Early the next morning, Salem Assembly Square.
The autumn wind howled, curling up the withered leaves on the ground.
In the center of the square, sacks piled up like a small mountain emitted a scent of decay and mold. This was the "Unclean Grain" that Sanson, under Suke's instructions, had spent the entire previous day collecting from all over Salem.
All the townspeople had gathered here. Their eyes darted between the grain and the man on the high platform, filled with both unease for the future and a thirst for miracles.
"Oh God..."
"Please protect Your lambs and drive away the curses and malice for us..."
Standing atop the high platform as the officiant of the sacrifice, holding a torch, Suke let the devout prayers of the townspeople linger in his ears.
It seemed that someone finally couldn't sit still anymore.
He didn't rush to light the fire. Instead, he looked toward the Carter residence not far away, watching the middle-aged man who had finally couldn't resist opening the door and stepping out.
His face was emotionless, his figure gaunt and withered.
"Uncle Carter?"
Abigail, standing together with Elysia and the others, was the first to notice the newcomer. Having sneaked out behind his back, she felt a bit flustered and at a loss.
But unlike before, her uncle didn't immediately reprimand her.
He merely gave her a faint glance, his eyes containing some complex emotions, before walking straight toward the town square.
"Wait."
A steady, husky voice, exuding the typical demeanor of a scholar, broke the silence amidst the prayers before the sacrifice.
The crowd automatically parted to form a path. Randolph Carter, leaning on his cane, walked out with steady steps.
The moment he appeared, Suke and his group on the scene almost instantly assumed combat stances.
Sanson's hand went to the hilt of the blade at his waist almost subconsciously. Suke remained calm on the surface, but secretly, he sent a message on the public channel to Elysia, telling her to run with Sakuraba Emma and the others if things looked bad.
However, the opponent did not reveal his true form as a Demon God Pillar as Suke had anticipated, nor was there any so-called erosion of manipulating magical energy.
He walked to the foot of the high platform just like an ordinary person, raised his head, and looked directly at Suke with those bloodshot yet still sharp eyes.
"Mr. Suke, as an outsider, your generosity is admirable."
"But as a rational scholar, I must stop this absurd farce."
His voice wasn't loud, yet it possessed an inexplicably convincing persuasive power:
"Do you truly have any concept of what you are doing?"
"This is the winter ration for nearly a thousand people in this entire town. You call it 'unclean' and intend to torch it all?"
"May I ask, if you burn them, what will you use to fill the children's bellies? With so-called divine oracles and faith?"
These words were reasonable and logical, hitting the softest spot of worry in the hearts of many townspeople.
A commotion arose within the crowd, and some people began to show hesitation.
Great. Now I've become the one pushing feudal superstition.
Suke looked down from his high vantage point at this man suspected to be the incarnation of the Demon God Pillar. Rather than the tension of facing a great enemy, he felt more speechless.
Act. Keep acting.
Since you, sir, are so materialistic, why didn't you jump out to stop those people from judging the witches before?
But since you want to continue this play, I'll accompany you to the end!
"Mr. Carter, is your so-called rationality to let everyone continue consuming these cursed poisons? Were the townspeople foaming at the mouth and struggling in pain yesterday not enough proof?"
"That is fungal poisoning! It is a pathological phenomenon!"
Randolph Carter struck the ground heavily with his cane. His words actually took Suke by surprise.
"As long as it undergoes high-temperature cooking or screening processes, it can be salvaged! Not burned entirely like barbarians!"
Hearing Randolph Carter's statement, Suke almost couldn't hold back his expression.
Good lord, did this Demon God Pillar take the wrong medicine?
Are we sure these aren't his lines? How did it turn out that Suke looked like the villain using faith to bewitch people's hearts?
Leaving aside the large-scale ergot infection that suddenly appeared on the second day when everything was fine the day before...
Who was responsible for that eerie magical energy Sanson detected? Do you not know it in your own heart?
'Something is not right, Mr. Suke.'
Watching the Demon God Pillar's confusing speech, Sanson, who was co-hosting the sacrificial ceremony as the acting judge, came to Suke's side and whispered:
'I suddenly sensed that the connection with my Master's contract has become clearer. The Singularity seems to be undergoing some kind of change.'
