Shadow of the Evil God

Even so, Cesar still felt they shouldn't go in. Any common sense would know that some places shouldn't be explored lightly, and even if they did, they should be fully prepared. He'd hesitated for a long time before Solaire's city, but by then, he'd reached a dead end, and the girl in his arms was deeply connected to the future. Thinking Diana might be waiting for him, he forgot all the fear and uncertainty, only wanting to meet her.

Thinking about it now, if the person from the past had not leaned on his arms, his fate would definitely not be much better than that of the monk who died at the hands of the knight in armor.

But now, Cesar went in anyway. The reason was that as long as he was with Sevra, he felt a strange sense of security. He followed her, crawling a small step behind her in the darkness, observing the crooked passageway beside him. He had only taken a dozen or so steps, bent over, when the pale green moonlight vanished completely behind them. His legs, from the knees down, were submerged in the current—there was no ground to stand on.

The unfathomable corridor descended, its ceiling low and its maze growing more complex. As they turned a corner, Sevra had unexpectedly covered the lamp with a cloth. In the darkness, she paused, and Cesar sensed a sound behind them. He also paused, trying to discern the source, but the darkness was blinding, and the gurgling stream swallowed up all the noise. As for the third perspective, in this place, all that was visible was complete darkness.

It seems that even if the magicians stand in the place covered by the tide of the abyss, they can only see, hear and feel like ordinary people.

The sound was swallowed up in an instant. The stream continued to flow slowly, and the corridor was still deep and quiet. There was no sound except the flow of water.

"I always feel like I would have turned back before," Sevra whispered. "How strange..."

"It seems that Jirallo's sword is not very stable. We are still affecting each other." Cesar said to her, "But, since we have come this far, we should at least find out what's going on inside before returning. Do you want to go back and ask Jirallo to set up another sword to block us first?"

"You're such a good metaphorist."

"This is where I am better than you."

"Alright, consider it yours," Sevra said. "I don't need that kind of expertise anyway."

They continued on their journey, and by the time they were halfway there, Cesar had grown accustomed to the sound of the rushing water and the knee-deep resistance. However, one thing still puzzled him: why were there mines within the ancient tombs of the Kuna people? He had thought of declaring that there was no need to delve too deeply into ancient ruins, but when Sevra picked up a broken gauntlet from a crack in the stone wall of the corridor, he realized he had to ask more.

Cesar took the arm armor from her. "It wasn't just Firiel who came here, and it wasn't just a few mages," he said. "Sorrel? Or Milava? Or Firiel's sister? Any of them are possible. I've only seen this kind of armor in the ruins of Solaire's city. It's made of black jade, with delicate curved lines. Those who came here not only brought a team, but they also dug out a mine."

Sephora

His ghostly eyes stared ahead, "It's called a mine, but it must be more than just mining."

"If someone really released the unimaginable from this place..." Cesar muttered to himself.

"You mean it's not entirely Ferris's fault?" She glanced at him.

"Don't ask questions when you already know the answer, Sevra."

Her gaze was like a knife. "You know you're justifying her mistakes."

Cesar turned away, barely able to bear her statement. "Back then, Ferriers was closer to the Fils I know, or even the same. The Grandmaster of the Northern Empire was something completely different," he whispered.

"Someone has to atone for the sin," said Sephora.

"I'll make it up to her," Cesar whispered. "What she couldn't make up for."

"Whatever the case," Sevra nodded, "I'm beginning to understand why all these years of history have been shrouded in darkness. The Frankish Empire, which perished after only one generation, truly accomplished remarkable things."

They continued forward and soon found more armor fragments in the winding mine. Without exception, they were all the black armor that Cesar had seen in the city of the Lord of the Sky.

Chapter 369: Should we try to merge into one?

The corridor gradually widened, extending into a pitch-black stone chamber. Cesar stepped inside and discerned magical runes on the walls. They looked like gleaming metallic lines. Although he didn't understand the meaning of the spells, he knew that people must have carved these magical arrays during the excavation. As for their purpose, they were either to stabilize the geological structure or to counter unknown threats.

The miners knew the threats involved in mining this area.

Sevra came to the center of the stone chamber, reached out and brushed away a cloud of dust, revealing a sarcophagus. They immediately realized that this was a magnificent ancient tomb.

