The town completely disappeared into the darkness. The mage lay on the ground, exhausted from casting the spell. Xiu stayed behind Eric and did not hesitate to return to the city. When the light elements were displayed at the palace, the Archon's face paled when he saw the amount of light elements that Xiu had gathered. When his men went forward to whisper a few words in his ear, the last trace of blood left his face.
The governor was surprised when he saw such a large number of chests. After a brief pause, he praised Xiu. In contrast, Eric, who did not gather any light elements, was reprimanded by the governor. One of Eric's feathers was given to Xiu as a type of punishment for Eric and as a reward for Xiu.
Now Eric only had two and a half feathers remaining. Although Du Ze didn't know what would happen if he lost all of his feathers, it would probably be a bad end. The governor is forcing the tower climbers to gather light elements, and Du Ze felt some pity for the people in the towns. Do these angels really not know that excessive collection only brings them a momentary benefit while it brings them closer to destruction?
That night, the Archon of the Third Layer rebelled. He assembled a large group of people, trying to kill the angels. The reason for the Archon's downfall was simple yet tragic – he had endured the exploitation of the Third Layer for so long but the death of his son was the straw that broke the camel's back.
This was narrated to Du Ze by Xiu the next day. When the rebellion occurred, Du Ze's headphones had run out of charge. After listening to Xiu's retelling, Du Ze finally understood why the Archon's expression was so ferocious when he was shouting at them and why Eric was so moved. Du Ze can imagine what thoughts were running through the son of god's mind when he, who worshipped the light, saw the Archon's dead body.
The rebellion went on until midnight. The Third Layer's fallen were mostly ordinary civilians. There were only a few warriors and the most powerful ones were only at the Grand Swordsman level. The angels, on the other hand, were mostly at Sword Saint level. The fallen were all killed but only 1/6th of the angels were killed. The next morning a group of angels arrived to make up for the previous day's loss.
What?! Are you angels heaven fun cheating?1
"In the Second Layer, an angel died and a new one arrived to replace him the next day." Compared to Du Ze's indignant reaction, Xiu was exceptionally calm. "They must all be defeated at the same time."
Ah, it seems that Xiu already noticed this and has taken it into account in his plan. Du Ze decided that he should just relax and let the Moe Lord handle the "saving the world" events like overthrowing the governor.
After eating breakfast in the Palace of the dead, an angel guard appeared and told them that except for the desolate First Layer, their party had completed their rounds. The next round will now begin and the Second Layer will be bypassed this time, meaning their next destination will be the Fourth Layer.
Xiu did not seem to be surprised to hear this news. After the angel guard left, he smiled at Du Ze and said: "I promise you, in the Fourth Layer, that person will let us collect light elements."
********
"Because the First and Second Layers did not turn over light elements, a lot of the carriages are still not filled. You will have to make up for the shortfall, which means a full levy," said the governor to the Archon as he sat on the seat of honor. It looked as though the Archon wanted to protest but in the end he kept silent.
The Moe Lord is a prophet! He predicted this. Du Ze almost fell down on his knees – why is the governor acting this way? He's practically forcing the people to rebel.
The governor's orders were straightforward and Xiu promised that they would be quick. They moved swiftly to execute a full levy. This time Eric did not follow them to take part in the main plotline. Earlier, when Du Ze had just arrived in the Fourth Layer, he met Eric as they came down from the carriage. The son of god looked very thin and pale. The expression on the rival's face reminded Du Ze of a caged beast who wanted to escape his confinement but was too fond of the easy life and security of his current situation, and thus all he could do was pace back and forth in confusion.
Without Eric's interference, Xiu's plan went very smoothly. The collection at the Fourth Layer had already been excessive before so the people's reaction came quickly when Xiu arrived to collect light elements. In the beginning, every third town or city would rebel but soon every single place they went to would rebel. By now, when Du Ze glanced around there were about 5,000 to 6,000 rebels that had surrounded them. They were still on the way to levy more places when they were attacked by the fallen. The Moe Lord had marched across the entire Fourth Layer, forcing the entire population to rebel.
Because of the overwhelming number of fallen, the Archon's men could only fight back for a short time before they were all killed. Xiu changed into his dragon form and protected Du Ze under his giant wing. He did not run away nor hide. He just crouched on the ground and let the fallen slash and stab at him with their weapons. The sound of weapons sliding off the silver dragon's scales made Du Ze, who couldn't see anything, feel very anxious. He missed Old John. That loyal mechanical puppet would certainly be of great help right now – ah, he hasn't seen Old John for a long time. The last time he saw the mechanical puppet was five days ago. Has Old John been frozen inside the Moe Lord's interspatial storage ring?
