Chapter 422: Not Found

Miss Xie Shen had descended.

In the span of a few breaths, the sky several miles outside Radiance Shengcheng was shrouded in thick, dark-red fog.

A colossal monster hid its body within the dense fog, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Thick black clouds churned and rolled like surging waves of ink, sealing off the once-clear sky so tightly not even a breath could pass.

Blinding blood-red lightning flickered within the clouds and mist, like ferocious giant pythons, occasionally tearing apart this oppressive curtain of darkness and illuminating the massive shadow hidden within.

Corrupted spiritual energy drifted across the horizon, and one could faintly hear the faint dirges of countless people.

In an instant, the heavens and earth changed color.

Although Radiance Shengcheng stood like a torch within the fog, untouched by any real damage, this change caused the believers within the city to tremble violently in body and mind.

They had never felt so clearly just how terrifying a deity was.

Before the great power of a deity, anyone other than fanatics would be disturbed—even those who considered themselves the most devout believers would waver in their hearts.

Deity and mortal.

The gap between them was far, far too vast.

Powerless to resist.

Ashamed of their own insignificance.

Even within the Shengcheng, they still felt their own smallness.

Almost unconsciously, the believers could not help but pray to their deity, hoping the deity would grant them salvation.

"My Lord, please save us!"

"Please save your pitiful lambs!"

But after praying, the believers fell silent.

The deity did not respond.

He… remained indifferent.

After receiving no response from the deity, the believers' hearts sank even deeper.

They felt as though they had been abandoned.

As if the deity had already given up on them.

Hope?

Beneath this terrible, suffocating weight, they could find no hope at all within their hearts.

But the truth… was it really like this?

No!

Whoosh—

A dazzling streak of Bai Guang cut through the oppressive darkness.

Before the strange, rising despair could devour their hearts, a brilliant hope arrived first.

As if in answer to the birth of the evil god's avatar, an angel descended as well.

He flew out from within the Shengcheng, instantly surging before the evil god to stand against it!

That pure-white figure became the dawn that tore apart the darkness and despair.

Beneath the fog, a pure-white angel clad in gleaming battle armor stood proudly upright.

That battle armor seemed to be woven from countless stars, every inch radiating a holy and cold brilliance, with flowing light tracing out mysterious runes.

The angel's face was hidden within the shadow of his helmet, making it hard to see clearly; one could only sense the resolute gaze projected from within that shadow.

That gaze was like two beams of blazing fire, piercing through layer upon layer of gloom, locking directly onto the chilling presence high in the sky.

The angel gripped tightly in his hand a holy lance several times his own height, its shaft blooming with pure and dazzling light, like a newly risen sun, driving away the thick darkness around it.

The lance's tip flickered with a piercing cold gleam, while wisps of holy power coiled around the shaft, as if it could easily tear apart all evil in the world.

As the angel moved, the holy lance swayed gently, emitting waves of melodious holy sound, as if awakening the believers' deep, inner faith in the blazing sun.

"An angel…"

"It's our Lord's angel!"

The evil god's avatar high in the sky hid among the clouds and mist, but the shadow revealed between flashes of lightning and peals of thunder was as massive as a mountain.

That shadow would shift from time to time—now becoming a giant python, now seeming to sprout countless tentacles across its surface, now changing back into a winged serpent.

Ferocious, terrifying… bizarre!

Yet, faced with such a powerful and terrifying avatar of the evil god, the pure-white angel did not show the slightest intention of retreat.

He stood tall in the high sky, placing himself between mortals and the deity.

Within the storm raised by the deity, only the angel stood unmoved.

He was like an anchor.

Without needing to speak, simply by being there, he gradually calmed the turmoil in the mortals' hearts.

"How could our Lord possibly abandon us!"

"That's right! Our Lord could never do such a thing!"

"What on earth was I doing? I actually doubted our Lord just now? I…"

That's right.

They had no need to be afraid at all.

This was Soranthes, the Radiance Shengcheng of the Sun God!

How could it possibly be breached by a mere evil god!!?

And at this moment, they also realized where the wavering in their hearts had come from earlier… it was the evil god's domain!

It wasn't that their faith had faltered—it was the evil god interfering with them!

From the very moment Miss Xie Shen Jiang was born, Her domain of 【Lust】 had already silently and invisibly affected every mortal.

The believers within the Shengcheng were only shaken in their hearts, while the believers in the satellite cities outside the Shengcheng had fallen into a collective Illusion, and only a very few like Fa Ao were able to struggle free.

They gazed at the angel's figure with gratitude.

