Chapter 42: Powerful
The Resentful Orphan stared at Su Xiao for a few seconds, then averted its gaze and quickly rushed toward the corridor inside the church.
Qis raised his hand to block the Resentful Orphan. He walked over to the Blacksmith and placed a hand on his old friend's shoulder.
The Blacksmith's hand holding the hammer trembled slightly. He was restraining himself from attacking the familiar aura before him. As for who this was, he could no longer recognize.
"You've worked hard. Rest for a while first, old friend. When you wake up, everything will be over."
A black light flickered in Qis's hand. The Blacksmith's murky eyes dimmed, and the hammer in his hand clattered to the ground with a *clang*. The Blacksmith collapsed. He was strong, but he used the last of his consciousness to suppress his body, refusing to fight against that familiar presence.
Qis easily neutralized the threat from the Blacksmith. Baha dragged the Blacksmith toward the church entrance and tossed him out the door. Amu pushed the metal door from the inside, closing both doors.
With a *click*, the church door was locked. Frost crawled over the door, freezing a half-meter-thick layer. No one could get in, and no one could get out.
Inside the corridor, Qis walked at the front, the Resentful Orphan slightly behind, and Su Xiao at the very back.
At the end of the corridor was another crystal stone wall, euphemistically called a trial, but in reality, it was to help the Archbishop kill the Resentful Orphan.
The Archbishop's goal was actually quite simple. Everything before was a setup. The Saintess ensured the 'trial taker' wouldn't die from severe injuries. After the 'trial taker' killed Qis, he would obtain the Ashes Furnace. The Blacksmith would use the Ashes Furnace to forge weapons, further strengthening the 'trial taker's' power.
The purpose of all this was to enable the 'trial taker' to kill the Resentful Orphan. The existence of the Resentful Orphan likely hindered the Archbishop from seizing the Ancient God's power, or from completely claiming it for himself, rather than having it distributed throughout Doom Town.
Qis pressed his hand against the crystal stone wall. The wall was a light red color. After he pressed his hand against it, nothing happened.
"Resentful, use your blood."
"Roar."
"..."
Su Xiao said nothing. The Resentful Orphan seemed insane, but it would follow orders on certain matters.
Sure enough, after a moment of agitation, the Resentful Orphan used its claw tips to cut open its palm and splashed its blood onto the crystal stone wall. As a result, nothing happened.
"Try ripping out your heart and experimenting."
"ROAR!"
This time, the Resentful Orphan was enraged. Clearly, this crossed its bottom line.
"Move aside."
Qis waved his hand, signaling Su Xiao and the Resentful Orphan to step back. Qis retreated over ten meters, then leaned forward and vanished from his spot.
*Boom!*
Qis delivered a straight kick to the crystal stone wall. His movement froze. After a few seconds, he slowly withdrew his foot and said calmly, "This thing is very hard. When I was 20, I would have definitely kicked it to pieces with one blow."
Qis had his back to Su Xiao and the Resentful Orphan. Though his voice was calm, the face beneath his mask was twisted in pain. If not for saving face, he would have already yelled, 'It hurts like hell!'
"Ahem~ Don't just stand there. Using sharp weapons is useless. Come on, use your bodies to ram it."
"..."
"..."
Neither Su Xiao nor the Resentful Orphan intended to ram it. It was obvious Qis had suffered a setback and wanted to drag more people down with him.
Su Xiao approached the crystal stone wall and took out an Apollo. The situation was different from opening the first crystal stone wall; there was no need to worry about what was inside.
Just as Su Xiao was about to fix the Apollo to the crystal stone wall, cracks spread across it, and with a *crack*, the wall shattered.
The scene before them was a room over a thousand square meters in size. The walls were covered in murals depicting the changes in Doom Town.
The content of the murals should be taken as stories. The Archbishop's image was very glorious, with the Saintess, Blacksmith, Qis, and even the Immortal Man all benefiting from the reflected glory.
The Resentful Orphan was also depicted, but it was described as committing all kinds of evil and eating everything. One image showed the Resentful Orphan lunging ferociously into a cesspool, with the caption: 'The Devouring Evil Spirit of All Things.'
The Resentful Orphan saw this mural. Sparks flickered on its body. It did devour many things, but it absolutely did not eat feces. This was slander.
With both Qis and the Resentful Orphan present, the content of the mural seemed both ridiculous and absurd.
In the center of the empty room was a circular altar several dozen meters in diameter. The altar was half a meter above the ground, surrounded by circular steps.
At the very center of the altar sat an old man in a gold-red robe. His hair and beard were white, and his skin had a healthy flush. In comparison, the others of the Redemption Church were all miserable, only the Archbishop remained 'normal.' He had turned the strong into the weak, the loyal into the suspicious, the honest into liars, and the one who should have been immortal into a monster.
"Outsider, what role do you wish to become in the mural? A hero who saves the world, or a cunning betrayer?"
The Archbishop spoke calmly. He was not angered by the exposure of his plan, nor did he even ask how it was discovered. The long years had made him calm, looking down on everything, like a god high above, gazing upon the creatures below.
"He wants to become your long-lost father."
Qis's venomous tongue was clearly no less than Baha's.
