Chapter 543

Chapter 165 Golden Gleam of the Long Night Part 1

“Mr. J, you have broken our agreement.”

Miss Meser looked down at the naked clown and spoke her first words with a questioning tone, but her voice was indifferent, not sounding angry or annoyed by the disruption to her original plans.

She calmly stated, speaking quickly, “You’ve complicated things. It’s not good for you, me, or the Gate of Truth. Why did you do this?”

“Because it was fun?”

The man called Clown questioned back, his eyes flickering with light as he stood up, brushing off the dirt on his body, wearing an enigmatic smile that was almost imperceptible.

“Fun? All the people you brought are dead. Is that fun?” Miss Meser asked again.

“That was their choice,” Clown replied, flicking off some dust from his shoulder and chest. Having given up on cleaning himself, he stood bare in front of the woman who was as beautiful as a fairy from a painting, facing her without any concern about his state of undress.

I stood not far behind the woman, hesitating and not moving forward. I adjusted my tattered dress and smoothed out the loose strands of hair, leaning against a broken tree stump nearby, quietly observing the scene while my mind raced.

If she hadn’t lied to me earlier, then she must have intended to kill the Clown here… Her sudden appearance might be because she thought we had finished fighting… So, is she preparing to make her move now? Or does she have another purpose…

Right, that bead!

I hadn’t seen the object yet; it seemed Clown didn’t have it on him…

“So, you led us, almost all the disqualified ones, across the Ipsos Sea, defeated the Church’s Third and Sixth Knight armies, and came here, to the edge of Woodward Forest, just to send them to their deaths?”

The woman continued speaking, her tone somewhat cold. Since she was facing away from me, I couldn’t see her expression, but I could see Clown’s face. He showed no concern in response to her questions, spreading his hands out. “Is there a problem? Everyone is happy, right? After all, even if they weren’t going to die tonight, they wouldn’t have many days left anyway.”

…What does that mean?

Disqualified ones? Do they refer to those in the weak Blood Sacrifice stage? Not many days left to live?

My frown deepened, suppressing the urge to step forward and ask.

It seems they don’t get along. At this moment, it’s better to observe the situation; getting involved with both of them would be detrimental. Let’s see what the woman intends to do first…

Speaking of which, what exactly are the Church people doing… They boastfully claim they handle everything in town… But why would they let this woman come over so casually… Something must have happened to them…

“Very well.”

Hearing Clown’s response, the woman named Meser shook her head slightly, then said, “Give me the Tear of the Goddess, and continue enjoying your miserable pleasures.”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that.”

Clown seemed to suddenly remember, twitching his lips at the woman in a manner that looked like a smile, but pointing to his abdomen, “That thing is on me, right here.”

Hmm?

Earlier, because he was naked, my gaze instinctively avoided certain private areas, not out of shyness, but simply feeling disgusted. Thus, I hadn’t noticed… Now, following the direction of his finger, under the faint light of the fire and moon, I clearly saw a scar about ten centimeters long on Clown’s abdomen, terrifying and vicious-looking.

The scar looked like it was cut open by a knife, but with the power of the Gate of Truth’s inferno, such an injury should have healed long ago, leaving no trace. However, this was not the case. The knife wound on Clown’s abdomen was still a fresh red, though it wasn’t bleeding and the wound was tightly closed. Yet, it had not fully healed. Upon closer inspection, one could see tiny flesh buds wriggling within the wound, as if countless intertwined worms were moving.

“But…”

The man pointed to the disgusting wound, smiling at the woman in front of him, “If I’m not mistaken, you’re being watched by the Church’s people. They’ve known your identity for a long time, haven’t they? So, I think it’s safer not to take it out here. For safety’s sake, it’s better to keep it safely inside my body… Don’t you agree, Miss Silverja?”

Clown glanced at me with a playful expression as he spoke.

?

Why ask me… A lunatic…

My frown deepened further. Seeing Miss Meser turn her head towards me, I refrained from speaking rashly. I thought the bead must be inside Clown’s stomach. While pondering whether to seize it when he least expected it, I heard the woman speak again.

“Give it to me now.”

She turned back, not minding that I was watching, or perhaps treating me as air. She stared at Clown’s face, her tone becoming serious, “I don’t want to do it myself.”

“Hmm? You don’t want to? I thought you were going to kill me… Ah, you scared me.”

The man acted like a young girl, lightly patting his chest, “Are you sure you want to do it here?”

The woman did not answer, only looking at him.

After a moment, Clown scratched his head, “Actually… There’s something I think I should tell you.

