Shadow of the Evil God

"He won't die," Ajiehe smiled at Aya. "You can even use him as a shield to block your sword. Even if he gets stabbed like a hedgehog, it'll only take a few sips of blood. Don't you have a lot of grievances against him? How about giving it a try?"

Aya shook her head hurriedly.

"Don't teach this kid a lesson here," Sevra said with a frown. "Give this thing to me, Aya. I've been wandering the battlefield for a long time, so missing an arm won't be a big deal. From now on, take care of yourself, don't worry about others, and learn how to survive on the battlefield as soon as possible."

"What a strict father you are." Ajiehe shrugged. "Can't you just promise to protect her?"

"Keep an eye on Jiralo." Sevra glanced at her. "We'll do it the same way we did back then. We'll open a gap in the center of the battle line and drive the wedge in firmly."

Were there other options? Of course there were, but this was what she and Ajeh were most familiar with: opening a gap in the heart of the battle line and driving a wedge through it with their soldiers. As for those complex tactics and strategic thinking, it was obvious that Cesar had taken them with him when Alante had cut her and Cesar apart. It was a pity that Cesar had been treated like a rag doll by Alante, never realizing how much he could accomplish. If not...

No, she shook her head. This was another Sevra's regret, not hers. However, while longing for his death, she also sighed for him all the time. The Sevra of the past was really a...

"This front line looks easier to break through." Ajiehe drew a line in front of them and to the left.

"Do you have this tactical vision?"

"What she said." Ajiehe said

The Faceless behind her gestured, "Cesar said he experienced a similar battle in the square. If the situation is similar on both sides, we can also break through the front in the west."

"I really don't want to be his vanguard," said Sephora.

Ajiehe smiled and said, "If you really don't care, then stop chattering here."

"That's not how the word is used," Sevra pointed out.

"I took this word from you, and I have the final say on how it's used."

"I don't want to argue with you anymore." Sevra sighed as he took Cesar from Aya and carried him on his left shoulder. "Tsk, so heavy... No, does this guy smell? What did he do in Remnant Memory?"

Chapter 466: This guy Xuegu has a problem with his brain

"What else can I do? That's a strange question." Ajiehe spread her hands. "If there's one thing that's most impressive about him, it's definitely his omnipresent longing. If you don't know what to do, just take a break and find someone to hang out with for a while."

Sevra simply didn't know how to respond.

......

"I knew I'd have to rely on an insider," Cesar said. After reaching the edge of the endless battlefield, the giant lizard once again carried them into the dark abyss, took the next shortcut, and strode forward along the road of nothingness with its sharp claws.

Cesar never looked back along the way, but Milava kept holding his shoulders and looking behind the giant lizard, staring at the Fran knight who was gradually moving away.

"Don't take it too seriously," Cesar kissed his forehead. "This is an endless war, and the only way to end it is in this tomb itself." The young emperor lowered his head, supported his chest, and said nothing.

The Road to Nothingness was immensely long, each step feeling as if one were floating in a bottomless abyss. The path itself was so winding that it felt as if one wrong step would lead to a fall. Cesar felt it was a series of man-made shortcuts, perhaps like the entrance tunnels carved by the Franks, or paths carved through the tombs by beastmen of unknown origin.

The veil of war behind him gradually dissipated, leaving only darkness in sight once again. This darkness seemed to oppress the young emperor, drawing him ever closer to his embrace. Having just passed the battlefield, Milava had regained some of the youthful spirit of a young monarch, but now he was like a bird curled up in its nest.

It seemed that as long as he couldn't find the direction or see the light, this guy would come over and bite his ear. Not only would he breathe non-stop, but he would also put his hands hard against his chest, trying to find the changes and rhythm of his heartbeat.

What is truly visible beneath this intertwined personality? Which side is real, which side is truly Milava? Is he the Emperor of the Frankish Empire, or a bird that seeks a place to curl up when it can't see the light?

