Night World Players

Chapter 9: Twinkling Morning Star
It is worthy of the name "War Chariot".

Although she has a very slender figure, she uses a weapon like a rapier.

But at this moment, Hiltina, wearing the red and white knight uniform, was really like the mighty chariot in the legend, crushing everything that stood in her way into pieces.

"Damn traitor!"

"What did Tallis promise you that would make you abandon your faith in the Lord?"

There was a roar.

Under the stimulation of life-and-death crisis, some believers in the main house broke free from their state of mental shock, raised the guns at hand, and opened fire with roars.

Even if it was just an ordinary lever-action shotgun, it would be enough to cause irreparable damage if it hit a flesh and blood body.

Ding--

A flash of silver flashed by.

Two pieces of bright yellow bullet fragments fell to the ground with a crisp sound, and the cuts on the bullet fragments were as smooth as new.

The cultist who fired the shot showed horror in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, but before he could utter a word, the crystal-like sword pierced his throat.

……

When the wind from Cang Yin's sword subsided, all the thirty-six church members present, including the deputy pope, had fallen to the ground, with blood oozing out from the blood holes in their left chests and throats.

During this process, some cultists had their throats and hearts pierced, but their bodies still twisted strangely as they fell to the ground.

However, these abnormal people were soon ruthlessly stabbed by Hiltina.

The head was shattered and the tendons of the limbs were cut off.

Even with the vitality contaminated by flesh and blood, it would be impossible for it to have the ability to move at all.

Only after confirming that Rast and herself were the only two people left alive in the main house did Hiltina put the rapier back into the scabbard.

The next moment, the knight's rapier shattered silently like crystal, turning into thousands of crystal points of light.

"Gift outfit: Twinkling Morning Star."

"Simply put, the Emblem Suit is the only extraordinary equipment that can be brought into the night world."

Noticing Last's gaze, Hiltina explained while watching the rapier in her hand disappear into a stream of light.

"By the way." She put on her dark hooded cloak again, covering up her bright red and pure white knight's uniform. "What you said to the cultists before, is that true?"

"What? Councillor Tallis, the one who was running around in the City Council?"

Rast followed Hiltina into the mansion and walked through the hall littered with corpses.

He thought for a moment and said, "Since that female congresswoman who scored eight points secretly told me, it should be true. After all, she is a colleague."

"If you think about it carefully, it is understandable that Senator Tallis is an old man in his seventies and occasionally incontinent. It is no wonder that he is so eager for the pollutant that can prolong his life and keep him young forever."

"That's not what I asked."

Xiltina couldn't help but rubbed her brows: "I mean, since that congressman knows the existence of the cult and can even instruct the Inspection Bureau to take action, why don't we choose to cooperate with them?"

"Based on my past experience in the night world, if we can induce the city's official forces to intervene, our actions will undoubtedly be much easier."

But from the beginning to the end, Last would rather go to the cult's stronghold alone than seek help from other outsiders.

"I tried. Many times."

Luster smiled.

"Let alone cooperating with Senator Tallis alone..."

"Sending a report telegram to the capital of this country; collecting scandals about the chief of the inspection bureau and making the police work for me; even kidnapping the mayor's beloved mistress and threatening him to dispatch the navy stationed in Deep Blue Harbor to wipe out the cult's stronghold."

"I looked at all the options for seeking help, but in the end, it was only going to make things worse for me."

He squatted down and skillfully took out several boxes of pistol bullets from the pocket of a corpse.

"You have also seen those polluted cultists just now."

"They looked like normal people before because although they have been contaminated by the aura of the sculpture, they are still in a suppressed latent period. Only after death will there be some changes."

"But--" Rast paused in the depths of the manor hall, next to a large oil painting.

"If those who are tainted are no longer suppressed and dormant."

"But, what about being actively stimulated?"

As he spoke, Last raised his hand and moved the painting away. Behind the painting was an inconspicuous wall clock.

He opened the back cover of the wall clock, stretched out his fingers, and started operating the adjustment gears of the wall clock.

The minute and hour hands of the wall clock were moved, making a clicking sound.

Watching Rast slowly adjusting the gears, Hiltina frowned slightly. "Judging from the situation in this base, the number of people in this cult should not be that large, only a few hundred at most."

"Even if all the cultists' pollution is triggered out of control, compared to the entire Deep Blue Harbor's security force, a few hundred people are still within control..."

Her words stopped abruptly, and Xiltina suddenly remembered the information that Rast had said before:

Several months have passed since the sculpture contaminated by the evil god was brought to Deep Blue Harbor by fishermen.

Even though this cult has been operating in secret, God knows how many people and places the sculpture, the source of the pollution, has been brought into contact with over the past few months.

Police station, city hall, hospital, opera house, naval station...

No physical contact is required, nor is there any need for devout faith.

When ordinary people inadvertently see the sculpture, the seeds of pollution have already been planted.

If they really seek help from the Deep Blue Harbor government, when pollution breaks out, their former allies and helpers may become enemies in an instant.

In Hiltina's mind, the two short lines of historical records that she had seen in the Night World Intelligence Book suddenly emerged.

[A few weeks after the destruction of Deep Blue Harbor, a plague spread across the Eastern Continent, originating from the ruins of the port.]

[Based on the characteristics of the infected, people named it "Iron Cross Plague"]

"You said earlier... that later generations would call it the "Iron Cross", right?"

Rast's voice was plain, but to Hiltina's ears, it sounded inexplicably heavy.

In the historical books and ancient texts of later generations, these two lines of text are as insignificant as dust, but they are like a mountain when they fall on everyone of this era.

"You were right about one thing you said earlier."

"The trend of history is never something that can be easily broken."

"The fisherman who caught the pollutant sculpture thought he was the lucky one chosen by God."

"But in fact, regardless of whether he went out to sea to fish that day... the trajectory of Deep Blue Harbor's fate had already been secretly determined."

Rast paused slightly.

On the dial of the wall clock, the hour and minute hands, which had been rotated to a certain point, stopped and made a crisp sound as if the mechanism was triggered.

"But there's no need to be too pessimistic."

"As the only variable that appeared in tens of thousands of cycles, your ability far exceeded my expectations, and has greatly improved my confidence in clearing the game with one life."

Last took his hand back from the adjusting gear of the wall clock. "After all, we are not really going to kill the gods. We are just changing a trivial detail in the established historical trajectory."

"This should be the only good news I have heard from you since I entered the night world."

Hiltina smiled and lifted a strand of chestnut hair from her forehead. "May I ask, how confident are you that you can clear the game with one life?"

As the mechanism on the wall clock was triggered, a series of gears turned and the clicking sound of the mechanism was heard from inside.

A few seconds later, the wall clock slowly moved away under the action of gears, revealing a secret door hidden at the back.

"How should I put it..." Luster thought for a moment: "Before, it was about 1%."

He glanced at the dark secret door and walked in.

"But now that I've confirmed your ability, I should be 5% sure."

"It has increased four times. I didn't expect that I played such a big role." Hiltina smiled and followed Last into the secret door.

(End of this chapter)