Luoya was still dressed in the cafe waiter's uniform that matched Karen's.
This time, however, she let her hair down. The golden, shoulder-length locks made her look like an exquisite porcelain doll.
In the next moment,
Luoya drifted upward until she was almost level with Qihe on the high platform.
Qihe looked at her, a smile spreading across his face. "I feel so happy to see you return."
"Me too, Grandfather."
"After all, I created you. How about letting me go this once?"
"You created me, but you also destroyed me. We owe each other nothing."
Their brief reunion, stripped down to its barest bones, ended in an instant. Luoya raised a hand and pointed at Qihe.
The copper coin cast a dull yellow glow that turned into a swirling vortex.
The arm Qihe had used to hold up the copper coin—now pinned in place—exploded directly. Ripped away and shattered along with the flesh was a portion of his soul. In this moment of mortal danger, the Lord Jurist displayed his utter decisiveness.
Immediately afterward, his body shot backward in rapid retreat. As he fell back, he conjured three Jurist's Shields before himself.
Meanwhile, the four members of the Order squad, unable to pull back in time, were sucked directly into the center of the vortex. The vortex did not devour them; it simply compressed them into four clouds of bloody mist.
Luoya formed a square seal with both hands. A withered, sallow hand reached out from within the vortex, its five fingers tipped with long purple nails. The arm stretched forward as though infinitely long, grasping toward the retreating Qihe. In an instant, it pierced straight through the three Jurist's Shields he had erected, seized Qihe by the throat, and the palm detonated!
*Boom!*
Qihe was blown to pieces.
The copper coin floated back before Luoya and came to rest over her chest. Her gaze swept over her surroundings, and the coin turned with her movements.
Suddenly,
Luoya looked up.
The barrier overhead had not been removed. Though it had ceased its downward press, it was still sealing in the escaping contamination. Yet right at that spot, Qihe's figure reappeared.
"Grandfather, you watched me grow up. How could I fail to see through your death-substitute puppet?"
Luoya spread her arms wide. With her own position as the origin, another colossal barrier materialized. The upper and lower barriers began to close in toward each other.
Qihe gritted his teeth, pushed to the brink of madness. He no longer cared about the contamination soaking into his body; the most fatal danger was that this spatial confinement would eventually crush both his flesh and soul into oblivion!
He began to incant. As the chant started, the space around him trembled.
Karen called out in warning, "He's preparing a forbidden curse!"
"Luoya, must you force your grandfather to this point?"
Qihe finished his incantation. Beneath his feet, a massive black starburst appeared, and a gigantic single horn thrust out from within the starlight.
*[Forbidden Curse: Wrath of Anros.]*
During the previous era when the God of Order walked the world, countless ferocious beasts had been suppressed. From those beasts, many forbidden arts had been refined and expanded, spells capable of borrowing the power of those sealed terrors.
Naturally, the price of unleashing a forbidden curse was immense.
At this moment, the curse paused when only half-cast, yet the single horn that had already emerged braced against the two massive closing barriers.
"Grandfather, I told you before: from the day I was born, my greatest wish has been to plant you in this pigsty. That hasn't changed before, it hasn't changed now, and it won't change in the future!"
The copper coin on Luoya's chest projected a curtain of light before her. The light expanded wider and wider until, from within it, the phantom image of an enormous bronze coffin emerged.
It was the Coffin of Rax!
The very coffin in which the true god Rax had buried himself, along with the nine copper coins of the Source of Sin.
"Luoya, lower this barrier above us right now and let me leave! I will have freedom, and you will have freedom too! If our two forbidden curses collide, the resulting shockwaves will be impossible to conceal. Countless eyes across York City will turn here in an instant!
"You know very well that this city holds many existences far more powerful than I am. Once they sense the aura of the Rax copper coin, do you really think you'll have a chance to escape their grasp?
"I have already resolved to abandon the God of Order and flee into exile. See? That is the punishment I am prepared to accept!
"You should think of yourself, too. Don't you want freedom?
"Freedom—something you have never once touched since the day you were born! Don't you yearn for it?"
Qihe was negotiating.
Earlier, he had done everything in his power to seal the escaping contamination to maintain secrecy, all to preserve his identity and standing. In this current situation, he was fighting merely to survive. Once survival was on the line, everything else could be discarded.
"Hehe."
Luoya shook her head and giggled.
"No negotiations. It'll be much more fun to obliterate Grandfather's soul as soon as possible."
The moment the words left her mouth,
the phantom Coffin of Rax crashed straight toward Qihe.
Right at that instant, however,
a dull yellow light enveloped Karen. The same light flared around Alfred, Pavaro, Little John, Purr, and Kevin as well.
Karen felt his vision blur, a sensation like being flung on a roller coaster. Then, he found himself standing by the side of a road, with Alfred and the others tumbling onto the ground beside him.
Purr, in particular, had been thrown straight into a tree. Fortunately, the cat's paws reacted quickly enough to wrap around a branch.
*"You can't get dirty. If you get dirty, you won't look nice anymore,"* Luoya's voice echoed in Karen's ear.
