My Players Are So Fierce

Chapter 433: Avalon’s Corruption and Speculations about the Divine Visage

“These people cannot be let go!”

After handling the aftermath at the Snegov Family, everyone didn’t leave immediately.

They waited until people from the Thorn Clan came to take over this property and discussed with them about the handling of those innocent people rescued from the gang’s prison cages.

The Thorn vampires, due to their years of dealing with shadow entities, had considerable knowledge about certain evil beings and dark magic. Upon seeing the strange markings inscribed on those prisoners’ bodies, the local person in charge from the Thorn Clan immediately stopped them:

“This is some kind of transformation dark art originating from the Dark Realm. We don’t know much about it, but we can be certain that these people have already become part of some large-scale ritual. They must be kept under watch until the threat is eliminated!”

At this point, the Thorn vampire swept a cold gaze over those rescued civilians and said in a low voice:

“According to our usual way of handling things, these folks would need to be eliminated to ensure everything is truly resolved. However, Lady Shani specifically instructed that matters related to the Snegov Family should be handled by you, so the fate of these pitiful ones now lies in your hands.

My kindred.”

She looked toward Sister Pomegranate and Giant Shark Uncle.

Upon seeing Giant Shark Uncle’s signature bald head, even the Thorn Clan’s person in charge struggled to maintain their cold demeanor.

Her mouth twitched slightly, and she tried hard to ignore the weird posture of this highly noticeable bald vampire before her who was completely mismatched with midnight elegance and refinement, still poking his head around curiously. She said to Sister Pomegranate:

“My advice to you is don’t create unnecessary troubles for yourself. When you can’t determine the purpose of the markings on these people, eliminating them is the simplest and most harmless choice. Of course, I’ve also heard about some of your Blood Vulture Clan’s recent strange actions that somewhat break through vampire moral constraints, so this is just a suggestion.

The teleportation gate back to Crimson Citadel has been prepared for you.

Don’t worry, it’s personally operated by our clan’s space spirit energy spellcaster, they won’t send you into the Astral Realm.”

“Thanks.”

Sister Pomegranate snorted.

Though impatient, she still expressed her gratitude for that damn “little suggestion” with a standard Blood Vulture courtesy.

However, to be honest, eliminating these innocent people was never among Sister Pomegranate’s choices, not only because she herself was lawful, but also because Shadow Trail Sect’s monk master Turner was watching.

If she dared to order the execution of these people, Turner would likely turn against her on the spot.

Ah, although regular monks aren’t special professions like the oath-bound monks of the sworn sequence, certain “implicit constraints” of this profession do truly exist.

In any legend, monks are known for their powerful willpower, and to cultivate will as strong as steel, these troublesome rules and disciplines are necessary.

Sister Pomegranate watched the Thorn Clan members disappear in the Snegov Family fortress, then turned back to discuss briefly with Brother Mao, and after aligning opinions with Teacher Li and Master Yang, walked to Master Turner.

She said very seriously:

“We need to take these people who can’t return home back to Crimson Citadel first. Before Lady Tris confirms they are harmless, we cannot randomly release them back into society. After all, this is related to Dusk matters, we can’t be too cautious.”

“Mm, a very appropriate choice.”

Turner didn’t participate in the decision-making process, but he was very satisfied with the choice made by his “apprentices”.

Whether it was handling ill-gotten gains or accepting these poor people, everything was very much in line with the proper conduct and mindset a lawful monk should have.

This made him increasingly satisfied with Shadow Trail Sect’s way of doing things.

For a monk used to a “lone wolf” life, staying with these lawful ones always greatly dispersed the discomfort in his heart.

“To avoid letting things drag on, let’s set off to return now.”

Turner looked back at the “Spider-Man” large ice sculpture currently being lifted onto a cart by the joint efforts of Giant Shark Uncle, Alin and Star Soul Eagle, and said in a deep voice:

“The binding ice can only maintain freezing for 12 hours, but I suspect Dusk definitely left other things in this guy’s body. This isn’t our area of expertise, it must be handed over to more professional people to handle.

Although we couldn’t directly catch the Dusk believers who colluded with the Snegov Family, being able to bring back such clear clues can still be considered a hard-won victory.

Everyone, I have witnessed your mindset and your choices, so starting tomorrow, I will pass on my insights about the way of the monk to you!

For the dangerous situation we are about to face, gaining strength is necessary, it can protect us and what we guard from being polluted by darkness.

But I declare in advance!

