Chapter 11 ~ Grievance Curse
Gunpowder smoke mingled with sparks and particles swirled across fields and rural areas. The once warm sunlight now cast upon the earth with an additional tint of crimson bl**d and a touch of eerie.
Dillin arrived at the city gate without rest, only to find the gates wide open, the guards nowhere in sight, and even the guards on the battlements, who used to tyrannically throw garbage down, had vanished without a trace.
No guards around?
Dillin initially thought that if the city had been breached, the gate area should be in utter chaos, but what surprised him was how serene and peaceful it was outside the gate, with no traces of combat.
What was going on? Could Furnace City have another gate passage?
As he entered the city, clamorous and disordered sounds came from all directions. Fiery flames lit up the sky above the town, turning it crimson. Piteous cries and screams filled this living hell. Decapitated limbs and corpses were everywhere, bl**d flowing in torrents.
The bodies scattered across the land were dressed in different attire. Some wore tattered clothes, others were still in luxurious sable despite being covered in bl**d, indicating they were from affluent families. Others wore armor that was now split into pieces.
Just overnight, this seemingly ordinary town had turned into a fiery inferno.
Many of the bl**d-soaked people lying around were barely moving, their last instinct for survival slowly fading away.
Dillin noticed that most of the dead were those in armor—soldiers and guards of the town. These were the most brutally slaughtered. Most had been dismembered into eight parts, their originally intact bodies now scattered in pieces. bl**d even rained from the sky.
As for the ordinary citizens, many had been left with full corpses, and some wounds weren’t even fatal.
Very deliberate. Was this aimed at the soldiers and guards?
At this scene, Dillin lightly covered his forehead. It was perhaps the first time he’d witnessed such a bloody and brutal sight, the bl**d-soaked sky causing his thoughts to become chaotic.
A sense of déjà vu passed through this scene, carrying a soul-tearing pain. It was as if ink spilled in water, seeping from the heart and spreading throughout the body.
Unconsciously, sweat formed on Dillin’s forehead. The severed limbs, crumbling walls, mournful wails, and cries of anguish—it seemed countless souls perished in this calamity, displaced from their homes.
This city was countless households, millions of people—how many would lose their lives and loved ones in this slaughter? And most of them were innocent.
The scene suddenly changed. When Dillin opened his eyes again, the fiery inferno was the same, but this time, the dead bodies were elves, not humans.
At this shocking sight, Dillin trembled, lifting his hands and staring at the bloodstained palms, his eyes widened in shock.
The scarlet soaked into the grass, elegant wooden houses were now surrounded by fire dragons; spears pierced abdomens, bl**d and broken organs flowing out…
The bodies of the elves lying on the ground stabbed into Dillin’s eyes and heart like sharp needles, each breath causing him excruciating pain. Grief swept into his heart, mingling with the air.
Dillin didn’t understand what was happening to him, why he felt this way. Nor did he understand why he saw such scenes. Unintentionally, he bowed his head, and a faint softness brushed past his face.
Looking up, Dillin saw Yimi standing in front of him with a slightly complex expression. Her tender fingers wiped away the warm liquid streaming down his cheeks.
Only then did he notice that he had lost control of his emotions, resulting in two streams of tears running down his cheeks.
“Are you all right?” This was the first time Yimi showed concern for Dillin.
“I’m fine.” Dillin shook his head and stood up, taking out a handkerchief to clean the salt residue off his cheeks.
He couldn’t believe he lost control like this, it was embarrassing.
Why did he suddenly feel so sad? It was as if he empathized with the suffering of the city’s residents.
He was never a sentimental person.
Moreover, those hands in the flashbacks weren’t Dillin’s—they belonged to a woman.
Were these Tillysha’s memories?
Had seeing similar scenes caused these hidden memories within her body to surface, affecting his emotions?
But why would Tillysha be standing amidst piles of her kin’s corpses, hands stained with bl**d?
All the elves around her were dead, only she remained alive. Wasn’t that illogical?
Dillin glanced thoughtfully at Yimi.
Could the memories Yimi had…?