Cesar had been deeply impressed by old Milava, now emperor. Thinking about it now, it seemed inappropriate to attribute his character to a lack of family affection, as if Soler had truly created only a tragedy. Hadn't she nurtured an emperor who undoubtedly ruled the Franks? If he hadn't miscalculated with Arlandi, who could say the Frank Empire would have been destroyed by the Casal Empire?

Yes, now seeing this guy who would dive into any embrace, he inexplicably recalled something. He thought, between personal tragedy and the tragedy of an entire era, Soler had likely chosen the former. She had educated Milava in her own way, turning a little bird into an emperor. Perhaps there was a significant reason for this—if she reached out to Milava, just like César had, even just once, this guy would develop an inexplicable dependence on her.

Under this incomprehensible dependence, there is a chosen one of Helgast, but to peel them off layer by layer, take him out, and allow him to stand on the throne of the emperor... it seems that relying on love and family affection is really useless.

Cesar, as usual, told Milava what he was thinking. He'd already been telling him all along. He took a deep breath. "Teacher! You can't just..." Cesar's gaze dropped to the slightly bulging shirt on his chest. He coughed again. "I'm saying... well, everything has many different outcomes. You can't... generalize."

This guy doesn't even know what he's talking about.

"Given your foresight of the empire's fall," Cesar shook his head, "you've experienced more and thought more than old Milava did at his age. However, if you continue to fall like this, you'll have to admit that your foresight is empty and meaningless, completely incomparable to the slightest bit of old Milava's personal experience."

"I need to think about it." Milawa said, and her voice was really that of a clever girl, and he himself was not aware of it.

Cesar took one of his hands and leaned him against him. "How can I put it? Most of the time, which Mirava truly matters only to you. Whoever holds greater power in the world's order is what matters to others. The power of speech, the power of thought, and the power of rule. With your personality, you'll only become a true Mirava if you convince others of your power and that you can bring hope. Nothing else matters."

"I just want to remember a few more things before I go out of my grave..."

Cesar reached out and lifted his soft black hair, then leaned down to his ear. "If you keep leaning on me like this, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time leaving my cloak, let alone the grave. Or do you really want to forget those predictions about the empire's fall and experience a path that old Milava has never walked before?"

His cheeks flushed. "I...I only have one way."

"No, there is another one, my little bird. Forget your empire and your obsession with teacher and student. Put on a beautiful maid's dress and skirt, call me master, serve me in my dressing, daily life and everything, and live another life with me in my castle."

His breathing was a little disordered, his clear black eyes were misty, and his heartbeat could be heard from the rise and fall of his chest. He really wanted to let go of everything. "No," he shook his head.

I heard you don't like servants..."

"I don't like poor people who are in trouble being my servants, but it's a different matter if a guy who could have been an emperor doesn't become an emperor, but instead comes to serve me in dressing, daily life, and everything else, and even whispers in my ear and calls me master."

Cesar combed the hair in front of Milava's forehead until it almost covered his left eye. His index finger fell along his beautiful nose and touched his slightly upturned lips. He kissed it subconsciously, and it seemed as if he wanted to bite it, holding it in his mouth. He bit a small piece of knuckle before realizing that it had become a subconscious action.

"That was just, uh, a joke." He looked away. "Wait a minute—"

"Wait till you become emperor?"

"None of this would have happened," Milawa said.

"We can wait and see," Cesar said. "How about we make a bet? When you feel that you are no longer the same as you were in the past, I will find a messenger to meet you at a place and tell you the knowledge you want to learn. If you are not the same as you were in the past, you will put on a maid's clothes and sweep the floor for me in the castle in my territory. If you are really the same as you were in the past..."

"I'll leave this condition for later consideration," Milawa interrupted. "Let's just treat this as, well, an agreement. If I lose, it means the Holy Father was right to treat you harshly. But if you lose, it means I'm not wrong, and the Holy Father is wrong. Wrong decisions led to the wrong Milawa, so they are both..."

"You're really good at finding motives."

"So before that..." The young emperor took his hand, caressing it on the fair and delicate cheek, and on the lips that were biting his fingers, "Touch me more, Master, and give me all that I will need in the coming years..."

