Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 149 Margaret's Secret

Ivy insisted on going with us on this trip to the contaminated area.

When Ethan and Winter arrived at Wolf's Head Castle, Ivy was already waiting there. The castle was silent and mutilated corpses could be seen everywhere. Shrouded in the night, it was like a dead city.

Seeing the two people coming, Ivy came forward and said, "The anchor point is in the command room of the castle, and the cursed object is... you should see for yourselves."

The three of them walked in a corridor filled with the smell of blood. This place had been turned upside down and was full of the artistic style of Bazatos. Slightly swaying arms stretched out from the walls, and if you got close, you could hear painful whispers. Each voice was different, as if countless people were trapped on the other side of the wall.

They are mentioned in the "Curse and Containment Terminology Comparison Table" and are numbered SI-008, "Tomb". They often appear in ancient tombs, abandoned prisons and other areas. Investigators believe that they are the souls of dead tomb robbers or prisoners. They are extremely lethal. Once caught by it, you will be dragged into the wall.

So far, there have been dozens of cases of investigators being dragged away from tombs. All of them disappeared and were declared dead by the containment agency several days later.

"Let me go, save me..."

The three of them walked up the stairs, and the whispers in the side walls never stopped.

“This is bait.”

Winter commented, "The witch took into account that the porcelain doll lacked knowledge of the contaminated area and paved a path specifically for her."

These cursed creatures that cannot move and can only wait for their prey to fall into their trap cannot possibly hurt the Vatican's choir. Their only function is to inform visitors in a way that is visible to the naked eye that something unusual has occurred upstairs.

The erosion of the contaminated area became more and more obvious. The ground underfoot was covered with a layer of blood, flesh and fungus. Walking into the command room was like walking into the internal organs of a living creature. Ethan also saw the curse that Ivy mentioned - it was too obvious.

The brown boiled egg head was placed in the center of the command room. It was a half-height head without eyes, with an open mouth, and no teeth or tongue.

"Kill...me..."

The brown boiled egg repeated a whisper similar to "the tomb" with an extremely distorted expression.

The witch "thoughtfully" saved the porcelain doll the trouble of decrypting the code and opened a portal for her that led directly to the contaminated area. She seemed to know the choir very well. For these killing machines that have been stripped of their emotions, there would be no negative emotions such as fear. They would complete the orders of the Holy See at all costs.

"get ready."

Ethan reminded the two that the last time he went to the contaminated area, it was full of Assemblers.

He took the lead and walked towards the hideous-looking brown boiled egg. He closed his eyes. Their way was not blocked. The smell of grass and soil penetrated his nose. The air was a little humid, as if a heavy rain had just fallen.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself at an unfamiliar city gate, a city that seemed a bit retro even for this era.

There were many people like him around him, wearing tattered clothes, and a damaged carriage was tilted in front of the city gate. An atmosphere of despair spread among the crowd. Some people were very sick, and blood began to flow from the corners of their mouths and eyeballs. They fell and curled up in a corner.

"What is this place?"

Ivy then entered the contaminated area with confusion on her face. Everything around her was contrary to the description of the contaminated area in the book "Jacqueville the Messenger of Light". According to Jacqueville's definition of the first level of the contaminated area, they should appear in an area that is highly similar to Wolf's Head Fort, but subtly different.

As they go deeper and deeper, the scenes they see will gradually become unrecognizable.

Moreover, these refugees did not look like Bazatos' creations at all, they seemed to be just ordinary humans.

"This was during the Second Age, when the Scarlet Plague broke out."

Ethan had seen this place in the memories of the bloody priestess Mary. At that time, the Scarlet King had been bewitched by Bazatos and led the evil god's troops to expand his territory. There were only a few surviving city-states left.

In order to verify his guess, Ethan calmly created a scarab. The scarab crawled into the mouth of a dying refugee. His body was lifted up by an invisible force, but the people around him turned a blind eye to it. The refugee was bathed in golden light and then disappeared without a trace.

About thirty seconds later, an identical refugee "refreshed" at the same place, still curled up and tortured by the scarlet plague. He coughed up blood in front of the three people.

Ethan expressed his guess, "What we see is the image of the past."

They had died several epochs ago, and the city they saw was also destroyed in the scarlet plague. In the end, only flesh and blood creatures transformed by the plague remained in the city.

"It seems that Lao Ba has learned his lesson this time. This is designed to stop you."

As he spoke, Winter raised his hand and used a large ice spike to pierce the city gate. The surrounding refugees and the guards on the city wall turned a deaf ear to it. The refugees affected by the ice spike were killed and reappeared in less than half a minute, and the damaged city gate was restored to its original state.

"If you just let a few creatures attack you, they will be wiped out quickly like before."

Winter guessed that the Giant God Soldiers were the highest-level creations in Bazatos at present. After all, in the biography of the Scarlet King, He only used four Giant God Soldiers to wipe out his proud troops and destroy the entire country.

