Chapter 59: Annihilation and Hidden Dangers

The blood mist dispersed as smoke condensed. The towering figure of the Smoke Demon Knight stood firmly amidst the ruins left behind by the explosion.

The surrounding buildings, long since destroyed by the blast, had been reduced to rubble. Now, the only figures remaining on the battlefield were Hugin and the Font of Life, Erphine.

"Something like you is claiming to be a god? A so-called deity inferior to a demon? How laughable..."

A hoarse, grating voice, from a throat that seemed to have been scraped by sharp blades, echoed from the massive knight of smoke.

His mocking tone targeted the giant eye fixed on him.

"Silence," a deep, magnetic voice interrupted.

"What's the matter? Surely I'm the one that's on the best of terms with you around here. Can't you let me speak my mind? You dare call yourself a god? Ha! Do you think we're in a comedy?" The hoarse voice rambled on, only to be abruptly cut off as the knight of smoke began to move. The massive eye hadn't remained idle; the surrounding environment once again began to writhe as it was granted new life, the manipulation this time more precise and deadly.

The ground itself transformed into a fleshy, bloodsoaked swamp.

Grotesque, skinned tentacles bristling with barbed hooks emerged from within. The appendages surged toward Hugin like hunting spears.

At the same time, the shattered rubble of nearby buildings fused together into a single entity. Brick by brick, the pieces joined together to form a massive armored creature, its armored body bristling with jointed legs.

A monstrous centipede had been born from the ruined buildings all around them.

The centipede, immune to the churning swamp's clutches, charged toward the smoke demon knight. The tentacles emerging from the swamp struck like serpents.

Faced with the onslaught of the monstrous creatures, the smoke demon knight... ignored them entirely.

He disregarded the centipede and bolted straight for the massive eye embedded in the remnants of the city wall.

Hugin had heard Wang Yu's earlier warning and had made up his mind to eliminate the source of this mutation in one decisive strike.

As the tentacles wrapped around the knight, he retaliated with an eruption of smoke that enveloped the tendrils and began to spin like some sort of fluid.

Somehow, the smoke seemed to serve as a grinder.

Within moments, the tentacles were shredded into ribbons. Their remains fell into the blood swamp in the form of useless scraps.

The smoke demon knight's charge continued unimpeded. He closed the distance to the giant eye in an instant, a mere ten meters apart from the giant eye, when he finally encountered the giant centipede.

The centipede, coiling itself like a striking cobra, raised its body high. Its massive, bladed mandibles glinted menacingly as it hissed.

Even so, the knight ignored it. What the centipede did didn't matter; Hugin was intent on splitting the grotesque eye in half.

With astonishing speed, the centipede lunged. Dozens of jointed limbs encircled the knight's three-meter frame in an attempt to trap him.

Despite his imposing height, the smoke demon knight seemed small compared to the centipede, whose body was dozens of meters long.

The swamp joined the attack. A massive hand of flesh and blood emerged from the depths of the swamp and reached down to crush the knight, its five fingers spread wide.

The centipede likewise tightened its deadly embrace like a snare closing in.

Its bladed legs flashed like chainsaws.

The situation seemed grim. With the crushing hand above and the tightening coils around him, the smoke demon knight seemed to be trapped.

The massive hand slammed into the swamp as the centipede's coils continued to tighten around the smoke demon knight.

Its form disappeared entirely beneath their combined weight, crushed and obliterated—or so it seemed.

From between the centipede's coils, thin wisps of smoke began to escape. The smoke flowed freely, unaffected by the crushing pressure.

It grew thicker and thicker, drifting upward and gathering into a massive cloud. The swamp lashed out with new tentacles in an attempt to grasp the smoke, while the centipede's limbs flailed in an attempt to disrupt it.

But no physical obstacle could hinder the intangible. The smoke passed through all obstacles in its way as it coalesced behind the giant eye in Hugin's imposing form, his coat billowing dramatically. He was still holding a cigar in his hand.

He took a deep drag and exhaled to release dense plumes of smoke.

This time, Hugin didn't transform into the smoke demon knight as he had before. Instead, the gathered smoke took on an even larger form behind him, that of a colossal knight of smoke that emerged from Hugin's back.

As the cigar in his hand disintegrated, the massive knight's eight-meter-tall body materialized in full. Its size rivaled that of the giant eye embedded in the wall. The two titanic figures stared at each other, evenly matched in stature.

For a fleeting moment, the colossal knight's lips seemed to curl into a sinister, maniacal grin.