As Cesar caressed the docile child in his arms like a small animal, the darkness gradually drew to a close. He saw the monitor lizard slow its pace, and a premonition seized him. So close to the end, could the other side of the shortcut be those unidentified beastmen? He couldn't help but feel a strange sense of anticipation.

They had been hiding in the shadows and driving him away for so long that he had longed for some blood.

The monitor lizard bared its sharp fangs in its huge mouth, then extended its sharp claws and stepped into the wall that was isolated in the darkness.

His premonition came true, a familiar sight that nearly brought tears to Cesar's eyes: the massive black metal restraints facing the tomb door, covered in spikes, wrapped around the flesh puppet's twisted face. Behind it lay a maggot-like body, its limbs scattered haphazardly. Compared to its rotten form in the real world, the flesh puppet in the Tomb of the Wise was more alive, its deformed body bearing more shrunken appendages and twisted faces.

But there is only one flesh and blood puppet and one corpse-eating shaman. Cesar would never believe that it is just blood and bones.

The shaman's first words were a curse. "Did I teach you to hunt in vain? Don't you flying maggots know that prey needs to be cut off limb by limb? It's fine if you don't skin or cut off the limbs, but you don't even have a rope?"

The shaman then noticed that there were no snake walkers in the area. "You brainless lizard, don't you realize what's on your back? Even hybrids are so stupid! If you dare to send humans in today, you'll dare to send acolytes of a false god tomorrow!"

When the corpse-eating shaman caught his breath and was about to curse again, he noticed that Milava had changed. Strands of white hair fell from his ears, telling Cesar who had appeared. However, unlike Cesar, he felt fear.

“Real, real—” it screamed, “Real dragon! Where did the real dragon come from!?”

Cesar glanced at the founder of the Yestren School. He remained silent, only smiling. "Speak for me, dear. I want to remain mysterious."

The Corpse Eater Shaman quickly looked towards the exit of the tomb, then glanced around and confirmed all the movable objects in the tomb. A large mass of wriggling flesh and blood wall was rustling at the far end, a flesh and blood puppet that was not only not corrupted but also full of vitality was roaring softly, a companion beast of a snake walker, a human who looked like a real dragon, and it and Cesar.

"I don't know who's in the grave! I'm just a road digger!"

Cesar saw it screaming non-stop, but its expression was not right, and he immediately thought of some of Diana's magic skills - this guy was using silent spells. It used words to confuse people, but its mind was chanting spells.

The Trickster Prophet grasped Alranti's hilt and swung lightly at the Corpse Eater. Its left ear froze instantly, shattering into shards in the icy wind. Meanwhile, frost swirled around the tomb's entrance, forming a nearly invisible, turbulent vortex that sliced ​​and slashed the wall of flesh rising toward it. The wall of flesh immediately recoiled, much as Milava had recently done.

"If you think of one more word of the silent spell," Cesar said, "it won't just be one ear that'll be frozen to pieces, Corpse Eater. Now I want you to dig the road to the end. Can you do it?"

"You mean digging to the end? My...my little baby can't dig anymore!"

"Your little baby?" Cesar frowned and glanced at the giant flesh puppet under the corpse eater. The thing was making meaningless hissing sounds in its metal harness. "Isn't it very energetic? It's much more powerful than those giant cities that are dragging your people into the fortress walls.

The flesh puppet is much more energetic, what do you mean it can't be dug out?"

"It's the chief! It's all because of the chief!" The Corpse Eater Shaman stretched out his arms and shook his head vigorously. "I shouldn't have followed Bloodbone. I should have left with our old nest! Bloodbone has a mental problem. It's been a serious problem for a long time!"

The Trickster Prophet swung his sword again, shattering the magical barrier the shaman had just raised with silent incantation. Cesar leaped from the lizard and, ignoring the corpse-eater shaman's screams, lifted it up—the giant rat was only about a meter tall. Then his right hand shattered, revealing sharp, bloody tentacles, riven with torn mouthparts and scarlet eyeballs.

