CHAPTER 100: ANCIENT GOD

Flutter!

Wayne flapped his three pairs of green wings, seeing from afar the ominous gloom shrouding the Bart Estate, snuffing his last glimmer of hope. He was too late! The evil god had completed their descent.

“Little one, you’ve followed me here.”

The evil god hovered in the air, their dragon wings beating with casual elegance. They were much faster while flying and several times more effortless. Recalling the humiliation of being pounded into the ground, the evil god was enraged, but no longer considered Wayne important. There was unclaimed faith waiting to be harvested, and... The Law of Death was troublesome. It could be said to be a bane of the Law of Blood.

With the ambition of dominion within reach, revenge could wait!

The evil god clenched their teeth. Their priority was to claim the ownerless faith gathered under the name of the Sea God. They raised one arm, and several blood arrows rose from the house below, belonging to the eldest Hayden, the second son, Stuart, and other members of the Bart family.

Myron Bart’s deal with the demon included a clause that, regardless of success or failure, the demon had to spare the Bart family’s bloodline and end the nightmares that prevented the heads of the family from living long lives. The demon agreed, expressing willingness to honor the clause, but it omitted the fact that the first Bart family head to sign the contract had already sold all his descendants to him.

Thus, the evil god hadn’t broken its word. It had simply chosen the clause that favored them when two conflicting terms existed.

I broke my promise, but not really.

The blood arrows hung in the air, outlining the inverted pentagram of hell that rapidly expanded in the sky. A massive dragon over a hundred meters long, consisting of blood crystals, emerged from the magic circle, roaring at Wayne and charging at him.

Tentacles of vines rose from the ground, forming a massive hand that reached toward the sky to grip the dragon’s long neck, dragging it to the ground. Meanwhile, the other vines slithering below weaved a cage to await the dragon’s fall.

The evil god watched calmly, taking flight to head straight to the church of the Sea God Order. While passing Wayne, it conjured howling winds with one hand and snarled viciously, “Be proud. You almost stopped me. Cherish your final moments before your blood becomes mine. I’ll turn your skull into a chalice and drink every drop of your blood!”

Wayne raised the vines and tried to catch the evil god, but the suddenly materializing red crystal walls thwarted his effort. He managed only to plant a parasitic spore in his target.

Roar!

The crimson dragon tore through the vines, roaring as it flew toward him. Opening its maw to the limit, it swallowed Wayne whole. Forged by blood magic, the dragon didn’t have thoughts and thus wasn’t a magical creature. After completing its task of killing its target, it hovered in the air, at a loss for what to do.

Just then, the dragon’s belly suddenly bulged, and sharp vines pierced through its crystal body from its abdomen, neck, and spine. The vines coiled around it like a tightening net. The dragon crashed into the ground, the red crystals shattering into fragments, reverting to its original materials—the Bart family’s blood.

The battlefield was in ruins, with aftershocks hitting the mansion on the cliff’s edge. Someone who seemed like the butler was organizing the servants’ evacuation.

The vines parted, and a flower bud spat out a lump of white flesh. It writhed and transformed into three pairs of wings. Wayne again attached green leaves to them before taking flight, heading toward the parasitic spore.

If it was going to be a fight to the death, so be it!

***

Church of Sea God Order.

The island was far from peaceful today. Small earthquakes continued, and one moment the sky was clear, but the next moment dark clouds rolled in. Rumbling noises echoed as heat rose from underground. The sea gradually filled with a storm’s roars, heralding an approaching tempest.

Dragon Heart Island was located in the North Sea, where storms typically occurred in winter. It was August, not storm season yet, but a tempest struck all of a sudden with incredible power.

The Sea God had to be furious!

Fleets of fishing boats headed toward the harbor. The fishermen’s families gathered at the church unprompted to pray for the Sea God to calm from Their fury, blessing the faithful a safe return. Initially, only a few hundred came, but the number grew until over a thousand gathered.

Amid their prayers, the pool at the center of the church churned violently. With a great splash, a figure emerged, spreading their wings to receive the devotees’ worship.

The evil god of blood!

They flew to the center of the courtyard, where a statue of the Sea God stood, paid for by the devotees. It embodied their simple, honest faith. People couldn’t earn money in ways beyond their understanding, and likewise, they couldn’t imagine a sea god beyond their comprehension.

