Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 147: Familiar Faces

Crack.

The old Pope couldn’t dodge in time. Knight Saint Bernard bit fiercely into his arm, his sharp teeth sinking deep into flesh and blood.

A few steps away, the moment he received the command, Fischer immediately released Painter from his bonds. As the chains fell to the ground, a wand was raised. Before Eugene, Fischer, and Knight Saint Bernard could react, they were pulled into the alternate space of the [Mercy Countdown].

No sooner had the four disappeared than the undead dragon Telistam’s breath followed right behind them. Teest, taking advantage of the golden threads, leaped high into the air, while the old Pope, trapped in place, barely managed to block. Other cultists by the altar who just touched the blue dragon’s breath screamed as they turned into flying ash.

The undead dragon spread its wings, flew to mid-air, and let out a roar that shook the valley. Even as mighty as a dragon, its spirit was eroded by over two hundred years of death, leaving behind only the most powerful obsession and the most bone-deep hatred.

Hatred for the Eternal Church.

There were twenty-five seconds left until the formation was activated.

The old Pope’s body burst out with a thick and strong aura, and he raised his head in anger.

Countless magic mixed with black light bombarded Nol on the dragon’s head, emitting a weird aura far beyond normal magic. Nol raised his staff, and blue fireballs knocked them down one by one. The magic collided in mid-air, making a creepy vacuum explosion sound.

Nol’s eyebrows twitched.

Pope Gregory Gilmore really had the power of a false god. Could this also be the masterpiece of the Eternal Son? …No matter. Once he becomes Teest’s toy, they could ask him thoroughly.

“Monster who desecrates death, you have disturbed the Eternity granted by my God!” the old Pope cursed in a hissing voice.

There were eighteen seconds left until the formation was activated.

“What are you talking about?”

A frivolous voice sounded behind him. “How elegant my honey is! …Come, see what real desecration is.”

Another wave of brutally cold aura spread out, and the old Pope instinctively turned around, his eyes widening slightly behind the black veil.

He saw hell.

Blood, dead flesh, and corpses gathered on their own, forming a black-red swamp. They devoured the bouncing pieces of flesh and the wailing cultists, becoming ever more expansive and deep.

Guided by the golden threads, the swamp surged wildly. It writhed madly, producing sticky bubbles that burst into a rich scent of blood and decay. Pale skeletons danced within, as if still alive.

What a lively scene.

However, the old Pope had never felt such pure death before—in comparison, even the undead monsters could be considered full of life. Everything in the world disappeared, leaving only endless shadows and nothingness.

Like “destruction” itself.

In the middle of the desolate land of darkness, only the young “nun” stood.

This so-called Chosen One, who brings “endless destruction and chaos”, stood clean in the midst of filth. The Mad Monk opened his arms to the old Pope, his golden hair scattered. The golden threads between his fingers were dyed gold-red by blood, and his torn black robe fluttered in the wind.

His face was slightly flushed, with only pure excitement and joy on his face.

“Thank you.” He bowed slightly, his tone sweet, with a smile. “I’ve learned a little new trick.”

Shadows howled in.

Blood and flesh covered the land, and the warm body temperature became extremely cold due to the aura of destruction. The old Pope couldn’t help but glance down at the bite marks of the dog-headed beastman on his arm.

Could it be that his oracle…

In an instant, the swamp submerged the old Pope’s legs. It didn’t immediately devour him but firmly wrapped him in place. Meanwhile, the undead dragon circled nearby on the hillside, its breath indiscriminately burning all the corpses that hadn’t been devoured—whether the death was real or feigned, in the end, all turned to ashes.

All mechanisms, all defenses, disappeared in this mad destruction.

For a moment, it was as if the past had returned—when the church suddenly attacked the unguarded White Dragon Telistam, it also launched a swift attack in a very short time.

Finally, the giant protective barrier that enveloped the area also showed fine cracks of light, shattering into pieces.

Under the blue sky, among the light particles, the Undead Dragon Telistam raised its head, emitting a sad and high-pitched scream. The dragon’s might, along with the aura of death, burst forth, spreading in waves in all directions, announcing a downfall that was over two hundred years late.

The dragon’s lair wasn’t far from here, and the dragon would soon know and come to this place.

Nol stood steadily on Telistam’s skull.

