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Chapter 47: The Blood of the Sinners

Under the radiance of the pure crystal of light elements, the young girls moved along the single file passage, surrounded by the remnants of the mechanical spheres that had been rendered inoperable. Some appeared to have been cleaved apart by Leila’s blade, but more were completely torn to shreds from self-detonation.

It seemed these things lacked robust functionality in battle; apart from their attacks involving manipulating transparent threads, their only remaining option was self-destruction, likely destined purely for the role of cannon fodder.

The construction of this underground passage was equally perplexing; it looked unremarkable yet managed to exist so deep underground, enduring prior violent explosions and battles while the surrounding walls remained intact, with only a few charred marks visible.

This reminded Vilyric of a structure known as a nuclear bomb shelter on Blue Star, and the underground cities of the Aibus world seemed to share some similarities too.

As she pondered endlessly, after walking for a while, Renee’s mildly annoyed voice suddenly echoed through the dark passage.

“How deep is this place anyway? It’s almost taking as long as when we came from the merchant caravan!”

It wasn’t surprising she was impatient; after all, her sister, connected by blood, was fighting alone ahead. Even if reason suggested that with a Priestess present, the risk of an accident was low, family ties undoubtedly filled the girl’s heart with worry.

Especially with the numerous bizarre phenomena showcased in this place, and the seemingly never-ending dark passage, it was easy to feel aggravated.

Thus, while the Priestess didn’t slow her pace, she nodded in agreement.

“It is indeed quite an impressive project. Considering the direction, we should be very close to the Holy Spirit Path underground. If I’m not mistaken, the structure of this underground facility likely radiates like a web from a command post near the Holy Spirit Path, with various barracks connected through pathways like the one we’re currently in.”

“Do you remember what it said in that book, ‘The World’s Hundred Greatest Unsolved Mysteries’? The Holy Spirit Path wasn’t constructed by the local church of the Holy Kingdom but mysteriously appeared over three hundred years ago. Because of this mystery and the occasional sightings of ‘Holy Spirits’ and attack phenomena, the name ‘Holy Spirit Path’ gradually caught on.”

The Little Dragon Daughter, leading the way, turned back with surprise.

“Are you saying the paths above and below were both created by the same hand?”

“Yes, if the goal was to turn this place into a base or stronghold, they would need a road for transporting supplies. But perhaps they didn’t want it discovered, so they decided to hide it underground and instructed these ‘soldiers’ to occasionally attack passing merchants, creating a mysterious legend to reduce traffic along the Holy Spirit Path.”

As she spoke, Miss White Fox imbued her voice with a hint of amusement.

“See, if that’s the case, many things start to make sense, right?”

“Huh? Really? Is that how it is…”

Raising the golden stone emitting bright light a little higher, the girl’s eyes swept over the unmoving mechanical debris sprawled below in fantastical positions, and her silver-blue eyes narrowed slightly, as if she were quietly questioning herself.

“But if that’s true, these things should randomly attack any intelligent beings passing by. But did you notice, whether it was the White Dove Merchant Caravan or the ones we encountered, their chosen targets all shared certain characteristics? Only those meeting specific criteria were attacked by the mechanical spheres hidden underground in this forest.”

“This clearly doesn’t align with behavioral logic. If they are intentionally mimicking the so-called ‘Holy Spirits’ to lend credibility to the legends of the Holy Spirit Path, then the question arises: how do these machines differentiate between true believers and false believers? Why do they rarely attack non-believers and instead target only the Church of the Goddess followers?”

“……”

“Uh…”

The Little Dragon Daughter at the front had turned back again, clearly giving up on following someone through these complex and profound musings. Tilysha and Renee appeared equally bewildered, scratching their heads in confusion, utterly bamboozled by the White Fox’s consecutive theories.

There was no choice; after all, the sharpest thinker among them, Leila, wasn’t present, and expecting these individuals to provide any constructive opinions was unrealistic. Besides, Vilyric had only come up with these questions because of some ‘sightings’ she’d just had.

At that moment.

“Boom!!!!!!!”

In the distance, another powerful explosion shook the ground violently, even more terrifying than any before, akin to a dragon flipping over, causing the exceptionally sturdy underground passage to tremble fiercely as if it might collapse at any second.

“Huh?”

While lost in contemplation, the White Fox girl suddenly caught an expression of surprise, as if witnessing something unbelievable. Though she quickly regained her composure, this fleeting change in emotion did not escape the notice of the Little Dragon Daughter, who had been closely watching her aura.

“What’s wrong, Mistress?”

“Is it really necessary to go to such lengths for both sides to feel the pain…? It’s nothing; just the situation has taken an unexpected turn. Let’s hurry, Leila should have resolved things by now.”

“Okay.”

In fact, while the passage indeed connected throughout the vast underground, the forest housing the Holy Spirit Path was limited in area. Given the strength of Vilyric and the others, traversing the entire distance from west to east wouldn’t take long at all, particularly since they were merely covering the distance between a barrack and a command post.

When the explosion occurred, they were quite close to the exit, and after about ten more minutes of walking, the girls emerged from the underground stone path, arriving at their destination.

They found themselves in another exceptionally spacious underground stone chamber, which clearly resembled the previous barrack, with dense pinhole-like openings in the ceiling that filtered slivers of pale light into the room.

Upon entering, the number of winged mechanical remnants significantly diminished, as if they had received a clear signal to halt.

Compared to that empty barrack, this place was filled with all manner of items: high-tech equipment, as well as many materials and apparatus used for magical research. However, everything was in a state of complete disarray as if subjected to extreme impacts, with most items shattered beyond recognition.

Without a doubt, that earlier devastating explosion that had shaken the earth must have occurred here.