Change?
Suke was a bit suspicious. He looked at Randolph Carter again, seemingly trying to figure out what scheme the opponent was plotting.
However, before he needed to speak, the townspeople's gaze toward Randolph Carter shifted from respect to cold indifference.
"Master Carter, forget it."
A woman held her child, who had a high fever that wouldn't subside, tightly in her arms and shouted loudly,
"My child ate the cursed grain last night and is still in pain even now."
" The Boss is a prophet sent by the Lord. If he says these grains are poisonous, then they are poisonous!"
"That's right! Do you want to kill us all? Do you want to stop us from showing our piety to the Lord?!"
"Get down! Don't block the Boss from conducting the sacrifice!"
Curses and accusations beyond Suke's imagination surged toward Randolph Carter like a tidal wave.
Randolph Carter's figure suddenly stiffened.
How could this be...
How could it be like this...
Could it be that even if her consciousness returned to the past, she couldn't stop it...
No one knew, and no one would know.
In "his" vision, the scene before him was so terrifying and despairing—
This was no holy sacrificial ceremony at all.
Beneath this flesh of Randolph Carter, in the eyes of the soul named Fujimaru Ritsuka...
The man standing on the high platform named Suke was not some generous, handsome dessert shop owner bringing laughter and sweetness to Salem.
That was an indescribable [Outer God], emitting a sickeningly sweet and cloying aura.
He wore a skin of harvest to spread benevolence, but in reality, he rooted bloating and rot into the earth.
And behind that Outer God, the woman with pink hair and pointed ears and the girl with bone wings whom he had brought into this world were clearly two [Shadow Servants] twisted and dyed by the Outer God's aura.
One carried malice terrifying enough to destroy the world, while the other seemed stained with the blood of all humanity.
They were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, mocking her and humanity's stupidity.
And those townspeople, those poor townspeople.
In Fujimaru Ritsuka's eyes, their eyes flashed with the fanatical red light of mental pollution, and greedy saliva dripped from the corners of their mouths.
They had been completely brainwashed by the Outer God using the sludge named "pastries." They were cheering for the destruction of their last hope for survival, actively walking toward the abyss of destruction in their fanaticism.
Even one of the two Servants she had brought back from the future—Sanson—had been bewitched by the opponent, severing his contract with her and becoming the opponent's lackey.
Even her final struggle—having the Queen of Sheba sneak into the townspeople's homes late at night to cast purification magic on the grain with her scant remaining magical energy, attempting to wake some townspeople up in this way—had ended in failure.
Could it be that she couldn't protect anything?
Fujimaru Ritsuka thought of Hopkins, the judge who, although stubborn and extreme, fought to protect humanity until the very last moment.
She saw with her own eyes that Outer God (Suke) attack Hopkins' residence late at night, poisoning him with despicable means and brutally murdering that hero of humanity, blowing even his corpse to ashes!
And her?
She could do nothing!
"No... It's not like this...!"
Randolph Carter's originally upright gentlemanly spine seemed to be crushed by some immense despair at this moment.
The disguise of rationality began to peel off, replaced by an unspeakable breakdown and helplessness.
"Wake up! I beg you, wake up!!"
"Randolph" threw away his cane. Disregarding all dignity, he rushed into the crowd, grabbing a townsperson by the shoulder. His voice became shrill and distorted due to extreme anxiety, revealing a mournfulness that did not belong to a middle-aged male:
"That man is a monster! He is trying to bewitch you! Those cakes are sludge! They are poison!"
"Abi... Abigail is still there! I have to save her... I can't watch her be sacrificed to that kind of thing!"
He turned around, staring dead at Suke on the high platform. That look was no longer a gentleman's anger, but a kind of finality and terror.
"Give Judge Hopkins back... Give the normal Salem back!!"
"Why... Why do you want to take away our future! And toy with us like this?!"
"Randolph's" hands clawed wildly in the air. His legs buckled inward as he knelt on the ground. Covering his face, he let out a whimper that was less like anger and more like a small beast driven to a desperate dead end.
What is this guy talking about?
Suke pondered; he hadn't eaten any mushrooms when he came over this morning. Could it be that the guy himself had ergot poisoning?
