Shadow of the Evil God

The White Nightmare swung its claws to parry the longsword, shaking Granli's limbs and unsteadying his grip. The massive claw swung out from the black mist unhindered, striking him in the chest with a backhand strike. The Temple Knight groaned and fell sideways, rolling twice with difficulty. He couldn't even stand, seemingly struggling to breathe. Seeing the demon rising into the air and swooping down towards Granli, Libio quickly stepped forward to help the Temple Knight block the blow, while the next volley was unleashed at the demon.

Musketeers pierced the dense black mist like a tangle of serpents, deflected by the swirling air, creating only bizarre ripples before collapsing and clanging against the bedrock.

Perhaps Cesar's attention was distracted by observation and strained thinking. Although it was brief, it was enough for the White Nightmare to find an easier target. In a flash, it dodged the Temple Knights and the former mercenaries and pounced on him, a man who was clearly not as skilled as Granli or as courageous as Libio.

It swung its sharp claws down with a force that reminded Cesar of a sword dancer's foot stomping. He ducked, feeling the claws scrape against his face as they slashed through the stone wall, tearing through the supporting wooden beams. Stone shards and wood splinters flew everywhere, striking his face and piercing his body. For a moment, he felt pain all over his body, and even had a gash in his ear.

A hunger for flesh and blood rose in Cesar's brain. Although weak, it formed a certain degree of counterbalance to his fear aggravated by pain and injury.

Cesar was completely unable to wield his mace to resist. He could only dodge and retreat, quickly retreating into a branch tunnel on the other side of the cave. The White Nightmare forced him back inside. Taking advantage of the narrow terrain, it was even more advantageous. Its sharp claws slashed, sending splinters and debris flying everywhere, crashing into his face and body, tearing his clothes and cutting into his body, like a cat toying with a mouse in a tunnel.

The fear deepened, a stark contrast to the ever-surging hunger, like two kings vying for control of his mind. His consciousness grew increasingly confused, and in a split second, the Nightmare swung its claws and snatched him up. Its sharp claws gripped his neck tightly, like a chicken.

Cesar heard the whispers, and felt the fear in his mind materialize in an instant, bursting out of his flesh and blood, carrying his soul and life's will. His throat felt sweet, blood welled up, and his eyes bulged, but the hunger against the fear seemed to hold it back for only a few seconds.

But these few seconds of delay were enough to prevent Bai Yan from beating him into a dried corpse on the spot. A shadow flashed from the distance. It was the arrow of the mercenary captain, which pierced directly into Bai Yan's chest.

Ya stood at the sniper point, unaffected by fear, and found the moment when it was preying on Cesar to absorb his life, and successfully caused him more serious injuries before he could drain his life to recover from his injuries.

The demon roared more frantically. Grabbing Cesar, it lunged forward, escaping into a corner, pressing the black void even closer to his face, attempting to drain the life from him. Cesar knew his chance had come. He remained motionless for so long, letting his eyes bulge and blood pour from his throat, simply to conceal the fear within his mind that wasn't entirely caused by the demon—and the inhuman hunger that drove his movements.

Without thinking, he raised his arm, inserted it into the White Nightmare's open mouth, and stuffed the so-called Ovela Secret Stone directly into it.

An involuntary gulp echoed in the demon's throat, and a terrifying howl suddenly resounded through the tunnels and caverns. The black mist surrounding it suddenly expanded, and Cesar heard the voices of thousands of people screaming simultaneously in the mist, as if the souls of all those who had died at its hands had gathered there—and then exploded.

Swirling winds swept around him, reverberating through the tunnel. The black mist transformed into countless distorted human faces, screaming and disintegrating, rushing in all directions. (Group 6&9:6/999!999) The bedrock trembled beneath his feet. The White Nightmare, clutching its own neck, rolled across the ground, unable to stop the increasing number of lost souls surging from its body. Everything was transformed into a pitch-black shadow. The hurricane of lost souls grew stronger and more fierce, crashing against it like a surging tide, and also against the Templar Knights and the false Libio who had plunged into the tunnel.