Between the dragon horns, the black nun, bathed in blood, had her cloak fluttering non-stop behind her. Her cheeks, stained with the blood of the sacrifice, looked down at the old Pope with a pair of blue eyes, as if looking at a dying cockroach.

The old Pope’s mind went blank for a second.

How many years ago was it the last time he felt despair?

Stronger magic required time to prepare, and all targets that could bear the cost of death around him had disappeared… In just a few minutes, he was completely cornered by these two people.

Impossible.

It shouldn’t end like this, not like this.

His God had clearly told him, the power he obtained allowed him to suppress all creatures in the world… He had never heard of someone with “godly” power having so many.

It was too absurd. The Mad Monk wasn’t even twenty*. How could he possibly do this?

*Clarity: This is referring to the years the Mad Monk has been in existence (not Teest’s actual age), and the Pope doesn’t know Teest is the Mad Monk.

And that weird mage who turned the dragon into an undead…

There were seven seconds left until the formation was activated.

Now, he had only one choice.

My God…?

The old Pope inserted his palm into his chest with a backhand motion. In the ominous magical glow, he held his still-beating heart in his palm, trying to call upon his god.

Only his God could solve such chaos. The old Pope closed his eyes, waiting for God’s gaze to fall on him.

But he waited for nothing.

“With me here, He cannot see.”

Teest once again silently circled behind him, the fine golden threads wrapping around the beating heart.

“Goodbye.”

With a muffled sound, the still-beating heart was twisted into pieces by the golden threads, blood splattering. At the same time, Nol’s magic hit the old Pope, his eyes behind the black veil dissipating.

It’s over.

Three, two, one…

In the last second before the sacrificial array was activated, Nol grabbed Teest, Teest grabbed the old Pope, and the two jumped into the center of the formation. Flesh burned, and the white light quickly faded. After the light dispersed, nothing was left on the magic circle.

……

[It turns out to be teleportation magic.]

In the darkness, Teest climbed up from the ground.

[When I was modifying the magic circle just now, I noticed its magical properties.]

Nol gasped on the ground for a while. [Its setting is ‘to receive a large amount of pure human flesh and blood, and to teleport the target on the magic circle to a specific location, up to two intelligent beings’…]

[Undead monsters don’t count as beings, so there’s no problem.] He casually pointed at the old Pope and himself.

The designer of the magic circle had calculated everything but didn’t expect that rare and immobile undead monsters would run around.

[I see.] Teest extended his hand to Nol, his voice still carrying a hint of laughter. [You actually transformed a white dragon on the spot. What a wonderful method.]

Nol chuckled bitterly.

There were only twenty seconds left, and Teest had to personally kill the old pope…

Nol had never burned his brain cells this fast, not even during his craziest overtime work—

Clearing the field violently in a short time, while making the old Pope obediently fight Teest, only the threat of a dragon could achieve this. Otherwise, if the old Pope chose to turn and fight him, the situation might become uncontrollable.

There was also that troublesome death-substitute magic.

The positions of the previous substitutes were always on the edges, so it was hard to say if it was a random effect. The old Pope would likely choose the target himself. Both the undead dragon and Nol himself were undead, logically unable to bear the cost of death.

The only one in danger was Teest, so at the moment Teest killed the old Pope, Nol hit him with a memory spell, temporarily making him forget Teest’s existence.

All these countermeasures were squeezed out of his brain in a few minutes.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly.

Next, the dragons would arrive in about two hours, while Painter and the others would leave within half an hour after the [Mercy Countdown]. Before leaving, Nol gave the undead dragon the command to “stop killing”. Seeing the undead dragon, Painter would probably realize what happened and hopefully escape quickly.

The old Pope stood dumbly beside Teest, his shattered heart dangling outside his chest, with no breathing in his chest.

Nol weakly grabbed Teest’s hand, feeling completely drained, wishing he could collapse here and sleep for a long time. The problem was, this place was really not suitable for peaceful sleep—

There was nothing but darkness around. Nol had dark vision, but the visibility was only about a meter, and that was limited to the human body. Everywhere was pure darkness—not even outer space was this suffocating.

They felt the ground beneath their feet, but in this darkness, taking another step, Nol wasn’t sure if they would step into emptiness.

Luckily, they dealt with the old Pope. Next, they could just let this old guy lead the way.

Nol: “Next, we… Ahhhhhh!

