Chapter 53 Chapter 53 His Brand.
Su Cheng walked on the devastated streets, and everything he saw was in ruins.
In addition to those traces of burns, there are various fragments scattered among the broken walls and ruins, as if they had suffered a heavy impact.
It seemed more like a bombardment of fighting spirit.
All the shops on the commercial street were destroyed, and scattered ghosts wandered the streets, moving back and forth aimlessly within a certain range.
More ghosts are lingering somewhere.
For example, the old woman in front of the bakery was crying, and there was a cut on her neck, obviously she had been beheaded.
At the door of the flower shop next door, there was a young man holding a child, staring blankly into the distance, his body split in half, with the crack extending from his head to his thigh.
The baby in his arms was also cut at the same angle.
It seems that they were both attacked by the same person at the same time.
There was a small figure on the corner of the street, obviously a child, who was lying on the ground, trying to pick up a toy.
Part of her head was crushed, exposing the flesh and blood inside.
Beneath the child's palm lay a pile of faded fragments, barely recognizable as what might once have been a wooden pony.
Her fingertips passed through the void, repeating the action stubbornly and in vain again and again, trying to get the pony in her hands, but always failed.
Su Cheng heard crying.
The voice was filled with despair and pain, as well as a deep resentment. It seeped out from the cracks in the ground like mist, and then filled every corner of the ruins.
It was as if the buildings, the walls, the entire streets were crying, and the whole city was sobbing.
"By the way, how did you get in?"
Su Cheng turned his head and looked at a certain vampire, "Have you also been to the test?"
Sasha, walking behind, was also gazing at the ruins and nodded when he heard this.
"The Four Symbols Formation isn't that troublesome. It's an older version. Basically, as long as you're a bit skilled, you can get through it even if you're not a mage."
He paused, a mischievous look flashing in his crimson eyes, "Oh, you need to be a little understanding."
Su Cheng: “?”
…She is not used to that way of expression at all!
Su Cheng continued to move forward and arrived at the center of the ruins.
There are remains of a temple here.
The outer walls collapsed in sections, the decorations peeled off, revealing blackened stones that stuck diagonally into the ground like tombstones, with dark runes flashing in the cracks.
There are dozens of statues scattered here, some broken into pieces, some with scratched faces, looking very strange.
Dense crowds of dead souls crowded around the temple. Some of them were wailing in pain, some were sobbing softly, and some were silent.
These people are dressed differently.
Su Cheng narrowed his eyes and took a look.
"...Is this the temple of the Eternal Night Cult? Are they wearing armor? Right? It seems to be a uniform pattern."
When I turned around, Sasha had run away again.
She looked up at the ruins in silence, roughly judging the structure of the palace.
It is somewhat similar to the style of the Vatican, with a large square outside connected to the prayer room, and inside are intricate halls, interspersed with gardens and pavilions in between.
She passed through a rubble-strewn porch, the painted windows on one side of which were completely broken, and the colorful fragments were scattered like gems.
The collapsed pillars were scattered all over the place, and the broken wall blocks were piled up like mountains, almost blocking the road.
Here, in the middle of the temple complex, surrounded by towering spires, is a solemn training ground.
A broken spear was stuck in the center of the square, with dark red light wrapped around the spear, flowing slowly like blood vessels.
In this dim and dusty world, those lights are particularly conspicuous.
A little further away stood many more undead, also wearing armor and holding weapons in their hands. They looked a little panicked and seemed to want to retreat.
These ghosts kept repeating the backward movement, and they were just spinning in place, which looked a bit funny.
"Why, you want to pull it out?"
The vampire's voice rang in my ears again.
Su Cheng raised his head.
Sasha had come running back at some point, jumping around her like a dog without a leash.
"……What?"
"That gun," the silver-haired young man crossed his arms and looked at the gun blade in the center of the square, "I thought you might be interested."
Su Cheng immediately glanced sideways, "It's obvious that this thing can't be pulled out. If you pull it out, something will probably fall from the sky or come out of the ground and beat you or me up—"
Sasha was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. "What are you thinking? Do you really think you can pull it out? Just try and you'll know."
