Morning arrived in Westirifer, and Jeff's caravan entered the duchy's capital town, Serendity, early in the morning. Meanwhile, after the night's hard work, Lucifer was still sleeping deeply.
As soon as morning came, Dimancy and Nibara woke up from their sleep..... And why wouldn't they? After all, both of them belonged to the harpy tribe.....this was in their instinct. Just as birds wake up early every morning, this mother-daughter pair also rose at dawn.
Right after waking up, Dimancy and Nibara opened the windows of Lucifer's penthouse room, letting the fresh morning breeze flow in. At the same time, the sweet chirping of birds began echoing everywhere. After that, they woke up everyone else who was sleeping in the room.....except Lucifer and Amelia.....and then went about their respective tasks.
Mia, Ruby, Veronica, Westeria, and all the other ladies went off to freshen up. On the other side, Uncle Jeff and Minister Jasper began explaining to the people of Serendity why thousands of people had fled Evorywood along with them and come to Westirifer. After making the people understand, Jeff formed ten teams of Viper guards and ordered them to assist the people who had come with them in settling down in Westirifer. As soon as the orders were given, more than 400 guards immediately got to work.
It wasn't that they were settling the refugees only in Serendity.....they were helping them settle across the entire Westirifer duchy.
After finishing all this work, Jeff and Jasper headed straight toward the ducal home.
As soon as their wagon arrived at the entrance, the Viper guards on gate security respectfully nodded and allowed them inside.
The moment Jeff stepped into the ducal home, he took a long, relieved breath..... Finally, he had returned home.
Even though this ducal house belonged to Lucifer, Jeff was also a part of Lucifer's Velmora family.
Jeff's wife Ruby was not only Lucifer's aunt but also his wife.
Lucifer treated Jeff's son Jason like his own little brother.
And Lucifer respected Jeff as well. On top of that, Jeff was a friend of Lucifer's mommy Mia.....and ever since he had left Evorywood in the beginning, this very ducal home in Westirifer had become his only home.
Along with Jeff, Jasper also entered. As soon as he came in, he went straight to the daybed in the hall and lay down.
After resting for a while, when Jasper got up, he saw Jason talking to his father Jeff. Right beside them, Allen was listening to Jeff's words with complete attention.....and on Allen's face, fear, terror, and anger were clearly visible.
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On one side, Jeff was briefing Allen about everything that had happened in Evorywood.
On the other side, in a town in the southwest corner of the Lustbound Haven Kingdom, inside a massive church, a pope was seated on an extravagant black throne.
His entire body was wrapped in white bandages. In front of him, a large number of people were performing some strange ritual..... All of them were wearing red sacrificial robes.....and their bodies were also wrapped in white bandages just like the pope's.
On the altar in the ritual were numerous newborn creatures..... Mystic Deers, rabbits, monkeys, yellowhorn dogs, calves, and human babies..... But none of them were alive..... Because during the ritual, these people had sacrificed these newborns. Their blood was highlighting the sacrificial altar figure..... And among those performing the ritual in red robes, one of them cut out the heart of a dead human infant with a machete.....and then brought it and handed it to the pope seated on the throne.
The pope first smelled the fresh, bloody heart, then held it in his hand and began chewing and eating it..... After eating, he shouted loudly, "Death is the true destiny!"
In response to this slogan, the people performing the ritual shouted back, "Life is illusion."
This slogan echoed through the entire church for some time. After that, those in red robes brutally chopped the dead infant creatures into pieces and began devouring them like demons.
But the question arises: what kind of church was this.....and who were these people.....or were they even people? And if this church existed, where was it?
The answer is.....this was the Church of Toxara in Morthveil town.
The pope here was named Rotveil.
The same Rotveil.....who had supplied the tansy herb to Christopher and Sarah.
Rotveil.....who today is known as the pope of the Church of Toxara.....was not like this in the beginning. His real name was "Demagus Purefield."
He was the youngest heir of the 4th generation patriarch of the Purefields, "Dergune Purefield."
Demagus had two older brothers and five older sisters from Dergune.....and because of that, he had been raised with excessive love and pampering.
Away from the rivalries of the ducal throne, his mind leaned more toward experiments..... Demagus conducted all kinds of experiments.....sometimes scientific, sometimes completely baseless. Gradually, as generations of Purefields advanced.....after many years, when Demagus was over 90 years old, he finally became a father for the first time and had a daughter.....but after these worldly pleasures, he again immersed himself in his experiments.....as if the whole world no longer mattered to him.
But after performing countless different kinds of experiments.....his body began to weaken.
Although the average lifespan in Sinflare Augustiland was 300 years.....that didn't mean everyone lived that long. There were exceptions.
Moreover, to live 300 years, one also needed a healthy lifestyle.....but whenever Demagus got time away from his magical and scientific research, he paid attention to his health.....yet for Demagus, none of that held any meaning.