Xiu finished casting the draconic magic spell and the fight was won. It didn't matter whether it was hundreds or thousands of people, as long as they were underneath the gray magic circle, it only took a moment for gray light to rain down on them and they all disappeared without a trace. The battlefield quickly became empty except for the bodies of the Archon's soldiers. Xiu rested for a while – the number of times he had used high level magic today made him feel tired – then he grabbed the treasure chest and returned to the palace with Du Ze
They were still in the air when Du Ze noticed that there was something different about the palace. There seemed to have been a rebellion not too long ago. The bodies of the fallen were everywhere, along with a few angel corpses. Du Ze and Xiu soon found Eric and the governor in the main hall where the Archon was down on his knees, trembling.
"My lord ... I, I truly didn't know this was going to happen."
Seeing that Xiu had brought back a chest, the governor uttered a sigh of unknown significance then praised Xiu with a kind of "this hall full of dead bodies is of no significance" attitude: "You did well today, tomorrow continue your work in the Fifth Layer."
When he heard these words, Eric could no longer bear it.
"Haven't you noticed?" Eric glared at the governor. "You will only make more and more people rebel against you – sooner or later you will be killed by them!"
He said it! The rival actually told the truth like this?!
"Ha." Du Ze heard Xiu beside him make a mocking sound but it was the governor's reaction that frightened Du Ze.
When he heard Eric's outburst, the expression on the governor's face instantly became solemn.
"Do you think these inferior creatures can inflict harm on us? Nonsense!" The governor shrugged, waving his hand and shifting a feather from Eric to Xiu. "You didn't finish the task today, you should learn from him."
Du Ze ... Du Ze immediately thought that the shining person was really too naive. The angel's arrogance was too deeply sunk into the very marrow of his bones and there's just no saving him anymore. In the face of such a foolish person, Eric did not know what to do. He looked at the governor and at Xiu, then finally decided to close his eyes. He didn't speak again.
The governor was happy at receiving the light elements so he spared the Archon of the Fourth Layer, but the Archon's rank was just an empty title now. Almost all of the inhabitants of the Fourth Layer died in the rebellion while around 1/4th of the angel guards died.
The number of warriors in the Fourth Layer was several times higher than that of the Third Layer and there were several Sword Masters and mages among them. As the number of the Layer increases, the population also increased exponentially and the warriors living there also became stronger and stronger.
Du Ze thought that there would probably be multiple Mage Gods and War Gods in the Eight Layer. If things work according to the Moe Lord's plan, as long as the people from the Eight Layer rise up in rebellion, the current angel guards simply won't be able to resist; this trial is basically already over for them.
However, Du Ze's analysis was wrong. Xiu didn't plan to end things at the Eight Layer. Xiu's plan called for the governor to meet his doom at the Fifth Layer.
After being authorized by the governor to collect light elements at the Fifth Layer, Xiu imposed a full levy on all the villages and towns. The Fifth Layer was in much better condition than the first few Layers so once all their light was taken away, the people's reaction was much more intense. Therefore, Xiu had only passed through a few places when the whole Fifth Layer rose in rebellion.
Faced with a large number of the fallen, Xiu did not choose to fight and simply flew back to the palace with Du Ze. Thus, the hatred of the people of the Fifth Layer was directed towards the palace.
Seeing Xiu return in such a manner, the governor did not have time to deal with because he was too busy putting down the rebellion. The fighting lasted from the afternoon until the evening. Du Ze, Xiu, Eric, and the governor left in their carriages, protected by the angel guards. Soon, the sound of battle grew fainter and more distant. When the moon had reached its zenith, they saw that the angels had paid a price to settle the Fifth Layer's rebellion; only half of the angels were left.
The governor sighed in relief, ready to settle accounts with Xiu. But when he turned towards the silver-haired dragon and met his scarlet eyes, the governor involuntarily froze.
In the darkness of the night, the upturned corners of Xiu's mouth seemed to be suffused with blood. He clapped his hands as though applauding a wonderful performance that was about to commence.
"It's not over yet."
A magical light glowed in the darkness and the familiar magic circle appeared again. This time it wasn't in the air but on the ground! It was as though there was an invisible hand drawing a neat gray line in the air opposite them while the magic circle lit up from the outermost runes to its center. Gray light came in waves and blurry shadows appeared. Those shadows gradually became clearer and clearer and more and more solid. When all of the runes had lit up, countless fallen appeared before them. Old John stood at the forefront, greeting them with wave and a smile on his face.
The shocked Du Ze slowly swept his eyes over the fallen. That group of people was so large that he couldn't even see the edges of the crowd. He had seen these people before – they were all of those fallen that had rebelled against Xiu's actions and had been swallowed up by the gray magic circle. Du Ze suddenly remembered an important fact – how could he have forgotten that the silver dragon was the best at using spatial magic.
That huge magic circle wasn't an attack spell at all; it was a teleportation formation!