A cold hand grabbed Nol’s clothes from behind. The Great Demon King was caught off guard, issuing a series of embarrassing screams.

Teest: “…”

Teest: “Pfft!”

He casually pulled Nol behind him. The “Betrayer” spun in his palm, its tip pointing at that hand.

The hand moved closer, and the body behind it also emerged from the darkness—the owner of the hand raised both his hands and had a stiff smile on his face. “Good evening, sirs.”

Teest was surprised. An unexpected person was standing in front of him.

Embilly Alva.

“Don’t kill me.” Golden Sword Billy’s face turned pale. “I was just… That was an undead dragon! I was afraid it would kill me too, so, cough cough…”

He rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a handful of shiny gem shards. Rich magic still flowed between the shards.

“This is called ‘The Convict’s Good Luck’. Just crush it, and it will teleport me to the nearest person who can most likely protect me. If you don’t believe me, feel free to verify!”

“Just take me out with you, and the Alva Merchant Company will definitely offer a satisfactory price.  I guarantee…”

Nol: “……” Truly a great merchant from the Alva Merchant Company. This guy really has all sorts of weird things.

“How could the renowned ‘Golden Sword’ be here?” Teest decisively changed back to a female voice, raising her eyebrows.

“Eugene and that dog-headed knight were sent by me.” Billy still raised his hands. “I’ve always wanted to find the altar of the Eternal Church. Mr. Eugene was in a hurry to come this way, so I was just doing a favor. You see…”

Nol sighed and pressed Teest’s arm. “Let it go.”

In a way, Billy bringing Eugene and Knight Saint Bernard helped them a lot. If it weren’t for the two knights’ interference, facing the flawless pope, he and Teest really wouldn’t have caught many flaws.

From the rescue on the road, to the succubus incident, to a dinner after traveling back in time…

Golden Sword Billy also had several encounters with them. Thinking of Billy’s two cute children, Nol didn’t dare apply the memory spell too heavily.

Anyway, Billy couldn’t escape. A confidentiality contract, memory modification, or something else—they could decide later… Maybe this person could be of help.

Teest shrugged and sheathed the sword. Billy immediately breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes stealthily glancing at the zombie-like old Pope.

Teest clapped his hands. “Old bag, lead the way.”

The old Pope uttered a vague “Yes” and started walking in the darkness.

Nol and Teest, one in front and one behind, sandwiched the stiff-walking Billy—actually, it would be more secure to knock him out and carry him, but this place was too weird. Nol preferred they keep their quickest reaction speed.

A great merchant indeed knows his place. The previous battles, the current state of the Pope, the identities of the two “nuns”, he didn’t ask. Seeing that neither of them spoke, he instead cleared his throat and started a light conversation.

“Do you want to take off his veil?”

Billy tried to speak in a casual tone. “No one knows what the old Pope looks like. I’ll give a thousand gold wheels. May I have a look?”

Nol: [Wow, for a thousand gold wheels…]

Teest: [A thousand gold wheels to see a dead old man…]

Even if Teest and Nol weren’t short on money, they were still tempted. Indeed, now that Billy mentioned it, Nol was also a bit curious.

“This divine emblem is indeed annoying.” Teest snapped his fingers, and the old Pope himself raised his hand and took off the black veil on his face.

[Nothing special,] Nol thought.

The old pope’s eyes were caramel-colored, with rectangular pupils like a sheep’s. He had high cheekbones and a good bone structure. It was evident that he was handsome when he was young.

Apart from that, there was nothing special—no peculiar tattoos, no mysterious brands, nothing at all. Just by appearance, Pope Gilmore was just a decent-looking old man, not at all connected to a cult.

[To be honest, I thought he would look more hideous.]

Teest remained silent on the surface, but chatted with Nol in their minds. [Like dark blue bags under his eyes, caterpillar eyebrows, a hooked nose, and even blisters on his nose…]

[Right, that image suits better.] Nol affirmed, a concept image of the character was already forming in his mind. [Plus a deathly pale skin tone, a long philtrum…]

After happily chatting, they both realized something was off.

Billy was too quiet.

Teest cleared his throat. “It seems this isn’t a face worth a thousand gold wheels.”

“No, no! I just felt this face looked familiar, sir,” Billy hurriedly said. “But I definitely couldn’t have seen him… Allow me to think for a bit longer, sir.”

[Making a mystery out of it.] Teest scoffed internally. [We won’t spare his life over such a trivial matter.]