Without him, they would have continued to sink deeper into the Illusion, and would have unknowingly had their faith in the Lord shaken even more.

What they did not know was that, just as everyone was feeling grateful toward the angel.

This pure-white angel with his back to all living beings was actually... feeling utterly bewildered.

"... Eh?"

Holy shit!

Who am I? Where am I? What's for dinner tonight?

This angel who had suddenly descended was naturally Herbert.

But now there was a problem... he had not descended of his own accord.

Herbert had not felt Fa Ao's prayer to him; he was not yet a deity, and could not hear the prayers of others.

The true reason he had appeared in this place was only one.

The Angel Battle Armor he was wearing had moved on its own.

The Angel Battle Armor's automatic piloting had brought Herbert, who had not yet reacted, before the Xie Shen Jiang.

Question: Mortal, why have you chosen to face a deity directly?

Answer: I didn't choose this, big shot.

Herbert:???

Holy shit, my clothes moved!?

I don't wanna play anymore!

I wanna go home—

Damn it, is there something wrong with your autopilot?

Why are you bringing me to a place like this!

Half an hour earlier, when Herbert had just returned to his residence and was complaining to Valentina and the others about being blinded on the road by a bald woman with very bright headlights and no manners, he had patted his own armor and sworn.

Herbert said this armor could protect his safety, and that no matter what happened afterward, they absolutely must not get worked up—everything was within his and the Lieri Sect Pope's plan.

But now it seemed...

Where's the plan?

Old thing, where's the plan we agreed on before!!?

Didn't we agree that, after Miss Xie Shen descended, I would charge at Her together with everyone else?

Why is it only me here now?

Where are the people you mentioned?

Where are my reinforcements?

Damn it, answer me!

Feeling the bizarre sensation of having no one behind him yet being expected by all, Herbert clicked his tongue.

"Tch."

He kept complaining in his heart, trying to get the Lieri Sect Pope to give him an explanation.

"I know you can hear me, so say something back!"

"Where are the others!"

Herbert could not hear the complaints in others' hearts, but the Lieri Sect Pope, as a Saint—one who was nearly equivalent to a deity—could roughly sense them.

But whether the Lieri Sect Pope could not hear his furious roars in his heart, or had deliberately chosen to ignore them, he gave no response at all.

"... Forget it."

After several failed attempts at communication, Herbert temporarily gave up on criticizing the Lieri Sect Pope.

Forget it, forget it.

Can't be bothered to rant; I'll settle the score with him properly later.

As for now... he had to think about what to do.

Herbert maintained his "steadfast" image, slowly raised his head to look at the Xie Shen Jiang's Winged Serpent avatar, and the corner of his mouth beneath the helmet twitched slightly.

"Oh ho..."

From this close-up observation, Herbert gained a deeper impression of the Xie Shen Jiang's avatar.

If the avatar that had appeared earlier in the Dark Region had been a human upper body with a snake's tail, then the avatar appearing now was a pure monster, with no trace of any human element at all.

From a mortal's perspective and aesthetic, the image of the Winged Serpent was rather unsettling—purely a terrifying monster.

But could one say its current appearance was ugly?

Probably not.

Looking at the details, every part exuded ferocity and terror, yet as a whole it radiated a stunning, strange allure.

The fallen spiritual energy tempted mortals, making them sink deeper and deeper into desire.

Even though the angel's appearance had restored some people's clarity, a great many mortals remained immersed in the Illusion of desire.

"..."

Herbert silently gazed at the Xie Shen Jiang, and Miss Xie Shen gazed back coldly.

Neither of them spoke first.

The Xie Shen Jiang, proud of Her status, believed that as a deity She should wait for a tiny angel to finish speaking before opening Her mouth.

As for Herbert's silence, it was because he was somewhat thrown into disarray for the moment.

It was not fear.

When he agreed to the Lieri Sect's plan, he had already prepared himself to face the Evil God of Desire head-on.

At this moment, he was feeling a slight trace of doubt.

"No way, isn't there a bit too many people under this carriage?"

At this instant, Herbert could feel gazes of every kind!

Some came from the mortals behind him, and some from a higher plane.

When that pure-white figure fell into the eyes of Fa'ao and the others, he was no longer watched by mortal things alone.

The gods had long since turned their gaze this way.

Ever since the friction between the two churches began, the gods had taken notice of this place.

Perhaps because the gods had been too calm on the surface for far too long, or perhaps because it involved the pillar of the Justice Faction, nearly every god had taken notice of this "war."

