Shadow of the Evil God

"I haven't said anything yet, and you took it for granted and then did the opposite. You really leave me speechless, Cesar."

"You don't have to think that my choices are related to you, Zawulon. I just know that the corridors of the corpse eater's lair have collapsed a lot under the bombardment of magic."

"So, I should describe our thought process first?" Zawulong asked him excitedly, "Then you can enter through the corridor?"

"Don't assume I'm an idiot."

"So, you're a smart person." It nodded and said, "For smart people, rejection is also a form of thinking, am I right? Since you are still thinking..."

Cesar's brow furrowed, unable to bear Zablon's words. "You single-handedly lured her into this situation, and now you're here, nagging me to change my ways? Don't you know what role a teacher can play when a student faces a life-or-death decision?"

"That's your sentimentality," Zawulun denied. "But I believe a student's fate is to be separated from her teacher, to stand alone in this pathless world. She faces her own life and death, and everything she does is in accordance with her soul's will. In my opinion, your constant attempts to interfere are what tied her to the stake you drove. Don't you see the marks you made on her neck with the rope? People must learn to let go."

"I've only been teaching her for less than a year! The ones who put the noose around her neck were Brother Keith, Clefas, and the chancellor and queen of the imperial court!"

Zavulon ignored his objection. "Then you put another rope around her neck, which she had just broken free of, and put it on her bleeding wound. If killing Trisius was her fate, why didn't you let her do it? She might have already chopped off his head, and now it's just another blow, but you insisted on grabbing the rope around her neck to stop her from moving forward?"

"She doesn't need to walk every path," Cesar said. He pierced its face with his steel claws and embedded them into the rocks of its lair, then leaped up to a higher point. He took a breath and continued to climb. "Some paths are smooth and unobstructed, some paths, after hard training, lead to hope, and some paths are broken and only lead to the abyss."

"Your eagerness to climb may be detrimental to your ability to think and speak clearly."

"Why should I think and speak clearly? I just have to oppose you."

"Against what?"

"I'm against you luring her into a dead end. I'm against you forcing her to choose between death and erosion."

Although Cesar's low, hoarse voice suppressed the atmosphere, Zablong was still surprised and didn't care at all. "Isn't she doing this for the success or failure of the war? Don't say it's all my fault."

"Then can you prove that you are not guilty?" Cesar asked it with a frown.

Zawulong was even more surprised. "I'm sorry, but what proof do I have to prove that I'm not a cat? Look, even you have no proof that you're not a cat. Let me tell you, some things can't be proven, so we can only believe them. We shouldn't be so hasty in intervening in this unavoidable and unfortunate accident."

"I'm almost there," Cesar said.

Even though this creature desperately didn't want him to get close to Altinya, who was making a decision, it didn't show it. It just shook its head and said, "Rashly approaching someone in the midst of a life-or-death struggle will often cause one of them to waver. At that point, if something unexpected happens to you, it's really hard to predict what will happen."

"Do you think I would stand far away and shout at her, ignoring the situation and asking her to put down her sword and stop killing her own blood relatives?" Cesar asked it back.

"What else can you do, Cesar? You don't even dare to use your third vision in this lake filled with abyssal deposits. You even have to climb to the lair of the corpse eater. What else can you do? You want to climb up that tower and chop off its wings, and then wait for it to flap its wings and fly to the top of another tower, and then you will follow it to climb the other tower? You don't think it will fly down to the ground and clash with this ridiculous big sword in your hand with its teeth and claws, do you?"

Cesar ignored its questioning and climbed to the highest point, grasping the stones at the edge of the nest and flipping over to the surface of its towering towers. He had not used any unearthly means along the way, so his protective layer was still there, tightly covered from head to toe in the film prepared by Diana. It was to provide shelter, but also to isolate his soul and thoughts, so that those floating around

The black goo couldn't detect his presence.

He saw Trisius standing still in mid-air. It wasn't even clinging to the top of the tower; it hovered like a white nightmare, without even flapping its wings. He felt the dragon was terrifying, but that was largely due to its surroundings. Without the abyss encroaching upon it, it wouldn't be much more formidable than the mimic dragons formed by the gathering of goblins.

However, if Trisius or Altinia were allowed to start from the other and kill off their blood relatives until the shattered dream of the true dragon manifested in the only individual that was eroded, things would be very difficult to say.

"You've really put a lot of effort into finding a way to grow without falling into eternal stasis..." Cesar said.