*"Thank you for letting me experience the feeling my sisters spoke of, hehe. All right, goodbye now. I need to focus on killing Grandfather—I can't keep him waiting too long."*
…
The beast's horn collided with the Coffin of Rax, erupting in a violent surge of energy. The roar of the ferocious beast Anros reverberated through the surroundings, followed by an even thicker aura of the Coffin of Rax that tore right through the already unsettled night over York City.
In an instant, powerful auras soared into the sky, rushing toward the location.
Two towering pillars of light shot up from within York City—pillars of light similar to the ones that had appeared back in Rojia City when Diss condensed a godhead fragment at Oak Cemetery.
…
Qihe shouted frantically, "Luoya, it's not too late to stop!"
"Then hurry up and be obliterated, Grandfather!"
The clash between the Coffin of Rax and Anros's single horn raged on, but cracks could clearly be seen spreading across the horn. This did not mean the ferocious beast Anros was weak—after all, the Coffin of Rax was merely a phantom—it was primarily because Qihe was in an abysmal state, utterly incapable of sustaining the forbidden curse.
Finally,
amid the beast Anros's unwilling roar, the horn snapped. The starburst beneath Qihe's feet shattered, and the forbidden curse was forcefully destroyed.
A shroud of black flame ignited over Qihe's body. He still wanted to make a run for it—a desperate last gamble.
Yet the young girl who kept calling him Grandfather with polite honorifics gave him no such chance. The Coffin of Rax opened wide, unleashing an inexhaustible pulling force that dragged the flame-engulfed Qihe straight inside.
*Clap!*
Luoya brought her hands together.
*Bang!*
The Coffin of Rax slammed shut.
Luoya drifted slowly down to the ground, and the giant coffin descended with her. Its sides began to turn translucent. From the outside, one could clearly see Qihe writhing in agony amid the blazing inferno, utterly powerless to escape.
In the end,
the flames Qihe had ignited burned his flesh and soul to ash.
He was dead.
From beginning to end, Luoya watched the scene inside the coffin with a smile. Only when her grandfather was completely obliterated did she wave her hand in satisfaction, and the Coffin of Rax dissipated into thin air.
Luoya sat down on the ground and murmured,
"Sisters, do you think I'll get to see that handsome guy again? Mm, I think so too. I believe that someday, he'll definitely appear before me again, hehe.
"Ah, that's right, sisters—do any of you plan to leave? I can send you out. You're free now. You can go back outside."
After a long silence,
Luoya spoke with a touch of melancholy, "Oh... you're saying the outside world has no place for you anymore."
Forced to consume forbidden drugs, their bodies had long since entered a countdown to death. Even if they went outside, they had no way to survive; it would only bring grief to their families and perhaps turn them into burdens.
When trapped, they had yearned for freedom outside;
when freedom finally came before them, they feared the outside sunlight that was said to be warm.
"Then... shall we all go to sleep and dream together?"
The Rax copper coin before Luoya cast soft waves of light over the women in the pigsty, as well as over the corpses in the trench.
Gradually,
everyone calmed down and closed their eyes. Ever since they were brought to this place, it was only during those brief dreamscapes shared with that young girl that they could forget their agonies and find a moment of respite.
Tears spilled from the corners of Luoya's eyes.
Under her gentle guidance, the sisters in the pigsty—already on the verge of death and unable even to stand—lost the last embers of life one by one. Nearly all of them passed away with smiles on their faces.
At that moment, the immense plume of contamination that had been suppressed began to slowly dissipate.
A source of contamination could be detonated, but it could also be resolved.
Faint motes of starlight rose from their bodies, ultimately converging upon the copper coin over Luoya's chest.
Luoya pulled the coin against her chest and murmured,
"Sisters, let's keep dreaming in here."
Her figure grew increasingly translucent until she, too, melted into the coin.
*Clink...*
The copper coin fell to the ground, looking completely ordinary.
Two pillars of light descended upon the scene.
From within one of the pillars, a voice spoke: "A dense aura of Order... It was people from your Church of Order using living humans to mend a divine artifact here!"
The other pillar of light replied,
"The Church of Order will provide an explanation for this matter after an investigation!"
The copper coin on the ground floated up and drifted into the pillar of Order.
"A Rax copper coin..."
"The Church of Order will temporarily take custody of this coin as physical evidence. If the Church of the Abyss objects, you may issue a formal official dispatch and await our church's reply."
……
"It's over, then."
Two pillars of light had appeared there, and within the darkness beyond them, there were bound to be many other figures. The darkness beneath the sausage factory had been torn wide open.
At the same time, there was no longer any need to worry about the contamination; they would never allow an outbreak to spread through York City.
"Young Master, are you all right?" Alfred stepped forward and asked with concern.
"I'm fine. How about you?"
"I'm fine, Young Master."
Little John took the initiative to walk up to Karen, tugging at his trouser leg. "Big Brother Karen, I don't want to go to the orphanage. I really, really don't want to go..."
"If you don't want to, then you won't."
"Really?"
"We happen to need a servant at home to look after the pets."
