CA - Chapter 123

Chapter 123

The gray beast growled as it approached the temple beast. The latter's body trembled uncontrollably, intimidated by the oppressive aura. The gray beast sent it flying with a single swipe of its paw. It let out a mournful cry in mid-air before crashing heavily to the ground. Amidst a cloud of dust, the temple beast was sealed back within the toppled stone pillar.

The gray beast turned its gaze to the Gorefiend. The Gorefiend reluctantly gave up and strode away.

After the two behemoths departed, the gray beast shook its head and walked toward Erin. Its massive body shrank bit by bit as it approached, and by the time it reached her, it had returned to its original size.

Little Fur Ball had an excellent spring. Despite its short legs, it leaped onto Erin's head in a single bound. It curled into a ball, its gray eyes looking dazed, showing no trace of its earlier majestic and domineering presence.

Tang Qiu's and Lucille's gazes both fell upon Little Fur Ball. They exchanged a look, each seeing the confusion and curiosity in the other's eyes.

Erin carefully lifted Little Fur Ball down and held it before her eyes, observing it intently for a moment. Little Fur Ball still had that dazed look, as if the beast from before wasn't it at all.

Erin studied it for a long time but couldn't figure anything out, so she gave up. She lowered her head and nuzzled the top of Little Fur Ball's head, whispering, "Thank you." Although she had been quite scared of its enlarged form, she had raised it for so long that once it returned to its usual appearance, her fear vanished.

Little Fur Ball responded to Erin's affection, tilting its head back and expertly nuzzling her in return.

Tang Qiu withdrew her gaze from Little Fur Ball and glanced at the statue of the Earth Mother, which was faintly visible in the dense fog. She said in a low voice, "Let's go there first."

The appearance of this statue was very strange.

Erin placed Little Fur Ball in her hood and turned to find Kama. When Kama saw Erin approaching, she fearfully began to circle a pillar to avoid her.

Tang Qiu: "..."

Tang Qiu walked over and picked Kama up. Kama, who was afraid of Lucille and Erin, immediately settled down once she was with Tang Qiu. She pressed her lips together and happily buried her face in Tang Qiu's shoulder.

Tang Qiu carried Kama, while Erin was carried by a skeleton. The two left the palace one after the other. Delia, who had been waiting by a stone pillar for her injuries to heal, glanced at Tang Qiu's and Erin's departing backs. She turned to leave in another direction, only to run right into Lucille.

Lucille looked at her expressionlessly and said in a cold voice, "You're going the wrong way."

Delia stopped. Her self-healing ability wasn't as strong as Lucille's; the wound on her arm was still gaping, and her pale face made her look haggard. She was silent for a moment, then lowered her eyes and said softly, "I'm not interested in the Godhead."

She tried to walk around Lucille but was blocked again. The smile on Delia's lips became strained. "The beast and the Gorefiend have left. Our partnership should be over now, right?"

"The partnership is indeed over." Lucille's hand, hanging at her side, twitched. Delia, who had been wary of her all along, dodged nimbly.

Lucille's hand grasped at empty air. She dropped her pretense, her gaze fixed on Delia revealing a cold killing intent.

Delia cursed under her breath. Clutching her immobilized arm, she wretchedly dodged another round of Lucille's ruthless and deadly attacks.

When Tang Qiu and Erin arrived before the statue of the Earth Mother, the bone bridge was still there, but the Black Witches were nowhere to be seen.

Erin jumped down from the skeleton and stared up blankly at the statue of the Earth Mother, lost in thought.

Tang Qiu walked to her side. Seeing Erin's strange expression, she also looked up at the statue and asked with confusion, "What's wrong?"

Erin rested a hand on her forehead, trying hard to remember. She muttered to herself, "...This statue looks a little familiar."

She walked toward the statue and tried to climb it, but she fell after getting less than a meter up.

Kama, hugging Tang Qiu's leg, watched Erin curiously for a while. Seeing her keep falling, she took the initiative to run over and scrambled up the statue in a few moves, then hung there looking down at her.

Seeing how agile Kama was, Erin's eyes lit up. She directed her to climb to the top of the statue's head, shouting, "See if it's empty up there!"

The statue was very tall, and the higher she went, the harder it was to climb. Kama's speed slowed halfway up.

Tang Qiu took a few steps back, looked up at the spot Erin mentioned, and asked in a low voice, "What's up there?"

"Do you remember the Dark Key I told you about?" Erin grew uneasy as she brought it up. "That key is actually a black stone. Vera always called it that because it's shaped like a key."

"I found that stone on top of a statue."

Her memory of accidentally entering the forbidden area behind the Witch City was no longer so clear, but the parts she did recall bore similarities to the layout of this temple.

The statue where she found the Dark Key just looked different from this statue of the Earth Mother.

The ground beneath their feet shook more and more violently. The sky above was completely covered by yellow sand, and Tang Qiu could feel a low atmospheric pressure enveloping them.

