Chapter 113#

The Holy Son of the Fallen Evil God#

The knights were startled by the sudden flare of fire at the edge of the arena and looked toward the Holy Son.

To their horror, they found that the originally blonde, blue-eyed Holy Son was now completely enveloped in a dense dark aura. His frost-white hair, reaching his ankles, moved without wind, and a huge black mouthpiece covered the lower half of his face, revealing only a pair of deep, dark eyes like deep-sea whirlpools.

The youth’s long white eyelashes drooped, and on his dark skin, the mysterious and ancient golden patterns shimmered faintly under the firelight.

Ike stared straight at the almost completely transformed Holy Son and stammered, “You, you are…?”

“As you can see,” the white-haired youth smiled slightly and held out his hand, “I have fallen.”

With his movement, the shadows cast by the firelight surged toward his palm from all directions, forming a slowly rotating, black, viscous sphere of liquid.

This was the product of dark energy condensed to the extreme; an ordinary person would lose their mind and become a walking corpse just by touching a tiny bit of it. However, Lin Xiaodong’s faith was firm—he was a staunch materialist, and his body was filled with abundant light magic. Therefore, this thing was basically useless against him, at most stimulating the magic power in his body.

But such a lethal weapon, which could be called a source of pollution, had been used by the Evil God for cough cough that kind of play… it was truly a waste.

Black Pollution: Aggrieved.jpg

Lin Xiaodong snapped back from his past memories. Under the shocked and complex gazes of the knights, he lightly blew a breath toward the black sphere.

In an instant, the bright firelight in the secret room trembled.

The warm orange-red light turned into the ghost-blue fire of the abyss. The black sphere transformed into a large snake, as thick as an adult’s arm, coiling around the white-haired youth’s body. The huge snake head, flicking its long tongue, affectionately rubbed against the youth’s cheek, seemingly begging for praise.

“Good boy,” the Holy Son stroked its head and said gently, “Well done.”

Ike couldn’t help but swallow his saliva.

Although Chris was an acquaintance of Holy Son Lynn and his experience was very tragic, Ike wouldn’t believe for a second that a few words from him could entice the Holy Son to become like this.

Therefore, there was only one possibility—

Holy Son Lynn had actually fallen long ago!

“Commander, what should we do?” a weak inquiry came from a knight behind him.

The black-haired man’s hand had been resting on his sword hilt since just now, his expression appearing uncertain under the ghostly blue, dim light.

The Holy Son’s strength after falling was unknown, but judging from that large snake, his magic power was more than enough to deal with the few of them. But Church regulations stated that a knight fleeing from battle was a capital offense…

“Commander Ike,” as if sensing his hesitation, the white-haired youth looked at him and said in a flat tone, “Perhaps you think I have abandoned my faith, but I can tell you that I have never betrayed My God. On the contrary, I am now the believer closest to the deity in this world.”

Ike said with difficulty, “What… do you mean by that?”

The white-haired youth’s eyes curved. Ignoring the knights’ alertness, he walked step by step to the black-haired man and held out his hand.

“It’s not that you betrayed the Light, but that the Light betrayed you,” he said to Ike in a low, seductive tone. “I won’t kill you, but Commander Ike, you should understand in your heart that you can’t keep me here. After returning to the Church, the Pope will only punish and exploit you even more—are you really willing to endure all this injustice?”

“But that’s not a reason for me to betray the Church,” Ike did waver for a moment, but he quickly bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself to wake up. “The Church of Light rules the continent now. By doing this, you are standing alone against the whole world!”

“Who said I’m alone?” the white-haired youth countered.

Ike frowned. “What, do you have other cultist accomplices? I—”

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly shut his mouth tight.

A powerful arm blocked his body from behind. The Holy Son looked up at the Evil God’s face shrouded in mist and revealed a joyful smile: “My God, you’ve come.”

“Why waste your breath on them,” the Evil God said indifferently. “Just turn them into undead; they’ll be as obedient as can be.”

The Holy Son shook his head. “I still hope more people can understand the truth from a thousand years ago, follow you, and believe in you.” After a pause, the half of his face hidden under the black mouthpiece revealed a faint, cold smile. “Even if you don’t need us believers, I will definitely cut those shameful liars who defiled the God of Light’s oracles into a thousand pieces, letting them know the consequences of deceiving you.”

