Shadow of the Evil God

"This statement..."

He took Diana's hand and kissed her fingertips. "What do you think of that?"

"Although this is an improvisation on your part, it does have some plausibility," she said. "On the other hand, did you take anything from her?"

"lust?"

There was a brief silence. "It's a mistake to ask you that question," she said.

"Wasn't my answer serious enough? That's not what you said last night and this morning."

Diana slapped him on the head.

......

The feeling of mimicry was truly eerie. Xue Gu, looking at his former self in the mirror, pondered for a moment who he truly was—was he the leader of the Corpse Eaters, or a thought devoured by the Corpse Eaters? However, he could not reach a conclusion; the philosophical knowledge involved in this question was beyond his academic ability.

He blinked, and it seemed as if he could see the rat head of a corpse-eater through the handsome face of an imperial aristocrat. In his previous life, he had been a cannibal aristocrat, and in this life, he was a corpse-eating beast-man, which meant that the two of them were one, indistinguishable from each other.

Thinking of this, Xuegu smiled slightly.

"So you have eliminated those of the Corpse Eaters who do not obey your will," Korini said. "The Maker awaits within the house, Blood and Bones. We have much to do for what is to come."

He turned and stared at Corini for a moment, gazing at her delicate skin, imagining the muscle texture and sweet, fragrant blood-red juices that would be revealed if he cut open her taut legs with a knife. He had been in this castle for two days, and it had been ages since he had eaten a human. He couldn't resist the urge to find someone to carve him up on the table—even if it was his master's servant.

Then he noticed that she had no smell, no smell at all.

She's a Holmmonk.

Xuegu frowned and looked away, not wanting to look at the seemingly beautiful Holmonks again. "Lead the way," he said. Eating this kind of food would be worse than chewing tree bark.

"Your likes and dislikes are quite obvious, Bloodbone?" Corini glanced at him. "I still need to warn you, Lord Thane is our most crucial key. Any behavior that endangers the order of Noyen will not be tolerated. Even stealing the servants in the castle is not allowed."

He smiled and said, "I will go to the north to hunt secretly, and I promise that the tribes I hunt will be enemies of the city lord Sean."

Bloodbone followed Corini through the castle corridors, engaging in a pretentious conversation with her while smiling at the shy maids who had seen him in the hallway. What a wonderful farm! Everyone was well-fed and vigorous, and everyone was completely unsuspecting. He could simply hold them in his arms, soothe them, and then gently bite their throats, without a single scream or disturbance. Unfortunately, this place was a perfect puppet theater, so perfect that he wasn't allowed to move a single puppet.

He stepped into the dark room and saw the faint flame of the oil lamp, casting only a dim glow on the desk. He sat down silently on the bench, reached out to place his hands on the pile of books, and slowly spread them apart until the transparent vessel appeared before him.

"So," the tiny voice came from the bottle, "you gave Cesar a farewell gift when we parted?"

"He was trapped in the entanglement of time, Lord," Bloodbone said. "I don't have the ability to interfere with the birth of Sky Lord Solaire. Even the ancient Chosen One, sent down through the Eye of the Forge, was shattered."

"Before their demise, the Kuna resorted to many insane tactics." A squirming sound echoed, and an eye emerged from the mist-shrouded bottle, clinging to the inner wall. "Even if anyone wishes to interfere with the spell that binds time, they must consider whether they can withstand the Kuna's final whispers before their demise. Cesar's fate is to become part of this ring of time. However, this luck won't last forever."

"Do I need to intervene, Master?" the blood vessel whispered to it. "Cesar is the sacrifice here. Now that the loop of time has been sealed, does that mean we can bring him back?"

"I'm afraid you're talking about that immature firstborn, Blood and Bone."

"The Firstborn can create a new tribe for us, Lord. Many beastmen tribes are still just watching. - Did you know that the ancient shaman never wanted to approach Noyen? Even if I invited him repeatedly, he just refused. I

I thought it must have become suspicious, realizing that Noyen wasn't what he thought. Rather than wait for these skeptical beings, we should use the immature Firstborn as a mother to give birth to a new tribe for us. After all, these remnants of the old era have too many concerns.