All the dead souls that the White Nightmare had swallowed were fleeing from its body, even the blue guards that it had just swallowed.

The hurricane of souls swept Cesar across the ground, sending him careening deeper into the abandoned mine. His chin hit the ground, his head slamming into a wooden beam, sending him careening up and down again, tumbling around and around. He felt the world spinning, the screams of lost souls filling his mind. It took an unknown amount of time before the whirlwind slowly faded, carrying him to the ruins of a well-mined mine, flanked by rotten wooden beams.

Cesar, dizzy and disoriented, tried to stand up by holding onto the stone wall, but he felt a crack. He heard the rumbling of stones shifting and felt the damp mud beneath his feet sinking. Looking up, he saw the rotten wooden beams on either side, unable to withstand the impact of the soul's frenzy, begin to collapse.

Holy shit, seriously?

"This place is going to collapse!" Mercenary Captain Ceshia shouted loudly outside the mine, "Can we escape?"

Chapter 22: Eating the Devil Raw

Cesar knew he couldn't escape. Mine collapses were not uncommon, and abandoned mines like this one, in disrepair, were even more precarious, prone to accidents at any moment. A single collapse in one area would likely affect at least half the entire mine tunnel. Given his precarious position, he couldn't take more than a few steps before being buried in the rubble.

The wooden beams supporting the tunnel buckled one by one with a piercing, crushing sound. A cloud of choking dust filled the air, and sharp splinters shot out, grazing his body and face, tearing his clothes and ripping his skin. He coughed uncontrollably, realizing that a beam had snapped in half, and the supporting stone roof had shattered and collapsed with it. Stones as big as human heads crashed to the ground, rolling everywhere, making it almost impossible to stand.

Not far from Cesar's side, a huge dark crack appeared in the ground, shaped like a huge mouth of the abyss that suddenly opened. The terrain on both sides tilted and collapsed towards the crack, making it grow bigger and bigger.

The rubble and broken beams of wood tumbled down the cleft and disappeared into the darkness, making a loud rumbling sound as they hit the bedrock. Then he heard the faint sound of stones hitting the water from below.

Underground river?

Cesar didn't have time to think. He was either buried under the rubble or fell into an unknown underground river. Even if he didn't die in the former, considering the bodies of the miners still buried at the bottom of the pit, it was impossible for him to wait for Noyen to rescue him. In the latter, he would most likely be swept into the turbulent underground river and drowned.

It was hard for him to decide which side was more hopeless. He could either retreat, huddle in a corner of the mine, hoping the collapsed rock ceiling would create a gap for shelter, or he could take a step forward, bravely jump down, and hope to float down the river and reach a place where he could find a foothold.

As he hesitated, a strong hand suddenly grasped Cesar's wrist. It was the disguised Libio who had rushed over. She first clamped her fingers around his wrist, then exerted her body force, as if trying to throw him onto his back. It was pitch black, and he could see nothing except the faintly cracked hand and the torn sleeve of her dress.

"Can we escape?" Cesar coughed and took a small step forward, almost falling on the spot.

"I'm not sure, but I have to try," the Faceless One hissed. She lifted the unsteady Cesar onto her back and turned to rush out of the mine. Perhaps she could do it. After all, she was Analik's messenger. She could severely injure the White Nightmare when others were in deep fear, and she could also—

The White Nightmare screamed and knocked them over, pushing them into the chasm like a charging white buffalo, and it itself flapped its broken wings and plunged into it.

What a surprise. Cesar watched it twisting its body and flapping its wings in the darkness. It was clearly in danger, but it insisted on dragging him down with it. It was full of hatred. It used its claws to grab his throat, forcing him to vomit, trying its best to vomit out

He stuffed it with the Ovela secret stone.

