“How are you, Miss Maid?”
“No good, I really can’t hit her!”
The two women stood back to back, their bodies marked with several bloody scratches from arrows.
Sophien clicked her tongue in annoyance. She really didn’t want to use the Divine Envoy’s Authority, since using it would leave her weakened for a while. But constantly being worn down like this wasn’t a solution either.
“Miss Maid, go take my men and leave!”
“Then please be careful, Sir Commander.”
Mei had just turned around when an arrow shot toward her brow at lightning speed.
The arrow drew closer and closer, and no matter what she did, it was too late.
Damn it… I can’t dodge this…
At that critical moment, a thunderclap suddenly exploded.
The arrow in front of Mei shattered into pieces in an instant.
Her ears rang painfully as she stared blankly at the person who had blocked her path.
“…Lord Matthews? Why did you come?”
“The whole mansion was trapped in a formation, so I had to check. Besides, if something happened to you, that boy Mann would be heartbroken.”
After saying that, Viscount Matthews turned to look at Sophien.
“Don’t you have something you need to do? Leave this to me!”
“May your battles be blessed! Miss Maid, let’s go! We’re going to find Lord Mann!”
Seeing Sophien and the others leave, the viscount slowly put away his giant sword.
“Emily…”
The next moment, an arrow shot toward the viscount’s shoulder, but he casually deflected it.
“You didn’t aim for my vitals… Don’t you have something to say?”
“Lord… Don’t stop me!”
A tearful voice came from the darkness.
“Come out. Let’s talk face to face.”
Light footsteps echoed from the darkness.
A woman with one arm missing walked out slowly.
Her face was pale, and in her remaining hand she clutched a loaded crossbow.
Matthews raised his hand, wanting to reach out and touch the wife before him, but he only lifted it halfway before lowering it again.
“Why did you join the Heretic God Sect? Why did you try to hurt Mann? The boy is a little withdrawn, but…”
“Lord Matthews, have you heard of the prophecy?”
“Prophecy?”
“Yes. A prophecy about the world’s direction.”
Emily spoke as she sat down on the ground and set aside her crossbow.
“For example, I already knew you would come here today.”
“So you weren’t specifically targeting Mann?”
“No. Our only goal is to ensure the prophecy unfolds accurately. And I don’t dislike Mann.”
“Then what are you really after? How many people have died because of you? Because of you, the entire Campbell Territory has… Sigh!”
“Come back. It’s not too late. Give up your identity in the Heretic God Sect and be my wife again… Please? I can atone for the dead with you…”
Matthews wanted to try, no matter what, he didn’t want to raise a blade against this person. They had lived together for more than ten years—it was impossible to say there were no feelings.
Even though he knew it was useless.
“No, you’re wrong. We are not guilty. The guilty ones are people like you who cannot hear the divine oracle and refuse the guidance of the gods!”
“Everything we have done is to allow that Supreme Being to descend once more. Only under His leadership can we continue forward!”
…
“Then there’s nothing left to say between us…”
Viscount Matthews stepped back a few paces and raised his giant sword again, pointing it at the woman before him.
“Strike…”
“Just as I thought. The prophecy is indeed unchangeable… I’m even more certain now…”
Emily stood up, gripped her crossbow again, and disappeared into the boundless darkness.
The next instant, countless arrows shot toward Matthews.
“Disperse!”
He drove his giant sword into the ground, and a thunderclap descended from the sky, shattering all the arrows to dust.
The crackle of electricity faded, and only Matthews remained.
But he suddenly pulled out his giant sword and stabbed viciously behind him.
A sound of tearing flesh and blood, and a torrent of blood dripped down the blade.
Half of a pitch-black dagger was already embedded in his right shoulder.
Emily’s hand lost all strength and fell limply.
She slowly became visible, her upper body leaning over Matthews’ sword blade.
With a violent pull, the giant sword was withdrawn, and she lost her balance, collapsing toward the ground.