“What?” Yimi asked when she noticed Dillin looking at her.
“Nothing.” Dillin shook his head.
“You didn’t seem well just now.”
“So what? Are you concerned about me? Your enemy?”
“Don’t misunderstand. I just don’t want any complications.” Yimi glanced at him.
Dillin put his thoughts aside—it wasn’t the time for this.
Initially, Dillin thought it was some force attacking the city, then he wondered if it was rebellion by citizens against the guards.
After entering the city, various signs showed the situation was far more complicated than he imagined. Rebel forces wouldn’t be powerful enough to destroy the imperial guard. These soldiers, though possibly corrupt, were still sent by the empire. The city might even have divine authority bearers and mages under the empire’s jurisdiction. They couldn’t be bested by farmers armed with pitchforks.
Dillin was eager to know what really happened in the city.
“Swoosh Swoosh!”
As he moved forward, Dillin keenly sensed several arrows heading their way. He ducked down, scooping up Yimi and stepping back several steps. A moment later, two arrows pierced the ground where they had been standing.
“Who’s there?!” After dodging, Dillin looked up and saw two figures standing on a burning rooftop. They wore peculiar crying-face masks, clad in outfits that concealed their figures, their long hair swaying in the wind.
Dillin could feel that these arrows were meant to only push them back, not harm them.
It seemed these people had no intention to k*ll them, or rather, they deemed it unnecessary.
“Who are you? Did you start the fire in Furnace City?” Dillin took out his fire pistol, aiming at the two on the roof.
“Don’t blame us recklessly; we’ve just arrived. We’re not taking responsibility for this mess,” said the shorter of the two, their voice distorted as if through magical means, making it impossible to determine their gender.
“Have we met?” Dillin put Yimi gently on the ground, furrowing his brows.
“Seems not.”
“Then why did you attack us?”
“Excuse me, I think you’re mistaken; you aren’t worth our efforts.” The leader in the crying-face mask spoke, standing erect at the edge of the roof.
“The earlier shots were merely warnings to prevent you from destroying the hard-earned ‘ethnic differentiation.’”
“Ethnic differentiation? What are you talking about?”
“The origin of every race in this world traces back to the slumbering Seven Saints.” The crying-face masked figures explained calmly. “However, genetic expression is incomplete—some genes are hidden. Races can ‘evolve’ in different directions.”
Dillin found their speech increasingly incomprehensible, as though they didn’t intend for him to understand.
“Even if we explain more, you wouldn’t get it. In short, as long as you don’t cross that line, you’ll be safe. We’re not interested in your lives.”
“What arrogance.” Dillin’s response was straightforward and coarse.
“To hide yourselves like that, like a bundle of rice dumplings, only to commit such underhanded acts and still believe you’re righteous. You lack both the awareness and qualification to be villains—pitiful.” Dillin lifted his fire pistol and fired a shot without hesitation.
White smoke coiled, and a smoking projectile shot out.
The taller crying-face masked figure unfurled a magical scroll, which quickly extended into a shimmering golden ribbon that blocked the fire pistol b*llet.
The b*llet only left a black scorch mark on the golden ribbon.
Dillin activated the Divine Analysis Technique to detect these two individuals.
[Du Rynn]
[Una]
Their names appeared before Dillin’s eyes. They seemed to be female, but strangely, the Divine Analysis Technique couldn’t detect their surnames.
Could it be they had none? No family?
Not having a surname had two possibilities: one, they were commoners of no repute; two, they were disowned and named out of their families.
The former was more common, but the latter was rare. After all, bl**d is thicker than water—what grave error could they have committed to be disowned by their families?
Moreover, since these two hadn’t released any domains or divine rights, Dillin could detect no more detailed information about them.
But the Divine Analysis Technique was truly the Divine Analysis Technique—no information could escape its detection.
For instance, their race category.
After checking their races, Dillin was momentarily stunned.
Their races were exactly the same—only the character “?” appeared in the information.
What did the question marks mean??
