Chapter 62: He Is a God (02)

The heavy iron door of the sealed cellar was slammed shut once more, and the girls hiding in the darkness finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.

The candle, which had burned down to a mere stump just moments before, was replaced by the Demon King with a brand-new crimson wax candle.

Della harbored a growing suspicion.

If that girl failed the Demon King's bride trial, then whenever a candle burned down to its end, the Demon King would reappear in the cellar to choose his next bride.

"Achoo!"

Someone in the cellar let out a tiny sneeze.

It was simply too cold here. Now it was the late spring of the Nobil Continent, and midsummer was approaching. All living things flourished, yet the girls were dressed only in thin gauze and cloth gowns. Della and Lil were the last batch of girls captured by the Demon King, meaning they had spent the least amount of time in the cellar and could still withstand the biting chill. However, some of the girls who had been locked away here for who knows how long had long since been shivering with their teeth chattering. As soon as the Demon King left, they rushed eagerly toward the candlelight to warm themselves.

Beside the candlelight sat a bamboo basket lined with blue-and-white-bordered cotton cloth. Piled on the far right of the basket were small rolls of bread and purplish-red berries, while a rusted iron kettle sat on the left, with several inverted glass cups placed inside the basket.

Lil chanted an incantation, conjuring a small flame in the palm of her hand. She gently tossed it into the air, and the flame, like a little boat navigating a stream, anchored firmly at the very top of the candle, serving as the light and heat source for the entire cellar.

The flame chased away the chill in the cellar, casting a warm and cozy glow all around.

The girls repeatedly thanked Lil and Della, huddling their trembling bodies close to the flame to soak in this trace of warmth.

Perhaps out of deference to Della and Lil's noble status, they tacitly pushed the two clean glass cups toward Della and Lil, taking turns using the remaining three glass cups to drink water.

"The Demon King doesn't seem that scary after all, huh?"

The girls nibbled on their bread and whispered among themselves: "There is so much gold paved all over the cellar floor; heaven only knows how luxurious the interior of the castle must be."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

Someone frowned and retorted sharply: "He is a ruthless butcher who kills without blinking! No matter how sweet his words sound, they are nothing more than empty promises that can never be honored!"

"Such a heinous villain—I would kill him and be done with it if I could!"

"Living alone in this massive castle, without even a soul to confide in, maybe... maybe he is truly lonely?"

A girl blinked, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke up timidly: "Although he is the Demon King... after all, he is still a creature of flesh and blood."

"Fool, do you regret not throwing yourself at him just now?"

Another voice sneered mercilessly: "I don't know if you were genuinely deaf or just pretending, but the Demon King explicitly said that if he finds his bride, he will slaughter everyone in the cellar."

"What is your real motive for uttering such stupid words of sympathy for the Demon King?"

"You!"

Anxious and furious, the girl flushed red and hurried to explain: "I was merely speaking off the top of my head! I'm not even the one being taken up to the cellar right now, so what are you getting so worked up about? Who are you trying to fool with your fake righteousness?"

The atmosphere in the cellar instantly turned tense and bristling.

"That girl who was taken away—do you know her name?"

Della changed the subject. "Does she... know what she is about to face?"

Silence fell once more.

Amidst the unbearable quiet, a thin, petite girl in the corner timidly raised her hand.

"My name is Hena, and I'm from the same town as that girl... I know her name, it's Vira."

Lil asked, "Are you the only one in the cellar who knows her?"

"We... we were among the very first batch of people captured by the Demon King. There were originally five or six of us taken in together..."

Hena's eyes welled with tears, and the hand holding her bread trembled as she fought hard to suppress her choked, quivering voice: "But now, only Vira and I are left."

The old physician of the town had found Vira in a cradle while gathering herbs outside the town and adopted her as his daughter. Initially, in a town devoutly faithful to the God of Light, Vira, with her black hair and dark eyes, was viewed as a symbol of bad omen.

"Vira treated everyone with warmth and kindness, and she possessed an unrivaled affinity for the light element. Even the town priest praised her as the believer most favored by the God of Light in the town of Binus. She took us into the forest outside the town of Bisnu to familiarize us with medicinal herbs, teaching us the techniques and seasons for gathering them. The town of Bisnu worships the radiance of the God of Light and is the only town in the southern kingdom to build a temple to the God of Light. Who could have imagined that the Demon King would be so audacious as to abduct us from outside the town?"

Hena could no longer hold back her falling tears: "Vira tried to stall the Demon King to buy us time to escape, but how could a mere healing priestess be a match for the Demon King? In the end, she was severely wounded during her struggle against him."

