Chapter 42: A Myriad of Faces

A golden figure appeared in midair at some point, with a gentle and non-blinding radiance flowing behind him. Against the backdrop of the setting sun, it illuminated the entire city of Patto with extraordinary brightness.

Unlike the ordinary citizens who could only feel a warm sensation enveloping their bodies, Ron and the other cultists felt a suffocating sense of oppression the moment this person appeared. The seemingly mild and harmless light caused these heretics agonizing pain just by shining on them, as if they were being bathed in diluted holy water...

As the newcomer gradually descended, everyone began to make out his appearance. He was a man in his late thirties, wearing a set of silver plate armor inscribed with pale gold holy words. A pair of heavy shoulder guards bore the emblem of the Church Union and the portrait of the Dawn Goddess respectively. Two golden broken swords hung at his left and right hips, and a huge mithril cross was strapped to his back. More importantly...

He had a golden-ratio square face!

No matter from which angle one looked at it, this face screamed "Paladin" in every possible way. It featured thick eyebrows that made Dave's prominent eyebrows look like nothing, rendering his entire expression even more resolute and pious.

"I am Lynn Tyrie," he landed in front of the plaza, his thick eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Dawn Grand Knight of the City of Light-Chasing, and now..."

Lynn drew one of the broken swords with a backhand motion and swept it gently across his right side.

A thin ray of light slowly expanded outward, rapidly changing its shape in the process. Half a second later, it transformed into a torrent-like, majestic, and dazzling golden sword beam that swept directly across one-third of the plaza's area.

The Knight Academy instructors and clergy who were fighting the cultists remained completely unaffected as the beam brushed past them. In fact, a few worshippers of the Dawn Goddess even felt as though they had grown slightly stronger, while the fleeing civilians suffered no harm whatsoever...

[Dawn's Verdict Slash]
Active skill of the Holy Light School
Mastery requirements: Holy Light School Level 19, One-Handed Weapon Mastery Level 15, Strength 50, Wisdom 20, Worshipper of the Dawn Goddess, Maximum Faith Value above 1500
Cost/Restrictions: 100 Stamina, 300 Faith, holding a one-handed weapon
Effect: Releases a wide-range slash imbued with the divine power of the dawn in a designated direction, dealing massive damage to enemy targets within the user's concept, while inflicting a soul-burning effect. Damage is doubled against blasphemers, undead creatures, and worshippers of the Dark Goddess Diliya, with a 5% chance to trigger a 'Purification' effect. Causes no damage to friendly and neutral units within the user's concept. This skill ignores terrain and environmental influences. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
[Remarks: Holy Light above! Mom no longer has to worry about me accidentally hitting my teammates!]

This skill, which players had no way of mastering at present, yielded exceptional results. Those cultists who had been suppressing the instructors and clergy with the power of the evil god failed to even utter a scream after being swept by the golden sword beam. Trembling with light emanating from their facial orifices, they finally turned into clusters of explosive golden fireballs, their bodies and souls simultaneously burned to ashes by the overwhelming divine power.

"Holy Flash..." Lynn lowered his sword-wielding right hand nonchalantly, then extended his other hand to point directly at the opposite side of the plaza, saying in a deep voice, "Thousand Strikes!"

His figure seemed to blur for a second, and then a golden phantom shot out like lightning from Lynn's body, passing straight through a cultist. The target exploded instantly, and the phantom dissipated into thin air.

Then came the second phantom...
The third...
The fourth...

Dozens of cultists who were just about to turn and flee were instantly slain on the spot by the phantoms released by Lynn within a few seconds, dying right where they stood.

At this moment, Ron no longer had the luxury to give Bayes and the other two a few more stabs or rush over to pinch Mo Dan to death. Beads of sweat as large as peas trickled down his temples. The pale white mist lingering around him was evaporating rapidly, and the omnipresent light locked him firmly in place. He had no doubt that the slightest movement on his part would immediately draw the attention of that Dawn Grand Knight!

"Absolute power, huh~" Mo Dan actually sidled up to Ron and gently patted him on the shoulder, "How does it feel to suddenly realize you've become an ant?"

Puff!!

Ron, who had been whispering something under his breath, whether from the pat or from sheer fury, violently spat out a mouthful of blood. Just as he prepared to turn around and finish off this brat first, he found that the square-faced man who had unleashed two invulnerable moves right off the bat had already appeared before him, scaring him out of his wits...

