Black flames rose from Karen, spreading across every bone spike.
Under the scorching heat of the flame of Order, the bone spikes began to shrink and evaporate. Yet amid muffled whimpers of tender agony, the melted spikes quickly regrew, rebuilding their cage around Karen.
However, as the intensity of the flame of Order continued to escalate, the torment Little Kanna had to endure intensified with it.
Moreover, rust-covered chains of Order darted out from Karen, coiling around and binding each bone spike one by one.
Not a single flicker of emotion could be seen in Karen’s eyes. The power of Orderification had officially begun its intrusion into Little Kanna.
"It hurts..."
This was a total subversion of the very form of living existence. To a certain extent, Orderification could be understood as divine pollution and assimilation centered around Order.
Karen lowered his head, opened his mouth, and bit down on the bone spike constricting his neck.
There was no fracture, no cracking; his teeth did not even apply force. Yet after this simple action, the process of Orderification accelerated.
In truth, Little Kanna could have fought back or attacked. By immobilizing Karen's body, she held every advantage in close-quarters combat, not to mention the vast chasm between human flesh and dragon constitution...
Yet she did no such thing. She merely endured in silence, never wishing to harm Karen.
As the power of Orderification penetrated Little Kanna's soul, Karen saw in his mind's eye a white-haired little girl curled up in a pitch-black corner.
This was Little Kanna's state when she was born, and the exact sight Karen had witnessed when he first met her.
Back then, she had been full of vigilance and hostility toward the world.
It was Purr's nurturing and teaching that had helped her gradually adjust to life and learn, step by step, to integrate into the world.
"Karen..."
Karen drew closer to her, intense hunger having devoured every shred of his sanity.
Just as Orderification neared completion, a phantom image materialized above Little Kanna's soul—the projection of a dragon god.
Little Kanna was the inheritor of the Rebel Dragon God, effectively the Dragon Race's "Child of God." Subverting her life's essence naturally entailed obliterating that divine inheritance.
Now, that inheritance had been triggered by the most extreme measure.
However, stimulated by the Rebel Dragon God, the hunger addiction statue behind Karen expanded rapidly, rising behind him in towering, awe-inspiring majesty.
Below, Karen faced Little Kanna; above, the hunger addiction statue confronted the Rebel Dragon God.
Karen reached out, seized Little Kanna by the neck, and lifted her off her feet.
The hunger addiction statue reached out a colossal hand, seized the Rebel Dragon God, and pinned it fast.
Little Kanna did not resist, nor did the Rebel Dragon God struggle; both seemed to accept their fate.
Towering in size, the hunger addiction statue dragged the Rebel Dragon God before itself and opened its maw.
The consciousness of the Rebel Dragon God began to disintegrate, scattering fragments of starlight.
Yet just as this process was about to proceed further, the hunger addiction statue suddenly stopped.
This halt was not imposed by Karen; it stopped on its own initiative. Because of this sudden pause, Karen's original consciousness, which had been thoroughly suppressed, found a moment to stir.
The hunger addiction statue released its grip, refraining from swallowing the Rebel Dragon God. It began to roar, descending into violent fury.
The devouring ceased.
Karen's vision snapped back to reality.
Little Kanna had once told Karen about a dream she had had. In the dream, she had brought an apple to find him, but along the way, her flesh and blood began to detach, and her soul began to wither...
That apple in the dream likely had something to do with time.
Even an existence as formidable as the Rebel Dragon God was gradually eroded away by time while bearing that apple.
In the past, the hunger addiction and the God of Order had tormented and contested each other for an entire epoch before the God of Order finally banished it using the power of time.
Yet could such an impact ever be completely severed?
The God of Order still experienced hunger; Diss had once said that the god merely treated them as fattened swine.
Meanwhile, the hunger addiction would display immense pride and disdain when provoked.
Both might have completed their severance, yet neither could avoid carrying traces of the other.