After being thrown into the cellar, Vira remained unconscious. Hena and the other companions could only quietly move Vira to an inconspicuous corner. But Vira's injuries were too severe; she spent most of her time unconscious. On the rare occasions she woke up, the girls would feed her a little water and bread to help her preserve her strength.

The girls looked at one another in dismay.

Della took Hena's hand and comforted her, "Don't be afraid. At least... at least you met me. With the protection of the God of Light, you must believe that everything will get better."

"Yes," Hena murmured. "I met you, Princess. Perhaps I really might survive... But... Leia, Dorothy... none of them can ever go back..."

"None of them can go back."

She buried her face in her hands.

Hena still remembered the first time she saw the Demon King.

Back then, she had thought that even the notoriously wicked demon race could possess features as breathtakingly handsome as the priests of the temple. Yet, in the end, Hena had never once seen a girl taken away by the Demon King return whole.

"Every so often, a pile of bloody white bones would appear in the cellar."

Hena let out a suppressed scream: "He is a monster! A complete and utter monster! Never believe a single word of a demon's lies!"

The girls crowded around to comfort her.

The girl who had just been sympathizing with the Demon King anxiously patted her chest in lingering fear: "Heaven have mercy, why didn't you tell us sooner that the Demon King kills the brides?"

With the rise of the God of Darkness on the Nobil Continent, the boundaries between light and darkness were constantly blurring. The residents of the Nobil Continent gradually realized that Demon Kings, blood-kin, and wicked dragons were not necessarily synonymous with evil, just as light, humans, and elves were not necessarily synonymous with goodness. Some remote kingdoms invoked the name of the temple to assert royal authority, sacrificing children in blood rituals to gain eternal youth, while dragon clans that had inhabited their territories for millennia were forced from their homes and ruthlessly hunted down by the temple, turning them into the whispered legends of evil dragons.

The deities descended their oracles, bestowing equal rights upon their believers. Women were also permitted to enter the Glancy Divine Academy to study archery and magic alongside men, and they were striving to find the right to master their own marital contracts.

Yet, while freedom brought progress, it inevitably triggered corruption as well.

Freedom once meant that the living beings of the Nobil Continent could worship whatever they pleased without reservation and make choices according to their own preferences, but now it was leaning toward extremes that opposed the old system. An old pedant well-versed in theology had once claimed that due to the corruption of people's faith and the extreme freedom of belief, heretics were using "freedom" to pollute the temple.

Under the current tide of freedom, personal interests and preferences surpassed everything else, yet this also brought about a moral decline. For instance, this handsome and wealthy Demon King—even if his hands might be stained with countless blood, in the eyes of the maidens, if one could win his favor, the Demon King could naturally also be an exceptional and desirable match.

"I... I am scared..."

Hena slumped to the ground, sobbing and choking out, "No one would believe what I say anyway... Some would even blame me, blaming me for wanting to show off and trying to snatch a head start at survival."

If in this cellar, only the Demon King's bride could survive; if struggling was a dead end no matter what, it might be better to boldly step forward from the very beginning and willingly accept this game of seeking true love orchestrated by the Demon King.

This seemed like the most rational choice, and it was the reason why some of the girls had hesitated earlier.

Everyone lapsed into a tacit silence.

If Della had not appeared here, offering a glimmer of hope in the name of the kingdom and the divine academy, would they truly have been able to hold fast to their original convictions?

Given such a vast disparity in strength, they probably would have had no choice but to take up the butcher's knife themselves in the end.

***

The Demon King, Enises, was giving Su Bai a tour of his castle.

Among the hundreds of Demon Kings across the Nobil Continent, although Enises could not claim the top spot, he still held a considerable reputation around the Black Thorn Forest.

All of this was thanks to those lovely and endearing maidens.

Tens of thousands of years ago, Enises's ancestors, driven by alchemists' pursuit of the art of turning stone into gold, sacrificed an alchemist's soul to the Demon God, thereby acquiring boundless longevity and power. However, as the deities descended to protect the human race, humans devoutly worshipped the gods, leaving Enises's lineage of Demon Kings unable to find pure souls to sacrifice to the Demon God for thousands of years, bringing them to the verge of decline and ruin.

Fortunately, Enises, the thirty-second Black Thorn Demon King, received a response from the evil god one day while praying to the Demon God.

He said—

Go and seek out the maidens in the name of "freedom," and win their purest love.

"This castle has a history tens of thousands of years old."

