Chapter 34

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Chapter 34: Abyss

The actions of the intruders were extremely covert.

Under the protection of Natural Aura, almost no soldiers fell asleep again – almost. There might be one or two people dozing off during the week, who were sent underground for recuperation according to the Captain’s orders. The Captain publicly claimed that the underground temperature was more stable and conducive to the recovery of these "patients." On the day when new patients were brought in, in addition to their comrades, a doctor from Red Gum County was also among those transporting the soldiers.

Tasha didn’t care much about who was transporting the people; at first, she didn’t even realize that the person in military attire was not a soldier. Two soldiers carrying a stretcher descended the steps from inside the house, walked into a corner of the dungeon disguised as a basement, and placed the new patient on an empty bed. One of them quickly returned upstairs, while the other stayed back after a quiet conversation ("It’s alright, I want to see if I can do anything else." "You’re so kind, Doctor! Don’t stay too long; be careful of the inspectors causing trouble.").

The man left behind was wearing shabby soldier’s clothes, a ugly helmet, and walked clumsily. He squatted beside the bed, while Tasha half-heartedly paid attention to him, but soon forgot about him.

"Taste of the Heavenly Realm!"

It was Victor, his voice sounded harsh like metal rubbing, a bit scary and reminding of an angry hissing cat. The Book of Dungeons leaped off the shelf with a rustling noise, almost hitting Tasha on the head, shaking her neck for attention.

"What? Where?" said Tasha, puzzled.

"In your dungeon! The disgusting smell gives it away even if it turns to ashes!" Victor exclaimed angrily, "Aha! A Pastor of Saro, wielding the Divine Artifacts of Patricia and Yujana? Is this a Divine Artifact clearance sale in your dungeon? Abyss, a fool who dares to use Divine Artifacts in a dungeon, are the priests of Saro extinct?"

Tasha was confused by the strange names Victor mentioned, but thanks to his reminder, she realized she had missed something.

The doctor in shabby clothes removed his ugly hat and took out a… broken bowl? He held the bowl in his left hand, a candlestick in his right hand that he somehow lit, then walked through a Trap Door in the basement, entering another part of the dungeon.

The unknown events happening in the dungeon were already enough to indicate something unusual to Tasha.

Although he was not invisible, Tasha had just forgotten his presence, like forgetting a stone by the roadside, which was completely abnormal for her memory now. The candlestick in his hand flickered with a colorless flame, lighting up his surroundings, yet seeming inconspicuous. An Amazonian passed by less than two meters in front of him, without giving him a second glance.

"Kill him," Victor said firmly, "You wouldn’t want a Saro follower wandering around the dungeon, they are the ones willing to sacrifice themselves to cleanse evil."

"Explain all the unfamiliar words that appeared before within a minute," Tasha said.

Saro is the God of Sun, Light, and Justice, Moon Goddess Patricia and Star Goddess Yujana are his lesser gods.

During the time when the Spawn from the Abyss and the Heavenly Realm were active on the earth, Saro was one of the most influential Main Gods on the Aryan continent. The Temple of the Sun God spanned the entire continent, with many priests and followers walking on earth. The priests of the sun and Paladins played crucial roles in many battles against evil.

Main Gods maintain a high level of authority and mystery, while lesser gods are closer to the followers. They use Divine Artifacts, which hold their power, to assist devout followers, allowing these chosen ones to briefly touch the power of the gods as mortals. The Moon Goddess once bestowed a Divine Artifact called the "Cup of Flowing Moon," the bearer of which could penetrate any barrier, like moonlight through a window. In the temple of the Star Goddess, a candlestick named "Faint Starlight" is worshipped. The candles on this Divine Artifact burn without fire, and everything illuminated by the candlelight is forgotten.

It appears that the broken bowl in the intruder’s left hand was once the Cup of Flowing Moon, and the dark Faint Starlight candlestick was the reason why Tasha and the patrolling Amazonian could not detect him.

The intruder’s equipment was very luxurious and his intrusion was very secretive, but at the same time, it was so blatant that it was astonishing.

The Faint Starlight candlestick did indeed have hidden abilities, but when activating the Divine Artifact, the unmistakable light of the Heavenly Realm – a Heavenly Realm power activity trace similar to the Abyss Factor – shone in the eyes of demons like a flash in the dark night sky. This behavior was so reckless that it seemed provocative, making Victor as irritable as an OCD sufferer seeing a messy room.

"He went inside, kill him!" the demon urged.

"I can do it anytime," said Tasha.

She means to wait a bit longer.