Su Cheng: “…”
Su Cheng: "Don't provoke me. I won't try. What I just said is just one possibility. Others may also exist, such as 'being cursed if touched', 'being haunted by nightmares if touched', or 'having your soul sucked out and turning you into a ghost if touched'."
She said, pointing to the howling ghosts in the distance.
Sasha: "Have you read too many novels? This place is obviously affected by the eclipse field. You can't really change it-"
In other words, any changes made will soon disappear because the entire ruins are stuck in a certain state.
Su Cheng was skeptical, "What would happen if I touched that gun?"
He spread his hands out. "It should be similar to when you touch those stones."
The silver-haired young man jumped off the pile of stones nimbly and landed lightly. The heel of his boot hit a gilded wall frame without making any sound.
Bang!
Su Cheng also jumped down, "What are you doing?"
Sasha walked over to the gun. "If you're worried, I can come with you. I know you're curious."
Su Cheng: "Wait, what if you——"
The vampire moved much faster than her. He walked over in a few steps and reached out to grab the gun as if nothing had happened.
The black fog suddenly rolled up and quickly swallowed the two of them.
Screams came from all directions, as if countless sharp iron hooks were scratching the eardrums.
Then came the desperate roars, the dying wails, the angry curses—
The sounds echoed under the night sky filled with flames.
Su Cheng saw a burning city, with tall towers collapsing one after another, majestic palaces crumbling and shattering, and smoke and dust like waves.
The air was suddenly filled with gunpowder smoke and the smell of rust, making it almost suffocating.
Black smoke rose like a giant python, twisting the dusk into a dirty dark red.
The Paladin Legion galloped in from outside the city gate, riding on ferocious Asian dragons, and the cross flame emblem on their platinum armor seemed to be burning.
The knights charged into the city like a group of crazy beasts, destroying everything in their path.
Screaming civilians fled, pierced and torn by spear blades, bisected by giant swords, sending splattering blood all over the sky.
Those who were in the middle of the road and had no time to escape had their heads crushed by the iron hooves, or were knocked away by the heavy body of the Asian dragon and fell against the wall, turning into a blur of flesh and blood.
People standing at their doorsteps were beheaded, people crying while holding their children were impaled along with their babies, and people trembling in the corners had their heads smashed with hammers.
Most of the city's defenders had already been killed, their bodies lying on the walls. Only a few were still resisting, trying to delay time for the civilians to escape.
But it doesn't make any sense.
The paladins advanced at a breakneck speed, nothing could stop them, and corpses were left everywhere they passed.
They drove towards the temple in the center of the city. The towering palaces stood in the firelight. Even though most of them had collapsed, they were still full of majesty.
Su Cheng quickly realized that this group of paladins were not the first to enter the city. Their accomplices had obviously entered from the other gate.
The temple is burning.
Between the numerous magnificent palaces, countless cloud-covered corridors were filled with corpses, and the clergymen in black uniforms were all turned into scattered limbs and debris.
There is a huge venue in the middle of the temple. The ground is made of obsidian inlaid with gold threads, and dark silver runes are shining. There are black jade pillars standing around it, and the tops of the pillars are carved with sword-wielding warriors.
On the field, several knights in black armor were fighting hard amidst layers of encirclement.
There were less than ten of them in total, but facing tens of thousands of paladins, they did not retreat at all, and even tried to break out.
The fighting spirits collided in the air, and the waves of air rolled up like a tsunami.
These people were obviously extremely powerful warriors. The fight only lasted for a few minutes before the protective magic array on the field began to collapse.
Those magic arrays could no longer absorb the impact of the fighting spirit and collapsed layer by layer.
The shattered light spots scattered like star rain.
The obsidian ground also shattered in an instant, the stone pillars were shattered by the aftermath of the fighting spirit, and the nearby temple was cut into hundreds of pieces by the sword energy.
The Paladins surrounded the site.
A dense sea of people surged inward, gradually shrinking the encirclement. More and more reinforcements were approaching, and everywhere you looked, you could see platinum armor everywhere.