Not far away, a white-haired girl with long, slender wings was moving about, checking something while holding her weapon. Upon sensing the arrival of Vilyric and the others, Leila turned around, swiftly walking over to face the White Fox girl.

After a moment, she lowered her head somewhat sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, Miss Xī. While I successfully located the target of the one behind this, their resistance was extremely fierce. Seeing that we couldn’t win, they chose to destroy everything here along with themselves without hesitation. I—I couldn’t predict such actions…”

“If I had been a bit more careful, I could have stopped them. I’m sorry for disappointing you again.”

Watching the girl with white wings covered in dirt and ash due to the explosion, who was almost burying her head in apology for having defeated her opponent, Miss White Fox extended her hand, lightly brushing across a blood mark on Leila’s cheek, evidently left by metal shards from the explosion.

When they separated again, the mark had vanished without a trace.

Initially intending to ruffle her hair like usual, Vilyric hesitated for a moment and ultimately just patted her shoulder in comfort.

“Don’t blame yourself; it’s good that you’re safe. As a newly promoted transcendent novice, you’ve already done exceptionally well. Even I didn’t anticipate the opponent’s actions, so it’s not your fault. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself; just keep trying your best next time.”

“Miss Xī…? Yes, I understand.”

As if reading something from her words, Leila gradually let go of her anxiety and unease, nodding earnestly.

Without saying much more, Vilyric nodded at her, then casually recalled the spirit avatar that had followed Leila and lingered. After instructing everyone to explore separately, she began to wander around the fragmented stone chamber ravaged by the explosion.

The first thing that caught the attention of the White Fox was a humanoid remnant collapsed in a charred corner, unrecognizable.

Through the perspective from her previous avatar, Vilyric recognized that this body once belonged to a seemingly human black-haired young girl, the only humanoid being in the stone chamber at the time.

Rather than idling here, when Leila entered, the girl was quietly seated in the center on a bizarre ‘throne’ intermixing technological and magical elements. An array of strange lights poured in through unknown conduits from surrounding devices into her body and slowly radiated outward; the scene was practically indescribable.

The stone chamber also housed some winged mechanical spheres that noticeably differed from those in the barracks, probably upgraded versions, all directly controlled by this girl, who apparently couldn’t leave the curious throne amalgamated with technology and magic.

Upon the entry of the Angel Miss, the girl silently commanded the mechanical spheres and erupted into a fierce battle. While these upgraded spheres were much more formidable—capable of firing lasers, forming cannons, and transforming into blades—they still fell short against a transcended mythical being.

Leila’s intention seemed to be to only reduce their defensive power and ultimately capture the girl alive, hence she had been holding back and refrained from attacking her on the ‘throne.’

However, just as the number of mechanical spheres dwindled and defeat loomed, those remaining spheres suddenly split in half, one group rushing toward Leila while the other enveloped the girl, attaching to the bizarre instruments in the stone chamber.

Then came the earth-shattering explosion.

That’s why Vilyric referred to it as ‘to die together.’

Vilyric had encountered plenty of high-tech things in this world; while on the surface, it seemed to be at an average medieval level, the existence of other worlds and deities made the creation of bizarre objects quite normal.

What was truly concerning were other aspects.

Taking advantage of her companions exploring the room, Vilyric lifted the red hem of her priestess robe, crouched down, and casually poked at the remains of the humanoid figure before her with her staff.

“Just as I thought…”

This girl wasn’t a normal being at all; even after being obliterated to this extent, Vilyric easily discerned the metallic structures left among her remains, meaning that like the spheres outside, she was mechanical in nature—best described as a magical bionic doll.

No wonder she had so easily and decisively chosen to give up her life; opting to self-destruct before revealing secrets and facing defeat seemed to be an order from her creators.

And Vilyric had recently encountered and interacted closely with similar ‘beings.’

Those belonging to the Puppeteer Clan.

Yet, clearly, this girl wasn’t one of them, at least not among those she knew, such as Iwen, Ini, and Iriush, notwithstanding the significant differences in appearance and abilities. The earlier cold, mechanical feel was also markedly different from the others.

This place… could it be related to the Puppeteer Clan, or perhaps their ‘Father,’ the companion of Min Chen, ‘Hao Miao Yi Meng’? If a player’s abilities led to the construction of such an underground base as the Holy Spirit Path, it would certainly be reasonable.

But what was the purpose? What was this place even for?

With similar questions circulating in her mind, the White Fox girl stood up, but from the other side came Renee’s loud exclamation.

“Hey, hey, come look! There’s a hidden entrance here!”

“?”

Following the girl’s voice, everyone quickly gathered around.

This was an entrance to an underground room, and the design was quite simple—merely blocked up with partitions or something similar, without any attempts at concealment or hiding, making it no wonder Renee easily discovered it.

An underground room within an underground room might sound odd, but if anything, it was just a structure with two levels.

At this moment, Renee had lifted the partition, revealing its true nature inside.

It was a vast space that was no less impressive than the upper stone chamber.

On the ground was an entire lower area covered with a blood-red magic circle, drawn out like some twisted ritual.

No, it wasn’t merely blood-red; it was… a magic circle depicted in blood.

The stench of blood, a thick, pungent aroma, assaulted them.

“Ugh…”

Tilysha, who had seen the least, turned pale and immediately threw up, and the others didn’t look too good either.

Within the magic circle stood numerous Holy Cross gallows, many of which were already pierced by chains and silver nails, holding down the ‘sinners.’

Among them, Vilyric recognized some familiar figures who had appeared in the White Dove Merchant Caravan, now lifeless, their eyes wide open, conveying their past agony and fear.

The blood of the sinners dripped down, slowly merging into the blood-red magic circle.

“Drip… Drip…”