"It's unavoidable," Zawulun replied. His voice was soft, but every word was clear. "It's just the sentimentality of an old man."

"An elderly person who is not yet an adult?"

"It depends on how you measure things," it said.

The hurricane was sweeping across Cesar's path. He saw Trisius stretching his body like a longbow, the vast darkness gathering in front of his chest, forming a terrifying vortex that reminded him of the Eye of the Furnace piercing the city.

An unsettling shriek echoed through the lair. Even at this distance, he could see the dark torrent pouring down through the tower, sweeping across the entire area in front of the black dragon, blasting away rock and flesh, and lifting the collapsed tower and torn ground into the boundless sky.

The Ascension Tower at the center of the Corpse Eaters' lair still held out, but the hybrid beastmen who hadn't yet entered it had already been abandoned. Vast shards of skeletal remains flew into the air, rapidly disintegrating before falling, transforming into a black viscous mass. These were carried far away by the waves, becoming more amorphous masses suspended in mid-air.

Cesar noticed that the outline of the central tower had become unstable, flickering with a dazzling bloody light. It was obvious that the corpse-eating shamans had decided to abandon their lair and carry only the tower away. Although he didn't know the sacrifice they had made to accomplish this, he wanted to know whether Altinia was in that area - had she escaped all the way to the corpse-eating tower, or was she trapped in the area where Trisius continued to cast destructive spells?

The hurricane created by the spell's aftermath intensified, and the debris around him flew away, tumbling over the edge of the lair and into the endless darkness. The howling of the wind and the shrieking of the spells echoed one after another, as if Trisius would not stop until everything there was completely destroyed. Under such a level of destruction, even a person holding the Mystery Stone would have to worry about being killed in the crushing force of the earth's rupture and the tower's collapse.

"Can you handle it, Cesar?" Zaburon said sympathetically. "Do you understand the difference between reality and fantasy now?"

This guy's voice was not affected at all, and it was terrifyingly clear in the strong wind.

"At least you could have gone over and comforted her after everything was over," Zhawulong continued, as if describing an indisputable fact. "Instead of rashly intervening and dying yourself, you should have comforted her soul after she'd put everything to rest, offering her spiritual comfort and support. Isn't that what a teacher should do? Whether you believe me or not, you must believe what you've witnessed, and believe in their determination to live or die. Besides, now that she's facing her relatives with the resolve to sacrifice her own life, what reason do you have to interfere? No matter how things turn out under your interference, won't she be upset? If someone is upset, what kind of actions will they take in the future?"

"Maybe," Cesar said.

It nodded and smiled. "Believe me, Cesar, this isn't just advice from an old man. I've lived longer than your species was born, and I can see the many consequences of one thing. It seems many tragic disasters today are simply because those students had their own ideas and were unwilling to believe my advice. If they were all as good at thinking as you, at weighing the pros and cons of things, rather than just acting on impulse, many tragedies wouldn't have happened."

He closed his eyes and called out to the guy who had been watching him silently to show up. When he opened his eyes again, Ajiehe was leaning silently at the edge of his vision, staring at him for a long time.

"Personally, I hope you listen to it, Cesar," Ajeh said to him. "This is none of your business, and none of mine. The fireworks are nice, though; you can stand by and watch them till the end."

"The Corpse Eaters said that when your consciousness intersects with your other self, the ancestor they place their hopes on will be born. Every time the black-haired Ajehe landed on me, you took me to her, but I think, if we don't leave..."

"That princess learned her willingness to take risks and her inexplicable self-confidence from you, didn't she?"

"I thank you for taking my soul away every time to prevent this from happening, but I think since it will happen anyway, we might as well make it happen in advance."

Chapter 336 The Problem Is Me

......

"You get along with her much better than I do."

The raging tide of the abyss swept past Cesar, suddenly awakening him. The water was icy cold, carrying a chill never before experienced in the world. Then, black flames swept through the ruins, making the entire world pitch black and unable to see anything.

For a long time, he couldn't see a thing, and at one point he thought he had gone blind after a brief blackout. With the faint light brought by Zawulong, he realized that under the raging tide, the giant tower of the nest had crouched like weeds, and the rolling rubble was sweeping toward the sky, turning into a floating sea of ​​​​gravel.

It was the dark-haired Ajeh. Cesar wanted to say something, perhaps a plea for forgiveness, perhaps an apology. Regardless, this had nothing to do with her. She had gone searching and exploring the wilderness to free him from the beast's curse. Now, not only was he relying more and more on the curse, he also wanted to call her over to complete it.

