Chapter 63: The Temple’s True Face
After Leona’s kick shattered the statue, the surroundings rippled and transformed.
The walls became illusory, fading and disappearing amidst the watery distortions. The wall behind the statue also dissolved, revealing darkness – there had been no wall there to begin with. Leona’s divinely charged kick had torn through the seamless illusion.
The shattered statue now exhibited a strange state. It was indeed broken, but not like shattered stone with irregular edges. Instead, it resembled shredded paper, the edges clean and the fragments uniformly sized – a truly bizarre sight.
“Now, do you have any more lies to tell me, dear fish-man… or should I say, human?” Abyss asked calmly, hands clasped behind his back, staring at the trembling fish-man leader. “I must say, our sudden arrival might have been unexpected, but your strategy was quite good. If we were ordinary… or less powerful individuals, we might have fallen for your trap.”
The surrounding objects continued to fade, and the statue fragments on the ground became translucent, as if their color had been washed away by the seawater.
“You disguised yourselves as peaceful sea creatures and introduced your so-called ‘god’. I give your performance an eight out of ten; you did quite well, creating an illusion of warmth and peacefulness. Your illusion was also excellent; I only realized this wasn’t the real world after talking to you for a while,” Abyss continued, slowly approaching the fish-man leader. “But you still had flaws.”
“First, your Common Tongue isn’t perfect, carrying a subtle southern Western Empire accent. My friend, the southern Western Empire is inland. How did you learn to speak from an inland region?”
Abyss didn’t wait for the clearly panicked fish-men to answer, pressing on relentlessly.
“Alright, let’s assume your language was passed down, and the first human to teach you the Common Tongue was from the southern Western Empire. Then the next question arises: you’re marine creatures, you yourself said ‘for generations’, but what about your mannerisms? Why do you retain habits that shouldn’t belong to you?”
Leona and Flora had silently moved closer to Abyss, ensuring the safety of the Necromancer who was now conserving magic, preparing a powerful spell.
“When you were lying, several of your friends subconsciously touched their noses – but you don’t have noses; you breathe through gills, don’t you? You even dusted the statue, a truly mindless act. It wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t been suspicious, but since I was already intrigued, that act was a clear giveaway.”
Abyss took another step closer. He was smaller than the strong fish-man, but his aura dominated.
“Third, this isn’t entirely your fault; it’s my ability. Your soul has been trembling since you started describing your god, indicating you haven’t spoken a word of truth since then. That’s a bit much.”
“Fourth, your temple, while seemingly flawless, is flawed precisely because it’s too flawless. Ordinary people might not notice, but unfortunately, I’m not ordinary. I often do superfluous things, like carefully observing the size of your temple from the outside, then measuring it again with my eyes once inside – and as expected, the temple is only half as large inside. While there’s nothing unnatural about it, I’ve fought illusions for a long time; I’m experienced, so this trick doesn’t work on me.”
“We knew you were lying while you were babbling on!” Leona declared, looking triumphantly at the dumbfounded fish-men. “You’re definitely up to no good! You’re the ones causing the Sacred Tree’s problems, aren’t you?”
“Damn Druids…”
The fish-man leader finally dropped the pretense, his dog-like face contorting in anger, his mouth opening slightly to reveal three rows of sharp teeth. However, clearly intimidated by Abyss’s power, he didn’t dare act rashly. Although not particularly cunning, he wasn’t foolish. He knew Druids capable of diving to such depths were not to be trifled with.
“You were all human once, weren’t you? What transformed you into this? An Outer God?” Abyss continued questioning the fish-men.
Flora glanced behind her, the sight shocking her.
The statue and the wall it leaned against had completely vanished. Behind the nonexistent wall was a dark, waterless chamber, some force keeping the seawater out. A single, flickering magical lamp illuminated the room. By its light and her own darkvision, Flora saw a scene resembling a slaughterhouse.
There was a stone table large enough for a person to lie on. Atop it lay a woman dressed as a peasant – dead. Her entrails were crudely pulled out, draped over her split-open abdomen. Her eyes were wide open, devoid of life, clouded over. Beside the stone table were several iron cages containing elderly people, children, and women, all dressed as peasants.
Below the table was a pile of severed limbs, human tissue, and several heads, some with closed eyes, others staring blankly in death…
Flora covered her mouth in horror. She could see the elderly, children, and women inside the cages weeping and screaming, but their voices were muffled, inaudible.
“Abyss…” she whispered, sharing her vision with the others.
Abyss, seeing the gruesome scene, fell silent for a moment, then sighed softly. “Another sacrificial ritual. You Outer God followers, is there anything you do besides harming your own kind? Oh, right, they were your own kind. You’re not human anymore…”
Flora, holding his hand, clearly felt the veins bulging in his grip.
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