Chapter 59: Eradication and Hidden Dangers

The blood-mist dissipated, the vapors coalesced, and the Smoke Knight, clutching his colossal axe, stood tall amidst the ruins of the aftermath.

The surrounding houses had long since been razed by the explosion; now, only Shuguin and the "God of Life," Erphin, remained upon the field.

"A thing like you dares to call itself a god? A deity inferior even to a demon? How utterly laughable..."

A low, raspy voice, as if scraped by jagged blades, emanated from the towering Smoke Knight.

The grating sound mocked the giant eyeball that had locked its gaze upon Shuguin.

"Shut up..." A calm, magnetic voice cut through the harsh, rasping tone.

"Tch, I’m supposed to be the one closest to you, so what’s the harm in letting me speak? This wretch actually has the gall to claim divinity?"

"It’s not even a comedy—" The low, raspy voice was cut short before it could finish its rambling.

The Smoke Knight began to move. While the knight remained in motion, the giant eyeball did not stay idle.

The surrounding matter was once again imbued with life, though this time, it was more concentrated, more refined.

The entire ground was quickened, transforming into a quagmire of flesh.

From within, blood-drenched tentacles—resembling flayed octopus limbs lined with sharp, hooked barbs—coiled toward Shuguin.

The shattered brickwork and debris were also imbued with life, yet they did not act as independent entities; instead, they converged into a singular whole.

Fragments of flesh stitched together, while masses of masonry fused into form, their surfaces covered in chitinous plates, their sides sprouting jointed limbs.

A gargantuan centipede was born from thin air.

The giant centipede trampled across the mire of flesh, charging forward without obstruction, while the tentacles emerging from the swamp harassed the Smoke Knight.

Faced with this dual assault, the Smoke Knight chose to ignore them—yes, simply ignore them.

He disregarded the charging centipede entirely, moving in a straight line toward the giant eye affixed to the city wall.

Shuguin had already heard Wang Yu’s warning, and he was determined to excise the source of this mutation in one fell swoop.

Flesh-tentacles coiled upward, but they were met by a sudden, violent eruption of smoke.

The mist swept out from the Smoke Knight, enveloping the tentacles and spinning with the velocity of a fluid vortex.

The smoke churned, its effect indistinguishable from the savage shearing of a meat grinder.

In a mere instant, the encroaching tentacles were severed, shredded, and riddled with holes, falling as useless scraps of gore into the mire below.

The Smoke Knight’s charge was swift and unstoppable; the rapid sprint was not hindered in the slightest by the swamp of flesh.

The charging giant closed the distance to the source of the mutation to within ten meters in the blink of an eye.

At that moment, the Smoke Knight collided head-on with the charging centipede.

Coiling its body like a cobra, the centipede reared its head, displaying massive, sharp, and sturdy fangs, hissing at the three-meter-tall figure of the Smoke Knight.

Ignoring the centipede’s warning, Shuguin cared for nothing but cleaving the giant eye.

Faced with the oncoming knight, the centipede lunged, its elongated body spreading out to form a perimeter, encircling the three-meter-tall Smoke Knight.

Even with his stature, the smoke giant seemed small against the dozens of meters of the centipede’s length.

The mire of flesh boiled in perfect timing, a colossal hand of gore rising from its depths, fingers splayed to snatch the Smoke Knight trapped within the centipede’s coils.

The centipede, too, tightened its grip, acting like a hunter drawing a trap shut upon its prey.

The jointed limbs glinted with cold, sharp light, moving back and forth like the teeth of a chainsaw, capable of slicing through metal and stone alike.

With the bloody hand descending from above and the centipede’s body constricting from all sides, the Smoke Knight appeared to have nowhere to escape.

"Splat!" The bloody hand slammed down into the mire, and the centipede completed its lethal constriction.

The two forces overlapped, the hand pressed into the earth, the centipede coiled atop it.

The Smoke Knight in the center was no longer visible, seemingly covered, shrouded, and hunted down like prey.

But clearly, this was merely an illusion.

Through the gaps in the centipede’s body, wisps of mist drifted out—gaseous and ethereal, passing through the constraints without the slightest resistance.

They seeped out from every crevice. The mire seemed to notice these strange vapors, and tentacles continuously probed the air, grasping at the thickening smoke.

The centipede, too, extended its countless limbs, attempting to strike at the mist with its own body.

But how could ethereal smoke be hindered by such things? It moved without hesitation through every obstacle, gathering and coalescing.

Shuguin, his trench coat billowing, appeared beneath the giant eye, holding the cigar that had not yet burned to ash.

He took a deep drag, then exhaled, smoke pouring from his mouth and nostrils.

This time, Shuguin did not transform into the giant Smoke Knight; instead, the vapors gathered and condensed behind him.

A larger Smoke Knight emerged, standing tall at Shuguin’s back.

As the cigar burned down to nothing, the massive Smoke Knight fully materialized.

Standing eight meters tall, he confronted the giant eyeball on the wall, a match in scale and power.

