Chapter 421: Sinking in Desire (Subscribe Please)

Hah.

When Faau's blade pierced the throat of the last Miss Xie Shen priest, the light of dusk spilled across the church banner raised above Dawn Valley Fortress.

The blood-red setting sun stained the golden banner with a smear of crimson, echoing the sticky filth pooling on the ground.

"Ha… cough, cough."

Faau's expression was as calm as ever, but the weariness in his eyes betrayed that he too had nearly reached his limit.

He ought to have turned at once to support his comrades in clearing the remaining Miss Xie Shen lackeys, but some strange, sticky sensation crawled up the sword grip onto the back of his hand, and his steps halted.

Looking back, he saw that the dead Miss Xie Shen priest on the ground had somehow torn off his own veil, revealing a bloodless, pale face.

The dead priest was smiling.

That hideous smile suited his present circumstances perfectly, yet the mockery within it stirred anger in Faau's heart.

What are you laughing at?

What's so funny!!?

Shut up!

I told you to shut your mouth!

Don't you dare laugh again!!!

Creak.

He tightened his grip on the sword hilt, about to drive the blade into the corpse—but someone moved faster than him.

Thud!

Splurch—

The berserker's great hammer fell, smashing the corpse's head to pulp on the spot, splattering red and white across the ground.

The liquid splashed onto Faau's cheek, jolting his whole body.

!?

What was I about to do just now?

Desecrate a Miss Xie Shen priest's corpse?

This…

"Disgusting wretch, Miss Xie Shen's trash! Hmph!"

Faau sank into confusion, but the berserker on the other side seemed to feel that merely smashing the enemy's head wasn't enough, and deliberately cleared his throat to spit a thick glob of phlegm onto the corpse.

"Pah! Hahaha!"

After spitting, the berserker suddenly burst into a nervous laugh, laughing until he was out of breath.

"Hahaha! Cough, cough! Ha, ha…"

This two-meter-tall hulking warrior, after days of continuous fighting, now also looked utterly exhausted, breathing heavily with effort.

But compared to his weary body, his spirit was utterly exhilarated.

The berserker, bloodshot eyes bulging wide and crimson, laughed at Faau standing there in a daze: "Hey! What are you waiting for? Keep charging with us!"

"The enemy's lair is right before our eyes, almost there! We're about to succeed!"

"Once we charge in, victory is ours!"

Hm?

Faau froze for a moment, then quickly grew excited, shook his head hard, and nodded: "Huh? Oh… right, we're about to win!"

Yes.

Exactly!

Not long ago, they had withstood another wave of assault from the Miss Xie Shen Church, and even pressed the advantage, secretly tailing the panicked, fleeing Miss Xie Shen believers and pursuing them all the way here.

The tombs.

Very much the Miss Xie Shen Church's filthy style—classic hiding place of theirs.

They dug the corpses of innocent people out of their coffins, hollowed out the underground, and converted it into their hideout.

Those filthy wretches specialize in this sort of evil business.

And now, it was time to wipe this evil out completely!

The evil must be purified!

Evil shall be utterly purified!

When Faau made up his mind, the exhilarated berserker had already run off to who-knows-where.

"…"

The holy knight paid it no heed, drew a breath, and pressed on.

But as Faau strode toward the tombs across ground strewn with shredded entrails, he saw Priest Lawrence kneeling in a pool of blood nearby.

The ever-careful, kind old soul who always rationed his healing spells was now slapping Holy Light over and over into some knight whose guts were spilling out, completely unaware that the man's pupils had already dilated.

"Lawrence, save your strength! There's one last hard fight ahead."

Faau stepped forward and grabbed the priest's wrist, only to be shoved back by the other man.

Lawrence's nails scraped bloody lines across the back of his hand as he growled: "Get lost! Don't get in my way! I can save everyone!"

Holy Light flickered between the priest's fingers; the excess healing even caused flesh buds to sprout from the knight's wounds.

But it was no use—that knight was already dead; healing alone wasn't enough, they would need a resurrection divine spell…

Faau was cowed by Lawrence's intensity and instinctively stepped back two paces, only for his lower back to bump into something hard.

As he turned, the hilt of Novice Priest Danny's sword pressed against his lower back, and the boy flashed him an unsettling smile.

"Don't get in the way."

The youth who, three days ago, had still been vomiting at killing an enemy for the first time, now had shreds of flesh clinging to the corners of his grinning mouth: "You're blocking me from chasing down that Miss Xie Shen cultist."

