Chapter 92: The Crimson Tail Tribe

"Enemies!"

The warriors outside immediately converged on the chieftain’s house.

Aldric showed no panic. He simply turned toward Kiyome.

"Raise the barrier."

She remained still.

Aldric looked directly into her eyes and reminded her coldly:

"If you stop here, then the Lynx Tribe, the Spirit Deer Tribe, and everyone who died before them will have died for nothing."

Kiyome gritted her teeth.

Aldric continued:

"You want to see your mother and younger sister again, don’t you?"

The images of her family immediately surfaced in her mind.

In the end, Kiyome swung her hand.

Nine purple talismans pierced through the roof and flew toward the positions she had secretly marked while entering the tribe.

A massive barrier quickly rose and covered the entire valley.

The Crimson Tail tribespeople immediately realized that every route out of the settlement had been sealed.

The chieftain looked at the barrier overhead, then turned his gaze toward Kiyome.

The anger in his eyes slowly changed into disappointment.

"You really did it."

Kiyome did not look at him.

Aldric immediately launched a Fireball.

The chieftain raised a shield, but the explosion still blasted him through the wall.

The house collapsed.

The Crimson Tail warriors outside charged together.

Fire-element magic, claws, and short blades continuously struck toward Aldric, but after absorbing the Fate of three tribes, his strength had increased tremendously.

An earthen wall rose and blocked the attacks.

Aldric swung his wand.

Dozens of flaming arrows immediately rained down.

Explosions continuously echoed throughout the tribe.

The wooden houses began to burn.

The elderly and children fled toward the barrier in panic, only to be thrown back by the curtain Kiyome had erected.

A female Crimson Tail warrior rushed through the flames, her blade slashing straight toward Aldric’s neck.

He leaned aside and avoided it, but another claw immediately struck from behind.

Kiyome opened her fan.

Purple foxfire pierced through the female warrior’s chest.

She collapsed in front of Kiyome, her eyes still wide open.

"Why..."

Blood spilled from her mouth, but she still forced herself to ask:

"We’re... both Fox Demons..."

Kiyome stared at her for a moment, then turned her face away.

"I’m sorry."

Aldric heard her and laughed.

"What good is apologizing? If you’re going to kill them, stop pretending to feel bad about it."

Kiyome looked at him coldly, but could not refute him.

The battle lasted less than ten minutes.

The chieftain and most of the warriors were defeated by Aldric and Kiyome.

The survivors were forced back toward the ancient maple tree, where the tribe’s ancestral ground had been built.

Aldric looked at the hundreds of people crowded together in front of him and appeared satisfied.

"Much more convenient when they’re all in one place."

The Crimson Tail chieftain used his staff to force himself back to his feet.

One shoulder had been badly burned by the flames, yet he still stood in front of the elderly and children.

"If you want their Fate, you’ll have to step over my corpse first."

Aldric smiled and directly struck the man’s knee with his wand.

The chieftain collapsed.

Aldric stepped forward, planted his foot on the hand holding the staff, and slowly increased the pressure.

The sound of finger bones breaking made the people behind him scream.

"You’re too weak to make demands."

Aldric looked down at him.

"You should feel honored. Your tribe’s Fate will become part of the protagonist’s strength."

"The protagonist?"

"You don’t need to understand."

Aldric pressed down harder.

"NPCs only need to fulfill their role and disappear."

Kiyome stood not far away, the fan in her hand becoming colder and colder.

A child’s voice suddenly came from behind her.

"Sister Kiyome..."

She immediately turned around.

The little girl holding the cloth fox from earlier was standing among the crowd.

One of her fox ears had been burned by the flames, and tears continuously ran down her small face.

"Is the ritual almost over?"

Kiyome did not answer.

The girl tried to smile.

"Mom said you’re the chieftain’s guest. You’re going to help us, right?"

Her mother immediately pulled her close.

"Don’t talk to her."

She looked at Kiyome with hatred.

"She’s the one who trapped us here."

The little girl froze.

She looked at the purple barrier in the sky, then at the identical flames burning around Kiyome’s fan.

The smile slowly disappeared from her face.

"You lied to us?"

Kiyome’s hand trembled.

Aldric turned toward her impatiently.

"Start the ritual."

"Wait."

"What are you waiting for?"

Kiyome looked at the little girl.

Without warning, the image of her younger sister appeared in her mind.

She had possessed the same small ears.

She had once carried a cloth fox too and followed Kiyome everywhere around the tribe.

Aldric stepped beside her and lowered his voice.

"As long as they die, your sister can come back."

"But they’re Fox Demons too."

"So what?"

Kiyome turned toward him.

Aldric spoke calmly:

"There are plenty of Fox Demons in this world. No one will care if a few hundred disappear."

The way he referred to the people before them as though they were animals made Kiyome’s gaze turn cold.

But in the end, she still did not lower the barrier.