Tasha controls everything in the dungeon, and Victor, realizing he has no other Divine Artifact on him, knows he has lost all advantage when this follower’s movements are discovered. Tasha wonders why this person has come here, what does he want.

The priest who took off his hat had golden hair and looked very young, probably only in his twenties. He carefully avoided the Amazonians in the corridor, did not enter any room, walked a short distance deeper into the dungeon, and stopped at the first intersection. Instead of going further, he quickly returned to the soldiers’ ward where he had previously been.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, the priest found the dungeon temperature comfortable, his solemn face did not show signs of excessive nervousness. Divine Artifacts could work when the deities were absent, but it was still a heavy burden for mortals to use them, one was already quite tough, not to mention two. Leaning against the wall, the priest closed his eyes for a while, as if he had made a decision, walked to the worst injured soldier’s bedside, placed two Divine Artifacts side by side on the floor, and began to pray with hands clasped.

"Oh, you’re waiting for him to dispel the curse?" Victor realized, "Don’t be delusional, the Heavenly Realm is just as isolated and God’s protection is absent, no Clergy can use a divine spell, not even the simplest light spell! Unless you have a Main God’s Divine Artifact, but do you think Divine Artifacts grow on trees?"

The praying priest drew out a dark red rod from his chest.

"Prideful Sun Rod?" Victor squeezed out a few syllables from his throat.

"What is that?" Tasha asked.

"Saro’s special object from the gods, placed in the original place of worship for the Sun God. Saro’s special object is the only one of its kind in the world where people live," Victor said in a dreamy voice, trying his best to stay alert. "But even if you have a special object from the gods! Do you think just anyone can use it? These special objects from the gods can end up in the hands of shallow followers, and the special object from the Main God, in the wrong hands, is nothing more than a stick for making fire! The Heavenly Realm is far away now, even the pope cannot get permission from the gods, unless they are born as chosen ones…"

The priest half knelt down, holding tightly onto a stick with thorny decorations, blood oozing from the cuts on his skin, flowing down the patterns onto the staff. The dark red stick suddenly lit up, like a blazing sun, illuminating the underground room as bright as daylight.

"The abyss…," Victor moaned in pain, "a naturally born Saint Child."

Tasha was impressed by Victor’s ability to use opposite words so cleverly.

Now the stick was gleaming with golden light all over, the blood on it making a faint sizzling sound, as if being evaporated by flames. The priest held the Prideful Sun Rod, as if enduring some pain, gritting his teeth as he slowly approached the sick bed.

He touched the top of the stick with the Sun symbol to the soldier’s forehead.

Tasha heard a sharp sound, like water or oil being splashed onto a burning hot iron. The soldier who had been sleeping for a long time on the sick bed suddenly started moving, his legs convulsing violently, as if having a tooth pulled out by a dentist without any anesthesia. The golden light became even brighter, making Tasha had to look away as well, the intense heat radiating from it even with her eyes closed made her wonder if the soldier’s face was still there. After a few seconds, the golden light disappeared, and the priest fell to the ground, shaking, holding the stick that had turned back to coral color.

The soldier on the sick bed was unharmed, in fact, he looked much better.

He was the worst victim of a withering curse in the entire ward. Before the priest arrived, his cheeks had sunken in, and his skin looked like an old orange. The shining light from the Prideful Sun Rod seemed to flush into him like a rush of water, his shriveled skin starting to plump up again, the movement of his chest becoming visible once more. He now looked like an exhausted patient who had worked overtime for days, rather than a dried-up corpse about to be buried.

"Praise Saro," the priest whispered.

He slowly got up, reinserted the Prideful Sun Rod back into his body, and limped out. It was only then that Tasha realized he might be a cripple, but he had enough energy to walk properly before. The ghost didn’t approach the clergy, and Tasha followed behind, passing by the newly built watchtower on the ground, watching the young doctor, whom Victor called the natural Saint Child, pretending to return here as a priest. He put away three Divine Artifacts, moved back to a normal small house in Red Gum County, and greeted people along the way.

The house was very ordinary, neatly arranged, showing its owner’s modest financial situation. In simple terms, not very good.

"The Cult of Saul is finished," Victor said firmly. "No, it’s definitely done for."

The next morning, the healed soldier opened his eyes. The on-duty nurse (Amazonian, male) quickly noticed the thirsty man and brought him milk-soaked bread porridge, of which he ate three large bowls. The captain was overjoyed by this good news and personally led the recovered soldier back to the surface.

Halite claimed that enough rest could make those patients recover on their own. The usually somber army celebrated all night, and the soldiers who had doubted that they could only wait for death saw new hope.

