Chapter 46: A God People Believe In, an Enemy State's Conspiracy?

"Stand back, everyone." Wang Yu, a reserve member of the Blades of Night—an organization dedicated to dealing with the Void and evil deities—spoke with authority. Though he had yet to undertake many missions, his knowledge of such threats was extensive.

The goblin had been chanting a prayer to some unknown deity.

He could not be certain if this would affect the mind; he knew his own will was unshakeable, but the others were not so resilient. Stepping back to investigate alone was the only sensible choice.

Wang Yu walked forward, splitting the skulls of the two remaining invisible goblins with his axe, ending their lives.

He then dragged the three corpses away from the carriage, moving far from the rest of the group.

Elliot, who had been screaming just moments ago, watched in a daze as Wang Yu hauled the grotesque bodies toward the roadside, leaving a trail of green fluid in his wake.

"Do you think our distinguished guest is a bit... terrifying? Ow!"

Before he could finish, Elliot let out a sharp cry. The burly orc, Emon, had ripped off the merchant's iron armor and slapped a slime-like patch onto his back.

"Aghhh, it burns! Emon, couldn't you have warned me? Gack, ahhh, urgh!"

To Wang Yu, this substance would have looked familiar: acid-dissolving regenerative ointment. It was highly effective, but the pain was exquisite.

"If he had warned you, you would have just run around screaming. You’re never that agile, yet you run fast enough when you're scared." Venna shot the goblin merchant a look; Emon’s sudden action had saved them a lot of trouble.

"You wretched elf! And you, orc! I’m docking your pay! Ahhh, it hurts!" Elliot writhed on the ground, shouting threats of salary deductions.

Neither Venna nor Emon paid any mind to their employer’s tantrum. They knew he was all talk; he never actually withheld their wages.

They both turned their gaze toward Wang Yu, who was crouched by the road, examining the blood-soaked corpses. They were deeply curious about the nature of these goblins.

Wang Yu’s ability to detect these nearly imperceptible creatures had already proven his competence; there was no reason to doubt him now.

Perhaps this passenger, who had hitched a ride to the Royal City, was someone worth cultivating a deeper relationship with.

Wang Yu poked at the bodies. The anatomy was standard goblin: weak muscles, short, spindly limbs—the very definition of frail.

The agility they had displayed earlier was merely the peak of what a normal goblin could achieve; they were fast, but not superhuman.

"Physical strength is normal. The problem must lie in their brains and that incantation."

The fact that they became visible the moment they stopped chanting was telling enough, but Wang Yu remained rigorous, probing every detail.

He inspected their heads. They looked like any other goblin’s, save for the expressions: a frenzied, manic grin, as if they were fanatically praising something.

What caught his eye was the steel spike driven into the crown of each skull, engraved with intricate glyphs.

Wang Yu studied them. There were many, though he could only decipher a few wizard runes.

Others appeared to be mage arrays, and he even spotted tribal totems and symbols he couldn't identify at all.

"Should I pull them out?" he muttered. He reached out, then paused. Better to check first.

He pressed his palm against a goblin’s chest, releasing an invisible ripple of energy that spread inward.

Since the body was dead, there was no resistance. The energy flowed freely, feeding the state of the internal organs back to him.

"Hmm, nothing unusual... wait?" Wang Yu’s brow furrowed. The organs and bones were fine.

But something near the heart was interfering with his ripple, blocking his probe. This was the anomaly.

Without hesitation, he drove his hand into the goblin’s chest, tearing through flesh and muscle to reach the heart. As he touched it, he felt a hard object, grabbed it, and pulled it out.

He shook the blood off the object. It was a small, disc-shaped item, about a quarter the size of his palm, etched with exquisite patterns.

It looked like a badge, or perhaps a holy symbol. It resembled the symbols of the Church of Light, though those were usually made of gold or silver so that destitute believers could melt them down for coin.

While the Church of Light’s symbol depicted a ray of light piercing the clouds, this one featured a magical moon surrounded by shimmering stars.

It clearly represented the night, and beneath it, a line of text was inscribed in the common tongue.

"Queen of the Night, Protector of the Darkness, we praise your name, Lady of the Night, Eunice...?" Wang Yu read the words aloud.