The Winter Wolf monk’s special training will be very tough, I hope you are mentally prepared.”

————————

“The crest of the Medjeva Family, there’s no mistake! Although all thirteen Shadow Elf families use the ‘Fate-Weaving Spider’ as their crest, there are various decorative elements to distinguish between them.

This crest’s spider has Shadow Jewel fangs, which is precisely the characteristic of the Medjeva Family.”

Several hours later, in the underground chamber of the Blood Vulture Halls, Adele who had been summoned, carefully examined the crests seized from the Snegov Family while wearing gloves.

There was a certain disgust in Adele’s voice.

She hated everything related to Shadow Elves, but fate always showed no mercy, making her repeatedly come into contact with these things related to the quarter blood in her body, it could even be called a “curse of blood”.

“So, the Dusk believers secretly colluding with the Snegov Family came from the Dark Realm under the Eternal Rift”

Murphy sat in his chair, beside him were the opened envelopes.

These rats of darkness used code language to communicate with each other. On the surface these looked like ordinary letters, making them very difficult to decode without knowing the encryption method.

Behind him, Tris was setting up a new binding ritual, used to contain the twisted spider demon that was still frozen at this time.

Murphy was very satisfied with the results of Shadow Trail Sect’s action, but he knew clearly that the players had fulfilled their responsibilities and mission, they brought back the evidence Murphy and Tris needed, but whether they could collect the information Murphy needed from this evidence would depend on the vampire lord and Blood Vulture Grand Duchess’s methods.

“Can you decode these letters?”

Murphy asked, and Adele shook her head saying:

“I was born in Shadow Valley, master, my understanding of Shadow Elves is limited to hearsay, I never truly lived in Shadow Elf society, I don’t have deep understanding of their customs.

But I guess Uncle Bella and Aunt Bernice would definitely be willing to help.

They are both half-elf gladiators born in Medjeva City, they might be familiar with these code languages used between Shadow Elves.

However I advise you not to have too high hopes.”

The Shadow Intelligence Officer picked up those letters while saying softly:

“If even a third of what I know about Shadow Elves’ patterns of action is true, then the cultists hiding among them would not leave such obvious exploitable loopholes in their daily work.

I guess, even if Uncle Bella decodes these code languages, we’ll still find it hard to directly capture specific information about that Dusk believer from them.

When it comes to secret operations, Shadow Elves are perhaps on par with the Thorn Clan.

But in terms of hiding oneself and keeping oneself safe, I guess even someone as shrewd as Lady Shani could at most become the ruler of one city in Shadow Elf society.

Shadow Elves are born from lies!

They soak and draw cunning nutrients from the pool of conspiracy as they grow up, every adult male Shadow Elf goes through at least three assassination attempts from peers to ensure they won’t make stupid mistakes when holding important positions in various families.

And every female Shadow Elf who can survive to adulthood usually has ten times more experience in this aspect than the men.

In such a terrible society, fools who don’t know how to conceal themselves cannot possibly survive.”

“I’ve heard about these inside stories, I just can’t understand why Shadow Elves maintain this social model that seems abnormal from any angle.”

Murphy shook his head and said:

“But as Turner said in his report, I am just as unsurprised as him about Shadow Elves participating in Dusk’s affairs. However, Adele, have you seen this kind of spider demon before?”

The vampire lord pointed at the frozen spider demon behind him and asked, Adele glanced at that twisted being, she shook her head and said:

“No, I hadn’t even heard of it, obviously my mother concealed many dark things she saw in the elven cities to protect my young mind.

I’m sorry master, I can’t help you much in this matter.”

“It’s alright, everyone has things they’re not good at.”

Murphy waved his hand with a gentle tone and stood up saying:

“Then I’ll trouble you to invite Lord Bella to decode these letter messages for us, I’ll share with you any discoveries from this side immediately.”

“No, master, I don’t need that.”

Adele hugged the letters and stepped back, her beautiful and increasingly alluring face was full of disgust and rejection, she said very seriously to Murphy:

“I don’t want to hear any information related to Shadow Elves, I have zero interest in those rats born in dark realms, but I know this is my work.

I will pay attention to this aspect.

But you really don’t need to specially share these with me.”

“Alright, I respect your choice.”

Murphy nodded, watching Adele make a very elegant lady’s courtesy to him before turning to leave. The moment the door to the underground chamber closed, Tris who was busy suddenly spoke up saying:

“Her neckline has gotten lower again”

“Ah?”

Murphy pretended to be completely unaware as he turned back with a surprised expression, saying:

“Why would you pay attention to these strange details?”

