Chapter 9.5 - Whose Hero?
A breeze stirred about at the entrance of the small town. A figure flashed past like a ghost, walking towards the town’s entrance, its eyes shining with a dark blue radiance. It was clear that some type of night vision was activated, seemingly corresponding with the blue storm lantern that fluctuated between bright and dark at the front of the small town.
Su walked towards this individual, and then he suddenly stopped, immediately dropping down onto the tattered road. In that instant, the eyes of the man that came out from the Town of Trials passed over Su’s body!
He seemed to have sensed that something was off when he glanced over, as if he noticed something that shouldn’t belong to this place. However, when he swept his eyes over this place, everything seemed normal. Despite this being the case, he still felt as if there was something wrong , something that he just couldn’t put his finger on. As a result, he collected his gaze and looked towards the road again. When his eyes’s focal point dropped, Su already moved diagonally several meters!
What his eyes landed on was an absolutely empty road. However, a powerful feeling of danger crept up within his mind! It was as if there was something that was closing in from the corners of his eyes!
Before waiting for him to show any reaction, Su was already standing to his side! Reaching out his arm, Su immediately bound up the arbitration official’s throat. The crook of his arm pressed together and raised upwards, and with a few large steps, he immediately brought this arbitration official to the backyard of a small abandoned house. He then flung him onto the ground.
The arbitration official got up and opened his mouth to shout, but no sound came out. He widened his eyes, staring at the dull short blade that was inserted into his chest with terror. The hand that was holding the blade was hidden beneath a black glove, but it still clearly displayed its fine lines and powerful stability. This arbitration official was similarly proficient in human anatomy, understanding that the short blade’s tip was already scrapping against his heart’s outer membrane. As long as he or Su moved in the slightest, it would leave an unrecoverable injury on his heart. That was why he maintained the exhausting stance of raising his upper body, freezing in place.
“Who is inside the town?” Su asked in a low voice.
“It’s… it’s Lord Sarton, a high level punisher.” The arbitration official tried his best to stabilize his body. However, a streak of blood silently flowed out from his chest and winded its way down onto the ground, making him feel extremely great pressure. Life or death wasn’t that big of an issue, but being forced to remain right on the border of death put his mind in a state of near collapse.
“I never heard of there being a fellow named Sarton by Madeline’s side.” Su slowly said. The short blade lightly pierced in another millimeter. This was a negligible amount of distance, but he believed that this arbitration official should be able to sense it.
Su understood the ranks by which the Trials Division operated. Above various levels of arbitration officials were executioners, and above them were punishers. Above that were the three giants. From start to finish, Madeline only had a single high level executioner Peperus following her.
“Lord Sarton does not belong to Her Majesty Madeline, he… he is under His Majesty Mitchels! Don’t kill me… uh!”
“Scale of light and dark… Mitchel?” This name passed by Su’s mind. He lightly pulled out the short blade and then loosened his right hand that was tightly sealing up the arbitration official’s mouth and nose.
In the previous era, Mitchels’ name was one that was just as brilliant as Beasley and Piccolo Zalenwell’s, but also dimmed later as well due to Madeline’s sudden rise. Even though most people didn’t know that Unwavering Sunset Piccolo had already fallen, Madeline’s undefiable power as she was capturing of the Town of Trials was something that most people involved knew. After some investigations, Su also learned about this, so he naturally knew that the appearance of Mitchels’ underling in the Town of Trials was probably not a good sign.
Blood continuously poured outwards, spilling over the arbitration official’s blood-colored vertical band at the center of his uniform.
Su already left the abandoned backyard. He silently closed in on the two arbitration officials that were rushing over. His movements followed a strange rhythm. Each time his heart pounded, every time his foot landed, it would be exactly the same as one of the arbitration official’s, perfectly matching them.
“Wait!” That arbitration official suddenly stopped moving. He also stopped his companion. His face became pale white, and his breathing became hurried.
The other arbitration official that was moving together with him had a somewhat strange look on his face. “What is it, Jamie? Something seems to have happened to Levi. We have to hurry over and take a look. The great one doesn’t have much patience… Huh? No! Your shadow!...”
Jamie turned his head around in horror, suddenly discovering that there were two heads in his own shadow! His thoughts immediately froze, and then he understood what happened. He suddenly turned his body around and stared at the other side. Sure enough, there was a figure standing right next to him, their shoulders almost touching!
However, right when Jamie was about to retaliate, a numbness began to extend from his chest, and all of his body’s energy seemed to leak out of him as soon as he felt something. All of his blood seemed to flow in reverse. Then it rushed out from his heart, pouring into the gaps between his internal organs.
Su looked at the stupefied arbitration official on the other side and asked in a low voice, “Where is Sarton?” His right hand continued to grasp the handle of the military blade, supporting the blade that had pierced through Jamie’s ribs and preventing him from falling. The blade slightly changed angles, cleverly sealing up the injury and preventing blood from immediately flowing out. With the last of his life force, Jamie opened his mouth and tried to say something, but no sound came out. There was only a pair of eyes that were full of fear, as well as a body that was releasing a dying shudder.
The arbitration official that was still alive only felt as if his throat didn’t have the slightest bit of water, so dry that it felt as if it would split open. Jamie’s face had left him with too much fear, making even the experienced him feel a moment of panic.