A vast array of overlapping visions captured every detail of the mouse's expression, completely covering its compound eyes and every facial muscle. "It's truly remarkable that the siege has survived in this form." Cesar stretched out his right hand. "We all know that there are still many unsolved mysteries in that siege, don't we, shaman? But believe me, I bear no grudge against you. If you're willing to help me solve these puzzles, I'll let you go."

Chapter 467: Listening to the Unspeakable

"You've gone mad too!" the Corpse Eater screamed and struggled. "You also want what's sealed in the tomb! Both you and the Blood and Bones have been bewitched!"

"Maybe," Cesar smiled, "Let's just assume that we are bewitched. However, the thing that bewitched me and Bloodbone is definitely not the same thing. Since you think Bloodbone is bewitched, how about you tell me what bewitched it?" He patted the monitor lizard's head and knocked on its fangs, which were as long as a human arm, with his knuckles.

He continued laughing. "This thing carried us all the way, and I was thinking of giving it some raw meat to eat. If you don't know anything, I'll have to use you for other purposes." He withdrew his hand and tapped the corpse-eater's skull with his knuckles. "I see that you corpse-eaters are very rough in your methods of dealing with the dead, and I prefer a more delicate approach. If you don't mind, I can make a circle on your skull and use a sharp little spoon to scoop out your brain bit by bit and feed it to it. Would you like to witness this?"

"Blood and Bones will tear me apart! I've already given up on the big group, I can't give up on Blood and Bones anymore!"

So the Corpse Eaters did split up on their way south. The main group that attacked the city was the lair, while another group seems to have followed Bloodbone, taking a detour west of the Sanctuary Abyss. If Bloodbone ultimately went to Noyen, then why is it exploring the Tomb of the Wise now? For Old Thane?

This guy looked very scared of blood and bones. What should I do? Should I appease him? No, appeasement doesn't always work. I could tell from his behavior.

Cesar frowned gravely and sighed. "Since you're afraid the Blood and Bones will tear you apart, I'll do this first, to prevent them from actually tearing you apart." He placed the corpse-eater on the stone table, patted its skull, and then picked up a small ritual dagger from the edge of the table. "You even prepared a dagger for yourself."

"No, you are a prophet of the true God! You are a prophet! Where is your self-giving and self-sacrifice? Prophets will—" the corpse-eater kept shouting, but Cesar just put the tip of the dagger against its forehead, "You must know how the prophet of the true God should sacrifice and dedicate himself! Listen to me, you must—"

"Aren't you a beastman who pursues freedom and disorder? Why are there so many rules and agreements? You were giving orders to the Snake Walker just now, and now you are giving orders to me?" Cesar asked him back.

The corpse-eater struggled to raise its hands, miserably trying to push him away. However, the silent spells failed one after another, and a ghostly frost was eroding its flesh and blood. It was completely exhausted.

"It's an ancient...custom."

"I'm particularly keen on breaking old traditions and customs." Cesar slashed the dagger from its forehead to its ear. "It's like knocking down an old wall, like smashing a dusty glass window with a stone. Do you understand this feeling?"

"My bones are screaming!"

Cesar rubbed the dagger against the rat's skull, sending the sound along the bones and into its eardrums. It sounded faint to him, but to the corpse-eater it was incredibly sharp and piercing. Its screams grew increasingly shrill.

"I've always felt that you weren't treating flesh and blood with sufficient care." He put down his dagger and broke off a metal spike from the harness on the flesh puppet's head. "Look at this puppet. When you inserted the spikes, did you consider symmetry? Did you consider smoothing the edges? You didn't. So, as a prophet, I must tell you what is considered a sufficiently rigorous approach."

"What do you want to do?"

"Use a hammer to hit the spike against the skull. You can knock a small hole without creating a crack. As long as we knock it neatly along your skull, we can get a bowl-shaped utensil." Cesar stuck the spike into the wound on the rat's head and picked up a stone brick. "I guarantee that you will live to see the brain in the bowl in your skull, and see me scoop them out one spoonful at a time to feed this big lizard."

"We should talk!"

"This is empty nonsense. I don't think this kind of nonsense requires your brain, so I will keep knocking. I can keep knocking until you give an answer that requires you to think with your brain." Cesar said as he smashed the brick on the spike. There was a slight click, and a small gap appeared on the skull of the cannibal.

