Volume Five: Return from the Other Shore - Chapter 375: An Overwhelming Amount of Information

"My Husband, this puts me in a bit of a difficult position."

He'd just escaped the police officer's check, and this guy was already at it again.

Her petite body exudes luxury, with fair and delicate skin, full and elastic dreamy breasts, all wrapped in scarlet lace gauze. Her youthful face, yet with a bewitching allure that belies her childishness, and her captivating blood-red eyes that seem to speak volumes, all possess a natural charm in every gesture.

No matter how long you look at her, you never tire of her. The longer you gaze at her, the stronger the desire in your heart grows. But when you try to get closer, you sense the danger and rage inherent in her Divine Item. Your biological instincts warn you to stop, but your utterly confused heart urges you to continue your entanglement. In the end, you are tormented to the point of madness by the tension between reason and desire. All you hear in the end is her mocking, trash-like laughter...

Although this is just my imagination, it's probably pretty close to the truth.

"How did I put you in such a difficult position...?"

"I am, in a sense, a symbol of ferocity and rage—according to the Rakshasa True Word, as my Husband, my host, and my possessor, your obedience to the law will only make me a laughingstock!"

"Then tell me what I should do..."

"Let's dismember any of the eyesores first."

"Well..."

"I've been fed up with those dogs of the Vatican for a long time, haven't you, Husband lord? Let's start with the churches. Slaughter all the nuns and priests, use their blood and entrails to decorate the stained glass windows. The foolish people who go in to worship are equally guilty. Absorb all the men as nourishment, and tear the women to pieces and eat them after you've played with them inside and out. Put all the blood in the baptismal pool to make a blood bath. Let the lovely Blood Beast seal off the city, gather all those who want to escape, and make furniture from their bones, sofa cushions from their muscles, coats from their skin, and ribbons to decorate the church doors from their intestines. Or, don't even consider recycling them, just destroy, kill, and do with them until there's not a trace left. After you've had your fill, massacre the city, and move on to the next city. It would be best to capture all the Saintess Goddess and have them gang-raped by the strongest Blood Beast. Don't stop even if they break down mentally and their bodies rot from the inside out. And then—"

"While your brilliant idea might appeal to cult film enthusiasts, I'd still pass on it. Besides, don't you ever use a period in your sentences?"

First, I also need to be able to defeat Tianlu.

Moreover, when this guy was muttering that long string of words, his expression wasn't the kind of exaggerated, distorted facial expressions you see in Higurashi, but rather super calm, super normal, and super matter-of-fact, like he was discussing with his in-laws whether or not to send his son to a minority area to take the college entrance exam. (Author's note: What kind of analogy is this...)

I looked around and found that it was a long street, bustling with people.

Seventh Parish, under the jurisdiction of Serafino City, Dunwich Village -- this is my destination. Judging from the name, it's a small place and probably not easy to find. Anyway, I'll find a transportation hub or something to get to Serafino City first.

"Oh right, Luo-chan."

"Luo-chan? Is that your nickname for me? How delightful~"

"Whatever makes you happy."

Actually, the Rakshasa True Word is too troublesome to pronounce, so it's simply called Luo-chan.

It's definitely not that popular male god from the opening sequence.

"Then, my Husband, it's rare for you to speak to me first. What advice do you have for me?"

"You just said 'it will make me a laughingstock'... a laughingstock by whom?"

"By whom..."

For the first time, Luo-chan showed a slightly embarrassed expression.

Her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, and her bright red lips pouted childishly. Honestly, I really wanted to pin her to the ground and watch her cry, and I also wanted to be pinned to the ground and trampled on by her beautiful feet.

"If you ask who it is, it's those other five guys, of course."

"Five guys... you mean the Crystal Realm Fruit Gleaming Gold South-Pointing Compass Truth Incantation, the Karmic Fire Boundary Breaking Armor?"

"You know so much about it."

"So you all know each other... Wait, although only six are needed to construct the World Crossing Gate, aren't there nine divine Divine Item on Spirit Star? Won't the Emperor Slaying Sword Water Heart Nether Radiance Lamp laugh at you?"

"I don't know those three guys at all, and I don't even know if they have any independent consciousness."

"Eh..." Wait a minute.

We don't even know if they have their own consciousness?

How did she determine the other five sentient beings who constructed the World Crossing Gate?

I suddenly realized that I seemed to have come across some very important intelligence.

Really--

"I don't know about the Emperor Slaying Sword, Water Heart, but I was one with those five guys a long, long time ago—the thing you call the World Crossing Gate."

"So—wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wasn't it World Crossing Gate was designed and built by that amazing person known as the 'Craft God' a long time ago? How come you're saying that you were 'originally one'?"