Tasha too.

A cult she heard for the first time today was of no concern to Tasha. She had no interest in the priest’s story, beliefs, or intentions; what mattered was that he had a way to solve problems.

"You can’t recruit him!" Victor said. "Saro’s followers’ minds are more stubborn than rocks, and they are more annoying than leeches. Expecting him to save the evil dungeon lackeys? Completely impossible!"

"Really?" said Tasha.

——————————

"…and then I felt very warm, like being heated up after being frozen." a soldier among his comrades said, "Suddenly I felt extremely hungry! I tried hard to open my eyes, and once they were open, I could move my arms and legs again!"

The soldier sat on a stool in the tavern, his comrades urged him to recount his experience of falling ill and recovering, treating him like a war hero. In their eyes, he truly was a hero who overcame the "illness demon." The listeners held their cups of wine, listening carefully with a mixture of fear and hope, eager to find the secret to recovery in his story, hoping to come back to life using the same methods when they fell.

"Don’t give him alcohol!" shouted Samuel.

The person offering beer to the soldier made a funny face, and the others chuckled. "Have mercy on me, good doctor!" the soldier pleaded, "If I can’t even have a sip of wine, it’s better for me to go back and lie down!"

His friends interjected, some ignoring the warnings, insisting on placing the cup of wine on his table. The soldier revealed a hungry look, rubbing his hands as he was about to drink, when suddenly the captain passed by, casually took the cup of wine and downed it, then turned back with a gesture of "I’m watching you."

The soldier dramatically cried out, hitting his head on the counter. "Yes, sir!" someone saluted with two fingers, while others playfully teased, "No one can escape the eyes of Mama Halite!" Mama rolled her eyes at the group of jubilant bunnies who were drinking beer merrily, and she ordered a glass of milk for the newly recovered man.

Captain Halite footed the bill for all the expenses that day, but some soldiers still chipped in to buy drinks and snacks for Samuel. "This one’s on me!" the tipsy group said, "Compared to you, our military doctor is like a butcher!"

Samuel politely sipped some wine, making him one of the few who remained awake late at night. He didn’t enjoy the noisy gathering, finding the soldiers crude and annoying, but he was glad to see them safe.

Before leaving, the soldier he saved kept telling his story again. His face, once cursed the day before, now looked a bit pale, but he was slowly getting better. The man mentioned the fiery furnace in his dream again, and despite trying to hold back, Samuel couldn’t help but interject, "It’s the sun."

The soldier looked confused, "What?"

"It’s not the furnace that saves the frozen ones, it’s the sun," Samuel said solemnly, "Light drives away darkness, the sun fights off the cold, justice defeats evil, it’s great… um, some great power creating miracles."

The drunk man next to them laughed, "I don’t get what you’re saying, Doctor!"

"The Doctor is speaking that cultured talk again," someone else chuckled, "Oh, you should get some sun, eat more, drink more! Your face is pale like a girl’s!"

The drunken fellows quickly shifted the topic to alcohol and women, which offended Samuel, who walked out frowning.

He hated those who didn’t take divine grace seriously, including his recent self. He was about to mention that name, his dog Latin, oh so terrible. He had drunk too much, committed a frivolous sin, and his teacher would surely be disappointed if he were still around. Samuel couldn’t walk too fast, his naturally short leg making his pace quite comical, especially when he was tired. Fortunately, he had recovered enough to use the Staff of God once again.

The nun who adopted him, his old teacher, had said he was chosen by God, able to use the Staff of God as proof of his divine grace. The old woman believed until her last days that Samuel would bring back the glory of Saro, but nearly ten years had passed since then, and Samuel was simply a doctor passing time in a small county town.

This will not go on forever.

Samuel pressed his chest, his heart beating fast. Every time he felt excited, the Staff of God would press on his chest, making him feel breathless. This was one of the reasons he became steady since childhood and a proof of his chosenness. God tests the chosen ones, so he had been waiting patiently, maybe his previous twenty-five years of life were meant for this moment.

He really did it.

Grandma said Samuel could see evil. He had been beaten for questioning this before, but it turned out Grandma was right. He saw a disgusting darkness in the faces of those "sick" people for the first time. He found out that the so-called disease was not ordinary. After observing for two weeks, he managed to make a soldier who was responsible for transporting patients suddenly have diarrhea, replacing him. Samuel made all the preparations he could, and his adventure finally revealed the truth to him.

