Chapter 173: Azure Fire Burning the Moon, bl**d Stained Royal City (Part Seven)
…No wonder.
No wonder when I walked out of the Bell Tower, I felt like something was missing… I thought it was just my imagination…
Boswell disappeared.
I remember it clearly. Before I entered the Bell Tower, while standing on the main building’s rooftop gazing into the distance, I faintly saw that layer of transparent membrane in the sky. This means… during my time inside the Bell Tower, something happened that caused it to fail, or perhaps… broke.
Something definitely happened… what could it be?
Nobody knows its location except the Church.
The Church… Cataloma… Bell Tower… Divine Reliquary… spine… Tear of the Goddess.
These fragmented clues slowly pieced together in my mind.
Suddenly, a massive tremor surged from deep within, quickly spreading throughout my body. I felt like I had been electric shocked, each nerve tingling, my dark eyes widening under the night sky as I stared incredulously at Teresa.
“That bl**d Pearl…”
Crack, crack, crack.
My left hand formed the Ice Breaker sickle again, frost mist swirling in the night sky. I stepped forward and shouted at the shadow on the other side, “Rect! What’s the egg shell like—!”
In the firelight, I saw Rect shake his head slightly.
“Not sure… but Teresa is the highest authority in the Royal City parish! She must know—!”
His distant shout further confirmed my guess.
I fixed my gaze on Teresa and took a deep breath.
“That bl**d Pearl… what is it?!”
“Who knows?” Teresa replied, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Her mouth, lit by moon and firelight, curled upwards with a devilish glint, like a naughty child about to pull a prank.
“You guys… better defeat me first…”
With a whoosh, flames erupted from the dark blade of her giant axe.
I immediately readied my attack to face her, but Teresa spun and, in a flash, her torn nun’s habit left lingering shadows as she dashed towards Rect.
“…I’ll say—!”
With frenetic slashes, her last word came crashing down accompanied by a terrifying gust.
Boom!
Just seconds before the strike landed above, the wind beneath Rect’s feet surged, and his whole body seemed lifted by a tempest, soaring sideways four or five meters to narrowly dodge the heart-stopping blow. As his feet touched the ground, he twisted and jumped, wielding his dagger against Teresa from behind, ready to counterattack.
In the next moment, the scene changed dramatically.
Crack, crack, crack…
A series of familiar gear sounds echoed from the double-bladed axe in Teresa’s hand.
That’s…
My heart sank as I shouted frantically, “Rect, watch out—”
But it was too late.
The double-bladed axe suddenly morphed right before my eyes. The originally two-meter-long black handle shrunk to less than half a meter in an instant, and then with a clang, a long, sharp blade extended over a meter from the end of the handle, piercing through Rect’s right shoulder from Teresa’s back.
“Ugh!” Rect grunted painfully.
His momentum came to a halt as Teresa grabbed his wrist with a swift movement.
Crack.
A faint sound of bone cracking rang out from the firelight.
The change happened in an instant.
“Ah—!” Rect cried out in pain.
Teresa slowly pulled the blade out, raised it, and aimed for Rect’s neck. In that fleeting moment, my right foot stepped to her side, and with a swift upward slash of my sickle, frost swirling, I severed her arm with a swish and, with the glint of cold light, swung towards her head.
Teresa swiftly dodged.
Clang—
The blade sliced off a few strands of her silver hair, leaving a thin line of bl**d on her face.
She retreated five meters, steadying herself as she looked back and laughed.
“I’m quite surprised, after all this time…”
She shook her arm, reversing her grip on the axe, brushing off the bl**d dripping from the tiny blades.
“You really didn’t recognize this axe?”
“Moonblade…”
Now I recognized it.
Having been burned by infernal fire multiple times, it showed no signs of melting. That jet-black emblem, its hardness capable of clashing with Captain Gray several times… there was nothing else, only weapons forged with moonstone like this.
“Correct. This is the Eighth Moon, named Requiem.”
Teresa looked down, gazing gently at her regrown arm.
“Years ago, Duke Skarlick… ah, your father. He donated three moonblades to the Church, and Requiem was one of them.”
“When I was campaigning to be a saint, there was a year when the northern regions of Ethanbel suffered from a severe epidemic, everywhere was… a scene of devastation. I saved many people back then, and later the Pope bestowed it upon me… beautiful, isn’t it?”
“…Beautiful?”
I stared at her ever-smiling face, grinding my teeth with a creaking sound.
“You used it to k*ll those children! Those, poor children—!”
My grip on Captain Gray’s hand trembled gently.
“Lucas… Abe… so many people… for them, fate was already… cruel enough… but even so, they were still trying to live!”
“How dare you! How dare you—!”
Teresa fell silent.
After a while, she lifted her head and sighed softly, gazing at the moonlight.
“I said it was unavoidable…”
The firelight illuminated half of her face. In the dim, yellowish glow, her scarlet pupils looked somewhat sorrowful.
…Perhaps she has her reasons.
But then again, what criminal doesn’t have their own reasons?
“Cough, cough.”
My throat felt sore from shouting.
“Whew—, whew—”
Next to me, Rect was breathing heavily, and I looked over with concern.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
He looked pale, beads of sweat pouring down from his forehead, yet he forced a smile: “It’s just a scratch.”
I took a deep breath, struggling to quell the grief in my heart, forcing myself to calm down.
Teresa was strong, so I… couldn’t let my emotions sway me. I had to think seriously about my strategy.
If I failed, in the Royal City… no one else could stop her.
“I don’t care how many people you’ve saved in the past. The you now is just a demon.”
bl**d sacrifice…
If I understood correctly, she absorbed the bl**d from the bl**d pool, making her so powerful. Yet… just like Valar and the others, the Sin Fire would burn that bl**d… as a cost, it must always have its limits, right?
She wouldn’t be able to keep healing forever. As long as I could drain the power from within her… I can’t use Abyssal powers… or the Frost World… I’d freeze everyone nearby to d*ath…
Then let’s see who falls first.
“A demon, perhaps.”
As I listened to Teresa’s seemingly resigned whisper, I remained alert to her while quietly scanning my surroundings.
…At this point, things had gotten quite loud.
Many houses near Cataloma lit up, and I could hear distant, chaotic screams. With things like this… people would definitely be coming soon.
But how come Teresa isn’t worried at all…? What is she thinking?
Boom, boom, boom…
Suddenly, the ground trembled violently beneath my feet.
Clang—clang—clang… bang!!!
The Bell Tower behind Teresa crashed down after tolling three times. Dust flew like fog from the tower’s center, rolling toward us and obscuring our vision in an instant.
Moments later, the lawn beneath us began to collapse.
