Chapter 221

A column of light shot up from the pit and struck Dresck's body.

At the last moment, Dresck curled his wings inward, wrapping them around his body.

What happens when the holy light of a four-winged angel strikes a hermit possessed by a four-winged angel?

The answer is now clear: Dresck's two pairs of wings—the luminous wings vanished entirely, the true wings shattered into fragments, his holy armor torn and ragged—but his body remained intact.

This is already impressive; among those struck by the little angel's holy light, he suffered the least damage.

Dresck lowered his hands from before his chest, spat out a mouthful of blood, and smashed a necklace chain against his chest with one palm.

A ring of white light rippled outward; Dresck's wounds, the gaps in his wings, the cracks in his holy armor—all rapidly repaired and healed.

At the same time, Dresck looked down and saw the little angel staring at him with wide eyes, puzzled—as if wondering why, after unleashing its ultimate attack, this thing was still alive.

Ang grabbed the little angel and pulled it aside, stepping into its place, looking upward as a Death Scythe slowly emerged from his hand.

"Why is there a golden skeleton here? Why is a four-winged angel mingling with it? Why is there a pit here? Anyone negligent enough to let this happen deserves the pyre!" Dresck growled.

Who could have imagined that within the safe zone surrounded by the Defense Tower and the Soul Tower, a deceptive pit would suddenly appear? He certainly didn't think someone had secretly dug it—he assumed the staff here had been negligent, unaware that a tunnel had been carved beneath them.

He had spent his entire life in rigorous cultivation, despising nothing more than those who slacked off, cheated, and were lazy and incompetent. Once this matter was settled, the golden skeleton dismantled, and the four-winged angel captured, he would punish these people severely.

Just as he thought this, Dresck suddenly saw the head of a brass hatchling dragon peek out from beside the skeleton.

Dresck's spirit trembled violently; the combination of an angel and a stunted hatchling dragon triggered one word in his mind—assassin, Nikola's assassin team.

If these really were those assassins, then that meant, besides the angel and the brass hatchling dragon, there would also be a unicorn, a steel construct…

And one most terrifying of all—a guiltless being who walked the Path of Obsession, immune to Holy Words, who had slain Nikola.

Names carry weight; realizing the opponent might be Nikola's assassin team, Dresck's heart grew cautious. Without turning his head, he shouted: "Soul Tower, prepare…"

No sooner had he shouted than he heard a distinct "gurgle-gurgle," followed by a series of startled cries nearby.

In an instant, Dresck remembered something: just now he had stood at the core of the seal, stomped his foot, and the ground collapsed—had the core of the seal also collapsed?

If the seal's core collapsed, was the seal now broken? Had the extradimensional beast been set free?

Dresck stiffened his neck and slowly turned his head—and there, grinning at him with an open mouth, was a giant fluffy ball.

"I—" Dresck had barely opened his mouth when a giant furry paw shot out from the ball, like a flyswatter—*pash! *—slapping Dresck to the ground.

When Ang cautiously poked his head out of the pit, he saw only a giant fluffy ball angrily pawing at a limp, lifeless body—the wings behind it broken into countless fragments, the bones likely shattered, yet the person still alive.

"Aow!" Ang barked at it.

The giant fluffy ball turned its head, then pointed a reluctant paw at Dresck: "Aowu!"

"Aow!" Ang pointed a large hand at the Soul Tower.

Only then did the giant fluffy ball understand. It swiped its paw, shoving Dresck toward the pit's mouth, then launched itself forward in a full-body pounce.

Ang was startled, instantly shrinking back into the pit—what if that massive beast crushed him?

Ang retreated into the pit; Dresck slid in too. The giant fluffy ball that had pounced rapidly shrank—from a ball forty to fifty meters in diameter—to a half-meter-long, round-faced, big-headed, obese cat.

But just before it fell into the pit, a bolt of black lightning struck it—the Soul Tower, Execution!

The cat let out a piercing scream, its entire body slamming into the pit, bouncing off the wall, bouncing again, bouncing once more—like a ball rebounding downward.