The disguised Libio took the opportunity to swing his sword, trying to chop off its head. At this moment, a sharp claw slashed across her chest, opening her chest on the spot and cutting out her heart -

—

She had no heart, her chest was just cartilage, and she just stretched her body out.

Countless limbs stretched out from the dog's empty chest, and cracks appeared on its skin, spreading downward to its abdomen and upward to its head. At this moment, her entire upper body was like a flower suddenly blooming. Cesar lay on her back, feeling like he was curled up under a huge, lush tree.

The White Nightmare howled furiously, flapping its broken wings as hard as it could to retreat, but it was no use. It could soar through the night sky without flapping its wings, but now, not only had it lost the swarm of dead souls that had coalesced into the black mist, but the Secret Stone had also sealed away all its unnatural abilities. As a result, it could only hover in a panic, like a kite with a broken string.

Hundreds of limbs, once woven into the solid, sturdy muscles of Libiu, now stretched and extended in all directions, becoming as slender as a girl's white fingers. Those slender limbs tightly grasped the shocked demon, and each sharp claw hooked into its body, enveloping it and squeezing it tightly.

The scene was so bizarre it was beyond words, like a swarm of snakes engulfing a helpless white bat.

As the Faceless One devoured the defenseless White Nightmare, they finally fell into a turbulent underground river. Cesar felt as if he had fallen into an abyss, a swirling darkness suddenly swallowing him, the torrent carrying him down, sinking only when he sank into the mud at the bottom of the river.

For a long moment, Cesar couldn't breathe. The dark, cold liquid surrounded him, pressing him so hard he couldn't move. This turbulent undercurrent would drown even the most skilled swimmers. How could he possibly handle it? His lungs were practically at the back of his throat, threatening to push through and escape into the river. He wanted to breathe, to ignore the fact he was underwater, to open his mouth wide, even if all he could do was inhale the rushing, cold water.

Then Gouzi hugged him, and he felt the warmth of her soft body against his back. She leaned forward, brushing his cheek, and then gave him a numbing kiss. A stream of fragrant blood flowed from her lips, along his tongue, down his throat, and into his internal organs, calming the restless longing for air in his lungs.

She held him in her arms and moved slowly forward in the water. It didn't feel like swimming, but rather like she was using her long, slender limbs to cling to the mud, rocks, and underwater plants. She moved from the center of the river to the edge, then climbed up the rocks, climbed up the steep slope, crossed the turbulent water, and crawled to the shore like a spider.

Soon, Cesar lay flat on a cold, damp stone, his neck resting on her thighs. She leaned forward and pulled a hand, white as jade, from her ruptured chest. She carefully peeled off the skin, cleansed the flesh with river water, and then held it to his mouth.

His face suddenly changed. In the blink of an eye, he felt a sense of empathy for Fils, who lay on the bed and refused his porridge. No word could better describe his current situation than empathy, because this claw was the same one that the White Nightmare used to tear through human bodies, rocks, and wooden beams.

Eating raw fish is fine, but the body parts of demons...

"It's edible." Gouzi stared at him, his blood-red eyes unblinking. "Really, don't look at me like that! You're very weak right now. You need to recover from your injuries and replenish your energy. This is perfect. I even peeled and cleaned it, but it still doesn't work?"

"Uh, I had porridge at night, so I'm not hungry yet."

To show he wasn't weak and didn't need to eat the devil's claws, Cesar used his hands to support himself and struggled to stand up. Halfway there, his body tilted and he couldn't stop falling facefirst into the mud. She reached out to help him up and held him to her chest, carefree. Her bare breasts shone warmly in the darkness, rising high and wrapping around his cheeks from either side. They felt so white and tender, so soft as feathers, that he thought he was dreaming.

"What now?" asked the dog.

Cesar fell silent, imitating Fils's expression of silence and non-cooperation. The dog stared at him with wide eyes, pulling out more objects from its gaping mouth—the base of a demon's wing, a demon's arm, a demon's foreleg, a demon's hind leg, a demon's neck, a demon's claw. Like a butcher, she showed him every part of the White Nightmare, each cut to perfection.