He was half-held in the Evil God’s arms, his cheek pressed against the other’s cold, broad chest, letting out a silent sigh of satisfaction—ah, what beautiful abs and pecs.

In the Evil God’s eyes, his little lamb was becoming increasingly sweet, charming, and gentle.

He was willing to stain his hands with blood for him and sink into the endless darkness for all eternity… just thinking about this made the Evil God feel a surge of irrepressible excitement.

“In that case,” he glanced indifferently at the pale-faced ants in front of him and returned his gaze tenderly to the white-haired youth in his arms, “then we’ll do as you say.”

The Evil God’s large hand unbuttoned the youth’s upper garment one by one, his palm stroking the protruding shoulder blades. Before the white-haired youth could react, he suddenly slashed the skin with his fingernails.

“…Aaaahhh!!!”

The white-haired youth curled up in his arms, trembling, one hand tightly clutching the Evil God’s robe, tears falling continuously from the corners of his eyes from the pain.

“Shh, it’ll be over soon.” The Evil God tenderly kissed away the tears at the corners of his eyes. “Darling, bear with it.”

He was using dark divine power to reshape Lin Xiaodong’s body. After thousands of years of loneliness, the desireless deity had finally met his craving.

He wanted to keep the youth by his side forever.

“It hurts… it hurts so much…” But at this moment, Lin Xiaodong could no longer hear anything. He felt every one of his bones being shattered and recast, the blood in his veins surging a hundred times faster than usual. He could even clearly hear the sound of his heartbeat in his chest.

Thump, thump, thump.

“System, block the pain…” he called out weakly, but received no response. Instead, chaotic voices filled his brain, like someone earnestly advising him, or like a person’s frantic monologue:

“He’s long since stopped being the Gu Xi you once knew; he’s just an empty shell…”

“After countless reboots, haven’t you given up yet?”

“You’ve already violated too many regulations. If this continues, you’ll be sentenced heavily.”

“Give up, don’t wait any longer. He doesn’t love you at all…”

Amidst his confused consciousness, a pair of broad black wings rapidly grew and spread from the youth’s bare back.

“A miracle…”

This eerie and evil scene caused Ike’s eyes to gradually become obsessed, and those behind him had the same expression. This had nothing to do with the distinction between the darkness or light camps; it was simply the uncontrollable yearning and longing of mortals when witnessing divine power.

He instinctively knelt on the ground and bowed deeply to the tall deity before him.

“My God…”

But the next second, the black-haired man was tossed against the wall by a gust of wind.

“Are you worthy of calling me ‘My God’?” The Evil God looked at him coldly, his voice sarcastic.

Ike’s eyes widened, and he spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot. But the moment he landed, ignoring the intense pain in his body, he tremblingly crawled back up to kneel and said in a shaky voice, “God of the Abyss above, please forgive my rudeness and offense.”

The Evil God snorted coldly and ignored him, instead gently stroking the newly grown black fallen wings behind the Holy Son.

When his fingertips touched the softest part at the base of the wings, he heard the soft nasal sound instinctively made by the person in his arms, and his movements paused involuntarily.

“How do you feel?”

Lin Xiaodong opened his eyes weakly.

He wanted to hit someone.

The Evil God, not receiving the answer he wanted, was somewhat dissatisfied, but still patiently asked, “Do you feel any sluggishness in the movement of divine power anywhere? You’ve just transformed into a demigod. If there’s any discomfort, you must tell me.”

But before Lin Xiaodong could open his mouth to answer, the deity’s expression suddenly changed, and the hand holding the youth also suddenly tightened.

“What is it, My God?”

“…It’s nothing. I’ll head back to the abyss first.” Sensing the vibration of the divine core in his body, the Evil God cursed inwardly, but on the surface, he still said to his little lamb with a calm expression, “I’ll leave these people to you.”

With that, he disappeared from the secret room.

Lin Xiaodong’s body swayed, but the wings on his back suddenly spread, keeping him suspended in mid-air.

“Wow.” He turned his head curiously to look, experiencing the feeling of flying with wings, then turned his gaze to the knights below.