Just like just now, when faced with the Rebel Dragon God, the hunger addiction statue had willingly abandoned the feast.
Yet that would only happen once.
The overwhelming inertia of hunger could not be held back every time by remnants of ancient emotion and camaraderie. It was not that powerful; having it work even once was already extraordinarily lucky.
The fury and roars of the hunger addiction were intensifying at a terrifying rate.
Karen knew that once it quieted down again, he would fall back into that state.
Little Kanna would not get a second chance. As the person closest to him right now, she would become his food.
"Let go..." Karen rasped an order.
Pure physical restraint could no longer hold him. Karen wanted Little Kanna to leave him immediately.
Little Kanna did not obey.
Karen began to move his body.
The Dragon God's Armor had originally been meant to enhance Karen's defense. Though it had now become a cage, it would not truly harm him, provided he did not struggle—or rather, did not struggle too violently.
Yet Karen could feel no pain right now.
As he moved with relentless force, wounds opened across his body from the piercing bone spikes, blood dripping continuously.
Flesh tore apart; bones wrenched out of alignment.
Karen was like a portrait pasted to a wall, now brutally tearing himself away, uncaring of how much came off and how much remained stuck behind.
This near-suicidal method of escape terrified Little Kanna.
When Karen was about to devour her earlier, she had not flinched. But now, she withdrew her bone spikes. She could not bear to watch Karen tear himself to pieces.
*Thud...*
Little Kanna collapsed to the floor. The bone dragon's power receded completely from Karen's body, and he regained his freedom.
His grayish-white eyes glanced at Little Kanna. Within him, the hunger addiction let out one final roar, about to settle back into stillness.
"Get... away..."
Once those syllables scraped past Karen's throat, his form dissolved into a dense plume of black mist and drifted out of the carriage.
This was likely the only thing Karen could manage with the last lingering shred of his sanity.
***
Yorktown Region, Hall of the Guardian.
This was a small church located in the central area of the city. Within its inner sanctum lay a prayer chamber.
A divine statue was enshrined inside, beneath which was a small two-square-meter pool—an ornamental water feature—where several decorative fish swam freely.
The four walls of the chamber were covered with mirrors.
Dressed in black clerical robes, Pu Yuesen sat there, reviewing the official dispatch he had just received.
In governing its parish regions, the Church of Order nominally relied on two primary entities: the Regional Administrative Office and the regional Whip of Order. Both fell under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy See, both in name and in practice.
As for the Guardian organization, it nominally belonged to the Holy See as well, but only nominally. Everyone from top to bottom knew—and tacitly accepted—that it answered to the Temple of Order.
Personnel appointments, rewards, and punishments were all decided by the Temple.
It was somewhat like the Temple Elders accompanying the Order Knights on campaign: possessing a detached, exalted status without being responsible for operational command. Even so, the knight commander could issue orders requesting the elders' contribution to the war effort.
Similarly, a Guardian sometimes needed to respond to requests from the Head Bishop or the Whip-Wielder to help resolve regional crises.
Before the local Whip of Order resumed operations, the Head Bishop and the Guardian had essentially maintained a direct line of contact.
Moreover, if a major anomaly arose within the region, the Guardian would take the initiative to intervene once detecting it.
In earlier days, Karen and Neo had been chased more than once by giant spectral hands suddenly descending from the sky.
After becoming Regional Chief, Karen had maintained a lukewarm attitude toward the Guardian organization. Regular inter-departmental correspondence was kept up, but private interaction was virtually nonexistent.
This was not because Karen held a grudge, but purely because as an affiliate of the Holy See—or rather, the High Priest's faction—it was inappropriate to get too close to the Temple.
The last time Karen had interacted with this regional Guardian was over that troublemaker Andrew. Because Pu Yuesen had ties with Andrew's father, he had stepped in to plead with Karen not to ruin the young man's future.
Following that incident, Karen had had no further contact with the Guardian, as he was soon deployed to the front lines.