This moment was enough to prove fatal.
A bullet suddenly embedded itself deeply between his eyebrows, his expression of shock still frozen on his face. Only at that moment did he finally realize that Su didn’t need an answer at all.
Su looked towards the tattered church inside the small town. He lightly pulled out the military blade and put away the pistol. Then, he shifted to the side, disappearing into the closely packed buildings.
There were street lamps that illuminated the Town of Trials. These ancient and shabby looking street lamps released a gloomy ashy blue radiance that added a layer of secretiveness and bleakness to this town. Perhaps due to the voltage’s instability, the lights were all flickering between bright and dark. Under their dim lighting, the withered trees, half collapsed fence, twisted lamp posts, and everything else had shadows that jumped about, making them look as if they had lives of their own.
The town was windy. Each time the frigid night winds blew past, several street lights would flicker about and release creak creak sounds. As a result, the damaged constructs and demonic shadows would become even more excited, overlapping each other layer after layer.
The only place that had regular lighting was the church at the center of the town. Inside the sermon hall, those chairs that had experienced the corrosion of time had been violently uprooted and carelessly tossed to the side. More than ten people stood in the space that had been cleared up. The four energy lamps that floated above lit up the inside of the church like never before.
On the sermon platform, Madeline’s ice cold, thick, and heavy steel seat had already been moved to the corner. Perhaps the people that cleared up this place thought of Madeline’s terrifying methods when they were doing their jobs, so this seat was respectfully placed to the side unlike those messily piled up, damaged wooden chairs.
The place where the steel cast seat was originally located at already had a bottomless square hole digged out. The hole was unexpectedly full of blood! Blood continuously surged outwards, almost as if it was boiling.
At each of the holes’ four corners knelt an individual that wore a blood red robe, their hands crossed in front of their bodies. Strange incantations were being chanted by them in a soft and fast manner, and together with their prayers, four thin threads of blood entered their mouths.
From time to time, a lump of red vapor that was so dark it was close to being black emerged. They slowly revolved around the sermon hall before slowly being recalled. When the bloody mist surrounded the platform, the four red robed individuals’ bodies would tremble, and their chanting voices would shake as well. The string of blood would become intermittent as well.
In front of the prayer platform stood a tall and thin man with a cold face. As he watched the four individuals who were bitterly persisting with this process, his face became incomparably downcast. Behind him stood seven or eight individuals in an arc, surrounding and protecting him like stars around a moon. At the other end of the sermon hall, several black chains hung down from the corridor pillars, their ends separately fastened to Peperus’ hands and feet, suspending her in midair. In this ice cold winter night, the completely naked Peperus didn’t feel the slightest bit of coldness, because her body had already lost all feeling. Her body was covered in wounds of varying sizes with new and old intersecting each other. Some of the bloody injuries had already dried up, while others were still dripping out blood.
“Peperus, as long as you are willing to tell me the method for breaking into the blood pond, I can promise you a punisher position under His Majesty Mitchels.” The tall and skinny man turned around and looked at Peperus. He spoke in a cold voice.
Peperus laughed loudly and said, “Sarton, you are dreaming! Forget about the fact that I have no idea how to break into it, even if I knew, would I tell you?”
Sarton laughed deeply. He didn’t say anything, however, a robust male with bursting muscles and a horizontal scar over his face erupted with anger, shouting, “Peperus, Lord Sarton magnanimously gave you a chance to live, so you should recognize his good intentions! I am already tired of playing with you. Could it be that you want to try some new things?”
Peperus shot him a look of disdain. “I do, I really do! If you want to try it, then just come. Why are you still hiding things? However, if you want me to yield, you think just you is enough? Who would have imagined that Mitchels already became blind, actually picking you as an executioner!”
“Guile, enough!” Sarton’s voice was quite soft, but it immediately made the furious Guile close his mouth. Sarton gave Peperus a look before slowly saying, “Pepe, I was only willing to give you this chance out of pity. I can promise you that by serving His Majesty Mitchels, your prospects will be much more brilliant than that of serving Madeline. She is a hundred percent demon, and in the end, she will wipe out everyone, regardless of whether it is friend or foe. Actually, whether I have the breaking method for the blood pond isn’t important. Look, as long as I have another 12 hours, my people will similarly suck that blood pond dry. 12 hours isn’t a long time, but it isn’t short either. However, I do not believe that any miracles will happen during this period of time. As long as I empty the blood pond and obtain Madeline’s body, nothing would have changed.”
“On the contrary, I think 12 hours is too long, long enough for anything to happen. Neither you nor your master will get your hands on Her Majesty Madeline’s body!”
Sarton laughed. He walked over from the sermon platform over to Peperus’ face. Kneeling down, he raised her chin and said, “Pepe, we’ve fought for two whole years. Perhaps I understand your potential and skills even better than Madeline herself does. That is why even now, I still maintain a gleam of hope for you. You should understand that even if a miracle happened, it’s not like there is no way to deal with it. I just need to toss a few high powered explosives into the blood pond, and Madeline’s body will be destroyed. Even though it would be quite a waste, it is still better than leaving her body here. That is why I truly wish to be able to work with you.”