He'd hesitated at first, because when the beast's curse was still intact, her jaw torn, her face horrified, her soul filled with whispers of blood. Only then, after she'd finally broken free, could she wander the woods and wilderness like a human, shedding the mask that had concealed her. He'd called her over, ultimately, for someone and something that had nothing to do with her.

This time, unlike before, Cesar didn't exchange bodies with her, but he didn't hear any more of her words. He only felt her mind seeping into his soul and flesh, just like Noyen was with him that time.

Although Diana said that there would never be no barriers between two souls, not to mention that he was a creature from another world, her soul seemed to have some special features. Even if she was just close, her mind would seep into his heart, bringing not only her memories, but also her personality and thoughts.

But weren't the two Ajehs meant to be united? Why did he seem to be the one receiving her mind? His thoughts hadn't yet concluded when the dark-haired Ajeh had completely seeped into his consciousness, filling it. It felt like pouring two different colors of dye into the same cup, blending into a completely different hue.

Cesar felt an indescribable sense of fulfillment. The interweaving of memories and personalities brought him no discomfort, as if it were as it should be. He knew there was an ancient lake surrounded by mountains, as black as the abyss. He knew it was a tomb for the Kuna people, where time had stagnated. He also knew it was the birthplace of the beastman Ajeh.

He learned about his other journey in another place, and also learned that the Kuna priest was not only the breeder of the two-headed snake, but also Firiel's teacher many years ago. The priest taught Firiel many ancient spells lost in the long river of time, especially how to perform the Age of Gods Tour. Thus, Firiel met Nauzog in the Age of Gods, and also saw many unimaginable beings.

Of course, he also felt his love on another level, tasted his desire, and couldn't help but be shocked by it, but like his own mistakes, he always had to accept them. Just as there are many contradictions and struggles in the human heart, the contradictions in his soul are reflected in another person who is not him, and the same is true for the other person.

Zavulon was unwilling to let him go. "Do you think I don't know the nonsense of the corpse eater?" it said, "A broken beastman soul. Even if you mend her wounds, she will be too weak to be of any use. As far as the Firstborn are concerned, she is just a newborn baby. You should—"

It suddenly stopped and stared at him. "Who are you?"

Cesar felt that there was no boundary between souls. His consciousness was like a mirror, and the black-haired Ajeh was standing in front of the mirror, looking at his reflection. Of course, the same was true in reverse.

He even lost himself in memories, reminiscing over and over again about how, during that journey, the mute little boy had hunted in the woods, bringing a beast taller than she was to him to claim credit. That memory was perfectly vivid, one of the only memories she had that was worthy of praise. To him, everything seemed exactly as if he had experienced it himself. It was truly strange.

Diana's protective spell finally couldn't withstand the scouring of the burning flames and biting cold, and gradually broke and disintegrated, but Cesar reached out and brushed across those dark waves without any harm. He grabbed a piece of floating slime, feeling like holding a piece of black silk scarf, the surface was covered with grease.

By the dark lake, dark-haired Ajeh had always done this, and she remained unscathed, just like someone strolling by a river, reaching out to touch the water.

"Perhaps the problem isn't with the Beastmen Firstborn, but with me, Zavulon," Cesar said.

"You seem more complete," Zavulon said in a measured tone. "Is that thing you summoned another part of you?"

Cesar felt that many inexplicable things suddenly had an explanation. He had always believed that the two Ajeh were one, like two faces of a single being. But now, he gradually realized that the beastman Ajeh had a different origin. She came from the past, not the present, and her history was far older than theirs. Instead, he and the human Ajeh were born in the same era.

Two people, or were they once the same person?

He did not guess this possibility because his consciousness was not continuous. His consciousness was broken in the village of the other world, and his last memory was

It was the little girl named Gouzi, who then woke up on the altar of this world. He instinctively believed that the two events were continuous, because his consciousness did not exist in between. However, if something else happened when his consciousness was disconnected, what would the truth be?

"It seems that you also have unexpected things, Zawulun," he said.

"Someone has deceived me," it concluded. "Someone must have deceived me. You are not the thing that appeared on the ritual altar not long ago. What are you?"

Cesar stared at the black goo in his hand. "We can wait until next year to discuss this in your library, Zavulon, but I don't think I need to apologize for ruining your plans."

"The two parts of your soul have finally separated," it quickly regained its composure. "Even if they are barely held together by a steel-clad body, they will soon separate."