"I love pets the most! Especially pets that can talk!"
"Heh."
Karen reached out and ruffled Little John's hair, then walked over to Mr. Pavaro, who was sitting on the ground.
"You succeeded," Pavaro said.
"You and Ms. Annie succeeded. Without your efforts and sacrifices, I would never have found this place."
"Annie can rest peacefully in the embrace of God Miers now."
"Yes, certainly. Ms. Annie was a devout believer of God Miers."
"You revived that artifact spirit. I know the Awakening Technique too, but your Awakening felt like a miracle."
"You flatter me. There aren't that many miracles in the world."
His body had endured the contamination because it had been reshaped by Raniedal. If one wanted to give Raniedal some credit, it might barely count as a divine sign, but it had little to do with miracles.
If it was raining outside and you stayed dry because you wore a raincoat, did that count as a miracle?
"Then how was it done—that kind of Awakening?" Mr. Pavaro asked curiously.
"It wasn't actually that difficult, nor was it that miraculous."
"Oh?"
"The women in that pigsty suffered in agony every single day, so the artifact spirit scattered her spirituality among them, guiding them into dreams to grant them brief comfort amid torment beyond ordinary endurance. Our 'Awakening' technique is fundamentally meant to target residual spiritual power within corpses. All I did was gather together the spirituality she had already dispersed.
"In essence, it was still an ordinary 'Awakening,' just with an extra step."
"Yet how many people would even think of that step, and how many could actually pull it off?" Mr. Pavaro remarked with deep feeling.
"Mainly, it was because the artifact spirit Qihe poured his heart into cultivating held a deep grudge against him from the very beginning. Even without this incident, Qihe would eventually have died by the copper coin's hand anyway. All we did was bring that process forward a little.
"Of course, good luck played a part too, haha," Karen chuckled. "Doing good deeds ought to earn you a bit of luck—it's only fair."
"If next time..."
Karen cut Mr. Pavaro off immediately.
"If next time a man asks to borrow my lighter, I'll tell him straight up that smoking is bad for his health and urge him to quit. If next time a woman tries to hand me an envelope with notes inside, I'll burn it right in front of her.
"Mr. Pavaro, there won't be a next time. My actual profession is a clinical psychologist, not a human rights lawyer.
"Tsk...
"I just remembered—did the clinic I work for go bankrupt tonight?"
Half the staff had probably fled,
and most importantly, the boss himself had run off.
Mr. Pavaro chuckled. "Then that's quite a loss. All those days of work for nothing."
"Oh, not really. I took an advance on a month's salary."
"Haha, then congratulations are in order. You came out ahead."
"Haha."
"Karen, it's finished."
"Yes, it is."
"You must fulfill your promise to me—take the skin of my face and make a mask."
"There's no rush. We can talk about it after we get home. Once dawn breaks, I'll drive you to the funeral parlor to see your family one last time."
"With you looking after them, I can rest easy. Thank you."
"Meow! Meow! Meow!"
Distracted by the meowing, Karen looked up and finally realized Purr was still in the tree, clinging to a high branch.
Walking over to the base of the tree, Karen tilted his head up and asked, "Aren't you coming down?"
Purr yelled, "I can't get down! Damn it, that artifact spirit was definitely targeting me on purpose!"
"Why would she target a cat like you?"
"Hmph, that's because you don't understand women!"
Karen sighed. "Then do you plan to stay up there waiting to watch the sunrise?"
"I told you, I can't get down! I can't!"
"You don't know how to climb trees?"
"No, I don't!"
"As a cat who has lived for nearly a hundred years, you still haven't learned how to climb a tree?"
"Climbing trees is for feral cats! Is it so strange that I don't know how?"
"Fine, let go with your paws. I'll catch you."
"All right, catch me properly, Karen!"
Purr released her paws and dropped. Karen caught her with open arms.
Kevin trotted over, allowing Karen to set Purr onto his back.
"Stupid dog, once we get home, you're learning how to climb trees."
"……" Kevin remained silent.
"Young Master." Alfred gestured with his chin toward Karen.
Karen turned toward Mr. Pavaro, only to see the man kneeling on the ground, tearing at his own facial skin with his fingernails.
"I'm not in that much of a hurry," Karen said, stepping over.
Mr. Pavaro replied, "The one in a hurry has always been me, not you."
Karen stood there, watching Mr. Pavaro peel his own face off bit by bit with his fingernails.
Afterward,
Mr. Pavaro faced Karen, holding out the skin of his face with both hands.
"Thank you for reaffirming my faith... for letting me see the true Light of Order."
"The Light of Order has always been on you. But frankly, I really don't want to see that light again—it's too exhausting and too dangerous.
"Have you been to my terrace? There's a sunroom up there. Soaking in the sunlight there is all I need to be content. In a little while, when we get home, I'll take you up to enjoy the sun together."
As he spoke, Karen reached out and took the face skin from Mr. Pavaro's outstretched hands.
The skin was lifted away,
but Mr. Pavaro remained frozen in that pose, holding his hands aloft without moving an inch.
He was dead.
Chapter 147