Chapter 2284: Sacrifice and Persistence

Xia De looked in the direction of the cat's meow, seeing firelight appear in the black mist. Then, Little Mia ran over quickly and, relying on the protrusions and decorations on the surface of the armor, leaped directly onto Xia De's shoulder from the ground.

Xia De did not even need to investigate to know that this was Little Mia; the flames on its tail that were not hot at all were very special and could not be imitated by mere hallucination.

"How did you run over here? Where is Miss Nite? Which direction did you come from just now?"

Xia De asked softly. The cat meowed again, but because it clearly did not understand Xia De's words, it did not point the way.

However, the strange flames on its tail seemed to have the effect of dispersing these black mists. Thus, Xia De held the cat and walked in the direction it had just come from.

The black mist had the effect of distorting space. Even though the church was not large, Xia De felt he had walked a hundred steps before seeing the light ahead. Continuing forward, the sudden white light made him unable to help but close his eyes.

By the time he adapted to the brightness and opened his eyes, he was clearly carrying Little Mia, standing in a corridor paved with a red carpet, walls painted with gold paint, and adorned with crystal chandeliers and various antique oil paintings.

This corridor reminded Xia De of the Yodel Palace, but it also looked like the mansion of some other great noble.

As for himself, he was still wearing that set of golden armor, lined up in two rows with five other armored knights, following behind Miss Nite, who was walking at the very front, holding a red cushion with a green crystal placed upon it.

Miss Nite was also still wearing her set of armor, only without her helmet. Because Xia De was standing at the head of that row of knights, he could see her profile and judge that her expression was very serious.

"This is... an illusion created by that thing in the sarcophagus?"

He thought suspiciously, not knowing whether he should speak. The "She" in his ear reminded him softly:

【It possesses power similar to the "Bone Illusion" you encountered with the elf Sianode last time. It is judged to be the power of the sealed ancient creature, which has worked together with the power of this desert to create this illusion.】

"Understood. This is the second illusion to be witnessed together with a deity as required by my mission, right? Understood."

Xia De nodded, deciding to see what would happen next.

The group of seven continued forward under the lead of Miss Nite, who was holding the green crystal. But after only a few dozen steps, they turned a corner in the corridor, and then two monsters completely shrouded in black mist blocked the path of the group.

Those two monsters could only be seen as thin, long humanoids; their specific appearances could not be seen clearly at all. Kneeling before them were two people:

"Congratulations, Knight Sherry Nite, you have finally brought back the 【Heart of the Oasis】 for Her Majesty."

Xia De looked askance at the green crystal, which had no reaction to elements.

"However, you have been away for too long. The situation in the kingdom has changed greatly, and the situation in the royal palace is also somewhat different.

You need to sacrifice one person to us to continue forward. Now, the one on the left is a murderer; to avenge his mother who worked herself to death, he killed a wealthy merchant's family of thirteen. The one on the right is a rapist who raped and killed the young son of a viscount who was out playing. Who will you sacrifice?"

Miss Nite's expression did not change at all:

"The one on the right."

Then the man kneeling on the right was dragged away by two clusters of black mist amidst screams. The black mist disappeared. Miss Nite did not even look at the murderer on the left and continued to lead the group forward.

After a few dozen steps, they encountered a corner again. This time, they turned left. After the corner, five transparent souls were being burned above the flames blocking the path, two on the left and three on the right. A humanoid monster with red skin all over, holding a large black fork in its hand, and having goat hooves and bull horns, blocked the group in front of the flames.

In other words, this was the typical image of a demon in fairy tales:

"There are five souls here. The two on the left are guilty of robbery but the crime is not punishable by death; the three on the right are guilty of theft but the amount is not large either. You must make a choice. These are all souls of your kingdom. You must give me the souls on either side, and I will let you continue forward."

Miss Nite still made the decision without any hesitation:

"The two on the left."

"Will you not consider it?"

The monster asked. The female knight shook her head. Then the monster laughed loudly, turned into black smoke, and took away the two souls on the left. The flames beneath the three souls on the right disappeared, and they quickly escaped through the corridor wall.

Miss Nite led the group to continue forward. After turning another corner, the obstacle blocking the group this time was a huge crack nearly five meters wide spanning the corridor, with bubbling, scalding magma inside.

Seven shivering citizens stood beside the crack, three on the left and four on the right. Each person had a chain connected to an iron ball tied to their right foot, preventing them from leaving.

