Chapter 181: The Weeping Paladin
Demon?!
Soren’s leaping figure suddenly stopped as he turned back to look into the distance. The fire had gradually spread to an almost uncontrollable level. He had no detection spells, so he couldn’t see what was happening behind him. However, upon hearing the shouting, he noticed that the army of the City of Wealth was gathering in the back, and several priests were hurrying into the scene. The Wealth priests, who had planned to stay out of this chaos, were finally about to take action to suppress the turmoil.
“Not right!”
Soren jumped onto a chimney and frowned, saying, “Demons don’t operate on such a grand scale! This is clearly someone inciting and escalating the conflict! Is there a devil lurking here?!”
Only devils could be so cunning.
These beings loved to manipulate human hearts. If they used the appearance of the Paladin as an opportunity, coupled with spells like suggestion, to incite the dark faction and those of the gray domains, it could easily escalate into a war. The unwilling evil-doers would unite to resist, and once they fought back with all their might, the scale of the battle would inevitably escalate, possibly involving others and ultimately turning into a chaotic slaughter.
“Where are the Legends?!”
Soren stood high above, looking over the entire city, murmuring, “Why haven’t the legendary professionals taken action? Are they going to let things escalate to this point?”
“Where is the Silver Hand?”
“He is not a foolish man! Where is he now?”
The riot was spreading.
The city’s legion confronted the summoned demons, and those summoned demons were calling forth more demons. A Frenzied Combat Demon had found dozens of Coward Demons with one of its spell-like abilities. A Four-Armed Serpent Demon, with a profession level exceeding four and nearing legendary status, rampaged through the chaos, moving with astonishing speed, its four massive swords cutting through the air like a storm, leaving a trail of corpses in its wake. Few could stand against it apart from legendary professionals!
The biological level of the Four-Armed Serpent Demon was 18, already classified as a mid-tier demon.
Advanced Dual Wielding, Advanced Multiattack, Powerful Cleave, Powerful Strike, Moderate Spell Resistance, Moderate Damage Reduction, Toxin Immunity, Advanced Acid Resistance, Fortification in Attack, Combat Reflexes!
A series of specialty abilities escalated the danger level of the Four-Armed Serpent Demon, making it an incredibly mobile killing machine!
Soren halted.
The situation had begun to spiral out of control, and it had become very dangerous.
………………
Thud thud thud!
Soren’s figure suddenly swayed. He almost fell from the rooftop, his heartbeat inexplicably accelerating, his heart rate increased by half compared to before. bl**d surged through his veins, making them visible beneath his skin. The sensations he had experienced before resurfaced; Soren’s body temperature rose gradually, with faint bl**d vessels appearing in his eyes and his pupils noticeably dilating. This feeling lasted about three minutes. Then Soren’s condition began to stabilize little by little.
“Vivian?!”
Soren seemed to sense something, murmuring, “She’s here too?!”
A sound of crying came from the alley ahead.
Soren frowned as he looked around, then gently landed and glanced in that direction. The sight before him made him take a step back and reach for his curved blade, as what he saw was a young Paladin. Clad in silver-white knight armor with some faintly broken scars, the blade of his sword was faintly surrounded by holy power, with drops of bl**d sliding down. The young Paladin seemed unaware of Soren’s presence, slightly trembling as he plunged his long sword into the ground and, as if shivering, reached out to embrace a small corpse.
It was a little girl, at most around ten years old.
She was a victim of the chaos, an innocent and pitiful child who had died in this turmoil.
Faint sobs were heard.
The young Paladin trembled as he held the little girl’s body, his gaze lost, and his expression filled with regret and helplessness as he let out a suppressed yet silent roar, murmuring in a sorrowful voice, “Why did it turn out like this!…”
“Why did it become like this?!… Aren’t we protecting justice?… Why did so many people have to d*e!…”
“Why!!!”
Tears fell drop by drop. The Paladin in front of him cried like a child whose hopes had been shattered.
Perhaps he really was quite young; judging by his appearance, he was at most twenty. Soren had a slight impression of this Paladin, as he was the first one to speak during the day. At this moment, the holy light radiating from him was flickering, like a candle flame, as if it could extinguish at any moment. His faith was wavering. If he couldn’t strengthen his conviction, he would lose the power of a Paladin and become an ordinary warrior.
