Mythology: Ragnarok

Why would Pushkin be here?

It turns out that shortly after Pushkin was sent out to find the artifact, he was surprised to discover that the artifact the God of Light was looking for was the very sword in his hand. Firstly, out of personal motives, and secondly, because he knew that the artifact would never be used for any good if it fell into the hands of the God of Light, Pushkin made a decisive decision to leave the Church of Light to protect himself. He quickly and quietly defected from the Church of Light and made contact with Agred.

At the time, the Holy Knights Legion was giving Agred a major headache, so Agred simply had Pushkin involved in setting up this trap.

After Pushkin appeared with the Knights of Light, Emma followed closely behind, leading the other troops to charge towards the Paladin Legion. Instantly, the Paladin Legion was besieged by enemies twice their number. But this was not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing was that the addition of the two legendary warriors, Pushkin and Emma, ​​instantly wiped out the Paladin Legion's advantage in combat power.

It should be noted that even the strongest among them, the commander of the Holy Knight Legion, was only a top-tier expert at the Grandmaster level. The addition of legendary warriors to the battlefield was a complete and utter massacre, akin to a dimensional reduction attack.

Pushkin wielded his divine sword, and a terrifying sword aura split a large group of paladins in two. Emma also slaughtered enemies one by one with each punch. The battle ended quickly. The entire 30,000-strong paladin legion was killed, and the commander and deputy commander were captured alive. The Church of Light's elite force was completely destroyed, and victory seemed to be within their grasp.

Pushkin then brought the two captured commanders before Agled, who looked down at them and greeted them meaningfully, "Long time no see, you damned men. Any last words?"

John glared at the enemy marshal and roared, "Damn bastard, don't be so smug! Victory will belong to the Church of Light sooner or later! My grandfather is an elder of the Church of Light. If you release me now, I might spare your life after you are defeated!"

Argreed ignored the idiot, looked at the commander of the paladin legion, and then questioned, "Do you have anything else to say?"

The paladin commander retorted, "You look familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen you before. Can you at least tell me where I'm going to die? Who... exactly are you?!"

Agreed scoffed and replied, "Fine, I grant your request. We did meet a long time ago, remember? You broke into my home, killed my parents, and summoned demon wolves to destroy my hometown! Countless people died there, and that despairing scene is still vivid in my mind. If you do this kind of thing often and get confused, I can remind you again: my surname is 'Agreed'!"

At this moment, Agreed's tone became increasingly serious and his eyes became increasingly sinister, his terrifying gaze seeming as if he wanted to devour the two people in front of him alive.

The commander suddenly realized, then closed his eyes, lowered his head and resigned himself to his fate, saying, "I remember you! The boy who killed our demon wolf and escaped! You've grown so much, I never thought you'd become such a remarkable person. It's truly a case of cause and effect, retribution is inevitable. There's nothing more to say, I accept my fate of dying at your hands."

Without a word, Agreed drew his legendary sword and cleanly severed his head. John, who was standing nearby, was instantly terrified upon witnessing this scene; the swift decapitation almost made him lose control of his bladder.

John swallowed hard, swallowing back the harsh words and sarcasm he was about to utter, for he certainly didn't want to die.

John immediately begged for mercy, saying, "Wait, he was the one who directed the operation against your family back then. I was just a poor subordinate. My grandfather is an elder of the Church of Light, and I'm his only grandson. He would give you whatever you want. Please, please don't kill me." John was crying as he spoke, completely different from his arrogant self just now.

Agreed felt disgusted by his appearance. Then, like a demon, Agreed judged John, saying, "I remember you killed my family with your own hands. Today, I will test some novel punishment methods that I learned from the demons on you."

As he spoke, Agreed pressed his hand on John's head, and John's eyes rolled back as he fainted. Pushkin bent down to check on him and found that John had stopped breathing.

Suddenly, an eerie green flame appeared in Agreed's palm. It turned out that Agreed had extracted John's soul. The flame flickered as if trying to escape, while Agreed indifferently placed the flame on the candlestick, watching it writhe eerily and emit a faint light.

This technique is called 'Lighting the Sky Lantern'. It is the highest punishment that demons inflict on those who have committed serious crimes, and it is also one of the cruelest forms of punishment in the world. Its status in demonic law is similar to that of slow slicing in human law, but in terms of cruelty alone, Lighting the Sky Lantern is far more terrifying.

From a magician's perspective, the soul's true form should be a fluorescent cloud of gas. The stronger the soul, the more solid the cloud becomes. But when a soul, like Agreed placed in a candlestick, becomes visible to ordinary people, there can only be one explanation: the soul is burning!

This is the essence of the "sky lantern" punishment: extracting the prisoner's soul and then burning it with a soul curse. This is a skill in itself; the longer the prisoner's soul burns, the more proficient you are in the field of soul magic. As for why this punishment is called the most cruel form of punishment in the myriad realms, let me explain.

Imagine you are in an absolutely dark space where you can't hear, see, or touch anything; all your senses are disabled. The only thing you can feel is the burning pain in your soul. This pain will not dissipate over time but will instead seep deeper into your bones like an incurable disease until death. The intense pain in your soul is simply unbearable because this kind of suffering transcends all other senses.

The souls that are burned in the sky lantern are in a state of being unable to live or die. Under this torment, every minute and every second feels as long as a lifetime. Before you can even accept the pain, endless loneliness and fear follow. At that time, death is a blessing. Because of the pain, those souls will desperately run around, but unfortunately, they have been imprisoned in a lantern. This is why you will see the flame inside the sky lantern constantly flickering. This is because those souls are struggling to die, hoping that someone will give them a quick death.

Ultimately, these souls will die and transform into the purest soul power, dissipating into this world. But believe me, you don't want to experience this feeling. The deeper one's understanding of the soul, the more one can comprehend just how terrifying this punishment truly is.

Poor John now flickers incessantly on that candlestick; the trembling flame is his only remaining life.

Agreed dismissed everyone and carefully admired the emerald green flames until they went out the following night, signifying John's complete death.