Su Cheng walked along the devastated street, where everything in sight was in ruins.
Aside from the scorch marks left by what seemed like fire, various fragments were scattered among the ruined walls, as if they had endured heavy impacts.
It looked more like the bombardment of battle aura.
The shops on the commercial street were completely destroyed. Scattered souls wandered the streets, pacing back and forth aimlessly within a certain range.
More ghosts, however, remained stationary in specific spots.
For instance, an old woman crying in front of a bakery had a severing wound on her neck, clearly having been decapitated.
At the entrance of the flower shop next door, a young person holding a child stared blankly into the distance. Their body was split in half, the fissure extending all the way from the head down to the thigh.
The infant in his arms suffered the same fate, slashed diagonally from the exact same angle.
It seemed they were both attacked at the same time by the same person.
At the corner of the street was a small figure, clearly a child, lying on the ground trying to pick up a toy.
A part of her head was crushed flat, exposing the flesh and tissue inside.
Beneath the child's palm lay a pile of faded fragments, barely recognizable as what might have once been a wooden pony.
Yet her fingertips passed through the void, stubbornly and futilely repeating the motion over and over, trying to grasp the pony but always failing.
Su Cheng heard crying.
The sound was laced with despair and pain, carrying a deep resentment that seeped from the cracks in the ground like mist, filling every corner of the ruins.
It was as if these buildings, walls, and the entire street were crying; the whole city was sobbing.
"By the way, how did you get in here?"
Su Cheng turned her head to look at a certain vampire. "Did you go through the test too?"
Sasha, walking behind her and also gazing at the ruins, nodded at her words.
"The Four Symbols Array isn't troublesome, and that one is an older version. Basically, as long as you're agile enough, you can pass it even if you aren't a mage."
He paused, a teasing glint flashing in his crimson eyes. "Oh, and you need a bit of reading comprehension."
Su Cheng: "?"
...She was completely unaccustomed to that kind of expression!
Su Cheng continued forward, arriving at the center of the ruins.
Here lay the remains of a temple.
The outer walls had collapsed in swaths, the decorations peeling away to reveal blackened stone that jutted diagonally into the ground like tombstones, with dark runes flickering within the cracks.
Dozens of statues were scattered about, either shattered into pieces or with their faces violently scratched out, making them look incredibly eerie.
Dense crowds of souls crowded the perimeter of the temple. Some were holding their heads and howling in agony, some were sobbing softly, and others remained silent.
The attire of these people was different.
Su Cheng narrowed her eyes to get a better look.
"...Is this the temple of the Evernight Secret Cult? Are they wearing armor? They are, right? It even looks like a standardized uniform?"
When she turned around, Sasha had disappeared to who-knows-where.
Speechless, she looked up at the ruins and roughly assessed the layout of the palace.
It was somewhat similar to the style of the Holy Church: a large outdoor plaza connected to the prayer rooms, while the interior consisted of a labyrinth of halls interspersed with gardens and pavilions.
She passed through a porch piled with rubble. The stained-glass windows on one side were completely shattered, the colorful fragments scattered like jewels.
Collapsed pillars lay in disarray, and broken wall chunks were piled high like mountains, nearly blocking the path.
Here, in the middle of the temple complex, surrounded by towering spires, was a solemn training ground.
A broken spear was thrust into the center of the plaza, its shaft entwined with dark red threads of light that flowed slowly like blood vessels.
In this incredibly dim and dust-covered world, that glow was particularly conspicuous.
A little further away stood many undead spirits. They were also clad in armor and holding weapons, looking somewhat panicked as if they all wanted to retreat.
These ghosts continuously repeated the motion of stepping back, yet they only spun in place, looking rather comical.
"What, you want to pull it out?"
The vampire's voice rang in her ear again.
Su Cheng looked up.
Sasha had returned at some point. Like a dog off its leash, he was bounding around beside her.
"...What?"
"That spear," the silver-haired young man crossed his arms, looking toward the blade in the center of the plaza. "I thought you'd be interested."
Su Cheng immediately gave him a side-eye. "You obviously shouldn't pull that thing. If you do, something will probably fall from the sky or burst out of the ground and beat us to a pulp—"
Sasha paused for a moment, then burst into laughter. "What are you thinking? Do you really think you can pull it out? Go try it and you'll see."
Su Cheng: "..."