The Black Knights fell one by one, until only three remained, two of whom seemed to be trying to protect the one in the middle.
The two men looked at each other. Their faces were covered by masks and no expression could be seen, but they seemed to have made up their minds.
Then they chanted a spell at the same time, and red light burst out from their bodies.
“Stop!”
The black-armored knight in the middle pushed them away, interrupting their spellcasting.
"I will never run away from these rats—"
The man said coldly.
He leaned on the long blade in his hand, as if it was not a sword stained with blood and flesh, but a scepter held by a noble lord.
A subordinate swung his sword to repel the approaching enemy, "But you are still cursed—"
But the man said no more.
He ignored his subordinates' dissuasion, shook the sword with his backhand, turned it into a spear, then jumped high, stomped on the air, and the sonic boom expanded rapidly.
Dozens of paladins in front were instantly turned into pieces of flesh and blood.
The black knight leaped into the enemy camp like a meteorite. The moment he landed, everyone within a hundred meters was blown into the air.
Before they could even move, the armor was completely twisted and deformed, squashing the bones and flesh inside, and causing fragments of internal organs to fall out.
It turned into a misty and smelly bloody red fog.
The black knight thrust the spear in his hand rapidly, and the tip of the spear repeatedly tapped in the air, creating numerous phantoms.
Fighting spirit surged up, dozens of air blades shot out, and the last blow penetrated the entire long street, smashing the clock tower across the street into pieces.
There were probably several hundred paladins standing in this straight line. Whether they wanted to dodge or resist, they all failed.
Then it was blown to pieces.
The next second, the air blade condensed from the gun tip suddenly stretched out, turning into a crescent moon that cut across, and continued to stretch with every inch it moved in the air.
But in the blink of an eye, hundreds of paladins around were cut in half, like a photo torn in half, with their upper and lower bodies dislocated.
This person's attack speed is really too fast.
——As everyone knows, the combat effectiveness of the Holy See's Paladins is not only strong in their own fighting spirit, but also in their ability to use holy arts.
These people can treat themselves.
However, facing an opponent of this level, they had no time to make any moves and were killed in one blow.
Countless corpses piled up, as bloody and terrifying as a slaughterhouse.
Suddenly, a platinum-colored flame came rushing from the distance.
The black knight spun around, raised his arm, grabbed the radiant blade with one hand, and flung it back fiercely.
The white flames pierced through dozens of paladins like meteors.
After that, the flame continued to rush forward without even slowing down, and any paladin who failed to dodge was killed instantly by the slightest touch.
Their bodies, which were strengthened by fighting spirit, seemed extremely fragile at this moment.
The flames finally fell in the distance, and a brilliant firework exploded behind the buildings in the commercial street.
The black knight stood proudly amidst a sea of blood and corpses.
There were almost no living creatures within a few hundred meters around him.
There was only a paladin dressed as a legion commander, holding his sword and shield tremblingly, as if he still wanted to fight.
The Black Knight swept the tip of his spear, accurately piercing the man's knee and severing the tendons in his hands and feet.
The legion commander knelt before him.
The black knight looked down at the enemy in front of him, seemingly disdainful of speaking, and swung his hand to chop off the opponent's head.
The headless corpse remained in a kneeling position, motionless.
"……waste."
The black knight crushed the head with one foot, walked forward with the gun in hand, and after a few steps, he suddenly stopped, his tall body trembling slightly.
He seemed to be enduring something.
"Despicable—"
The Black Knight's hands were shaking violently, and he couldn't even hold the gun. His originally straight spine couldn't help but bend, and he finally knelt on one knee.
A soft sigh was heard from the front.
"Your Excellency—"
Another figure emerged from the sea of blood and stopped a few steps in front of the Black Knight.
"This is just a helpless move. After all, when you were at your peak, even a million-strong army would have been slaughtered by you—"
The man smiled. "His mark is still on you. As long as you are willing to surrender, the power that was taken away by the curse will return."
He paused, "You know, in this competition, all boundaries are blurred. Noble and despicable are just footnotes written by the victor."
The man lowered his eyes to look at the Black Knight and continued, "Everyone knows that according to universal moral standards, both you and we have done many terrible things, but in the end, how we are judged depends solely on who wins this war."
