Secret World: I Became a God Through Lies

Chapter 473 The Infernal Judge

Betrayal is like fire; once ignited, it will never be extinguished.

Within the tower, it belongs not only to the perpetrators and the victims.
It belongs to everyone.

—The Tower of the End: Manuscript of Ashes

The gray fog surged and billowed, like a collapsing stage curtain.

The next instant, a roar came from the depths of hell, and the symphony of iron and fire made the walls tremble.

"boom--!"

The door to the cabin suddenly shattered, and the fiery motorcycle roared in.

It wasn't metal, but a monstrosity pieced together from bones and charred paper, with two eyeballs embedded in the burning headlights, staring intently into the room.

The motorcycle was parked in the center of the hall, the flames raging fiercely, leaving behind marks like postmarks, and names flickered in the ashes.

The rider's figure merged with the motorcycle, the half-melted armor remnants dripping with evil fire, and the face under the helmet constantly changing—sometimes a stranger, sometimes an old acquaintance that Si Ming could not vaguely remember.

He lifted the iron chain covered in eyes, his deep voice trailing off with the creaking of the chain links:

"I don't remember who you are... but I remember the hatred."

As the iron chain swung down, the floor instantly shattered, and wood chips burst into black flames.

"The chain falls, the postmark is stamped. Fate has delivered."

The chain looped over the bookshelf, and the entire corner looked as if it had been crushed by a postmark, turning into a pile of ashes.

“Revenge is not about retribution, but about getting more people involved.”

He suddenly swung the iron chain, tearing open a wall, and the evil fire engulfed the furniture.

"I died in betrayal, and so will you."

The chain lashed straight at the God of Fate.

Si Ming rolled away, falling behind an overturned sofa, scattering playing cards all over the floor.

He looked up, cold sweat trickling down his neck, and cursed under his breath through gritted teeth:

"Damn it... what betrayal? I don't even know him!"

Isabel had already activated the transmutation array, and the silver light protected the two of them.

Her eyes gleamed behind her glasses, and a false gentleness played on her lips.
"Perhaps, he was once one of us."

The chain lashed out again, and sparks tore a hole in her robe.

Her voice remained calm, yet carried a chilling certainty:
"Perhaps, he was betrayed by you—or another 'you'."

“Siming, in this tower, everyone… will eventually become like him.”

As she spoke, alchemical arrays crawled across the floor, and flesh golems wriggled out from the ground.

Si Ming's gaze suddenly tightened because of her words.

As the gray mist dissipated, the raging flames swept through, and the sound of chains roared like the cry of fate.

A fierce battle unfolded inside the crumbling building.

The fiery motorcycle roared in, its chains shattering half a wall in a flash of fire.

Si Ming flipped over and fell to the ground, scattering playing cards all over the floor.

Several playing cards transformed into sharp blades of wind, striking the undead, but only causing sparks to fly onto the fiery shell.

He gritted his teeth and growled, "Damn it! Hey, what exactly do you mean by that?"

Another motorcycle drifted past him, flames scorching the air.

Isabel activated the transmutation circle, and the flesh golems and chains of infernal flames tore at each other. Her voice, however, remained gentle, like someone comforting a dying patient in a hospital ward:
"It's nothing. It's just... if we die in the tower, the tower will grant us eternal life."

She smiled, but her eyes behind her glasses were cold.

"Immortality is in the curse, just like it."

Si Ming glanced sideways and sneered, "That would be terrible. I'd rather rot in a grave than live like this."

He stretched out his hand, his five fingers tapping lightly in the air, and chanted softly:

"Fate, I pray for your favor."

For a split second, the flames and dust seemed to freeze.

The roar of the motorcycle seemed to be isolated in another layer of reality. The vengeful necromancer's chain whistled and lashed out, but was deflected by an invisible force when it was only an inch away from him.

Si Ming walked calmly and alone through the flames.

He circled behind the vengeful necromancer and placed his palm on the half-melted armor.

Beneath the white clown mask, a cruel smile curled at the corner of his mouth:
"Dark Star, Destruction."

