Chapter 159: Long Night and Dark Flames (6)
It was as if a gigantic whale was breaching the surface of the sea, unleashing explosive waves of chaos.
Ice crystals, sharp spikes, and a swirling blizzard of frost and white snow exploded from the bushes outside Stag Town, centered around a man known as the Jester.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—
The sound reverberated like a train barreling towards you, a continuous rumble that could rival a mountain avalanche, echoing from the farthest corners of the world before suddenly expanding with a deafening force!
On the high slope overlooking Stag Town, the Old Priest’s eyes widened as he stared at the exploding snow in the distance. A moment later, he was hit by a painful burst of blue-white light and instinctively turned away. The next instant, a fierce blast of cold wind slammed into him, knocking him back two steps. His beard danced wildly, and his floppy hat sailed off his head, revealing a balding pate as the wind tossed his semi-long hair back. Once he realized what was happening, he quickly raised a hand to shield himself.
“Get down from the slope!”
“It’s too easy to get caught in this!”
“Tell those knights outside to pull back as well—”
Since the wind came from the explosion rather than a chilling frost, it wasn’t as cold as before. It wouldn’t freeze your hair and eyebrows again, but the clergy members started retreating from the high ground. They feared that if they stayed there, they might end up becoming airborne with the next, even fiercer wave of impact.
“And there are heretics still at large! Two of them! Watch their movements! Where are they going?!”
Once he was off the slope, the Old Priest yelled at a few clergy members. He remembered that Miss Silvya had knocked one of them away, seemingly northward, but they hadn’t reappeared. He was sure they hadn’t died. Another heretic had been tangling with the Church Knights and hadn’t faced off against the Miss directly, and after the explosion of wind and snow, that person seemed to have vanished.
“Did anyone see them? Did any heretics slip into the town?!”
“What’s happening at the back? Did the Divine Miracle catch any sight of them—”
“Where are Lord Karl and the others?!”
It was quite chaotic over here, while outside Stag Town, the Golden Armored Knights braved the cold wind, climbing over fences. The Captain of Knights, with a burned cheek, shouted, “Everyone retreat, hurry—”
“Fall back! Get to the orchard! That damned mouse has slipped in! Don’t let them get into Stag Town, and for heaven’s sake, don’t let the filthy heretics near the civilians!”
The knights quickly regrouped, injuries forgotten, charging through the cold wind toward the orchard on the west side. Outside the town, the rumbling calmed down, and amidst the swirling ice mist, two figures, one red and one blue, zipped across the frozen wilderness like lightning, their clash echoing from the northwest to the southeast of the town. Moments later, a massive explosion erupted again.
Boom—
The chilling fire of ice clashed before my eyes as fierce wind and steam blasted toward me. My hair flew, my dress clung to my chest, flapping wildly. I stumbled back two steps before coming to a sudden stop, unleashing the Moon Step and charging toward the fiery figure ahead.
“Yahhhhhh!”
In a flash of four to five meters, I swung my fist, wrapped in frost, crashing it into the man’s abdomen!
Thud!
The man, known as the Jester, was sent flying, crashing through countless frozen bushes and smashing into a tree trunk as thick as a man’s embrace, shattering it. Ice shards flew everywhere as he was flung away and landed on the ground far off. Yet, after rolling his neck, he quickly got back up.
“Just like that… that’s the feeling…”
His suit was tattered, hanging like a few rags on him. His scarlet hair was a wild mess, and his pale, emaciated face resembled that of a convalescent. Now, myriad scarlet lines covered his skin, with rolling flames coursing through them like flowing bl**d.
A trickle of scarlet dripped from the corner of his mouth, which he casually wiped away as he looked at me, a bizarre smile creeping onto his face.
“Beautiful, powerful… White as jade, like a goddess untouched by the smoke of war… Destroying something like this must feel incredibly wonderful… Ah, I can hardly wait to tear away that layer of skin and see your true form…”
Screw that…
Bam!
I launched into another Moon Step, my petite figure flickering like a phantom beneath the night sky. I dashed toward the man again, fists like a roaring tiger, attacking with the fury of a storm. The man didn’t flinch; instead, he raised his hands to meet my assault. Infernal fire erupted around him as our fists collided with an earth-shattering sound, the echoes ringing through the night sky—thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, like rain!
With the might of thunder, my little fists pummeled his face, his chest, his abdomen. The immense force sent him flying backward, yet he blocked every single punch. Frost met surging flames, and explosions and chaos erupted, steam flooding the icy fields.
“Ughhhhhh!”
I roared in fury.
Bam! Bam! My feet smashed into the ground, sinking into the earth as I leaned slightly back, twisting my waist and loading up my strength, smashing my fist forward into his chest—
Let’s see how you handle this one!!!