Tombs of the ancestors of the Kuna people.

Cesar approached Sevra's side, pausing for a long moment before the empty sarcophagus. Then, he spotted the scattered bones on the side of the chamber. Now, he understood what they were digging for. Considering the deep-seated hatred between the Franks and the Kuna, and their subsequent historical disdain, it wasn't surprising that the Franks were excavating their graves. However, the scale of the excavation suggested the primary purpose wasn't to vent hatred, but rather to search for remains.

The road beneath my feet smoothed out, and outside the stone chamber was a neatly arranged corridor of tombs. It seemed the rugged corridor behind was dug by the soldiers of the Frankish Empire. The reason it twisted, deep, and full of corners and forks was simply because they were exploring the tombs of the ancestors of the Kuna people.

Future generations will be able to avoid the trouble of taking a detour because of this stream.

"This is truly..." Sevra said softly as she stood at the exit of the stone chamber, "unexpected."

Cesar also reached the stone chamber's exit. He had only glimpsed it briefly before, but now, upon entering the tomb's corridor, he discovered its tranquility. There was no stench or dust in the tomb, not even the stench of wind or the remnants of time. Only a clear spring flowed slowly through the canal at the center of the corridor, flowing endlessly, forming a seemingly endless stream at the edge of the tomb.

The tomb was dead silent, with only the sound of running water to be heard, a sound much quieter than the stream in the corridor. However, Cesar still had not forgotten the previous sound, nor the shattered remains of armor in the corridor.

"We need Jilalo now," she said. "It's not wise to enter the Guna tombs just like that, but with the old man's guidance and my identity in this life, we may be able to go further than anyone has before."

"Is it really a good thing to go further than those who have gone before you in a place like this?"

Sephora smiled indifferently. "It doesn't matter what happens." She took out the sharp blade and said, "I just want to know the past, that's all. Now, follow me to kill the thing behind you, and then-"

"Then we'll go back to the campfire and discuss what to do next," Cesar said on her behalf.

"Don't interrupt me!"

......

They walked back along the way they had come, stepping on the stream and moving forward. Halfway through the journey, Cesar heard the sound that had been submerged in the water before. The sound mixed in with the sound and floated past his ears, making him feel strange and inexplicable.

Cesar slowed down his pace, trying his best to cover the noise of his wading in the stream. Finally, he reached the corner and looked out, and then he saw the source of the noise.

At first, he thought they were the cursed ones that had been seen outside Gural Fortress when the Dark Tide overwhelmed the battlefield, but then he realized they weren't entirely similar. Those outside the fortress were more like a suspended mass of murky slime, sometimes barely forming, but mostly devoid of any concrete form. The one here was different. Though it was pitch black, featureless, and its skin squirmed and twisted like boiling mud, it had a concrete form, a sturdy body and powerful limbs, resembling a crawling beastman.

There was a time when it clung to the top of the rock wall and crawled, and there was a time when it fell into the stream and swam, but forgot to remove one of the claws that was clinging to the rock wall, so a new one grew out of its broken wrist - it looked like a strange claw that drilled out from the dirty black mud. Then, Cesar saw that the claw that was clinging to the top of the rock wall jumped down by itself and merged into its body from behind.

Ripples spread from its back where the claws had landed, spreading across its body like a stone falling into a lake.

Cesar could hardly tell whether it was a viscous liquid or a solid substance.

But he immediately thought that if either Terius or Artinia were to be corrupted and then capture the Gural Fortress, the humans who followed them would eventually become something like this.

Cesar believed that whatever it had been, its sanity had long since been destroyed. Its consciousness and thinking were not only unhuman, but could even be described as chaotic. Otherwise, how could these creatures, both human and inhuman, endure the near-stagnant state of time, enduring the horrific ages that stretched so far into the past? Could it have once been a knight of the Frankish Empire?

Perhaps because he had experienced something similar, because he had sat in a stone cave in the wilderness for years, just to avoid the gaze of the eyes of the furnace, he could hardly help but feel the same. In everyone's subconscious, there are some unbearable moments of terror, and for him, this unbearable passage of time was one of them.

During this long period of time, people's sanity will be destroyed and their consciousness will no longer be like that of humans.

