Chapter 1659: 556. My Murphy’s creed is to make a dazzling entrance like a hero!
Triss was a traditional Spiritual Overlord. Her combat style was very steady, so before making the final breakthrough on the Goat Man church ahead, Triss took some time to prepare spiritual energy enhancements for everyone on the team and distributed scrolls and potions.
Palano Knight took the lead, with her providing support, while Hog, Winnie, and Little Brother Fu were tasked with seizing the Civilization Slate during the battle.
After clarifying each person’s tasks, the Rose Knight performed an artistic prayer and then adorned his breastplate with a rose as crimson as blood, akin to a classical knight’s ceremonial departure for battle, signifying that he was ready for combat.
He was the first to step onto the severely weathered stone bridge, wielding a lance and shield, quickly charging toward the dilapidated church at the bridge’s end. Triss and Winnie flapped their wings and followed closely behind, while Little Brother Fu summoned a Scorpion Lion to carry himself and Hog flying in that direction.
Palano began to accelerate his charge, and the hundred-meter distance maximized his speed. At this moment, his extraordinary golden law “Guard” was activated. The gigantic, sharp lance, aided by the kinetic transformation, hammered onto the church’s front door like a released cannonball.
“Boom!”
Amidst the deafening noise, the stone door shattered and scattered.
In the erupting dust, the Rose Knight, wrapped in a crimson glow, made a grand entrance like a hero. He strode into this detestable Land of Filth and immediately saw more than a dozen dead bodies of various races hanging in mid-air, suspended by chains and still maintaining the despair they felt before death. Even in death, their wide-open mouths emitted lamentations.
This was clearly not a brutal massacre but a ritualized sacrifice, as some Goat Men were among the dead suspended by rusty chains.
What this church was originally intended for was long forgotten, but now a group of black-robed Twilight Servants was conducting an inscrutable ritual here.
A gigantic evil array composed of double pentagrams was inscribed on the ground, and the blood of the deceased dripped from above flowed through the engravings. The sheer malevolence of the ritual was enough to make one feel nauseous. Even more terrifyingly, this sacrificial ritual was indeed summoning a corrupt force not of the material world.
Subspace!
The connection between subspace and the material world was being opened.
Even the Rose Knight, upon approaching, heard the phantom sounds piercing his ears, and bizarre visions of corruption began to manifest before his eyes. This clearly signified that he had stepped into a Fallen Land resonating with subspace echoes.
“Such filth! Accept the Rose Knight’s judgment for desecrating the beauty of this world, you ugly scum!”
Palano was utterly incensed by this abomination, roaring in fury and charging forward like an angry Blood Bull. Yet, this did not distract the tall black-robed Goat Man Priest situated in the center of the ritual from chanting its corrupt prayers.
A dozen of its minions then drew various weapons and charged at Palano with an utterly incomprehensible frenzy of self-sacrifice.
Black smoke enveloped them as they started, and after rushing three or four steps, they seemed to don a “black smoke armor” from the rising shadows beneath them. The corrupt force of unknown origin clearly enhanced them, causing their bodies to swell rapidly, as if inflated.
By the time they engaged with the Golden Knight, each had transformed into a monstrous semi-giant wrapped in swirling smoke.
No longer able to speak human words with their tongues, each eerie wail seemed like some immense horror in the darkness striking the boundary between reality and nightmares with invisible tendrils, impacting and disorienting the psyche, an influence even the Golden Knight could not fully disregard.
Having flown into the church, Triss saw much more.
In the eyes of the Spiritual Overlord, this relatively small church was currently being “engulfed and overshadowed” by shadows from subspace.
The spiritual energy of the Baphomet Underground Palace was being concentrated here like the eye of a storm, while the emerging subspace fracture resembled thick ink poured into water, tainting and transforming spiritual energy into a toxic corruption of subspace.
This scene was almost identical to what appeared before at the Blood Vulture Corridor, but the good news was that the subspace fracture here was not yet fully open, sparing them from the predicament they faced when confronting Salockdale.
Triss did not rush to aid Palano in combat.
Though she often called Palano a lunatic, she was very confident in the Rose Knight’s combat prowess; these dozen or so filthy minions wouldn’t trouble him. However, the ongoing corrupt ritual was indeed very troublesome.
If allowed to complete, the entire Baphomet Underground Palace would instantaneously be engulfed by the shadowy might of subspace.
And at the heart of the ritual, right in front of the black-robed Goat Man Priest, an irregular stone slab hovered at the ritual’s core. The corrupting essence from subspace enveloped it, amassing into black smoke continually trying to infiltrate and taint it.
But this artifact created by the creator clearly possessed some form of protection.
Where the black smoke touched the slab, blinding golden energy sparks continuously flickered, a resistance from the Civilization Slate of the Wolf People against its tarnished destiny.
“Quick! Disrupt the ritual!”
Hog, waving his weapon, now leapt into stealth and joined the battle.
But this was not Hog’s own action; rather, the King of Bone Biting manipulated his body in combat.
As it fiercely and viciously backstabbed and tore apart the energy armors of the filthy minions, it shouted at Triss, who was preparing spells in the air: