The entire city wailed amid the flames. Black smoke coiled like giant pythons around collapsing spires.
Through this chaos marched a distinctive army in perfect formation down streets already reduced to ruins.
At the front, a knight held high a banner embroidered with a golden lion. The soldiers following wore gleaming blue armor, a soaring hawk carved upon each breastplate. Beneath every helmet was a face carved from stone, utterly indifferent to the corpses littering the way.
At the center of this elite force rode a middle-aged man in marshal’s battle armor atop a six-legged black-scaled warhorse.
When his gaze swept over the charred bodies curled beside the street, the corner of his mouth actually lifted in a faint, almost imperceptible arc.
“Your Majesty, remnants of the Fourth Prince are still resisting in the eastern district,” a general beside him reported in a low voice.
“My useless little brother abandoned the city himself, yet there are still diehards inside?” The man addressed as king chuckled lightly and waved a careless hand. “Leave them for the follow-up troops to mop up. We head straight for the palace.”
The faint smile had not yet faded from Elias’s lips when the general beside him suddenly exploded into motion, wrapping an arm around the First Prince’s waist and hurling them both backward off the horse.
The courtyard wall to their right shattered with a deafening roar. Countless python-thick thorny vines burst through, sweeping across with unstoppable force.
The silver-armored soldiers didn’t even have time to raise their shields before they were swallowed by the sudden green tide. In the blink of an eye, the entire elite unit was reduced to wreckage.
Amid the swirling dust, Cirian stepped calmly from behind the collapsed wall.
The elf’s robes were spotless. His emerald eyes stared coldly at Elias, still shielded by the general, voice thick with impatience.
“Time is short. Can’t you just die obediently? Arthur’s eldest son—Elias.”
Elias, despite the sudden attack, showed no panic. Instead, he studied Cirian with interest. “I’ve never seen you at court. One of my dear little brother’s hired helpers? No… calling Father by name—who exactly are you?”
“What’s there to say to a fake created by mist?” Cirian sighed. A faint green glow gathered at his fingertips.
“Fake?” Elias laughed. “This is mist, yes, but real memories, real will—by what right do you claim I’m the fake and you’re real?”
“A thing without even a soul, pretending to be alive.”
Elias’s ever-present calm finally vanished. His handsome face darkened.
“Kill him.”
The general who had protected him stepped forward. Terrifying pressure erupted like a landslide or tsunami. The stone beneath his feet cracked inch by inch.
Cirian merely tapped the ground lightly with his foot.
Countless tender green shoots burst from the cracks, growing into vines in the blink of an eye.
The horrifying battle leveled the entire street in moments.
It raged for a long time. When the thorns finally pierced Elias’s chest, the self-proclaimed possessor of true will shattered into pieces with an expression of disbelief.
The surrounding mist began to churn violently, receding like a tide.
Cirian stumbled and fell into a forest.
He gently pulled down his sleeve to cover an arm that had already turned to wood.
Looking around, worry flashed in his emerald eyes. “I hope Vera and the others are safe…”
…
“Vera…? What… what happened to you?”
Lucia’s trembling voice sounded utterly helpless.
She knelt in a pool of blood, unable to believe that the gravely wounded, barely breathing warrior before her was the same Vera who had always smiled at her—the last light in her life.
Just moments ago, the mist that had been about to swallow Goldvalley City had suddenly withdrawn at the critical moment, leaving the city in chaos.
Lucia had found the dying Vera at the edge of the retreating mist.
Vera’s lips trembled, but he could not form a single complete sound.
Lucia frantically tore strips from her own clothing, clumsily trying to bind the wounds that revealed bone.
“I-I’ll go get help right now! Vera, you have to hold on!” Her voice broke into sobs as she ran toward Goldvalley City.
But the soldiers and civilians who had just survived the mist’s terror were in complete disarray.
Lucia ran through the crowds begging for help, only to be met with cold shoves.
