Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Hundred Faces

A golden figure had appeared in midair at some unknown time. A gentle, non-glaring light flowed behind him, blending with the afterglow of the setting sun, rendering the entire Pato City exceptionally bright.

Unlike the ordinary citizens who only felt a warmth on their skin, Lang En and the other heretics felt a suffocating pressure the moment this person appeared. The seemingly gentle and harmless light, merely shining upon them, caused these heretics excruciating pain, as if they were being bathed in diluted holy water...

As the newcomer gradually descended, everyone slowly saw his appearance clearly. He was a man who looked about thirty years old, clad in silver plate armor engraved with pale golden holy words. A pair of heavy pauldrons bore the emblem of the Holy Alliance and a portrait of the Dawn Goddess respectively. A golden broken sword hung on each side of his waist, and a massive mithril cross was strapped to his back. More importantly...

He had a perfectly proportioned square face!

No matter the angle, this face looked every bit the part of a paladin, far more so than Dave. His thick eyebrows and big eyes, even more pronounced than Dave's, made him appear resolute and devout.

"I am Green Terry," he said, landing before the square, his thick brows slightly furrowed. "The Dawn Knight of Lightchase City. Now..."

Green drew one of his broken swords with a reverse grip and lightly slashed to his right: "Purge the heretics."

A thin ray of light slowly pushed out horizontally, rapidly changing shape in the process. Half a second later, it had transformed into a torrent of vast and dazzling golden sword light, sweeping across a third of the square.

The Knight Academy instructors and clergy fighting the heretics were completely unaffected as the light passed over them. In fact, several believers of the Dawn Goddess even felt themselves grow slightly stronger. The fleeing civilians also suffered no harm...

[Dawn Judgment Slash]

Active Skill of the Holy Light School

Mastery Requirements: Holy Light School Level 19, One-Handed Weapon Mastery Level 15, Strength 50, Intelligence 20, Believer of the Dawn Goddess, Max Faith Points over 1500

Cost/Restrictions: 100 Stamina, 300 Faith Points, Must be wielding a one-handed weapon

Effect: Unleashes a wide-range slash imbued with the divine power of dawn in a designated direction. Deals massive damage to targets the user considers enemies, applying a Soul Burn effect. Damage is doubled against Blasphemers, undead creatures, and believers of the Dark Goddess Dilia. Has a 5% chance to trigger the 'Purify' effect. Deals no damage to allies or neutral units within the user's concept. This skill ignores terrain and environmental effects. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

[Note: Holy Light be praised! Mom will never have to worry about me hitting my own people again!]

This skill, currently impossible for any player to master, proved highly effective. The heretics who had been overpowering the instructors and clergy with the Evil God's power were swept by the golden sword light, unable even to scream. Their seven orifices glowed as they convulsed, then exploded into blazing golden fireballs, their bodies and souls simultaneously burned to ashes by the vast Divine Power.

"Holy Flash..." Green casually lowered his sword-wielding right hand, then extended his other hand to point at the opposite side of the square, and said in a deep voice, "Thousand Strikes!"

His form seemed to blur for a second, and then a golden phantom shot out from within Green like lightning, passing straight through a heretic. The moment the latter exploded, the phantom instantly dissipated into thin air.

Then came a second phantom...

A third...

A fourth...

Dozens of heretics who were about to turn and flee were instantly killed on the spot by the phantoms Green released within seconds, dying where they stood.

Lang En had long since forgotten about finishing off Bayes and the others or rushing over to crush Mo Tan. Beads of sweat as large as beans dripped from his brow. The pale white mist surrounding him was evaporating at high speed, and the omnipresent light firmly locked him in place. He had no doubt that the slightest move would immediately draw the attention of that Dawn Knight!

"Absolute power, huh~" Mo Tan actually sidled up to Lang En and lightly patted his shoulder. "How does it feel to suddenly realize you've become an ant?"

Pfft!!

Lang En, who had been muttering something under his breath, whether from the pat or sheer anger, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Just as he was about to turn around and kill this brat, he found that the square-faced man who had just unleashed two unstoppable attacks had somehow appeared right in front of him, scaring him out of his wits...

