Myriad Faces

An aura of golden light had inexplicably appeared in the sky, its gentle, non-blinding glow swirling behind it, complementing the setting sun and bathing the entirety of Pato City in an extraordinary brilliance.

Unlike the common folk, who simply felt a wave of warmth wash over them, Lange and the other cultists felt a suffocating pressure the moment this figure appeared. The seemingly gentle and harmless light caused the heretics excruciating pain, as if they were being showered in diluted Holy Water...

As the newcomer descended, everyone gradually made out his appearance: a man who looked to be around thirty years old, clad in a suit of silver plate armor engraved with pale golden sacred words. A pair of heavy pauldrons bore the emblems of the Holy Church Coalition and an image of the Dawn Goddess. He had a broken golden sword hanging on either side of his waist, and a massive mithril cross was strapped to his back. More importantly...

He had a perfectly proportioned, square-shaped face!

From any angle, this face screamed Holy Knight. Dave's thick eyebrows were nothing compared to his, further emphasizing his steadfastness and piety.

"I am Glin Tyrr," he said, landing in front of the plaza, his thick eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Dawn Great Knight of the City of Light, and now..."

Glin drew one of his broken swords with a backhand motion, lightly slashing it to his right, "Purge the heretics."

A thin ray of light slowly swept across, rapidly changing shape as it did so. Half a second later, it had transformed into a torrent of vast, dazzling golden sword light, cutting across a third of the plaza.

The Knight Academy instructors and clerics fighting the cultists were completely unaffected as the light washed over them. Some of the Dawn Goddess's followers even felt slightly empowered, and the fleeing civilians were unharmed...

[Dawn Condemnation Slash]

Holy Light School Active Skill

Mastery Requirements: Holy Light School Level 19, One-Handed Weapon Specialization Level 15, Strength 50, Wisdom 20, Follower of the Dawn Goddess, Faith Value must exceed 1500

Cost/Restrictions: 100 Stamina, 300 Faith Value, Single-Handed Weapon Equipped

Effect: Unleashes a wide-range slash imbued with the Dawn Goddess's divine power in the specified direction, dealing massive damage to enemy targets within the user's concept and inflicting a soul burn effect. Damage is doubled against blasphemers, undead creatures, and followers of the Dark Goddess Dilia, with a 5% chance to trigger the 'Purification' effect. Allies and standing units within the user's concept will not be harmed. This skill ignores terrain and environmental effects. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

[Note: The Holy Light is with you! Mom no longer has to worry about me hitting my own people!]

This skill, which players currently had no way of mastering, was extremely effective. The cultists, who had been overwhelming the instructors and clerics with the power of their evil god, didn't even have time to scream as the golden sword light swept over them. They trembled, their orifices glowing with light, before exploding into balls of golden fire, their bodies and souls incinerated by the vast divine power.

"Holy Flash..." Glin casually lowered his sword hand, then pointed his other hand at the other side of the plaza, and said in a deep voice, "Thousand Strikes!"

His figure seemed to blur for a split second, and then a golden phantom shot out of Glin's body like lightning, passing straight through a cultist, who instantly exploded before the phantom vanished into thin air.

Then came the second phantom...

The third...

The fourth...

Dozens of cultists who were about to turn and run were instantly killed on the spot by the phantoms released by Glin within a few seconds.

Lange had no time to give Bayes and Ledo a few more stabs or rush over and crush Mo Tan to death. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, and the surrounding pale white mist was rapidly evaporating. The omnipresent light had him pinned in place. He had no doubt that any slight movement would immediately attract the attention of the Dawn Great Knight!

"Absolute power, huh?" Mo Tan actually approached Lange, gently patting him on the shoulder. "How does it feel to suddenly become an ant?"

Pfft!

Lange, who had been muttering something under his breath, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, whether from being patted or from anger. Just as he was about to turn around and kill this kid, he discovered that the square-faced man who had just unleashed two Musous had appeared in front of him, scaring him out of his wits...