Suke stared wide-eyed at the farce performed by "Randolph Carter" not far away. Only after triple-checking that his Health Bar and Energy Bar hadn't changed did he confirm he wasn't under the Demon God Pillar's illusion.
In this moment, the entire square was dead silent.
Not just Suke, but everyone looked at this once-respected scholar with eyes reserved for a madman.
"Hmm?"
Sakuraba Emma stared at the man Suke had instructed her to observe closely. She keenly noticed some details.
So she tugged at the hem of Elysia's dress beside her and whispered:
"Miss Elysia, do you feel that gentleman's behavior and performance... don't quite seem like a male?"
"Oh my? Little Emma is really sharp. I haven't even recovered from the surprise yet~"
"Now that you mention it, it is true. It seems things are becoming more and more interesting?"
At the same moment she heard Sakuraba Emma's judgment, Elysia sent this information to Suke via the Farm Public Channel.
What the hell? Not like a male?
Suke, seeing the text pop up in the lower-left corner of his vision, felt his eyelid twitch.
First, exclude the possibility that the Demon God Pillar Raum has a private hobby of roleplaying as a femboy. Some relatively reasonable guesses surfaced in Suke's mind.
Suke looked down from his high position at the mentally collapsed "Demon God Pillar." At this moment, he felt his villain vibes were even stronger.
"It seems Mr. Carter has also started hallucinating because he accidentally ate the cursed, contaminated grain."
Suke shook his head, signaling Sanson to fork this "Demon God Pillar"—who was suspected to be someone else entirely—out of there.
"Take him down to rest. Let him calm down."
"Yes!"
Two members of the Town Guard who had been waiting on the side—and even Sanson—stepped forward with unbearable expressions.
Sanson looked at the hysterical "Randolph Carter," and the inexplicable throbbing in his heart grew stronger. But trusting Suke unconditionally, he chose to execute the order.
"Let me go! I came to stop the sacrifice; what are you doing!!"
"He is a monster! Why can't you see! Everyone will starve to death in the famine like that! Someone come quickly! Come stop him!!"
In the process of being forcibly dragged away, "Randolph" struggled desperately, shouting inexplicable words until the voice gradually faded into the distance.
"It seems the person in the way is gone."
Suke whispered softly. He checked the [Special Rain Totem] in his backpack, as well as the dozens of stacks of Wheat—in units of 999—prepared in case the Rain Totem failed. The torch in his hand drew an arc in the air.
"Out with the old, in with the new."
"Light the fire. Begin the sacrifice!"
BOOM—!!
Flames shot into the sky, devouring the pile of "Unclean Grain" steeped in eerie magical energy.
Black smoke billowed, as if announcing the end of the old order of Salem.
The townspeople watched the raging fire, the devout light in their eyes gradually dimming, replaced by unease surging into their hearts like a tide.
It was really burned.
It was really gone.
What should they do next?
However, just then.
Suke raised his head, looking at the sky obscured by the billowing black smoke, and quietly crushed the [Special Rain Totem] in his hand.
"And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I."
"And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God..."
"And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son..."
"...As it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen."
(Old Testament · Genesis 22:11)
"Thus, upon those ashes, there shall be a gifted rebirth."
The brilliance of the shattered Rain Totem rose from the ashes, slowly ascending into the sky and gathering the converging dark clouds.
"The wind is rising."
A drop of golden "rain" first pierced through the black smoke, landing on the uneasy and fearful bodies of the townspeople kneeling in prayer.
"This is... a grain of wheat?"
Abigail looked up at the sky in curiosity. She subconsciously reached out and caught the object falling from the heavens.
It was not rainwater, but a plump, golden ear of wheat, emitting a sun-like aroma.
And in the very next moment.
The bleak autumn wind that commonly howled through this small North American town was nowhere to be seen.
Replacing it was a golden heavy rain, lingering with the aura of harvest—
Pouring down as promised.
____
🔥 Fresh content has just dropped! 🔥
New Story: Stardew Valley: What Do You Mean They All Became My Servants
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on every series!
✅ Unlock supporter-only perks and news!
Let's reach these milestones together:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters for all series!
👻 Walnutchan on P...