Throughout the time he used the Divine Analysis Technique, he’d never encountered such a bizarre phenomenon. He quickly connected it to the principle of the technique.
The Divine Analysis Technique was built from accumulated knowledge of the ancient sages. Aside from detecting divine rights and domains, it automatically matched races based on its knowledge library.
If even the Divine Analysis Technique couldn’t determine their race, it could only mean one thing.
Their race wasn’t among the existing ones recorded today.
How could this be? Even the Demon Race had records in the Divine Analysis Technique. How could these two have no records about their race?
Who were they?
“Are you determined to block our way?” Dillin pressed the decorative amethyst on his fire pistol.
“In that case, I’ll have to blow you into smithereens.”
With the pressed amethyst, the gemstone glowed purple all over, and all crystal parts turned lilac.
Dillin raised the fire pistol.
This was the side function of the pistol forged by the Crown Jewel—the Overload Mode.
Dillin held the trigger, and a terrifying burst of high temperature erupted from the pistol’s muzzle. Crystal after crystal shot out of the fire pistol like bullets from a machine g*n, wildly spraying at the two figures on the roof.
The fire pistol bullets continuously struck the magic barrier, leaving countless scorched marks on it. It was like countless meteors streaking through the sky, and the reverberations were continuous.
The accumulating damage gradually caused cracks to appear on this magic barrier under the relentless bombardment.
Within the barrier, the crying-face masked figures stood cross-armed, glancing at their partner.
“About time.” The other crying-face masked figure said, “Those responsible for data collection are done. We can retreat now.”
“Let’s leave them a gift before we go,” the crying-face masked figure looked down at Dillin.
Holding a green alchemical drug, she threw it toward Dillin.
“Boom!” It was also when the magical barrier completely collapsed and shattered that the two mask-wearing figures unfurled a scroll and vanished from the spot.
“How could that be??” Dillin was momentarily taken aback.
It was a dimensional scroll. How could these two have dimensional scrolls?
Even with enormous wealth, such rare items weren’t to be wasted. They weren’t incapable of disengaging from battle yet chose the safest route by using dimensional transmission.
This couldn’t be described merely as extravagant. Dimensional scrolls weren’t something money could buy. Nowadays, without the original technology to create dimensional scrolls, most scrolls were relics from ancient times—each one used meant there were fewer left.
Dillin silently pondered, not understanding the scale of the organization these two represented.
On the other hand, the alchemical agent they threw down shattered upon hitting the ground. The glass-made alchemical flask instantly fragmented into shards, and the green liquid turned into deep green fog the moment it made contact with the ground.
What was this fog??……….
Yimi’s expression changed as she used the Divine Analysis Technique to examine the composition of this fog. She hastily called out to Dillin.
“Turn off your fire pistol immediately.”
“This is a liquid that vaporizes upon exposure to air and becomes highly unstable in its gaseous state. It releases skin-corroding toxins when exposed to divine authority magic or high temperatures!”
Upon hearing this, Dillin immediately switched off the fire pistol in his hand. However, it was already too late. This fog, stimulated by sparks and heat, changed from green to purple. Wherever it spread, the skin of the corpses darkened, and healthy skin gradually peeled off, revealing decaying flesh underneath, like falling dead leaves.
What kind of inhumane alchemical agent was this?!
Ignoring the rest, Dillin quickly pulled out golden orchids from his pocket and pinned them to the side of his head.
A flurry of golden butterflies swept through, and the golden-haired girl threw three tender sprouts. The thorny bushes and giant cage flowers that sprouted from them acted as barrier-like impediments to the toxic mist.
While using the Fresh Breeze Fragrance to ingest the poison, Tillysha grabbed Yimi, gathered her strength in her feet, and a streak of golden light flashed in the air as she leapt onto the roof.
Yimi watched with lingering fear as the poisonous mist spread and then caressed the ground-laden corpses, their skin hardening and drying like broken wall tiles before flaking off in pieces.
“This is [Grievance Curse],” Yimi said to herself. “An ancient antidote banned due to its extreme toxicity.”
“The formula for it should have been lost a thousand years ago……”
