Chapter 1149: 136. Active Pollution

To be honest, this was an extremely fanciful method.

Pollution.

This was probably a word that could only be used when the “deadly poison” cast upon this world by Evil Gods spread.

And from the Great Chaos a thousand years ago until now, Pollution had always been a chronic disease threatening the safety of this world.

It was formless and colorless, spread rapidly, and once it began to spread, it was very easy for an entire city, or even an entire country, to be destroyed.

From Miss Dragon’s work over these years, one could see that even after a full thousand years had passed, the disease known as Pollution still had not completely vanished from this world. It was even still continuously affecting this world.

Because their lesions were the Evil Gods entrenched outside the world barrier.

As long as the Evil Gods did not disappear from this world, there probably would never be a day when disasters of Pollution were completely eradicated.

And now, Muen was actually going to use the same method as an Evil God to pollute Marcie.

Of course, this sounded somewhat unbelievable. How could a human pollute other humans?

Fortunately, to the current Muen, this was not nonsense.

His black flames came from the fusion of the Withering King, the Silent Moon, the Mother of Abundance... a crowd of Evil Gods, plus some messy things. The characteristic inherited from the Withering King—“burning all things and turning them into oneself”—could, in a certain sense, also be considered a kind of “Authority.”

It was only that the defined range was rather small.

And he himself, during the previous Saint Blancfazesiya incident in the Kingdom, had already laid down a Divine Foundation through Pero and through the faith of a large number of new Black Sun believers. In some characteristics, he was extremely close to a god.

Although his martial artist realm was only fifth rank, matched with this luxurious set of attributes, it was simply like a dog riding Lü Bu. Most of the powerful aspects could not be brought out at all.

But at this moment, he did not need to bring out anything powerful. What he needed...

Was only this “characteristic” that was close to a god.

For example, he could also pollute.

Just as he could also have believers.

This was the foundation of everything.

Whoosh.

The black flames swayed, and just like that, touched Marcie’s body.

At first, Marcie felt cold, as if a piece of thousand-year unmelted profound ice had touched her. The chill her skin felt quickly seeped into her soul, making fear instinctively arise in her heart.

Then, in the next instant.

Before she could make any reaction because of this chill, she suddenly felt a heart-rending pain.

“Mm!”

Although Marcie had already forcefully lowered that pained groan, it still made the people around her, whose nerves were tense, all jolt. Although they still had not understood what Muen was doing, anyone with eyes could see that what was happening before them at this moment was some kind of extremely extraordinary thing.

“The reaction is greater than I imagined...”

Muen frowned.

In reality, in that instant just now, under his control, the black flames had only touched Marcie and nothing more. They had not yet carried out any substantial action.

He only wanted to test it. He had never done something like polluting another person before, so of course it was impossible to succeed in one step.

In other words, Marcie’s current pain came from...

“Mar... Marcie!”

Someone suddenly could not help crying out in alarm. “Your hand!”

“...”

Marcie opened her eyes with difficulty. The intense pain made even her small face convulse.

However, when she saw the thing on her hand, it was no longer only her small face trembling. Her entire body began to tremble involuntarily.

At the place Muen was tightly gripping.

That small hand.

Flesh and blood suddenly began squirming rapidly, as if something were rolling beneath her skin and flesh... immediately afterward, the skin suddenly tore open, and within the flesh and blood glowing with scarlet patterns, an eye suddenly emerged, glaring viciously at Muen... or rather, glaring at that cluster of black flames that was gradually approaching.

“Wh... what is this?”

Discovering that an eye had actually grown out of her hand, Marcie finally could not suppress the fear in her heart.

“Don’t move!”

Muen quickly held Marcie down as she tried to escape. “This is the Pollution inside your body being stimulated by the black flames. Don’t move. If I let you go now, it’s over!”

If the Pollution had already erupted completely, then with Marcie’s current physical constitution, she would be completely twisted and corrupted by it in less than a minute!

“I... I didn’t want to move!”

Marcie gritted her teeth. “It’s my body... it’s somewhat not obeying me.”

At the beginning, it was only one hand breaking away from Marcie’s control and beginning to mutate. Gradually, it became the arm, the shoulder... and later, Marcie felt that half her body had already gone out of control. Twisted flesh and blood wandered beneath her skin, and the restless tissues tangled with each other, like a swarm of snakes in heat.

“Damn it!”