Su Cheng: "You don't need to goad me, I'm not going to try. What I just said is only one scenario. There could also be situations like 'cursed upon touching,' 'plagued by nightmares upon touching,' or 'having your soul sucked out and turning into an undead upon touching.'"
She pointed at the wailing ghosts in the distance as she spoke.
Sasha: "Have you been reading too many novels? This place is clearly affected by a Time Eclipse Domain. You can't actually change anything here—"
Or rather, any changes made would quickly disappear, because the entire ruins were frozen in a certain state.
Su Cheng was half-skeptical. "What happens if I touch that spear?"
He spread his hands. "It should be about the same as touching those stones."
The silver-haired young man leaped nimbly down from the pile of stones and landed lightly. His boot heels struck a piece of gilded wall frame without making a single sound.
Thud!
Su Cheng jumped down as well. "What are you doing?"
Sasha walked toward the spear. "If you're worried, I can go with you. I know you're curious."
Su Cheng: "Wait, what if you—"
The vampire moved much faster than she did. He walked over in a few strides and casually reached out to grasp the spear.
Black mist instantly billowed and surged, rapidly swallowing the two of them.
Screams poured in from all directions, like countless sharp iron hooks scraping against their eardrums.
Then came roars of despair, the wails of the dying, and angry curses—
Those sounds echoed under a night sky ablaze with fire.
Su Cheng saw a burning city. Towering spires collapsed one after another, and majestic palaces crumbled and shattered, kicking up waves of smoke and dust.
The air was suddenly filled with the smell of gunpowder and rust, making it almost impossible to breathe.
Black smoke rose like giant pythons, twisting the twilight into a murky, dark red.
A legion of Holy Knights charged in from outside the city gates, riding ferocious sub-dragons. The cross-flame crests on their platinum armor looked as if they were burning.
The knights aggressively slaughtered their way into the city like a pack of mad beasts, destroying everything in their path.
Screaming civilians trying to flee were pierced and torn apart by spear blades, or cleaved in two by giant swords, splashing blood across the sky.
Those in the middle of the road who couldn't escape in time either had their skulls crushed by iron hooves or were sent flying by the massive bodies of the sub-dragons, smashing into walls and turning into a bloody pulp.
People standing at their doorways were casually decapitated, those crying while holding children were impaled along with their babies, and those shivering in corners had their heads smashed by heavy hammers.
Most of the city's defenders had already perished, their bodies lying over the walls. Only a few remained to resist, trying to buy time for the civilians to escape.
However, it was all meaningless.
The Holy Knights advanced at top speed. Nothing could stop their march, leaving a trail of corpses wherever they passed.
They headed toward the temple in the center of the city. Those towering palaces stood amidst the flames; even though more than half had collapsed, they still radiated an imposing aura.
Su Cheng quickly realized that this group of Holy Knights was not the first to breach the city. Their comrades had clearly already entered through the gates on the other side.
The temple was burning.
Among the layers of magnificent halls, the countless winding corridors and walkways were filled with corpses. The clerics in black uniforms had all been reduced to scattered, severed limbs and remains.
In the very center of the temple was a massive plaza. The obsidian floor was inlaid with gold threads, dark silver runes flickering with flowing light. Black jade pillars stood all around, their tops carved with sword-wielding warriors.
In this plaza, a few knights clad in black armor were fighting a bitter battle, surrounded by layers of enemies.
There were fewer than ten of them in total. Facing thousands upon thousands of Holy Knights, they did not retreat in the slightest; they were even faintly pushing outward to break the siege.
Battle aura clashed in the air, churning up shockwaves that surged like a tsunami.
These men were clearly incredibly strong warriors. The fight had only lasted a few minutes before the protective magic arrays on the plaza began to collapse.
The magic arrays could no longer absorb the impact of the battle aura, crumbling apart layer by layer.
Shattered motes of light drifted down like a shower of stars.
The obsidian floor shattered in an instant. The stone pillars were pulverized by the aftermath of the battle aura, and the nearby temple structures were sliced into hundreds of pieces by sword energy.
The Holy Knights encircled the plaza.
A dense sea of people surged inward, gradually tightening the encirclement. More and more reinforcements continued to approach; as far as the eye could see, it was a tide of platinum armor.
The black knights fell one after another until only three remained. Two of them seemed to be trying to protect the one in the middle.