Delaying any longer would be disadvantageous. Tang Qiu walked to the statue, touched its smooth stone surface, and then leaped up. Using the protruding stones for leverage, she bypassed Kama and went straight to the top of the statue's head.

The top of the statue's head wasn't empty as Erin had suggested. Instead, a square box was placed abruptly in the center.

Tang Qiu walked over, looked down at it for a few moments, then bent down and picked up the box. It was very light, and shaking it produced no sound.

Tang Qiu frowned. She opened the box and glanced inside, her expression turning grave.

The temple shook even more violently. Tang Qiu casually closed the box and leaped down from the statue. Seeing her descend, Erin looked at her nervously and asked, "How was it?"

Tang Qiu shook her head. Just as she was about to speak, a heavy object was thrown at her feet. She turned to see Lucille approaching with a cold expression.

Lowering her gaze to the "Delia" that had become a corpse, Tang Qiu frowned and said, "She's dead?"

Lucille shook her head and said flatly, "She got away." The Tzimisce clan prepares several replacement bodies in their space gems. Who knows when Delia hid a spare body nearby.

A moment of carelessness from Lucille gave her the chance to abandon her body and escape.

The situation in the temple was dire. The matters of the Godhead and Delia were temporarily set aside. Tang Qiu carried Kama, and Lucille carried Erin, and the four of them rushed toward the temple's exit.

Before leaving the temple, the Black Witches had deliberately ordered the Gorefiend to wreak havoc inside to hasten its collapse.

Reese was the first to evacuate the temple. A whirlwind was already stirring in the sky above the Mentos Desert, as if the temple might sink underground at any moment. Of the Holy Knights escorting Reese, some remained by her side to protect her, while the others re-entered the temple to search for Audrey, Vogt, and the others.

The bishops who had come out with Reese raised their staves and chanted spells, trying to use light magic to slow the temple's collapse.

Reese glanced back at the bishops behind her but didn't see the figure of the blond bishop among them, which made her brow slowly furrow.

After the beast appeared, the Holy See's party had been split into three groups. Although she had been paying close attention, she hadn't seen the blond bishop.

She knew the blond bishop had "trump cards" she wasn't aware of, but the expedition to the temple had been too perilous, and Reese couldn't be certain that Tang Qiu would make it out safely.

"I should have kept her by my side." Reese frowned, her expression grave as she stared at the temple's exit.

An aura fluctuated beside her. Reese glanced to the side and gestured for the people next to her to make way. Just as the space was cleared, Audrey and Vogt appeared in the open area with the bishops and Holy Knights, all looking dusty and disheveled.

Audrey sullenly brushed the dust from her clothes. Her upturned eyes were sharp, and she exuded a "do not approach" aura.

Vogt stood beside her, his expression also grim. After dealing with the beast, they had been blocked by the Gorefiend. In the end, they never got a chance to search for the Godhead and were forced to leave because the temple was collapsing.

To be outmaneuvered by the Black Witches was a great humiliation for the Holy See.

Audrey and Vogt were in a foul mood, so Reese certainly wasn't going to provoke them. She stood quietly, her gaze sweeping over the group behind them. She found that the blond bishop was still not among them, and her recently relaxed brow furrowed once more.

Audrey spent a long time dusting herself off and then cast a cleaning spell on herself before stopping. She glanced at Vogt and Reese and said expressionlessly, "Instead of standing here watching the temple collapse, we should go back and think about how to report to the Pope."

After speaking, she seemed to remember something and snorted coldly. "And remember to explain the matter of that werewolf while you're at it."

With that, Audrey turned and left with her people. She had come in place of a Cardinal; this mission had nothing to do with the Inquisition in the first place.

The reason she was so furious was that she never expected the Holy See to dispatch three Cardinal-level figures to the temple, only to be defeated by the Black Witches.

Since when could the Black Witches act so brazenly before the Holy See? Audrey was in an extremely foul mood.

The Inquisition had always been responsible for monitoring violators within the Holy See. Their focus was different, so Audrey didn't have a deep understanding of the Church's current strength.

She had thought the forces of darkness were being firmly suppressed by the Holy See.

But now... she was truly disappointed.

After Audrey left, Reese shrugged and also led her people away. Vogt gazed in the direction of the temple and sighed deeply.

Not long after they evacuated, the temple collapsed with a roar. The yellow sand buried it, and looking out, one could see nothing but the boundless desert, with no trace of the temple remaining.

On the other side of the desert, Delia dragged her heavy body and collapsed to the ground. Her blood-red eyes scanned her surroundings coldly. Not far from her was the retreating party of Black Witches.

She licked her dry lips, lunged forward, and snatched a Black Witch. She lowered her head and bit into the witch's neck, gulping down the hot blood.

Feeling some strength return to her weary body, she tossed aside the witch's corpse, wiped the blood from her lips, and was just considering where to go next when a dark figure suddenly emerged from the sand.

Having narrowly escaped death from the siege of the Gorefiend and the beast, Evan's first act after leaving the desert was the same as Delia's: to find food.

Delia stared blankly at Evan's figure, the good mood from escaping the temple completely gone.

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