"Wait a minute! I need to think about it first! I need to recall what has been wrong with Blood and Bones over the years!"

"Of course, I'm very patient. You can think while listening to the sound I make when I chisel your skull. I will make it sound very beautiful, like music, which will make your brain more active and you will be able to think about anything faster." Cesar picked up the stone bricks from the tomb again.

"I'm already thinking about it!"

Cesar used his carpentry skills to patiently hammer on its skull, creating an increasingly intense echo near its eardrums. The corpse eater kept hissing and inhaling, but didn't dare move its head, fearing that if he lost control of the force, the flesh puppet's metal spikes would pierce its brain.

"I can give you a little hint." He pulled the cannibal shaman's right ear to the side. "When you eat flesh and blood, the nutrients in the flesh and blood will enter your mouth and flow down your throat. However, there are some things that are different from flesh and blood. At this moment, they will go up along your palate and go deep into a place you have never noticed before - just like the separation of reality and the wasteland. I chisel open your skull, and that is

To see this place you’ve never noticed, to see if there’s something hidden in your brain…”

"It happened in the north!" The Corpse Eater finally cried out, "It was in the forests north of the empire! Bloodbone became abnormal after eating a noble from a remote area of ​​the empire!"

It can be traced back so far? "What kind of noble is he?"

"It's hard for me to say, that nobleman, he..."

Cesar sighed and hammered the spike again. Because he applied the wrong force, the spike scraped diagonally along the animal's skull, making a sharp, harsh friction sound. It was irritating to him, and even more unbearable for the person involved.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said. "My hand is shaking. I'll try to hold the chisel steady and make the cut as smooth as possible."

"That imperial noble is also a cannibal!" the Corpse Eater screamed even more miserably. "He and a cannibalistic sect have been feasting on the people of the territory for decades, and finally devoured the entire sect!"

Cesar raised an eyebrow, "How did you know that?"

"It's... it's still Bloodbone," the shaman said. "Not long after he ate the noble, Bloodbone suddenly ordered me and some of his tribesmen to go to the noble's territory and retrieve his belongings... There were many books. As far as I know, Bloodbone didn't even know how to read, but that day he suddenly started reading books that I couldn't understand. They were written in completely unfamiliar languages."

Thoughts that spread like a plague... Cesar pondered the ancient legend Altinya had told him. "What happened next?"

"Then came the revelation from the True God," the Corpse Eater said. "You know our lair is enormous. In order for the entire tribe to reach the revelation, we only have two routes. One leads to the fortress in the southwest, and the other leads further east into a vast desert. After discussion, we decided to go southwest."

"What about the ones further west?" Cesar pointed the nail at the cannibal's rat nose. "Why don't the ones further west leave?"

"There are too many mountains to go through to bypass the Sanctuary Abyss! We have to abandon our nest to bypass it!"

"Did the disagreement arise at this time?"

"Bloodbone... it wants to abandon its nest, all the hybrids in it, all the towers, and all the tribe's treasures. Bloodbone... Bloodbone wants nothing in order to reach Noyen! The true God's revelation is for the tribe! What's the point of revelation without the tribe!"

"Then why did you choose blood and bones?"

"The Bloodbone...it has shown great knowledge to us shamans...it has great knowledge. I am bewitched, we are all bewitched."

"You were bewitched, so you think everyone else is bewitched?"

"What great knowledge! I was fascinated by what I heard. I don't know why I followed Bloodbone! It's terrifying. It knows what we desire most. Many of our people abandoned their nests and followed it. Although the siege was indeed a failure and we did reach the Land of Revelation, but..."

"Is Noyen, the Land of Revelation, not what you thought?"

"The prophets of the true God have given too much."

"What does it mean to give too much?"

"That city lord is about to become one with the great knowledge."

Cesar thought of Grandmaster Ferriers, "Does he still look like a human?" Why was Old Sean exploring the True God Ceremony? If it was for great knowledge, what would happen after Old Sean discovered that great knowledge?