Cesar knew this was self-evident. Like Firth and Ferriers, they had effectively become two different people. Unlike Grandmaster Ferriers, who still retained a sense of identity, neither of them seemed to possess a true identity. One suddenly awakened from the altar with a fractured consciousness, while the other, having lost all her past, was born and raised in the womb of a Sassulai woman. The ever-silent beastman Ajeh witnessed all of this.

Chapter 337: Trauma Inflicted by Analik

"It doesn't matter. Once our respective affairs are concluded, we will naturally meet in the northern part of the empire." Cesar said, "We have a lot to discuss."

"You still want to search for the darkness that lurks within you? You'd better pray that you don't fall into the same abyss as your little Ferrieres."

"I will pursue the darkness within us, Firth, Zavulon, and we support each other in this endeavor."

"Don't think you can control everything just because you've become perfect, Cesar. You're just relying on something you're completely ignorant of. You don't know what the price will be, nor do you know what you're using. If I were you, I would wait until everything is clear before using these things that are related to your own existence—"

The disembodied face hidden behind the phantom suddenly frowned, a hint of surprise evident. Cesar unsheathed Zablon's sword, which lay against the library wall, and grasped it through the phantom. He then stepped back, deftly retreating beyond the reach of the phantom. He looked down at Zablon's sword, then up at the empty hilt on the phantom's side, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"I guess you don't need this. Why don't you let me use it to end everything and give you a final sense of participation?" He said, and then pierced its phantom with the ancient sword blade in his collection, causing it to shatter and disappear.

At this time, another dark flame swept over. Cesar raised his head and saw the scene in the darkness clearly, and also saw the dark figure of Altinya.

She looked like Trisius. However, perhaps because she accepted it too late, too much of the Abyss matter had already merged into Trisius's flesh, blood, and soul, leaving little behind. She looked much weaker and shorter, and lacked many of Trisius's frenzied features.

He exhaled through his wolf's mouth, feeling the wolf girl Ajehe's presence in his soul. However, unlike the dark-haired Ajehe, she seemed to be holding his hand, offering him support. Perhaps in those past years, on the boundless prairie, she had felt the same way, wanting to support the other Ajehe in her own way. However, neither of them was good at expressing themselves, and their ideas clashed too much, leading to a natural resentment.

Cesar couldn't guarantee he could resolve these conflicts. Precisely because they involved another part of himself, it was particularly difficult. However, as long as he was alive, he could always find a way to do something. He stained the swords in the True Dragon's collection with his own blood, gradually deforming them, a dark crimson tinge emerging from the filthy darkness. Layers of blood clung to them, causing them to expand along with his swollen wolf-headed body.

The only way to prevent Artinia from killing Trisius was for him to do the killing.

It must return to where it came from with the same existence.

Just as Fils would perform spells so self-evident that they seemed innate, Cesar's soul also began to resonate with something he had forgotten. He remembered Fils saying that perhaps she had appeared in the castle of Neuen just to save him. At the time, he thought it was an expression of a love that seemed destined, but now he realized that her words seemed to have a deeper meaning than the love that had taken place in Neuen.

In the midst of all that was forgotten and lost, only love remained. This love was so pure and enduring, yet he wanted to rely on it to find himself, which was also an unforgivable sin.

Cesar could clearly see and feel the dragon tainted with evil, its long wings, its muscular body covered with black scales, its scimitar-like arms and feet, its dragon head surrounded by many long horns, and the growths of creatures growing from the back of its head, all of which were full of evil.

A poor creature who listened to the temptations of an evil soul that died in the abyss.

The distance between the altitude where Trisius was suspended and the ground was not far. He did not need to climb the tower, he only needed to jump once.

Cesar glanced at Altinya, struggling and spewing flames amidst the raging tide of darkness. He then tightened his grip on the greatsword, no longer fit for a human's grasp. He felt the aura of the Crimson Realm permeate him, enveloping him in a dark, blood-red hue. For Analik, the one who caused this world's split between reality and wasteland, for the alien god who inflicted this great wound, it seemed only natural that he would bear its mark as he passed through the abyss... He should not be afraid!

He discovered that what they expressed towards him was not assimilation, but resistance, a hatred that wanted to tear him apart. Even if they were unconscious, they still remembered the trauma inflicted on the world by Analik.

He leaped toward the mad battlefield.

......

Still not enough.