Enises smiled faintly,收起思?绪, turned his head, and explained patiently: "Normally, members of the demon race come to tend to these antiques and artifacts and keep the castle clean. I actually don't like others touching my things, but you know what? This castle has a total of one hundred and twenty-three rooms. If I had to spend my time every day on these cleaning chores, I wouldn't need to be a Demon King anymore."

Enises shrugged. "I'd just be a castle janitor."

The girl behind him followed closely in Enises's footsteps, unimpressed by his cold joke.

She looked far too calm—so calm that Enises could not figure out what on earth she was thinking.

Enises turned his head, his eyes suffused with a hint of fascination.

Raven-black hair, like seaweed, cascaded down her back. The black-haired girl's eyes were as hard and pure as diamonds, and her cheeks were as delicate and tender as the soft petals of a rose. Every time Enises walked a little closer to her, he could always catch the faint, elusive scent of lilies lingering about the young woman.

Filling her eyes with blood, painting them red, and matching them with such a flawless face—he might actually consider turning this girl named Vira into an immortal puppet doll, granting her an eternal life identical to his own, so she could become his true bride.

A true bride.

Enises found that he did not repel this thought at all.

Therefore, he decided to take the first step in testing the waters.

"Do you see the decorative shelf by the stairs?"

Enises paused and raised an eyebrow. "It displays the skull of an alchemist. I've heard he was the very first alchemist on the Nobil Continent, and my ancestor, the first Black Thorn Demon King, Wedlet, sacrificed his soul to the Demon God, granting him supreme immortality."

Su Bai turned her head to look in the direction Enises indicated.

A white skull was submerged in green blood. Next to the skull jar were countless smaller jars containing human hearts, livers, lungs, and even shriveled, elongated reproductive organs, looking both sickening and terrifying.

The live broadcast room that 888 had just opened instantly flooded with dense bullet comments.

[Xiaobai has started broadcasting! It's on, it's on!]

[Ahhhhh, what is this filthy thing, yuck! Who would make their bride look at something so gross!]

[Who is this guy? The Demon King? This little punk is pretty full of himself, huh?]

Su Bai withdrew her gaze. "He died at the hands of the Demon King; it can be considered a fitting end."

Greedy alchemists and Demon Kings were simply a match made in heaven.

Enises burst into loud laughter.

"Aren't you afraid?"

He looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and curiosity. "That is the very first alchemist. I imagine you might have heard his name in your textbooks."

Su Bai looked into Enises's eyes and countered, "Are you afraid?"

"Of course I am not afraid."

Enises smiled. "This is the medal of honor for the Black Thorn lineage of Demon Kings, recording the glorious triumphs of my ancestors from days gone by."

The young woman pressed her lips together and said no more.

She was still studying within her sea of consciousness how to summon the Suozhao Sword.

This world was a "welfare-style" assigned to Su Bai by the Heavenly Dao.

In short, there were countless romance paths within the world. She could choose to pursue one man, or she could choose to pursue two men simultaneously, or even include the Demon King Enises—whom Su Bai considered utterly foolish before her eyes—as one of her romance targets, provided Su Bai was willing.

With a massive wave of experience points, 888 had upgraded to a B-grade system and was now capable of integrating the data of the Suozhao Sword with this world, replicating an identical sword in the world where Su Bai currently resided.

However, given that the data of the Suozhao Sword uploaded by Su Bai was excessively massive and complex, 888 had to spend a certain amount of time replicating the Suozhao Sword.

While the Suozhao Sword could be brought out, the Heaven-Swallowing Ice Flame could not.

The Suozhao Sword was Su Bai's natal divine sword, bound to her divine sense; merely using the sword itself had no limits on its power. The Heaven-Swallowing Ice Flame was bound to Suozhao Sword II, and using Suozhao Sword II required driving the Heaven-Swallowing Ice Flame.

Given the strength of her current physical body, it was impossible to expend the colossal amounts of spiritual energy required to drive the Heaven-Swallowing Ice Flame as she did in B-12 Blue Star, so the Heaven-Swallowing Ice Flame could only wait slowly for Su Bai's strength to improve.

On the other side, the young woman's cold indifference aroused Enises's immense interest. It was the first time he had racked his brains over a maiden, yet she appeared so calm and collected, unconcerned by the luxurious castle, the velvet-paved carpets, or the crystal chandeliers hanging dozens of meters high.

Similarly, she could calmly ignore the displayed skulls, skeleton-shaped demonic armor, and the demons tending to the castle.

"You truly are a fascinating girl."

Enises stopped walking. "I am curious—what on earth do you like?"