"You ..." Eric looked at this new situation and his voice was incredibly raspy as he said: "You didn't kill them then ...?"
"Why should I kill them?" Xiu asked. He seemed to be taunting the person asking him that question.
Du Ze's excitement was like a pot of boiling water almost overflowing its container. Du Ze couldn't help but grab Xiu's sleeve. That person didn't kill people, all he did was to use magic to teleport away the fallen to allow them to gather their strength.
His outstretched hand was almost instantly noticed by the other. Xiu took Du Ze's hand and held on to it tightly. Du Ze stared at their clasped hands. Xiu's palm was hot; this was heat that came from his no-longer cold heart.
This is why he believed in Xiu. Although he was somewhat vindictive, he was no longer the cruel protagonist from "Mixed Blood" who wantonly killed people.
The fallen, who had arrived here via the magic teleportation circle, did not hesitate to start fighting the angel guards. The sound of battle echoed through the night sky. Old John crossed the battlefield to Xiu's side. The Tower of God has always treated the mechanical puppet as an inanimate object so none of the angels or fallen attacked him.
"Little Master." Old John smiled and said to Xiu: "I have done as you instructed and distributed the equipment. All of them have had some basic training at least."
Du Ze looked at the fallen's colorful armor and weapons. In his heart, he silently lit a candle for the angels. The Moe Lord, who was descended from gnomes, can mass produce artifacts – even though they aren't god-class items. He remembered the silver sword that Xiu made for the weapons contest.
However, an ordinary man, even if he is equipped with artifacts, cannot defeat a Sword Saint. But what about 10, 100, or 1000 ordinary men armed with artifacts? Xiu teleported over tens of thousands of fallen, and the angel guards were already tired from the previous battle.
The balance of power has obviously tilted towards the fallen. The governor, trembling, confronted Xiu: "You, what are you trying to do ...?"
"I'm doing what you want to do." Xiu did not conceal his killing intent: "Oppressing people to make them kill who I want to kill."
Even though Xiu did not explicitly say who the object was, the people at the scene focused on the governor. The governor was extremely worried as he watched the battle. He looked up at the sky and had never been more eager to see the light – as soon as the dawn came, angel reinforcements would arrive.
However, Xiu had no intention of giving the governor a chance to escape. One after another the angels fell and there was a steady stream of new people coming from teleportation array. Finally, a fallen broke through the final line of defense of the angels. The rebel looked at the four people present and didn't hesitate to choose the governor, who was glowing brightest, as his primary target.
"Quickly! Kill him!"
The angel guards surrounding the governor disposed of the fallen but more and more of the rebels were breaking through their defenses. After he was attacked several times in a row, the governor finally let go of his pride to ask Xiu for help: "You just want to pass this trial, right? I'll give you the feathers if you'll teleport these people out of here!"
Why ...? Du Ze thought the governor's words were strange, but he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.
Xiu looked at the governor for a while then grinned and said: "That sounds like a good proposal."
The governor breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the angel guard's line of defense was about to collapse, the governor didn't hesitate to give most of his feathers to Xiu. Xiu's feathers were now more than the governor's and Eric's feathers put together. Not surprisingly, Xiu has now achieved the requirements he needs to pass the angel race's trial.
However, Xiu did not send away the fallen. The governor reminded him: "Why haven't you ...?"
"I said it was a good proposal." A hint of sarcasm flavored Xiu's words. "But did I agree to it?"
The governor was completely fooled. From the bottom of his heart, Du Ze felt sympathy for him. Normally, this type of deceptive behavior was something that a villain would do and the protagonist would cry out in surprise at the BOSS: How could you break your promise?! Now the BOSS was the one accusing the Moe Lord of cheating, saying "How could you?!" Du Ze thought that his moral integrity must have been broken. How can he think that this situation is cool?
As they talked, the fighting has entered a white-hot stage, both the fallen and the angel were desperately fighting each other. The always silent man finally spoke: "Stop it, you've achieved your goal, don't make unnecessary sacrifices.
"Ah ..." Xiu chuckled: "Do you want to 'serve the people'?"
"You're not the only one who 'serves the people,' son of god." Xiu's voice was like a sigh and he stretched his hand to point at the angels and fallen who are at war. "You want to save this group of angels while I want to save the people who were oppressed by the angels."
Hearing Xiu's words, Eric's dark green eyes ignited with anger. "So you persecuted them, used them, and killed the angels? You say you are 'saving' them?"
"Yes, I'm using them." Xiu admitted it without hesitation. "But do think that giving them light and then making them stop fighting is saving them?"
Xiu smiled. "Son of god of the Temple of Light, you gave them light in order to soothe their problems. They will be grateful until the angels come again next time. You want them to stop fighting in order to save their lives, so they will live in the darkness until the angels recover."
