Chapter 470: Sent to the Side of God

At dusk, a village was burning.

Cavalry held torches, driving the villagers, shouting to drive them out of this village corrupted by the devil's plague.

At the edge of the village, a bonfire was piled up beside a main road, and a cross was erected above it.

Seven or eight knights stood around the bonfire, and two corpses lay on the ground.

Before long, two horses galloped along the road. A bald young priest jumped off the leading horse. He wore a simple gray robe and only a cross pendant on his chest.

"Why set a fire?" The young priest frowned at the burning village and asked the knight leader.

"This is the devil's village. It has polluted this place. Only fire can purify it," the knight captain said with a cold face.

The priest knew that the other party was just a vandal, but faith gave him an excuse to act recklessly. Since things had come to this, condemning the other party was useless. He looked at the two corpses on the ground. "Who are they?"

"The parents of the 'devil'. It was they who called Father Clement, which led to his death. They also tried to defend the 'devil'. I suspect they were also possessed by the devil."

"Suspect? You just suspected, and you killed them?" The priest was a bit angry. It was precisely because of these brutes who manufactured panic everywhere in the name of the Church that the Church had become increasingly distorted and cruel, and a faith supported by fear would never last long.

"Are you questioning my loyalty?!" the knight captain asked sharply. "A priest died here. The devil killed him, and you want me to pity these heretics?"

The priest was angry, but he didn't continue to argue. Colluding with heresy was an extremely serious crime, and sympathizing with them was the beginning of betrayal.

"What about the possessed one?"

The "devil" was brought.

It was a child who looked only four or five years old, with her hands tied behind her back. Judging by the way her arms were bent, she might have even had them broken.

The child was covered in tear stains, her eyes wide open but unfocused—that was a mental disorder after suffering extreme fright.

The priest saw at a glance that the child was not some devil-possessed person, and the cross on his chest was also vibrating slightly, reminding him of this point—the other party was probably just a witch.

Although there was no difference between the two in the Church's propaganda, there was a clear distinction between these two types of people in internal discussions.

Those fanatical believers controlled by the gods of heresy were the so-called "devil-possessed." They believed in the gods of heresy, and they themselves had fallen and were hopeless. The special abilities or magic they possessed often came from external evil gods.

But wizards were a special group. Their power seemed to come from themselves and had nothing to do with their souls.

These animals, inflicting such heavy hands on an innocent child—the enemies of God must be eradicated, but insults and abuse were absolutely contrary to God's teachings.

He walked up, pushed away a knight who wanted to stop him, came to the girl, and reached out to press on the girl's head.

The cross on his chest vibrated slightly, verifying the other party's identity.

Witch.

He sighed. "May God forgive your sins, child. Don't be afraid, it will be over soon."

After speaking, he stood up and let the knights tie the girl to the cross of the bonfire.

Whether it was a wizard or a devil-possessed person, they were enemies of the Church.

Even, wizards were more dangerous.

It was said that it was they who were helping the gods of heresy expand their territory. On the list of objects that the Church must eradicate, they were ahead of heretics, not to mention that a priest had died here.

This girl must die.

Thinking of having to kill an innocent child with his own hands, the young priest felt his breathing heavy, and his heart felt as if it were being pinched, aching faintly.

But this pain turned into a self-abusive perseverance.

Everything is for God's great cause!

If this is a sin, I will bear it alone. Even if I cannot go to heaven because of this, as long as God's grace can benefit more people, everything is worth it.

As if confirming his thoughts, the cross on his chest radiated a gentle heat.

Then a thought like an enlightenment appeared in his mind: "The pain of fire is only temporary. As long as her soul is clean, she can return to the side of God."

The priest's heart relaxed suddenly, almost moved to tears.

This must be God's revelation. He is so tolerant that he is unwilling to abandon even wizards who might affect his great cause, leaving a place for them by his side.

He is also so loving that he even sees the insignificant hesitation of believers in his eyes.

