Elden Clergyman

And now...

He glanced at Lord, who was eager to say something.

He looked at Latan, who was standing there with his arms folded, looking at him with interest and wanting to say something.

Markete's head began to hurt.

He would rather be beaten to death by these two people on the spot than communicate with them at the same time.

"...I want to talk to General Starbreaker about something."

After a moment's thought, Market decided it would be safer to talk to Shatterstar.

Lord on the side felt a little sorry, but he nodded and left.

Then, Market raised her head and was about to speak when she noticed the figure on Broken Star's shoulder.

"This is..."

"Oh, that pony of mine you've seen before."

"Oh, it's Mr. Xiao Ma..."

Malkit nodded, then realized something was wrong.

Wait, who?

Markit was stunned for a while, then slowly raised her head and looked at the horse girl on Latarn's shoulder.

The latter nodded slightly.

"Yes, just as you thought, I am the horse that General Shatterstar rode before."

After a pause, as if to prove her identity, she added another sentence.

"You gave me a stick once."

Market: “…?”

Although I don't know what happened.

But he was shocked.

......

the other side.

After separating from Lao Ma, Lord found a tree stump to sit down. After looking at the darkness in front of him, he took out a gray ring and fiddled with it in his hand.

"What is this, fellow man?"

Chaos came closer and looked at the ring in his hand curiously.

——I just don’t know how she can see without eyes.

"Nothing, I'm just curious about how to use this thing..."

This gray ring is the Spiritual Covenant Oath that Lord had obtained before, which is also the ring that can be used to make an oath.

But the problem is, although it sounds good, now that he actually got it, Lord found that he didn't know how to use it.

Because this thing is not a usable prop at all, but is classified in the valuables column. Even if you take it out and give it to someone, it will not play any role.

——At least the Alice he used to test the effect didn't work.

Oh, yes, by the way, although it didn't work, he didn't ask for the ring back.

This is a new one he got after playing a few more Master Challenges.

"Can you see how this thing is supposed to work?"

Lord looked up at Chaos, who observed the ring for a while and spoke slowly.

"This is a very solid, settled soul. Without a specific ritual, it would probably require intense emotions to awaken it..."

Intense emotions?

Lord thought for a moment.

"Does that mean you want me to kill the whole family?"

Chaos: “…?”

No, how did you get to this point?

"Well, think about it, if I kill her whole family, her emotions will definitely be intense, and then I set a fire and resurrect her whole family, the emotions will be even more intense..."

Looking at Lord who looked as if it was a matter of course, Chaos was silent for a long time and sighed.

"Fellow countryman, why don't you change your name to Dianhuo..."

"Hey, isn't that a reasonable approach? And no one will actually get hurt in the process..."

Lord shook his head and sighed, then looked up at her.

"So, why did you come to me?"

Chaos paused slightly, somewhat surprised that he could actually realize this.

But after she came to her senses, she did not answer immediately. Instead, she sat down beside him and looked into the darkness in the distance.

"My fellow countrymen, what do you think life should be like?"

"I do not know."

Lord shook his head and spoke directly.

"Just tell me what you want to say. I don't understand riddles."

Chaos was silent for a moment and sighed.

"I mean, do you think these desperate beings really became like this voluntarily?"

“If they knew they would suffer such pain after birth, would they be willing to be born into this world?”

Chaos turned his head and looked at Lord.

"My fellow countrymen, I know you have good intentions towards this world, but have you ever thought that all the beauty you see is built on the suffering of others?"

“Those who are persecuted because they are not blessed, those who have received blessings but are now suffering, those weak ones who cry out in despair…”

"Have you thought about them?"

Chaos stared at Lord, waiting for his answer.

Then......

"I've thought about it."

Lord nodded as a matter of course, then turned to look at her, puzzled.

"But so what? What does it have to do with me?"

After a pause, he looked at Chaos suspiciously.

"Wait a minute? Are you trying to use some kind of moral blackmail on me? Well, I can tell you clearly that I'm actually a Paradox player..."

What are paradox players?

Chaos was speechless for a moment.

But then, she shook her head.

“But even if you don’t pay attention to that despair, it still exists, and one day, it will burn you…”

"Do you know why Mad Fire exists? In fact, I was defeated and sealed long ago, but I still appear here..."

"I'm not just attracted to you, my fellow countryman. Even without you, I can still be here..."

"Madness and despair go hand in hand. If lives didn't have that desperate desire, I wouldn't have been born, much less appear here..."

"But the fact is, even after being defeated and sealed, I still appear on this land again and again, and even become more and more powerful."

"It's not that I'm so strong, but rather that the despair is growing thicker. It's those desperate lives that don't want to be born in this world, and they long for the salvation of chaos..."

But just when Chaos was trying to instill his own ideas into Lord, Lord suddenly spoke.

"You're wavering."

Chaos paused.

Lord turned his head, his eyes fixed on the splinter on her neck.

"While it brings you strength and shelter, it also pollutes you, right?"

"What you said just now was not meant for me at all, but for yourself."

"You're trying to combat that 'pollution', aren't you?"

silence.

"Ah, fellow, sometimes I really hate your sharpness..."

Seeing that he was punctured, Chaos sighed, raised his head slightly, and revealed the fragments on his neck.

It was a pitch-black fragment that Lord had seen before, and now, under the blessing of the surrounding darkness, it was spreading black lines around it.

The soul will be slowly eroded.

Although this effect is useless to Lord, it does exist for others.

But the situation on Lao Ma's side was special, Latan had just arrived, and these two people didn't have any fragments on them.

As a result, Chaos became the biggest victim.

It sounds outrageous that the fire of insanity is eroded by pollution.

It's actually quite outrageous.

But you know what? It's the abyss!

And because Chaos's mental state was not right to begin with, the erosion of the soul that was negative pollution to others became the erosion of humanity to her.

In fact, this erosion is not new.

But it started much earlier, when I met a fool, and it has been going on little by little.

But the erosion was so slow and silent that Chaos did not notice it.

It was not until she entered this copy and the darkness wrapped around the fragment that she realized the problem.

She is being eroded by human nature.

That's not something her fire can burn away.

On the contrary, because the Mad Fire was a flame born from despair, if she dared to use her own fire to burn this condensation filled with despair, it would definitely be ignited, but what would happen after it was ignited...

That's hard to say.

After touching the fragment on his neck, Chaos raised his head and went straight to the ball.

"Then can you let me go? If possible, I can provide you with some other help, very valuable..."

Although she came here in response to his request, this copy is Lord's domain. After entering, whether she can leave is not up to her own will.

"No."

Contrary to his usual good manners, Lord firmly rejected her request.

"And I can assure you that even if you voluntarily seek death, your soul will still remain here after death—and may even be more susceptible to erosion."

"Ah, fellow countryman, you..."

Although he had expected this result, Chaos couldn't help but sigh after hearing it.

"If you let me go, we can still maintain our current relationship. But if you insist on staying, maybe next time, I won't respond to your call anymore..."

"Then I'll go find you."

Lord looked at her, his tone serious.

"Even if you leave the Round Table Hall, I will use my own methods to find you again."

"Whether it's Nimgefu or Galid, or somewhere further, no matter where you are, I will find you."

"Then......"

Lord reached out and pinched the fragment on her neck. A faint flame shone on his fingertips, making the darkness above it surge even more.