Commander Ike was still kneeling on the ground, not daring to look up at the deity, not even knowing that the Evil God had left. Due to the divine power earlier, the other knights with slightly weaker constitutions had long since fainted and were only just now waking up.

The white-haired youth’s toes landed lightly on the stone bricks. With his movement, a few black feathers drifted down before Ike’s eyes, then vanished into dust the moment he tried to reach out and catch them.

“Now, Commander Ike,” Lin Xiaodong asked with a smile, “are you willing to believe what I said?”

The black-haired man jerked his head up.

The two stared at each other in that posture for a few seconds. Finally, Ike lowered his head, pressed his right hand to his chest, and made a gesture of allegiance: “I am willing to believe in the God of the Abyss, follow the glory of the Holy Son, until the end of the world.”

But out of his own selfishness, he added another sentence:

“—From now on, I will go through fire and water for you, no matter the cost.”

Due to Chris’s roll of parchment and the years of oppression by the Church, after persuading Commander Ike, Lin Xiaodong obtained the allegiance of the entire Knights’ team with almost no effort.

However, this meant they definitely couldn’t return to the Church.

“Your Highness, we need a base, or rather, a headquarters.” After confirming their break from the Church and sending subordinates to secretly bring everyone’s families over, Ike was glowing, eager to roll up his sleeves and get to work. “This war, to put it bluntly, is a battle for believers. With God on our side, we have a natural advantage, but it’s undeniable that the Church of Light’s power is indeed very vast, so it’s best not to confront them directly.”

Lin Xiaodong nodded. “You’re right.”

Actually, he had thought about whether to settle in Count Lyle’s manor, but for one, so many people had died there that living there in the middle of the night would be creepy; for another, Bishop Raphael already knew their destination this time, and the Church might send people to surround them. With their current troop strength, they would definitely need the Evil God to save them.

But Lin Xiaodong remembered what the Evil God had said to him and his behavior of mysteriously disappearing from time to time, so he silently decided in his heart to recruit more believers for the other party before leaving this world.

Otherwise, with only output and no input, even divine power would surely run dry one day.

“I actually know a good place,” Ike tentatively sought the Holy Son’s opinion. “Besides Count Lyle’s manor, there’s another manor on the outskirts of the capital’s West District that was marked by the Church as the root of corruption. It’s been abandoned for nearly a hundred years. What do you think?”

If it were usual, Ike wouldn’t take his Knights and their families to that ghostly place, as they might be haunted by evil spirits. But now that he had even seen the true God of the Abyss and was accompanied by a fallen angel, what evil spirits was he afraid of?

“That works,” Lin Xiaodong agreed to his proposal.

The hundred or so of them set off late at night and arrived there in just a few hours. The white-haired, dark-skinned angel spread his black wings and exercised his divine power. In just a few breaths, a magnificent dark temple rose from the ground.

The commoners below looked at him with awe and fear, kneeling on the ground and clumsily chanting the “Holy Scripture of Darkness” that Lin Xiaodong had just made up last night. Wisps of dark faith energy emerged from them; a small portion was absorbed by Lin Xiaodong’s black wings, while the majority returned to the deity at the bottom of the abyss.

The Evil God, who hadn’t felt the power of faith for a thousand years, shook. The divine core that had developed cracks felt as if it were being soaked in a hot spring. He looked up toward the surface with a complex gaze and let out a silent sigh.

“In the end, you still didn’t listen to me…”

As the first batch of believers moved into the dark temple, the name of the God of the Abyss also began to spread gradually in the shadows of the capital.

Upon learning that the Holy Son and the Knights had simultaneously defected from the Church, the Pope in the Church of Light was furious. He immediately struck them from the Church’s records and ordered seven Knight teams to set out simultaneously, with orders to kill everyone on sight except for the Holy Son.

In addition, he gathered the nobles of the capital and the Church’s high-ranking officials to hold a grand “Repentance Ceremony.”

“Oh, God of Light, please forgive my sins!” He wore heavy, ornate robes and knelt on a cushion before the statue of the God of Light, his voice mournful and his eyes filled with tears. “I failed to discipline and teach Holy Son Lynn well, leading to the noble Holy Spirit also being in danger… Is this a trial you have set for the Holy Spirit?”