The priest cheered up again, and his soul was purified again through this small test.

The girl was tied to the cross. She seemed to understand her fate, struggling desperately. Her mouth was blocked, and she could only make "woo-woo" sounds, constantly twisting her body, her face covered in snot and tears.

The priest took a deep breath and showed a gentle smile.

He did not take off the cloth strip in the girl's mouth because he was worried that she would talk nonsense in panic and blaspheme the gods, adding sin to himself.

Don't be afraid, child. The sins of the world have not yet stained you. You will return to the side of the Heavenly Father in the cleanest posture and enjoy peace and joy forever.

Thinking of this, he did not hesitate, took the torch handed by a knight, and threw it on the bonfire poured with oil.

"Woo-woo..." the girl let out a miserable wail.

In the rolling thick smoke, the girl's struggling body was like the embodiment of fear itself. Even though the priest was mentally prepared, he still felt a trace of fear from the bottom of his heart.

"Great Heavenly Father," in order to suppress the fear in his heart, the priest couldn't help shouting, "I send this girl back to your side. Please look after her soul, forgive her sins, and grant her wisdom and eternal..."

However, before he finished speaking, he suddenly felt the cross on his chest vibrate violently.

This cross was a holy relic bestowed upon him when he became a priest of the Church. It was said that it had been blessed by angels and could help believers transmit prayers to the ears of the Heavenly Father. In the hands of some devout believers, it could even resonate, thereby descending miracles.

However, the young priest was not yet mature. In his hands, the cross's ability was only to be able to identify evil existences nearby.

When heretics or other evil things appeared nearby, the cross would begin to vibrate. The stronger the evil, the more violently the cross would vibrate.

Like the witch child just now, her power was very meager, so the cross only vibrated slightly. If it were a believer of an evil god—that is, a so-called devil-possessed person—whose power was far above that of an ordinary little wizard, the vibration of the cross would be much more obvious.

But even when following the church group to crusade against real demons, the cross had never vibrated so violently.

In the priest's stunned gaze, it actually floated up, and the power was so great that it even broke the necklace on his neck.

It hovered half a meter in front of the priest, like a hunting dog that had encountered a natural enemy, vigilantly guarding in front of him.

But at this moment, the priest saw a figure in the distance.

Under the setting sun at dusk, a tall figure walked over.

With his footsteps, the cross vibrated more and more violently, and cracks appeared on it, radiating immeasurable, peerless white brilliance from those cracks.

However, this light could not cover up the darkness permeating behind the person at all.

The sunset gradually sank, and a cold wind blew. The priest was surprised to find that the fire in the village had been extinguished at some point, and several knights not far away were like petrified, their bodies pale and covered with frost—they were frozen into ice blocks in the wind.

"God, Heavenly Father..."

The priest already understood that he had encountered an unprecedentedly powerful threat, and subconsciously began to pray.

But he heard a chuckle.

"Your God is too far away. He can't hear such prayers."

"You should go to his face and say it."

Before he finished speaking, the cross was twisted hard as if by someone. In the tooth-aching sound of metal friction, it was twisted into a twist, and it lost all its luster, falling to the ground like a piece of scrap iron.

Losing the protection of the cross, the priest immediately felt the bone-chilling cold.

In an instant, his limbs and even his internal organs were frozen.

While his vision was covered with a snowy white, he saw the appearance of the person who came.

Black short hair, golden eyes, that was an extremely handsome teenager.

However, in the short spiritual sense of dying, he saw the true face of the other party under the skin.

Covered in scales, stepping on goat hooves, born with six wings on his back, four horns on his head...

Satan...

"Enemy... of... God..."

He murmured the last word and then fell into eternal silence.

And Murphy didn't even look at him, walked straight to the bonfire that had been extinguished by the cold air, and with a wave of his hand, he held the girl who had fainted due to smoke suffocation in his arms.

Looking at the girl's silver short hair, he clicked his tongue as if he had expected it, and then disappeared on the spot.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 471 =====