Chapter 791 We are Free Soul Eaters
"Hero Anlessie is in a deep sleep and has not yet woken up due to the effects of the potion. Hero Caius has already set off for the Cene Dungeon."
"This is the first time I've openly taken out the potion that I usually add to the hero's food and fed it to Anlessie in front of Caius. As long as I say it's a healing item, he won't suspect a thing."
"The latest potions researched by the church are quite effective. The two heroes, who previously completely disregarded the doctrines of the Holy Light, now subconsciously follow them. Their behavior is no different from that of believers who have been devoted to the Holy Light for many years, and they themselves have not even noticed this."
“I request the church to allocate some more potions to me. I will test their effects on other people to ensure that the potions are versatile.”
"The success of the potion is already foreseeable. In the future, the church will definitely be able to mass-produce fanatics belonging to our Holy Light!"
In the camp of the Church of Holy Light in Hypa Town.
Beside the sleeping Anlessie, the Holy Knight Anna was writing something on a piece of paper. Finally, she threw the finished letter into the air, and a familiar that looked like a carrier pigeon appeared out of thin air, carrying the letter away into the distance.
Sometimes, traditional letters are safer than convenient and fast teleportation magic.
After finishing all this, she stretched her sore wrists, glanced at Anlessie, and then at the girl who treated her like a kind right-hand woman.
"It's really great that you trust others so easily."
Anna's apparent identity is one of the Holy Knights.
In reality, they were confidants of the Archbishop of the Holy Light Church, sent specifically to monitor the two heroes.
Incidentally, this adds a little seasoning to the daily diet of the two heroes.
The so-called potion is a new technology recently developed by the church, involving the fusion of illusion magic and hypnosis magic. It has a lot of complicated terms, but its actual effect is obvious—strengthening the user's faith in the Holy Light.
To put it simply, this is mind control.
After all, Anlessie and Caius were not true believers of the Holy Light; they were hired by the church. So even though they behaved quite obediently, the church could not be completely at ease.
Of course, the techniques used to make these potions were so advanced that they have not been discovered until now.
Even if discovered, the church has ample reasons to explain, such as:
"This is so that you can smoothly pass through the guidance of the [Right Hand of the God of Light] and become blessed by the gods in the future. This is also for your own good."
Anna truly believed this statement; she even felt that secretly feeding Caius and the others the potion was a way of repaying their kindness.
Because Anlessie's talent for magic was extraordinary, the potion took longer to take effect, but its effects had already shown significant results on her brother Caius.
How significant was this effect?
When he hears something shocking, he will blurt out a sentence like those devout believers of the Holy Light.
Anna often said that phrase to herself, and now, thinking about how the task the archbishop had entrusted to her was about to be completed, she couldn't help but smile and mutter to herself:
"By the Holy Light."
"The Soul-Sucking Demon is above."
Caius blurted out something that sounded a bit off.
What did I just say?
He paused for a moment as soon as he finished speaking, his expression becoming noticeably dazed, and his memory becoming somewhat hazy.
He had long forgotten what he had just said; only one feeling remained in his heart.
When I said those words, I inexplicably felt a sense of freedom.
Caius quickly shook his head and looked around warily. He suspected that some force in this world of painting was influencing him, but he had no evidence.
There was a secret he had never told anyone, and it concerned his and Anlessie's heroic abilities.
Although Anlessie is currently in a coma, which has boosted his hero power to an extremely high level, his understanding and resistance to magic have not actually improved.
He can only use the magic that Anlessie has learned, and he has enhanced the magic power according to his own warrior strength. In other words, he is just a magic emitter and has no real understanding of it.
If it were him who was unconscious now, then Anlessie would immediately become a legendary warrior swordsmanship master, capable of unleashing countless killing swords in an instant. However, she would only be a swordsmanship launcher, and would not have such a deep understanding of a warrior's abilities as Caius.
However, Caius has never fallen into a coma, and Anlessie is unaware that she possesses this ability.
The Holy Light Church only knows that the Twin Heroes are a mechanic-based monster, where defeating one will make the other stronger due to anger, but they don't know the intricacies of this.
If we knew this, it would be incredibly easy to exploit these weaknesses to turn the tables on the two of them; the methods to counter them would be endless.
To protect his sister's pride, Caius and his knights conspired to deceive her, making her believe that she would become incredibly powerful and able to defeat all her enemies after falling into a coma.
Actually, it was her brother who did it; he was practically a stand-in.
Wait, why am I thinking about this?
Caius suddenly snapped out of his long reverie, shook his head, and banished the strange emotions from his mind.
Meanwhile, in the lord's room, Miyagi Hideaki, sitting on the altar and imitating Commander Ikari's signature pose, let out a satisfied sound.
"So this is the secret of the hero."
Caius may not have realized that his series of mental activities just now...
It's actually just what they say.
Anyone present, except for Ichigo Kurosaki or Eyjafjalla, could hear what he was saying.
Since magic resistance is flawed, that makes things easier.
At that moment, a memory suddenly flooded into Caius's mind, introducing him to the story of this world of painting.
You are a devout follower of the White Religion, and like other believers, you faithfully worship the God Lloyd.
[You follow the will of the gods, relentlessly hunting down the corrupted—those undead who have escaped the clutches of death—corrupted by the ominous ring of darkness, imprisoning them for eternity in the Northern Undead Asylum until their spirits are exhausted and they become mere walking corpses.]
