Mercury Trojan

With thunderous footfalls echoing through the air, Black Crow charged Silver Lantern at high speed, hurling a handaxe ahead of him! At that moment, Silver Lantern knew with absolute certainty that her miracle was entirely ineffective against this Kill-All-Crows. While talking just now, she had already cast the miracle 'Substitute Doll' on the Flame White Tiger while disguising herself as a Blue Flame Squirrel. Aided by the misdirection of an illusion sorcery spirit, not even a Sanctuary Sorcerer would have seen through the ruse... Yet the Kill-All-Crows had charged straight for her true body! In fact, Silver Lantern had maintained Substitute Doll throughout the Dragon Blood cultivation earlier as well. But this Kill-All-Crows had not spared the doll a single glance, blasting a shockwave directly at her vitals. Two failures in a row left no room for wishful thinking. Dodging the flying axe, she tried to initiate god-hosting with the squirrel, but four distinct voices whispered into her ears. Without hesitation, she called out in a swift whisper, "Power." "Wisdom." "Life." "Pleasure." The mighty power of the Four Pillar Gods descended once more. Silver Lantern again seized divine might that transcended reality. She surged forward to meet Black Crow head-on, confident that merely grazing this Kill-All-Crows with a fingertip would release him from the dream of reality. An instant before they clashed, Black Crow suddenly dropped into a sliding tackle. If he had aimed for her feet, Silver Lantern was confident she could shatter him like a sandcastle. But what Black Crow attacked was the ground beneath her. His slide gouged a hollow straight out of the concrete floor. Silver Lantern's foot plunged into the depression, throwing her off balance, and her momentum carried her forward into a fall. Still, Black Crow was directly beneath her. She believed her palm would tear right through the Kill-All-Crows' mortal flesh. At that very moment, Black Crow drove his elbow upward toward her head. In a flash of lightning, Silver Lantern caught the glint of a dusky glow on his elbow. Her thoughts pivoted, and she instantly shifted from attack to defense. *Boom!* The ground fractured and blasted apart under Silver Lantern's blow, kicking up a plume of dust. Black Crow scrambled out of the haze, bearing a few scratches but otherwise unharmed. Silver Lantern, on the other hand, rose and looked down at her hands. A puncture hole in her palm was rapidly knitting closed. Had she not defended just now, that bleeding hole would have pierced through her forehead and out the back of her skull. "Grey Fox?" she asked. "Likely so." Black Crow raised his elbow, revealing a dusky spike. "A gift from my mentor. To this day, I have yet to find anything it cannot pierce." Silver Lantern stared at him, pondered for a moment, and began stepping backward. "Trying to run?" Black Crow sneered. "An unevolved beast after all. Blame my poor memory—for a moment, I almost treated you like a person." Unmoved by the insult, Silver Lantern kept her eyes fixed on him as she retreated. "I have heard of the Kill-All-Crows Cult twice in my life. The second time was when the Kill-All-Crows Cult became the first victim of the Four Pillar Cult." "The first time was when a legend arose within your cult." "A legend rarer than legends, more bizarre than any grand law." "It was said that a Kill-All-Crows retainer was rejected by the Void Realm." "He could not commune with the Void Realm, nor could he be affected by sorcery spirits. No matter how exquisite his martial skill, he could not summon a single spirit; no matter how minor his injury, the Water Therapy sorcery spirit could not heal him." "By all rights, such a person should have spent a quiet life within the cult. Yet he became a retainer, rising to fame until even the Calamitous Fire Temple heard tales of him slaying wicked sorcerers with a mere mortal body." "Void-insulated, a Kill-All-Crows fanatic. No wonder the Dragon Blood Cultivation System failed to affect you." "Judgment Retainer, Tamaxi Kill-All-Crows," Black Crow stated. "I regret making your acquaintance. What is your name?" "I never share my information with anyone," Silver Lantern replied. "What a shame. I tell my name to everyone I meet. If they are good, I want their sorcerer manuals to remember my name so my ideals echo through the Void Realm; if they are evil, I want them to gnash my name with resentment in Hell so my notoriety shakes the abyss." Silver Lantern chuckled softly. "The Void Realm is the eternal future, while reality is but a fleeting illusion. So you understand what is truly real after all." "Do not lump my noble ideals together with the fever dreams of a wicked crow like you," Black Crow said coldly. "How could a pearl ever belong beside a pile of dung?" Seeing that she was about to step into the encroaching night while he could find no opening for an ambush, Black Crow narrowed his eyes. "Are you certain you are a Candle Count capable of braving the night and enduring the Strangling Green?" "You are formidable," Silver Lantern said. "Even being insulated from the Void Realm does not detract from your excellence in the slightest. That is why a powerhouse like you will never understand." "The weak have always lived in the night, forever tainted by the Strangling Green." "This is not my first time walking into the darkness, nor am I a stranger to the taint of Strangling Green." Silver Lantern gently raised both hands. "It is precisely because I have transcended it all that I can become a Candle Count." Flawless. Black Crow retracted his throwing daggers into his sleeves, his distorted voice calm and icy. "You had better pray to your Four Pillar Gods that you never cross my path again." "The next time we meet, Kill-All-Crows will become a forgotten tune." Silver Lantern vanished into the night. "Besides... you should worry about how you and your 'friends' are going