Behind Hugin, the swamp and centipede frantically launched their attacks. The centipede lunged forward like a speeding train, while countless hands surged from the swamp in a frenzied attempt to intervene.

However, it was all too late. Hugin raised his blood-stained battleaxe up high, the weapon glowing with lethal intent, before slamming it down in a vertical arc.

The colossal knight behind him mirrored the motion, bringing its gargantuan axe of smoke down with unstoppable force.

The axe cleaved through the air. The grotesque eye offered no resistance, split cleanly in two from top to bottom.

The blade carved deep into the wall behind the eye, leaving a long scar that reduced stone and mortar to rubble.

The gigantic eye burst apart in a nauseating torrent of viscous liquid.

A green mass that resembled a giant slime slithered away in a desperate bid to escape.

It moved quickly, even managing to evade the falling axe—but all its efforts were in vain.

Smoke surged from the blade and enveloped the fleeing slime, then began to rotate rapidly as it shredded the slime and its core.

Two objects fell from the remnants of the eye, which Hugin caught with practiced ease.

Behind him, the swamp and centipede collapsed simultaneously. The centipede disintegrated into a rain of bricks, while the swamp reverted into ordinary mud that spilled harmlessly across the battlefield.

Hugin calmly inspected the two items in his hand while the colossal knight of smoke stood guard behind him, shielding him from the cascade of debris.

As the rubble settled and the battlefield quieted, the knight of smoke dissolved into thin air.

Wang Yu saw a wisp of smoke emerge from the void and spiral into the lantern hanging from Hugin's waist..

Edward glanced at Charles, who continued to tremble beneath him, and helped him up.

Since the captain had recalled his demon, the matter was likely resolved.

Wang Yu felt the shift in his surroundings. The field of void energy had vanished, and his ripples were no longer suppressed. Everything was laid bare to him within a radius of ten meters.

It seemed the source of all this mutation had indeed been annihilated. The power it wielded had dissipated entirely.

He observed the objects around him, now lifeless once more.

The entire district lay in shambles. Nearby buildings had been entirely destroyed by the intense combat.

Wang Yu couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. As far as he knew, knights inherently had far less destructive power than mages, but the devastation that Hugin had wrought, and his fearsome potential, had fundamentally overturned Wang Yu's perception of knights.

He jogged forward to examine the items in his captain's hands, familiar objects that confirmed his earlier suspicions.

One was a steel spike inscribed with runes, while the other was a holy symbol depicting a dense forest with a towering tree at its center.

These items were nearly identical to those that Wang Yu had retrieved from the goblins' bodies.

After some thought, Wang Yu requested, "Captain, can I take a closer look at this emblem? I'd like to confirm the status of the Font of Life, Erphine, just as I did with the Lady of the Night."

Hugin nodded. It looked as if he had learned about Wang Yu's research on the Lady of the Night from the Professor.

Wang Yu took the steel spike from Hugin's hands and began to recite the words engraved on it.

"Font of life, ancient tree that spans eras, guardian of all things alive, elder of benevolence, I extol your name..."

Before the spike could react and attempt to pierce Wang Yu's skull, he crushed it outright.

The spike was made of peculiar material. Only upon holding it did he realize just how easily it could be destroyed.

A ball of light surged out and flowed into Wang Yu's mind.

With Hugin by his side, Wang Yu didn't fear any unexpected danger.

He directed his focus inward and immersed his consciousness into his body. Wang Yu once again found himself standing on the surface of a starry lake.

This time, he saw the figure of the Lady of the Night standing beside him, her gaze fixed on a distant point.

Following her gaze, Wang Yu spotted an old man, a man whose condition seemed gravely abnormal.

He should have looked dignified and authoritative, clad in a deep green robe that exuded elegance and mystique.

He held a wooden staff in his hand. A pair of smooth, majestic deer's antlers sprouted from his head—the quintessential image of a druid.

However, there was something badly wrong with him. His aged, wrinkled skin was now unnaturally smooth and translucent, revealing what appeared to be liquid churning beneath.

What should have been a kind, elderly face was now marred with bulging pustules, like festering boils, filled with some sort of writhing liquid.

The old man lay sprawled on the ground, parts of his body grotesquely swollen. He resembled a patient riddled with bizarre tumors that not even his robe could conceal.

"He's been corrupted," the Lady of the Night remarked. Her voice carried a faint trace of pity, though there was much more nuance that Wang Yu couldn't discern.

