Soul of Negary

"Princess Nala, please hurry. Leave this to me!" said a knight of Divine Grace as he held up his rusty knight's sword and faced a large mud-like monster.

The world was becoming more abnormal by the day. As the Black Abyss approached, the sky had turned dim and grey, as if there was always a layer of dark clouds above.

Additionally, as the Black Abyss arrived, some people also began to mutate. Their skin and flesh began to fester like a skinned frog. From time to time, they would shed pieces of flesh from their bodies or even lose their humanoid appearance. Their bones would begin to melt, turning their entire bodies into a pool of mud with tentacles for limbs.

These monsters seemed to be particularly hostile towards humans, almost as if they were their natural predators. Once they pounced on a person, their flesh and skin would melt, when struck by weapons, the weapons would corrode extremely rapidly. Even elite and veteran mercenaries had died at these monsters' hands with just a bit of carelessness.

The more people that these monsters ate, the larger they would grow without an apparent limit. And the most terrifying thing of all was that these monsters couldn't be killed.

Fortunately, there weren't many of these monsters for now, with most of them only showing up in remote areas. The more prosperous a city area was, the fewer of these monsters manifested, so they hadn't caused a large disturbance yet.

However, time wasn't on their side, these mutations were ongoing, and things were still changing by the minute. Nala could also feel some sort of power trying to alter her, but being forcefully held back by the Dragon's blood inside her body. However, she could also sense that as long as she gave in to it, she would be able to obtain great power.

Nala and the others encountered this damn monster when they were passing by a village. Soon after this monster manifested, it had slaughtered the entire village and grew to the size of a house like it currently was.

As they rode past this village, the tentacles of the mud monsters suddenly swept out, eliminating all of their horses. Quite a few of the people of the Church as well as Nala's follower knights were also struck by the tentacles before they could react.

Many of them died on the spot, and more died in the battle that ensued. Nala and the others had tried a lot of ways to kill the monster, but it seemed that something was supporting it, keeping it alive.

Despite the monster's size and muddy stature, it wasn't slow, combined with its disgusting method of attack, if they had tried to ignore it and run, more people would have been killed instead.

As a last resort, the knight of Divine Grace suggested that he stay back to stop the monster, or else the entire group would be stuck here with it. From the surrounding environments, it could be seen that the Black Abyss was getting closer and closer by the minute, the light of the flames was dying and their time was running out.

"My Lord promised me the Right to Sacrifice, God is with me!" a dazzling white light manifested on the knight of Divine Grace as his Grace of Sacrifice had been activated.

It truly must be said, although the Church's 'God' was only a fake, the Grace it bestowed upon people did indeed require special qualities. These normal people of the Church of Divine Grace naturally must possess those special qualities, and were praiseworthy in one way or another.

As the knight of Divine Grace held his sword and rushed towards the monster, Nala's eyes flashed briefly, turned around and declared: "All members, retreat, do not let his sacrifice be in vain!"

As the white light erupted, the monster's body was blown to bits, but under the influence of some kind of power, it quickly gathered again, swallowed the body of the knight and grew a bit larger.

There was no time to grieve. Everyone had already seen the horror of the Black Abyss, and this was only the signs of things before the advent of the Black Abyss. If it truly did descend upon them, what would become of the world was completely unimaginable.

And so, even if they had to risk everything, they must stop the Black Abyss from coming.

"Finally, Sacred Valley" Nala was a bit worn down, after all, they had ran all the way here on foot in order to arrive as fast as possible.

This seemingly ordinary valley looked beautiful, as if the power of the Black Abyss could not affect it at all. As Nala's group approached the valley, a loud voice resounded from within: "Spawn of the Black Abyss, leave this place!"

"I am a human being. I am here to continue the flames. Please open the path to the kiln of the first flame" Nala ignored the other party's harsh tone, stabbed her Dragonscale sword to the ground and solemnly declared: "The Black Abyss is approaching. Anomalies are already beginning to manifest, we cannot stall this any longer"

"Definitely not! Sacred Valley will guard the first flame and will never allow the spawns of the Black Abyss to approach" the voice harshly denied her, unwilling to compromise in the slightest: "As long as the first flame does not die, do not even think about entering, spawn of the Black Abyss"

"How ridiculous" Nala sighed. The flame was obviously going out, and none of them were the fuel to prolong it, yet they insisted on preventing others from doing so just because they believed the other party might extinguish it for good instead. Sure enough, what Eldridge had said about Sacred Valley being 'ghouls' was not wrong.

Again, everyone had their own perseverance and ideas. If you can persuade others and make them compromise by just being reasonable, then so many examples of coercion would not exist in this world.

"Then we shall act as we will. I firmly believe that our path is correct" Nala drew out the Dragonscale sword and walked firmly towards the valley. If convincing didn't work, then a fight was the only answer.

...

A large number of crows carried Negary towards Sacred Valley. Although it's possible for him to fly with [Dracotongue], using it constantly consumes energy, and at this juncture, it would be best to save some energy.

In the sky, Negary closed the book in his hand. On his way, Negary had read through the records and documents kept by the Church of Divine Grace, learning the knowledge that could be considered to be useful within them. After all, there was always a reason why an organization could be established and survive for so many years.

As he stopped above the valley, Negary held the original Evil Spirit in his hand and a rune appeared on his forehead, it was the Grace of Understanding. By observing the entirety of the Sacred Valley through it, Negary's eyes saw something very different from what initially seemed like an ordinary valley.

The mud blocks of mountains and rivers had lost their colour in Negary's eyes, revealing the truth of what was hidden beneath.

The entire valley was the skeleton of a person's hand. This hand seems to be holding onto something. The mountain range on both sides of the valley were the hand's index finger and thumb, while the end of the valley was the wrist.

The rest of the hand was deeply buried in the ground, but from this hand alone, one could tell how large this entity was, his identity being self-evident.

One of the three gods who came out from the first flame, the only one among the three gods who took the responsibility and created all of the life forms in this world.

The first assassin of the Sacred Valley was a follower of the Giant. The so-called Spring of Life was derived from the Giant's flesh and blood. Since the humans of this world were originally created by the Giant, the Spring of Life created from his flesh and blood could naturally treat and mend any human wounds.

〖 Is the first flame placed inside the skeleton of the Giant? 〗 Negary slowly descended into the valley, where it was in complete chaos. It could be seen that a fierce battle had happened here, one between many forces.

Quite a few corpses were left on the scene, including assassins of the Sacred Valley, knights from Nala's group and Negary's three troops: the Ghostmen, Crowmen and Dragonmen. However, none of them had any Soul Essence or Life Essence left over, obviously taken by a powerful Evil Spirit; and besides Negary himself, that description could only refer to the people of Hales.