Altinya exhaled scorching flames from her mouth full of sharp teeth, like a sharp cone piercing into the fog, pushing the majestic dark tide to both sides and into the distance.

Trisius flew backward, effortlessly stabilizing himself in the air. He had already absorbed nearly every bit of the Abyssal substance around him. Even if she accepted the erosion, she would no longer be able to compete with him. The outcome now depended not on anything else but on who was the first to be eroded, who had first plundered and absorbed all the surrounding Abyssal substance. He looked down at himself. Not only did he have every advantage over her, but his body was even vaster and more terrifying than hers.

"Laelius told me..." He stretched out his scimitar-like claws, and condensed his palms.

A dark frenzy grew in size, and the vortex was so powerful that everything it touched was sucked into it, and was not only shattered but also cut into black dust invisible to the human eye.

"He told me to cut open your body when you are at your weakest and devour you from head to toe."

Artinia now knew that accepting the erosion was only the beginning, and her remaining consciousness was the greatest proof of this. Compared to her current state, Trisius was like the eye of a hurricane, causing all darkness to collapse and converge towards him. She was powerless to fight him, and even resistance was difficult. Although he was extremely slow, unable to think beyond the instructions of the fake Laelius, he could still kill her and eat her.

Is there any other way to save the situation?

Yes, of course, she could leap into the true abyss, into the scar of that world. Right now, she was just a wave of the dark tide, but if she entered the scar of that world, where the abyssal matter was endless, Trisius would no longer be able to restrain her.

......

A dark barrier marked the edge of the abyssal encroachment. Although it circumvented their protective spells, it continued to slowly expand, as if to encompass them and cut off everyone's escape route. Diana went to the testing ground where Fils was but found nothing. She climbed a distance before discovering Fils standing alone atop the castle, as if overlooking the darkness, observing the unseen raging tide within.

She was staring.

Diana could vaguely discern traces extending from the darkness to the outside world. She knew it was the corpse-eating shamans casting a teleportation spell large enough for her to discern. It seemed they had abandoned their lair, all the hybrids, and even the flesh puppets and corpse-eating warriors they couldn't care for. Therefore, they no longer posed a threat to the city. But the abyssal invasion was intensifying, becoming more intense with each passing moment.

This surge was unlike the surging waves she had observed at the edge of the abyss; it felt unnatural. It was undoubtedly being directed by the foul dragon incarnated by Trisius. If he had accomplished his personal goal and eliminated Altinia, his next move would be to draw forth the surging undercurrents from the true abyss, flooding more cities and wreaking even more horrific destruction.

How far could Cesar go? She didn't know, of course she didn't know. After all, whenever he embarked on an unknown journey with hope, the possibility of death ahead was far greater than the result of victory.

Diana was also sometimes numb.

She walked over to Firth and followed her gaze into the darkness. She didn't know what Firth was looking at, but then Firth took her hand, and her vision immediately penetrated the darkness and saw a trace of blood-red. The Crimson Realm, while also a form of evil, unexpectedly imbued the boundless, deep darkness with a touch of vibrant color.

Phils held her hand tighter, and Diana found that she was almost unconscious, with unfocused pupils and no words coming out of her mouth, just like when the residual memory of the Kuna people touched the mission of the residual memory.

Confused, she continued to follow Phils's gaze. She spotted a massive wolf monster, its armor ripped, darting among the wreckage of towers. It was undoubtedly Cesar. His body was now slender, only clung to a few fragments of armor. In his claws, he clutched a massive sword of unknown origin. His blood-red fur fluttered in the black tide, creating an eerie beauty.

Wherever he passed, the condensed darkness turned blood-red, practically radiating light. Even the suspended goo vibrated violently, as if subjected to intense stimulation and trauma. A large expanse of goo, newly transformed from the hybrid beastman, suddenly disintegrated, falling to the ground like dust. Then came the black goo that swirled around the evil dragon incarnation of Trisius. Ripples formed at the very edges, becoming extremely unstable.

Diana watched as Cesar lunged at Trisius. His greatsword plunged into the dark vortex, unleashing a violent tremor. Ripples spread outward, affecting not only the ruins of the corpse-eater's lair but even the inner city of the fortress. Before the soldiers, mages, and temple monks, the goo clinging to the protective spells shed and disintegrated, struggling like stranded fish.

Can't understand...

Of course, she also saw Artinya, but this guy seemed to have fallen into a frenzy and was about to take advantage of the situation to fly towards the real abyss.

Chapter 338: There is still one person to subdue