"You came too late, Sir Knight," Mo Tan said, slowly backing away while spreading his hands with a smile. "All those who sacrificed earlier will be counted on your head~"

Green stared intently at this young man who had made him feel particularly uncomfortable from the start, and said in a deep voice, "Who are you?"

Mo Tan, however, didn't bother to answer him right away. Instead, he whispered something into the ears of Bayes and Leiduo, who had just gotten to their feet, before looking up with a smile. "Me? I'm the one who tricked you into coming here... though 'tricked' isn't quite right. Heretics appearing and an Evil God descending on Pato City are pretty much the same thing, aren't they?"

"I sense malice in you," Green said, anger flickering in his eyes, but his tone remained steady. "Your despicable lie has even alarmed the City of Light."

"Can't be helped~" Mo Tan grinned. "Otherwise, if someone like you, an 'absolute power,' hadn't come, but just some small fry, I'd have been in a real bind too... But speaking of which, could you please first bring this heretic, whose hands are stained with blood, to justice?"

Lang En's body trembled, but he ignored the noise and continued muttering softly to himself, his demeanor extremely eerie.

"As for me," Mo Tan shrugged, "Anyway, telling a lie isn't a major crime, right? It's fine to deal with me later, isn't it? Take me to some holy land for torture or whatever."

Although the other's teasing tone was indeed somewhat grating, Green still nodded. After all, 'purifying' Lang En, the heretic leader, was the top priority. As for that brat who had shocked the City of Light with false news, forcing him to rush over at the fastest speed possible, he could be dealt with later...

Moreover, it was good that he had come personally this time. An ordinary paladin squad might not have been able to control the current situation.

So, Green immediately looked at Lang En, who had been muttering something, and took down the mithril cross from his back—a cross only a high-ranking paladin was worthy of. He said in a deep voice, "Speak your last words and the cult's lair, or die now."

[No one would bother to respond to this kind of 'die or die' speech...]

Mo Tan rolled his eyes from behind and reached his right hand toward the pack at his waist.

"............" Lang En continued muttering softly, staring straight at Dawn Knight Green.

The latter gently pressed both hands on the sides of the cross and frowned, "What are you saying?"

"..."

"Fine." Green seemed not to have expected Lang En to answer him anyway, so holy flames began to slowly rise from his body. "Then prepare to be purified!"

"I said..." Lang En suddenly clutched his head with both hands, groaning in pain.

"Hmm?" Green was a bit puzzled but, being a knight, intended to let the man finish. "What?"

Pfft!!

Countless bone spurs burst out from Lang En's body. At the same time, his form began to twist grotesquely, to a degree almost indescribable. Blood vessels, muscles, and bones underwent violent mutations, all turning inside out as they began a ritual-like transformation, proliferating and swelling at an alarming speed!!

"I said I'm stronger than you!" Lang En roared. His appearance was no longer that of a living being but something akin to a fleshy... slime-like creature, madly lunging at the high-ranking paladin before him. "You can't stop me... I'm stronger than you... You'll lose... Ugh... Kill... You'll die... Resistance... Futile..."

Green, however, did not fall into a forced plot death like most verbose villains or heroes. He simply let out a long sigh. "Look at yourself. Look at what the existence you worship has granted you... Nothing but pain, nothing but pain..."

The mithril cross, entwined with chains of golden light, began to glow brightly...

...

Five minutes later, in the southern district of Pato City.

A dark elf man in a gray robe walked up to a building that seemed to have been abandoned not long ago. It once appeared to be a warehouse for storing grain, but now...

"A cultist's den, huh~~" He grinned, glanced back at the golden pillar of light shooting into the sky in the distance, and muttered to himself, "That guy is stronger than I thought. Better hurry up."

With that, he looked around briefly and quickly entered the abandoned warehouse.

【Hundred Faces】

Type: Special Equipment

Quality: Unique Epic

Attributes: All Basic Attributes +1

Traits: Allows the user to freely change their appearance and gain partial racial features of the corresponding race. During disguise, your demeanor will shift. No duration limit, but after canceling the disguise or changing the form of Hundred Faces, it requires 12 hours before it can be used again.