Pu Yuesen, on the other hand, had frequently received inquiries from the Temple demanding intelligence on Karen. The Temple likely assumed that since Pu Yuesen and Karen were in the same region, they must have shared a personal rapport.
This had put Pu Yuesen in an awkward position; merely forwarding Karen's service record seemed inadequate and might be interpreted as passive noncompliance.
Left with no alternative, he had turned to the current Head Bishop, Bern, for assistance. Learning of the situation, Bern had helped draft several reports, peppering them with numerous "anecdotes" about Karen to make Pu Yuesen appear intimately acquainted with him.
As a result, the "Karen" in the Temple's eyes was an entirely different person from the Karen in reality.
Inquiries directed at Karen by the accompanying Temple Elders during the war had been answered with textbook perfection;
High-level investigations had been "edited and pruned" under Whip-Wielder Foden's orders;
Grassroots background checks had been "polished" by the helpful Bern;
On that candidate roster, Karen's "political vetting score" was undeniably the highest to date.
From the Temple's perspective, Karen was already the textbook model of an exemplar who was physically in Norton's camp while his heart stood firmly with the Temple.
Now, following Karen's return from the front lines to establish the new Discipline Department in the Yorktown Region, Pu Yuesen had received fresh directives from the Temple. He was instructed to fully cooperate with Karen's work, extend every convenience, foster mutual trust and friendship, and ensure Karen felt the warmth and care of the Temple.
"Feel... the warmth and care?"
Pu Yuesen could not comprehend why the Temple would assign him such a bizarre mission. The trouble was, in reality, he and Karen had never even shared a cup of tea.
"It seems I'll have to seek the Head Bishop's help again."
As the regional Guardian, he had once enjoyed a transcendent standing, yet now he was ordered to actively curry favor. There was no helping it, however; who could blame Karen for being able to return to the local branch to establish a new department despite already being promoted to the Dinge Region headquarters? That maneuver had made Karen the most untouchable figure in the entire region.
Setting down the dispatch, Pu Yuesen was just about to contact the Head Bishop when a swirl of black mist surfaced in the ornamental pool before him. Simultaneously, a thick black line manifested across the mirrors lining the chamber walls.
Pu Yuesen immediately stopped what he was doing and focused his perception.
The impression he received left him thoroughly bewildered:
It felt like an enemy invasion, yet also like one of their own had lost their way; it seemed to pose a grave threat to the region, yet appeared entirely harmless; it felt like an emergency requiring his intervention, yet also as though there was nothing he needed to do.
This pool was linked to a star within the Temple, which enshrined an ancient well—a sacred artifact capable of sensing its surroundings.
Yet this was the first time Pu Yuesen had ever encountered such blatant contradictions, leaving the regional Guardian completely at a loss.
After some hesitation, Pu Yuesen decided to conduct a locating probe first. Regardless of the circumstances, whatever entity could trigger a reaction here was clearly formidable.
Closing his eyes, Pu Yuesen held his hands over the pool and began pinpointing the coordinates.
Yet the divination encountered problems from the very start. Target coordinates appeared in dense clusters, blanketing the entire region.
Pu Yuesen opened his eyes, only to be met with an even more shocking sight: the water in the pool was boiling vigorously, bubbles churning to the surface, and the ornamental fish that had been swimming inside were all floating at the top, boiled completely through.
"I can't trace him? What is going on?"
Pu Yuesen took a deep breath and intoned gravely,
"Eye of Order!"
A colossal eye manifested behind Pu Yuesen, slowly peeling open.
The statue at the center of the pool was Saluxie, one of the Twelve Knights of Order.
In the previous epoch, whenever divine wars erupted, the God of Order would dispatch him to scout enemy positions.
In the mythologies of other pantheons, this "branch god" of the Church of Order was ranked alongside the God Pamires; both possessed extraordinary space-traversal capabilities and could enter any unexpected domain.