His faith was on the verge of collapse.
He didn’t understand why things had turned out this way; he didn’t understand why so many people had to d*e. He cried like a child.
Because he was merely a young Paladin.
He might be kind-hearted, filled with passion, but he was still too young.
He wept not out of weakness, but sorrow.
He might not fear bl**d, evil, or d*ath, but he was afraid of everything he saw before him. All this had happened because of their actions, in the name of justice, igniting a war of slaughter that engulfed the city and led to the loss of many innocents in this conflict.
He was lost; he didn’t know if the justice he believed in still constituted justice!
Soren fell silent.
The brilliance of the young Paladin was gradually dimming; he was about to lose the strength bestowed by faith. The holy power was leaving this young man, filled with confusion.
“Because you are not strong enough!”
Soren suddenly spoke, startling the young Paladin, who still did not draw his weapon, merely gazing at him with a bewildered expression while still cradling the small girl’s corpse.
Soren looked at him with pity and said slowly, “Because you are still too weak. You truly don’t have the ability to eradicate evil, yet you instigated a war between justice and evil!…”
“Your ignorant actions will only bring slaughter and d*ath, only destroy order and cause more innocents to perish.”
“What do you have to fight against evil? You are not as powerful as the demons! You do not have the cunning of devils! Those evildoers possess countless insidious methods, and unless your power can completely crush them, your unwavering belief in justice is nothing but a joke! The fallen ones have used you to incite war, achieving their goals, while you bear the sins!…”
The brilliance of the young Paladin faded away.
In his eyes was infinite pain and regret as he tightly hugged the little girl’s corpse and let out an angry roar.
This young man had lost the power of a Paladin.
Soren’s eyes glimmered with a strange light as he gazed at the young man and said solemnly, “You are not strong enough, you are not cunning enough, and you do not even understand what evil is. What do you have to guard justice?”
“If you were strong enough, stronger than legends, you could have stopped everything happening tonight, eradicating those fallen with crushing force.”
“If you were cunning enough, wiser than devils, you could use other means to eliminate them, denying them any chance to weave schemes or incite chaos and slaughter.”
“You are merely a sad puppet, a fool who believes that believing in justice can change the world.”
“You will only make the world worse!”
Each word was like a blade piercing his heart, the young Paladin trembled all over as if struggling, but gradually came to some understanding. The silver armor he wore began to dim, and the holy power on the knight’s sword nearby dissipated, revealing a hint of a strange aura. He extended his hand and slowly gripped the sword hilt, whispering in a hoarse voice, “As long as I am stronger than them, more cunning than them, I can eradicate them?”
Soren’s expression was quite playful as he said solemnly, “Yes.”
“This is only the chaotic beginning; the world will become even worse in the future! Without power, you can do nothing; abandon those pathetic creeds. If you truly believe in justice, then you must descend into evil.”
“Only evil can fight against evil!”
“Go find your own path, young man. There exists a group known as the Holy Avengers; they will guide your way!…”
Soren’s figure vanished into the darkness, leaving behind a young man who had lost the power of a Paladin. He slowly cradled the cold body of the little girl and pulled out the sword now emanating a strange aura. The power of the Paladin seemed not to have vanished; it had merely transformed into another kind of power. He turned towards the darkness, his silver armor becoming mottled in the shadows, the holy power that had accompanied him dissipating due to the loss of faith, as darkness enveloped the silver armor, potentially leading him to fall into a dark guardian of evil or guide him to find new justice.
He had fallen.
But it seemed he hadn’t really fallen.
This was a war of faith and will, a war without bloodshed; if he won, he would become the future legend, if he lost, he would lose himself.
This was the Paladin Soren hoped to see, just as the Paladins who fought in the front lines back then.
Three million Paladins supported the backbone of the world; they didn’t manage to change this world but also prevented the gods from shattering it to pieces.
Welcome to the descent into Lawful Evil.
You should be qualified to become—a Holy Avenger!
Perhaps there would never be a resurgence of the glory of Paladins in this world, but Soren hoped to still see the presence of Holy Avengers in the turbulent years to come.
They should appear soon.
Good and evil are not so important; chaos is the real disaster!
………………
(PS: The recent plot has been slow to write, occasionally needing revisions. There will be at least two updates soon.) (To be continued ~^~)