"Corrupted by the madness of his worshipers?" Wang Yu clarified.

"Indeed. From the looks of it, his worshipers had to be slimes. Their instincts are to split, devour, and fuse—fundamentally counter to his essence. And, like me, he was left with no choice but to rely on this solitary group of believers..."

"But the church for the Font of Life has grown large, especially in the capital..." Wang Yu murmured.

According to the Professor's intelligence, the church had surfaced months ago in the capital, and its Restoration of Life ritual had been practiced for quite some time.

"Those worshipers revere not him, but rather the slimes with which he is now associated. Their worship would only worsen his condition..."

Wang Yu considered this for a moment. It seemed shockingly plausible.

"You deities seem surprisingly... weak. Of course, you're still much stronger than I am."

Wang Yu had been puzzled by the disparity between them and the omnipotent, invincible beings of his imagination.

Both the Lady of the Night and the Font of Life appeared remarkably passive. They had been shackled by their worshipers, something Wang Yu found hard to understand.

For the moment, only the God of Light seemed to match his mental image of a deity.

Other deities, like the Font of Life Erphine, could even be "killed" by someone like Hugin.

"Even as a so-called deity, I do not control my power or circumstances," the Lady of the Night replied.

Her words left Wang Yu momentarily speechless. Once again, he realized that he had subconsciously superimposed Earthly conventions onto this world.

Were deities really meant to be omnipotent? Should they scorn mortals from their lofty pedestals? Such ideas were little more than preconceived notions on his part.

Even deities couldn't control their own strength, their own abilities...

"I've been too presumptuous," Wang Yu murmured, scratching his chin.

"I only hope you keep your promise to spread my faith. I would not like to meet the same end that he has, languishing and disintegrating into something I was never meant to be."

"Hold on. What did you say?" Wang Yu froze as he noticed a certain detail in the Lady of the Night's speech.

"Hasn't he been killed?" Wang Yu asked, glancing at the dissipating body of the Font of Life, Erphine.

The mutated elder had already begun to virtualize by the time Wang Yu entered the space, a process he had assumed resulted from the captain slaying him. The Lady of the Night, however, suggested otherwise.

"He has not perished. He's simply distorting—transforming into the mutated entity of his worshipers' thoughts, a slime-like abomination."

"In other words, the prayer that I invoked no longer aligns with the current state of the Font of Life, so I can't forge a bond with him using the same incantation? It's because he's now a different being entirely..."

"Indeed," the Lady of the Night confirmed.

"Damn it, so his dissolution isn't death—it's metamorphosis into a new deity entirely!" Wang Yu exclaimed, startled by the revelation.

He rushed out of his mindscape and prepared to share his findings with the others, but as he did so, he heard the Professor's grave voice.

"According to the records, the Font of Life possesses two abilities: Restoration of Life, and Seed of Undeath. The former has already manifested during your battle, but the latter—the Font of Life may not be dead just yet."

"Ugh, more work," Hugin grumbled, puffing on his pipe. He coughed lightly, his tone as indifferent as ever.

Charles and Edward exchanged uneasy glances, while Wang Yu furrowed his brows.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, a group of cavalry escorted several children to an orphanage. Most of the children were expressionless, though a few were sobbing uncontrollably.

The orphanage caretakers—middle-aged women—gently comforted the children, washing away the dirt from their faces and clothes.

These children had been rescued by the city guards during the incident. Their parents, who had worshipped the Font of Life, had turned into grotesque abominations.

Lacking any real understanding of faith, these children had survived by sheer luck and had been sent to an orphanage in the capital.

"Vanessa, be good, alright? Edward and I will come to visit you later," said a kind-hearted middle-aged knight, patting the head of a thin, dark-skinned girl.

Vanessa nodded obediently, silent but cooperative, as she followed a matron to get cleaned up and be assigned a room.

The knight sighed. His fists clenched in quiet anger at the thought of the cursed cults that had stolen these children's families.

He shook his head, mounted his horse, and rode off, silently vowing that he would return to check up on her with Edward.

He might not be able to bring her parents back to life, but he could at least sponsor a better education for her. Who knows? She might even have magical talent...

Behind him, Vanessa turned her had. Her face was devoid of expression as she watched his figure disappear into the distance.

Her irises had, at some point, melted into pools of dark green gel. They swirled once before returning to normal.

"Hurry up, Vanessa!" the matron called out.

"Coming," Vanessa replied softly, her eyes again as innocent as ever.