"You're a bit too late, Sir Knight." Mo Dan stepped back slowly while spreading his hands and laughing, "All those people who sacrificed themselves earlier are going to be chalked up to your account, you know~"

Lynn stared fixedly at the young man who had given him an intensely uncomfortable feeling ever since he arrived, and said in a deep voice, "Who are you?"

Instead of answering immediately, Mo Dan whispered a few words into the ears of Bayes and Leiluo, who had just gotten back to their feet, before looking up with a smile. "Me? I'm the one who lured you here... Well, you can't really call it a lie, can you? Cultists running rampant and an evil god descending on the city of Patto amount to pretty much the same thing, don't they?"

"I sense malice in you." Anger flashed in Lynn's eyes, though his tone remained steady as he said, "Your vicious lies even alarmed the City of Light."

"Can't be helped~" Mo Dan chuckled lightly. "Otherwise, if someone like you with 'absolute power' hadn't come, and it was just some small-fry fodder, I'd be in a lot of trouble too... But speaking of which, shouldn't you bring this cultist whose hands are stained with blood to justice first?"

Ron's body shook, but he paid no heed and continued to mutter incantations under his breath, looking extremely eerie.

"As for me," Mo Dan shrugged, "telling a lie isn't a grave crime anyway. Dealing with me later is fine, too, like dragging me off to some holy land for a heavy interrogation or something."

Although the opponent's teasing tone was truly grating, Lynn still nodded. After all, 'purifying' Ron, the cultist ringleader, was the most urgent task. As for the kid who had shocked the City of Light with false news and caused him to be ordered to rush over at top speed, he could deal with him afterward...

Besides, his personal trip here this time was justified; an ordinary paladin squad might not really have been able to control a situation like this.

Therefore, Lynn immediately turned his gaze back to Ron, who was still muttering to himself, and unhooked the mithril cross from his back—an item only worthy of being wielded by a Grand Paladin—and said in a deep voice, "State your last words and the cult's lair, or die instantly."

[No one is going to respond to a 'drop dead or drop dead' prompt like that...]

Standing in the back, Mo Dan rolled his eyes and reached his right hand toward the pouch at his waist.

"............" Ron continued to mutter under his breath, staring straight at Dawn Grand Knight Lynn.

The latter pressed his hands gently against both sides of the cross, furrowing his brow as he asked, "What are you saying?"

"..."

"Fine." Lynn didn't seem to expect Ron to answer him in the first place, so holy, radiant flames gradually began to rise from his body. "Then prepare to be purified!"

"I said..." Ron suddenly clutched his head with both hands in a hoarse voice, groaning in agony.

"Hmm?" Lynn felt a hint of doubt, yet maintained his chivalrous spirit by intending to let the other person finish speaking. "What?"

Squish!!

Countless bone spurs burst forth from Ron's body. At the same time, his form began to distort gradually—a level of disgust hard to describe in words. Blood vessels, muscles, and bones underwent violent mutations, all bursting out from within as he began a metamorphosis akin to some sort of ritual, proliferating and swelling at an astonishing speed!!

"I said I'm stronger than you, ahhhhh!" Ron roared. His current appearance no longer resembled any living creature, but rather something resembling meaty... slime-like matter, crazily lunging toward the Grand Paladin before him. "You cannot resist... I am stronger than you... You will lose... Ugh-gag... Kill... You will die... Resistance... is futile..."

Lynn, however, did not suffer the forced plot armor death of most long-winded villains or heroes. He merely let out a long sigh: "Look at yourself, look at what the existence you worship has bestowed upon you... Aside from suffering, there is only suffering..."

The mithril cross, entwined with chains of golden light, gradually began to glow brighter...

...

Five minutes later, Southern District of Patto City.

A dark elf man wearing a gray robe walked up to a building that looked as though it had just been abandoned not long ago. This had once seemed to be a granary used for storing food, but now...

"A cultist lair, huh~~" He grinned, glanced back at the pillar of golden light soaring into the sky in the distance, and murmured softly, "That guy is stronger than I thought. Better hurry up."

With that, he looked around briefly and strode quickly into the abandoned warehouse.