After verifying his guess, Winter walked towards one of the refugees, pretending to be sick, and said pitifully, "Sir, please give us something to eat. We haven't eaten for several days."

Her skin is very white, and with her unusual white hair and red eyes, she looks like a sick beauty.

This time, the numb refugee finally reacted. He looked up and looked at Lindong, then shook his head, indicating that he could do nothing to help.

"Can we talk to illusions?"

Seeing this, Ivy asked a refugee next to her in surprise, "Where is this place? Why are you staying here?"

The refugee continued to pack his bag without looking up, sighing at the little dry food left.

She pointed at the refugee. “Why is he ignoring me?”

"Because your behavior and speech do not conform to the behavior of people in this period." Winter said, "We are also refugees now. No refugee would ask the question you just asked. Only behaviors that are judged to be in line with the current environment can interact with the illusion, just like a puzzle game."

Ethan had to admire the teacher's profound knowledge. "Is this also knowledge from the banned book?"

"The gods will leave illusions in their ruins to guide believers to find the information they left behind. Only the most devout believers can pass the test left by the illusions. In theory, ruins are a manifestation of contaminated areas, but the right gods will not leave octopus faces in the ruins to attack their believers."

It’s just that the environment and period they are in now are somewhat special.

They walked into the polluted area left by Bazatos, but this place looked like the remains left by the goddess of life.

When the Scarlet Plague broke out, the believers of the Goddess of Life were the main force against the evil god. It was also in the "Plague War" that the believers of the Goddess of Life suffered heavy losses, and many divine arts were lost with the betrayal and death of high-level priests.

Today, the Church of the Empire is just a branch of the original Cult of the Goddess of Life, with only some protective magic left.

Winter said, "The porcelain doll is not here. She is a believer of the goddess of life and has probably entered the city now."

The three people looked at each other.

The three of them combined cannot make up a single person who believes in the Goddess of Life. From a refugee's perspective, they can only stay outside the city and wait for everyone's condition to worsen and die of organ failure.

"Now it's time for you to come up with a plan."

Hearing this, Ethan looked around and fixed his eyes on a hunchbacked man in a black cloak among the refugees. His dry and skinny body looked somewhat similar to the gardener he had seen before. He did not look painful at all. Instead, he admired the people suffering from the plague.

Ivy also noticed this follower of the evil god. "Are you planning to capture him and hand him over to the guards of this city?"

"No, we can't disguise ourselves as believers of the Goddess of Life. Even if we enter the city, it will be difficult to carry out operations in the city."

Ethan walked quickly towards the believer who was grinning sinisterly, and said in an unquestionable tone, "You, find a way to send us into the city."

The believer was startled, but responded to Ethan's order. He looked Ethan up and down and asked in a bad tone, "Who are you? Do I know you?"

Ethan did not answer, but put his hand on the believer's shoulder. A layer of condensed red ice spread on the believer's shoulders, which made him surprised and frightened. He almost knelt down in front of Ethan immediately.

Ethan held up the believer's kneeling body and said, "I don't want to repeat it a second time."

"Yes, I'll do it right away!"

The believers said this repeatedly, and before leaving, they did not forget to leave a sentence "May the Heavenly Father be with you and me."

Ivy touched Ethan's back and was shocked by Ethan's imposing command, "You just acted like a true follower of the evil god!" "From now on, you are also a follower of the evil god."

Ethan said.

"What about me?" Winter came closer, "I am your familiar, right?"

Earlier in Evans's shop, she had acted as a familiar.

Later, Ethan also learned some knowledge about familiars.

Familiars and their masters will establish a soul link that can never be broken unless one of them dies.

The book also mentions that most familiars maintain twisted and improper relationships with their masters.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Winter said in front of Ivy, "It seems that you don't object, Master~"

Ivy was dumbfounded, the golden hair on her head moved back and forth between Ethan and Winter like a probe - these two people were playing more and more fancy!

It turns out that Miss Winter has been wearing a maid uniform, and is actually playing some kind of game with Ethan that she doesn't know about?
The evil god's followers were very efficient. The three of them didn't have to wait long before a group of people came out of a small door on the side of the city wall. They were all wearing holy clergy robes and came to search among the refugees for the bodies of those who had died of illness. The refugees rushed forward but were shouted back by the guards who followed them.

The priests looked at Ethan and the others, "You three, come and help us carry these bodies into the city!"

It seems that even the followers of the Goddess of Life have been corrupted by Bazatos.

There is no mention of these traitors in the bloody priestess Mary's memory. It seems that until her will was distorted by Bazatos, she did not realize that her followers had betrayed her long ago.

Ethan felt somewhat sympathetic towards this high-ranking priest who was tortured insane by Bazatos. She really followed the teachings of the Goddess of Life and worked tirelessly to solve the plague for people.

This old man is really a piece of shit.

Ethan cursed Lao Ba in his heart on behalf of Mary.

