Chapter 71: Repaying the favor

As the ceremonial dagger was pulled out, her blood began to flow, and Ellis fell to the ground . Having been pierced through in both her head and her heart at almost the same time by daggers, the young aristocratic lady with a strange hobby lost her life .

Before her death, the brief moment of pain was mixed with her ongoing ‘high’ .

Some inexplicable things began to gather above her body and absorbed the white Life Essence that overflowed from her body . Right in front of the Hales members, the remnant soul that belonged to Ellis was forming .

The two Hales members exchanged glances and took out a gray stone . Unlike the other stones they used, this one was full of tiny holes .

The two cut open the corpse’s chest, removed all the useless internal organs, and put the gray stone inside .

A force capable of acting on souls was absorbing the remnant soul that was forming .

These grey stones were the Black Abyss stones obtained by Hales through their rituals over the years . It had the effect of preserving a person’s soul and vitality, a considerably precious resource .

If they only wanted to form a normal Evil Spirit, Hales would only need to use at most a single Black Abyss stone to greatly promote its creation .

But Hales didn’t spend years searching for Ellis just to turn her into a normal Evil Spirit, they did so because her soul had the potential to become the Chopped Hand .

To this end, they used a considerable amount of Black Abyss stones, and even boldly performed the ritual in Interkam – the home turf of those mad dogs of the Church of Divine Grace’s Heresy Hunters .

The castle was now full of corpses, each one of them had a Black Abyss stone buried inside their body . Some kind of force seemed to be acting near these corpses and made the blood flowing out of them form an eerie pattern .

The porous Black Abyss stone inside Ellis’ body continually vibrated . The Life Essence and Soul Essence stored in the Black Abyss stones inside the other bodies were slowly turning into a plume of mist and poured into the porous Black Abyss stone .

Eventually, these Life Essence and Soul Essence would be integrated into the remnant soul of Ellis, aiding her in becoming a qualified Evil Spirit . It would then perform a Fire-removal ritual for her and turn her into the Chopped Hand that represented God’s unfathomable side .

In addition to the Cut Tongue who had already returned to their position, and the Dazzled who they already found a candidate for, only the unreasonable side of God – the Decapitated – was left . Once the four sides of God were gathered, then the Black Abyss’ arrival in this world would not be far away .

Returning to the Black Abyss was the long-cherished wish of every member of Hales . They all used to be ordinary people, but in this world, being ordinary itself was a mistake .

This world should not be like this, why were nobles naturally born greater than they are? Why do they get to enjoy endless resources, money, food, rights and women?

Everyone is human, so why did some get to have everything they wanted, while they could only endure their tragic fate and suffer all kinds of torments just to helplessly die in the end?

Why was it like this? Did they make some sort of unforgivable sin that God punished them so for? Or was their fate like this from the start?

Why? Why? Why?

Why was there such a big gap between people?

And the answer that these people arrived at in the end was that the world itself was wrong .

And since the world was wrong, someone must correct it .

These people who had made up their minds to change this wrong world then stumbled across some information about the Black Abyss, they studied it closely and finally discovered the truth of this world . The White Light flashed through the Black Abyss and brought about flames, the ashes left by the flames had changed their original form .

It was then that Hales was established . The meaning of the word Hales was ‘to return’, ever since their founding, they had lived and worked for the sake of this great and lofty ideal!

Discard the ashes, extinguish the flames, dispel the light, and return the world to its original form!

Clothing was born from the flames, money was born from the flames, food was born from the flames, authority was born from the flames, desire was born from the flames, and most things in the world were born from the flames .

And so as one returns to the Black Abyss, everything would be removed: nobility, money, food, power, and women would all be removed . Everyone would return to the Black Abyss and to their original forms . At that time, everyone would be no different from each other .

3

What a great ideal this was, so why is it that people still could not understand it?

They must be longing for the color of the light and the warmth of the flames .

They must have been obscured of their original forms by the false ashes and deceived by the useless glamour .

But it doesn’t matter . Anyone who prevents the return of the Black Abyss must surely be an enemy enslaved by the flames, so we’ll just remove them .

The ritual inside the castle was still continuing, everyone here would become a sacrifice and would allow the Evil Spirit Ellis to continue to grow . In just a bit more time, the Chopped Hand would also return to them .

The three Hales members stood outside the castle and watched the ominous castle with an expression full of piety . They then turned and left the castle, the more sacrifices there were, the better it would be, a newborn Evil Spirit needed a lot of food .

The peasants of the fief were slaughtered in cold blood while they cried for mercy, their pain, and the fact that they too used to suffer like this were completely ignored . The three men with black masks shrouded in dark smog did not halt their slaughter in the slightest .

All of you are also poor and oppressed by the nobility, so you can surely understand our approach!

Since you can understand our approach, please die for our ideals, no, for all injustices in this world .

“Excuse me, oh my, excuse me, kiekikiki” an unpleasant voice and laughter suddenly resounded . An ugly old lady who walked using a wooden crutch showed up before the three murderous lunatic members of Hales .

Standing next to the old lady were three people . A 4 or 5 meters tall fat man, a man sitting on the shoulder of the fat man with a spear on his shoulder, and a young man standing on the side with a shit-eating grin in a white robe .

They were the Ghostmen under Negary .

“It’s like this . Not too long ago, your people sent our Lord a gift, so as our Lord ordered, we are here to repay the favor!” Granny Seal’e said very politely .

“Why!? Why are there always those trying to stop our noble ideals? Die, slaves of the flames!” the members of Hales didn’t care what the other side had to say . To them, as long as the other party was trying to prevent the return of the Black Abyss, they were enemies .

“I think you have misunderstood something, kiekikiki” Granny Seal’e gave an unpleasant laugh as she turned a blind eye to the Hales members’ attacks .

Heavily striking the crutches in her hand on the ground, Granny Seal’e loudly declared: “We came here with the will of my Lord, Negary, so no matter who you are and what noble ideals or evil plans you might have, you shall be dominated by the will of Lord Negary!”

The battle abruptly broke out just like that .