Chapter 20: The Guiding Doe

But faced with this tempting offer, “Shadow Walker” refused without hesitation. Selene nodded without thinking too much. She wasn’t going to try to persuade this rebellious kid.

Their conversation and the agreement with “Shadow Walker” didn’t take much time. But Selene still had a feeling of anxious agitation. Some kind of sixth sense told her that she was wasting a lot of time and needed to act.

She glanced again at the two heretics whose bodies had changed, still performing their ritual. She saw that they had finished. The one representing “Lust,” the being with both male and female characteristics, had put on ragged clothes again. The one who had received the punishment, representing “Fury,” had simply pulled a piece of ragged cloth over his lower body. His upper body, red and muscular, was exposed to the air.

They had walked over, but they were both much quieter.

“Shadow Walker” seemed a little anxious. He looked at the backs of the two, whispering,

“Are they superhumans?”

“No.” Selene answered clearly, because she had witnessed this kind of situation before. “But in the past, before the professional system was established and widely accepted, they could be considered ‘primary’ superhumans. From our current perspective, they’re simply ‘conduits.’”

“That’s what we call people who have come into contact with superhuman powers but don’t know how to use them. Those who can’t control their own power, and whose personalities and minds are somewhat distorted as a result… In the past, they were called ‘Apprentices,’ because back then, superhuman abilities were largely monopolized, and those who wanted to become superhumans had to find a superhuman master. They would go through an ‘Apprentice’ stage, and the guidance of their masters would prevent their personalities from changing. After that, the world of superhumans would open its doors to them.

“But these heretics clearly don’t have any masters, and probably because of the nature of the Evil god they believe in, and the power they’ve received from the Evil god, they’re already in a half-mad state. Their intelligence is weakened. They’re incapable of conducting the ascension ritual, becoming full-fledged superhumans… In other words, as long as you want to, you can kill them without them noticing, even if you’re a newly-minted, inexperienced superhuman.”

Selene explained as she and “Shadow Walker” followed the two heretics.

They followed the two down the hallway. As they moved forward, more details of this hallway were revealed. After passing an imperceptible boundary, the stone pillars lining the hallway were replaced by enormous statues that reached the ceiling. The statues were over one hundred meters tall, and the figures carved on them were dressed in different clothes. Some had their hands raised high, some held books, some held swords pointing forward. There were also some statues that weren’t human. Wolves, butterflies, mirrors, swords, shadows, dragons… The most prominent one was an enormous, two-horned beast that stretched towards all directions.

This was merely a statue of a beast that had weathered countless years, even more than half-decayed. The details were almost entirely gone, you could only vaguely make out the shape of the beast. But the two, as soon as they focused on it, saw the “truth”—

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The beast walked through the world. Its eyes were full of compassion. It bore mountains and rivers on its back. It stepped on thorns. Golden blood fell, forming pools of water… Its horns carried endless flames and light. The flames spread across its body, and a dark sun hung behind it. Gentle, bright sunlight emanated from its horns… After the sunrise, those compassionate red eyes seemed to look back.

A moment later, the vision vanished before the two of them.

The two were once again immersed in the cold, grand hallway. “Shadow Walker” seemed to be deeply shaken by the vision. He forgot to take a step for a moment, before he asked hesitantly,

“That… what was that deer…”

Selene, anticipating his question, had already regained her composure. She calmly pulled him along and lowered his head because the two heretics had inexplicably also stopped walking. After confirming that they hadn’t been detected, she whispered her reply,

“That’s the ‘Guiding Doe,’ the envoy of the Lord of Glory, the envoy of offerings and sacrifice, a guide to the Divine Glory clerics. That’s his likeness. And the fact that it’s still being used here, even worshiped, means that he once descended his power upon this place…”

“Shadow Walker” was startled for a moment. His voice was low and melancholy,

“I know the Lord of Glory. He’s one of the four Primal Gods who created the world. There’s a Divine Glory Church in town. The priests there worship him. But what’s an envoy and a ‘guide’?”

“…”

Selene was impressed by this incredibly high-level illiterate. The literacy rate in the Divine Construct was very high, and almost everyone knew these myths and legends, because every town and city had free church schools…

How could this “Shadow Walker” be so illiterate?

Had he never gone to school?

Selene didn’t bother to answer these common questions and pulled him along to quickly follow the two heretics, who had started their ritual again.

They seemed to feel that they were wasting a lot of time and quickened their pace. The sound of their shoes and bare feet striking the ground was dull and heavy—mostly from the “Fury” heretic. They walked for another few minutes, passing more statues that were either real or illusions, those that supposedly represented the envoys of the fourteen deities. They reached the end of the hallway, where a large, ornate door stood. The dark surface was studded with countless glittering jewels, like the stars in the universe.

The door was slightly ajar, a gap that was insignificant compared to the door itself, almost non-existent, but large enough for a human to pass through.

After the two heretics went through the door, Selene and “Shadow Walker” followed cautiously. “Shadow Walker” seemed to have activated some ability of his profession. He touched Selene, and the two of them were immediately covered in the same mosaic pattern.

They crouched down, moving stealthily yet vigilantly through the doorway. Quickly, they climbed onto a raised platform next to the door, concealed their figures, and then looked down.

A large, bright, circular hall spread out before them.

This hall maintained the same style as the hallway. The colossal pillars that reached the ceiling, the strange, indecipherable symbols, the weathering and blurred markings… But on the ceiling, a large, multifaceted jewel radiated a brilliant light, bathing the hall in light.

The two, having come from the dim hallway, blinked a few times to adjust to the bright light. A moment later, an old voice echoed from a few hundred meters away, reaching their ears.

“We implore the Scholar of Sin, the long-abandoned god, the god of Death and Desire! Lord of Sin and Knowledge! Source of lust and wisdom! I offer you this—the light within the skull of the lost!”