Some, because of who her father was, even struck her across the face without hesitation.
When she returned empty-handed, the ground beneath Vera was already soaked red. His chest no longer rose and fell.
“Vera? Vera!” Lucia shook his shoulders in disbelief.
Her cries did not wake Vera, but they did attract unwelcome guests.
A sudden blow to the back of her head—darkness.
When Cirian finally arrived, Lucia was gone.
The elf crouched, examining the dozens of deep and shallow wounds on Vera’s body.
From the injuries, Vera had fought battle after battle. The massive pool of blood on the ground told him death had come from blood loss.
Yet Cirian could still feel a faint trace of life lingering in Vera.
He let out a soft sigh tinged with guilt.
If not for him, Vera and the others should never have encountered such an over-spec mist scenario.
“Vera, don’t die. At least… not because of me…”
Brushing away the mycelium trying to spread across his body, a single drop of clear liquid seeped from Cirian’s fingertip and fell into Vera’s mouth.
A miracle followed. Hideous wounds healed at visible speed. Pallid cheeks regained color. The silent heart began to beat once more.
If Lin Jun had been paying attention, he would have found the scene eerily familiar. Unfortunately, his focus was entirely on the battlefield with Pink Puchi and the feast that was surely coming.
Finally, Vera’s breathing steadied. He lay peacefully beneath a tree.
Cirian’s figure, meanwhile, gradually transformed into an ancient wooden statue, quietly crumbling in the breeze, leaving only a few tender green leaves drifting down.
【Virtue of Sacrifice Judgment】 【Hero Acquisition Difficulty -50% (×)】 【Harvest Phase (√), Salvation Value (√), Sacrifice Event (√)】 【Judgment Passed】 【Achievement Unlocked: Virtue of Sacrifice】
Vera’s eyelashes trembled. He slowly opened his eyes.
In his blurred vision, Filing and Fiyin were running toward him, faces filled with worry…
…
Lucia woke to searing pain, first feeling the cold bite of iron around her ankle.
A crude chain locked her there, the other end fastened to a stake in the center of the camp.
A goblin noticed she was awake and bared a mouth full of fangs in a piercing cackle.
It casually picked up a stone and hurled it at her forehead.
Lucia did not dodge. She did not even raise a hand to block. The rock sliced open her brow, blood trickling down.
Warm blood slid across malnourished-pale skin, leaving a crimson trail.
The goblin had expected screams. Getting none, it lost interest and wandered off.
Blood dripped onto the dirt with soft pat-pat sounds.
Lucia’s thoughts drifted far away.
She remembered Vera dying because rescue came too late. She remembered her father’s last guilt-filled glance before his execution on the square. She remembered the head maid throwing herself in front of the pigfolk, split open by an axe…
They were all dead.
Why?
The question echoed endlessly in her heart.
She had never had any choice. She had never done anything wrong. Why did everyone who was kind to her meet terrible ends?
Why was she the only one left alive in this malicious world?
Her nine-fingered hands covered her eyes. She no longer prayed for help. She no longer looked forward to tomorrow.
Only hatred for the world remained.
“Let humans and demons alike die.”
“I should have died with the head maid that day.”
【Seven Sins: Wrath Judgment】
【Hero Acquisition Difficulty -50% (×)】
【Harvest Phase (√), Hatred Value (√), Character Importance (×)】
【Judgment Failed】
Mist silently enveloped the camp.
Goblins looked around in panic. Snake-men raised scales and hissed.
But the mist only grew thicker, swallowing the entire camp.
In the fog came the sound of a chain snapping.
Before the mist scattered them, a hand missing one finger seized the goblin from earlier by the throat and crushed it with ease.
【Seven Sins: Wrath Judgment】
【Hero Acquisition Difficulty -50% (×)】
【Harvest Phase (√), Hatred Value (√)】
【Judgment Successful】
【Achievement Unlocked: Seven Sins of Wrath】
“Let it all… burn…”
(End of Chapter)
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