"Is it magnificent gowns?"

Enises snapped his fingers, and instantly countless dresses woven from golden threads and adorned with jewels appeared in the air. "I can give you the most fashionable gowns of the day."

Disappointingly, not a single ripple of fluctuation crossed the young woman's pupils.

"Is it gold, which alchemists once relentlessly pursued?"

Enises was undeterred and persisted in asking, "Or is it the power to make others grovel at your feet?"

The young woman gazed at him quietly.

"No," she replied.

"Then what is it?"

Enises wore a look of confusion. He pondered for a moment, then dawned on him with a realization, speaking as briskly and cheerfully as a sparrow: "I know, I know! Vira, what you want is love!"

Love?

Hearing this unexpected word, the young woman lightly twitched the corner of her mouth.

"Love?"

"Yes! Love!"

Enises's expression was ecstatic. "No one can resist the flavor of love, because it is so wonderful, always making one fall helplessly into its depths."

"And I—I will love you as deeply as you love me, maiden Vira."

"I hope you had better mean it."

She replied with extreme indifference.

***

Divine spellcasters in this world were divided from the first rank to the ninth rank, with the ninth rank being the lowest and the first rank the highest. Aside from divine spellcasters, there were professions such as pugilists, archers, and necromancers.

Beyond the five foundational elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, there were four major primary elements mastered by the four supreme deities—the God of Light, the God of Darkness, the God of Thunder, and the God of Ice: the light element, the darkness element, the thunder element, and the ice element.

Divine spellcasters who possessed an affinity of the third rank or higher for any of the four major primary elements were known as God-blooded. God-blooded individuals could manipulate any other five foundational elements at will, and some God-blooded with pure bloodlines or steadfast faith also had a chance to awaken innate skills.

For example, the [Healing] branch that Su Bai's physical body awakened in the realm of light-type elements.

Whether in times of war or peace, the [Healing] spell was an utterly bugged skill. Unlike potion makers who needed to prescribe medicine according to symptoms, a divine spellcaster capable of [Healing] could rely almost entirely on light-type elements to bring the terminally ill back from the brink of death, while continuously replenishing the mana and health bars of archers and pugilists on the battlefield. A large-scale healing array could even directly reattach a leg bitten off by a demonic beast right on the battlefield.

It was akin to casting a damage-nullifying buffing layer on soldiers, which was quite terrifying in actual combat. Some scholars had once claimed that the [Healing] branch awakened by light-type God-blooded might be related to immortality and the origin of divine power.

Because [Healing] meant endless vitality, representing the rebirth of all things back to their origin.

In this world, heretics had quietly invaded the temple. As the chosen maiden of the gods, Vira's duty was to rely on her superior affinity for the light element and the fully unlocked talent tree of the [Healing] branch to awaken the four major primary deities who had been tainted by the heretics, pulling the Nobil Continent back from chaotic disorder into order once again.

[The loading progress of the Suozhao Sword has reached 80%.]

Finally, Enises led Su Bai to a bizarre room.

This was a room located at the very spire of the ancient castle. Hanging on the rust-eaten iron door were the skulls of two demonic beasts with long fangs protruding. Specks of long-dried blood seeped out from the cracks of the door, and upon the iron door were marks resembling axe blows and a yellowish-pus-like unidentified liquid.

Through the thick iron door, Su Bai could even smell the fishy stench wafting from within.

[Damn, I turned on the sensory immersion option, and the smell here is really like a slaughterhouse! I suspect this must be the place where Enises performs human sacrifices.]

[What kind of weird and bizarre things is this perate Enises going to do under the title of "lovesick fool"? Help!]

[It's hard not to let me imagine a scenario of kidnapping underage girls.]

Enises stood at the doorway.

Unbeknownst to them, a night had already passed. The morning sun slowly rose, the sky gradually lightening and fading into a pale, gemstone-like light blue. Even the morning light caught within Enises's emerald eyes now exuded the gentle breath of dawn breaking and all things waking.

This truly was his destined maiden.

Enises gazed with tender affection at the still-indifferent young woman by his side.

She rarely spoke.

Yet her personality as his predestined bride ought to be just like this.

She would not frantically search for meaningless and foolish topics just to cater to him, nor would she shriek curses and accuse him for the mistakes he had made while desperately seeking love in the past.

She was smart, calm, and full of reason.

Neither overly enthusiastic nor terribly cold, she was willing to follow him step-by-step without leaving his side.

He was as passionate as fire.

She was as cool as water.

They were simply a match made in heaven!

