpse Eaters' lair without a trace of suspicion or obstruction. Tunnel after tunnel receded beneath her feet. Some reeked of blood, others had recently collapsed, leaving narrow tunnels that only someone as slender as her could duck through.

The white cat, either a newborn or transformed from a human child, trembled behind her, peering out of the bag in vain, trying to find any relatives or blood relatives, but it was no longer meaningful. She heard the frantic roars of the hybrid beastmen gradually subside, and clear voices emerged, knowing that she had finally reached the level of the lair where the corpse eaters existed.

Soon, Altinya saw the flesh puppets and rat-headed evil creatures on the sky, and she had to hold the beastman's offspring in front of her. In a sense, it was now her amulet to avoid disaster.

The pervasive whispers still lingered, even drawing nearer. She knew the corpse-eater nest would eventually be overrun, but she couldn't make up her mind. Was she really going to follow Trisius's example? Why should she be forced into this choice?

Suddenly, she reached the surface of the lair, beheld on all sides maddened beastmen, their deformed forms imbuing everything with a sense of frenzied activity. Some hybrids had gone mad, and those with carnivorous features were already hunting those who appeared weaker. They seized the young from the backs or arms of their caretakers and shoved them into their mouths, tearing flesh and blood apart. Some of the more massive beastmen opened their maws wide and swallowed both the old and the young whole.

With one swing of her sword, she severed the head of a python with a human face in its throat, and watched its bloated, fleshy body fall to the ground in a pool of blood, flesh, and mud. Her second sword split a wild boar with numerous appendages, severing its gaping mouth, and with a wrong look on her face, she saw the snake's head fall to the ground.

More than a dozen fangs scattered randomly in the air. Judging from the situation, the cat-headed creature had made a good choice. If it had come up on its own, it would have already taken the child into the bloated flesh ball and turned it into a pile of filth.

The differences between these hybrids are much greater than the differences between individual humans.

Altinya continued forward, following wherever the corpse-eaters went. If all went well, she might be able to take advantage of the corpse-eater shaman's escape and escape with them, leaving this eerie darkness behind. This opportunity was only possible thanks to the cat-headed hybrid who had given her the child.

At this moment, a dragon's roar suddenly sounded in the distance, resounding throughout the wilderness, frightening a large number of hybrids into becoming even more violent, and even scaring the guy in her arms into crying.

The giant tower of the Corpse Eaters, shrouded in red mist, lay not far ahead, like a tower ascending to heaven. If the Corpse Eater Shaman attempted to escape using a teleportation spell, this tower, akin to a wizard's tower, would be transported entirely, leaving behind a vast nest where the main tower had vanished. Altinia bent down to comfort the beastman's young cub. It was also a tiny she-cat with a human body and a cat's head, eyes the size of plums. Its blue eyes reminded her of Diana for some reason, and its snow-white fur was stained with mud.

When she lowered her gaze to observe, the creature was silent and silent. It was a strange thing. If Diana could be a cat, she might look like this. Suddenly, the road ahead was blocked. It seemed she wasn't the only one trying to reach the main tower. So she turned to the other side, sprinting through the alleys caught in the bloody hunt, hoping to find a way to the ascending tower.

In terms of the threat level alone, the threat from the hybrid beastmen, the urgency of time and the whispers from the abyss following her were much greater.

Artinia swung her sword once again, carving a bloody path, leaving a trail of horribly deformed corpses. The white cat observed with wide eyes, showing no sign of discomfort. This made her feel that these beastmen truly possessed different instincts from humans. A large number of corpse-eaters rushed towards the tower from all directions, some already using flesh puppets to clear a path. It seemed that the situation here was becoming increasingly urgent. She felt that the whispers of the abyss still followed her like a thorn in her flesh, haunting her.

She heard a sound of breaking and couldn't help but look up. She saw the suspended black goo seeping into the nest along the gap, turning into a complex network of veins that spread throughout the entire space.

The Ascension Tower retracted its magical protection once again. The beastmen who rushed into the range of its blood mist shouted and roared. The beastmen who had been covered by the network of veins quickly collapsed and disintegrated, turning into mimics that whispered and called for their own kind.