Many faiths even considered Saluxie superior to the God Pamires. Saluxie simply lacked equivalent renown because the Church of Order did not recognize subordinate deities, whereas Pamires had established his own church.
This was entirely natural. Even if the Church of Pamires was not a major religion, as a recognized "god," generations of believers would proclaim his greatness, whereas Saluxie could only be addressed as "Lord" within the Church of Order.
To facilitate their duties, halls of the Guardian across every region enshrined statues of Saluxie so that they could seek his divine empowerment when necessary.
The Eye of Order manifested behind Pu Yuesen was opening, and a soft glow began to circulate across the statue.
However, on the battlefield, the corps commander of the Church of Life had already demonstrated firsthand the catastrophic backlash one would suffer from attempting soul divination on Karen. And right now, not only had Karen advanced to a higher realm than before, but most importantly... he was under the complete thrall of his hunger addiction.
The Eye of Order, aligned with Saluxie, locked its gaze onto Karen.
Before Pu Yuesen could receive any concrete coordinate data, the statue of Saluxie began to tremble violently. Two trails of bloody tears streamed down from the corners of its eyes in a gruesome display.
The Eye of Order behind Pu Yuesen opened halfway before the eyeball abruptly detonated.
"Aaargh!"
Pu Yuesen's left eyeball burst alongside the spell's collapse, leaving his left socket instantly hollow and bleeding.
He clutched his face in agony, his expression twisting from shock into raw terror.
A fissure split open between the brows of Saluxie's statue, and the stone began to fracture as a voice echoed from within:
"Lord... my legs... my legs..."
Having just suffered the spell backlash of the Eye of Order, Pu Yuesen was hit by another wave of divine resonance transmitting from the statue of Saluxie.
Blood gushed wildly from the Guardian's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, soaking his black robes a deep crimson.
"Aaaaargh!!"
Pu Yuesen let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Though far from his intention, in terms of sheer spiritual load, he had effectively conducted three standard Divine Descent rituals all by himself within ten minutes.
That his soul had not shattered outright under the immense strain was entirely thanks to his profound foundation as a Guardian.
The screams echoed through the church.
Having recently rotated from the front lines to work in the Discipline Department, Andrew had happened to come visit his uncle today. While waiting in the lounge, he heard the terrible wailing.
The other priests in the church descended into instant pandemonium. In the eyes of ordinary clergy, the Guardian represented the highest personal combat power in the entire region; for him to collapse like this, it was impossible not to jump to conclusions—such as a full-scale invasion of the Yorktown Region.
Andrew sprinted out of the lounge, stammering frantically,
"I need to report to the commander! I must report to the commander!"
***
Alfred, Vic, Leon, and Philomena arrived before the carriage perched atop the tall building.
Inside, a smear of blood remained, along with Little Kanna curled up in the corner.
"He left... he left..."
Little Kanna had suffered a severe emotional shock. She might not have realized it at first, but in hindsight, she could feel the true horror and crushing pressure of that state.
Even Alfred had never witnessed his young master suffer such a severe relapse of the hunger addiction.
Leon immediately urged, "Let's issue an order across the entire region to search for the Minister's whereabouts!"
Vic frowned slightly upon hearing this, but did not voice an objection, only looking toward Alfred.
Alfred spoke:
"Leon, return to the regional Whip of Order at once.
"Vic, return to the Discipline Department and notify Head Bishop Bern.
"Remember, no matter what incidents occur in the region from this moment on, you are to suppress the fallout from the top down. Keep the situation contained and smothered as much as humanly possible!
"Philomena, go inform Purr and Kevin. Purr shares a symbiosis contract with the young master and might be able to sense his location.
"Then notify Richard and see if we can use his Alte bloodline to track him.
"I will mobilize the other believers to join the search for the young master."
Leon hesitated. "But..."
Alfred said sternly,
"There are no 'buts.' No matter what the young master might do, our foremost duty is to protect his secret!"
Chapter 825