Aldric raised his hand in satisfaction.

[Ding!]

[Detected a life community possessing stable Fate.]

[Number of targets within range: 486.]

[Do you agree to convert all Fate belonging to the targets?]

"Agree."

Red light immediately spread from the ancestral ground.

Runes crawled across the earth, passed beneath every house, then connected to Kiyome’s barrier.

The moment she realized that the Magic Array was using her barrier itself to imprison the souls, Kiyome understood that she had become part of the ritual.

Crying quickly filled the valley.

The Crimson Tail tribespeople tried to run, but they could not escape the red light.

Golden strands of Fate were pulled from their bodies one after another and flew toward Aldric.

Kiyome watched the little girl from before collapse into her mother’s arms.

"It hurts..."

The child clutched the cloth fox, her voice becoming weaker.

"Mom... it hurts..."

Her mother could only hold her tightly while staring at Kiyome.

"The people of your tribe will hate you."

Kiyome immediately tightened her grip on the fan.

"Shut up."

"If they really come back to life, they’ll hate what you’ve become."

"I said shut up!"

Foxfire erupted around Kiyome, causing part of the Magic Array to tremble.

Aldric immediately turned toward her.

"Stabilize the barrier!"

Kiyome gritted her teeth and continued pouring mana into it.

One Crimson Tail tribesperson after another collapsed.

New lingering thoughts flooded into Aldric’s mind, mixing with the cries and curses of the hundreds who had died before them.

But this time, he did not clutch his head or scream at them to be silent.

He spread his arms and allowed the Fate to continuously pour into his body before bursting into laughter.

"More!"

The mana around Aldric rapidly increased.

"Scream louder! You should feel honored to become my strength!"

Kiyome looked at him and, for the first time, truly felt that the man in front of her was no longer sane.

Or perhaps Aldric had never been sane.

She simply had not wanted to face the truth.

At that moment, a Crimson Tail youth lying near the edge of the Magic Array suddenly pushed himself up.

He was severely injured, one arm almost completely unusable, but he still dragged himself toward the barrier.

Directly in front of him, one of Kiyome’s talismans had shifted slightly away from its node.

Only a little.

Perhaps because of the battle.

Or perhaps because her hand had trembled when she placed it.

The youth threw himself into the gap.

The barrier trembled and allowed his body to pass through.

Kiyome saw everything.

She only needed to raise her hand to kill him.

But in the end, her fan remained still.

The Crimson Tail youth rushed into the forest and disappeared.

Several minutes later, the conversion process was complete.

The entire valley fell silent.

Only the sound of flames consuming the houses remained.

Aldric checked the System panel, then slowly frowned.

"Four hundred and eighty-five?"

Kiyome tightened her grip on the fan.

Aldric turned toward her.

"The original notification said four hundred and eighty-six."

"One died before the ritual finished."

"Where’s the body?"

"Burned by the fire."

Aldric stared at her for a long time.

Kiyome did not avoid his gaze.

In the end, Aldric sneered and turned away.

"It’s only one life. Not worth wasting time over."

He stepped over the bodies surrounding the ancestral ground, felt the growing strength inside his body, then said with satisfaction:

"Next tribe."

Kiyome looked at the little girl still lying in her mother’s arms.

The red cloth fox had fallen to the ground, half of it burned away by the flames.

She bent down and picked it up.

Aldric turned back.

"What are you doing?"

Kiyome stared at the toy for a long time before placing it inside her spatial ring.

"Nothing."

She stood up, her face becoming cold once again.

"There’s another tribe to the east."

...

The Crimson Tail youth ran through the entire night.

By the time he saw the lights of a Church outpost, he could no longer feel his legs.

His body collapsed in front of the fence.

His remaining hand still tightly gripped a torn fragment of the purple talisman from the barrier.

The guards immediately rushed over.

"Someone’s injured!"

The youth forced his eyes open.

He did not know whether the people in front of him could be trusted, but he still used the last of his strength to speak.

"Kiyome..."

One of the guards crouched down.

"Who?"

"Aldric..."

His voice grew weaker.

"They... killed everyone..."

After those final words, the youth completely lost consciousness.

One hour later, an urgent report was sent back to the Holy City.

However, before it appeared on the desk of the Judicator Legion, a copy had already been delivered into a secret room deep within the Church district.

A Memory Orb projected the final image recorded by the torn talisman.

Aldric stood amid hundreds of golden strands of Fate, his face overflowing with excitement while the Crimson Tail tribespeople collapsed one after another around him.

A plump hand covered in rings slowly reached toward the image.

The fingertip traced Aldric’s face, then lingered for a long time over his smiling lips.

A man’s voice echoed through the dark room.

"Far prettier than the reports."

He chuckled softly before giving an order to the person kneeling behind him.

"Keep watching him. Don’t let Rhea kill him too soon."