"I know its character," said the man in the bottle. "At the end of the last era before the Kuna people's demise, it was already full of doubts about the cause of the king's madness, and now it is merely a continuation of those past suspicions. It was once a royal priest, but its body was left exposed in the wilderness during the siege of the Frank tribe. It was then cursed by the beast and became what it is today. Just in terms of feigning loyalty, it is an entire era ahead of you."

"What about the Firstborn?"

"Now I understand. Sealing the Firstborn in a place where time stagnates was indeed Soler's arbitrary decision," the man in the bottle said. "She witnessed Cesar's beastly form during the entanglement of time, and so, when everyone was about to exterminate the beastmen, she arbitrarily preserved some of the fire. Of course, one of them did serve a purpose, but the fire she preserved wasn't just that of Ajeh."

"You mean..."

"Go there and find other sparks. If you feel you are not enough, go and infect more of your compatriots. You are part of the thought plague, and you know how things should be done, Blood and Bone."

Chapter 351 Ferriers and Solaire

"Yes, Lord," said Bloodbone, "but I think Phyriels has already been to the place where time stagnates. How could she have left anything valuable behind?"

"I can only guess at many things, trying to understand the whole picture from the details," the man in the bottle said. "But I'm sure of Ferrieres. She only takes what she needs and does what she thinks she needs to do. Everything else is as good as non-existent to her. You won't see greed in her."

"It's hard for me to understand, Master."

"Do you know the Record of True Knowledge?"

"Yes, I know. Those mages use them to pass on knowledge and call it truth."

"As you said," the man in the bottle turned his eyes to the distance, "apart from the records of true knowledge stored in the soul, the most common method is to record true knowledge in some medium, such as an immortal crystal."

"indeed so."

"Take the recent School Wars, for example. If you store the records of the Xisai School's true knowledge in a crystal, it will be the records of the Xisai School's true knowledge. If you store the records of the Yesterlen School's true knowledge in a crystal, it will be the records of the Yesterlen School's true knowledge. The two kinds of true knowledge are incompatible due to their unique characteristics. Once you force them into the same crystal, you will confuse everything and turn them into a meaningless chaotic record. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Master."

The eye turned back. "And you, Bloodbone, within your crystal resides both Bloodbone and an Imperial noble. The Thought Plague not only imbedded your two records of true knowledge together, but also allowed you to coexist without conflict. But what if the crystal were to remove all the records of true knowledge within it and discard them, leaving only the crystal itself?"

"I should—" Xue Gu was momentarily speechless. He felt that the situation had become absurd to a certain extent, beyond the scope of his mind and soul. "How should I understand it? Grandmaster Firiels in the north is the crystal itself. She took out all the records of her true knowledge and threw them away?"

"What she took out was a helpless record of true knowledge, a synthesis of a bunch of personalities and memories. This means...Firiels possesses a certain essential nature. The soul is an empty perceiver, requiring personality and memory to realize its own existence, but she threw away all of this and returned to emptiness. She is the perceiver itself. This kind of emptiness has no greed. If she does not need the spark of another Firstborn, she will treat it as if it does not exist."

"But how did she—" Xue Gu felt a torrent of emotion rising within his mind. Was he truly a man who loved to think? "Why is it that a being with an empty consciousness can still walk the earth? Why can she pretend to be a complete person? Please explain this to me, Lord. I cannot understand!"

The person in the bottle looked at him, seemingly surprised by his excessive reaction, but also not that surprised.

"Something has infected you, and you've become obsessed with it, Blood and Bone," it said. "Did you eat any philosophers during your time as a cannibal noble? You seem to have eaten quite a bit."

Xue Gu paused, realizing once again that there was something wrong with his thinking.