After dealing with the bodies, the three were taken directly into the cathedral. Walking down through the secret door, they saw a space filled with blood and filth. This place had been transformed into a tomb by Bazatos's followers and betrayed clergy, and the mutilated bodies were placed randomly on the altar.

"These three are the messengers sent by Heavenly Father!"

The pastor who was in charge of leading the way announced the identities of the three people in an excited tone.

This simple sentence inspired everyone, and they couldn't wait to spread the kindness of Heavenly Father throughout the city. They looked at Ethan with admiration, waiting for his orders.

The priest who led the way said, "The chief priest Mary is in this city now. She went to meet an envoy from the Holy See earlier. Before you came, we had tried many methods, but we were unable to distort her mind."

"First of all, clean up this place for me. Who told you to leave corpses everywhere?"

Ethan gave everyone a blow. His majestic tone made the priest sweat. He quickly explained, "This is to conduct a deeper study of the plague. We hope to increase its transmission efficiency and make it more deadly."

"Being smart."

Ethan sneered. No one understood Lao Ba's aesthetics better than him. "The transmission efficiency and lethality time of this plague have been carefully designed. What God enjoys is the process of disease progression, not to kill a group of people quickly!"

The priest knelt down on the ground trembling, and said in fear, "We were inconsiderate, please punish us!"

"Don't do anything until this place is clean."

Ethan didn't know how long this illusion would last, but it was foreseeable that they would use this place as their base for a long time, and he didn't want to be surrounded by the stinky smell of blood all the time.

After leaving the order, he walked away, leaving this group of frightened believers to do the cleaning work.

He was going to meet the chief pastor. The messenger mentioned by the pastor should be the porcelain doll who entered the contaminated area before them. One of the purposes of this trip was to prevent the porcelain doll from dying here.

In order to kill the members of the choir, the witch must have prepared a very tricky killer in the contaminated area.

Another benefit of the illusion is that as long as he does not take the initiative to talk to the guards or residents in the city, they will ignore their actions. This allows the three of them to easily ambush outside the city lord's mansion. At this moment, Mary should be discussing the details of the scarlet plague with the porcelain doll.

The ancient technological creations brought by the porcelain doll were patrolling outside the city lord's mansion.

The three of them waited outside the City Lord's Mansion for nearly an hour before they saw the Chief Pastor Mary, who looked a little dazed. She was wearing a white pastor robe and had long golden hair that fell to her shoulders. What was even more strange was that she also had a tuft of golden hair on top of her head, drooping listlessly.

Ethan and Lindong looked at Ivy almost subconsciously and compared the two people carefully.

Why does this Mary look like a larger version of Ivy?
He is half a head taller than Ivy and looks a little more mature, but the similarity is as high as 60% to 70%, especially the tuft of golden hair on his head, which is in exactly the same position and seems to be very flexible.

"Ivy."

After thinking for a moment, Ethan asked, "Does everyone in Margaret's family have alopecia?"

"This isn't called aho-ge."

Ivy remembered that she had emphasized many times that her golden hair was not stupid at all. She hesitated for a while and finally made up her mind, "It's the effect of the Holy Word."

"Why doesn't that porcelain doll have golden hair on its head?"

"Because the emotions of the choir members have been completely eviscerated."

Ivy took a deep breath. As long as she closed her eyes, the scene of the past would appear before her eyes. After a long while, she pointed at the golden hair on her head and said, "This guy was sealed because he was too emotional."

"I have seen this kind of spell in the church's forbidden book. It is an emotion sealing spell. In the past, many commanders have used this spell to eliminate unnecessary emotions. This can help them make the most rational judgment at all times."

Winter looked at Ivy. "It's normal for the direct descendants of the Margaret family. This is probably why you insisted on coming with us. When I was in the imperial capital, I heard that the Margaret family held a key."

Ivy lowered her head and didn't answer immediately.

Seeing this, Ethan came to Ivy's rescue and said, "Now is not the time to share secrets. It won't be too late to discuss it after we leave the contaminated area."

"The Margaret family does hold a key."

Ivy whispered, walked out from the corner, and went straight towards the ancient technological creation that was patrolling not far away. When the creation that looked like a metal dog saw Ivy, it immediately made a warning sound.

It growled and revealed all its weapons.

It has sharp teeth and claws, as well as sharp cutting edges.

"Get down."

Ivy did not draw her gun, nor did she even show any intention to fight. She simply gave an order, and the metal creature lay on the ground in a strange posture.

It was still roaring, its sharp blade and teeth leaving deep marks on the ground, but an invisible force pinned it to the ground.

The other metal creatures sensed the change and rushed towards her.

"Go back."

Ivy's eyes swept over these killing machines.

Also unable to move was Porcelain Doll. She appeared at the main gate of the City Lord's Mansion, staring at Ivy with cold eyes, but at the same time covering her chest with her hands, unable to move forward at all.

Ivy looked back at Ethan, her eyes seemed a little sad.

Her lips moved, "This is the secret of Margaret's family."

(End of this chapter)