The nest trembles.

But there is still some distance between Altinya and the giant tower of the corpse eaters.

She gripped her heavy sword tighter, ignoring her injuries and running forward. She ducked her head to dodge a giant axe that was swinging wildly around, then slashed the sword through the hybrid's armpit, crippling its arm. Then she stepped on a hyena and leaped forward, cutting off the rapiers that were stretched out along the way.

Though her sword was broken, she was confident she could tear through these foolish, mindless hybrids with just the fragments. Shards flew across the face of the misshapen hybrid, a jumble of features. It tried to raise its many appendages to shield itself, but Artinia pierced its throat and decapitated it with a single twist. She discarded the broken sword, stooped, and picked up the long scimitar the beastman had found on the pile of corpses. With a single swing, she severed the body blocking her path, splitting it in two like the two halves of a window.

She rushed forward into the rain of splattering blood.

Altinya could almost see the entrance to the Corpse Eaters' tower, where their shamans waited for their tribe to enter. But the cursed red mist was shrinking, and the tower's outline was becoming increasingly blurred. She knew that the tower would soon disappear, along with the beastmen within, and the rest would perish in the abyss. Could she still make it? It seemed impossible. So what had she come here for?

She looked down at the hybrid, its face stained with blood. It held a small dagger it had found from nowhere and swung it forward, imitating her movements, gesturing for her to flee with it, as if it could represent and conceal her true identity. For a moment, she was at a loss for words, as if she had inexplicably gained a swordsmanship student.

what am i doing?

Altinya shook her head. The bastard must have bewitched her soul before his death. She paused, grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck, and stared at the distant tower of corpse eaters. She lifted the creature up with her arms. Escape was impossible, but if she threw it...

Chapter 334 Some Thinking is Meaningless

Suddenly, a series of sharp howls erupted from behind Altinya, some of them particularly piercing. For a moment, she couldn't even stand, and she had to hold onto the tilted tower wall to avoid falling. She felt dizzy, confused as to where the alarming noises came from.

At this moment, she caught a glimpse of a shadow flying towards her from the sky behind her, hovering in the darkness far away from her. It was Trisius, who was still conscious for some time.

Altinya watched as the cursed black dragon spread its wings, its body and spine arching backwards as if it had become a drawn longbow. The black mist that filled the sky collapsed toward its gaping maw, converging into a shrill vortex that grew larger and denser, hanging high in its chest like an incredible spear of energy...

The direction was towards her.

The wind swept in, piercing the sky with a shrill roar, piercing the earth and smashing the towers of the Ghoul's lairs in half, crumbling and breaking them into foul clouds of smoke. Before the towers could even crash to the ground, the pitch-black wind had already swept across the ground not far from her, blowing every Beastman in its path in all directions. The remains, mixed with the remains, were hurled skyward before they could disintegrate in the abyss. The bodies crumbled in mid-air, turning into a black goo, like grease and coal scattered in mid-air.

She lowered her head, her gaze meeting the confused and puzzled eyes of the young hybrid. Somehow, she suddenly felt that it was the reason for her to make a decision.

By now, all she needed was some reason, even the smallest one.

Then, under the surging tide, everything turned into shadows in the darkness.

......

The appearance of a ray of light in the endless darkness would be comforting, but Cesar found it too pale, and the face behind it even more unsettling.

"I don't know the meaning of your appearance here, sir. Haven't you already completed what you wanted to do?" Cesar said to it.

The ethereal dragon head hovered in the dim light, resembling a mask. "That's exactly what I wanted to tell you, Cesar. Your work is complete. Fate has already fallen upon the two who have accepted the fragments of the abyss. It would be unwise to interfere."

Cesar knew Zavulon had come here to stall for time, and it was distracting him. He was running out of time. The evil dragon crouched above the corpse-eater's lair, and a vast darkness gathered around it, its momentum growing ever more formidable. He felt that Altinia was already standing on the edge of the abyss, and he needed to reach her quickly.