"You are protecting these angels rather than saving the people," he said. Xiu glanced at the overwhelmed governor. "Even though you pointed your sword at him, you never really thought of killing him. You wanted to help the civilians but you never thought about letting them rebel against the angel's reign because, according to what you were taught, the angels are 'good' – they are the messengers of the god of light."
"...!" Eric was about to refute Xiu's argument but one of the fallen interrupted him. The rebel looked around him then tried to attack Xiu since he had the largest number of feathers but he was intercepted by Old John. The fallen had a lot of respect for the brown-haired man who gave them equipment and training.
"There's only a little time before the dawn." Old John pointed to the carriages not far away and kindly suggested: "If I were you, I would move the loot before the arrival of angel reinforcements rather than provoke those who should not be provoked."
The fallen man hesitated for a moment but when he recognized his target as the silver-haired youth who could wipe out all of the fallen with just one spell, he turned and ran to the carriages that carried the chests.
When the chests were opened, the light inside lit up half of the night sky. The people in the battlefield stopped fighting. All of the fallen stared at the source of light, even when the angel's weapons were striking at them.
"For the light!"
Du Ze didn't know who first shouted it. All of the fallen seemed to become mad. Their eyes filled with tears and they ran to the light like moths to a flame.
"For the Light!"
The angel's battle formation collapsed as the remaining angel guards were engulfed by the mad wave of rebels. The fallen rushed towards the loot. As more and more chests were opened, the bright light lit up the faces that were weeping with ecstasy.
Under the bright light, Xiu smiled and said his last words to Eric.
"What you protect is always the 'light.' I protect not just the 'light'; that is the essential difference between you and me."
***
"What day is today?"
Alice, who was helping Violet tie her hair, thought about it for a moment then replied, "A star has made one revolution."
'Why haven't they come back?" Enoch complained. He looked towards the carriages at the gate and jokingly hatched a rash plan. "How about we sneak into those carriages tomorrow? Haven't a few of those carriages left recently?"
"When will we go?"
Enoch was frightened when Muir spoke. He was only joking but Muir unexpectedly took him seriously. What's more, Rachel agreed to the plan and said with a serious expression on her face: "I observed the guards' schedule. Right before dawn is the best time."
The golden dragon Leon, who was standing slightly apart from them, glanced over at their group frequently and seemed very interested in participating in their plan.
Luckily for Enoch, the gates suddenly opened, stopping the mad plan in its tracks as a group of angel guards flew in with a carriage. Enoch's eyes were the sharpest. He yelled: "Hey! Aren't these the angels who went out today ... Du Ze! I see Du Ze!"
Du Ze had just emerged from the carriage when the short-haired thief ran over to him. Enoch was about to say hello when he saw something that gave him pause.
"Who is this silver-haired brother?"
Xiu was too lazy to answer that rash thief so he took out Old John from his storage ring. This made the others, except for Muir who had already seen Xiu's silver dragon form, realize that the red-eyed humanoid dragon with the silver ear fins is Xiu.
Enoch couldn't help pulling on Violet's sleeve. "How many forms does Xiu have?"
"Demon, undead, human, elf, beastkin, gnome, dragon," Violet carefully counted them all out. "It seems like almost all of the eight races."
"Missing the angel form." Alice smiled as she corrected her sister.
Enoch closed his big mouth. "Well, this thief feels that in the near future he will see big brother Xiu become an angel ..."
As they laughed and laughed, an angel came over and spoke to Xiu respectfully. "Please come with me, Lord Xiu, and we will go to the Ninth Layer for the ceremony. The god of light will appoint you as the new governor."
****! They will finally meet the god of light, the tsundere BOSS! Du Ze knows that after many years, even a submissive daughter-in-law will one day become a domineering mother-in-law.1 The angel race's trial had been dragging on for almost too long.2
"Wait a minute." Just as they were about to leave, someone came running up from behind, them, shouting. Du Ze turned around and saw that the golden dragon, Leon, was coming towards them. The middle-aged man's expression was anxious because he could not find Eric.
"Where is Eric?" Leon was becoming more and more anxious. He couldn't control his voice and he roared: "Why didn't he come back!"
There was only one carriage that came back and it contained only Du Ze and Xiu. Xiu glanced at Eric's dragon partner and his red eyes darkened.
"Why are you asking me – do you think I killed him?" Xiu used his spatial magic to conjure up a sword and ran it through Leon in the blink of an eye. "You see, I can't attack anyone, including your partner. He's still alive down there."
"You might still see him." The corners of Xiu's lips slowly turned up in a malicious smile, like a child who had taken a fish out of the water and was watching it flop around in the sand in its death struggles.
"However, which Eric you will see, the one you know, or another one, is unknown."
The son of god with a pure faith in the light is destined to never come out of the angel trial.