"You're too late, Sir Knight," Mo Tan said, spreading his hands as he slowly retreated. "All those sacrifices that happened earlier will have to be counted on your head."

Glin stared intently at the young man who had been making him feel particularly uncomfortable since the beginning, and said in a deep voice, "Who are you?"

Mo Tan didn't immediately answer, but whispered something into the ears of Bayes and Ledo, who had just gotten to their feet, before looking up and smiling. "Me? I'm the one who tricked you into coming here... But you can't really say it was a trick, can you? Cultists appearing and an evil god descending on Pato City are pretty much the same thing, aren't they?"

"I sense malice in you." Glin's eyes flashed with anger, but he said calmly, "Your vile lies have even alarmed the City of Light."

"It can't be helped," Mo Tan said with a wry smile. "If it wasn't you, this 'absolute power,' who came, but some cannon fodder, I would have been very troubled... But speaking of which, could you please bring this blood-soaked cultist to justice first?"

Lange's body trembled, but he continued to mutter something under his breath, his expression extremely strange.

"As for me," Mo Tan shrugged. "Anyway, telling a lie isn't a big crime, so it's okay to deal with me later, right? Take me to some holy place and give me a good torturing or something."

Although the other party's teasing tone was rather grating, Glin still nodded. After all, 'purifying' Lange, the leader of the cultists, was the top priority. As for the kid who had alarmed the City of Light with false information, causing him to be ordered to come here as quickly as possible, he could deal with him later...

Moreover, it was right for him to come here in person this time. An ordinary Holy Knight squad might not have been able to control the situation.

So, Glin immediately looked at Lange, who had been muttering to himself, and took down the mithril cross behind him, which only Great Holy Knights were qualified to obtain, and said in a deep voice, "Speak your last words and tell me the location of the cult's lair, or die immediately."

[No one would pay attention to this kind of 'die or die' statement...]

Mo Tan rolled his eyes from behind and reached into the satchel at his waist.

"..." Lange continued to mutter something, staring straight at the Dawn Great Knight Glin.

The latter gently pressed his hands on both sides of the cross and asked with a frown, "What are you saying?"

"..."

"Alright." Glin didn't seem to think Lange would answer him anyway, so a holy flame slowly began to rise from his body. "Then prepare to be purified!"

"I said..." Lange suddenly grabbed his head with both hands and groaned in pain.

"Hmm?" Glin was a little puzzled, but he still intended to let the other party finish speaking with a knightly spirit. "What?"

Pfft!!

Countless bone spurs burst out of Lange's body. At the same time, his body began to twist, to a degree that was too disgusting to describe. Blood vessels, muscles, and bones underwent violent mutations, all turning out from the inside, and began to complete some kind of ritualistic transformation, multiplying and expanding at an extremely fast rate!!

"I said, I'm stronger than you, ahhhhh!" Lange roared. His current appearance no longer resembled a living being, but something like a fleshy... slime monster, frantically pouncing toward the Great Holy Knight in front of him. "You can't resist... I'm stronger than you... You will lose... Ugh... Kill... You will die... Resistance... Futile..."

Glin, however, was not subjected to a forced plot kill like most villains or heroes who talk too much. He simply sighed, "Look at yourself, look at what the being you believe in has given you... Besides pain, there is only pain..."

The mithril cross, entwined with golden chains, gradually began to brighten...

Five minutes later, Pato City's southern district.

A Dark Elf man in a gray robe approached what appeared to be a recently abandoned building. It seemed to have once been a warehouse for storing grain, but now...

"A cultist's nest, eh?" He grinned, glanced back at the golden pillar of light soaring into the sky in the distance, and murmured, "That guy is even stronger than I thought. Better hurry."

With that, he looked around briefly and quickly entered the abandoned warehouse.

[Myriad Faces]

Type: Special Equipment

Quality: Unique Epic

Attributes: All Basic Attributes +1

Trait: Allows you to freely change your appearance and gain some physical characteristics of the corresponding race. Your temperament will change during the disguise process. There is no duration limit, but after canceling the disguise or changing the appearance of Myriad Faces, it will take 12 hours before it can be used again.