For a fleeting moment, the corner of the giant Smoke Knight’s mouth seemed to curl into an evil, arrogant smile, only to vanish as quickly as it appeared.

The mire and the centipede behind him went completely berserk; the centipede charged like a runaway train, and countless hands reached out from the swamp.

But it was too late. Shuguin raised his long-handled axe, stained crimson with blood, and swung it down through the air.

The giant Smoke Knight behind him performed the same motion, his massive axe of smoke cleaving downward in a vertical strike.

The blow of the giant smoke axe was devastating; the giant eye had no room to maneuver, and it was split in two without a moment’s hesitation by the seemingly dull edge of the smoke blade.

The sheer scale of the axe blade carved deep into the city wall to which the eye was attached, leaving a massive scar that shattered stone and broke through masonry from top to bottom.

Flesh collapsed, and grotesque fluids sprayed from within the giant eye; the matter inside poured out in a frenzy, utterly repulsive.

The slime-like substance that served as the eye’s pupil attempted to slide toward the edge to evade the descending blade.

It was incredibly fast, managing to slip aside just before the axe fell, but it was all in vain.

Smoke is formless; it swept out from the axe blade, enveloping the agile slime and sealing off every path of retreat.

Spinning, cutting, and decomposing, the intangible smoke unleashed astonishing destructive power. Within the mist, the dark green slime was completely pulverized.

Along with its internal core, it was shattered to nothingness, and two objects fell, caught by Shuguin.

The centipede and the mire behind him disintegrated the moment the slime was destroyed; the centipede crumbled into a shower of flying bricks, and the mire became a surging wave of mud.

"Plop, plop, plop." Shuguin calmly examined the two items in his hand, while the Smoke Knight behind him used his own back to shield Shuguin from all the flying debris.

As the bricks settled and the mud piled up, the Smoke Knight slowly dissipated, turning back into ethereal vapor.

Wang Yu could see a wisp of smoke drift from the void and slip into the lantern at Shuguin’s waist.

Edward looked down at Charles, who had stopped trembling, and released his hold on the man.

Since the captain had recalled his demon, it meant the matter was concluded.

Wang Yu sensed the changes in his surroundings; the domain of the void energy, once held by a master, had vanished. His ripples were no longer suppressed, and within a ten-meter radius, everything was once again clear and distinct.

It seemed the source of the mutation had indeed been eradicated, its power dissipated.

He looked around; the things that had been imbued with life had ceased their activity, reverting to inanimate, dead matter.

The city wall area was a scene of utter devastation, the surrounding buildings all collapsed from the battle.

Wang Yu was, in truth, quite shaken; in his understanding, the knight profession’s destructive potential was inherently limited, incomparable to that of a mage.

Yet, the devastation Shugin had unleashed, coupled with his terrifying inner reserves, had, to a certain extent, completely overturned Wang Yu’s perception of what a knight could be.

Stepping forward, Wang Yu looked at the two items in the captain’s hand—familiar objects that confirmed his suspicions.

A steel spike engraved with various runes, and a holy emblem depicting a lush forest centered around a towering, ancient tree.

These two items were identical to those Wang Yu had extracted from the goblin’s body.

After a moment’s thought, Wang Yu made a request of Shugin: "Captain, could I examine this holy emblem? I’d like to confirm the state of this 'Source of Life,' Elfin, just as I did with the Lady of the Night."

"Very well," Shugin nodded; it seemed he had learned of Wang Yu’s research into the Lady of the Night through the Professor.

Taking the steel spike from Shugin’s hand, Wang Yu began to chant the contents of the emblem with practiced ease.

"Source of life, the giant tree that spanned the ages, guardian of living things, benevolent elder, I sing thy name..."

Before the spike could react and attempt to pierce his crown to seize control, Wang Yu crushed it between his fingers.

The material of the spike was peculiar, yet once he truly held it, he found it shattered with surprising ease.

A cluster of light escaped from within, burrowing into Wang Yu’s mind.

With Shugin standing by, Wang Yu felt no fear of any untoward incidents.

Turning his vision inward, his spirit immersed in his body, Wang Yu stood once more upon the lake beneath the starry sky.

He saw the figure of the Lady of the Night standing beside him, gazing toward a distant point.

Wang Yu followed her gaze and discovered an old man—an old man in a state of profound distress.

The elder appeared to be of advanced age and high status, his robes woven with green emblems, elegant and mysterious.

With a wooden staff in hand and long, smooth antlers crowning his head, he looked no different from the traditional image of a druid.

However, his current state was deeply wrong; the skin of the elder, which should have been wrinkled, was now unnaturally translucent and smooth, as if filled with some liquid.

The once-kindly face now wore eyes tightly shut, and the cheeks were swollen with pustules, inside which disgusting fluids churned incessantly.

The old man lay collapsed on the ground, his body bloated in every part, like a grotesque patient covered in tumors, his robes unable to conceal the distended, mutated flesh.

