Chapter 281: Ch 280: Danger Alert

Kristan’s face paled as soon as he heard those words, and he knew that he needed to run out of here if he wanted to live. But his feet felt frozen in place when he tried to take a single step away from the goddess in front of him.

The goddess did not even look interested in him as she walked toward him and reached out to grab his face.

"Hmm, to think that the powerful and proud servant of the god has been reduced to this. This is just too ironic. But I guess losing your god crippled you people a lot. You did not even notice it when I slipped inside the cracks of this world."

Aria grabbed the face in front of her, and the pressure from her fingers left marks on Kristan’s face.

He tried to pry those fingers off, but it was of no use. The grip on his face was just too tight.

"The more you struggle, the more useless it will be. But still, go ahead and struggle all you want. I won’t blame you for it."

Aria told the man before her as her power began to seep inside him. But Kristan refused to fall.

"You fiend! You might have overpowered and defeated Lumi, but I will never surrender. I am loyal to my god, and I shall die as his servant."

Kristan promised before he decided to blow up his body.

The key word here was ’try.’ The man intended to die and take his body along, but due to the corruption’s interference, the only thing that was lost during his explosion was his soul. His body was preserved by Aria’s power, and she sighed as she looked at the foolish human who had just died.

"In the end, you chose to believe in that false god and give your life up. I don’t know why you humans are so eager to serve a god who does not care about you..."

Aria sighed in regret as she looked at the dead body. But that regret no longer mattered once she started the next step of her plan.

Corruption covered Kristan’s body until it was completely under her control.

Now, she had a powerful figure to command the humans with, and she would order them to self-destruct any second she wanted.

Everything that the stupid god had made and everything his followers stood for, Aria would make sure to eliminate it all from this world.

The filthy presence would be driven out, and Aria would be able to breathe a sigh of relief in this new world. That was the kind of life she wanted to live now.

"It’s only a matter of time now before this world recalls me and falls for my charm. But I will only belong to my priest who waited for me and paid a tragic price. All I am doing is making sure he is able to come back to me."

And for that, Kael needed to recall his own past memories.

He might think he was a new and better person, but that was because he did not have any memories of his past. And Aria was going to change this soon enough.

...

"Leon, I will leave you in charge of this place. Protect Seraphina and the others while I am gone. I will check what the council needs and help them out."

Kael did not want to leave his people behind, but he could not ignore the frantic messages the noble council was sending him either. So in the end, he decided to head out and leave this cottage behind.

He could see that Leon was not happy with his decision, but he understood that it was important, and he allowed Kael to leave without much question.

Once Kael was gone, Leon headed back inside, but he instantly felt like something was wrong. The power of corruption that had been stagnant was starting to spread once more, and he immediately threw open Seraphina’s room.

He expected her to be alone and using the corruption in order to get out of her seal. But he was shocked to see that Seraphina was not alone in her room.

Instead, Iris, Lyra, and Elena were in there as well. And all their bodies bore the mark of corruption.

"What is going on here?"

Leon took in the sketchy scene in front of him with careful words. He wanted to know what was happening, but he also felt a little helpless at the same time.

Four pairs of eyes turned to look at him at once, and Leon almost took a step back at that pressure before he held his ground. He refused to be intimidated by these gazes.

"Hmm, you are asking what is going on here? The answer is simple—we are heading out to get Kael. He needs to stay safe while the world changes around us. Are you going to try and stop us?"

Seraphina asked, and her voice was not hers. In fact, if he looked carefully, then none of these people in front of him looked sane or like their original selves. It made him want to curse out loud...

But Lyra was already by his side, her eyes twinkling as she let out a laugh before hitting him in the middle.

"Stop getting distracted while you are with us. Even asking Kael for help won’t help you."

She told Leon, and he gritted his teeth before he took a defensive stance. His power shone brightly, but it was useless against four people too deeply involved with the corruption. Leon had no choice but to retreat in order to stay alive.

"He is running away. Should I chase him?"

Lyra commented as she watched Leon leave and asked this question, only for the others to shake their heads at her.

"There is no need for that. Leon won’t be able to go too far in his current condition. After all, this whole world is ours now, and there is hardly any place to hide. Let’s focus on expanding our influence for now, and then we can come back for more."