"My accomplice and I shared an entire school of philosophers at a feast, Lord. Their blood, flesh, brains, everything," he admitted.

The black mist in the bottle surged for a moment. "It seems I forgot to remind you, Bloodbone. Your thoughts will infect those mindless beasts, but on the other hand, those with more thoughts than you will also infect you. I hope you can still maintain your sense of identity, Bloodbone. If you are assimilated by those philosophers, I can only express my condolences."

Blood Bone gasped, struggling to fight against the philosophers whose thoughts were suddenly aroused by the presence of Ferriers.

"I will...do my best, Master. But what is Solaire? Why is Firiel allowed to walk the earth, while Solaire was banished to the Age of Gods?"

"The difference between Ferrieres and Soler is that she declared her non-existence to the world, and the world ignored her empty existence. As for Soler, she was just a mortal who looked like a god."

"Mortal?" He was quite surprised.

The person in the bottle didn't care for his reaction. "Soleil became a god only because the Kuna cast her into the entanglement of time, forcing her to inherit the body of a god. As a mortal with empty divine power, she can neither let go of the past nor break free from the shackles of time. The world banished her to the Age of Gods, and she cannot exist in the Age of Gods as a god."

"What is the existence of God?" Xue Gu asked uncontrollably.

The man in the bottle's eyes fell on him again, as if trying to figure out whether he was more of a philosopher or more of blood and bones.

"Have you ever considered," it asked, "that the gods can answer the calls of living beings in eternal stillness, precisely because their existence is completely unrelated to time? They answer the prayers of living beings in an eternal stillness without time, simultaneously answering the calls of all living beings in all history and all time. But Solaire cannot do that. She can only fall into eternal sleep in eternal stillness. She is no different from a corpse in the Age of Gods. In essence, the Kuna people simply replaced the gods' corpses with hers somewhere in the Age of Gods."

"So Ferriers...

....Is she truly becoming a god?"

The eyeball in the bottle shrank into the black mist. "If you're curious, you can approach Ferriers and ask her about the nature of her existence, what drives her and what propels her. However, I don't recommend it."

"I remember you taught her this technique, Master."

"Indeed, it was Ferriers who asked me how to stay grounded in reality after completing the Age of Gods Tour. I gave her this method so she could remove the bottle I was inhabiting. Theoretically, it's possible, but only theoretically. I didn't expect her to actually do it, and succeed. So, let me ask you, would you crumple up your personality and memories and throw them away?"

"I won't. I... can't imagine."

"Indeed," the man in the bottle said, "you're the one who, after losing your crystal, still wants to use your own personality and memories to occupy other people's crystals. You should be panicking, Bloodbone. The thought plague is fair. You've defeated the blind corpse-eater, the ignorant farmers in your territory, and your fellow cannibals. However, there will be others who will surpass you and take your place as the subject of the true knowledge record."

"I will make myself... wiser than before, Master."

"You'd better do something before my patience runs out, Bloodbone. The key to Thane is relatively stable now, but once the final step begins, once the reality of this place begins to unravel and the signs of fragmentation begin to appear, the temples will turn their attention to Noyen. By then, it won't just be the Eye of the Forge that's approaching."

"The Eye of the Forge... I still remember the shattered image of the Chosen One," Bloodbone murmured. "He finally gave up all resistance. It's hard for me to comprehend."

The black mist within the bottle stirred, as if finding the situation unsurprising. "A pathetic creature who sought to save his former comrades, but was powerless against the dead," it said. "The loop of time has closed, the last chance has passed, and no one can change Solaire's fate, banished to the Age of Gods. This is the madness of the Kuna people on the eve of their demise, the language of the dead they bequeath to this world."

......

After the postwar meeting descended into inevitable strife due to the simultaneous presence of mages, the temple, and the nobles of Duke Urbino's line, Cesar left first. This place was suffocating; the pressure of Duke Urbino's meeting seemed like a lighthearted farce compared to this. He excused himself by saying he was still ill and needed medicine, but as he stood high above, looking out the window at the hall and the dignitaries within, he felt he no longer wanted to stay.