"The Craft God? Hmph, that old man merely deduced the structure of the World Crossing Gate using the characteristics of the six of me. A passage without beginning or end, a benevolent creation of that great being when he traveled to the human realm, how could it possibly have been invented by a wretched old man? But... for human wisdom to touch upon the remnants of that great being's magnificent design, that's quite impressive."

"Wait, wait, wait, that's a lot of information in that sentence! What is the endless, beginningless passage? Who is that great one? And what's going on in the human realm?"

"I know absolutely nothing."

"Then why did you say that!"

"I only know the phrase 'the passage without beginning or end,' and that the World Crossing Gate was created by a great Big Figure. The human realm is just a word that remains deep in my memory... After all, it was too long ago. Back then, we were still an ignorant whole, and I didn't even have self-awareness."

"Uh... so how did you two break up?"

"Hmm... I don't remember that very well either. It was some kind of battle, a terrifying battle powerful enough to destroy a dimension... It affected many places... Something huge shattered... I don't know the specifics, but the World Crossing Gate should have broken apart around that time."

"Let me guess... then the World Crossing Gate broke into six parts, and each of these six parts possessed one of the essential functions for constructing and operating the World Crossing Gate... right?"

"Smart, as expected of my Husband!"

"Then where do all these random attributes of yours come from, like ferocity and rage, solidification and suppression, and so on?"

"At first, we concubines only had the most basic function of being part of the World Crossing Gate. But as time went by and we were in different environments, we began to grow separately, acquiring or developing new functions that had nothing to do with the World Crossing Gate, and we even got new names."

"There's such a thing..."

What the heck? This feeling of my worldview suddenly opening up...

"By the way, according to you, the other three— the Emperor Slaying Sword, the Water Heart Nether Radiance Lamp —are all native to Spirit Star?"

"The Nether Radiance Lamp initially seemed to be the turbid and ferocious side of karmic fire, but later it separated... The Emperor Slaying Sword was the Craft God that old geezer, the God of Crafts, who created a man-made Divine Artifact using the results of his research on us concubines... Only that concubine, Water Heart, knew nothing about it. However, when the Craft God obtained us concubines, he often muttered some very strange things."

"What did he say?"

"'If only we could get our hands on the Water Heart, we could understand it better...' and things like that."

"..."

This is so important, isn't it?!

When Nid came to his senses, he found himself looking up at the sky.

The sky was a deathly gray, with leaden clouds that seemed poised to rain at any moment. Occasionally, streaks of burning arrows would streak across the sky, only to be swallowed up by the rising smoke.

So heavy.

Just standing under this sky makes it hard to breathe.

He lowered his head and looked around.

"Ah..."

I couldn't help but sigh.

Although it felt like looking through frosted glass, I could still make out what kind of scenery it was.

It's a battlefield.

An endless battlefield.

The scene after the brutal war had just ended.

The scorched soil was stained with blood.

Tens of thousands of corpses silently testify to the horrific tragedy that unfolded here.

Countless broken swords lay embedded in the ground like tombstones.

The ashes fell like black snow.

This is a restricted area; strangers are not permitted to enter.

Just being in it is enough to make one almost faint.

How terrible, how tragic.

Countless departed souls are weeping silently.

This is war.

Regardless of who wins or loses, all that remains in the end is silent sorrow.

"Are you sad, child?"

A sound was heard.

A baritone voice lacking variation.

A man's figure appeared before Nid.

The man had his back to him, so his face was not visible.

Even though they were only ten steps apart, there was a sense of distance between them that they could never reach.

Although that figure wasn't particularly tall, there was a sense of powerlessness that made one feel as if they were about to be overwhelmed by him.

There is only one person who possesses such an imposing presence simply by standing there.

"... The aura of an emperor, you are... the Saint Emperor..."

The moment Nid murmured the name, the frosted glass separating him from the world around him vanished.

At that moment, Nid's heart trembled.

It was like a towering wave crashing against a fragile dam.

The battlefield scenery from two thousand years ago, the vast and desolate atmosphere, the lingering ferocity even after the war ended, the howls of the dead, the crackling of burning embers, the howling wind sweeping across the battlefield like wolves—everything felt so real.

That kind of thing is insane.

"I'm asking you, are you sad, child?"

"Sadness... of course!"

Strive to guard your mind and spirit, lest your will be invaded by the chilling atmosphere, or your spirit be succumbed to the emperor's power.

Even so, he could not ignore the sorrow that arose spontaneously.

"Many people died, many families were torn apart, but they, they, instinctively possessed so many more possibilities!"

Nid stared at the countless corpses filling his field of vision, at their expressions of anger, helplessness, or sorrow, at their mutilated bodies—

"Isn't this kind of hell heartbreaking? Their precious lives, which belonged only to them, were cruelly cut short by meaningless death—"

"You say this is hell, I agree, but..."

The Saint Emperor bent down, picked up something, and examined it closely.

It was a head that had rolled to his feet.

"... They all died for me, for my great cause, so their deaths were by no means meaningless."