A clatter rang out as the bloodstained giant sword was dropped.
Matthews caught the dying Emily, crying like a child.
“Honestly… a grown man crying so ugly…”
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I had no choice…”
Emily gently wiped the tears from his face.
“I’m sorry… Lord Matthews… Please… in the coming catastrophe…”
Her final words were never finished.
Emily closed her eyes and fell into an eternal sleep.
After a long time, Matthews finally set Emily down.
His eyes were bloodshot, and he could barely stand without stumbling.
“Emily… wait for me to come back… I still have… something I must do…”
He dragged his giant sword, walking slowly. The bloodstained tip scraped against the ground, producing a continuous, grating sound.
After he walked far away, Emily’s corpse began to emit eerie blue flames.
…
“So? Sir Commander? Did you sense Young Master Mann’s whereabouts?”
Sophien’s expression was somewhat strange.
“I did sense him… but his position is a bit odd.”
Mei looked at her, puzzled.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s directly beneath us.”
“Directly beneath us…”
Mei also looked confused, but quickly realized.
The only space underneath the mansion was that abandoned cave.
“I know where it is. Follow me!”
…
Inside the cave.
After the surge of nostalgia faded, only bone-chilling cold remained.
Mann looked at the figure in the mirror and hesitated for a moment.
“So… should I call you Wus, or should I call you Mother?”
“I never imagined it would end like this…”
“You… have grown up, Mann. You’re not a child anymore.”
The figure in the mirror wore a faint, barely perceptible look of disappointment.
“Can you explain? Your reason for doing all this.”
“All of this is the necessary price to make the prophecy of our Supreme God’s descent come true.”
“And you, my child, as the Holy Son, are the key figure to realizing the prophecy.”
“Prophecy?”
“The God will eventually gather His body and descend once more. He will pour the fury of hell upon His former enemies. The world will be destroyed by His hand, and we shall be reborn. Guiding His descent is our mission.”
“Heh… heh heh… All for that nonsense, that dogshit prophecy…”
Mann shook his head and slowly backed away.
“So you deceived Father. You ordered Emily to give the Blood Demon Heart to Campbell, causing the deaths of all the people in Campbell Territory. You ambushed and killed your own flesh and blood along the way. You even schemed against your own family. And you wanted to summon that thing in your own territory…”
“Mad… you’ve gone mad!”
Wus was silent for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
“I never expected you to understand me…”
“But as the Holy Son, you were bound to learn all this sooner or later…”
“I’m sorry… my child…”
“Shut up!”
Mann could no longer bear it and cut her off.
“My mother… died when I was four years old.”
“I don’t want to hear another word from you. After I leave, I’ll seal this place up tight. You’ll be trapped here forever, paying for your sins!”
Mann turned to leave.
“Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do that.”
“Because you are about to kill me with your own hands.”
Wus spoke calmly behind him, as if discussing someone else’s death, with no emotion in her voice.
But Mann didn’t want to listen to her.
The next moment, however, she spoke behind him in that familiar, ancient, and bizarre language.
It was the same language he had heard before he decided to utter the name of the Evil God.
The language drove into Mann’s brain like nails.
“It hurts… it hurts so much… stop…”
After struggling for only a moment, the intense pain made him faint.
Then, his body stood up eerily. At some point, a pure black dagger appeared in his hand.
His gaze was vacant, and he moved sluggishly toward Wus.
“You know what to do next, don’t you need me to teach you?”
“Mann” said coldly.
Wus knelt reverently on the ground, her hands crossed over her chest, eyes tightly shut.
With a wet thud, the black dagger pierced straight through the mirror, also piercing the heart of Wus in the reflection.
“Thank you… very much… Lord Evil God…”
She struggled to support herself, and the mark of the Heretic God Sect on her arm glowed faintly blue.
Then, countless blue flames burst forth, mercilessly consuming her body.
“We offer our lives as sacrifices to guide the great Evil God’s return to the world!”
“The Heretic God Sect… shall endure forever!”