The high priest who had gone to Neuen had brought with him not only his knights and squires, but also high-ranking clergy from their Grand Temple, specially dispatched for the negotiations. Judging by the leader's attire and appearance, Grand Duke Urbino might have even greeted him.

The Yesterlen School was also quite contentious. Diana's mother was actually present, representing the entire school in a discussion on the distribution of benefits, assisted by several other mages. Cesar had every reason to suspect that these mages could consume other people's minds as if they were books, and could tamper with their personalities and memories at will. If Ajehe hadn't killed the person who came to read his mind uninvited, that person might have been there too.

Although the nobles and knights of Grand Duke Urbino's lineage were at a disadvantage, they had heard that an envoy representing the Kingdom of Olidan was on his way from Anglan and would discuss the next steps with everyone present as their host. Considering the attitude of these knights and minor nobles, Cesar decided that he would still have to make the mercenaries his core.

At least before Altinya established himself in the north, he had to regard the mercenaries represented by Black Sword as the core.

"People expect you to be at the convention center, Cesar. In Fort Gural, you're the center of attention."

Suddenly someone spoke behind Cesar. He turned around and saw that it was Brother Mira, who looked quiet but talked endlessly.

"I got a splitting headache just staying there," Cesar shook his head. "I thought I'd finished one war and could take a long breather, but then there was another war waiting for me in the city. Can you understand that feeling? Every day after that, Diana dragged me over and forced me to participate in the war in the conference hall. I don't even know what they had so much to argue about. And, it's obvious that once the Temple and Anglan send more people, the war in the conference hall will continue to escalate."

Chapter 352 You are a Sassoulean

"Don't you think many people have been impressed by you?" Brother Mira dissected his complaints. "At first, people only suspected you were a Sasulean, but now they completely believe you. In this place, the School of Magic, the Grand Temple, the Northern Empire, and the Southern Kingdom all have many difficult-to-reconcile conflicts of interest, but you have the least, almost none."

"What's so special about the Sassulei?" Cesar asked her.

"Your facial features are very similar to those of the Sasoulai. Your increasingly difficult-to-conceal physique is also considered a symbol of a Sasoulai sword dancer. The indifference on your face upon returning from the battlefield is also seen as a reflection of your being a Sasoulai. They believe that you must regard death and war as commonplace, without any honor or pride. Furthermore, Diana recently dragged you to a meeting, and your emotions were also seen as a reflection of the Sasoulai's lack of interest in power."

"You know, these are all rumors."

Brother Mira stood beside him, overlooking the venue, looking like a sculpture.

"But they believed, and that was enough," she said. "When they saw you helping the princess escape the abyss, this belief turned into an inexplicable feeling of being moved. No other Frank or Imperial person would be so moved by them. They would doubt, question, and slander your achievements based on various conflicts of interest, but not you, because..."

"Brother Case," Cesar pointed out.

Brother Mira remained calm. "Indeed, during the war, the Templar who followed the princess slandered you. But now, all that no longer matters. Now, as a true Sassulei recognized by the people, you not only fit the legend, but also, just like the legend, achieved victory through the inexplicable fateful means. Aside from those like Clefas who have personal experience with the Sassulei, and those who revere Clefas, everyone sees them as a stereotyped and easily understood symbol, and you as the best embodiment of that symbol."

“That’s the most absurd part of it.”

"It's just that people understand the world in a way that suits their perception," she whispered. "The Northern Empire, the Southern Kingdom, the School of Magic, and the Temple of Hiel—these are all forces mixed with suspicion and conflict. Their complexity itself means conflict. The Sasoulai people on the other side of the abyss are just a symbol, representing simplicity, primitiveness, wildness, war, and killing. In you, all these symbolic impressions are borne out. People think you are simple enough, and it is precisely because of this simplicity that you are precious. Because of this, you are the best bond."

