The wind stirred up the dust on the mountain road, echoing the sparse neighing sounds of the horses, like a melancholy tune played by a third-rate musician in a country tavern.
"You...are the source of the curse."
After a strange moment of silence, the bishop closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then spoke.
His expression looked so painful. Even the two teams of cleaners behind him could feel this sudden emotion. They looked at each other and did not dare to speak.
mood…
For the Bishop of St. Peter's Basilica, this is a strange thing.
"Yes, uncle." Thinking of this, Michelle suddenly felt a sense of revenge in her heart. She smiled contentedly, "You didn't disappoint me. You came here in the end."
Completely breaking the bishop's shell of hypocrisy, at this moment, she suddenly realized that maybe the scene in front of her was what she had been really looking forward to.
An idea of "revenge" took shape in her mind again.
"You are Michelle." The bishop reopened his eyes, regained his composure, and looked at Michelle coldly, "Why didn't I think of it? Michelle... Michael... You will never forget the name your father gave you. That stupid name. I should have thought of it."
Hearing this, Michelle's right hand behind her back suddenly clenched into a fist, trembling slightly.
Bishop... shouldn't have mentioned that name.
However, under the influence of this sudden change of mood, the smile on her face became even brighter.
"You are a superior priest, he is just a hunter. You have never taken him seriously, so how can you care about the boy's name he jokingly gave me so many years ago?" She tried hard to maintain a nonchalant sarcastic tone. , said quietly.
How could she forget such a thing
That was the source of all her hatred.
The bishop's gloomy gaze has been with her since she was born, lingering and deeply engraved in her childhood memories - when the bishop was not a bishop, but just a priest in the town.
Even though she was very young at the time, she knew that the Bishop hated her.
It was her existence that allowed her mother and father to come together; it was her existence that forced the bishop to marry his sister to a hunter with no future in the town. She is like a shadow left by the devil in the bishop's world. The bishop hates her father and hates her.
Of course, if it's just hatred, there's nothing to worry about.
When she was five years old, Michelle's mother died of illness, and her father, who was out hunting, arrived three days later. My father returned home without even being able to see his mother's body. He was so heartbroken that he began to drink heavily. A year later, he was also hit and killed by a passing carriage because he was drunk.
As a result, Michelle officially became an orphan.
She still remembered that on the day of her father’s funeral, the bishop came to her, knelt down, held Michelle’s hands with his big calloused hands, and said to her: “Everything is God’s will.”
At that time, the bishop was not like he is now, with a soft tone, and he had soothed the broken hearts of many people in the town.
The young Michelle looked at the bishop's hand in a daze.
She remembered that it was these hands that strangled her mother to death in the room a year ago. Thinking this way, she looked at the bishop's mouth again. It was the same mouth that day, telling everyone in a gentle and kind voice that her mother had died of illness.
She thought, was it God's will for her uncle to kill her mother
Such an explanation seems too far-fetched even for a young child. She remembered clearly that on the day her mother died, the bishop and her mother had another quarrel about her father. The bishop looked very angry, his eyes widened like dried fish. He suddenly rushed forward and strangled his mother's neck with both hands. He muttered something silently and held her for about ten minutes before gradually letting go.
And my mother's eyes have long since become more like dried fish than the bishop.
Michelle, who was hiding behind the door, witnessed all this with her own eyes. Perhaps the bishop was too excited and did not notice her, so he left the house silently and hid in a neighbor's wine cellar for a day and a night.
Michelle didn't even remember how she spent that day and night in the wine cellar, but that day changed her completely. She clearly remembered her mood when she stepped out of the wine cellar, as calm as a dead baby.
After her father came back, she said nothing. She buried all the secrets deep in her heart and let them slowly ferment into a poisonous wine. It wasn't until her father died and the bishop looked at her and said he would take her to the royal capital. At that moment, she suddenly realized that the hatred for her in the bishop's eyes was no longer there.
Why
Years later, Michelle gradually understood that it might be because she looked so much like her mother.
Whether the bishop was out of guilt or empathy, he began to treat Michelle better and better, meeting all her needs, allowing her to participate in knight training, and even got a place as a paladin... The hatred he had for her when he was a child was Like dandelions in the wind, they fly away without a trace in the blink of an eye.
It was Michel's turn to hate the bishop.
Like every child who loses a parent, she becomes cold and precocious. At first, she just silently planned revenge against the bishop. However, after following the bishop into the royal capital and entering St. Peter's Basilica, and watching the bishop climb step by step to where he is today, the hatred in her heart was buried, and the rest was It's endless disgust.
Disgust with the church.
She still remembered the day she officially became a Paladin. In the church, the bishop held her hand tightly as he did on the day of the funeral and said: "Everything is God's will."
So, she knelt down in the church, simulated a pious and solemn look in her eyes, swore an oath under the name "Christine", and became a member of the Paladin.
The scene of that day is still vivid in my mind. The holy idols, the shining candles, the scriptures silently chanted by the priests around her... Even now, she can recall the strong impulse in her heart to smash the idols.
God’s will…
What an ironic statement.
The bishop strangled his mother to death because he was dissatisfied with his mother's marriage. It was God's will. My father fell into despair and was hit by a carriage. It was because of God's will. And the reason why she has reached this point where she doesn't look like a human or a ghost is because of divine will.
Michelle felt ridiculous.
Why do people always have so many excuses for their stupidity
After becoming a mage, she finally fully understood what the so-called "divine will" was. From then on, she also made up her mind to make this behemoth supported by stupid reasons pay its true price.