The two exchanged a glance. Their faces were hidden behind their visors, making their expressions unreadable, but they seemed to have made up their minds.
Then, they began chanting a spell simultaneously, and red light burst from their bodies.
"Stop!"
The black-armored knight in the middle pushed them away, interrupting their spellcasting.
"I will never flee before these rats—"
The man said coldly.
He leaned on the long blade in his hand, as if it were not a sharp sword stained with flesh and blood, but a scepter held by a noble lord.
One of his subordinates swung his sword to force back the approaching enemies. "But you are still bearing the curse—"
The man, however, said no more.
Ignoring his subordinate's dissuasion, he flipped his wrist and shook the blade, transforming it into a long spear. Then he leaped high into the air, his foot shattering the air itself as a sonic boom rapidly expanded.
Dozens of Holy Knights in front of him were instantly reduced to chunks of flesh and blood.
The black knight plunged into the enemy ranks like a meteor. The moment he landed, everyone within a hundred-meter radius was blasted into the air.
Before they could make a single move, their armor completely twisted and deformed, crushing and mangling the flesh and bone inside. Shreds of internal organs rained down.
It turned into a hazy, foul-smelling mist of blood and crimson rain.
The black knight thrust the spear in his hand rapidly, the spear tip tapping continuously in the air, drawing out overlapping phantoms.
His battle aura surged, and dozens of energy blades blasted outward. The final strike pierced through the entire long street, reducing the clock tower on the opposite side to fine dust.
There were about several hundred Holy Knights standing in this straight line. Whether they tried to dodge or block it head-on, all of them failed.
Then, they were blown to smithereens.
The next second, the energy blade condensed on the spear tip suddenly elongated, transforming into a crescent moon that slashed horizontally. With every inch it moved through the air, it continued to extend.
In the blink of an eye, hundreds upon thousands of Holy Knights in the vicinity were sliced in half at the waist. Like photographs torn down the middle, their upper and lower bodies were misaligned.
This man's attack speed was simply too fast.
As everyone knew, the combat power of the Church's Holy Knights lay not only in their own battle aura but also in the fact that they could all use holy magic.
These people could all heal themselves.
However, facing an opponent of this caliber, they had absolutely no time to react before being killed in a single strike.
Countless corpses and bones piled up, as bloody and terrifying as a slaughterhouse.
Suddenly, a streak of platinum light and flame sped over from the distance.
The black knight spun around and raised his arm, catching the blade of light with one hand, and fiercely hurled it back.
The white flame pierced through dozens of Holy Knights like a shooting star.
After that, the light flame continued to speed forward without losing momentum. Any Holy Knight who failed to dodge died upon contact.
Their bodies, reinforced by battle aura, appeared incredibly fragile at this moment.
The light flame finally crashed in the distance. Behind the layers of buildings on the commercial street, it exploded into a dazzling ball of fireworks.
The black knight stood proudly amidst the mountain of corpses and sea of blood.
Within several hundred meters around him, there was almost not a single living creature left.
Only one Holy Knight, dressed as a legion commander, was left trembling as he gripped his sword and shield, seemingly still wanting to fight.
With a sweep of the spear tip in his hand, the black knight accurately pierced the man's knees and severed the tendons in his hands and feet.
The legion commander fell to his knees before him.
The black knight looked down at the enemy in front of him, seemingly disdaining even to speak, and waved his hand to sever the man's head.
The headless corpse maintained its kneeling posture, remaining motionless in place.
"...Trash."
The black knight crushed the head beneath his foot. He walked forward carrying his spear, but after a few steps, he suddenly stopped, his tall body trembling slightly.
He seemed to be desperately enduring something.
"Despicable—"
The black knight's hands shook violently, to the point where he could no longer hold his spear. His originally straight spine could not help but bend, and finally, he dropped to one knee.
A soft sigh echoed from ahead.
"Your Excellency—"
Another figure walked out from the sea of blood, stopping a few steps in front of the black knight.
"This was merely a move born of necessity. After all, at your peak, even an army of millions could only wait to be slaughtered by you—"
The person smiled. "His brand is still upon you. As long as you are willing to submit, the power stripped from you by the curse will return."
He paused for a moment. "You know that in this contest, all boundaries have blurred. Nobility and baseness are nothing but footnotes written by the victors."