"You really don't want to eat it?" She put the devil's wing root covered with a thin membrane close to his mouth.

"At least...at least it has to be grilled."

"Okay, let's wait until we have the conditions to make a fire."

Cesar rested in her arms for a moment, half-conscious, half-asleep. It was cold out there, a damp chill seeping into his bones. The warmth radiating from her body provided the necessary warmth; without it, he would have frozen to death. Her clothes were shredded, leaving only strands of golden hair flowing like silk across her chest and across his scratched back.

Although she didn't stretch her body and maintained a proper human shape, her hands were clasped tightly around his head and back, and her legs were tied around his waist, giving him the impression of a spider catching its prey. Cesar could feel the tips of her nails pressing against his flesh.

His flesh seemed like it would pierce through the back of his head with just a little force, crack his skull, and take out his brain, or penetrate his spine and grab his vertebrae and pull them out one by one.

Can't blame him for having wild thoughts, but every time this guy catches

Each act of cannibalism was more memorable than the last. Cesar had many short nightmares in his half-asleep state, each of which depicted her eating him in various ways, sometimes starting with his hands, sometimes with his brain, and once swallowing him whole, just as she had ate Libio.

In reality, César nearly drowned in her incredibly tender embrace. In his dreams, he assumed the identities of his previous victims and was repeatedly eaten alive by her. The two senses alternated, each possessing its own truth and its own falsehood. She used her fake persona to comfort him in the real world, while the horrific behavior she displayed in her nightmares was, in fact, her true self.

Conflicting feelings kept clashing in his mind, and when his body finally recovered, his mind was even more confused than before.

At this time, Cesar heard her voice in his ear: "I still don't understand what you are struggling with, Master, but I think that you can actually not think about anything and just do what you want to do. I just need to follow you, go wherever you want to go, and watch you until you die one day. Even if that happens, it's fine."

"Can you tell you scare me sometimes?"

"Of course," she said indifferently.

Cesar frowned. "Do you know what it means?"

"Of course I know! That's why I want to comfort you and make you forget your worries, Master." The dog looked unconcerned. "Even if you don't want to do anything, I can accompany you to enjoy yourself until you are old and die. No matter how reckless you want to be, no matter how you want to vent your emotions, no matter who you want to vent your emotions to, or what kind of emotions you want to vent, I can find a way to satisfy you."

"what do you mean?"

"Well, let me think about it—no matter who you want to murder and humiliate, who you want to hunt and imprison, who you want to torture and abuse, who you want to take someone else's identity to deceive another person, or what kind of false identity you want to use, I can make it happen for you. Even if it's a prince or a noble, I can first kill their closest relatives to replace them, then pretend to be their closest relatives and murder them in the place where they are most likely to let their guard down. (Group: 6#9:6:999!999) Then I will welcome you in with their identity. Don't you want to do this? With me here, you don't need to pretend to be Thane's bastard."

"Where did you know these methods?" He frowned even deeper.

The dog picked up the demon's wing and shook it at him. "It knows a lot! Much more than those people."

Cesar gazed at the demon's remains thoughtfully. This meant the deceased White Nightmare must have witnessed many instances of the Faceless Ones wreaking havoc on the human world, and it had a deep memory of them. After all, this was the most effective way to utilize the Faceless Ones, and it was exactly how the Count intended to use them.

"I don't need you to pretend to be anyone now," Cesar said finally. "As for Lebio...just assume he died in the collapse."

"Why?" She didn't understand. "Don't you want to deal with the world in a better way? I've been your Libio for over a month and you've had such a good time. If I were to take someone of a higher status, wouldn't your situation be better?"

Cesar suddenly realized that his conversation with the dog felt different than usual. While her personality remained the same, her point of view was more clearly expressed. Why was this? Was it because she had just swallowed not a human who had lived for a short time, but a creature that had lived for many centuries, or even a demon related to Analik?