At night, if Diana had not sometimes woken up to talk to him and taught him some basic meditation and myths, if Ajeh had not laughed at him and scratched his face with her claws when he hugged her and rubbed her, if Phils had not always leaned in his arms to comfort him, he would not have been able to hold on.

That kind of experience will bind people like iron chains in a cage of nothingness.

Cesar shook his head and sighed softly. He saw that the thing was blocking the passage, seemingly with no intention of leaving. Not only that, it was also stirring ripples on its skin, emitting an incomprehensible, sharp noise. Then, strange noises came from all the branches of the passage.

A variety of strange noises rose and fell, some like inarticulate wails, some like the cries of crows, and some like frantic roars, finally converging on the ripples of the object ahead, which had gradually subsided. Multiple noises gathered in their direction, some even behind them.

"This thing has picked up the scent of our footsteps," Sevra stared ahead, lowering his voice. "It's calling its kind to gather and hunt."

"Shall we try to become one?" Cesar asked her.

"What the hell! What if I can't go back?"

Chapter 370: Soyin's Blessing

"I think the feeling at that time was very wonderful and intoxicating, don't you think?" he persisted.

Sevra sighed. "I don't think so," she said. "The intoxication is only temporary, and the aftermath is more lasting. I was living a comfortable life, and you poured a tangle of emotions and thoughts into my soul."

"I think it's true that you're living a rather empty life," Cesar said. "During this time, apart from wanting to drop everything and travel deep into the wilderness, I don't feel like I've changed at all."

"That's all the change I'll give you," Sevra said.

"I think the split of the soul isn't necessarily equal. Perhaps we both lack something, and we both gain something. That's why this happens when we touch. Rather than pouring out, it's more like complementing each other. After deep contact, the sum of our two selves doesn't change, it only changes in proportion to each other."

"I've never met anyone who speaks of deep contact so casually as you do," she accused.

"That is to explore the inner self and the self?" Cesar said.

“I have no interest in exploring my inner self.”

"What about our previous life and the other world?" he asked.

"Just stay here and keep nagging!" Sephora scolded softly, then leaped back. Cesar turned his head and saw a black, spider-like monster wading towards him.

It had no body, only a head resembling liquefied coal. No facial features were discernible, only countless black threads threaded through it, twisting madly like a swarm of nematodes. Four slender legs extended from its head, sprinting forward across the water like a swarm of nematodes twisted into a rope. Four curved tentacles waved from its head, creating an eerie symmetry.

Considering that the cursed people in this place were originally humans, Cesar felt that it was two humans glued together.

Those twisting tentacles swung towards them with a sound like a whip lashing, shattering the rock walls on both sides and above their heads, not only sending debris flying but also blocking all the gaps for them to dodge.

Sevra leaped into the air, twisting her body in a movement so bizarre it was hard to describe, like a strange dance. Cesar thought the gaps were impenetrable, but she slipped through them in an instant, swinging her blade in a zigzag arc. The dagger was unassuming, but in her hands it felt incredibly sharp. The sight of it stung. A single blow severed its limbs and shattered its head.

Cesar saw that the various shapes were gathering together, as if to say that the number of victims here was astonishingly large. It was very likely that the excavators had disturbed something in the tomb while digging, and then they were all cursed and trapped here in an unprecedented disaster.

He had experienced the Kuna's circular time spell, the erosion and assimilation of their residual memories, and considering their tradition of human sacrifice, he felt that this race was anything but good. In other words, the Kuna were only superficially kind on a personal and superficial level, but in many fundamental perceptions, they harbored a cruelty and brutality that transcended good and evil.

More evil monsters that had experienced the tides of the abyss appeared here, many even emerging from the cracks in the rock walls. Through their shelter, Cesar saw the broken walls and ruins buried there. These were stone pillars propped up when the tunnel was excavated, and some exquisite carvings could be vaguely seen on them.

These stone pillars are intertwined due to collapse and buried in rocks and soil, giving them the beauty of ancient ruins.

Cesar stared at the stone pillar for a moment, contemplating it. He realized that the carvings on it bore a striking resemblance to those found in Solaire's city. Then, following Sevra's steps, he picked up the remains of the monster she had severed and examined them. He discovered that one of the skulls bore a vague resemblance to a human face, even possessing a pair of empty eye sockets. Despite its emptiness, it was still closer to human form than those completely devoid of facial features.