Human soldiers were attacked by an evil force, even more horrifying, there was a huge underground building just a wall away from where the soldiers were stationed. What was this? The legendary dungeon? How could it reappear in Aryan? Oh my, this thing is right beneath Red Gum County! Samuel wished he could immediately uncover the conspiracy behind this, but his power was not enough to sustain three types of Divine Artifacts for a long time. He could not bear to ignore those affected by evil before finding out the truth.

The Staff of God really could drive away evil… No, the doubt contained in this statement was too shameful, another mistake. Samuel was determined to self-flagellate twenty times when he returned. He should say that he was truly able to use the Staff of God for the first time. In his previous twenty-five years of life, he had never encountered an opportunity to use it.

The protection of the Star Goddess made the guards ignore Samuel, and the help of the Moon Goddess enabled him to pass through closed doors. Samuel once again entered the room filled with soldiers trapped by curses.

He looked at one withered face after another, finding the person with the thickest fog, took out the Staff of God and began the exorcism ritual. Samuel unwrapped the bandage on his hand, let the reversed blade on the staff cut open the wound, blood and energy were drawn out of him and transformed into the radiant light of the Staff of God. He was not worthy to face the glory of God directly, so he could only look at the faces of the soldiers. The fog turned into screaming ghost faces under the strong light, quickly dissipated, vanished, like tiles washed with soap and hot water.

This feeling made Samuel weak but also incredibly powerful. He felt complete and flawless, felt the dirt washed away, the trapped souls liberated, there was nothing better than this.

The person on the bed started breathing evenly, Samuel breathed a sigh of relief and took back the Staff of God. Maybe because he was more experienced and prepared than last time, he didn’t feel unable to support it yet, which made him not want to leave quickly.

He hesitated and looked around. The situation of the remaining people, even the worst ones, was not as serious as the soldier he had saved the first time. It wouldn’t be a problem to wait until the next time. The consumption of the Staff of God was greater than the other two Divine Artifacts. Even if he could barely use it one more time, he couldn’t safely leave after using it.

So, Samuel turned his head and walked back towards the wall.

The Holy Grail of the Moon Goddess protected him to penetrate the stone wall. The atmosphere behind the wall changed, from a flat basement to a natural cave or an old stone fortress. There were no torches here; blue-lit lamps were lit on both sides, something that Samuel had noticed last time. This time, he walked towards the wall, tiptoed and squinted his eyes for a moment, but he didn’t see flames in the glass lampshade. Inside seemed to be a container with something emitting a blue light.

Samuel quickly gave up studying the wall lamp and continued walking forward.

Not far from the soldiers’ ward, there was a rather large room where occasionally people could be seen coming in and out. Samuel cautiously entered the room and what he saw made him gasp.

It was also a ward where many people were lying down. These people were also entwined with that evil gray smoke, thicker than on the soldiers, almost engulfing the whole bed, horrifying just to look at. Samuel stared at these dreadful misty clusters and had to make a considerable effort to distinguish the human bodies from within, they were just like the soldiers outside, all human, not the monsters he expected to see in a dungeon.

The sound of the door almost made Samuel jump up, a girl in her early teens walked in and came straight towards him. Samuel defensively pressed against the wall, sweaty palms, unsure of how to react. The girl stopped next to him, pulled out a stool from under the bed, and sat down.

"How are you today?" she whispered, "I’m fine, mom."

Mommy?

Samuel looked towards the bed, curious to see who the woman was. He carefully scanned the surrounding hospital bed, and in the swirling smoke, he could see the outlines of women.

Soldiers outside, women in the dungeon? Who are they? There are no missing people in Red Gum County… Wait! Samuel suddenly remembered a nearby town where he sometimes gathered herbs. It was said that the initial fighting started in Deer Horn Town, where the situation was much worse than in Red Gum County.

The heavy evil aura on these people, getting attacked even before the soldiers, makes sense. But the intensity of this evil is enough to kill a person, how did they survive?

Samuel brought the candle holder closer to a particularly thick smoke, and amidst the tightly sealed evil, he could faintly see a faint, blank space that blocked out the evil.

What is this mixed gas? Why did only women survive among the earliest victims? The dungeon kept them locked here, even brought their relatives here, what are they planning to do?

He couldn’t process any more information, all kinds of terrifying speculations filled his mind, making every cell in his body belonging to the Saro followers scream. Samuel breathed heavily, feeling a heavy weight on his chest – at this moment, he was the only one who could save these poor people and thwart the evil plot.

Samuel silently swore with his mouth, "Wait for me!" He rushed out, full of determination.

"See, we don’t necessarily have to recruit him." Tasha laughed at Victor as she watched the priest return home deep in thought.