Chapter 689

Chapter 74: Through the Fire Part Six

The sunrise was like a raging fire.

The scorching sun seemed like a boiling steel furnace, bursting forth from behind the great ridge of Yellow Mountain, dividing the darkness between the sky and earth. The golden-red sunlight sprinkled over the yellow sand sea, faintly carrying blood-like shimmering waves, gradually illuminating the hazy horizon.

One kilometer west of the small town, a surging flood composed of golden-armored knights, accompanied by the clanging footsteps and hooves, had already lined up on the slope of yellow sand. Elder Sword Saint Lein, Fat Grandma Apfel, and the young bishop named Alersta, riding on scaled and armored Floris hornhorses, reined in their mounts in front of the formation.

“Whoa—”

The huge hornhorses snorted loudly, stopping their hooves. The three of them looked far ahead, their vision piercing through the blood-colored yellow sands, barely making out the faint outline of Mese Town in the distance.

Tapping, tapping, tapping…

On both sides of the formation, the solemn-looking knight commander swung his large arm, and the reconnaissance cavalry, consisting of more than twenty people, split into two groups, galloping away, preparing to advance eastward. Before they even reached the bottom of the slope, Bishop Alersta suddenly shouted, “Stop! Wait for a moment!”

The knight commander immediately raised his hand to signal the halt, his gaze filled with confusion as he looked towards the young bishop. At the same time, he heard the slightly chaotic murmurs behind him.

“That is…”

“Is it fire?”

“It’s on fire…”

“The town seems to be on fire. What’s going on…”

On fire…?

The knight commander suddenly realized the issue, his battle-hardened face becoming even more serious. He hadn’t paid special attention before, thinking it was just a bunch of wild townsmen and remnants of heretics, not something that needed serious consideration. But now, he subconsciously glanced back toward the town.

But there, under the glaring sun, a faint red flame flickered amidst the crimson sun, engulfing half of the town. The flames almost merged with the sky due to the distance, making it hard to notice if not looked closely.

“Today’s light forebodes ill omens…”

The elderly sword saint sighed deeply nearby. The knight commander heard this, and after looking at the town for a while, although he didn’t take much of it to heart, he did sense something amiss. He then signaled the reconnaissance team to hold their position and rode his beast toward Bishop Alersta, the leader of this operation, and bowed on the beast’s back, asking, “Your Excellency Bishop, should we change tactics?”

“…From the color, it’s hellfire, with an incredibly high temperature.”

Before Alersta could speak, the fat grandma spoke first. She held her giant war hammer on her shoulder and glanced sideways, saying, “Mr. Lein, we certainly took care of that powerful female heretic in the Sand Valley. There’s no mistake about it, right?”

“…”

The old sword saint remained silent, his face deep in thought.

“Haha! She was torn to pieces. Never heard of any heretic in the blood sacrifice phase surviving such an attack. Does she think herself invincible? The town’s believers must have another person. That fire doesn’t seem like it came from ordinary pests. Could it be the clown? No, the clown died in the West Continent… So who else? Haha! Interesting, interesting…”

As the fat grandma speculated, she downed large gulps of wine, her face showing no fear, waving her war hammer with a whoosh, causing a gust of wind that made the hornhorse beneath her sink and neigh.

“…Laurence.”

After a brief pause, the young bishop waited, seeing that the two respected Papal Knights showed no intention of commenting, he narrowed his eyes and commanded the knight commander named Laurence, “Continue your investigation, no need to scout around the perimeter, go straight into the town, pay attention to safety… Have your men release white birds first, prepare the Mafa Light, and release signals if anything happens!”

“Yes!”

The knight commander bowed again, “May the gods be with us.”

“May the gods be with us.”

The young bishop returned the courtesy. After a moment, the hoofbeats faded away. He watched the reconnaissance knights racing across the yellow sands, stirring up dust, waiting for a moment, and then raised his right fist high behind him.

“By the Grace of the Scales! Step forth and strike, advance—”

“Roar!”

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—

The knights drew their sharp swords, their firm footsteps echoing on the desert sands. Soon, a golden torrent cascaded down the hill, heading toward the town in a slow but steady march.

…..

In the ash-filled Messer Town, the raging fires crackled and burned.

Fiery red tongues licked at the broken earthen houses. The wooden poles that once held drying clothes collapsed, along with the bleached and patched garments that fell into the flames, consumed instantly. The intense fire burst through round windows, staining the earthen walls black, which quickly turned bright red, crumbling and collapsing.

On the earthen road at the town center, countless stinking corpses had already been piled up like two small hills.

One of these hills was made up of countless bodies, still oozing blood and seemingly dead not long ago. Most of the corpses had white hair and blue eyes, residents of this town. Until last night, they were all vibrant lives. Now, their dull eyes were wide open, devoid of any light, like discarded meat from a slaughterhouse, mangled and stacked haphazardly.

On the other side, the scene was even more tragic and terrifying.

A short distance away, the second hill of corpses was also formed by countless bodies, but these were grotesque, as if their necks had been violently twisted and their blood drained, leaving them skin and bones. Their eyeballs bulged, some even falling out, their faces distorted beyond recognition, turning into dry skeletons, piled together to await decay… or perhaps they would never even have the chance to rot, but would instead return to dust.

After a moment, a new corpse arced through the air and “thumped” onto the top of the pile.

They…

were all the people in this town.

After a night of slaughter, the female villain named Elina’s cloak was already stained dark red with blood, and her hair was caked with rotten flesh and stench. Her face, no longer beautiful and captivating, had become as ghastly as a demon from hell, causing chills and fear deep within one’s heart.

She threw aside a shriveled corpse and walked back to another “fresh” pile of bodies, dragging out a small, bloody figure by the leg. She dragged her between the two piles of corpses, stopping in front of a floating orb of coagulated blood.

Then, she lifted the small figure in her hand, threw it into the air, and grabbed her neck with one hand, applying a little pressure. A cracking sound echoed as the corpse’s small head snapped at a ninety-degree angle, the broken bone protruding from beneath the skin. The woman quickly raised her other hand, her eyes flashing red.

In the next moment, thick blood gushed from the corpse’s neck, flowing like dark red silk into the orb, absorbed in an instant.

Elina looked at the lifeless eyes of the corpse, her face expressionless, showing no obvious emotional change.

But she recognized who this was.

The granddaughter of the old mayor.

The little girl named Betty, who liked to sneak into the cellar to read books.

Elina remembered her.

Almost everyone here, every person she had personally killed, she could recognize and name.

…So what?

Seeking a glimmer of hope in despair often required an extremely heavy price.

And that price might be even darker than everything before her.

Elina remained unmoved.

“Go. Go to that peaceful, desirable quiet place, transform into a free spirit… forever escape the heavy shackles of this world.”

She stared at the young girl’s pale, small face, watching it gradually wither and turn ugly, sinking inward. After a moment of distraction, she murmured softly, her voice like a dream:

“I envy you…”

Thump—

The girl’s corpse was thrown onto another pile of bodies.

The woman slowly turned around amidst the heavy stench, then lifted her head.

Above the sky, several pale gold birds circled.

Whoosh!

The Light of Mafa parted the bloody sun, rising slowly from the west.

In the distance, the thundering hoofbeats accompanied by slight tremors of the earth could already be heard.