Chapter 93: The “Innocent” Person Entangled in Sin Fire (Part 1)
Whoosh—
A howling gale suddenly swooped in from the left. I didn’t bother turning to check; a flash of blue light materialized into an ice wall, blocking the attack with a loud bang.
Ice shards exploded in the corner of my vision as I executed a Moon Step, leaping into the air from the top of a statue. Mid-air, I folded and jumped three times, locking my gaze onto the figure of the enemy not far away.
That shadow was wielding a blade and dressed in armor, swinging his sword at me from over twenty meters away. With a sharp whoosh, the gust of wind slicing through the rain charged toward me like a kn*fe.
…Wind Order!
In the blink of an eye, I twisted in mid-air, my foot striking the ice surface I had created. I leaped past the incoming onslaught, the shrill echo of the wind still following me as my petite form shot toward the figure like a cannonball.
In a heartbeat, the distance shrank. Before he could swing his third strike, I was already in front of him. Captain Gray rose high, wielding the momentum to bring his blade down. The figure blocked with his sword above his head—
Clang!
The black scythe cut through his long sword in one strike, sending it flying. I felt a slight tremor in my grip, but the scythe’s force didn’t wane as it swung toward his chest, breaking through the silver armor and leaving a gaping, bone-deep wound.
The leftover force caused the scythe to smash down onto the ground. As rocks and dirt flew up, I used the momentum to ram my shoulder into the man, sending him crashing with a loud bang. My speed decreased sharply, but I grabbed the scythe’s handle, twirling around it like a graceful butterfly. A few spins later, the momentum dampened, and I landed safely.
Crack!
Captain Gray burst from the ground as I twirled it around before dragging it behind me, striding toward the fallen figure.
He struggled to get up, bl**d pouring from his chest, mingling with dirt and mud. His sword had slipped from his grasp. He raised his head, glaring at me with hatred, letting out a hoarse, horrible howl.
“Gah… ugggghhhh—”
Now I could see him clearly—this middle-aged man with a beard looked to be just under forty, his angular face slightly gaunt, clad in light blue and white armor, with a cloak embroidered with an elaborate pattern that resembled the flag flying over the castle.
I furrowed my brow.
“Who are you?”
He might have been one of the castle’s guards. Given his affinity with the Order of Wind, he likely held a decent position here… or maybe he had killed the guards and stripped their armor for himself… Regardless, this castle had been taken over by heretics. I wanted to understand what was happening, so I decided not to k*ll him just yet and thought I’d ask instead…
That was my plan, but the man didn’t give me the chance.
“d*mn it, cough cough, d*mn it all ahhh!”
bl**d oozed from his mouth as he glared at me like a demon, his eyes filled with rage.
“Guhhhhhh—”
Whoosh—!
Fiery Sin Fire erupted from the wound in his chest, spreading through his bloodstream in an instant. He rose from the ground, the flesh around the wound pulsing and healing at an astonishing speed.
“Pope Knight…” His voice was utterly hoarse, as if his vocal cords had been burned by flames, a mad grin creeping over his face. “Hehehe… Little girl, I know who you are… If I k*ll you, I’ll become famous throughout the Western Continent… Everyone will remember my name, fear my newfound power…”
Ah…
Negotiation was clearly off the table now.
But surely he would reveal what I wanted to know…
Whoosh—
The fiery figure suddenly lunged toward me, moving at a drastically different speed. His body, engulfed in hot wind, rushed closer, and his fiery fist expanded dramatically in front of me, the heat blowing my hair wildly.
In this moment, there was no time to think; all I could do was react instinctively.
Time seemed to slow.
The punch’s whirlwind struck my face, the roaring fiery gust parting the curtain of rain. As it closed in, I sidestepped effortlessly, the punch grazing my nose. I sharply twisted my right wrist, stepping forward as Captain Gray shot upward—
Thud!
The razor-sharp scythe pierced through his chin and exited the top of his head.
In my view, the man’s pupils dilated, and the madness in his eyes vanished, leaving only confusion and terror.
Thud!
A second, unsettling squelch echoed as the scythe withdrew from his head; with a clang, it hit the ground. His eyes rolled up; his mouth opened slightly as if to say something, but all that came out was a “uh… uh…” sound, and he instinctively grasped at his throat.
Fiery bl**d erupted from him, gushing out with his movements.
I walked past him.
Crescent Moon…
One of the basics recorded in the sword saint’s manual on swordsmanship, particularly useful against minor foes, was to sidestep and plunge the sword into the opponent’s skull in the instant they attacked.
This technique is exquisite in its execution, using the body to drive the sword upward, the trajectory of the blade resembling a crescent moon, hence named “Crescent Moon”—and now, I had employed it through Captain Gray.
One hit, one k*ll.
Thud.
The corpse fell in the rain behind me, never to rise again.
