"If I had killed him that day, perhaps everything would be different."
Gerard shook his head, his tone steeped in regret. "You are merely victims of the Four Pillar Cult... Had you not met him, you would never have been seduced, and your peaceful prison life would not have collapsed."
"Yaxiu Heath truly is a fountainhead of calamity."
"I am not in the habit of shirking responsibility, nor do I believe I was seduced," Langna said. "On the contrary, I am grateful to him. Were it not for this chain of events, my ritual would not have been completed, and I would never have gained emotions."
"However, as to how he should be defined, you and I can find common ground: he is indeed a charismatic figure, capable of creating an unpredictable stage of destiny, capable of lifting people out of their daily routines... wings."
"Wings?"
"To allow those of us bound fast by heavy shackles to take flight—are those not wings?"
Gerard had no interest in listening to this victim's raving. Leveling his sword at Langna, the miracle he had quietly prepared during their conversation activated at once. Moonlight turned into chains, tightly binding the sole remaining escaped convict.
"Congratulations on gaining emotions. It seems you will be able to properly repent and pray from now on."
Langna did not resist. He said calmly, "The fifteenth of every month is the Night of Blazing Blood, marking when the Blood Moon is closest to the earth. The first of every month is the Night of Dim Blood, marking when the Blood Moon is farthest from the earth."
"The Moon Shadow clan possesses a trait: the more blazingly the Blood Moon burns, the stronger the Moon Shadows become, and vice versa. Therefore, the Moon Shadow clan is strongest on the night of the fifteenth and weakest on the night of the first."
"And I am a traitor to the church, a disgrace to the Moon Shadows, a beast despised even by the Blood Moon." Langna's voice rose higher and higher. "Only on the Night of Dim Blood do I become whole."
"Look. Right now, even dark clouds can obscure the Blood Moon."
Gerard looked up and saw a dark cloud drift across the night sky. The already dim moonlight was veiled by overcast clouds. The camp's lighting installations had long been knocked over in the chaos; stripped of moonlight, the surroundings plunged into pitch darkness.
*Snap!*
The miracle chains binding Langna snapped taut and broke. Dense shadows swallowed him, transforming into an atrocious, demonic monster of the deep. The darkness throughout the area seemed to thicken. For some reason, Gerard could actually sense an emotion called 'hatred' overflowing within this blackness, as if hundreds of wolves were watching him from the dark!
"Whoa."
Subdeacon Ke'er and the priests craned their necks as they watched this unfold, their mouths agape in astonishment. They couldn't help but clap. "That's amazing!"
...
"Quick, make a wish! Beg me, or I'll throw you right back!"
Supporting Igola, Yaxiu traversed the Void Realm passage. "I am Yaxiu Heath, leader of the Four Pillar Gods cult! I'm capable of anything! Saving your life without making you sign a slave contract is already the height of benevolence. If you won't even make a wish now, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
"Sure, let's sign a slave contract then." Pale-faced, Igola actually managed a laugh. "Need me to draft the contract for you? I'll give you a twenty percent discount."
*Damn it.* Yaxiu felt like tossing him straight onto the ground and leaving him be.
Upon stepping into the turbulent Void Realm passage, Yaxiu had spotted Igola lying inside, bleeding profusely. Igola had already had a large swath of flesh torn away by Gessas's sniper rifle, and then he had been caught by Gerard's blood sorcery binding, causing him to crash straight to the ground, blood pouring out in torrents.
Igola was not a combat sorcerer to begin with. If he had kept his momentum going, he might have pushed through, but after such a delay, the intense pain had completely overwhelmed his senses. After casually using the Severing Self miracle on him, Yaxiu found that Igola couldn't even stand, reduced to crawling on the ground like an infant. Unable to bear watching it, Yaxiu had supported him to escape.
By rights, whether Yaxiu ignored him or finished him off on the spot, either would have been entirely reasonable. After all, the friendship between them was like sand—no waves required, a single gust of wind could blow it apart.