[Note 1: A powerful alchemical equipment forged by the Dwarf genius, Idolhua Leather Alchemist, but due to some minor mistakes, this mask did not meet Mr. Idolhua's expectations. Although the Myriad Faces mask allows the user to freely change their appearance and characteristics with almost no restrictions, it can never affect their height. This annoyed Mr. Idolhua, who was often mistaken for a Gnome, and he sold it to the Elven Rogue Bowvine for 1 copper coin.]

[Note 2: According to historical records, Bowvine was forcibly fed a strange reagent by an underground force a few years later and his whereabouts are unknown. The Myriad Faces mask also disappeared with him, but a few months later, Bowvine's girlfriend, the Elven Monk Blue, was accompanied by an Elven youth who looked very much like a young Bowvine. It is said that this young man was adopted by Blue's father—the sleeping famous warrior, Mauri—and was almost inseparable from Blue every day. In the following years, the name of the Grim Reaper Sprite gradually resounded throughout the continent.]

[Note 3: The designer of this equipment has been fired.]

Yes, as you can see, this Dark Elf is naturally Mo Tan. As for why he obtained such a powerful epic equipment...

Do you all remember the 'unique quest' he received earlier?

[Go to Pato City and destroy the 'hero' Dave; Reward: ???]

Not long ago, when that Mammoth Half-Orc little Cleric drenched Dave with a bucket of Waters of the Gods, Mo Tan immediately received a system prompt:

[Unique quest completed, completion rate: 550%, reward: Myriad Faces, Trickster class experience: 1100 points]

Then this equipment directly appeared in his inventory.

This is also why Mo Tan is completely fearless next. Because as long as he finds the situation is not right, as long as he forcibly activates Escape and equips this special equipment, there is almost a 50% chance that he can retreat safely.

As for the other 50% of the danger... he doesn't care~

Ten minutes later, in front of the abandoned warehouse.

A human man in a linen suit ran here, panting.

Cordova expressed that he was very unhappy, really unhappy...

You must know that this time he had been struggling with logging in for a long time, after all, the memory of his tragic and not-at-all-heroic death was still vivid in his mind!

But in the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of Innocent World. After making up his mind hundreds of times, he finally logged into the game and appeared in Pato City.

As a result, there was a problem as soon as he arrived!

His guiding quest this time was to find the owner of a certain tailor shop, but when he finally found the place, he learned that the person had gone to the square in the central district to watch the excitement.

So Cordova went to the central square again...

And then... everything went out of control!!

Ever since that crazy lunatic appeared in the clock tower, the original baptism ceremony was completely messed up. That so-called 'hero' died in the most miserable way possible!

Finally, when a large number of cultists ran out of the crowd and began to kill indiscriminately, Cordova ran away!

He ran without hesitation!

He had enough, he didn't want to die again, he just wanted to play the game properly...

In the end, he got lost and ended up in this place.

But it felt pretty good. This place was very remote, and it was still in the most underdeveloped southern district of Pato City. In theory, it should be relatively safe. Cordova felt that as long as he hid here for a while, or even went offline for a midnight snack, the chaos before should be almost over.

Then he saw an Elven man wearing strange clothes and with a lot of blood on his hands walking out of the warehouse in front of him, and then wiping his face...

Holy crap!!

Isn't this the guy who messed everything up in the clock tower before!?

"Shh~" The other party seemed a little surprised to see him, then put his index finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet.

Blood all over his body, a gentle smile, and a madman's temperament, this is going to kill someone and silence them!!

Without saying a word, Cordova turned around and ran, shouting as he ran, "Help!!!"

Pfft!

His body shook violently. He looked down and saw half a blade protruding from his left chest with a splash of blood...

The familiar system prompt sounded in his ears.

[You have died]

Chapter 42: End