Chapter 85: Investigation and Self-Reflection

"The Abyssal Gate?" Wang Yu recalled something from the foundational intelligence that he had been given access to as a Nightblades member.

The Abyssal Gate was Selwyn's elite squadron of royal guards. They were loyal solely to the royal family and specialized in infiltration, assassination, intelligence gathering, and similar covert operations. It was an old, well-known organization with a long history.

"They're already starting to infiltrate Aleisterre. What a headache." Wang Yu clicked his tongue. The situation was getting increasingly chaotic, and it seemed his plan to advance steadily was becoming less and less feasible.

Strange "deities," Selwyn infiltrators from the Abyssal Gate, and who knew how many hidden agents still lay undiscovered—all of these were looming threats.

"Mr. Wang Yu, you must know that we've conducted similar operations against Selwyn too, surely?" One of the older magicians in the team seemed to notice Wang Yu's thoughts.

Wang Yu's mind jolted as realization struck. Of course—why had he fallen into such a narrow mindset again? This wasn't some novel where he remained in his territory and passively reacted to enemy plots and schemes to grow stronger.

In reality, Aleisterre and Selwyn were closely matched in power. Neither side had the strength to dominate the other.

If Selwyn could infiltrate and sabotage Aleisterre, it was only logical to assume Aleisterre would do the same to Selwyn. This was war; it would inevitably devolve into desperate tactics until one side could no longer hold out and was forced to surrender.

Shaking his head, Wang Yu acknowledged his shortsightedness. In that case, he would wait for Aleisterre's infiltration and counterintelligence teams to produce results. While he wasn't an Aleisterre native, he was working for them now.

At least for the moment, they seemed to be on the "good" side. Selwyn had instigated the war for unknown reasons of their own, and Aleisterre was merely acting in self-defense.

Setting aside his concerns about Selwyn's infiltration, Wang Yu turned his focus back to the mutated individual's remains.

He flipped open the inside of the hooded cloak and ran his fingers along a recessed groove on its inner lining. Tracing the pattern with his fingertips revealed the person's identity—he was a team captain from the Abyssal Gate, someone who likely possessed the strength of an advanced knight, at minimum.

Wang Yu felt lucky that this person hadn't teamed up with the vampire. Although vampires typically slaughtered anything indiscriminately, if they had been able to work together, it would have resulted in massive casualties.

However, what piqued Wang Yu's interest more was the captain's transformation from human to an unrecognizable monstrosity. It was undoubtedly the handiwork of the Font of Life, Erphine. Based on the Lady of the Night's earlier assessment, Wang Yu was no longer surprised by anything this insane deity might attempt.

The captain's final transformation reminded Wang Yu of the "Restoration of Life" ceremony he had witnessed on the night when Captain Hugin decapitated Erphine's mortal incarnation. The humans who had transformed into mud-like abominations during that ritual bore a striking resemblance to whatever this was.

The research that Sieg later conducted clarified the essence of this ritual: "Returning life that inherently belongs to the Font of Life, so that the god's form may reappear before its followers and the world."

It sounded like a ceremonial ritual, but in reality, it was sheer lunacy. Erphine had never been a creator deity—that was just a title forcibly ascribed to him by his followers.

"Returning life that inherently belongs to the Font of Life" essentially meant robbing others' lives to feed the "deity." It was pure, unadulterated heresy.

Selwyn's records previously mentioned that only devout followers performed the Restoration of Life. But now that the god had gone mad, forcibly enacting the ritual even in absentia made perfect sense—it had fully transitioned into a malevolent deity.

"Damn, what a dirty move. Don't these so-called righteous gods ever intervene? How hard could it be to manifest and kill this vile thing?" Wang Yu muttered to himself, feeling drained.

Now that the situation was clearer—an evil deity was lurking beneath the capital, conducting secretive rituals to realize a physical avatar for itself—there was a grave threat to Aleisterre. If successful, the deity's mad gambit would plunge the kingdom into chaos.

