Volume Five: Return from the Other Shore - The Descent of God (Part One)

Yu Jie moved at lightning speed, passing one building after another, getting closer and closer to the edge of the Cathedral of the True God area. His eyes swept across building after building, eagerly searching for that person's figure.

"Offer sacrifice to the spirits!!!"

Found it!

Beside the sacred river that encircles the Cathedral of the True God, the delicate young girl knelt on the ground, sobbing. The spirits of the deceased were now like thin ice in spring, fragile and easily broken.

"Hey, Spirit Sacrifice-chan!"

Yu Jie shouted, and the spirit priest's shoulders trembled as he looked around.

"Look where you're looking, you idiot! It's right here!!"

"Yu Jie!?"

She stared intently at the man who had landed in front of her, her whole body trembling. She rubbed her eyes and pinched her thigh to see if she was dreaming.

"Yu Jie... is it really... you?"

"Wow, it's the real deal! I was really scared; I thought I was going to die!"

Yu Jie still wore his carefree smile, scratching his hair with his hands, which were stitched together by dense barbed wire, just like any other day.

"... Oh, right, isn't this a bit scary?"

He stretched out his hand and examined it closely—it could hardly be called a "hand" anymore; it was merely a "hand-shaped lump of flesh" pieced together with barbed wire. Not only his hand, but it seemed that only his face was relatively intact, with only one barbed wire hanging from his forehead to his neck. The rest of his body was intertwined with many barbed wires, making them difficult to separate.

This is the current state of his physical body.

No matter what, they will not be killed by the enemy.

But it only meant it wouldn't die; the more it fought, the more injured it became, and the more tattered it became. Although it could still move normally thanks to the stitching and splicing of barbed wire, the way it was made was so grotesque that it was unbearable to look at.

(It really is true, it's turned into a monster...)

Thinking of this, Yu Jie gave a bitter smile.

"This gruesome, ghostly appearance is quite terrifying, isn't it? Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I didn't mean to hurt your little heart--"

His words were interrupted by a sudden hug.

"Thank goodness... you're still alive... you're still alive!"

My chest was wet; it was probably soaked with tears.

The spirit raised its head, a smile appearing on its tear-stained face.

Yu Jie was taken aback.

Although his face was streaked with tears, it was probably the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life.

"You're alive! You're alive! That's wonderful... truly wonderful..."

"Hmm... I'm sorry to have worried you."

Yu Jie raised his arms, hesitated for a moment, and was about to embrace the spirit's still slightly trembling body—

"... No, now is not the time for a touching reunion drama."

As he spoke, he murmured something, then pushed the sacrificial spirit away from his embrace.

"Yu Jie?"

"It's only going to get more dangerous here. Tianlu is probably catching up soon. Let's go, now!"

"Are we leaving...?"

"Yes, once we leave this place of trouble, it's only a matter of time before the Cathedral of the True God falls. Although I still want to see that kid again, it seems I won't have the chance. Tianlu is currently at a low power level. As long as the strongest members of the Revolutionary Army rush in, even she will have to kneel. In that case, the final victory will be in the Revolutionary Army's hands."

"But... what will happen to everyone at the Vatican?"

"They're either dead or have fled. What? Now that you know the truth about the Vatican, do you still have any attachment to this godforsaken place? Don't forget, they genuinely wanted to kill you!"

"Um... I'm sorry... I know the Vatican can no longer be my refuge, but it's really hard to adjust to leaving so suddenly... But!"

The spirit's small hand gripped Yu Jie's battered hand tightly, completely ignoring the hideous scars and barbed wire marks on his hand.

"It's okay, as long as Yu Jie protects me, I won't be afraid no matter where I go!"

"... Ha, your sweet talk has gotten better, huh? Then let's get going! First, avoid the Revolutionary Army and the Papacy's army, get out of the city, find your family at the resettlement area, and then steal a vehicle to get away from the battlefield!"

"Yes! Definitely..."

"... well?"

Before he could finish speaking, the sacrificial spirit collapsed.

Without any warning.

"Hello? Spirit Master?"

Yu Jie hadn't expected her to collapse so suddenly. He tried to pick her up, but the moment his hand touched her body, an invisible force blew him away. The spirit's body trembled slightly, but her expression was very peaceful, as if she were asleep. Her entire body emitted a silvery-white light, which gathered into a pure white pillar of light that shot straight into the sky. A holy yet oppressive aura arose spontaneously, which even Yu Jie found difficult to withstand for a moment.

"What the hell! What's going on!?"

Just then, a loud bang came from behind. Yu Jie turned around and saw two beams of light, just like the sacrificial spirit beams, shooting straight into the sky! There were three beams of light in total, three dazzling white lights that filled the sky and vaguely wove together to form a huge dome that covered the sky!

Yu Jie was stunned for a few seconds, his sluggish brain slowly processing everything that had suddenly happened, retrieving his memories—

"Hey, hey, hey, no way... could this be... the last line of defense?"

He was naturally aware of the inner workings of the Divine Law Cult. In fact, when he first arrived at the Divine Law Cult, he had already infiltrated the depths of the cathedral undetected, learning about MacArthur's past actions and the "order" that maintained the Divine Law Cult's existence. He didn't have any particular thoughts about this, but the explanation of the "ultimate defense mechanism" of order left a deep impression on him.