"Aowu! Aow! Aow! Aowowow… pash…" The half-arched cat lay on the ground, unable to rise for a long time.

Serina struggled to lift it and realized its eyes were spinning—dizzy and disoriented.

"Run, hurry, where to run?" Nai Ge Li Si shouted, finally turning to Xia Mala.

With Xia Mala's precognitive ability, running into the underground mineshaft wouldn't risk getting lost or trapped in dead ends.

Xia Mala quickly led the way, dashing off at full speed.

Even if they hadn't run, the enemy wouldn't catch up anytime soon—after all, a hermit possessed by a four-winged angel had been captured by Ang and his group; without summoning forces stronger than a four-winged angel, the Church wouldn't dare pursue.

After running an unknown distance, the cat in Serina's arms finally stirred, lifting its head weakly and letting out a faint "Aowu."

Seeing this, Nai Ge Li Si cried out: "Wait! The enemy can't catch up for now—let's check on the extradimensional beast! It seems off—could it have been killed by the Soul Tower? Don't die yet, you haven't paid yet."

"Aowu~" The cat let out a weak cry, then pressed its furry head against the soft, curved hollow behind Serina, motionless.

"What does that mean?" Nai Ge Li Si didn't understand its language.

Ang suddenly said: "It. Soul. Injured."

"Huh? Soul injury is serious—what do we do now? Wake up, wake up, how many is this?" Nai Ge Li Si shook the cat hard, extending two claw-tips from his left paw.

"Aow. Aow." The cat cried twice.

"Two cries mean two? Trouble—it can't even count anymore, turned into an idiot." Nai Ge Li Si sighed in relief, teasing.

Lu Se asked, confused: "Uh, my lord, that's not right—you're showing two, aren't you?" He flexed his own two fingers.

Nai Ge Li Si shot him an irritated glare, then extended his own paw, bending and straightening each claw-tip—including the curled ones: "One, two, three, four—that's four, understand? You think curled ones don't count?"

Lu Se immediately realized he'd been tricked, giving Nai Ge Li Si a resentful glare.

After examination, the cat's mind was still clear—just dizzy and spinning, like suffering from Ménière's syndrome, unable to stand.

"It's already impressive—surviving a direct hit from the Soul Tower. Only it could endure that; ordinary creatures would have had their souls scattered instantly. The Soul Tower inflicts especially heavy damage on undead, but even living beings suffer greatly—it's already lucky." Nai Ge Li Si said.

Serina, who had been worried, finally relaxed and hugged the cat tighter, nearly suffocating it.

After checking the cat's condition, Nai Ge Li Si turned his attention to Dresck.

The hermit had been dragged and bashed all the way by the little zombie, leaving him covered in bruises; after being pawed by the giant cat, his entire body was fractured, limp as a ragged sack.

Yet he was still alive, staring coldly at everyone with wide eyes.

"This guy is also strange—turn him over." Turning him over, Nai Ge Li Si pried open his wing roots—and involuntarily wrinkled his scale-lined brow.

There, on the wing roots, were clear signs of suturing. When he probed with his mind, he saw the bones of the wings and shoulder blades had old bone overgrowths.

When bones break and heal, they grow extra bone along the fracture line to reinforce them. This situation showed the shoulder blades and wings hadn't originally been like this—they'd been shattered, reassembled, and fused together.

Such an unbelievable fusion method couldn't be done by ordinary people—but remembering Ang's Essence Fluid Skin-Clarifying Technique, it didn't seem impossible. This hermit must have used a similar method to gain true angelic wings.

"I knew it—how could a human possibly possess true angelic wings? Turns out he stitched them together." Nai Ge Li Si exclaimed.

"You can do that? So he's become a patchwork monster? That's an undead technique!" Xia Mala exclaimed.

"Ignorance." Dresek, who had remained silent and limp throughout the journey, suddenly spoke up: "This great masterpiece of Lord Dai Sen must not be equated with filthy undead creatures—it has granted us wingless mortals the ability to fly once more in heaven."