When the group approached, a flame genie over two meters tall emerged from the magma, and it was also using the common language of this era:

"If you want to leave, throw the people on the left or the right into the magma with your own hands!"

Miss Nite narrowed her eyes slightly, seemingly judging whether she could beat the opponent. But the result was also obvious, so she handed the thing she was holding to another person behind her and walked forward with her sword. Xia De wanted to speak out to stop her at this moment, to defeat this elemental creature of unknown origin himself, but after thinking about it, he did nothing.

【Why not do it?】

"She" asked softly in Xia De's ear. Xia De was wearing a helmet at this time, so it was as if someone was in the armor with him.

"The illusion that Granny Sianode experienced last time was strictly speaking not broken by me, but by the granny herself... Now is not the time to act. Besides, it's all an illusion, what am I in a hurry for?"

Miss Nite walked to the magma crack, killed the three people on the left with a blank expression, then cut off their right feet and threw the corpses into the magma.

None of the knights following behind said a word, so the magma receded, the crack closed, and the corridor returned to normal.

Miss Nite tore off the coat of one of the people on the left to wipe her blood-stained sword, then signaled for the group to continue forward.

After turning again at the end of the corridor, a golden door decorated with jewels finally appeared not far away in the new corridor. It seemed this was the destination.

Only, the door was tightly closed, and there was a moving face with fangs on the door. It also made a demand:

"Kill your companions, and I will let you continue to take the 【Heart of the Oasis】 to meet your Queen. There are six knights here besides you; just kill four of them, my request is not excessive."

Miss Nite did not act immediately this time, but took a deep breath while holding the crystal. Then, she turned around, handed the crystal she was holding to Xia De, and then drew her sword to kill her companions.

Those knights only put up symbolic resistance before being cleanly killed by Miss Nite. During this time, Xia De kept covering Little Mia's eyes, not wanting the cat to see this brutal scene.

And the face on the door indeed kept its promise, opening the door after the fourth person died.

Miss Nite retrieved the crystal and brought Xia De and the other person who had not made a sound into the door.

Behind the door was a huge room with gray square stones on all four walls. The fire in the fireplace was burning fiercely. A woman with a crown and a thin face was wearing a nightgown and covered with a quilt, sitting on that unusually large four-poster velvet bed.

There were no curtains around the bed, and there were only two expressionless maids standing on the left and right sides of the bed.

"Your Majesty."

Miss Nite knelt on one knee to salute. The remaining knight did the same, while Xia De stood still.

"Following your instructions, I successfully brought back the 【Heart of the Oasis】 from that strange land and broke through the obstacles blocking the way back to your side. Please write a letter to hire that witch again with a large sum of money, and let her use the 【Heart of the Oasis】 to save our cursed kingdom."

The blonde Queen on the bed, who looked like she was suffering from a serious illness, coughed twice, and then said weakly:

"Sherry, I am really happy to see you again."

Then she coughed twice more:

"The Heart of the Oasis, you finally brought it back. Very good, really very good. But you have to tell me, along the way, did you violate your knight's oath?"

The gray-haired female knight did not speak, so the weak Queen looked at her with gray eyes and continued:

"The murderer and the rapist, you chose to sacrifice the latter, but do you really have the right to judge others?"

"The robber and the thief, you chose to sacrifice the few to protect the many, but in the end, two people died because of you."

"And those seven innocent citizens, why did you kill three of them without hesitation? Because you had already made choices the first two times, and you didn't want your past cruelty to become very stupid?"

"Because killing three can save the other four."

Miss Nite answered respectfully, and the Queen on the bed continued to ask:

"So, you ultimately violated your knight's oath and killed innocent people with your own hands."

"Yes, because I promised you that I would bring back the 【Heart of the Oasis】, and nothing is more important than that."

"So, at the door of this bedroom, you killed your own companions with your own hands, making yourself a true butcher. Sherry, do you really not feel guilty? Don't you feel that you have already fallen?"

The kneeling female knight looked up at her Queen this time, her expression still firm:

"Your Majesty, for the sake of this mission, countless people have sacrificed themselves so far. I will not stop at the final step for any reason. You can consider this my persistence. There is not much that we as ordinary people can do, but if necessary, I am even willing to offer my own life and soul for this matter... The 【Heart of the Oasis】 must come here, and the kingdom must be saved."

"People who say such things usually head toward tragedy."

Xia De thought in his heart, while the Queen on the bed coughed several times in succession. Xia De suspected that she was about to cough her lungs out. ===== CHAPTER 2285 =====