Cold sweat seeped from Muen’s forehead. While using the black flames to suppress the Pollution, he secretly thought this was bad.

The resistance of that Pollution was much stronger than he had imagined. This was only “instinctive” behavior without the control of an Evil God’s consciousness, yet it was already this troublesome. He could not imagine what terrifying scene it would be if a certain Evil God, as the source of Pollution, personally lit the fuse.

No wonder even he, after touching Marcie, would be eroded by Pollution in an extremely short time.

This could not continue. Marcie’s body could not hold on for that long.

Muen hardened his heart and was just about to increase the force...

“Consciousness.”

In the distance.

A certain cold voice floated over lightly.

“When resisting Pollution, consciousness is the most important thing. This is also why once the consciousness is eroded, no one can save them.”

“...”

Consciousness.

Right!

Muen suddenly understood.

Why did many Evil Gods always like to tempt and seduce people into falling? Because compared with Pollution from the outside in, corruption from the inside out was far more terrifying.

A person’s consciousness, heart, spirit...

They were forever the strongest line of defense against Pollution...

And also the final line of defense!

Thinking of this, Muen glanced out of the corner of his eye and discovered that the fiery-red figure had, at some unknown time, sat upon the “divine throne” that had originally belonged to the Goddess of Night. Her cheek rested on her hand, as if she were dozing lightly, looking as if she had not paid the slightest attention to this side.

Was it only a casual word...

Muen temporarily could not care about that much and hurriedly said to Marcie:

“Marcie, sacrifice!”

“Eh?” Marcie looked blank.

“Do you know a sacrificial ritual?”

“What sacrificial ritual?”

Marcie became even more bewildered.

“...”

Muen was speechless, so he looked toward the others...

Everyone shook their heads hard, indicating that they did not know.

Muen became even more speechless.

He had never imagined that in this place full of evil believers everywhere, the people here actually did not even know about sacrifice?

But...

Thinking about it, it was also very reasonable. After all, the evil believers here were not true evil believers... only some pitiful people who had been polluted.

Whether it was these ordinary residents who still lived in this world in the posture of “humans” and pursued light, or those pitiful worms who could no longer even maintain their original forms and could only rely on the protection of the Goddess of Night to avoid being completely devoured by Pollution.

Not a single one of them had ever taken the initiative to offer a sacrifice to an Evil God.

Truly...

It made one inexplicably angry.

“Then do it with me!” Muen said.

“Mm!” Marcie nodded hard.

Muen took a deep breath.

On the pair of hands he and Marcie held tightly together, the black flames were still continuously tangling and struggling with the Pollution.

In terms of pure strength, of course his black flames held the advantage, but after all, this was inside Marcie’s body. The black flames could not possibly bring out their characteristic of swallowing everything. At this moment, they were only a medium for “Pollution,” not a means of attack.

In addition, whether it was the black flames or that Pollution, both were instinctively resisted by Marcie’s consciousness. So both of them could only remain inside her body, fighting each other on the surface. If this continued, even if Marcie’s flesh body were completely torn apart, there would be no result.

Just as Miss Dragon had reminded him just now.

The current key point was not which power was stronger. Simply deciding which side had the upper hand had not the slightest meaning.

The important thing was the polluted person’s self-consciousness.

So...

“Prayer.”

Muen slowly squeezed the air out of his lungs and solemnly said these two words.

“[Prayer].”

Marcie followed him and murmured seriously.

She also realized that this was some kind of important ritual, so she did her best to make her pronunciation, her movements, all follow Muen’s every action.

“With all my bone and blood, body, and soul...”

“[With all my bone and blood, body, and soul...]”

“I pray to the great Black Sun.”

“[I pray... to the great Black Sun.]”

Boom!

There was no chanting of a true name, and no need to chant a true name.

The current Muen also could not be considered a true Evil God.

He only needed the black flames as a medium to connect the two of them to each other.

Therefore, the instant Marcie lightly uttered the words “I pray” from between her pale lips, Muen felt a tremendous shock occur within his consciousness, one that even he had not expected!

His mental space.

In the center of countless shattered cracks.

The pitch-black great sun still hung high. The deep sun disk and the holy corona reflected one another, and a sacred yet strange aura gradually spread.

He opened His eyes.

It was once again that lofty perspective, overlooking all things in the world.

Beneath His majestic gaze, the pitiful and humble girl was praying to Him.