Following the direction of his gaze, Lord Fa Ao saw a lame Lustful Sinner believer crawling with difficulty through a pile of corpses.

"Wait, he's already lost combat ability, we can take him prisoner."

Lord Fa Ao blocked Danny's weapon with his scabbard and said in a low voice, "According to Chapter Seven, Article Four of the Canon—"

Clang!

The sound of steel clashing drowned out his words as Danny struck Lord Fa Ao's scabbard with his sword hilt.

The boy's wild laughter, tinged with the smell of blood, sprayed onto Lord Fa Ao's face: "You're talking about the Canon? Right now? Are you kidding me?"

"The Canon also says that only by killing the enemy completely is it the most correct thing!"

"Now, move aside! Don't block my way!"

Facing Danny's furious stare, Lord Fa Ao fell silent for a moment, then quietly stepped aside to clear the path.

"Haha, that's more like it!"

Seeing this, Danny revealed a satisfied smile and strode forward without the slightest hesitation.

Then—

"Ah!"

Thud.

He was struck on the back of the head by Lord Fa Ao from behind with a sword hilt, knocked out cold on the spot, and crashed face-first into the ground.

"It seems you've misunderstood; I wasn't discussing this matter with you."

Lord Fa Ao looked at the fallen boy and shook his head: "Rest well here, leave the rest of the fighting to us."

Perhaps because he was about to face danger, his mood was somewhat irritable, his temperament not as calm as usual, and his strikes were a bit more violent.

And just as he dragged Danny aside to let him rest properly, he heard a burst of arguing.

"You brat! What are you arguing with me about? Huh?"

Lord Fa Ao paused, looked up, and saw Radley striking a young warrior who was ducking and covering his head with his sword hilt—just because the other party seemed to have whispered something in his ear.

The veins on Radley's temple bulged, and the edges of his pupils were tinged with an abnormal flush of red: "Shut your mouth! What the gods need are warriors, not cowards! I'm not your nanny!"

Radley and his nephew.

Although Lord Fa Ao was unclear about the story between them, the way these two usually got along seemed like uncle and nephew on the surface, but was actually more like father and son.

To make Radley this angry, the boy must have said something very excessive.

"Just because you feel danger and something is off, you stop in your tracks? What kind of joke is that!"

Radley widened his eyes and roared: "We've come this far, how could I possibly betray my Lord's expectations here!!?"

No warrior would not yearn for victory.

No believer would not hope to receive the gaze of the gods.

For these things, they would stake everything, even come to blows over it.

But his words made Lord Fa Ao frown slightly.

Hmm?

Because of this reason, is it worth getting this angry?

Isn't your nephew concerned about your safety?

"This…"

The smell of blood flooding into his nostrils turned cloyingly sweet, causing Lord Fa Ao's eyes to gradually unfocus.

"That really is excessive talk! How could you let a warrior shrink back!!?"

He nodded forcefully, cast an approving glance at Radley, and was about to continue forward.

But just as he was about to step forward, the long sword at his waist swayed slightly within its scabbard, then settled back into place.

Clack.

The sound of the blade sliding into its sheath was exceptionally crisp amidst the clamor of slaughter, causing Lord Fa Ao's expression to pause.

Lord Fa Ao instinctively gripped the sword hilt, and then his expression contorted.

"Hiss…"

Every time he gripped his sword in the past, it felt like holding a warm palm, but now…it felt like touching a red-hot iron block, carrying a stinging, searing heat!

Sizzle—

He suddenly lowered his head and saw fine, dense ripples floating across the surface of the drawn blade, like a mirror surface being kneaded over and over by an invisible hand.

"What…is this?"

From his side, suddenly came the shouts of men killing each other.

"It's mine!"

"It's mine, that's right!"

Thud! Thud!

Two knights were pummeling each other with fists connecting to flesh; when their helmets fell to the ground, twisted faces were revealed.

They glared at their companion as if seeing a sworn enemy.

"I killed him! The gods will see me! It can only be me!"

"No, it was me!"

The sun emblems on their armor had somehow been bent out of shape, the sharp corners carving wounds deep enough to expose bone on each other's bodies.

"This, this…"

Thud thud thud!

Lord Fa Ao's temple pulsed and throbbed, feeling as if the blood in his entire body was boiling over.

He almost instinctively turned his head and looked at the banner behind him.

The blood-colored banner still flew, standing proudly upon the battlefield!

The banner had not yet fallen!

No problem at all.

Barely a second after being reassured upon seeing the Church's banner, Lord Fa Ao suddenly came to his senses, his eyes going wide.