But as he walked forward, the library owner hovered just a short distance in front of him, obstructing his vision and causing his mood to fray with sighs of deep regret. The quicker he walked, the more it obstructed him, causing him to crash into a cliff edge and then miss a step, falling dozens of meters. He then realized that he had actually crossed the fault line from the southernmost edge of darkness to the northernmost point.

The ground was stained with muddy blood. Cesar knew clearly that no other creature's blood could remain in this place. He leaned over, reached out, and dug out the dark red mud, rubbing it with his fingertips for a while. Following the scent of blood, he found the footprints left by Altinya.

She did go in the direction of the corpse-eater's lair. Maybe she is now in the lair fighting with the evil dragon incarnated by Trisius.

"You could be more cautious, Cesar..." Zavulon said in a low voice, "Think about why she left bloodstains on the ground, think about what her appearance in the corpse-eater's lair means. You need to think more and be more cautious."

“Some thinking is meaningless.”

"No, no thinking is meaningless."

"Then why don't you just tell me the result of your thinking?"

"Thinking is only valuable when done by one's own self. Do you want to get the answer from me? I don't think it's good. Besides, you shouldn't trust me so easily."

Cesar quickened his pace, "Then stop covering my face like a mask."

Zawulong blinked and retorted in a voice full of surprise, "Don't you have a higher level of vision? Why do you still use your pitiful eyes?"

"Can't you see that I'm hiding under the protection spell and can only walk? I'm hiding, I want to avoid the darkness that is everywhere!"

"Yes, but I think you could reconsider what Diana warned you about, and think about what's allowed and what's not. She didn't spell it out clearly at the time; she simply warned you not to resort to inhumane means, didn't she? Perhaps the third perspective is simply a sense humans lack, not much different from seeing with our own eyes. What do you think?"

“I’m pressed for time and don’t have the energy to do experiments,” Cesar said.

"Precisely because time is tight," Zawulun winked at him, "you should try more methods outside the rules."

"If you weren't in my way, I wouldn't have to try!"

"Perhaps you could consider the following methods to get you closer to your goal as quickly as possible. For example, give your consciousness to the Scarlet Realm. The blood mist gushing out from it will surely help you resist the darkness. If

The Eye of the Furnace can burn them, so why can't you drive them away? There are many feasible methods that you have never thought of, such as..."

"Even if I can't stop Altinia from being corrupted, I won't let her and Trisius kill each other. I won't let either of them die at the hands of the other, leading to the unimaginable, Zavulon. No matter how far your plan has progressed, as long as it hasn't reached the final step, I will stop it."

Zavulon was observing him through a veil of magic. "What possibilities do you consider?"

"I don't want to think about it, but anything that happens naturally is something I need to hinder."

It laughed heartily, practically shrieking, tears streaming from its eyes. It seemed to savor an unusual sense of joy. "Your sense of humor astounds me, Cesar. It seems our Sister Mira has exaggerated her past regrets and blamed many of her misfortunes on me. But honestly, as a revered Grand Master, one who created a system of magic and passed it down to humanity, isn't the path your students take their own business?"

Cesar shook his head. "I know when to think and when not to, Zablong. Since this situation is your fault, I will ignore any attempts to persuade me to think, and I will reject any advice you may have."

Chapter 335: The Elderly Man Who Has Not Yet Grow Up

"You're too extreme, Cesar," Zaburon sighed. "Everything I say, you do the opposite of what I say. Is it just because I'm the one saying it? We once agreed to meet once a year after the war on your side is over. You don't need to criticize the sentimentality of an elderly man who is full of expectations."

Cesar did his best to ignore its words, the emotions it stirred in his soul. This old man was the complete opposite of the being in the Eye of the Furnace, and if he considered its words even a little, he would be dragged into the abyss.

Tormented by its endless chatter, he continued on his way until he finally reached the corpse-eater's lair. He first glanced at the dark fog-shrouded entrance to the lower level, took a few steps forward, and then grasped the rocks at the edge of the lair and began to climb up.