"Dai Sen did this? How bold of him—to sew the holy angelic wings onto filthy human flesh! This is sacrilege! Damn it, I'm going to burn him alive." Shamarra erupted in fury.

"Dare to speak Lord Dai Sen's name directly? Wretched heretic, you shall be reduced to ash upon the Holy Flame." Dresek roared.

Serina cursed: "You're the one who deserves to be burned—grabbing my kitty! She's so cute, so pitiful, even insects won't be killed, yet you captured her, shocked and tortured her—you have no humanity, you're not even human."

Nai Ge Li Si and Luthar awkwardly turned their heads away. If Serina had seen the Dimensional Beast accepting "money" and slapping people into another dimension, she'd never say that—your cat's terrifying.

"Heh, the Holy Spirit is immortal, the Holy Body indestructible. I'm merely curious about who you are. If I'm not mistaken, you're the assassins who killed Lord Nicolas. Where are the unicorn and the steel construct? And the Innocent One?"

Nai Ge Li Si froze: "You mean… you're indestructible? You escaped?"

Dresek snapped: "Answer my questions first. Where is the Innocent One? Where are the unicorn and the steel construct?"

Everyone turned their gaze to Ange.

Dresek frowned: "Are you the unicorn?"

"Pfft!" Everyone spat out their drinks. How could this pile of bones possibly be a unicorn?

"The Innocent One is a skeleton? A filthy, evil skeleton? Impossible!" Dresek shouted in disbelief.

"What's so strange about that? Just now there was a child-snatching thief who was innocent—he couldn't trigger the Original Sin Shackles. This thing isn't always accurate." Nai Ge Li Si dismissed it.

Luthar asked: "Could it be that my lord felt that wasn't a sin?"

"Hmm, possible. Then its arbitrariness is huge—he decides who's guilty, and they're guilty?" Nai Ge Li Si found this theory implausible and guessed instead:

"Another possibility: those children weren't kidnapped—they were bought. If their own parents sold them, the sin lies not with the thief."

Serina sighed suddenly: "Maybe that's not a sin. Selling the child might let it survive; staying with the parents might mean death. Our world is just too poor."

Dresek was utterly confused. From their words, this skeleton could assign guilt to others?

Too bizarre. Forget it. Dresek threw down a threat: "You heretics, I shall record your names in the Heretic Registry and use every ounce of my power to purify you!"

As he spoke, tiny specks of light ignited across Dresek's body.

At that moment, a hand suddenly pressed onto his shoulder. A force surged in—and Dresek immediately realized his light had been corrupted. The glowing dots were no longer white, but black flames.

He turned—and saw Shamarra's hand on his shoulder. Dresek gasped, his face finally twisted with terror: "Corruption? Pollution! You're the Fallen Angel, Shamarra!"

Shamarra nodded: "I hope you don't get burned when you return."

"No! No! Take your hand off! Remove the Fallen Power! I don't want your power! I don't!" Dresek screamed in panic, his earlier indifference and calm vanished completely.

Too late. Shamarra did not stop. Power poured in relentlessly until he vanished entirely.

"I hope he doesn't get burned when he returns." Everyone laughed with malicious glee.

Holding the big cat, the group scrambled through the tunnels under Shamarra's lead, pressing forward relentlessly—until suddenly they felt a draft ahead.

"Air! There might be an exit!" they cried excitedly.

Luthar said: "We should've brought Fyrik along. His rats are unmatched at finding paths."

The group followed the draft forward, soon emerging from the tunnel—before them stretched a pitch-black night sky.

No stars hung in the air, but ribbons of seven-colored light drifted down slowly.

"Huh!? The Eternal Night has arrived?" Serina exclaimed.

The Eternal Night was due soon—likely within these few days—but no one knew the exact day. It arrived suddenly, sometimes at night, sometimes in daylight, its only sign being those drifting ribbons of light.

"The Eternal Night has come. The undead will attack the city at once."