Chapter 172: Corrupt Priest.

[Blood Ritual]

[Careful what you wish for, immortality is seldom a blessing, mortality is always a recipe for insanity, corruption is a state of being that transcends all pure and holy creations of the creation gods]

[You have corrupted the Eidolon Priest]

Damien barely had time to register the strings of information the Emissary was sending into his mind. His focus was still fixed on the changes happening to the Eidolon Priest, and whatever the Emissary meant by corruption could wait.

The Eidolon’s body was now rising into the air, its limbs hanging helplessly as the dark tentacles continued to drag it toward the Tome of Avarice. Its body slowly began to distort as it was pulled toward the open book, becoming less like flesh and more like something being forcibly converted into another form.

Soon, it would become part of the page itself.

Damien watched without blinking. The wind that had been raging around them gradually slowed until it vanished completely. The darkness surrounding Damien began to thin with it, retreating back toward the Tome until the oppressive presence finally disappeared.

He saw the Undead Lich still seated cross-legged on the ground, its head swinging wildly from side to side as though it had completely lost track of where it was.

Damien stared at it for a moment.

Then he grabbed the Lich by the skull and squeezed, the skeletal body immediately stopped moving.

Damien held it there for several seconds before finally releasing it and reaching down for the Tome of Avarice. He yanked the book out of the Lich’s hands and pulled it toward himself.

"That’s enough... The spell worked, I think."

The Lich was still moving strangely, so Damien kicked it aside and ignored its reaction.

His attention returned to the Tome, drawn immaculately across the second page was the New Eidolon Priest.

The creature’s body was depicted in perfect detail, but it wasn’t still. It was writhing across the page, its expression twisted in agony. Damien couldn’t hear anything directly, yet for some reason, he almost felt as though the Priest’s screams were still trapped between the pages.

He stared at it for several seconds. Then he noticed something else.

He could release it. The realization came naturally, as though the Tome itself had simply made the option available to him. He didn’t need to understand the runes or perform another ritual. If he wanted to, he could apparently bring the Eidolon Priest back out of the page.

Damien’s fingers rested against the edge of the book.

But why would he? Especially after the warning from the Emissary.

The Eidolon Priest had already become something else, something that apparently transcended the purity of the creation gods. Damien had no idea what that meant yet, but he wasn’t foolish enough to throw away something the Tome had just given him.

The Eidolon Priest was definitely here to stay.

His black miasma gradually faded until Damien once more stood within the same room as Hannah.

She was clearly dumbstruck.

Hannah stared at him for several seconds without saying anything. From her perspective, Damien had disappeared behind a wall of darkness, and now he had suddenly returned looking completely normal. The only difference was the Tome of Avarice in his hands and the strange expression on his face.

For a brief moment, she genuinely wondered if the person who had walked out of the darkness was still Damien or if some kind of monster had replaced him.

Then the Undead Priest rose from the ground and once more stood imposingly before her, only then did Hannah finally relax.

"Can I ask what just happened?"

Damien smiled mischievously.

"I just made a sacrifice to an unholy book, and used its power to defile all that stands for goodness and purity."

Hannah raised a brow. "Weren’t you already doing that, though?" She pointed toward the undead Eidolon Priest.

"Oh." Damien exclaimed.

"I guess I have been."

Claire’s figure walked through the door, looking like she’d run through a marathon just to find Damien again. Her breathing was slightly heavier than usual, and there was a clear lack of patience in her expression.

"Damien, we really can’t afford to keep delaying. It’s time to go."

Hannah’s well-endowed chest bounced slightly as she turned toward Claire, but Damien didn’t notice. His attention shifted away right after she stopped moving.

"Go where? Are we being attacked?"

Claire shook her head.

"No. It’s Damien. Andrea needs to have a word with you, and quickly, if I might add."

Hannah turned toward him with a curious expression. "Why are you running away from Andrea? Did you do something nefarious?"

Damien honestly didn’t know what to feel about that question. He looked at Hannah for a moment, wondering how she had somehow managed to make him sound guilty without actually accusing him of anything.

"You know, I feel like you guys easily jump to conclusions when it involves me. She’s probably just looking for someone to help her understand more ancient murals or something."

Hannah and Claire stared inquisitively at Damien.

Damien’s expression slowly flattened.

He knew that look. They had already decided he was hiding something, and apparently there was no point trying to argue against two people who had reached the same conclusion without even discussing it.

He sighed.

"Alright, let’s go."

...

Damien trailed behind Claire for a short while before he couldn’t help but ask.

"Where are you taking me?"

He had every right to be curious. They had left the bounds of the other survivors a long while ago, and they were still walking. Damien had already explored a large portion of the city, so the fact that Claire was taking him this far away made him wonder where exactly they were going.

If the city had a further edge to it, Damien was pretty sure she would be taking him there.

"We’re almost there. It’s just behind that fallen section of the wall." Claire pointed ahead.

Damien nodded, but another thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Do you know what happened to the bodies left behind by our human warriors? I went back to the frozen wasteland to gather undead and bury them, but they were already gone. It was obvious that they weren’t buried either."

Claire frowned lightly. "No. I don’t know."

Before he could ask anything else, Claire stopped walking.

"We’re here."

That was what she said, but Damien didn’t see much of anything, just endless nothing. He looked around the ruined city, wondering if Claire had somehow brought him to the wrong place.

"Where exactly?"

Claire waved him over, and he followed obediently. She led him towards an artificial cave dug into the ground, its entrance partially hidden beneath a fallen section of the wall. It seemed Andrea had been busy. Whatever was down there had to be important enough that she didn’t want the other survivors knowing about it, otherwise there would have been little reason to hide it so carefully.

The inside was brighter than it looked from outside. Bright torches had been placed along the walls, illuminating the rough passage ahead of them, but it was clear that the place had been dug in a hurry. The walls were uneven, with loose stones scattered across the ground, and whoever had dug the tunnel had clearly sacrificed durability and precision for more space.

But as they went deeper, Damien began noticing human figures lying on the ground.

Most of them were still bloody, their broken armour covering bodies that had been left exactly as they were after the battle. Some still had weapons nearby, while others had nothing left except the damaged equipment clinging to their bodies.

Damien now knew where the bodies had gone.

Andrea had them moved over a week ago. It must have taken some manpower to transport all of them from the frozen wasteland and bring them here so quickly, especially with everything else the survivors had been dealing with.

He didn’t say anything as he continued walking.

Ahead of them stood Andrea and Yuri, both looking unusually solemn.

"This is quite the awful feng shui. Couldn’t you have chosen a more glamorous place to meet?"

Andrea stepped forward.

"Damien, whatever is below this city is stirring. Your spell yesterday must have sped up its awakening. I don’t think we should wait for it to come to us. We should meet it down in its lair and kill it."

Damien chuckled.

"And your plan to get there was to dig? Couldn’t you be any more predictable? What next? You’re going to knock on its front door and ask it to clean its neck so you can make a clean cut?"

Andrea and Yuri exchanged a glance, neither seeming particularly amused by Damien’s attempt at humor.

Andrea finally looked back at him.

"Damien, I need you to use your Dormant ability on the bodies you see here."

Damien’s smile faltered for a moment, at first he seemed unable to understand what Andrea was talking about, but then when he did, his carefree smile completely vanished.

"What do you mean? These men and women fought for humanity, they fought so we could survive and live on, they fought for you... If this is some kind of joke, then please stop it".

Andrea’s face was just as cold and serious. "Things are changing, I can feel the enemy’s strength, the only way for more people to survive this, is if".

"If you have cannon fodder". Damien cut Andrea off decisively.