While he now understood the stakes, addressing the problem would be a massive challenge. The capital's sewer system dated back to the kingdom's founding era, and whether accurate maps of it still existed in the royal archives was uncertain. Conducting large-scale searches in such a complex network would be a daunting task.

Most importantly, they weren't just searching for a hiding person. They were looking for a deity. Tracking a being capable of evading detection in the intricate sewers was daunting enough, but doing so against a being of immense power? It was all but impossible.

Wang Yu sighed, hoping Aleisterre's righteous deities might step in and resolve the crisis.

Unfortunately, they rarely produced miracles, whereas heretical ones seemed to engage in rampant atrocities. This disparity puzzled scholars and Wang Yu alike.

In the meantime, the Nightblades had their hands full. Dealing with these void-related malevolent deities was their specialty. The follow-up investigations in the sewers would fall under their jurisdiction.

Wang Yu offered a straightforward plan: flood the sewers with chlorine gas. It would be unfortunate for the small creatures living there and the criminal gangs using the sewers as a hideout, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"The investigation is nearly complete. Let's head back," Wang Yu announced. He had gathered enough information to hand over to Charles, who could compile it into a report.

On the way back, Wang Yu processed some lingering questions. His Voidblade gauntlet, which had lain dormant for a while, was starting to react again.

Early on in Wang Yu's journey, the old knight Reynard's gauntlet had activated when it absorbed the energy from a fragment of the god of terror.

Subsequently, after killing the blessed vampire produced by the Font of Life Erphine, the gauntlet had activated once again.

It seemed to have absorbed something and sent it into Wang Yu's mindscape, but Wang Yu hadn't had time to check it out just yet. He had been focused on the physical injuries he had sustained.

Now that the investigation was over, Wang Yu finally had time to examine what had changed. Returning to the endless, clear lake within his mindscape, Wang Yu noticed the waters had grown deeper. This lake was essentially a visual representation of his reserves of void energy.

The Voidblade gauntlet's two activations had noticeably augmented his reserves.

Compared to before, his void energy capacity had increased nearly tenfold compared to last year.

Part of this was because of his study of wizardry and runes, but the remainder had to be due to his Voidblade gauntlet.

However, the main reason he had been able to experience tenfold growth was largely because his base capacity had been so low to begin with. It sounded impressive, but Wang Yu still had less than a fifth of a typical magician's reserves, let alone Avia's.

But what caught Wang Yu's attention was a fist-sized object floating above the lake.

It looked grotesque—a twisted, skinless, fleshy mass with writhing eyes and tentacles.

Upon closer inspection, it was a transparent diamond-like crystal encased in flesh. This external flesh made the crystal appear distorted and vile.

The crystal looked familiar—could it be a faith crystal? It seemed similar, though it was a little larger than the one Wang Yu had obtained from the nascent will of the abyss. It wasn't as luminous, but appeared to be made of the same material.

And what of the fleshy growths? Wang Yu poked at them. One appendage sprouted a gaping maw filled with fangs, which bit at his finger to no effect.

Wang Yu rubbed his chin. He recognized those growths. They resembled the chaotic mental aggregates from the will of the abyss—essentially chaotic mental energy When he touched the flesh, a flood of jumbled, nonsensical memories entered his mind. Most came from creatures like slimes, swamp ghouls, and moss crawlers—hardly sentient beings.

A normal person might have gone insane from the mental barrage, but Wang Yu was unaffected, even if the chaotic images were incomprehensible.

"Well, that explains it. No wonder the Lady of the Night despises the goblins who were her followers. Who'd want to deal with this nonsense?"

Now, Wang Yu understood why the Lady of the Night avoided goblin worshippers. Their chaotic mental fragments were mostly garbage, with genuine faith accounting for only about one in a hundred thoughts. The rest was a chaotic mess—like sugar covered in filth. You had to bear with the filth to get at the sugar, or you would starve. As it turned out, there was basically no sugar and all too much filth.

