Chapter 639: Chapter 638: The Ambitious Man’s Memory_1
Blood Moon Cult headquarters.
"My Lord, the initiation of devotion has been completed, we have transformed five people this batch." The mechanical voice of the follower brought Mr. Bloodrobe back to his senses.
He made the body he controlled turn its head to look at the follower, and even after these few days, he still hadn’t gotten used to perceiving the world through the undead.
Strictly speaking, the undead he manipulated weren’t entirely dead, but rather a kind of vampire whose spirit had been thoroughly stripped away through "sacrifice."
Controlling the undead from the Netherworld to perceive the world around was an arduous task, with things appearing as if seen through a layer of black fog and sounds becoming murky and chaotic.
But this space belonging to death was absolutely safe. Beyond a doubt, Aiden Galahad could sense his presence. Mr. Bloodrobe guessed this was related to the Revenge Goddess who should have disappeared; during the battle in Sunset City, he decapitated Aiden with the Blades of Revenge, yet the wound made by the Sovereign Authority inexplicably healed itself when he was not paying attention. If it wasn’t interference by a sovereign-level power, then it could only be the injury being transferred using the sacrificial power of the same authority.
This was a hunt he orchestrated for his opponent, and if the hunter was always noticed by the prey, the hunt was doomed to fail.
"Send three to the prison, keep two in reserve," Mr. Bloodrobe instructed.
"Understood," the follower bowed, moving stiffly like a marionette, following the instructions to the letter.
Mr. Bloodrobe calculated briefly in his mind and realized that he didn’t have many followers left to use.
The development of the Cult wasn’t as smooth as it had been in Sunset City; the autonomous region lacked fertile ground for the growth of dark faiths. The past success of Blood Moon Cult partly stemmed from co-opting human followers of the old cult as a foundation and partly from the powers of the Conspiracy Goddess.
What was most troublesome was that it seemed the enemy had covered the area with their intelligence network, and the cult’s actions were constantly under surveillance. The local heresy tribunal and the witches’ gatherings were eyeing them greedily. Moreover, Mr. Bloodrobe was certain that behind Aiden Galahad, there was some professional intelligence organization backing him up.
The development of the Cult continued to face restrictions; if things dragged on, their disadvantage here would only grow.
He needed to eliminate this iteration of Aiden Galahad as soon as possible. If allowed to accumulate his advantages, Aiden’s revenge would become thoroughly unapproachable.
From the follower’s reports, Aiden Galahad had already begun to hold down the prison, which would be his home ground, covered by the domain of the Wordless Code.
Once the Wordless Code had the rule "prohibit harmful acts" written into it, the power of the Blades of Revenge would be difficult to exercise. After all, the principle of the Blades of Revenge was to exchange equal harm for harm received. If harm itself couldn’t be inflicted, the power of the Blades of Revenge would be unable to trigger.
The spiritual control ability of the "Betrayal" power could bypass this rule; however, the Wordless Code could similarly use rules to prohibit spiritual interference. The position of the Sovereign Authority was higher than that of the saints’ power, and the power of "Betrayal" would thus be suppressed as well.
But Mr. Bloodrobe was certain that under such premises, the damage transfer effect of "sacrifice" would mostly not be prohibited.
If harmful actions themselves could not be carried out, "sacrifice" would lose most of its significance; and even if the harm couldn’t be transferred, Mr. Bloodrobe could have the followers directly use the Blades of Revenge.
That fellow would probably still need to keep a safeguard for himself, to ensure that at a critical moment, he could once again divert away the harm of the Blades of Revenge.
Turning himself into one of the undead and hiding in the Netherworld gave Mr. Bloodrobe the possibility to mount a surprise attack; he had to find the loopholes in the opponent’s rules, then strike a lethal blow before the opponent could use his power.
Although the "Revenge" ritual could not be completed just yet, he could take the opportunity to seize the Wordless Code and find the whereabouts of the Hand of Oblivion.
Thinking of this, he began to regret not having easily finished off that guy in Sunset City— he had been too greedy. He thought that the Hand of Oblivion was within reach and that he could eradicate Aiden Galahad’s existence on the spot, without waiting for another "Aiden" to emerge, so he had failed to make a decisive move.
But this time, he would not give the other party such an opportunity again.
Wait for me, my goddess, I will prove myself to you.
No sooner had this thought emerged than he vaguely heard a sneer.
He opened his eyes in the underworld, while simultaneously taking control of the deceased in the outside world, glancing around distractedly.
"What are you looking for, Master?" the followers clustered around him asked.
"Do not ask too much," Mister Blood Robe commanded absently.
He could vaguely feel that the sneer did not come from the outside, nor from the underworld, but... it had arisen from the bottom of his heart as if a hidden thought was gradually surfacing.
This reminded him of a strange incident.
Not long ago, to roam freely between the land of the living and the underworld, he used the power of the "Death" authority to transform himself into one of the undead— in simpler terms, he had used "Desolation" and "Undeath" on himself. As he deliberately stepped into death, he used "Undeath" to exempt himself from it.
While crossing the boundary of death, his consciousness had blurred for a while; during that time, he saw some fragmented memories— scenes he had no recollection of at all that momentarily flickered through the depths of his consciousness.
After crossing over death, however, he could not recall the content of those memories at all, as if he had awakened from a lengthy dream and forgotten what he had dreamed about, only clearly remembering that he had dreamed.
Since then, he would occasionally hear another voice in his head as if another consciousness was attached to his mind.
He was certain that this was the work of the goddess of conspiracy.
"Is this also a test for me?" Mister Blood Robe murmured softly, "My goddess."
His thoughts drifted back to many years ago, to the moment when he first received a revelation from the goddess of conspiracy—
"To court a sovereign? Ambitious souls aren’t rare, but one as mad as you, not many, you have made a lasting impression on me. I’ll give you a chance. Strive to be a pawn I recognize, and I will let you become my partner, an equal to me," the bodiless goddess of conspiracy had communicated directly with his spirit.
"Please tell me, how can I gain Your approval?"
"Please me. Your goal is to strive for an authority; I will help you, but I will also test you," the goddess of conspiracy laughed heartily, "Dance on my chessboard, and play out the story I wish to see!"
Memory was interrupted for a brief period here; when he regained his autonomy, he had become the agent of the goddess of conspiracy, until he betrayed her.
His ambition was not to become the goddess’s servant but to be an equal.
"All I have done is to gain Your recognition, my goddess," Mister Blood Robe whispered in the utter silence of the underworld, and a greedy smile appeared on his lips.