The moment he spoke them, he realized his mistake. It was a prayer. Usually, reciting such things without faith or channeled power meant nothing.

But the instant he finished, the steel spike in the goblin’s skull vibrated violently, flew into the air, and glowed as it lunged toward Wang Yu’s head.

*Snap.* Wang Yu caught the spike mid-air, his fingers crushing down. No matter how hard the spike struggled, it could not break free.

"What is this?" Wang Yu frowned. He had been careless. The spike was designed to strike when the prayer was spoken. Had he been slower, he would have ended up like the goblins.

He gripped the spike tightly, kicking the other corpses away to prevent their spikes from attacking him.

The runes on the spike pulsed with flickering light, straining to reach his forehead.

Wang Yu kept a cold face, pinning the object down. After a long stalemate, the light dimmed and the force weakened, as if its power were spent.

Suddenly, just as he thought it was dead, the spike flashed brilliantly and shattered into dust in his hand.

From the center of the debris, a ball of light shot toward his forehead, burrowing inside before he could react.

"Tch, I knew it." Wang Yu smiled and brushed the dust away. It was a mental attack. Let it come. Once it entered his mental space, who would be the victim was anyone's guess.

He calmed his mind, returning to his inner sanctum to meditate. He had to see what this was. The situation felt wrong—too bizarre.

The sudden appearance of these strange, dangerous goblins reminded him of what Zieg had said about the waters of the Royal City being deep.

They were nowhere near the capital yet. If this wasn't a coincidence, he needed to be prepared.

As his consciousness descended into his mental space, he stood upon the vast, mirror-like lake. Everything was normal, except for one addition.

"Hmm?" Wang Yu looked toward the horizon. A massive wooden chair sat there, occupied by a towering figure.

Dressed in black, veil-like robes that mimicked the night sky, the figure exuded a sense of profound, nocturnal stillness.

"Is this... the Lady of the Night, Eunice?" Wang Yu was baffled. How did this entity end up in his mind? Did the spike inject her? But how?

"My believer, listen to the will of the night. Do not lose your way; seek to understand its meaning..." A soft, steady female voice resonated from the giant figure.

A melodic song followed, sung in an ancient tongue. It was beautiful, but Wang Yu’s assessment was simple: he couldn't understand a word of it.

He only knew the common tongue. Ancient languages were a complete mystery to him. He couldn't grasp a thing about this "will of the night."

"Stop singing and speak plainly!" Wang Yu interrupted, impatient.

"Are you not corrupted by my words?" the Lady of the Night asked, sounding surprised.

"No." Wang Yu answered bluntly. He had already realized that his mental space was immune to influence.

He couldn't use auxiliary arts like Seeds of Wisdom or Thought Storms, but that meant his mind was an impregnable fortress. Here, he was the master.

"I am pleased that my only believer is no longer those filthy, disgusting goblins, but a human." The Lady’s voice carried a hint of relief.

Wang Yu was taken aback. She only had three believers, those goblins? And now that he had killed them, he was the only one left? Wait—he didn't worship this Lady of the Night.

"You’re mistaken. I am not your believer," Wang Yu replied.

"Is that so? Yet, how did I descend into your mind? Even so, you are the only one who remembers my existence..." Her voice was filled with doubt.

"I don't know." Wang Yu answered immediately. He knew nothing. He was even more confused than this "Lady." Why were these goblins dragging gods into this?

Wang Yu had one great strength: he never obsessed over what he couldn't understand. If he couldn't figure it out, he would ask an expert. And the experts were the people at the Blades of Night.

"Stay there for now." Wang Yu ignored her. His mental space was indestructible; she could do whatever she wanted.

He prepared to revisit the goblins to gather more intelligence, deciding to set aside the inexplicable entity currently occupying his mental space for the time being.

"If you are willing, please place your faith in..." Before the Lady of Night could finish her entreaty, Wang Yu had already withdrawn from his own consciousness.

"Place my faith in you? While you don't look like a dark deity, I'd sooner trust the God of Light than you." Shrugging, Wang Yu retrieved the holy emblems from the remaining two corpses and pulled the steel spikes from their skulls.