—Offering everything of herself in exchange for mercy.

[Granted.]

Muen heard such a voice.

This was both that solemn answer, as if from a god, and also...

A voice that came from himself.

Praying to an Evil God.

Offering a sacrifice.

The Evil God agreed.

And bestowed grace.

From this...

The ritual was complete.

Almost in that same instant.

The black flames that had originally been continuously struggling with the Pollution no longer tangled with it, but instead rapidly surged into the depths of Marcie’s body.

This was Marcie’s voluntary prayer, a plea that came from the heart.

It was also...

An “equivalent” exchange.

So her consciousness no longer resisted the black flames, nor did she have the qualification to resist them.

The black flames...

Or rather, the Pollution from the Black Sun, from this moment on, completely...

Sank deep into her consciousness and soul!

...

...

Rustle, rustle...

A soft wind came from somewhere unknown, carrying the fragrance of flowers and grass.

Marcie opened her eyes and discovered that at some unknown time, she had arrived in a strange place.

Beneath her feet was a carpet made of soft green grass, something she had never stepped on before. Not far away was a clear river. From time to time, creatures called “fish,” which she had only seen in ancient records, leaped from the water, their scales reflecting colorful light beneath the sunlight.

Farther away, a city towered majestically. It was so magnificent that perhaps that one city alone could hold all the people of Annabawei, with plenty of room to spare.

She saw the people in the city coming and going, living openly beneath the sunlight. The black bread that she had once regarded as a treasure was nothing more than the food those people disdained the most.

She saw large amounts of green decorating the edges of the city. Towering trees rose into the clouds. Compared to them, the forest farm at her home was pitifully withered.

She also saw the smiles and ease on the faces of those pedestrians. They did not have to worry that once the cold black night arrived, it would never leave.

In short, countless things she had never seen before were like a book, page after page quickly flipping before her eyes.

“Are you new here?”

Suddenly, Marcie heard a wary and suspicious question.

She turned around following the voice and discovered that a young girl was standing prettily several meters away.

The girl was very young, looking several years younger than Marcie, yet she wore an extremely broad and gorgeous ceremonial crown robe.

The crown atop her head was pure white, like flowing clouds, and also like flickering solar flames. Mysterious black sun patterns were drawn across the broad ceremonial robe, and its gold-inlaid edges revealed a dignity surpassing that of ordinary people.

“Hey, did you not hear this Pope’s words? Are you new here?”

The girl circled around her several times, sizing her up while also using the small scepter in her hand to tap here and knock there...

“How strange. I keep feeling like your path is not quite right... but in essence, you seem to be the same as us? What exactly did that guy... Lord Black Sun do this time? Was He asking for faith power before just for this?”

The girl shook her head and muttered strange words nonstop.

Marcie only stared at her, completely confused.

“Forget it.”

After finishing her muttering, the girl put her hands on her hips. Although she was a good deal shorter than Marcie, she spoke with a bluffing sort of presence.

“No matter what wild path you came from, since you’ve arrived here, you must clearly recognize priority, understand who came first and who came later... do you understand what I mean?”

Marcie first nodded subconsciously, then discovered that she fundamentally understood nothing and shook her head hard.

“What I mean is, I am the Pope!”

The girl snorted coldly. Seeing Marcie’s dumbfounded face, she then emphasized it again. “I am the Pope. I am the one who should be closest to Him. Apart from those few... those few hateful existences who do not respect Lord Black Sun at all and even try to corrupt him, no one can be ahead of me! Do you understand? I don’t care who you are or what your background is, you must stand behind me!”

“...”

Marcie did not reply. Her consciousness had still not returned from all this beauty she had never seen before, and she also could not understand what the young girl before her was talking about at all.

What Pope, what closeness, what hateful existences—she could not understand any of it.

She only felt this warmth, and then silently shed tears.

“Huh? Why are you crying?”

The little girl who called herself Pope suddenly panicked and hurriedly comforted her in flustered confusion.

“Did I do something wrong? Don’t frame me. I didn’t threaten you!”

“...”

“Hey, hey, you wouldn’t be planning to complain about me, would you? I really didn’t do anything. I only came secretly to chat with you!”

“...”

“Aiya, I’ll be merciful. Later, I’ll appoint you as a bishop, all right? Don’t cry!”

“...”

“Archbishop! I’ll appoint you as an archbishop! Stop crying, or He’ll think I was bullying you!”