Besides, Igola held a wish over Yaxiu. As long as this man lived, Yaxiu would have to worry every time he took a dump whether Igola might suddenly order him to go outside and do a handstand. Seizing the opportunity to kill this male veela was the rational choice.
Yet Yaxiu thought twice: could this male veela be testing him? If he actually dared to strike or abandon him, what if the male veela immediately made a wish commanding Yaxiu to scurry back and kiss Gerard's toes?
Igola loved to toy with people's hearts. He was vile, shameless, and loved harming others without benefiting himself. This was precisely the kind of scheme he would pull off; Yaxiu had to stay on guard.
In truth, Yaxiu also had to admit to himself that even if theirs was a relationship of mutual exploitation, Igola had genuinely helped him tremendously.
Without Igola's plotting, neither breaking out of prison nor breaching the Void Realm passage would have been possible.
Burning bridges before even crossing the river was something Yaxiu needed serious mental preparation to do.
To Yaxiu, "doing evil" was an active skill that required casting time. With the decision window being far too brief right now, Yaxiu could only choose to support him and flee.
Still, Yaxiu had his own little scheme: if Igola used up his wish here, then Igola would no longer have any leverage over him. Yet Igola was well-versed in game theory, knowing full well that a trump card was most threatening when kept unplayed. No matter how Yaxiu threatened or cajoled him, Igola refused to give in—taking full advantage for free without paying a cent, while his body honestly leaned most of its weight on Yaxiu, thoroughly sponging off the cult leader.
The passage soon reached its end. Looking at the exit woven with turbulence, Yaxiu let out a breath. "Finally..."
"You didn't take a wrong turn, did you?" Igola panted. "The moment we walk out, Gerard's going to give us a pleasantly surprised smile."
"I wouldn't take a wrong turn... wouldn't I?" Yaxiu wasn't so sure halfway through his sentence. Although the passage was supposed to be one-way, after turning around to haul Igola up, it was hard to say whether their orientation hadn't reversed.
It was all this bastard Igola's fault, making him second-guess himself.
If they really took a wrong turn, he would strongly request to be transferred to a different Blood Moon Prison just to avoid being mocked to death by him for the rest of his life...
With scrambled thoughts racing through his mind, Yaxiu gathered his courage and, supporting Igola, stepped into the unknown country.
What met his eyes was not a gigantic Blood Moon, but a lonely nocturnal canopy, and... a brightly lit highway stretching into the distance?
Immediately following was the sensation of stepping into empty air. A sharp weightlessness instantly made Yaxiu realize his situation—another Void Realm passage suspended in midair!
This was precisely why exploring Void Realm passages was exceptionally perilous: beyond the incompleteness of the passages and the hostility of foreign countries toward intruders, many explorers might plummet to their deaths the second they stepped out!
Speaking of which, Yaxiu remembered that among the blessings the priests gave adventurers, one was 'Featherweight Levitation'—so it was meant to deal with this sort of situation!
Instinctively, he unfolded his Silver Wings and shouted, "Igola, wings!"
"Huh?" It took Igola nearly a second to follow Yaxiu's train of thought. By the time he spread his Silver Wings, both of them had already hit the ground.
Or rather, hit the bottom of a cage.
Yaxiu shoved aside Igola, who was leaning against him, and tried to prop himself up to survey their surroundings, only to see Harvey fast asleep in the cage as well. At the same time, he caught a very pleasant aroma—resembling both the scent of a sun-warmed quilt and the fragrance of a home-cooked meal smelled before even stepping through the door...
An ambush, a trap... Yaxiu instinctively wanted to cast the Severing Self miracle on himself, but his thoughts grew sluggish, and even his sorcery power began to stall. Straining to turn his head, his hazy vision caught only the graceful silhouette of a violet figure outside the cage.
"According to the prophecy of the Book of Gospel, only three otherworlders would cross over tonight. Bind them, put sorcery-locking collars on them, and leave immediately."
"Let us hope this gift will satisfy the Four Pillar Cult."
(End of Volume 1: Sea of Knowledge)
Chapter 171