"He has been corrupted," the Lady of the Night’s voice echoed beside Wang Yu; the tone was unreadable, yet carried a hint of pity.

"Just as you said, corrupted by the madness of those believers?"

"Indeed. It seems those who worshipped him were slimes—mindless creatures whose instincts are merely to divide, consume, and merge..."

"This has created a massive conflict with his own nature, and, like me, he had only this single species of creature worshipping him at the time..."

"But the Church of the Source of Life has grown quite large here..." Wang Yu countered.

In the wall district, according to the Professor’s intel, the Church of the Source of Life had appeared months ago, and those so-called 'Life Return' rituals had long been underway.

"Those prayers were directed not at him, but at that slime. Everyone believes their god is that formless, twisted thing, which only makes it worse..."

Wang Yu thought about it; that was likely the truth.

"I feel like you gods are perhaps a bit too, well, weak—though still much stronger than me."

Wang Yu had always been puzzled; the gods he encountered didn't seem to possess much "divinity," nor were they overwhelmingly powerful.

Instead, the Lady of the Night and the Source of Life appeared remarkably passive, even constrained by their own believers, which he struggled to understand.

Perhaps the only one who fit his preconceived image of a god was the God of Light.

Yet other gods, like this Source of Life, Elfin, had even been "killed" by Shugin single-handedly.

"I, too, wish to know why I am what you call a god; I have no power of choice."

The Lady of the Night’s words left Wang Yu at a loss; he seemed to have inadvertently imposed the frameworks of Earth onto this world.

Must a god be omnipotent? Must a god disdain the so-called mortals? This, too, seemed to be a form of fixed thinking.

Even the gods themselves could not choose the nature or strength of their own abilities...

"Perhaps I was just assuming," Wang Yu rubbed his chin.

"Well, I hope you keep your promise to spread my faith."

"I do not wish to end up like him, continuing to collapse in a state of lingering agony, becoming something I was never meant to be."

"Wait, what did you say?" Wang Yu suddenly caught the implication in her words.

"Wasn't he killed?" Wang Yu looked at the fading form of the "Source of Life," Elfin.

This mutated elder had begun to fade the moment he entered this space.

He had assumed it was the result of the captain "killing" this god, but the Lady of the Night’s words suggested otherwise.

"No, this is not extinction. He is merely collapsing; he is transforming into the image distorted by his believers, becoming a twisted thing like a slime."

"So the prayer I chanted from the emblem no longer has anything to do with the god 'Source of Life'?"

"And that is why I can no longer use the original prayers to establish a connection with him?"

"Because he has become something entirely different from the original Source of Life?"

"Your conjecture is correct..." The Lady of the Night affirmed Wang Yu’s assessment.

"Damn, his fading isn't because he died, but because he no longer matches the prayer!"

Wang Yu was genuinely surprised; he hadn't expected the fading to be caused by the god becoming someone else entirely, and he couldn't help but curse.

Retreating rapidly from the mental space, Wang Yu prepared to share this discovery with the others.

But as he exited, he heard the Professor’s grave voice ringing in his ears.

"The Source of Life is recorded as having two abilities: one is 'Life Return,' and the other is the 'Seed of Immortality.'"

"The former was demonstrated during your battle, but the latter... I fear this Source of Life is not yet truly dead."

"Cough, cough. Looks like we’ve got more work to do," Shugin puffed on his pipe and coughed twice, his tone flat, offering what might have been a complaint.

Charles and Edward exchanged glances, while Wang Yu furrowed his brows.

...

Meanwhile, at an orphanage on the edge of the city, a troop of cavalry arrived with a group of children; most wore expressions of numbness, while a few wept incessantly.

Several middle-aged women in the orphanage comforted the children, washing the grime from their clothes and faces.

They were orphans rescued by the city guards during the incident; their parents, who had worshipped the Source of Life, had all been transformed into mounds of fleshy monsters.

These children, lacking any concept of the faith, had survived by sheer chance and were sent to the orphanage in the royal capital.

"Vanessa, be a good girl. Edward and I will come to visit you later."

The middle-aged knight who had helped Edward care for Vanessa patted her head, offering a kind smile to the thin, dark-haired little girl.

Vanessa nodded obediently; though she said nothing, she appeared very compliant, following the matron of the orphanage to change her clothes and be assigned a room.

The knight sighed; such a sweet child, and these damned cultists—at the thought, his fist tightened.

He shook his head, mounted his horse, and rode away. He would come back with Edward to check on this poor, obedient child.

Though he couldn't bring her parents back, he could at least ensure she received a decent education; he wondered if she had any talent for magic...

Behind him, Vanessa turned her head, staring expressionlessly at the back of the knight as he rode away.

Her pupils had melted into a pool of dark, viscous emerald, swirling slowly within the spheres of her eyes.

"Vanessa, hurry up!" came the urgent call of the woman.

"Coming," Vanessa whispered, her eyes instantly returning to their natural state.

(I would love a comment, and please add this to your library, haha!)