Whenever you think about how you helped carry a lot of bricks during the construction of the magnificent Northern Undead Asylum, even if you're rushing around non-stop because of the gods' orders, you'll still hold your head high with pride.
Until one day, everything changed.
The Ring of Darkness has appeared around you.
[Your former companions now see you as an omen of doom, howling as they pounce on you, intending to throw you into the Northern Undead Asylum for torture.]
[You run relentlessly, relying on your well-trained body, not knowing where you're going, only that the surroundings are getting darker and darker. Your companions can't keep up with you anymore, but the knights of the White Cult are in hot pursuit. You are eventually exhausted and cornered, with no strength left to struggle. The knights surround you with sinister smiles, their sharp blades about to pierce your body.]
A precious gem, resembling a blood-red eye, appears in your hand.
You embraced a soul-devouring demon.
As if falling from a great height, Caius's spirit finally broke free from his memories and returned to his body, like experiencing a bungee jump without ropes.
At that moment, his breathing became slightly heavier, and he didn't even notice that a bead of cold sweat had appeared on his forehead.
He himself couldn't explain what was going on.
It was just an ordinary memory of the world of painting. They had been to the Sien Dungeon before, and had tried to enter the world of painting before.
But for some reason, this time the memories of the painting world were particularly immersive.
In that brief memory, he felt as if he had truly become that unfortunate person who kept running away, and the feeling of gradually losing strength and collapsing in despair was truly suffocating.
Especially when his former comrades turned into vengeful demons in an instant, showing no regard for their past friendship and rushing over to arrest him, he felt a despair as if he had fallen into the deep sea.
Fear, despair, terror—a mix of emotions intertwined, and beneath this entanglement lay a carefully concealed feeling:
【anger】
Why me? Why was I arrested? Why did I end up in this situation? Me.
When fear reaches its extreme, what arises in the heart is instead a burning anger.
It was at this moment of burgeoning anger that Caius also understood the conditions for clearing this painted world.
Kill all the White Cult followers and knights who pursued them.
As a soul-devouring ghost!
For some unknown reason, he was suddenly chosen by the blood-red eye gem, not only transformed into a soul-devouring demon, but even the pure white armor he wore, belonging to the Holy Light Church, instantly changed to the style of a soul-devouring demon.
The details of the soul-devouring demon were greatly added to the original armor, causing the pure white armor to twist and mutate, as if it were a vivid blasphemy.
but
Caius looked down at the armor, then touched the helmet; the visor of the helmet had turned into the shape of a skull.
He actually looks pretty handsome.
There was something he had never told anyone: he actually thought Hervé's style of dressing was really cool.
The black armor looks way cooler than the white armor of the Holy Light Church!
As we all know, one of the main functions of uniforms is to attract people with their stylish appearance.
But why did he become a soul-devouring ghost here?
Caius was a little confused. He looked around at his surroundings. It was dark and damp, with moisture everywhere, making the rocks on the ground slippery.
This place looks familiar.
Little Lund ruins?
Before he could even think deeply, a chaotic and complex sound of footsteps suddenly rang out and grew closer and closer. Before the newcomer could even appear, he unleashed a White Cult halo that could illuminate the surrounding darkness.
Caius didn't even use his signature three-sword style. He raised the dark sword that had suddenly appeared in his hand and shattered the White Church's aura with a single strike.
Upon seeing this symbol of the miracle of the White Sect shatter, he suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of exhilaration.
It was as if he had shattered the elaborate rituals of the White Sect with a single sword strike.
The followers and knights of the White Cult gave chase, but to Caius they looked nothing more than flesh-and-blood corpses, so he drew his sword and charged.
In an instant, the enemies who rushed in were all transformed into a cloud of blood mist with flashes of sword light, blood and bits of flesh were scattered everywhere, staining the dark ruins of Little Londo crimson.
But new enemies immediately rushed in, seemingly endless.
This was exactly what Caius wanted!
He felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction while slaughtering these White Cult followers.
His body's magical resistance tried to resist the feeling, but it only lasted a few seconds before it completely succumbed, allowing his mind to be led by the nose by the Sien Dungeon.
No, it can't be said that the Sion Dungeon so easily manipulated the mind of a hero; that would be too overpowered. In reality, Sion was merely guiding.
This led Caius to release all the pent-up frustration in his heart.
Caius swung his dark sword through the crowd, slicing open the humanoid blood bags one by one and letting the scalding liquid wash over his body.
This is the right thing to do, there's nothing wrong with it, because I'm leaving here, he told himself.
but
Every time he killed a follower of the White Cult, he would recall how oppressed he had been under the cumbersome doctrines of the identity he was now playing, and how each of his swords felt like it was striking the shackles that bound him.
As he killed more and more, the doctrines from the White Sect gradually took shape in his mind, transforming into the form of the Church of Holy Light.
Daily prayers, proper etiquette, things that should not be done, words that should not be spoken, and so on.
With each swing of his sword, he cleaved away the things that bound him, and if one sword wasn't enough, he would use two, three, or four. He destroyed all the broken things into a chaotic mess!
Gradually, a question arose in his mind, a question that should have arisen long ago:
Wasn't I hired here? When did I start believing in the Holy Light?
Right, what do these doctrines of the Holy Light Church have to do with someone who is essentially a mercenary? Why should he follow them?
When Caius grabbed the White Knight's head with his dark hand and sucked his humanity away, the White Knight in his eyes suddenly transformed into the face of the Holy Knight.
This change made him feel
Caius's beliefs are being tested.
(End of this chapter)
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