[Protean]
Type: Special Equipment
Quality: Unique Epic
Attributes: All Basic Attributes +1
Traits: Allows you to freely change your appearance and acquire partial physical traits of the corresponding race. Your temperament will alter during the disguise. There is no time limit, but canceling the disguise or changing the Protean's appearance requires a 12-hour cooldown before it can take effect again.
[Remark 1: A powerful alchemical item refined by the dwarven genius, skin alchemist Edward Lek. Due to some minor flaws, however, this mask did not meet Mr. Edward's expectations. Although the Protean mask allowed the user to change appearance and features almost without restriction, it could never alter their height—something that deeply annoyed Mr. Edward, who was often mistaken for a gnome. He sold it for 1 copper coin to the elven rogue, Gong Teng.]
[Remark 2: According to historical records, the legendary Gong Teng was forcibly fed a bizarre potion by an underground force a few years later and went missing, and the Protean mask vanished with him. Months later, however, an elven youth bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Gong Teng appeared by the side of Gong Teng's girlfriend, the elven monk Lan. Rumors say this youth was adopted by Lan's father, the slumbering famed warrior Mori, and was practically inseparable from Lan every day. In the years that followed, the reputation of the Grim Reaper Elf gradually resounded throughout the mainland.]
[Remark 3: The designer of this equipment has been fired.]

That's right, seeing this, everyone should already know that this dark elf was naturally Mo Dan. As for why he had acquired such a powerful epic piece of equipment...

Does everyone remember the 'unique quest' he had accepted earlier?

[Go to Patto City and destroy the 'hero' Dave; Reward: ???]

Just a short while ago, when that mammoth beastman junior priest drenched Dave thoroughly with a bucket of the Waters of the Gods, Mo Dan had immediately received a system prompt:

[Unique quest completed. Completion rate: 550%. Reward received: Protean, Trickster class experience: 1100 points]

And this equipment had gone straight into his pouch.

This was also the reason why Mo Dan was completely unfazed and fearless right now. As long as he sensed that the situation was turning sour, he could forcefully trigger [Escape] and equip this special equipment, giving him nearly a fifty percent chance to retreat unscathed.

As for the other fifty percent of danger... he didn't care~

...

Ten minutes later, in front of the abandoned warehouse.

A human male dressed in a linen set panted as he ran over here.

Cordova expressed that he was very unhappy, truly very unhappy...

One must know that logging on this time had caused him a great deal of internal conflict, especially since his previous tragic and entirely unheroic death was still vivid in his memory!

Yet, in the end, he still couldn't resist the temptation of [World of Dao], and after making up his mind several hundred times, he finally logged into the game and appeared in Patto City.

As a result, trouble struck right from the start!

His guiding quest this time was to find a certain tailoring shop owner, but by the time he finally found the place, he learned that the person had gone to the plaza in the central district to watch the commotion.

So Cordova ran over to the central plaza...

And then... everything went completely out of control!!

Ever since that lunatic-like madman appeared on the bell tower, the originally proper blessing ceremony had turned into a complete mess, and that so-called 'hero' died about as miserably as one possibly could!

Finally, when a large number of cultists bolted from the crowd and began a killing spree, Cordova fled!

He fled without the slightest hesitation!

He had enough; he didn't want to die again; he just wanted to play the game peacefully...

In the end, he got lost and ended up in this place.

Still, it felt pretty good. This location was very remote, situated in the least developed Southern District of Patto City, so theoretically, it should be relatively safe. Cordova figured that as long as he hid here for a while—or even logged off to grab a midnight snack if worst came to worst—the chaos earlier should be more or less over by then.

Then he saw an elven man wearing bizarre clothes with a large amount of blood on his hands walk out of the warehouse in front of him, and wipe his face...

Holy crap!!

Isn't that the guy who turned everything upside down on the bell tower earlier!?

"Shh~" The other party looked at him with a hint of surprise, then brought an index finger to his lips, signaling him to keep quiet.

Covered in blood, bearing a gentle smile and a lunatic-like temperament—this son of a gun was here to eliminate a witness!!

Without a second word, Cordova turned and ran. While running, he screamed—his news today truly... no wait, screaming: "Help!!"

Puff!

His entire body trembled violently, and looking down, a short blade stained with blood protruded from his left chest...

The familiar system prompt sounded in his ear.

[You have died]

Chapter 42: End