I…
I turned to watch the flames extinguish on the fallen body, feeling a growing hesitation and confusion within me.
He wasn’t a heretic from the Eastern Continent, was he…
The dim daylight was fading away.
The sky gradually darkened.
At the end of the square, before the ancient fortress’s entrance, the slaughter continued.
The battle on the other side was overwhelmingly one-sided; Isaac and the knights were causing rivers of bl**d to flow, flames crackling, stone walls crumbling, great trees crashing down. The ragged heretics had largely lost their will to fight, scattering in every direction—many of them seemed like commoners who had lived on this land until just recently.
“The captain is dead…”
“The captain is dead. Let’s surrender, let’s surrender!”
Amid the chaotic fight, a few people in identical light armor noticed the commotion over here and kneeled down… more and more of them were getting down on their knees.
The heretics’ resistance weakened; the battle was nearing its end.
“Don’t k*ll me, don’t k*ll me…”
Crying echoed from everywhere in the square.
“Why… have my family farmed peacefully for generations, just to encounter this…?”
“Sir Knight—”
“We are the church’s children! We were coerced by demons—”
“Great deity, please open your eyes to us…”
Amid those cries, the knights’ attacks lost their ferocity; some put down their swords and dismounted from their beasts.
Isaac roared from a distance, “Don’t let your guard down! Don’t be deceived by the enemy—”
“Isaac!”
I jumped into action, performing Moon Steps, rapidly closing the distance to Isaac. I shouted, “Those are just disaster victims! So many disaster victims! Stop! Capture them…”
“Victims?! They swing swords at us! They possess the power of Sin Fire!”
Baldy wiped the bl**d from his face. With a shining sword, he cleaved a nearby heretic in two, bl**d and fire splattering in the rain, a few droplets hitting my cheek.
“They might have been forced!”
“They had a choice!”
“…”
I was at a loss for words.
Isaac aimed for the head of a fallen heretic, raising his sword to stab down.
“Sir Knight…”
The severed individual lying in the rain painfully reached a hand toward Isaac’s leg armor, eyes pained, droplets cascading down from his dirty face, indistinguishable as tears or raindrops.
“Please… help me…”
Isaac halted.
He raised his head, hearing the cries of despair flooding the square.
What he saw was a landscape of bl**d and corpses.
The knights were engaged in their final fight against resisters, stabbing and smashing their heads. Some still charged headlong into the fray, while more were kneeling down, their bodies still burning with the fire of sin, yet they prayed to the great deity that the church served.
“Sir Knight—” a voice cried out in despair, “It was demons who forced us to drink that nauseating bl**d, turning us into monsters! They took away a lot of food… Those who resisted all died; the bodies are piled up on the back mountain… I don’t want to d*e… I’m not a heretic, I’m not—”
“Spare us…”
“Tsk.”
Baldy’s face darkened as he spat on the ground.
“This is really an unsatisfying fight…”
He turned to the nearby knights and barked, “Listen to my command! Any who resist shall be executed on the spot, those who kneel and surrender shall be spared and temporarily confined—awaiting my orders!”
With that, he sheathed his sword into his scabbard.
“Little one, let’s check the inner keep.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I nodded.
Several knights dismounted from their beasts, following Isaac toward the inner keep’s main doors. At that moment, I spotted Safiros, riding up on a beast, who pulled the reins in front of me, his face expressionless as he said, “It’s over, Silvya.”
“I told you, don’t call me that.”
I frowned, gesturing toward the kneeling surrenderers in the square, “There are so many of them, commoners. Some mentioned food. Let’s not k*ll them yet; ask them what happened.”
“Understood.” He nodded, “I also noticed that many among them might be guards from the castle or nearby villages; they barely know how to wield a sword… I will interrogate them to see what has happened here.”
“Good.”
Safiros rode away, and I quickly ran to catch up with Isaac as we entered the great door of the inner fortress.
The vast entrance hall was empty, even the candles unlit, the light dim, but the stench of bl**d and decay was unmistakable. Isaac ordered the knights to take down the torches from the walls and light them, commanding them, “Search each room on the first and second floors; leave no one unchecked.”
The knights scattered as ordered, beginning a thorough search of the fortress.
Isaac handed me a torch, “Let’s check the third floor together; be careful.”
“Got it.”
I slung Captain Gray over my shoulder, holding the torch as Isaac and I made our way up to the third floor. It was still pitch black, the air filled with an unpleasant odor.
The fortress was expansive; the dim light of the torch illuminated a row of doors along the hallway. Isaac and I systematically searched each one, but found only ordinary studies and meeting rooms—no heretics in sight.
The entire floor was eerily quiet.
“Isaac.”
I called him after exiting one of the rooms.
“Mm?”
“What about those people outside… what are you planning to do?”
Baldy fell silent for a moment before shaking his head.
“They are already guilty.”
