Ashen Lands.
The sacrifices of the Ashes Guides continued.
One self-aware Ashes spiral after another fell into the sea of corruption, gradually fading into silence amid agonized wails.
The Rekindled Flame flashing again and again in the darkness was not hope to them, but a terrifying death warrant.
"Keep going!"
"Bring those followers over too!"
"We have no other choice! Only by awakening the will of corruption can we fight those damn Extinguishers!"
An Ashes Guide roared beside the sea of corruption.
As the number of sacrifices increased, the power of corruption did indeed grow, yet the will of corruption they had hoped for had still not appeared.
This placed enormous psychological pressure on the Ashen Guide leading them.
He was a veteran and could indeed use his authority to force some people into submission. But as more and more people were sacrificed without any results, the atmosphere throughout the Ashen Lands had changed.
The corrupted followers were manageable enough. The Ashes Guides could coerce them with deception and overwhelming force.
But the other Ashes Guides were clearly not so easy to deal with.
Though the sacrifices had become inevitable.
At first, most of them had clung to a sliver of luck—perhaps only a small number of people needed to be sacrificed for it to work, and they themselves would survive.
But when their own turn truly came, that faint hope vanished completely, turning into the desperation of cornered beasts—
"Lies!"
"It's all lies!"
"Corruption has no will at all! There is no such thing as a Lord of Corruption in this world! These bastards just want to use this as an excuse to eliminate dissenters!" An Ashes Guide screamed hysterically at the others before being sacrificed.
Although the Ashes Guides carrying out the sacrifice quickly subdued him and threw