They didn’t know what the Sea God looked like, or how tall or large They were. The church was built in the style of the Church of Heavenly Father, and the Sea God’s statue was a humanoid figure with spread arms and a face lacking any distinguishable features.

No one knew why the symbol of the Sea God Order was a strange, twisted pentagram or what the symbol meant.

The evil god folded their wings before landing before the statue. They raised their arms in the same pose as the statue and slowly intoned, “My followers, my subjects, I’ve come in response to your devout summoning—”

Though not loud, their gentle voice clearly resonated across the courtyard. It hit every follower in the heart and tugged at their heartstrings, dispelling their doubts and making them worship the evil god before the statue. Their devout chanting and kneeling created a growing chorus. Even members of the Sea God Order believed the impostor, expressing their loyalty in their faith.

The followers awaited their god’s inspection and judgment. They had been anticipating the day for a long time.

Light invisible to mortal eyes was transferred from the statue to the evil god. They closed their eyes and moaned in pleasure, murmuring to themselves, “Pure faith that asks for nothing in return. Such delicacy. It’s much more delicious than the belief of those greedy ones...”

The evil god couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Through the faith, they became ever more powerful, and at the same time, their mind became clearer than ever before. Unlike in hell, where the constant destructive urges clouded their mind, they gradually understood everything and came to see the world clearly.

“Pure faith truly is the most precious treasure in the world. No wonder they all seek to conceal themselves perfectly!”

The evil god surveyed the people prostrating around them. At some point, the followers started panting with bloodshot eyes and faces distorted with the thirst for blood.

“Kekekeke—”

The evil god roared with laughter. As expected of their followers. They had so quickly grasped the essence of blood. But it still wasn’t enough!

An invisible force field surged from the evil god’s body, spreading rapidly through their laughter. The islanders within the force field started swelling. They growled mindlessly as green scales tore through their clothes, and they transformed into crocodiles walking on two feet.

“Go, my subjects! Chase your bloodlust and pursue your most primal desires!” The evil god raised their arms, their voice drowning out the howling winds and overpowering the crimson lightning within the dark clouds. Under the stimulation of bloodthirst, the crocodile monsters roared incessantly and charged out of the church in a dark mass.

Buzzzz!!

A brilliant light split the cloudy sky, drawing sunlight down. The warm radiance stung the crocodile monsters’ eyes like hot oil, scorching their scales and making them wail in pain.

A knight's armor approached with sword in hand. Under the sunlight, the armor shed its rust and blazed with radiance once more. The patterns on the armor gradually became clear, and the flame of consciousness imprinted upon it surged in an instant, manifesting the knight’s breathtakingly sacred visage.

She had a tall nose, eyes like torches, and graceful, pronounced facial features. Her long blond hair danced in the wind to reveal pointed ears like those of an elf.

“A knight of the Goddess of Sun...”

The evil god raised an eyebrow. They didn’t understand why they kept encountering obstacles. Now, even a knight who had been dead for years with pitifully few remaining thoughts dared to block their path.

What a joke!

The knight’s target wasn’t the evil god. She had pursued dragon blood here, and looking around, the evil god alone had dragon blood. The knight charged forward, accelerating suddenly and with incredible speed that made it seem like she was teleporting. Leaping above the evil god, she brought her long sword down.

Clang!

The evil god morphed a blood crystal into a strangely shaped blade to parry the attack. When the two weapons clashed, the evil god, despite being enhanced by dragon blood, staggered back, crashing into the statue of the Sea God behind it.

The evil god’s feet plowed through the ground. They had to marvel at the knight’s strength, but that was all. Their consciousness had evolved, allowing them to take on even living knights easily, let alone a dead one.

The knight stepped forward, swinging her sword continuously in heavy, powerful strikes aimed at the evil god’s heart. The latter gradually adapted to the knight’s strength, precisely seizing an opening between her moves to thrust the blade of blood crystal at the knight’s face.

The knight’s armor scattered into light particles, disappearing before reforming behind the evil god. She brought her sword down heavily with both hands.

The evil god was quite surprised. They blocked the blade with the horns on their head before retreating, reassessing the knight.

“Ancient armor. I remember those patterns from the previous era. You’re a worthy opponent, but you died too early and arrived too late.”