"Wait… blood-colored?"

Lord Fa Ao nearly bulged his eyes out, staring fixedly at the banner.

Why… would it be this color?

Why!!?

A cold shiver crawled up the back of Lord Fa Ao's neck, licking at his soul.

No.

No, no!

"This is… wrong!!!"

Lord Fa Ao's spirit trembled, as if something had shattered, and his once-hazy consciousness finally cleared.

He had woken up completely.

The scene before his eyes shifted in an instant—they were still within Dawn Valley Fortress.

Moreover, the moment was right after they had just repelled the previous wave of assault, before anyone had a chance to rest.

And everyone else was walking slowly with vacant eyes—toward the outside of the fortress.

"Illusion!"

At that moment, the holy knight understood completely.

"It's the Domain of Lust!!!"

Desire had descended without sound or warning, affecting everyone, plunging them into a terrifying hallucination that felt half real, half dream.

He looked up toward the sky and noticed that, at some unknown point, a rainbow-colored halo had begun to ring the sun—but the edges of that halo bore patterns like snake scales, and whenever his gaze focused on them, they would shift back into a normal solar halo.

A faint, cloying sweetness drifted on the wind, mingled with the scent of blood, like the fragrance of rotting flowers, chilling the spine.

No, it was more than that.

When Lord Fa Ao raised his head and looked intently, he clenched his fists.

That blazing sun above… was not its original form either.

That was not the sun!

That was—a crimson, slit pupil.

Coldly gazing down upon the mortals below who had fallen into madness and obsession, a glint of mockery and derision flashing in its depths.

!!!

The eye of a god… was Lust!

The God of Lust is watching us!!?

Has He descended?

And just as Lord Fa Ao's spirit trembled, within the vast shadow in the sky, the enormous outline of a winged serpent finally revealed itself completely.

He revealed His present avatar.

It was a colossal six-winged serpent!

Three pairs of enormous wings grew from the great serpent's back, beautiful in appearance…but upon closer inspection, one could see that on every feather there was faintly a twisted snake-pupil.

His resplendent feathers shimmered with alluring radiance beneath the sun, and within countless snake-pupils were reflected the most burning desires at the bottom of each person's heart.

The glory of rising above others, the wild joy of being favored by a god, the thrill of wanton slaughter… all could be seen as desire.

Desire!

The God of Lust has affected everyone!

Unable to spare further thought, Lord Fa Ao knew what he ought to do now.

"Everyone! Wake up!"

His hoarse, furious roar pierced the battlefield, and the holy sword in his hand finally erupted with pure radiance.

He raised the longsword high, trying to draw everyone's gaze, to make them look upward.

"That is not our Lord's gaze! It is Lust's! He is lapping at your desires!"

"Wake up at once! Look at what you are doing!"

But his call had no effect.

Those people glanced at him in a daze, and then quickly sank back into One's Own Illusion.

Some even fell deeper after gazing directly upon the god.

Not everyone could resist the corrupting spiritual energy of Miss Xie Shen.

Those like Lord Fa Ao, who could wake themselves, were the rare exception.

Most people were like this—silently slipping into madness, utterly unaware of any feeling of corruption.

Lord Fa Ao tried to stop them one by one, but there were too many; he could not get to them in time.

And worst of all, a new wave of the evil god's minions was already heading this way!

"What should we do now? My lord!"

In his desperation, Lord Fa Ao could only pray to the Sun God, hoping He might convey the situation here to the others.

At the same time, another thought could not help but surface in his heart.

"What do we do now? Is there any other way… Herbert, my lord!"

Lord Fa Ao knew that great dragon, knew that Herbert had already come to this place as well.

If Lord Herbert were here, he would surely know what to do!

Almost instinctively, Fa'ao stopped his prayer to the Sun God and silently called out to Herbert in his heart.

"Lord Herbert! Please save us—ah."

Fa'ao came back to his senses, felt helpless at his own desperate, scatter-shot behavior, and mocked himself: "I'm truly mad—how could Lord Herbert possibly hear me…"

But, at that very moment.

As if in answer to his impractical, absurd prayer.

From afar, a single long, melodious note of a horn sounded.

Wooo—

That horn blast was deafening, echoing through heaven and earth!

Accompanying the horn blast that jolted every heart, a streak of Bai Guang swept across the long sky, instantly slicing through the misty haze.

Whoosh—

As a response to the mortals' helpless cry.

A pure-white angel.

Descended.

(End of chapter)