Those eye sockets told him it had once been human, just like him. And even then, it still retained a faint remnant of human features. This suggested that within its soul resided something eternal and enduring, enough to protect its mind through endless time and endless madness—even if only a small part of it.

Something eternal enveloped a portion of its soul, dwelling within its maddened shell, like an old soul trapped deep within a body that was eternally decaying but never dead. As Cesar picked up its head, he gradually realized that, to a greater or lesser extent, these creatures held within them some eternal blessing, preventing them from completely crumbling and disintegrating, meeting the same fate as the soldiers outside Fort Gural.

Soleil? Soin?

Even though she has been lost in the Age of Gods, forgotten by everyone, does her blessing still exist here?

The shattered remains behind them gradually lost their shape, seemingly on the verge of collapse. Beneath those remains, Cesar saw light.

That light wasn't the pale green moonlight of this place, nor the crimson magic fire of the Xisai School, nor the sacred golden light, nor even the dazzling white sunlight—it was the deep blue of stardust. He realized it was a luminous mist, almost impossible to tell how far away it was, and it had no specific shape. For a while, the mist seemed to flicker right before his eyes, and for a while, it seemed out of reach.

Like a vague and unreal hope.

The experience in the circular time has always been in his heart, and he feels melancholy every time he thinks about it. When he thinks that the traces of her existence still exist after so many years, he suddenly doesn't care about anything else.

"Where are you going?" Sevra shouted over his shoulder. By then, Cesar had already pounced upon the star-like mist. Though the number of demons surrounding him was countless, all he could see was the hazy starlight on the ground. By the ninth step, he could no longer ignore them. At least twenty demons were closing in on him, surrounding him.

He lacked the ability to precisely sever heads and limbs, and he carried no sword, so crimson mist poured out from his torn face, carrying countless bloodshot eyes as it surged through the corridor, washing back and forth between the rock walls. They pierced through the roars and hisses of the evil monsters, intending to fill the entire corridor with the curse of the Crimson Realm.

At certain moments, people's perception of time and everything else loses its rationality. Those evil monsters, deprived of the blessing of the light mist, completely lost their form, first collapsing and disintegrating, then merging and intersecting, transforming into a massive black goo that surged forward like a torrent.

Cesar seemed to have been fighting against them for a long time, but it also seemed like it was only a moment. By the time he had pushed all the wriggling slime deep into the cracks in the rocks, the rock walls they had come from had turned into scarlet stone walls covered with red mist and bloodshot eyes.

He moved forward step by step, but a large number of evil monsters continued to rush towards him. Some of them looked particularly like humans, and even wore armor that was not quite human. They could actually wield long swords covered with slime to tear through the red fog, as if they were the knights fighting against him, the evil creature.

One of the cursed knights broke through the blood-stained wall and struck him with a powerful sword, nearly slicing him in half from head to toe. Although he was unarmed and his body was further torn apart, he still stubbornly tried to grasp the ball of light mist.

This reckless bravery fueled Cesar's steps. He practically dragged the cursed knight's longsword through him as he advanced. More evil monsters rushed over to kill him, but they blocked each other, starting with the cursed knight, preventing them from advancing. For a moment, it felt like a throng of people blocking the narrow entrance to the mall.

Cesar used the sword lodged in his body to swipe away a beast-like monster, and then a mass of slender limbs entwined his right arm. The mist of light was already close at hand, shimmering with hazy starlight. He didn't consider the point of grasping it. He simply stretched out his arm, ignoring the growing entanglement of wriggling limbs, and grasped it. In his palm was the crystal-like pocket arrow that Soin had given him.

At that moment, as if tinged with the radiance of life, the crystal arrow first absorbed the light mist, and then a deep blue starlight burst out, just like the trail left by the arrow that pierced the Eye of the Furnace, filling the dark corridor. All the black monsters stopped, and some of the amorphous slime that had lost the light mist were turned around by their original compatriots and quickly suppressed.

Cesar clutched the arrow against his chest as he watched the cursed creatures, blessed by Soler, retreat. They retreated at least five steps away from him before kneeling in the stream, their faces pressed to the ground. The passage, which had been filled with terrifying roars just moments before, fell silent, just as it had been when they had entered. Only the gurgling stream whispered past the kneeling monsters.