The Black Knight knelt on one knee, "You——"
Before he could finish his words, he howled in pain, as if tortured by some force. His helmet rolled to the side, revealing his frosty and snow-white silver hair.
The curls, bathed in moonlight, were stained with blood and fell loosely on his broad shoulders.
His armor burned in the platinum flames, and his body was also burned in the flames. The strong muscles and bones protected by the fighting spirit were quickly devoured.
The man's body became tattered, with most of his limbs, chest and abdomen eaten away by the holy fire.
"With just one thought from you," the onlooker whispered, "you can return to your peak state, no, even stronger than that."
The Black Knight said nothing.
He could no longer maintain the kneeling position on one knee, and had to support himself with both hands in front of him to barely avoid falling down completely.
“…Ha, hahahahahahahahahaha—”
He suddenly laughed.
"You want to conquer this continent, but Mithros will never belong to you—"
The laughter sounded crazy and happy.
He picked up the gun blade that had rolled to the side and thrust it into the ground. Countless complicated spells emerged, expanding outwards layer by layer.
Countless magic arrays emerged in the air, interweaving and nesting with each other, merging at an incredible speed to form a giant domain.
"This is my land, and I am the rule."
The dark red light spread like ripples, covering the entire city.
The ground began to tremble, and the broken bricks and stones slowly rose up and floated in the air.
The sky seemed to be torn apart, the clouds twisted into vortexes, and blood-colored runes emerged in the void, wrapping around the city's borders like chains.
Time seemed to stand still.
The burning flames were frozen at the leaping moment, and the splattering blood solidified into a red bead curtain.
The reinforcements of the Paladin arrived from afar, and the charging action was frozen at the moment he raised his foot.
"Even if you—"
The Black Knight pointed his spear towards the sky. "■■■■■, you will never make me surrender—"
The people around him retreated quickly, but it was too late. They were all forcibly frozen by that power, their bodies crushed and their souls extracted.
If there is a substantial fluctuation that shakes the entire city.
“…”
When Su Cheng woke up, the town outside the window was plunged into twilight. The orange glow of the sky was burning, turning the river in the mountains into a rose color.
She blinked, looked at the half-open window in the room and the curtains blowing in the warm breeze, and her memories gradually came back.
"How did you sleep?"
A dark shadow approached from above, and the mattress suddenly dropped to the bottom.
The silver-haired young man walked over quietly, sat down on the edge of the bed, supported her face with one hand, and stared down into her eyes.
Su Cheng moved aside, then turned over and sat up. "Are we back in town again? You brought me back? Where did they go?"
Sasha glanced at her and said, "You fainted, so I brought you back first. As for those two people, they have their own ideas."
"...Okay, thank you."
Su Cheng felt it and found that there was no problem with the circulation of his fighting spirit and magic power. The mental power that was lost from watching those memories was almost restored.
She tried to sort out the various pieces of information. "You said before that the temple of Miseros once belonged to the Cult of Eternal Night. So that battle was actually an invasion by the Holy See's paladins, trying to seize that territory, right? And that man, that man was once the lord of Miseros. He became a follower of the Dark God and a core figure in the Cult of Eternal Night. Many years later, he returned to his territory. Um, to recuperate?"
"It's obvious," Sasha said with a sarcastic expression. "Someone cursed him, so he can't unleash his true strength in battle. He either has to cast a spell to remove the curse, or die in humiliation, or even die without a happy death. Ha, even though I don't like this guy very much, I have to admit that he's quite unlucky."
Su Cheng couldn't help but look sideways.
His tone was a little strange.
Su Cheng: "You don't like him? Do you mean the kind of dislike you get from historical figures? Or did you actually know him? When he was alive? He must have lived at least a thousand years ago, right? You're over a thousand years old?"
Sasha hesitated, "In fact, the leader doesn't like these people very much either."
Su Cheng: “?”
Su Cheng: "I remember the team leader said he was a little older than you all. Well, no wonder he was so steady and mature."
Sasha: “???”
Sasha: “………………”
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