"Qis Elman, you deserve praise. After all, you deceived me, an Ancient God."
"Pfft~"
Baha's laughter made the Archbishop slowly turn his gaze.
"You don't even have the standard tentacles or exoskeleton of an Ancient God. What kind of Ancient God are you? A mongrel?"
"Mongrel. Not a bad title."
Qis and Baha played off each other. If verbal sparring could decide life and death, the Archbishop would have died six or seven times by now.
The biggest problem at the moment was that no one was rushing forward to fight the Archbishop. If it were just Su Xiao's team, Su Xiao would have already launched a surprise attack. But with Qis and the Resentful Orphan present, whoever struck first would definitely be the first to suffer.
The Apostle's Eye floated beside Su Xiao and began to scan the Archbishop's information.
[Comparing intelligence attributes... Comparison complete. Our intelligence attribute is ??? times that of the enemy. Detection failed.]
[Due to Divine Judgment suppressing part of the Divine Energy (Ancient) influence, 65% of the enemy's data has been successfully detected.]
Name: Archbishop · Jobaya · Sayukao
Category: Human / Ancient God
Health: 100%
Divine Energy (Ancient): 63600 / 63600 points
Strength: 172 (True Attribute)
Agility: 162 (True Attribute)
Endurance: ???
Intelligence: ???
Charm: 1
Skill 1, High-Rank Deity (Passive, Lv.75): Health +95000 points. Immune to all control effects. Fire, Light, and Dark damage reduced by 62%.
Skill 2, Dark Confession (Active, Lv.73): The Archbishop can form a Dark Domain, suppressing all enemies within a 150-meter radius, causing 4300 points of erosion damage + 530 points of True Damage per second, and inflicting movement restriction.
Tip: The Dark Domain will persist. It can only be dispelled through Willpower, Endurance, and Intelligence effect checks.
Skill 3, Light Crime (Active, Lv.72): The Archbishop can form a Light Source Spirit. Under the Light Source Spirit's coverage, the Archbishop recovers 1052 Health per second and suppresses all healing abilities within a 150-meter radius.
Tip: The Light Source Spirit will persist. It is an energy-based lifeform and can be destroyed. The Light Source Spirit has a total of 41000 Health.
Tip: Every 2 minutes, the Light Source Spirit will perform a Light Baptism, dealing 10 points of Light damage to all hit units and temporarily reducing their maximum Health by 15%. The effect lasts for half an hour.
Skill 4, World Seed Transplantation (Passive, Lv.65): A pure World Seed has been transplanted into the Archbishop's body.
Tip: Health +42500 points. Physical defense increased by 172 points. Blunt damage reduced by 13%. Slashing damage reduced by 20%.
Skill 5, Death Grant (Active, Lv.65): The Archbishop points at an enemy unit, immediately dealing 20% of their Health as True Damage (if the enemy's Health is below 23%, this triggers an execution effect, causing instant death).
Tip: This ability can be used once every 4 natural days.
Tip: If the execution fails, the Archbishop immediately recovers 90% of the damage dealt as Health.
Skill 6, Divine Skin Book (Active, Lv.71): ???
Skill 7, Ancient God Combat Technique (Basic Ranged Technique-Type Ability, Lv.45): ???
???
Skill 12, Uncrowned Deity (Passive, Lv.61): ???
Skill 13, Light/Dark · Birth of Fire (Ultimate Ability): ???
...
Seeing this data, Su Xiao affirmed his previous risky attempt. If he hadn't tricked Qis and the Resentful Orphan into coming, there would have been no way to fight.
The Archbishop's Dark ability was a wide-area suppression with explosive damage. The Light ability healed himself, and more problematically, it was an energy-based lifeform.
The Light Source Spirit not only had high Health but also restricted healing in the area. Its attack power was very weak, 10 points of Light damage, but after taking its attack, the maximum Health was temporarily reduced by 15%, dropping from 100% to 85% for half an hour. This was very troublesome.
As for the other abilities, there were execution and ranged combat techniques. The Archbishop had no awareness of being a fragile ranged unit. His survivability was far greater than a melee fighter of the same rank.
Su Xiao felt that the Archbishop was definitely stronger than an Ancient God of the same rank. This guy not only had Ancient God power but had also transplanted a World Seed into his body.
"This is way too tanky. Damn it!"
Baha started keeping his distance from the Archbishop, but the altar was only so big; there wasn't far to retreat.
The Archbishop stood up from his divine seat on the altar. The stone chair representing the divine seat slowly sank into the ground.
Holding his scepter, the Archbishop looked around at the group. Finally, he fixed his gaze on Qis. Qis immediately knew things were bad.
"Kneel."
As soon as the Archbishop spoke, a dark force field appeared around Qis. With a *boom*, Qis was forced down to one knee.
Seeing this, Baha's breath caught. Qis had been the first to insult the Archbishop; he was the second.
Just as Qis was suppressed, the Archbishop's gaze turned to Baha. This old man was surprisingly vindictive.
Su Xiao had already ordered Amu to lock the church door. Today, either he would be carried out horizontally, or he would take down the Archbishop. There were no other options.
PS: (Two chapters today. This world is almost over, organizing my thoughts.)