【Note 1: A powerful alchemical equipment forged by the dwarf genius, Skin Alchemist Edowa Rike. However, due to a minor mistake, this mask did not meet Mr. Edowa's expectations. Although the Hundred Faces mask allows the user to freely change their appearance and features with almost no restrictions, it cannot affect their height. This greatly annoyed Mr. Edowa, who is often mistaken for a gnome, leading him to sell it to the Elven Rogue Thief Gong Teng for 1 Copper Coin.】

【Note 2: According to historical records, Gong Teng was force-fed a strange reagent by an underground force a few years later and disappeared, along with the Hundred Faces mask. However, months later, an elf youth who looked strikingly like a young Gong Teng appeared beside Gong Teng's girlfriend, the Elven Monk Lan. It is said that this youth was adopted by Lan's father, the Sleeping Famous Warrior Mao Li, and was almost inseparable from Lan. In the following years, the title Death Little Elf gradually became famous across the continent.】

【Note 3: The designer of this equipment has been fired.】

Yes, by now you should have realized that this dark elf is naturally Mo Tan. As for how he obtained such a powerful epic piece of equipment...

Do you still remember the 'Unique Quest' he received earlier?

【Go to Pato City, destroy the 'Hero' Dave; Reward: ???】

Not long ago, when the Mammoth Half-Orc Little Priest doused Dave with a bucket of Water of the Gods, Mo Tan immediately received a system prompt:

【Unique Quest completed, Completion Rate: 550%, Rewards: Hundred Faces, Deceiver Class Experience: 1100 points】

Then this equipment directly appeared in his Pack.

This was also the reason why Mo Tan was so fearless from then on. As long as he sensed something was wrong, he could forcibly activate 【Escape】 and equip this special item, giving him almost a 50% chance to retreat safely.

As for the other 50% of danger... he didn't care~

...

Ten minutes later, in front of the abandoned warehouse

A human man dressed in a set of linen clothes ran up here, panting heavily.

Cordova expressed that he was very unhappy, really very unhappy...

You have to understand, he agonized for a long time before logging in this time, after all, his last miserable and utterly unheroic death was still fresh in his mind!

But in the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of [Innocent Realm]. After making up his mind hundreds of times, he finally logged into the game and appeared in Pato City.

And then, right from the start, something went wrong!

His tutorial quest this time was to find the owner of a certain tailor shop. But after he finally managed to find the place, he learned that the owner had gone to the central square to watch the excitement.

So Cordova ran to the central square again...

And then... everything spiraled out of control!!

Ever since that lunatic-like madman appeared on the bell tower, what was supposed to be a proper baptism ceremony had completely fallen into chaos. That so-called 'Hero' died in the most miserable way possible!

Finally, when a large number of heretics burst out from the crowd and began a massacre, Cordova ran!

He ran without a moment's hesitation!

He had had enough. He didn't want to die again. He just wanted to play the game properly...

In the end, he got lost and ended up in this place.

But it didn't feel too bad. This location was very remote, still in the least developed South District of Pato City. Theoretically, it should be relatively safe. Cordova figured that if he just hid here for a while, or if worse came to worst, logged off to have a midnight snack, the previous chaos should be mostly over by then.

And then he saw an elf man, dressed strangely with a large amount of blood on his hands, walk out of the warehouse in front of him, and then wipe his face...

Holy shit!!

Wasn't this the very guy who had messed everything up on the bell tower earlier!?

"Shh~" The other party seemed somewhat surprised to see him, then raised a finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet.

Covered in blood, a gentle smile, a madman's aura—this bastard was going to kill him to silence him!!

Cordova turned around and ran without a second word, shouting as he ran, today's news is really... no, he shouted: "Help!!!"

Pfft!

His whole body shook violently. He looked down and saw half a blade, stained with blood, protruding from his left chest...

The familiar system prompt sounded in his ears.

[You have died]

Chapter 42: The End