Darkness blossomed in his hands.

A dark star suddenly took shape and collapsed in an instant.

With a deafening roar, the black hole swallowed the knight's shoulder, tearing apart his armor and flesh, leaving behind a huge, burning, black hole.

The raging flames roared.

The vengeful necromancer suddenly turned around, and the fiery chains roared down, forcing Si Ming away.

The motorcycle suddenly accelerated, pulling its entire body away from the edge of being swallowed up.

Si Ming brushed past him and coldly stared at the monster kneeling in the raging flames ahead.

He reached out and shook the playing cards, a cold smile playing on his lips beneath his mask:
"Lies become truth—the power of the Dark Star Destroyer is at my disposal."

Isabelle clapped her hands, her smile suggesting she was truly enjoying a ballet performance.
"Indeed, the abilities of liars are so delightful."

She then changed the subject, her tone turning sinister: "However, you're celebrating too soon."

Si Ming raised an eyebrow, then his pupils contracted.

The dark, hollow space on the vengeful necromancer's shoulder writhed, and malevolent flames ignited from the bones and flesh.

The twisted iron and bones seemed to have been forcibly pieced together by the will of some external god, and in less than three seconds, the wound had completely closed.

The knight raised the chain again, and the raging flames roared and howled.

That voice, devoid of human warmth, rang out again:

“I died from betrayal… so will you.”

The house teetered on the brink of collapse amidst the flames and the tremors of the roaring fire.

The raging fire suddenly subsided.

The vengeful necromancer stopped his motorcycle, and the chains dangled to the ground, clanging loudly.

Just as Si Ming was about to throw out the playing cards, he suddenly stopped.

A chill ran through me.

The world suddenly seemed to have been torn open, and in his pupils, Isabel's figure was distorted and deformed.

She was no longer the bespectacled, soft-spoken alchemist.

She donned a black leather coat, her glasses shattered, and her eyes burned with malevolent fire.

Half of her body merged with the motorcycle, her hands transforming into burning chains. "Si Ming..."

She called out softly, but with a bloodthirsty madness in her voice.

The next second, her chains swept across, tearing half of Siming's body apart.

The playing cards fell into the pool of blood, staining it red.

Si Ming bent down to try and defend himself, but was engulfed by the roar of the Fiery Chariot.

Isabel sat on the bicycle seat, looking down at him like a true judge, the chain wrapping around his throat.

"Everyone will betray you."

Isabel's voice was deep and resonant, like a chorus of Ghost Riders.

The chain tightened suddenly, and the bones in Siming's neck made a crisp snapping sound.

Blood burst forth.

He saw his hands and feet being torn off one by one and burned to ashes like those on a flaming stamp.

The final scene shows Isabelle with a gentle smile, dismembering him.

This is the [projection] of the vengeful necromancer.

It forces victims to see "images of betrayal by their closest loved ones," causing them to break down in fear and anger.

Si Ming's heart skipped a beat, his chest felt like it was being crushed by a boulder, and his eyes dimmed.

He was almost out of breath, and in his hallucination, the chains were tightening inch by inch.

The fiery inferno roared, and the vengeful necromancer's helmet cracked open, revealing countless ever-changing faces.

In that instant, its judgmental eye met the gaze of the God of Fate, and the burning chains of evil fire rose, ready to stamp the God of Fate with his death postmark.

Flames soared into the sky in the hall, and the gray fog had been completely torn apart.

In that intense despair, the God of Destiny's face was lowered, shadows obscuring his mask.

...However, in the next instant, a strange smile appeared on the edge of the mask.

The smile was slight, yet it seemed to say:
"You finally fell for their trap."

The roar dissipated.

The chains of the Infernal Judge tightened, and under its judgmental gaze, the body of the "Deity" was about to be completely crushed, turning into flesh and ashes.

However, the ashes did not turn into postmarks as usual. Instead, they emitted a bluish-purple alchemical glow upon landing, resembling pieces of rotting flesh or deliberately arranged experimental samples.