The person lowered his eyes to look at the black knight and continued, "Everyone is well aware that if judged by universal moral standards, both you and we have done many terrible things. But ultimately, how we are judged depends solely on who can win this war."
The black knight knelt on one knee on the ground. "You—"
Before he could finish his words, he howled in agony as if tortured by some unseen force. His helmet rolled to the side, revealing silver hair as white as frost and snow.
Those curly locks, flowing like moonlight, were stained with blood and draped messily over his broad shoulders.
His armor burned in the platinum light and flame, and his body was corroded in the fire along with it. His sturdy muscles and bones, once protected by his battle aura, were quickly engulfed.
The man's body became battered and broken, his limbs, chest, and abdomen mostly devoured by the holy fire.
"With just a single thought," the onlooker said softly, "you can return to your peak. No, you will be even stronger than that."
The black knight did not speak.
He could no longer maintain his kneeling posture. He propped both hands in front of him, barely keeping himself from collapsing completely onto the ground.
"...Ha, hahahahahaha—"
He suddenly began to laugh.
"You want to conquer this continent, but Mitheros will never belong to you—"
The laughter sounded both frantic and joyful.
He picked up the gunblade that had rolled to the side and slammed it into the ground. Countless intricate incantations surged forth, expanding outward in overlapping layers.
Innumerable magic circles materialized in the air, interlocking and nesting within each other, merging at an incredible speed to form a colossal domain.
"This is my land, and I am the law."
A dark red light spread out like ripples, covering the entire city.
The ground began to tremble. Shattered bricks and stones slowly rose, levitating in mid-air.
The sky seemed to tear apart, and the clouds twisted into a vortex. Blood-red runes emerged in the void, winding around the city's borders like chains.
Time seemed to stand still.
Burning flames froze in the moment of their flicker, and splashing blood stagnated into a crimson curtain of beads.
The reinforcing holy knights arrived from afar, their charging motions frozen the instant they lifted their feet.
"Even you—"
The dark knight pointed the tip of his spear toward the sky. "■■■■■, you will never make me yield—"
The few people around him quickly retreated, but it was too late. They were all forcibly frozen by that power, their bodies brutally crushed and their souls extracted.
A tangible wave of power shook the entire city.
"..."
When Su Cheng woke up, the small town outside the window had fallen into twilight. Orange-red clouds burned in the sky, reflecting a rosy hue onto the river winding through the mountains.
She blinked, looking at the half-open window in the room and the bed curtains fluttering in the warm breeze as her memories gradually returned.
"How did you sleep?"
A dark shadow swooped close from above, and the mattress suddenly sank.
The silver-haired youth walked over silently and sat on the edge of the bed. Resting one hand beside her face, he lowered his head to stare into her eyes.
Su Cheng shifted to the side, then rolled over and sat up. "We're back in town? You brought me back? Where did those two go?"
Sasha glanced at her. "You passed out, so I brought you back first. As for those two, they have their own ideas."
"...Alright, thank you."
Su Cheng checked herself and found that both her battle aura and magic power were flowing smoothly. The mental energy she had depleted from viewing those memories was also mostly recovered.
She tried to organize the various pieces of information. "You said before that the temple in Mitheros once belonged to the Evernight Cult, so that battle was actually an invasion by the Church's holy knights who wanted to seize that territory, right? And that man... that man used to be the lord of Mitheros. He became a follower of the Dark God and a core figure in the Evernight Cult, then returned to his own territory years later, um, to heal his injuries?"
"Obviously," Sasha revealed a mocking expression. "Someone cursed him, so he couldn't unleash his true power in battle. He either had to surrender to lift the curse, or die a humiliating death, not even able to die a glorious death in battle. Hah, even though I don't really like the guy, I have to admit he was pretty unlucky."
Su Cheng couldn't help but look at him sideways.
His tone was a bit strange.
Su Cheng: "You don't like him? Do you mean you don't like him the way one dislikes a historical figure? Or did you actually know him? When he was alive? He lived at least a thousand years ago, right? Are you over a thousand years old?"
Sasha hesitated to speak. "Actually, the Captain doesn't really like these people either."
Su Cheng: "?"
Su Cheng: "I remember the Captain saying he was a bit older than the rest of you. Hmm, no wonder he's so steady and mature."
Sasha: "???"
Sasha: "............"