As he approached 100 years of age.....his body began to decline.....growing weaker.....his health deteriorated.....and a time came when Demagus realized he didn't have much time left..... But there were still numerous experiments and research topics left on Demagus's to-do list.....and he didn't want to die before completing them. So, to extend his lifespan.....he began taking all kinds of supplements.....tonics, herbs, life-saving poisons, etc., etc..... But none of them helped increase his lifespan or vital energy.
Demagus had become desperate.....and then an idea struck him: "An infant.....when an infant is born.....its vital energy is at its densest. Humans have an average lifespan of 300 years.....so if I mix an infant's vital energy with my own.....perhaps my lifespan will increase."
And because of this idea.....Demagus committed the most heinous act of his life.
He secretly entered the healing chambers of the duchy and stole a newborn baby, bringing it to his experimental lab.
Seeing the child, Demagus did feel some pity.....but if he showed pity to that child.....wouldn't that be cruelty to himself?
So he used a sharp knife to separate the infant's head from its body.....and as soon as he did, blood gushed out everywhere.....but Demagus swiftly collected all the blood in a large flask.
Then he removed the infant's heart.....it was warm.....hot.....fresh.....but at that moment, Demagus's rationality had died somewhere. He butchered the infant with his knife, ate its heart raw, and drank the warm blood from the flask..... In no time, like a monster, he had devoured half the baby.....but when he couldn't eat anymore, he buried the remains under his lab and went to sleep in his room.
When he woke up the next morning.....he found that his frail body had become much better than before..... Yes, it was still frail, but a new vitality had emerged.
Demagus was extremely pleased with his experiment.....and in his joy, he had vigorous sex with his mother, daughter, aunts, maids, sisters.....everyone in the duchy.....and because of the increased vitality, he even impregnated all of them.
But Demagus had no idea.....that this night would be his last good night.
What he had done was nothing less than the greatest taboo.....the murder of a newborn infant.....fine, but devouring it.....this did not please the divine spirit of Sinflare Augustiland.....and she cursed Demagus: even though his lifespan had increased due to external vitality.....his body would forever remain diseased.....his skin would rot.....pus-filled boils would cover his entire body.....a putrid smell would emanate from him.....and he would never again be able to continue his lineage.
Demagus was unaware of this curse from the divine spirit.....and the next morning, when he woke up.....his entire body had begun to rot, and a putrid smell started coming from him.
In reality, when the supreme goddess Amara Velmora created the world of Sinflare Augustiland and was patching its loopholes.....she accidentally overlooked fixing this loophole of external vitality.....but when she noticed it during a recheck, it was already too late.....she could no longer mend it.....but she forbade this process of external vitality and declared that if anyone in the future engaged in this activity.....their end would be horrific.....and they would receive eternal punishment.
Even though the criminal would gain additional lifespan from external vitality.....they would still remain mortal.....their body would rot every day, emit a putrid stench, suffer extreme pain, and their lineage would never continue..... After this loophole was "fixed" in this way, countless years passed.....but by sheer coincidence.....Demagus had discovered this loophole anyway.
Demagus didn't know about this loophole back then.....nor does he know now..... All he knows today is that by eating infants, his lifespan is increasing.....but the side effect is that along with the increased lifespan, his body keeps rotting continuously, and he has become impotent.
Anyway.....when he woke up the next day, he found his entire body had rotted.....chaos erupted in the entire Purefield ducal home. No one could understand what was happening to Demagus.
For years, treatment continued, but no medicine worked..... Finally, exhausted, Dergune Purefield asked his son Demagus about his experiments.....thinking that perhaps his condition was related to those experiments.....and Demagus's experiments were no secret..... Reluctantly, Demagus told Dergune the whole story.....how his health was deteriorating, how his vital energy was depleting, how he got the idea, killed an infant, consumed its flesh and blood, how his vitality was replenished.....but the very next day this side effect appeared.
As soon as the inhuman experiment came to light, Dergune Purefield expelled Demagus from the Purefield household.....and severed all ties with him.....but his mother and sisters could not do the same.....and that is why, even though Demagus is no longer part of the Purefield family today.....in the current time, for the 18th generation of Purefields, Demagus.....who is now known as Rotveil and pope of the Church of Toxara.....is their ancestor.
Today, Rotveil is over 600 years old.....and his lifespan is only 200 years less than that of a pureblood dragon.....something that would have been impossible without his experiment...
After being expelled from the Purefield family.....Demagus established his own church in Morthveil town.....the Church of Death.....and became its pope. There he conducted countless experiments and discovered that because of his rotten body, many poisons had no effect on him.....and that is why he changed the name of the Church of Death to the Church of Toxara.....and today it has more than 50,000 followers.
Moreover, now Rotveil occasionally helps the Purefields, and the Purefields help him in return.