The evil god spoke like they regretted the fact while gathering red light at their horns, striking the knight before she could react. The blast hurled her out of the church. She slammed into the ground, sliding for a distance before a foot stepped on her shoulder to stop her.

Wayne looked down at the spectral knight at his feet. She was translucent, so presumably a ghost, but what was with the intense sunlight? How unconventional.

The knight picked herself up with her sword, never speaking a word. Without sparing Wayne even a glance, she mechanically walked toward the church of the Sea God Order, driven by a single-minded determination to take down the dragon.

Behind Wayne, Veronica summarized what had happened. They found the armor in an underground waterway, which awakened when touched by Vera’s sun magic. According to the murals, the knight was one of the nine who slew the evil dragon.

“Mural? What mural?”

Wayne was confused. Had he missed something? He hadn’t seen a mural about a dragon.

Vera’s eyes lit up as she watched the knight. She took a deep breath and made a vow: “She’s the goddess’s knight! I want to become a dragonslayer like her!”

Thwack!

She got a hand chop to the head.

Wayne looked at Vera speechlessly. With that pretty head of hers, why did she never think before she spoke? He wanted to slay the dragon, too, to defeat her so thoroughly that she lost all defenses, but had he ever said it out loud?

Since they were friends, he would allow Vera to pin the dragon down when he slew her.

Boom!

Golden light streaked back and skidded across the ground before Wayne stopped the knight with his foot once more. Clearly, the evil god was now powerful to an incomprehensible degree and was simply toying with the knight.

He compared himself to the evil god. Not good. Unless he could draw Shadow Nightmare, he would end up six feet under with his lovers, dying alongside Veronica and Vera.

This time, the knight didn’t charge in blindly. Instead, she knelt on one knee with her sword planted in the ground, seemingly preparing a killing move. Her body became more and more transparent, while her surroundings turned dark as she drew the sunlight continuously. Vera looked at her, transfixed, transforming into a glowing figure and converting all her mana into sunlight to pour it into the knight’s body.

The evil god spread its wings and hovered above the church, mockingly watching the trapped animals below, waiting to see if there were any more surprises. Oh, there was no losing this. They wouldn’t fail even if they went easy.

Wayne remembered there being a small eyeball for Sun on the Book of Greed. Although it wasn’t open like the eyes of Nature and Death, he should be able to generate more light than Vera by forcefully converting his mana.

It was worth a try!

His mind raced, considering all the tools at his disposal and the possible tactics. Suddenly, he stopped thinking and froze, gaping at the evil god in the sky.

More precisely, he was staring at what was behind the evil god.

Veronica and Vera also stared, and even the perpetually expressionless knight couldn’t help but show surprise.

“Such an old trick.” The evil god scoffed. “Trying to fool me into turning around? How laughable. Even if I do turn around, what could you do?”

They pretended to fall for the trick and turned to look. Then they froze.

Black veil shrouded Dragon Heart Island. Twisted darkness radiated from the Sea God’s shattered statue, connecting heaven and earth and rendering a starry sky as if the Gate of Truth had opened. Amid the boundless sky, a gaze descended from above, the terrifying thoughts making the evil god too scared to resist.

An ancient god!

Why is there an ancient god here?

The evil god was seized by an incredible fear. Thinking about how they had stolen the ancient god’s faith made them shake uncontrollably. They only hoped that the ancient text was right, that the ancient god didn’t care enough to have a preference or get angry.

The gaze swept across the scene, reverting the believers from crocodile back into their human forms, reclaiming their faith and reconstructing the Sea God statue. The ancient god also bestowed a gift upon everyone present. The tyrannical will weighed down mercilessly, without discrimination.

Endless whispers lingered in everyone’s ears, ancient and mysterious, as if they came from the depths of the ocean. They came in dense, chaotic waves, sometimes murmuring gently and other times shrieking piercingly, singing each of them a melody they could not understand.

After the chaos, Dragon Heart Island returned to peace.

Those unable to bear the power simply fainted. It was possible for mages to resist, such as Veronica and Vera, who had developed some resistance after entering the Gate of Truth, but they still ended up closing their eyes under the voices that made a mockery of order.

Before closing their eyes, they saw the abyss and the Sea God’s bloated, deformed body. In their peripheral vision, another deformed figure was expanding.

Rip!

Wayne’s pale chest ripped open vertically. A massive eye opened.