[…Still, it’s better not to silence him.] Nol wiped his face.

[Sorry, habit.]

[……]

In absolute darkness, the Pope led them around before finally stopping. He raised his hand, pausing in a certain part of the darkness.

“My emergency messenger is waiting inside. He is blind, but his other senses are exceptionally sharp, so please keep quiet and be careful,” the old Pope said in a flat tone.

Centered around the palm of his hand, circles of strange runes lit up. They outlined a door of light.

Within the outline of the light door, the darkness receded, and light shone through. Beyond the door was a domed stone chamber of about a hundred square meters, built of dark gray stones. The walls and floor were as damp as a death row cell, gloomy and dim.

In the center of the chamber stood a huge statue of the Eternal Son—

A fat, faceless infant, clutching a rough and uneven planet. The surface of the planet was covered with a network of fine blood vessels, which converged at the end of the infant’s umbilical cord, connecting the planet and the infant tightly.

Beneath the statue, pale candles of varying heights, accumulated from candle tears, burned. They were the only source of light in this place. The candle flames didn’t flicker, and despite the candles burning, the wax didn’t seem to diminish at all.

Nol couldn’t help but frown at the discomforting aspect.

And the atmosphere was very subtle—

It was a kind of discordance difficult to describe in words, similar to the slight differences between a highly detailed game rendering and the real world. Very similar, but still not the same. The cold and heat here felt somewhat void, the air had a monotonous scent, like… some kind of unfinished product.

In a corner of the room, the emergency messenger of the Eternal Church curled up into a ball. His eyes were nothing but burnt-out pits, and he clutched a dirty spatial bag, looking like a dried-up corpse. Hearing the noise, he slightly lifted his head.

“My Lord—” He moved his lips, drawing a perfect circle on his chest.

Before he could finish, Teest casually knocked him out with the emblem of Life.

“Do what you need to do,” Teest instructed, adjusting the front of his nun’s habit.

“Don’t do anything.” Nol spoke almost at the same time.

The messenger’s voice came from the corner, eerily clear without any echo. The dissonance made him feel nauseated, akin to the “uncanny valley” effect. Something was very wrong with this place, definitely wrong.

The two exchanged glances, and Billy fell silent as if he had turned into a cicada in winter.

[What’s the matter, honey? Do you want to come in person?] Teest tilted his head innocently.

[The atmosphere here is wrong.]

Nol said, his blue eyes lighting up. He activated [Creator] and forcibly checked every detail of the place. […Magic outside the system. The fluctuations are well hidden. The aura is like a degraded ‘Creator’… but it doesn’t create real objects, only illusions.]

The terrain lines detected by [Creator] trembled incessantly, occasionally flashing afterimages. Especially the statue in the center of the room—its shape changed and flickered wildly, like a game model stuck in a glitch.

The caster was very powerful. If not for his possession of the [Creator] skill, he might have been deceived by everything in front of him.

[Got it, a god-level illusion.] Teest quickly understood. [Can you break it?]

[That’s what I plan to do.] Nol nodded.

He had carefully sensed it. There were no other traps here. Removing the illusion, in theory, should not affect the reception of the oracle.

Under Billy’s puzzled gaze, Nol raised both hands. Layers of magic circles lit up from his palms, and in a few heartbeats, blue magic circles covered the space.

The large and small magic circles slowly rotated. The surrounding air seemed to be pulled into a blender, gradually distorting and shattering. The collapse of the small world in front of them emitted a chilling tearing sound, as if skin was being forcefully ripped off a living person.

Behind the darkness was deeper darkness. The stone chamber disappeared, turning into an even darker cavern.

Beneath their feet, on the walls, and up to the ceiling. The uneven stones were inscribed with strange runes in black liquid. The runes glowed with a black-red luminescence, intertwining with each other, stretching out from the walls, web-like, binding the object in the center of the cavern.

And in the middle of the cavern…

“That thing” was about five meters tall.

Its arms spread out like wings, suspended in mid-air by bizarre runes. Its waist, legs, and ankles were wrapped in dense runes.

Its silhouette resembled a slender girl without a head, wearing a gauze dress.

They had seen it before.

A long time ago, on a dark night. It had, in front of their eyes, erased a novice village from the world.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

For those who forgot, this was all the way in arc 1 (Ch7-10).

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>