"I just don't believe that anything that's obtained through fraud can be real and credible," he said.

"Is that so? Am I also deceiving myself?" Gouzi asked, lifting his hand and pressing it against her right breast. Despite the camouflaged outline of her flesh, he could still feel the soft flesh in his hand, smooth as fat, brimming with the vibrant energy of life. The tender, red spot bulged slightly, its top perky and firm like a cherry, its texture soft and delicate. He pressed lightly with his fingertips, watching them sink into the delicate white flesh. When he released his fingers, they popped out again, trembling slightly.

When she raised her head, Cesar met her gaze. She took his hand and gripped it harder against her chest, leaving indentations from her fingers. She leaned forward slightly, extending her soft tongue to lick the water and blood stains on his face, licking from the corner of his lips to his eyelids, then kissing him again. Finally, like a puppy, she let her tongue hang between her lips, gazing at him expectantly.

When the dog retreated a bit, he leaned forward, wrapped his arms around her slender waist, and pressed his lips against her moist lips. He bit her lower lip and gently sucked the tip of her tongue. He saw the blush on her cheeks and felt her arms wrap around his neck. Her slender body pressed against him, gently grinding against him, chest against chest, belly against belly, her waist twisting restlessly in his arms like a slippery snake.

As their lips and tongues intertwined, he tasted his own blood.

She was so beautiful...she looked like she was sculpted to seduce him. Cesar slowly stepped back, pulled out a long, silken thread, and then held her shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You ask me if this counts as cheating... Do you think you're cheating yourself by doing this?" he asked.

The dog blinked and licked the saliva

"Cheating? I'm only cheating on others, not myself. I have many faces, and this is just one of them," she said.

"If you have many faces, I want to treat this one as more real than the others.

The other ones might be deceiving, but this one isn't. No matter how many memories and experiences you absorb, this person is still a non-existent person, a blank canvas never painted. Even if more things are added later, the dog before me is still painted on a canvas with nothing in it.

She was immediately confused. "Hmm... is that so? But I'm just splattering paint randomly? Taking a little from this person's memory, and a little from that person's memory..."

"Then go ahead and splash it," Cesar waved his hand. "It's better than taking out someone else's portrait and claiming it's yours. By the way, where did you put the amulet?"

"Because I couldn't digest it, I spit it out onto the shore." She said it as if she was eating meat and spitting out the bones.

"I'm glad you didn't vomit it into the river." Cesar stood up and glanced at the rushing river. "I need this thing, but I don't want to go down to look for a small stone. And... do you have any impression of the scale of the mine collapse? Was the Temple Knight buried, or did he fall down somewhere else? He'd better be alive."

Chapter 23 Let Me Eat Him

"I didn't think about what would happen to that guy," Gouzi said with a wink, "but he was also affected and he definitely can't escape."

Cesar's heart sank at the thought that Granli might have drowned, but there was nothing he could do; he could only leave it to fate. "Let's keep going along the river," he said. "Find a way out, and ideally, find Granli... alive. I didn't do all this to destroy the demon. I needed the Temple's support. Without Granli, nothing can be done."

"Perhaps there's a path out of the city? The priest and his guards fled in this direction. If we could get out, the master wouldn't have to make so many calculations."

"How can you just walk away now?"

Cesar scrambled back the way he had come, picking up the amulet from the damp mud of the riverbank. Considering the dog's feelings, he tore a piece of cloth from his clothes and wrapped the amulet tightly before putting it in his arms. His clothes were a bit torn, but they were better than hers, which had been shredded into rags. He took off his brown coat and wrung it out with great effort. Turning back, he saw the woman was shirtless, with only wisps of golden hair clinging to her skin. He tossed the clothes to her.

Gouzi put on the slightly loose coat. "Why can't you just leave?" She stared at him with curiosity.