They too were curious—what kind of ending would this farce finally have?

……

The Forest of Nature, the Sacred Grove.

At this moment, in this tranquil space, the four goddesses representing the four seasons within the Nature Pantheon had, quite rarely, gathered together at the same time.

They sat around a great round table laden with fruits and vegetables, gazing at the crystal ball placed upon it, which projected the scene of the Evil God of Desire confronting the angel.

This was actually a very rare sight.

Although the four goddesses were fellow seasonal deities and comrades of the Nature Pantheon, their relationships with one another were hardly harmonious.

Because of clashes in temperament and divine domain, it was very hard to get them all together.

And the reason they could gather in one place at this moment was because of the fifth goddess present—the Goddess of the Moon.

A gentle-smiling noblewoman sat among them; within her silver, silken long hair there was a single strange strand of dark red.

Although their relationships with one another were not good, every one of them shared a fairly close friendship with the Goddess of the Moon.

It was out of respect for the Goddess of the Moon's face that they reluctantly sat down together.

"I don't think he can hold back that madman, the Evil God of Desire." The first to speak was the Goddess of Spring Buds, who shook her head and voiced her own thoughts.

She looked about eighteen or nineteen years old, draped in a long dress woven of vines, her whole being suffused with the breath of youth; her green hair hung to her ankles like weeping willow, the tips studded with glowing flower buds that bloomed into flecks of firefly light as she moved.

"Hah, isn't that just stating the obvious?"

The Goddess of Midsummer scoffed at the words, mocking: "Does anyone really think this angel, who has nothing but courage, can actually accomplish anything? Surely not!"

This Summer Goddess looked just past twenty, her figure sturdy and powerful; she was dressed like a hunter, simply draped in a beast-hide that bared her abdominal muscles, her crimson curls cascading like a lava waterfall, charred golden chains coiled through her hair.

"Why couldn't he?"

The Goddess of Autumn Harvest smiled and said unhurriedly: "If he carries Ab Sita's oracle, do you think the Evil God of Desire would charge in recklessly? That cunning fellow isn't as mad as he appears on the surface!"

This goddess looked the oldest among the gathered goddesses, like a mature woman in her thirties, her whole being radiating a ripened, distinctive allure, every part of her giving a weighty impression.

Her flaxen long hair was braided into wheat-ear plaits, and pinned among her locks was a crown wrought from gilded skulls and wheat stalks.

As for the last, the Goddess of Deep Winter did not voice her own thoughts; she merely lowered her head, silently stroking the white cat in her arms, as though listening to their conversation.

"……"

This Goddess of Deep Winter, who showed excessive maternal love toward mortal things, indeed behaved quite normally when facing other gods.

And as the "white cat" being held by the Goddess of Deep Winter, the Goddess of Ice and Snow, though she very much wanted to resist, with the other goddesses present, ultimately swallowed her anger and silently chose to close her eyes and play dead.

"……"

Fine, for the sake of everyone else, pet me if you must—I'll just pretend I don't know anything!

In the end, it was the Goddess of the Moon who picked up the thread of conversation, not letting the dialogue die out completely.

"I think this little fellow should have some confidence of his own." She glanced at the angel in the image, her eyes slightly lowered.

Then, as if recalling something amusing, the Goddess of the Moon couldn't help shaking her head and laughing, saying pointedly: "After all, the angels under him have always been very much their own thoughts, heh heh."

"In any case, let's first hear what he has to say next."

"Perhaps he'll give us a pleasant surprise, heh heh."

The three goddesses of Spring, Summer, and Autumn all nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

And even the Goddess of Autumn Harvest, who held a differing opinion, harbored no expectations whatsoever for Herbert the angel's own strength.

This was not an isolated case, but the gods' prevailing view.

Compared to the mortals who blindly believed the angel could save them from Miss Xie Shen, the gods expressed disdain at the angel's appearance.

Although the God of Desire had only descended an avatar of epic level, unless an entire angelic warhost was dispatched, what threat could it pose to Him?

Moreover, sending only a single angel was equivalent to displaying sincerity—a sign that they meant to talk.

And just when everyone thought the angel was about to open his mouth and say something... the pure-white angel above the sky, after a moment of silence, finally made his move.

Without a single word, he raised the holy spear in his hand toward Miss Xie Shen.

Click.

Then, without a syllable, the angel's wings behind him beat once, and he actually charged forward with spear in hand against the immense, irresistible god before him!

Like an old knight making his final charge against a giant windmill.

Charge!

Charge!!

Charge!!!

(End of Chapter)