Chapter 735

Chapter 120 Demon and Deity Part 2

“What are you saying…”

Alistair didn’t understand what the young girl was talking about, and he wasn’t really listening. At this moment, all he could think about was survival. He gritted his teeth and slowly crawled away from the direction of the demon. The intense pain in his leg was gradually fading, and soon he would be able to stand up again.

Behind him, the demon’s soft voice continued.

“Greed, desire… and fear of the unknown, wanting to grasp everything for oneself… There are many complex and ugly emotions deep within human hearts, even I am not exempt. So, I can actually understand what the church has done… at least part of it.”

Splat, splat.

The armored feet stepped forward, making a slightly grating sound as they landed on the sandy soil.

That sound followed Alistair from afar.

In the next moment, intense pain shot through his right leg.

“Ah! —!!”

The man let out a hoarse scream. His calf was pierced by a curved long thorn that suddenly extended from the tip of the girl’s nails. The black thorn, nearly two meters long, completely pinned the young bishop’s right leg to the ground!

His body tensed sharply from the pain, like an electric shock, he turned back in panic and shouted, “No, don’t, wait! We have no feud… those things weren’t my doing! I’m just a clergyman, just a damned clergyman! Silvija, you can’t do this to me! You can’t!”

Alistair was on the verge of breaking down.

“I don’t deny the great achievements of the church over the millennia.”

But the demonic girl ignored his desperate cries: “And the existence of divine authority might also be very necessary for this world. Just recently, I finally understood some things that had been troubling me for a long time… the so-called truth… at least part of it. I now understand what a deity is, and I know the fundamental reason why the Door of Truth appeared… After that, I became somewhat lost.”

With a “pfft,” she pulled the sharp thorn out of the young bishop’s leg. The black thorn vanished instantly as it retracted back to her fingertip. The man clutched his leg in agony and screamed again. Blood gushed out of the wound.

“…I’ve thought about living in obscurity.”

The girl paid no attention to his screams, her cold eyes fixed on him, devoid of any emotion. She looked at him as if he were just a weed or a dead bone by the roadside.

“If I go back to the Western Continent, back to Santel Castle… or perhaps to the remote village of Silgaya, choosing to become a ‘useless person’ among heretics, not caring about anything… having only a few people around, eating when hungry… it might not be bad after all.”

“I know, I know where the choir headquarters are! I can also find out Michal Cardinal’s itinerary for you…” Bishop Alistair seemed on the verge of tears. Realizing he couldn’t run, he retreated backward, disregarding his dignity and begged pitifully, “I know a lot… uh… let me go, I’ll be useful to you… I swear… I’ll be useful to you…”

“But you would never allow me to do that, right?”

The girl continued talking to herself, her expression unchanged: “I’m very clear about this. Very clear. You people would never let me live freely. Once the church leaders find out about my whereabouts, they will learn that the experimental subject known as me is still alive, then…”

“No! No one, no one knows you’re still alive, I swear no one does! I swear by the deity!!”

Alistair raised his hand high, shouting desperately and heart-wrenchingly because he suddenly understood why the girl wouldn’t leave any survivors here. She feared that he would immediately report her whereabouts to the church, reaching the ears of the Pope.

But the man dared to swear by the deity. In that moment, he hadn’t thought of these things.

He just wanted to survive.

Unfortunately…

The girl no longer believed anyone.

She didn’t even show the slightest interest in responding. Assuming the young bishop would report the message back to the church, she continued speaking:

“I can guess what you’ll do next… there’s no way you’d try to persuade me nicely. Like you and the church knights I’ve killed, your first reaction upon seeing me isn’t negotiation or discussion, but violence, suppression, a fight for life and death where you won’t give me a moment’s respite until I become your puppet again… ha.”

The demonic girl sneered with contempt: “You people who claim to know the truth are very clear about this. You understand that I will never voluntarily cooperate with the church again. Therefore, you will use even more intense methods against me. For example, powerful divine relics or carefully prepared traps. You will try every possible method to probe and attempt to make me submit again, to bring me back under control.

“The Church will never be satisfied unless there are no more mistakes. Never.”

