They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 287 You can't keep up the act anymore?

“My great Lord, why do you think this plan is difficult? If you were to personally plunder all His believers… then everything would be solved.”

Ria remained expressionless, while the little Swarth on her shoulder gradually bristled its feathers, its pupils shrinking to pinpoints as it stared at her.

"You finally couldn't keep up the act anymore?"

"Hehehe, believers do not need to pretend or lie to the gods they worship."

Even Hephaestus himself probably didn't believe that statement.

Leilana turned her back and coaxed him gently: "You will be a very good god, and it's always better for believers to follow you than to suffer with those 'monsters'."

In other words, if you so desire, you can absolutely become the savior of Enderus and completely erase the authority of the Radiant Sun.

"By the way, don't you love wealth? After you seize the power of the sun, everything stored in the church will be yours alone. Imagine being the 'only one' in a country full of wealth."

Her words sounded very tempting, and if it were an ordinary person, they would definitely not be able to resist such temptation and follow Hephaestus. But now standing in front of her was Ria, and how could Ria not know what this person wanted to do?

"I suddenly feel that I'm quite successful."

"what?"

Leilana was taken aback.

Ria continued, “Our words are very guiding; we are both saying the right thing while avoiding the risky part, making others completely fall into our own thinking.”

From this perspective, was my portrayal of you successful?

As she spoke, Ria raised her pistol and mercilessly shot the other woman in the head with a "bang," then, taking advantage of her moment of surprise, threw her off the balcony.

The moment the witch landed, Ria raised her hand, and an inverted spindle appeared on the ground, piercing through her body. The next second, she was engulfed in flames.

This behavior was completely at odds with his previous gentlemanly demeanor. After being startled for a moment, the witches witnessed an even more horrifying scene.

The White Rose Witch, writhing in the flames, turned to look at them all with a sinister grin, her face blank. Suddenly, she clutched her face and screamed in agony, pulling out a hidden potion and gulping it down.

“Everyone… Hephaestus’s consciousness is on me, and it’s the only one of his consciousness at the tea party, cough cough cough!”

Leilana's heart was pierced by the spindle, and she quickly lost consciousness. Her body fell to the ground, her once white clothes became filthy, and her beautiful skin turned into charcoal.

These words undoubtedly added insult to injury to the already chaotic scene. The witches were unwilling to believe that Laylana was possessed by Hephaestus's consciousness, but what had just happened seemed to have hit them all like a ton of bricks.

But that wasn't the end of it. After Leilana collapsed, a wisp of black smoke suddenly emerged from her body and disappeared into the group of people who had been specially invited, attaching itself to one of them.

The person possessed was a mental patient who firmly believed in his identity as an apostle.

The thorny barrier was removed, and the man leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and legs, and looked at the crowd with a somewhat distressed sigh.

"As expected, that child is still too wary of me, and it's very difficult to control her."

The real Laylana had been looking for an opportunity to eliminate the consciousness that shouldn't exist, but she was also curious about what Hephaestus wanted to do, so after a little thought, she cooperated with him, leading to everything that followed. As for Laylana looking miserable now—that's not a big problem; the patients have always been miserable, and she's encountered far more extreme things during her experiments.

A dozen seconds later, the potion took effect, and Leilana rose from the flames again, removing the spindle from her heart and becoming clean once more.

This spindle inexplicably reminded her of the curse uttered by the beggar who had appeared at her doorstep before. Perhaps this was fate's arrangement, but fate could not ultimately kill her, after all, she still possessed the meme "Lucky One".

"I am very lucky and grateful for this opportunity to learn about many things I didn't know before. It is rare to hear your discourse on natural disasters. Perhaps you could consider becoming a new academic lecturer."

Leilana did not choose to reveal what she knew. Her consciousness did not hear the final conversation between Hephaestus and Ria, and... for a moment, the witch seemed to see a flash of golden light, preventing her from revealing everything.

Since that's the case, then let's not talk about it.

Leilana has always been a very easygoing person.

"I've always been curious about where your true form is."

She stopped the witches from moving forward and made eye contact with the mentally ill patient.

"Your purpose in coming here seems to be just to cause trouble for us. You tried to kill us, but then you acted as if you didn't care at all. It seems that your presence was only for your own amusement."

"Otherwise what?" the patient said with a grin, propping his head up. "Your negative emotions make me happy. No matter what kind of negative emotions they are, they can make me feel extremely happy."

"Is this the source of your power?"

The patient neither said "yes" nor "no".

He simply looked up at Ria, whose face was obscured by the shadow of her hat, making her appear inscrutable, yet there was an unsettling golden light within that shadow.

“I have to admit you did a very good job of portraying me, but are you sure you don’t want to seriously consider what I’m saying, Ria?”

Ria jumped down from the second floor, took a few steps toward the man, and then kept a distance that was neither too close nor too far: "I'm thinking... thinking about why you don't do these things yourself?"

"As you can see, I am just a disordered meme of the sixth level. You can manipulate people of the fifth level or above at will, so why don't you take matters into your own hands and solve natural and man-made disasters?"

That leaves only one possibility—your true form can't actually appear, and your clones also have unknown limitations, right?

"That's right, you guessed exactly correctly."

The patient applauded and cheered for Ria, then asked Ria, "So, do you know what limitations exist in my clone?"

Ria did not answer his question, and the patient fell silent as well. After a moment, the man changed the subject.

"The body I am currently inhabiting belongs to a patient with delusional disorder who was rescued from a hospital. He always imagines himself to be the apostle of the rising sun, and that is why I rescued him."

"The Bible records that four apostles riding horses of different colors always accompanied the rising sun. They were His faithful servants. It is said that they would appear before the gods descended, bringing omens for God's coming."

(End of this chapter)