Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 596 The Castle of Earl Red Leaf

Faith is the bridge between the mortal and the divine.

Tang Zijun was taken aback. "Pray? You want him to..."

"The aura of that deity was completely obscured by this filthy 'pleasure,' as if it had sunk into the most filthy swamp, making it difficult to perceive by ordinary means," Scáthach said softly. "But prayer is different; it is one of the most instinctive and powerful mental activities of humankind."

"When they entrust their inner hopes, prayers, and even despair to the gods in the dark, a pure positive energy originating from the depths of their souls will transform into a special power—the power of faith. This power is like a candle lit in the darkness, and to the gods, it is the clearest 'call' and 'coordinate'."

She continued to explain the fundamental laws of this divine age.

"In the age of gods, the gods vied for faith because this power could genuinely enhance their divine strength and solidify their existence. Even if the supplicant did not explicitly point to a specific god, this unclaimed power of faith would not dissipate into nothingness. It was like an invisible stream, automatically captured, received, and transformed into its own by gods with keen perception in the nearby area." Scáthach's intention was crystal clear: to have Desk perform a goalless, heartfelt, and sincere prayer. His current situation—having just escaped the extreme terror of being transformed into a monster, being in a desperate dead city, surrounded by evil gods, and filled with dependence and supplication towards Tang Zijun and Scáthach—the power of faith generated in this state would inevitably be extremely pure and intense. Once this powerful, unclaimed torrent of faith arises, it is like throwing a brilliant star into a murky swamp. The wounded god who is also lurking here, weak and trying his best to hide himself, will instinctively try to capture this readily available power of faith to heal his own wounds or maintain his existence.

As long as Chi tries to capture it, even for just a moment, Chi's location and state will no longer be able to escape Scáthach and Tang Zijun's perception. Desk, this mortal, will become their most accurate beacon of faith for locating that dying god.

"But didn't that god relinquish his divine power? Can a god without divinity still receive such prayers?" Tang Zijun asked, somewhat puzzled. Hearing this, Scáthach looked at Tang Zijun strangely, seemingly wondering why she would ask such a question. After a pause, she spoke, "...Receiving the power of faith isn't exclusive to gods. Don't your legends also have stories of immortals collecting incense offerings?" "Uh..." Tang Zijun was stunned, falling silent for a moment.

Admittedly, it was a brilliant idea. After a moment's hesitation, he carefully helped Deske up and sat him down next to a relatively clean remnant of a stone tablet. At this moment, Deske's eyes were unfocused, his face was ashen, and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

The terrifying experience of the blood vessels piercing his skin and sprouting wriggling red hair was like the deepest nightmare branded into his soul, almost robbing him of his ability to think, leaving only instinctive fear and extreme dependence on the two people in front of him.

"Desk, look at me." Tang Zijun crouched down, pressing her hands firmly against the old mercenary's trembling shoulders. Her gaze beneath her helmet was as resolute as a rock, her voice steady and powerful. "I need you to do one thing. Listen, concentrate, don't think about anything else. Just in your heart, with all your strength, pray, hope, pray that we can survive, pray that we can leave this hellish place safely. Cast your hope, your fear, all your thoughts towards... the sky, towards the unknown, like a drowning person grasping at a last straw, understand?" Desk was no longer seriously injured; he was just terrified by what he had just experienced. The key was that the more afraid he became, the more he couldn't help but recall that feeling, which made him feel a growing risk of losing his sanity. Tang Zijun's words were like a calming spell, forcibly pulling Desk back from the brink of collapse.

His unfocused gaze struggled to focus on Tang Zijun's cold mask, the strength and reliability emanating from it becoming his only source of strength. "Live...live on..." Desk's lips trembled as he gasped for breath. "Lady Tang Zijun, Lady Scáthach, I pray to you, take me away...please...take me away from this hell...I don't want to become a monster...I don't want to die here."

"You're not praying to us, and this is so insincere," Scáthach rolled her eyes.

Upon hearing Scáthach's words, Deskol stopped abruptly. After glancing at Tang Zijun, he abruptly lowered his head, his hands clenching tightly together until his knuckles turned white. He stopped looking at the horrific ruins around him, stopped thinking about the eerie tavern, closed his eyes, and with all the strength from the depths of his soul, began the most devout, silent prayer of his life. "Please... whoever... whatever exists... just hear me..."

"Save us...let us leave alive..."

"I'd give anything... just to get out of here."

"Take us away...take us away..."

There are no specific names of deities, and no complicated prayer rituals.

Only the most primal, beast-like survival instinct, mixed with boundless reliance and trust in his savior, transformed into a surging and pure spiritual torrent, bursting forth from his trembling body! *Buzz*

At the very moment this extremely intense power of unclaimed faith emerged...