“No! I swear to you—”

Aresta wanted to say more but was interrupted by the girl’s indifferent tone. “You don’t need to swear to me. Your vows mean nothing to me. From now on, I only care about actions. And your actions just now have already indirectly proven what the Church thinks… In fact, from the very beginning, your thoughts about me haven’t changed at all.”

“I—”

“Have you ever thought about sitting down with me face-to-face, having a serious negotiation, telling me the real situation the Church is facing, informing me of what truly needs to be done, respecting my wishes, and letting me make my own choice… If that were the case, I might be willing to sacrifice something for this world, because there are important people to me, near or far, who are still alive.”

“Sylvia…”

“But you didn’t do that. You never considered it. Only because to you, the Church leaders, and to Angel, I possess the power of the Abyss, I am an uncontrollable risk. And you must avoid all uncontrollable risks. As I said before, everything must be completely under the Church’s control… Only then can you feel at ease.”

“You won’t let a being beyond control have the freedom to choose, especially when the conflict has escalated to this extent. It would be impossible to sit down and talk properly.”

“If I die, it’s fine, but if that scoundrel Angel discovers that I’m still alive, he will use every means at his disposal to force me to submit. He will capture me with some dirty methods, erase my memories, and turn me back into an experimental subject for the Church, a docile tool…”

“Even if you realize that I’m now difficult to confront directly, and you can’t handle me anymore, you will turn to my friends and loved ones. You will definitely do that. I know Angel too well, and he knows exactly what my greatest weakness is… How could I let that happen?”

The girl paused again.

Whether it was Aresta’s imagination or not, he felt a hint of heart-wrenching sorrow in her cold gaze.

“But it will happen, as long as I’m alive, right?”

“… ”

The young bishop suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Warm tears trickled down his face. He slowly closed his eyes, preparing himself for the impending death in his heart.

Volume Five Epilogue

I woke up this morning thinking I could manage two chapters today, then at 6 PM, I thought one chapter was feasible, but now, I think “hahaha,” so let’s just post a personal note first. This doesn’t require much brainpower.

For no particular reason, I finished the epilogue, but I feel it’s not good enough, and I don’t have the energy to revise it, so I won’t post it.

My head feels a bit dizzy now. I just ate something, and it made me even dizzier. I can’t concentrate, and the more I write and revise, the less it seems to flow smoothly. Posting it would bother me.

I don’t know what’s going on. It doesn’t seem like the onset of a cold, and I doubt I have any serious illness. Perhaps it’s a series of complications from insomnia. My sleep quality has been maintained by alcohol recently, but relying on that isn’t a solution, and it’s really bad for my health. Good kids, don’t follow this example.

Let me get some sleep first. If I wake up feeling energetic tomorrow, I’ll do double updates. Otherwise, I’ll definitely be energetic tomorrow.

Next week, I’ll try to write more.

But I can’t make any guarantees. Anyway, you know I won’t slack off. If I can write and post, I won’t intentionally delay.

Limited energy, so I’ll keep this summary short.

In this last scene, I ended up deviating from my script a bit—nothing too drastic, just fewer battles, and some interactions between Pepo and other characters were cut.

And Pepo’s awakening process, and the struggle against the Goddess’s will,那段肯定被删掉了，但这会在之后交代一下，无妨。其他删掉的部分已经删了，之后也没有机会再呈现，或者要以别的形式去呈现了，所以这里就不多说了。

总之呢，最近写东西的状态不是很好吧。

但《深渊》总体还是往预计的方向在走，少了些繁琐的细节，冗长的感情戏和心里戏，对于剧情的发展倒是没什么影响，之后也会按照原先设计的大纲走，我尽量写的快一些，写的不那么啰嗦，该爽的地方让大家爽一爽。

这一卷结束之后，Pepo将带着旷世的力量回到西洲，我看到你们评论里有说希望在之后看到的剧情——放心，都有。

就先从瓦伦帝国开始吧。

乖孩纸肯定是要先回家的嘛。

关于帝国的战争，我当然不会再写什么刀片结局，维多利亚也不会，这个和你们保证。

尾声明天尽早发吧。

希望接下来我的状态会越来越好…

以上。