Voice…

He looked at the woman’s face, took two steps back, and grinned bizarrely: “Originally, our purpose in the Southern Territory was to kill as many people as possible, the more the better, ideally an entire city, or even two cities worth of people. We wanted to make sure all the lunatics we brought along would also die, and after I obtained the Goddess’s Tear, I planned to use their blood to nourish this damned bead… You said that if there wasn’t enough blood, we wouldn’t be able to use it to open the Dragon’s Homeland. I remember, I really do…”

The man continued, his smile growing increasingly intense: “I did everything you asked. You know, news reached us that indeed many people died on your side… Our knights, they all died… I did it, the process was truly delightful… It was so much fun, I got carried away, and then, without realizing it… I forgot to use their blood to nourish the bead… Hehehehehe…”

The man lowered his head, letting out a mad laugh, his shoulders shaking violently: “This is bad, what should we do now? Suddenly, I feel a bit guilty towards you, hehehe… I’m very sorry, extremely sorry… But still, we have to go to the Dragon’s Homeland, and I must go too. You can’t leave me behind, but what can we do now… Can you think of another way?”

The clown lifted his head again, staring at the woman with blood-red eyes, his face full of excitement and madness: “Or else, why don’t we just kill everyone here? You and I, plus that old guy Sebastian, would that work… Either we die, or everyone dies, there’s no other choice now, right?”

“Hehehe… Ahahahahaha—”

!

I widened my eyes, watching the clown laugh like a madman, anger surging, unable to hold back and stepping forward.

Damn—

“Damn thing.”

The woman named Meise spoke before me, saying these words.

In the next moment, she suddenly stretched out her slender right hand, her fingers curling into claws, red flames suddenly igniting from her palm, rapidly spreading to her entire arm. The speed was so fast that neither I nor the clown, who was laughing crazily ahead, could react in time. Immediately, the clown’s laughter abruptly stopped, his body freezing in an odd posture, beginning to tremble violently.

“This… is…”

Red light like flowing water shot out from the woman’s burning hand, several streaks of light instantly wrapping around the frozen clown. As they circled him, his feet slowly lifted off the ground, suspended about a meter in the air. His limbs trembled even more violently, veins bulging on his forehead, his face twisted in madness: “You… this… woman…”

What does she want to do… Does she want to kill the clown…

Crimson light enveloped the man, like snakes in the night sky, twisting flexibly. A few streaks climbed up the wounds on the clown’s abdomen, entering them, forcibly tearing open the gruesome gashes. Burning blood splattered everywhere, and in the next instant, blinding red light burst forth from within the wounds.

“If Sister Teresa weren’t already gone, if I didn’t have anyone else to rely on, something like you… what qualifications do you have…”

“Haha, Hahaha…”

Hearing the woman’s words, the clown struggled to pull at the corners of his mouth, his hoarse, eerie laughter echoing through the light and fire: “Aren’t you trying to kill me too? We’re even… Ahaha…”

“Miss Silvija.”

Suddenly, the woman calling herself Meise called out to me.

She didn’t turn around: “Just now, on this side, I felt an extremely unsettling aura, dark chaotic power. Do you… know what that means?”

“…”

I was stunned for a moment, still immersed in the astonishment of the sudden change, not reacting immediately. I only answered instinctively: “No…”

In the next moment, the woman swung her other arm, crimson flames bursting explosively before my eyes!

Boom—

In the blink of an eye, I could only lift my arm to shield my face, as the scorching, powerful impact hit me. My feet left the ground, my body flying backward, crushing the ice-encased shrubs with a series of crunches, flying nearly twenty meters before slamming into a tree. I slid down, quickly getting back up, coughing lightly, feeling a slight pain in my back. Shaking my head, I looked back toward the place I had been attacked—

Red flames burned, rising over a meter high. The woman in a red dress stood amidst the flames, her graceful figure barely visible. In front of her, the clown’s body lay on the ground. Amidst the raging flames, a bright blood-red droplet floated slowly, landing in the woman’s outstretched palm…

It’s it!

My eyes widened even further.

It’s that bead!!

That bead made from the blood of innocent children, refined with strange vertebrae, known as the Goddess’s Tear!!

I can’t let that bead fall into the hands of heretics—

Bang!

In an instant, I made my decision. Taking a step forward with Moon Step, my small figure moved like a ghost, instantly rushing into the flames and appearing behind the woman. As I raised my fist to strike, my left hand reached out toward the bead in her palm!

But in the next moment, the woman turned, her steps resembling a dance, spinning to avoid the attack. My fingers grazed the bead but couldn’t touch it. Still in mid-air, the woman kicked me from the side. In a panic, I quickly raised my arm to block, then was sent flying by the immense force, spinning several times in the air before landing safely, standing up and raising my head.

Buzz—

It seemed as if I heard the sound of divine miracles.