"'The ultimate measure that can only be used when the Papacy faces collapse: forcibly extracting the life force of all believers in the Order and infusing it into the Heavenly Law as power'... Not only that, but it also requires 'the Heavenly Law to complete its divine incarnation, Prayer to shed the physical body and merge with the Heavenly Law as a pure energy core, with sacrificial spirits as a stabilizing device'... Damn it! So none of the three Goddess can escape!"

This ultimate defense mechanism is equivalent to sacrificing hundreds of millions of believers and the three Goddess in exchange for the strongest power! The believers are all innocent victims, and the three Goddess are even worse off—they are kept like animals, bewitched, controlled, and brainwashed, and sacrificed as offerings when life and death are at stake, discarded and replaced with new ones after being used!

"Damn it! I refuse to believe it!"

Yu Jie roared, and dense darkness overflowed from his hands. He took a deep breath and plunged his hands directly into the pillar of light enveloping the sacrificial spirit! The darkness slowly eroded the pure white, spreading and extending little by little—

But it was immediately suppressed! As if sensing the intruder, the pressure of the pure white light instantly increased, not only pushing out the darkness, but also spreading the wisps of white light onto Yu Jie's hands! The already tattered skin on his hands made a sizzling sound and emitted puffs of white smoke, as if it were being corroded by strong acid!

"Gulp... Hold on... Ah!!!"

With a loud bang, Yu Jie was thrown more than ten meters away. His arms had been corroded beyond recognition by the holy light! But the white pillar of light remained intact, without any change!

"Damn it... damn it, damn it, damn it, go to your mother's Vatican!!!!!"

Even someone as mature as Yu Jie couldn't help but curse! He thought he could finally end all this and protect the sacrificial spirit as it left, but who knew someone would activate the final defense mechanism! Now, facing the sacrificial spirit, who was fast asleep under the pillar of light, he was completely helpless! His assimilation ability ultimately couldn't interfere with the order built with the Truth Incantation, and he couldn't rescue the sacrificial spirit!

"The last line of defense!? Who did this?!"

The Pope was equally at a loss. Just minutes ago, the fluctuations of the Truth Incantation had suddenly become very strange, and now—all the paladins gathered around him had collapsed! They were all in a state close to shock, large beads of cold sweat streaming down their bodies, their skin growing paler and paler, and some even had gray hairs on their heads! Their life force was being drained by "Order" and transmitted to the Heavenly Law!

"Impossible... impossible... I'm the only one who can activate this! And it's not time to use it yet!"

The practice of sacrificing hundreds of millions of people was far too extreme, even in the eyes of the Pope! Once this was initiated, it meant that the Divine Law Cult was determined to perish together with the enemy!

"Stop! Stop! Strange, why, why is the order not obeying my commands! Latran, where are you? Damn it!!!"

The Pope was furious, but the ceremony continued.

First Super Divine Spell: Divine Descent.

To completely entrust one's body to the gods, to become a vessel of divine power, and to let the supreme Divine Might envelop the world—that's, of course, just a superficial explanation. In reality, divine descent itself is a component of the ultimate defense mechanism. What Heavenly Law aims to become is not a vessel of "divine power," but rather the life energy of hundreds of millions of believers!

Tianlu's body had turned a dazzling white, his tightly closed eyelids trembled, and his torso sometimes swelled and sometimes deflated, reminiscent of a butterfly about to emerge from its cocoon! The ball of light that the Prayer, which had lost its physical body, had transformed into quickly floated into the air, circled once, and then flew towards Tianlu, who was a thousand meters away!

In front of the main square of the Cathedral of the True God--

The main force of the Revolutionary Army has all gathered here. Haoyue, Xiao Wu, Nid, Little Ying, Sin Annihilation, Yun Can and others have finally reunited after experiencing battles that were far less intense than expected.

But instead of showing much joy, they all looked at the fallen soldiers around them with suspicion, not daring to be careless in the slightest. Their battle could only be described as "quickly ended." Just as they overcame numerous obstacles and finally approached the Cathedral of the True God, preparing to fight to the death with its strongest defenders, a sudden change occurred. All the paladins and Divine Spellcaster collapsed to the ground, each one entering a state close to shock. Even a fool could see that they were getting closer to death every second.

"They really... all of them have lost consciousness."

Xiao Wu frowned as she observed the nearest Divine Spellcaster, analyzing her condition. "There are no obvious external injuries, and her organs are not damaged, but her body is weakening at an extremely rapid pace. At this rate... she probably won't live for more than an hour."

"Oh? Isn't this perfect? It saves us the trouble of doing it ourselves," Haoyue shrugged casually. "But now is a great opportunity. They're like naked virgins lying in front of us, practically announcing, 'We're defenseless now, come and kill us!'"

"So you want to kill them all now? Kill people who are in shock? Is that all you're capable of, you Qipao Woman?"

"Well, in the eyes of this seemingly rebellious but actually well-behaved delinquent girl, everything I do is scumbag behavior. How pathetic~"

"Tch, now's not the time to pick a fight—"

Boom!!!

A deafening roar erupted from the center of the Cathedral of the True God, interrupting Xiao Wu's words.

The two pure white beams of light slowly merged into one.

Then, the divine light compressed and condensed, forming a pair of giant wings like tree branches.

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I've been running around outside all day... I'm exhausted...