Boom—
In a flash of lightning, the man with the bizarre smile crossed his arms before his chest. The next instant, my tiny fist, swirling with a cold wind, slammed into his arms. The violent force was uncontestable, sending him soaring backward in a wild spin, further into the sky. As I stomped on an ice column shooting upwards, I propelled myself off, moving so fast that the n*ked eye could barely catch it. In the blink of an eye, I pursued the still airborne Jester, twisting my leg to kick him down like a cannonball—
Boom!
Headfirst, he plummeted into the frost-covered earth, white dust rising into the air.
The cold wind howled as I landed not far from him, twisted my ankle a bit, and stepped toward him. “Jester.”
No idea if he could even hear me. His arms were broken, hanging on the ground in a twisted mess, head buried in the dirt. The flames on him had extinguished, the bizarre scarlet lines flickering erratically, emanating tiny embers. His legs dangled in a ridiculous manner, like some grotesque human plant.
“I don’t know… what you are.”
I continued to approach, step by step.
“But I think, you can’t be counted as human, nor a beast. At least beasts don’t intentionally harm their own for fun.”
Suddenly, the man’s fingers twitched.
I noticed but paid it no mind—he obviously wasn’t dead. For a heretic, especially one at the bl**d sacrifice stage, recovering would take but a moment—accompanied by ominous crackling sounds, the Jester’s flames reignited, his broken arms beginning to twist and writhe like massive maggots.
“I don’t know how to describe you.”
I stopped about five or six meters away, staring at the recovering man with a blank expression. My voice was cold as I spoke slowly, word for word: “You, The Gate of Truth, this isn’t my first encounter. Back in Winter City, in the Royal City, I’ve encountered your kind. They are all… villains who disturb society, disrupt people’s lives… that’s why I killed them.”
I let out a breath.
“Sister Teresa, you should be familiar with her. I fought her once, and I killed her. Because she harmed innocent children. Even now, I can still picture the scene; sometimes, when I close my eyes, the pitiful corpses of the children, the smell of bl**d—almost like it was still right before me.”
Crack, crack.
With a few explosive sounds, the bones in the Jester’s arms reconnected. He started to move, awkwardly pushing himself off the ground, trying to yank his head and shoulders free from the dirt.
I continued, “Because of that, I killed her. In Winter City, on the outskirts, I did the same with several other heretics. They were all evil, willing to go to any lengths for their goals—anything could be done. But you… you are also part of The Gate of Truth, yet different from them.”
“You harm lives for no purpose, just for fun. I’ve seen everything that unfolded in Silence Fortress and Alectine City. There is no humanity, only cruelty and malice exuding from your very bones. You are vicious and unbridled, tormenting others for pleasure… Those people, perhaps, are your kindred spirits.”
I paused.
To be honest, I had no idea why I felt compelled to tell him all this at that moment. He might not even hear it, and even if he did, so what?
Could I really expect someone like him to feel guilt for his wrongdoings?
Clearly not.
It’s because they are well aware of their evils that they become even more reckless, disregarding all rules, bringing out the ugliest aspects of intelligent beings, the most primitive and savage desires.
When dealing with someone like this, nothing matters, no words can penetrate.
“But those people, they are merely executors. And you… Jester, you are the one who gives orders and lets them run rampant. It is your license, your recklessness that permits them to act without hesitation. Your evil has fostered their evil. You are the root of the problem, because I’ve never met a heretic from before who could compare to you.”
Saying anything was useless…
I knew that well.
But I couldn’t help but speak.
The pain that had been pent up inside me, and that seething anger, had been accumulating ever since I set foot in the Southern Territories—building and building with nowhere to vent, nowhere to release. The scenes in Silence Fortress, that night’s screams, the cries of the Third Knights Order outside Alectine City, the slaughter in the town, flames burning, voices of utter despair—all of those memories were piling up in my heart, and no amount of heretic slaying could fill the void.
Although it was pointless.
I still wanted him to know.
I wanted him to understand, right before he died, what he truly was.
“Before this, the heretics I killed were unforgivable, vile creatures. But you… you’re not even worthy of being called human.”
In a faint, weak tone, the man spat his head out of the dirt, tilting his body, feet yet to touch the ground, twisting his waist in midair as he sprang up.
“…Pff.”
He spat out black mud, wiped his filthy face, and began to fix his hair. After a brief moment, as if he suddenly remembered something, he glanced at me and said, “Hmm? Finished talking?”
Oh, he heard me.
But his face remained calm, showing no concern for what I had just said—of course he wouldn’t care; I had already expected that.
But seeing someone so indifferent towards life, so dismissive of everything, after I had said all that, the so-called Jester still wore an expression that seemed to suggest he didn’t care at all—he was truly unconcerned.
Anger, sorrow, indescribable hatred, a deep-seated resentment, and… a brutal desire to tear him to shreds, all those chaotic emotions burst forth from my chest, impossible to contain.
“You damned monster…”
Boom!
I took another Moon Step.