Deep within the Netherfire Necromancer's helmet, its eyes flickered—it sensed something amiss.

The next moment, the corpse suddenly swelled up, the exposed bones cracked and popped, and two conflicting hearts pounded in the chest cavity.
The flesh and blood abhorred it in a grotesque manner, "embracing" it and binding it tightly to its entire body.

"Illusory clones".

The true priest slowly stepped out from beside Isabel.

Beneath the white clown mask, his eyes were cold. He flicked a playing card and said calmly:
"That guy is really ugly, he doesn't have any of my charm."

Isabel rolled her eyes, as if she were looking down on her unprofessional colleague.

She knelt down, placed her palms on the ground, and spoke in a low, pleasant voice:
"Sage Forging Array - Gathering and Merging".

Blue starlight shone through the bloody, abhorrent patterns, as if some indescribable formula had been forcibly etched into its body.

“Damn it…” Isabel muttered under her breath.
"Starlight Alchemy, every creation is an unknown... The results of observation afterward are really frustrating."

Hatred swelled violently within the embrace of the fiery necromancer.

Its limbs extended wildly like tree roots, piercing directly into the skeleton of the Fiery Chariot. Then, its abdomen suddenly exploded.

--boom!

Several colors of medicine were sprayed out:

The crimson flames burned like an infernal fire, the emerald liquid corroded the motorcycle's frame, and purple mist carried whispers.

Most unsettling of all were two bizarre insects that, like twisted lines of starlight, burrowed deep into the vengeful necromancer's eye sockets.

Motorcycles roared, and houses completely collapsed amidst the inferno and the chemical explosion of alchemy.

Si Ming stood quietly by the fireplace, his smile beneath the mask unchanged, as if he were watching the curtain fall of a play.

The hall was still burning after the explosion, but the Fiery Judge did not fall.

The laceration in its chest cavity, torn open, miraculously "reversed and closed" amidst the raging flames.

The alien insects that had burrowed into the eye sockets were instantly ignited amidst a shriek, turning into nothingness ashes.

Before Isabel's abomination could even let out a scream, it completely disintegrated under the surge of evil fire, turning into a wisp of ashes that were scattered and blown away by the wind.

"...The experiment failed." Isabel smiled, her tone as calm as if she were writing down an observation.

The vengeful necromancer raised the iron chain in its hand, and the eyes on the chain links opened all at once, strange blue and white flames burning in their pupils.

The flames did not burn the flesh, but rather consumed "existence".

Si Ming subconsciously put on the white clown mask, but suddenly felt a tightness in his heart.

He felt his name being stripped away, the edges of his memory blurring little by little, and even the words "Si Ming" were beginning to be erased from his mind.

Isabel was deathly pale, the edges of her body shimmering like a photograph curling in fire. She murmured softly, "The fire of oblivion... this is the tower's immortality."

The low growl of the infernal undead was like a pronouncement:
"I don't remember who you are... but I remember the hatred."

"You will too."

The chain swung high into the air.

At this moment——

The clock in the room suddenly struck the hour.

Tick-tock—Ding! Ding! Ding!

The clear chime of the bell severed the roar of the raging fire.

The vengeful necromancer jolted, its movements stiffening as if it were tightly bound by some invisible chain of rules.

It stared at Si Ming and Isabel, its evil fire burning even brighter, its eyes overflowing with unspeakable resentment.

"Revenge...will never end."

As soon as it finished speaking, it suddenly swerved, the fiery motorcycle roared, and charged into the night with the remaining Ghost Riders, leaving behind a trail of fire and torn streets.

The room fell silent. Only the clock continued its ticking.

Si Ming glanced at the clock and sighed, "Ten more minutes until the next round of letters."

He chuckled softly, but a hint of weariness crept into his voice. "Perhaps... that's why they left."

"Hatred is the most stable postmark."

It does not send to the perpetrator.
It is only sent to the next living person.

—Manuscript of "The Tower of Illusions: Hell Post Office"

(End of this chapter)