No wonder Erphine went mad. This faith crystal was of highly dubious quality, but that wasn't a problem for Wang Yu. He could simply use his mental domain as a filter.

He tossed the faith crystal covered in strange growths through the door that led into his mental domain. The moment it passed through the boundary, the fleshy growths vanished, leaving behind a pure faith crystal that was noticeably smaller than before.

Storing the crystal—now only about half the size of the one he had gained from the will of the abyss—Wang Yu once again found himself reflecting on his unique nature. While he was pragmatic enough to take advantage of his peculiarities without worrying needlessly, that didn't mean he would stop seeking answers.

It seemed that his mind was immune to the so-called mental corruption of this world. His true mental domain was represented by his broken doorframe.

The endless lake and the infinite starry sky outside the doorframe, on the other hand, might not even belong to him. After all, the Lady of the Night could freely enter and exit this space, but nothing Wang Yu rejected could pass through the doorframe. Anything unwanted was erased completely upon crossing it.

Wang Yu had looked up descriptions of wizards' mental domains, which were supposed to resemble mirror-like lakes, just like Wang Yu's.

His lake had connected with Avia's, Fang's, and even Avia's mother's, supporting the notion that this lake was indeed part of Wang Yu's mental space.

However, the unique properties of the doorframe—his true mental domain—didn't align with the rest of his mindscape.

From the beginning, Wang Yu had always wondered about the connection between the lake, his void energy, and the existence of his own soul. Yet, despite pouring over countless books and records, he hadn't found a satisfying answer.

The peculiar nature of his doorframe wasn't mentioned in any records. For now, this question would have to remain unresolved.

In the meantime, he resolved not to be surprised if anything else inexplicably appeared on his lake in the future. After all, this lake itself might not be entirely his own. As for why he could use the void energy from it, that remained a mystery.

Interestingly, Wang Yu could leave his mindscape and approach others' mental domains through it. Perhaps he was the true anomaly.

Setting his musings aside, Wang Yu picked up the purified faith crystal, which had shrunk significantly after the cleansing. Even so, every bit counted. He had requested assistance from the Lady of the Night, so it was only fair to offer this as compensation.

He called upon the Lady of the Night, whose tall figure appeared silently above the lake.

"Thank you for your help. Please allow me to give this to you as compensation. I'll bring it to you when I next visit the capital's shadow."

Wang Yu showed the Lady the faith crystal. Since she had mentioned before that she couldn't take anything directly from his mindscape, he'd deliver it in person later.

The Lady of the Night chuckled softly. "Why, this seems like significant profit for me. A single divine spell in exchange for a pure faith crystal—I imagine every deity would wish for a high priest like you. I'll gladly accept it."

Wang Yu scratched his head. He couldn't help but notice that the Lady's manner of speaking had become less cryptic and more like that of an ordinary person. He'd thought this before, but it seemed to be becoming more evident.

"By the way, Miss Avia's alchemy workshop is already being constructed. Be sure to visit when it's ready," the Lady reminded him.

Wang Yu nodded but then hesitated before finally asking a question that had been on his mind. "Lady of the Night, is the Font of Life, Erphine, the same as you? The two of you seem quite different."

The Lady of the Night appeared as a human woman clad in black, while the Font of Life resembled a grotesque mass of flesh. There was a clear difference, despite the fact that they both seemed to be the results of certain plans brewing in Selwyn.

The Lady of the Night remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "Yes, we are essentially the same, but he has been polluted by his faith. I refuse to let polluted faith take me over again. Once more, thank you, my friend. At the very least, with your help, I can choose the form I wish to take."

The Lady of the Night answered Wang Yu's question and then gave him a deep bow, her sincerity catching him off guard.

"Seems like it's not easy being a god. Well, hang in there, and keep up the good work."