He decided to take these to the capital to show a professional; as for the runes etched into the steel, he knew just the expert to consult.

……

"The runes here are a diverse collection: wizardly sigils, arcane arrays, and even ancient elven ciphers. I cannot yet identify the purpose of these totems, but I shall study them thoroughly."

Avia held the steel spike Wang Yu had given her, peering through a monocular instrument akin to a microscope to examine the intricate, delicate engravings.

The girl’s face glowed with excitement; it was her first time encountering an extraordinary artifact of such complexity. The layering of different runic systems to achieve the spike's function was a design philosophy she found deeply worthy of study.

"Well, as for its function, I have analyzed ninety percent of the structure. It appears designed to force a controlled mind into a state of fanatical worship toward a specific entity."

"Connecting this to what you told me, Wang Yu, I suspect the object of this fanatical worship is that Lady of Night, Eunice..."

"But what is the point of making a pack of goblins worship her? Besides, the recognized deity of the night is the one from the Church of Night; who is this Lady of Night anyway?" Wang Yu felt utterly bewildered.

"Still, your knowledge of runecraft is terrifying..." Wang Yu remarked, genuinely awestruck by Avia’s ability to decipher the spike so quickly.

"It’s nothing, hehe, I just have a passion for the subject." Avia scratched her head bashfully, though she happily accepted his praise.

A rhythmic knocking echoed from the carriage door. Avia and Wang Yu turned in unison to see the orc Eamon poking his head inside, clutching something that looked like a tattered breastplate.

"Mr. Wang Yu, look at this," Eamon said, pointing to the armor.

Wang Yu looked, and his gaze was immediately drawn to a crest on the upper left chest.

The emblem depicted two crossed blades beneath a griffin carrying two more swords—the mark of the Seovintan Empire, the primary adversary currently locked in war with Alastair.

……

Along a border between Alastair and the Seovintan Empire lay a harsh, primeval forest, teeming with magical beasts and so densely overgrown that passage seemed nearly impossible.

In an obscure ravine within this forest, several bound orcs were being transported from Seovintan territory toward Alastair.

Tall soldiers clad in black armor carried these strange-looking orcs through the ancient woods.

Curiously, the magical beasts that should have been prowling the forest gave this group a wide berth.

The typically savage and mindless predators acted as if facing a mortal threat, carefully avoiding the black-armored soldiers as if encountering the most lethal of foes.

These orcs resembled the strange goblins Wang Yu had encountered; their skulls were likewise pierced by steel spikes, and their faces bore expressions of fanatical devotion, though with a slight difference.

Unlike the pure, vacant zeal of the goblins, these orcs possessed an indelible trace of brutality and bloodlust.

Reaching the edge of the forest, the black-armored soldiers halted and dropped the orcs to the ground.

One asked, "This should suffice, right? Which god were these things supposed to worship again?"

"It’s done. Once they untie themselves, they’ll run straight into Alastair territory. As for the god, we’re supposed to forget these names, aren't we? Probably some God of War, I suppose?" another soldier replied.

"That’s close enough. The pressure on the front lines is mounting; it’s time to force a stalemate for a while. Once these time bombs detonate, we can easily shatter their crumbling defenses."

"True enough. Oh? A message from the Royal Magic Association—one of the divine anchors has been pulled. Ha! These self-righteous fools; I knew those backwater idiots wouldn't understand and would pull the thing out themselves."

A soldier laughed, kicking the steel spike protruding from an orc’s head, causing the creature to shriek in agony.

"Just as the higher-ups predicted... those who recklessly pull these 'anchors' will eventually be brainwashed into becoming followers of those very 'gods'."

"By the time they figure it out, it will be too late, and our plan will be complete. Let’s go."

The leader checked the orcs one last time, and satisfied, signaled the others to depart.

Once the soldiers were gone, the steel spikes atop the orcs' heads began to glow with a crimson light. The orcs started muttering incoherently, their muscles swelled instantly, and bloodshot veins erupted across their eyeballs.

As if driven into a frenzy, the orcs easily snapped their bonds, glared wildly at their surroundings, and charged out of the forest, sprinting toward the nearest Alastair settlement.