"Phils is still up there," he said.

"But she's just a tool for interpreting the Tao, right? Can't we just find someone else?" Gouzi's red eyes didn't blink, and his face wore a childlike, calm smile. "With the Secret Stone, dealing with a wizard isn't easy? I just need to find a loved one he cares about and let me kill or replace him. I can strike when he's off guard. Once he loses the ability to resist, I can do whatever I want with him."

It was precisely because she smiled like a child, like an innocent girl, that her words were particularly terrifying.

As Cesar watched the Faceless One briskly recount cruelty, he couldn't help but think that even after spending over a month with her, Fils still viewed her as a tool for explaining the Dao. This attitude hadn't changed in the slightest from the beginning until now.

When people spend time in a place, they inevitably want to put down roots. When people spend time together, they inevitably develop complex emotions, sometimes even love. Like a tree spreading its branches, César intertwines and overlaps with others, both to support each other and to gain a deeper understanding of different ways of seeing the world. The more luxuriant these branches become, the more people they intersect with, and the more they connect with, the more complete he becomes.

However, the Faceless One is different; she is something entirely different. The personalities and memories she absorbs never disturb her. While perfectly imitating others, she takes their emotions for granted. If even the memories of fully realized personalities cannot affect her, how could the process of forming relationships between human beings possibly affect her?

At first glance, the dog and Phils had been living together for over a month, getting along peacefully, even helping to care for her frail health. It seemed their relationship was harmonious and full of affection. However, this was merely Cesar's order; it had never altered her own attitude. She was not, like humans, capable of developing subtle emotions. She was a sharp blade piercing the environment, cutting through the branches of human connection without reattaching herself. She simply grasped these branches and used them indifferently, as if using tools from a toolbox.

No one could inspire her with emotion, or even the slightest influence, in human social interaction. That was how Cesar saw her, at least for the moment.

The only way to truly influence her seemed to be through the Faceless's own growth. Now it seemed that the catalyst for her greatest change was undoubtedly the demon known as White Nightmare.

There are too many things that are hard to figure out. Cesar shook his head. It's useless to think about it now. He has to wait until he reaches Iris and contacts the wizards of the Origin Society. It's not that he is obsessed with it, but he has to go against the dog's nature.

He had no choice but to go against it. The more he got to know the Faceless One, the more strange and suspicious he felt the contract that bound her to him became.

"Don't worry about the reasons," he said to her, "just come with me

it is good. "

......

The path along the riverbank sloped upward, becoming increasingly steep. Gouzi walked silently ahead, like a silent ghost, while Cesar trudged slowly through the mud, each step a struggle. As he moved slowly, he used his right hand to hold onto the rock face, ensuring he stayed close to the edge, fearing a single misstep would cause him to fall into the hidden river.

The place was damp, slippery, and pitch black. Often, he could only see some hazy lines that barely outlined the contours of the slope and the river bank.

The higher he climbed, the steeper and narrower the slope became, and the rock faces on both sides became increasingly rugged and dry. As he groped his way up, sharp rocks scraped his hands in the darkness, reopening the wounds that had healed. Blood flowed again, leaving him cold and uncomfortable, and his stomach churned with nausea.

"Here." Gouzi grabbed his right hand and held it tightly. "I told you to hold my hand. Hold on tighter, okay? We're almost there—the upward slope leads to the cave, and the downward slope leads to the outside of the city."

Cesar stopped and looked at her. "What do you want to say?"

"I'd say it's not too late to turn back now, Master."

"I don't want my struggle to be in vain."

"You may do whatever you wish, but staying here is far more dangerous than turning back and escaping the city. Lord Thane, the witch Corini, and the Sassulai to the west face us. If you die, I will devour your entire flesh and soul. Master, will you fight for the freedom of your soul?"

"We've come this far, and there's no need to turn back," Cesar said. "As for struggling, I'll at least try. If I can't, you can just eat me."