388: Divine existence

"Mommy, can I eat those things outside?" Princess Shang Wugou stood on her short tiptoes, her chubby fingers pointing straight out the window.

The street was filled with writhing, screeching Blood Puppets and Elite Puppets.

There wasn't a hint of fear in her scarlet eyes, only pure curiosity, with a hidden, gluttonous hunger.

Shang Wan Ning glanced at the bloody scene below, the corners of her lips curling up: "You can eat them. Consider it taking out the trash."

She paused, then flicked her finger against Fei Fei's forehead. "Don't eat until you're stuffed. I don't want to deal with a little trouble with a stomachache."

"Mhm!"

Princess Shang Wugou nodded vigorously, as if she had received an order.

Her petite body burst with a "bang," transforming into a thick cloud of scarlet blood mist that surged out instantly, shattering the damaged windowsill.

The thick mist swallowed the sky of Veloria, and the last sliver of daylight was snuffed out by the scarlet clouds.

The remaining barrier of holy light trembled under the eerie sky.

Reinhardt gripped his staff with all five fingers.

Having lived for hundreds of years, this was the first time his heart had been gripped by such soul-chilling evil.

This was definitely not some ordinary corrupted minion, but a more ancient, more divine existence.

The blood mist didn't care about the fear of the ants below; it rolled like a living tide, pouring down toward the street.

The moment they were touched by the mist, thousands of screeching Blood Puppets suddenly froze.

A dense, sizzling sound erupted.

Wherever the blood mist swept, those monsters that had torn apart the city guards dissolved at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming nutrients for the mist before they could even let out a wail.

The surging "red tide" on the street rapidly receded, revealing the gravel road soaked in blood underneath.

The mist surged so fast it left afterimages, sweeping past collapsed stone houses and squeezing through narrow alleys; wherever it went, all the Blood Puppets were wiped out.

In just a few breaths, the East Street thoroughfare, which had been packed with tens of thousands of monsters, was more than half empty.

"Mon... Monster..."

The survivors inside the barrier collapsed to the ground, their pant legs damp, their pupils dilated as if covered in a layer of ash.

He had seen with his own eyes the blood mist destroying the 'monsters' that had ruined their home.

But how could this be salvation?

It was clearly a deeper despair.

Reinhardt's Adam's apple bobbed; he could even glimpse vague faces occasionally coalescing within the mist.

What hung on them was a greed so pure it made one nauseous.

This wasn't reinforcements; these were apex predators, and they were merely bystanders who had luckily avoided being dragged into the hunting ground.

Soon, the blood mist locked onto more "delicious" prey.

More than a dozen fourth-tier Elite Puppets, with bulging veins under their skin and intelligence hidden within their brains.

Sensing the threat, they let out deafening, low growls, attempting to gather the power of flesh and blood to resist.

The mist suddenly contracted, extending over a dozen scarlet tentacles that precisely entangled each Elite Puppet.

"Crack~"

"Crunch..."

The sticky yet crisp chewing sound pierced through the mist, as if crushing the hardest bones and tendons.

The Elite Puppets' struggles were like paper in the tentacles; their flesh and blood power was instantly drained, and their bodies were dragged into the center of the blood mist, becoming "mousse cakes" to be enjoyed first.

The mist surged even more happily, even letting out a faint, regretful smacking sound.

Clearly, it was a pity that such "crunchy" prey were too few.

In just a quarter of an hour, the million Blood Puppets that had flooded the entire city, along with those dozen elite Elite Puppets, had all vanished without a trace.

Only the congealed scent of blood in the air and the messy debris on the streets remained, proving they had once existed.

The sky-covering blood mist began to contract, finally coalescing back into the petite loli figure beside the broken window of the Nightingale Club.

Princess Shang Wugou leaped lightly into the room.

She stuck out her little tongue, licking her lips with lingering desire, her two fangs flashing with a cold light in the dimness.

"Mommy, I'm done eating." She lifted her face, her scarlet eyes shining like translucent rubies, showing no sign that she had just swallowed a million living beings. "Fei Fei is only eighty percent full."

Tudor silently shrank into the shadows of the wall, trying to minimize its presence as much as possible.

[Cruel, too cruel. = ͟͞ ͟ ͞ ( ꒪ ᗜ ꒪ ‧ ̣ ̥ ̇ ) ]

Shang Wan Ning glanced at Princess Shang Wugou, unsurprised by this result.

She walked to the window, her divine sense scanning the dead-silent city below, as well as the survivors in the holy light barrier who were looking over with fearful eyes.

"Heh, handled quite cleanly!"

Immediately, she raised her hand, palm facing up, and a ball of dark golden light rapidly bloomed.

This light was not blinding, but it contained the power of rules capable of distorting reality, silently covering the entire area of the Grand Cathedral of Holy Radiance.

Below, Reinhardt felt an irresistible drowsiness crash down on him, and the blood-colored sky and that terrifying little girl in his field of vision rapidly blurred.

He wanted to resist, but the will of a fifth-tier Holy Radiance Knight was fragile before this power.

Before his consciousness sank into darkness, he vaguely sensed a shackle being carved into his mental strength.

"Thump... thump..."

The tens of thousands of survivors inside the barrier, along with all the priests and adjudication knights, fell to the ground one after another, falling into a deep coma.

The memory fragments in their minds regarding the blood-colored mist and the silver-haired, red-eyed little girl were rapidly stripped away and cleared, leaving nothing behind.

Shang Wan Ning withdrew her hand; the city went completely silent, with only the occasional crackle of burning embers.

"Let's go."

She turned around, not glancing at the wreckage again.

Tudor immediately stepped forward, respectfully tearing open a rift leading to the netherworld.

Princess Shang Wugou obediently gripped the hem of Shang Wan Ning's dress and followed her into the rift.

Before leaving, she looked back at the empty street outside the window, a fleeting trace of regret passing over her little face.

[Can't eat living people, what a pity.]

Two hours later, a powerful spatial fluctuation tore through the sky of Veloria.

Dozens of silver-white airships branded with the holy emblem of light broke through the clouds and hovered over the city.

High-tier Holy Knights clad in shining armor stood on the bows of the ships, their majestic holy aura dispelling much of the lingering gloom.

On the leading airship, an old man wearing bishop's robes, whose aura was stronger than Reinhardt's, looked down, his brows furrowed tightly.

"Report to Archbishop Aubrey!" the Holy Knight captain flew over to report.

"Inside the city... all the corrupted creatures have disappeared. The barrier of the Grand Cathedral of Holy Radiance is intact, and there are tens of thousands of survivors inside, but they are all unconscious, though their vital signs are stable."

Archbishop Aubrey's eyes flashed sharply: "What about Reinhardt?"

"Archbishop Reinhardt is also unconscious, staying with the others. Preliminary tests show they haven't been mentally controlled, nor have they been corrupted."

"It's just... there's a gap in their memories."

"Everything regarding the later stages of the city's fall and the clearing of the corruption is blank."

Archbishop Aubrey was silent for a moment, his powerful magical perception sweeping across the entire city.

There were no signs of battle, no residual corruption; those monsters that could have leveled the diocese were as if they had never appeared.

This was too abnormal.