to survive." Black Crow turned to see Alice dragging three useless Sanctuary Sorcerers over and setting them on the ground. Tamaxi glanced toward the direction where Silver Lantern had vanished, then bowed his head to apologize to the trio. "I am sorry. I let you down." In contrast, Yaxiu and his companions seemed strangely energized, like a dying ember flaring before it guttered out, though their faces remained so pale not even the firelight could warm them. Harvey remarked, "Never thought I'd die here. Life really is a box of chocolates—you never know what flavor you're going to get." Igola replied, "Are you saying we're all dogs?" Yaxiu suddenly asked, "If I deploy my Sanctuary, could it resist the ritual a little?" "The ritual is no longer the main issue. It's the night." Tamaxi watched the darkness steadily swallow the camp, leaving only the area around the bonfire. "In a few minutes, everything here will be snuffed out. Only a Candle Count can keep burning." Yaxiu said, "In that case, as long as Harvey finds a way to offset the loss of life force, there's still a good chance of survival. I've never seen a more resolute idealist than you, Harvey. Your devotion to the necromancy faction burns hotter than my passion for pinup art. You're practically the reincarnation of that Ha-whatever guy." "It's Haagen-Dazs," Harvey corrected him. "And if you two die, I'm not staying alive either." Yaxiu and Igola stared at him in surprise. The necromancer gazed up at the pitch-black sky and said, "Besides, I'm not all that devout toward the necromancy faction. It's like sitting down at a dining table and finding nothing appetizing except for one mediocre dish. If you keep eating that one dish, can you really call that devotion?" Yaxiu asked, "Then why did you keep recommending we study necromancy?" Harvey said, "Because you two were eating shit." *What the hell?* Yaxiu thought. The necromancer's logic formed an airtight circle; there was no refuting it. Harvey continued, "Now that you're both leaving the table, why should I stay behind with people I despise, enduring filthy garbage food?" "Besides," he looked toward Tamaxi, "I heard your conversation earlier... The Void Realm is the eternal future, while reality is but a fleeting illusion... There is truth to that. After all, we will all sink into the Void Realm eventually, for all eternity." "Rather than clinging to this illusion, I think accompanying you two through the six layers of Hell sounds far more interesting." "That is merely the retreat of the weak, the self-consolation of cowards," Igola said firmly. "Even if that statement is correct, it is no excuse for us to abandon reality. Giving up is easy, of course. But Harvey, you had people dining with you in the past, and you have us dining with you now. How can you be so sure you won't meet others to share a meal with in the future, or discover dishes you truly love?" Tamaxi nodded repeatedly. "Indeed. Even if eternity exists, it must be founded upon greatness. A coward's eternity is as worthless as this night." Now it was Yaxiu and Harvey's turn to stare at Igola in shock. Harvey said, "I always took you for the consummate nihilist, Igola. When did you become so positive and uplifting?" A lightbulb went off in Yaxiu's head. "I get it! Is it Anfiel? Just thinking about Anfiel and the Burdettes waiting for your return makes the sun rise over your graveyard, pumping warm air into even the chilliest tomb?" Igola gave him a deadpan look. "What about you, then? Can you guarantee you'll become a Candle Count?" "I don't know," Yaxiu said softly. "I really don't have any grand ideals." "I just have people I want to see, a life I want to live, and a place I want to return to." Igola turned toward Tamaxi, who shook his head. "I cannot say. I am not even certain I will survive this myself. At best, I can judge good and evil; I cannot weigh your ideals." The Swindler's expression shifted slightly. After a moment of hesitation, he steeled his resolve. "Yaxiu, you still owe me a wish." Yaxiu looked at him calmly. The Swindler said, "Yaxiu, I command you—" *Tap.* At the sound of footsteps, Tamaxi and Alice instantly snapped to attention. The darkness had crept in terrifyingly close, barely five paces away, as though it might seize their ankles at any second. Had that wicked crow felt uneasy and doubled back to finish them off? From the shadows stepped a figure none of them recognized. It was a woman carrying a sniper rifle on her back. Tamaxi stared at her in confusion, but a moment later, recognition struck him. Even through his distorted voice, his grinding teeth were audible. "It's you, Tanomu!" "I am Mercury Trojan," the woman corrected him. "How did you even recognize me? This isn't my original body." "I would recognize you even if you turned to ash!" Though pure hatred laced his words, Tamaxi did not attack, knowing full well this was merely an avatar. The woman ignored him and cast her gaze over the three dying sorcerers on the ground. Her eyes shifted back and forth between Igola and Yaxiu before settling on Yaxiu. "Greetings. I am Mercury Trojan, former Touch of the Four Pillar Cult." Yaxiu found that rather amusing. "Former? You can actually resign from that job?" "You cannot resign, but you can be dismissed," Mercury Trojan replied. "Just now, the Four Pillar Cult fired me. Each country can only have one Touch, and they want to replace me." "With whom?" "The very woman who reduced you to this state." Having already suspected as much, Yaxiu remarked, "The Four Pillar Gods certainly have an eye for talent." "Aren't you angry?" "How could I not be? I'd love nothing more than to pin her to a wall with a sword, but right now I can't even lift a finger," Yaxiu countered. "Do you have a better idea?" "There is one way that can both save your lives and grant your revenge." Mercury Trojan crouched down and looked him in the eye. "That is for you to become a Touch as well."