The third hundred and seventy-fourth legend.
With her ability, Dorothy made the crow doll move again. She then had it pick up the holy emblem from the other hand of the butler zombie and flapped its wings towards the small iron bars at the vent.
Next, Dorothy applied a bl**d-eating sigil to herself and transferred the effect of the sigil to the crow doll. She then used the strengthened crow doll’s claws to bend the thin iron bars that formed the grate, attempting to create an opening to crawl through. The thin iron bars gradually bent with a creaking sound under the crow doll’s powerful claws.
If a normal person who had applied the bl**d-eating sigil were to do this, they could easily bend those iron bars in just a few tries. However, now with a crow, it would take some time.
Of course, Dorothy wouldn’t waste this time. Right in front of her was Barret’s laboratory, where he had conducted research on the faith in the Mirror Moon Goddess. Since she had come, she would certainly look around to see if she could find any of his research results.
“The Eight Pinnacle Nest went to such great lengths to destroy Barret’s research on the Mirror Moon Goddess. The truth behind this must be something that greatly concerns the Eight Pinnacle Nest. I wonder how much Barret knows about this truth.”
With these thoughts, Dorothy manipulated the butler zombie to search for valuable items in the laboratory. First, she focused on the most prominent thing in the room, which was a warrior statue standing in the corner.
Dorothy had the butler zombie examine the statue from top to bottom and then concentrated on the translation label at its base.
According to the translation, the statue depicted a person named “Arthur Despenser,” known as one of the Wind Knights among the Four Moon Knights. As for this name, Dorothy wasn’t unfamiliar with it… or rather, no Prit person was unfamiliar with it.
Arthur Despenser was the legendary ancient hero of the Prit people, the guardian of the three Prit islands, and the source of the lineage claimed by the current Prit royal family. He was a well-known figure in all of Prit.
Every Prit person could tell stories about Arthur, and Dorothy had heard many tales about him since childhood. Most of these legends involved slaying monsters, driving out remnants of evil deities, and saving the world.
Legends say that the Savior of Radiance descended from the palace of the sun to defeat numerous evil deities and save the world. However, even though the evil deities were defeated, evil didn’t disappear entirely. Many monsters created by these deities still lurked in various corners of the world, hiding in the shadows and resurfacing after the savior’s return to wreak havoc. Arthur was a hero active during this period.
In the stories Dorothy had heard growing up, Arthur was a Prit born in ancient times when the Prit were suffering under the turmoil caused by the remnants of evil deities. At that time, the Prit were being massacred by terrifying monsters, living in constant fear.
In this chaotic Prit, a destitute old swordsman appeared. He carried a stone sword and traveled around recruiting disciples. Because he required his disciples to train with the heavy stone sword, many people thought he was mad and ignored him. Even those who trained under him for a while eventually gave up due to the weight of the stone sword.
Only Arthur, with his astonishing perseverance, swung the heavy stone sword to complete his training. After seeing Arthur finish his training, the old swordsman transformed into a radiant warrior and ascended to the sky amidst laughter. He was actually the Holy Son, selecting a hero to save the Prit in this manner. Finally, Arthur wielded a stone sword, which was essentially a sacred instrument, to slay numerous monsters on the Prit islands.
This was the beginning of the story of Arthur Despenser that Dorothy had heard in her childhood—a very standard heroic legend with a Radiant Church flavor. After this introduction, the story continued with how Arthur used his strength and wisdom, under the name of the Holy Son, to slay the monsters on the Prit islands one by one, ultimately becoming the first king of Prit.
In these stories, Arthur encountered his most formidable opponent in his life: a monster with black wings, countless mouths, that drank bl**d and freely roamed the skies. Arthur fought this bloodthirsty monster eight times, and each time the monster fled after being driven away. Guided by the Holy Son, Arthur chased it down, defeating it eight times before finally killing it. Afterward, Arthur was taken to heaven by the Holy Son, far from the mortal world, and thus his legend ended.
From the butler zombie’s perspective, Dorothy looked at the warrior statue, recalling the stories she had heard as a child. She remembered that the story of Arthur was particularly captivating for young Gregor. When children gathered to play, they would eagerly take turns playing the role of Arthur.
“The messenger of the Holy Son, the great hero Arthur, is a story many in Prit have heard. But this dedicated statue is the first I’ve seen…
“However, regardless of which story of Arthur one hears, there is no mention of titles like ‘the Four Moon Knights.’ Why does this statue bear such a title?”
Dorothy pondered this, then looked at the base of Arthur’s stone statue. The inscription in ancient Prit, with clear traces of Deep Empire script, was unreadable to her. She relied on Barret’s translation.
Dorothy continued to manipulate the butler zombie to examine the statue when she suddenly noticed a notebook on the table beside it. She believed it might be Barret’s notes.
Dorothy had the butler zombie pick up the notebook and open it, only to find it was blank except for a few yellowed pages inside.
Dorothy had the butler zombie take a closer look at the pages, which were written in Prit. Upon closer inspection, Dorothy realized that the pages contained the legend of Arthur, and it was a different version than the ones she had heard before.
The page in her hands described Arthur’s battle with his most challenging enemy, the bloodthirsty monster. In this version, the monster was named Aglo.
The battle between Arthur and Aglo, as described in the pages, differed significantly from the version Dorothy knew. According to the story on the page, Aglo remained a bloodthirsty monster. After their first encounter, Aglo turned into crimson mist and escaped. Due to the damage from years of battle, Arthur couldn’t catch up to Aglo or inflict fatal harm, causing him great distress.
This part of the story was unknown to Dorothy. According to the stories she had heard, Arthur, guided by the Holy Son, pursued Aglo and continued fighting. However, in this version, the Holy Son did not appear. Instead, a witch appeared, a witch with eight eyes and eight fingers.
The witch, who appeared before Arthur, claimed that her eyes could see where Aglo was hidden. If Arthur ate her eye, he could see Aglo’s location.
Then, the eight-eyed witch dug out one of her eyeballs and gave it to Arthur, along with a dagger made from one of her fingers. She claimed that this dagger could inflict fatal harm on Aglo. Arthur believed her and swallowed the witch’s eyeball, taking the dagger to hunt Aglo.
Finally, Arthur found Aglo and stabbed him with the witch’s dagger. Aglo fled again. The witch reappeared before Arthur, offering another eyeball and dagger. After swallowing the second eyeball, Arthur chased Aglo once more with the dagger. This time, after Aglo was stabbed a second time, he fled again.
This cycle repeated eight times. After Aglo was stabbed eight times, he died. Arthur also died after swallowing the witch’s eight eyeballs.
Ultimately, the blind witch fell into the sea of bl**d left by Aglo’s d*ath, bathed in bl**d.