Cesar stared at her calm face. "It's hard for me to understand whether you are belittling me or praising me, Brother Mira."

She shook her head slightly. "I'm only stating the facts and the current situation, Cesar. Humans instinctively resist and doubt complex things, but you have become a symbol of war, simple and easy to understand. Your actions since returning to the fortress with the symbol of victory have proven that you are a true Sasoulai. In my opinion, you are firmly tied to victory. As long as you speak, everyone will listen to you first."

"Obviously this person should be the princess."

"Even if there were, it would be many years from now," Brother Mira denied. "Altinia still represents the shattered Kasar Empire. She can't coordinate everyone. Aside from the refugees loyal to the empire, she can only coordinate the minor nobles and down-and-out knights who seek to join her. And you, Cesar, are able to coordinate everyone here precisely because none of the powerful people present belong to your faction. In short, in the eyes of others, you're just a steppe person who came from afar, existing only for war and victory."

"You'll have to convince me to go down," Cesar said to her.

“That’s what I’m here for,” she said.

"Did Diana ask you to come?"

"I don't deny it, but I also have my own considerations," she admitted.

"What considerations?"

"I've already said that," she said, then added, "and what I meant by that is that my analysis applies to me as well."

"Do you mistake me for a Sassuleiman, Brother Mira?"

"I know you're not from Sassoulet, Cesar, but your existence is even less involved in power conflicts and interest distribution than the Sassoulet. In other words, when discussing things with you, I don't need to consider the forces behind you. If I want to convince you, I only need to start with the theory itself, that's all."

"So you think I'm easy to convince?"

"I'm good at reasoning, and people like you can be persuaded simply by reasoning. That's what I think."

"So you just think I'm easy to convince."

"Does this insult your pride, Cesar? That your rhetoric is of no use in the face of open and honest reason?"

"You had no insults earlier, but you have now."

"I didn't mean to insult you. I was just asking a question, and I hope you understand. However, if you feel I insulted you, then I apologize, and we can continue discussing this matter."

Cesar raised his eyebrows but said nothing. This guy only responded with slight nods and shakes of his head, his expression calm and honest. He realized that there was no lie in his words to her, and he was completely honest about everything he said.

For people who like to make public statements, it is indeed difficult for them to use their rhetoric skills.

His words were sometimes like sharp daggers, and sometimes like heavy fists. However, the sharp blade passed through her body like a calm water, and the fist landed on her like hitting cotton. He was very clear about this.

"Well," he shook his head, "what do you think of these powerful people down there, Brother Mira?"

"Everyone is caught up in a meaningless conflict," she said. "The fundamental reason they're here is because King Evered IV abandoned his domain to a bastard son of the Sassulai people, asking him to defend the north from the Beastmen and the Imperial Army. And you, Cesar, not only accepted this mission of war from which there would be no return, but you also miraculously brought victory." She glanced around the conference room below. "No matter who else was the lord, they wouldn't gather together. Even if they did, they wouldn't sit at a table to discuss the next steps."

"I'm getting more and more nervous as you talk."

Sister Mira glanced at him sideways. "This shows you understand humility, and you possess a precious sense of responsibility," she said. "Perhaps you can also see that these people down there are more than just proud. The prouder people are together, the less likely they are to make wise decisions. This includes Diana and Princess Altinia; they're all equally proud."

Chapter 353 I also have my reasons

"This matter shouldn't be so complicated." Cesar said to Brother Mira.

"You've made it complicated," she replied. "Seeking support in wartime is common, but the support you've sought is too special. The Grand Temple's involvement in the secular world is a clear expression of a certain attitude. Now that the abyss is at hand, these knights and priests have even more reason to remain stationed in the fortress area for a long time. They may cooperate with Sodoris in the south and gather believers and priests from many places. I think it won't be long before your inner city has a temple to Xiel."

"And the school of spells."

"I believe that in Olidan, the Yestren School is more than just a school of magic. King Evered IV would be very nervous to see all the Yestren mages disappear from Angland."