He recounted his journey from joining the Church as a young man to becoming the Pope and his dedicated service to the Church and the people. His performance was emotionally charged and sincere, moving several noble ladies to take out their handkerchiefs and gently wipe their eyes.

“Your Holiness,” as the Pope slowly rose with the help of a divine servant, a count below couldn’t help but ask, “how will you deal with the traitor Lynn once he’s caught?”

The Pope looked at him surreptitiously with his old, cloudy eyes.

At a glance, he was a hotheaded novice who dared to ask such a sensitive question so bluntly in public. He cursed the fool inwardly, but on the surface, he still answered with a kind and gentle expression, “The Holy Son has committed a crime, but he is, after all, the bearer of the Holy Spirit. Judging him is a matter for God; we mortals have no right.”

This sentence seemed lenient, but in reality, that woman tied to the cross earlier was also considered to be undergoing “God’s judgment” in the eyes of the Church’s believers. If the Pope hadn’t been considering the Holy Spirit, he would have definitely acquiesced to the radical faction’s handling method—cutting open the Holy Son’s chest and abdomen, removing the Holy Spirit, and letting him fend for himself.

But after hearing the Pope’s answer, that tactless count wasn’t satisfied and asked another question: “Then, have you heard about the ‘Avenging Angel’ case that happened in the capital recently?”

Hearing him mention this, the Pope’s expression finally darkened.

“All heretics who defy God will surely be consumed by fire and undergo a cruel judgment,” he threw out this sentence stiffly and swept away in a rage.

The count only now realized something was wrong.

Noticing the mocking or pitying looks from the other nobles, he immediately panicked.

“Wait, aren’t you all scared?” he said loudly, quickly glancing around as if looking for supporters. “They all say that Avenging Angel is elusive and will come to your bedside at midnight to list all the crimes you’ve committed in your life before piercing the sinner’s heart—none of you sitting here haven’t stained your hands with the blood of commoners! How can you still act so calm?”

A prince sitting at the front let out a long sigh.

“Everyone,” he stood up gracefully, clutching his ruby-studded cane, and bowed slightly to the ladies, “my apologies for the disturbance.”

“It seems Count David has lost his mind and isn’t thinking clearly,” he casually pronounced the count’s death sentence, ignoring the other’s incredulous look, and winked at the divine servant nearby. “I am willing to hire a good doctor for His Lordship to let him recuperate well in his manor.”

A burst of giggling came, and the count heard the whispers by his ear, such as “Anyway, those who died were just human traffickers; if commoners die, they die,” “It’s truly funny, is he really a count? He has no noble restraint or grace at all,” and “It’s just a legend; those brainless commoners spend all day fantasizing about these groundless things, pity they’ll be lower-class for life,” and so on, making him look desperate.

“Lord Count, please leave the church.”

The divine servant walked over and spoke to him respectfully but coldly.

The count knew that if he didn’t leave now, they would send people to “invite” him out.

He sneered, maintaining his last bit of dignity, barely tidied his collar, and said hatefully to the nobles mocking him, “I’m waiting for the day you beg for mercy in panic!” Then he straightened his back and strode out of the church with a pale face under the mocking gazes of the nobles.

The wife of Duke Mise stood up and said softly, “Everyone, let us continue to pray to the God of Light. Believe that the great God will surely punish those unpardonable sinners for us.”

She was still wearing a black veil. Regarding the Holy Son, it could be said that no one present hated him more than she did.

Her husband’s death was secondary—after all, she knew exactly what kind of person Duke Mise was, and she herself had no fewer than three lovers in high society. But the Duchess couldn’t tolerate Lin Xiaodong making her lose her greatest support and source of income; now she couldn’t even buy her favorite gems and slaves at auctions as she pleased!

The Duchess’s proposal was met with approval from the nobles. For a while, the vast church was filled with beautifully dressed, pious believers.

The statue of the God of Light in front was neither sad nor happy, coldly watching these filthy hearts filled with maggots and fleas, wrapped in precious jewelry and silk.

Time passed slowly, and a ray of sunlight projected from the colored glass window, landing squarely above the pattern of the battle angel holding an arrow. The angel’s cold face and condescending, indifferent gaze seemed to announce the arrival of some kind of judgment.