In the remains of "Soul Flame", Michelle realized her own death for the first time, and almost resented the illusory will of God, as if complaining to the sky would make herself feel better. But she soon realized that what she needed was "uncomfortable".
It was that "uncomfortable" feeling that supported her until now.
She didn't completely fail the inheritance trial because she made it to the final step. As a result, the powerful spiritual power left behind by the "Soul Flame" was poured into her soul. At that time, the entire cave lit up with a dazzling light, and her blood flowing on the ground gathered together, slowly turning into a bloody person.
That mental power, coupled with the "uncomfortable" feeling in her heart, re-condensed into the person she is now.
This is an unheard of existence. She doesn't know who she is, a wraith? Walking corpse? The buzzing sound often echoed in her ears. She lost most of her consciousness and the ability to use magic, but she instinctively learned some weirder things.
It was these changes that made her make a new decision.
She could feel her body disintegrating every moment, which made her understand that this state could not last long, and soon she would die completely. So, after sitting in despair for a day and night in the cave at the bottom of the lake, she returned to the royal capital.
There is not much time left, and it cannot be wasted.
When she was in the royal capital and saw the huge water ball in the sky, a strong resentment and unwillingness suddenly arose in her heart. Why? Why could that noble have such a talent, but she could only die quietly in a dark cave, unable to do anything
She firmly believes that there is no one on this continent who is more desperate than her. She thought about every choice she made accurately, strictly restrained her desires, and made the best choice in every dilemma... She did everything she could, but in the end, failure was still waiting for her.
No one is willing to accept this kind of failure.
"Christine, you disappoint me." Suddenly, the bishop spoke up and said.
Michelle came back to her senses, smiled and replied: "Really? I feel very honored. However, my purpose is not just to make you feel disappointed."
It was no longer possible for her to achieve her original ideal - she was dead, full of hatred and unwillingness. Now she is just a deformed collection of resentment, blood, and spiritual power. She has the right to hate the world, hate all living people, and hate the bishop.
But she hated herself even more, hating that even at this point, the reason in her character was still suppressing her emotions, forcing her to make thoughtful choices to prevent her from losing control.
—How she wanted to lose control completely.
Michelle thought so, and her body began to tremble slightly. Suddenly, foul-smelling blood overflowed from her skin. Following this, her body seemed to begin to become softer, with a tendency to collapse.
"Christine, you..." The bishop looked at the sudden change of Michelle and showed a shocked expression again.
The Cleaners also raised their swords to deal with possible threats.
"Uncle, I know it was you who killed my mother." Michelle used her gradually melting mouth to pull out a slightly twisted smile, "I've always known it."
Seeing the bishop so stunned that he couldn't even speak, she once again gained the pleasure of revenge.
No, maybe it's not just the pleasure of revenge, but the supreme satisfaction she gets from breaking free through this self-destructive method and letting the world that has always looked down upon her taste the suffering she has experienced.
"Are you starting to feel pain? Dear uncle, this is just the beginning." She shook off the blood covering her cheek, and then said, "I want Benjamin Reese to live. One day, he will destroy The church you have been protecting. A water balloon hundreds of times larger than that day will hit your face, and you will be unable to do anything. Despair, suffocation, pain... You will feel everything I have felt. You will see it with your own eyes Seeing the church destroyed in your hands, you will no longer be able to sleep at night, and you will spend the rest of your life in regret."
She never wanted to save Benjamin out of good intentions, and even thought that Benjamin might thank her later made her feel a little sick. She didn't do all this to seek comfort and please people - from beginning to end, she was not a good person, and she never wanted to be a good person.
Overthrowing the church was not her lofty ideal, she was just disgusted and filled with hatred.
"...What are you going to do, Christine? Why are you like this?" Looking at Michelle's body gradually eroding, the bishop also had a panic expression on his face and asked hurriedly.
Michelle ignored it entirely.
She felt her own destruction, savored the bishop's pain, was repeatedly pulled between reason and fanatical hatred, and enjoyed the joy that fell out of control.
And her body was melting rapidly like an ice sculpture thrown into the scorching desert.
"It's a pity that I can't see all this with my own eyes. I'm not willing to accept it, so I have to take away some things first." Gradually, most of her body had disintegrated into dark brown blood, and her head was floating in a pool of blood. Among them, two scattered eyeballs were still staring at the bishop, "You can accuse me of being evil and cruel. I don't care whether people are innocent or not."
"Goodbye, my dearest uncle."
After saying that, the last remaining form of her completely exploded and turned into blood, splashing everywhere in the mountain road. She was so startled that the horses of the purgers began to retreat involuntarily, and the bishop had to open the barrier to block all the blood.
The bishop looked at the only stain of blood on the ground in front of him through the barrier of holy light. The unspeakable expression on his face proved how intense the burning feeling in his heart was at this moment.
But what Michelle did was not just to completely kill herself in front of the bishop.
Her hatred needs something more to bury it with.
At the same time, in the royal capital and on the main roads outside the royal capital, all the people who were cursed and infected with the "plague" suddenly started to tremble at this moment. Like Michelle, they were covered in blood, their bodies disintegrated, and they were struggling in pain. In the end, more than 30,000 people howled together, turning into a pool of foul-smelling blood under the watchful eyes of their respective families.
This city named Light of Heaven has never been filled with the stench of blood as it is today.
Above the royal capital, the sky was clear and blue, and the sun was still shining brightly.