Enises's gaze toward Su Bai grew increasingly tender.

Vira was unlike any maiden Enises had ever met.

Even upon hearing words like carving out brains and eating people, not a single ripple of fluctuation appeared in her dark, thorn-like eyes, as though this were the most normal thing in the world.

"The Lord God once told me that two people who truly love each other must be completely honest with one another, and I think those words are very true. If before a wonderful romance begins, we can both accept each other's pasts, then every day thereafter will only get better and better."

Enises pushed the door open, bent down, and made an inviting gesture: "After you, my dear maiden."

He ought not to have brought his bride-to-be to his secret sanctuary so quickly.

Enises knew all too well that sometimes being too eager might frighten his fragile human bride.

Yet now Enises understood.

The feeling of soul-matching was so wonderful; she would not criticize any of his actions, nor would her face display any disgust, hatred, or even fear. It was the first time he had found a maiden capable of communicating with him on equal footing, making Enises realize that his existence had value rather than merely spawning the hypocritical deference and uncontrollable terror of maidens.

[The loading progress of the Suozhao Sword has reached 95%.]

Su Bai lifted her foot and followed Enises inside.

This was a room of over twenty square meters.

The ceiling bore splattered bloodstains, and the surrounding walls were hung with torture instruments of all sizes—rust-covered longswords, barbed chains, and spiked clubs of unknown purpose. Two walls were fitted with long processing tables, upon which rested cutting boards. A young woman's thigh lay bare upon one, and tracing the cutting board downward, there was a large pool of dried blood beneath it.

Beyond that, rows of shelves pressed against the walls displayed human maidens' eyes, hair of various colors and textures, and even rows of hearts beating within translucent green liquid.

[Is this something I'm allowed to watch? Help! It's so horrifying it made me throw up my breakfast.]

[The most absurd part is that Enises still has the word 'Affection' floating above his head. I'm actually vomiting—why is there any need for a romance route with such scum?]

[What Enises said was actually quite right, but his past is too vile; I suggest the death penalty immediately.]

"My bride."

Enises's green eyes locked firmly onto her, wearing a look of expectant eagerness. "Now, do you still dare say you love me?"

He walked toward Su Bai step-by-step, unwilling to miss a single expression on her face.

Should this maiden before him dare show even a shred of terror or fright, then regardless of how deep his reluctance might be, Enises would have no choice but to sever her slender throat.

And that would be fine too.

Enises thought to himself.

That way, he could replace his beloved maiden with the blood-red eyeballs the Demon King loved most, dress her in a long gown woven from black silk, crown her himself with a crown of thorn flowers, and place her in a room blanketed with red roses.

Only puppets could maintain eternal love.

The only pity was that Enises already had many puppet dolls.

Even a cold-blooded and ruthless Demon King, while apathetically repeating lies over and over again, would inevitably harbor an irrepressible extravagance in the depths of his heart—perhaps one day, he really would be able to wait for a living human bride, rather than adding yet another puppet doll with a vacant stare.

[The loading progress of the Suozhao Sword has reached 100%.]

"Didn't you ask me what I liked earlier?"

Su Bai turned around. "I like swords."

"Swords?"

Enises looked in astonishment at the longsword suddenly grasped in her hand. "What maiden likes swords?"

"These are all excuses, my dear Vira. You want to kill me."

Enises clutched his chest, wearing a heartbroken expression: "I am willing to do anything for you, willing to kill every woman who attempts to approach me for your sake. But what about you, Vira? Just because I am a Demon King, you fabricate such clumsy excuses to slander me."

"What a pity. I originally thought you were someone extraordinary."

He shook his head, his once-radiant emerald pupils gradually dimming, and lowered his head to murmur in disappointment: "You don't love me at all. Your love for me is superficial and childish; you only love my facade and never dared to love all of me."

[The classic gaslighting script has arrived!]

[I don't know how many maidens have been successfully gaslighted by this line: "I thought you were different from the other girls."]

[Damn it, under these circumstances, he should be the one proving how much he loves first! Why must we be the ones to prove how much we love him?]

[And what does it mean that she doesn't love the whole of him? Can such a psychotic serial killer even be loved??]

"Then do you love me?"

"Of course I love you."

Enises spread his hands with an astonished look: "No one loves you more than I do, my dear Vira."

Su Bai looked at Enises.

She raised her chin slightly, her black pupils tinted by the morning glow appearing pitch-black and gleaming brightly.

"Since you love me so much—"

The person grasping the sword said word by word: "Then dying for me is also the most normal thing in the world, isn't it?"