As he slowly stepped forward, the demons gazed up at the star-lit arrow in his hand, motionless. He now fully understood their existence and everything about them, their eternal struggle. Their blessed parts protected their souls, allowing them to endure the baptism of the abyss's tides and remain immortal, but their minds and sanity were warped and twisted, and only the whispers of the goddess remained within their souls.

In these cursed and blessed monsters, Cesar saw both Soin and the traces she had left behind, as well as the torment left behind by the ancient dynasty. Compared to those who had completely perished in the tides of the abyss, those who wandered forever with eternal blessings filled him with more melancholy.

In other words, compared to complete despair, this slim hope is actually more uncomfortable... Now that the amulet is shining again, does it mean that he is one step closer to finding her?

Chapter 371 I have been very restrained

Cesar still couldn't forget Soin. He couldn't forget her eyes, filled with words, when they parted, the look that seemed to say everything was destined, nor could he forget the promise he'd made. Soin was gone, but she was always there. Not only would she live on in the Age of Gods, but this world, like human history, would never forget her.

He held the amulet that burst with brilliant starlight tightly, feeling both nostalgic and wanting to ask for her forgiveness.

In her youth, Soin deserved the best care, and after accepting her fate as a god, she also deserved all respect and love. But in reality, she only spent a brief time with him in her youth, and then she was forced to move forward alone, facing a world in ruin. After becoming a god, she did everything she could to bless, to save, and to prepare for all the disasters that would come. In the end, she was trapped in the Age of Gods, in eternal stasis, forgotten by everyone and all history.

Cesar held the arrow, feeling a sense of purpose that supported him as he moved forward. He gradually understood that as long as he explored the path she had walked, sought out all she had accomplished, and placed her everlasting blessings within the amulet, her presence would seep into his heart and remain with him.

Perhaps, as long as he found enough and the starlight emitted by this amulet was bright enough, he could use it as a medium to search for Soin's existence in the Age of Gods.

Otherwise, she would remain trapped in the eternally static Age of the Gods, forgotten by everyone and all history.

But then again, what is the Age of Gods Tour? How did people accomplish this?

Among those who have been recorded as having actually done this, the one closest to him, both in time and distance, seems to be Ferriers, the Grandmaster of the North.

"You're truly remarkable," said Sephora, walking beside Cesar and sizing him up. "Whenever you speak, you're always doubting or considering things, but at a moment like this, you just rush forward without a second thought. So, what's the point of all this skepticism and consideration you keep emphasizing? Is it so you don't fall too deeply into recklessness?"

"You know my habits very well." He shrugged.

"Memories are always illusory," she sighed. "The memories you gave me and the memories that the two-headed snake gave me are actually no different. Some things can only be experienced personally when you see them with your own eyes."

Sephora said, extending her hand to him. Cesar looked at her with confusion, but as always, she remained calm and composed, as if the matter was not worth mentioning at all.

He reached out to shake her hand, and suddenly felt an invisible blade slicing through his skin. It was so sharp that it barely felt painful. The crimson mist and black goo clinging to his skin shattered in an instant, peeling away to reveal his scarred skin. Despite the subtle pain, her hand, though delicate as white jade, was incredibly strong. Her skin was feather-soft, yet blood flowed through her, and he could even feel the pulsation of her veins.

This hand can hold a knife hilt firmly, and can also firmly hold another person's hand. It is truly a beautiful and perfect hand.

In a trance, Cesar felt that the sharp blade pierced into his heart along the place where their hands touched, suppressing the melancholy and strong memories in his heart - not soothing them so beautifully, but suppressing them with the tip of the knife.

But what if I face the sharp blade and move upwards? Will I be cut into pieces?

"Now," Sevra observed him, "what are your thoughts like? Do you think you've made my inner world more like you, or have I made your inner world more like me?"

"Maybe both." Cesar shook his head. "Do you feel something different happening in your heart?"

"It's been stained by the vague memories you threw at me, or so it seems." She said, loosening her hand and returning it to the knife. Then she walked forward, ignoring the monsters kneeling on both sides, which was in stark contrast to his melancholy.

Seeing Sevra's fingertips pressed against the hilt as she advanced, Cesar suddenly realized that it wasn't the weapon she carried that was special, capable of slicing through the blessed light mist; it was the constant nurturing of it by holding it. She lived a comfortable life.