Tang Zijun and Scáthach sensed it at the same time.

This was the first time in Tang Zijun's life that he had felt the power of faith. It was a power he had never experienced before, so pure and positive. What he didn't expect was that he was also among those being judged by the prayers. Oh, he was a god too, then it was alright.

Above Desk's head, the invisible void rippled like water rippled by a stone thrown in, spreading out in circles of pure golden ripples invisible to ordinary people—the manifestation of highly concentrated faith power. Almost simultaneously with the spread of these golden ripples...

boom!

A faint, yet ancient, chaotic, and bloody gray distorted force field, like greedy tentacles, erupted from the depths of the Oak Barrel Tavern, attempting to brutally capture and devour this pure power of faith—the corrupting power of things that bring pleasure, filled with a predatory desire for any energy.

However, even faster than those gray tentacles was another reaction.

About a kilometer to their right, deep within an area shrouded in the shadow of a massive palace ruin, as silent and desolate as a tomb, a faint, yet unmistakably sacred, pale golden light flashed and disappeared like a firefly suddenly igniting in the darkness. Though as weak as a candle flickering in the wind, filled with a sense of fragmentation and fragility, the essence of divine order and life force contained within its core was as clear as a lighthouse in the night. Its timing was impeccable; it appeared at the very instant Desk's faith surged and the tavern's filthy tentacles reached out. It instinctively sought to "intercept" this unclaimed faith to nourish its own crumbling divinity.

Although the reaction was extremely brief, it was like a startled bird that instantly retreated and tried its best to hide itself again.

But for Tang Zijun and Scáthach, who were fully focused and had their senses fully activated, this fleeting pale golden light, and the location where it appeared, was like a huge red X marked on a dark map with the brightest searchlight.

found it!

The wounded and dying god, who had been hiding in seclusion, was luring him deep within the shadowy ruins of the palace. Desk's desperate prayer had precisely drawn out the existence of the pool, like bait. "There!" Tang Zijun and Scáthach exclaimed almost simultaneously.

Their eyes flashed like lightning, instantly locking onto the desolate shadows of the ruins.

"That, that's... Count Red Leaf's castle." Although Desk didn't sense anything amiss, following Tang Zijun and Scáthach's gaze, he also saw the massive, iconic building in the distance. The unclaimed faith power ignited by Desk's desperate prayer, as brilliant as stars, shattered the false, deathly silence woven by the whispers of evil gods in Crimson Maple City like a boulder thrown into a stagnant pool. Almost at the same instant that the wounded god's hiding place was exposed due to greedily seizing faith.

Boom!!

The entire Crimson Maple City, this vast and decaying city of bones, seemed to be infused with some kind of blasphemous life force, and came to life.

The earth trembled violently, not by an earthquake, but by countless thick, slippery, tentacle-like things covered with wriggling, sticky hairs, like wildly growing black thorns, piercing the hard ground, tearing apart collapsed houses, and surging out from the depths of the huge palace ruins.

Each one of them is like a living giant python, its surface covered with constantly opening and closing suckers and tiny eye-like structures that flash with an ominous red light, exuding a nauseatingly sweet and maddening stench of pollution. These are the evil god scrolls that extend from the power of "creeping pleasure," like its nerve endings.

The blasphemous whispers filling the air instantly escalated into ear-piercing shrieks, and the false warmth of the oak barrel tavern abruptly went out, replaced by a viscous, suffocating gray-red mist that surged forth. Within the mist, countless distorted humanoid silhouettes, composed of pure malice and polluting energy, danced and hissed wildly.

They are no longer alluring illusions, but rather fully exposed, aggressive, and filthy claws!

The core will of the crawling pleasure object finally identified the wounded god that had been lurking on the edge of its "realm of pleasure" like a festering sore, and Tang Zijun and Scáthach, these two powerful outsiders, were obstacles it had to eliminate.

The power of pollution swept through the entire city like a flood bursting its banks. Every brick, every shadow, and even the dust in the air seemed to stand in opposition to Tang Zijun and Scáthach, becoming part of the extension of the evil god's will.

"Howl-!"

Countless tentacle-like evil god-like creatures roared inhumanly, crashing down on the three of them from all directions like a raging tide. The ground, walls, and sky were covered with their writhing, terrifying figures radiating a foul red light, their target the god's hiding place that had revealed their location, while simultaneously completely surrounding Tang Zijun and Scáthach. The situation instantly deteriorated to the extreme.

"Scáthach!"

Tang Zijun's voice boomed like thunder, drowning out the roars and blasphemous whispers of the evil god's followers, carrying an undeniable determination. "Take Desk to find that god."

"Leave this to me!"