“Because my stupid boyfriend is completely unaware that his subordinate with the vulgar figure is trying to seduce him, or perhaps he actually discovered it long ago but is just pretending not to see it due to some male perverse interests without clearly stopping it.”

Tris said in a calm tone:

“If this continues, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day Adele appears in front of you wearing only a bra, hey, what a clumsy girl, completely doesn’t know how to utilize her advantages.

You can see that she’s actually quite anxious about this aspect, but the advancement driven by the blood contract makes her unconsciously want to show her charm in front of you.

She might not even be aware of this point herself.”

“Tris.”

Murphy covered his eyes painfully, dragging out his voice with a pleading tone, making the Crimson Witch lady cover her mouth and laugh, then cough twice and say:

“Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore, move that big ice block over here, I need to rebind it and conduct a series of research on it.”

Murphy immediately stepped forward, using spirit energy to levitate and push the freezing ice to the center of the binding ritual Tris had set up.

As Tris activated this ritual, streams of purple-red flowing light quickly gathered and intersected to isolate inside and outside the ritual, and not just physical isolation, but also sophisticated control of space and time.

Reducing the time flow rate in the cage to a level that could be freely manipulated by Tris.

As is well known, any power related to time can be considered great, this unremarkable binding ritual before them actually represents the unique power Tris obtained when achieving the Golden rank Spirit Sovereign, which she calls “Transcendent Law: Time”.

Tris had actually never truly displayed her trump card power.

Because from when she was dragged into this “game” by Murphy until now, the first half she was too weak to fight, and after obtaining Salrokdar’s golden heart, she still hadn’t encountered a predicament where she must use her trump card to survive.

The Crimson Witch had always been called a “genius” by Lord Payne, don’t underestimate the gold content of these one word from someone like the Lord.

“I need to spend some time defrosting it next, Turner’s North Wind Strike carries the weak divinity of the North Wind God, dissolving this thing is very troublesome.”

Tris fine-tuned the parameters of the binding ritual, she said to Murphy:

“The specific research results may need some time, you can leave now, I’ll notify you if there’s any news.”

“I want to stay a bit longer.”

Murphy shrugged.

He examined the twisted humanoid form frozen in the ice block before him, this thing was very similar to the spider-transformed elves in his memory, but didn’t have that unique feeling, more like a defective product obtained from “failed evolution”.

“Can’t you just search for information directly in its mind?”

He asked:

“Even Femis can use that search technique, don’t you know how?”

“Don’t be silly, that thing is more torture than information search, its search efficiency is low enough to make any blood inquisitor laugh out loud.”

Tris shook her head and said:

“Moreover, this guy before us has already gone through the ‘spider transformation ritual’, while its form was twisted and corrupted, its will and mind were also shattered into irreparable maze fragments. Wanting to recombine that information requires great patience and superior skill, you should be grateful I’ve done this kind of thing before.

I have some experience.

Perhaps from this guy’s mental memories, we can find the face and some information we want to capture.”

“Alright, have you seen this thing before?”

Murphy asked another question.

His capable girlfriend snorted and said with hands on hips:

“Who do you think I am? Isn’t it just a spider-transformed person? I saw plenty when traveling in the Dark Realm over 200 years ago. This thing is actually a way Shadow Elves use to torture prisoners, its principle is derived from the ‘Fate-Weaving Blessing’ ritual of Shadow Elf families.

Those Shadow Elf females who have gained the favor of the Spider Lady Avalon would perform this ritual at some point.

They would dedicate everything of themselves to the Spider Lady in exchange for the blessing of Shadow Avalon, after the ritual ends, those Shadow Elf females would become half-human half-spider beings like this.

But honestly, those genuine ‘Fate-Weaving Maidens’ are much prettier than this fake before us.

Those are iconic power holders in the Shadow Elf race and high-level members of each family, according to what I saw and heard back then, each of the thirteen Shadow Elf families would have a priest order composed entirely of Fate-Weaving Maidens.

That is the most deterrent force under the family matriarch.

That is also the manifestation of Shadow Avalon’s authority in the Shadow Elf race.

Legend has it, those gifted Fate-Weaving Maidens can see the flow of the river of fate with their eyes, making quite accurate prophecies.

Although there has never been a real case proving this point, from how the Shadow Elves haven’t declined and perished but rather lived increasingly prosperously since being driven from the Castilia Peninsula by the other three elf races so many years ago until now, one can see these prophecies about fate may not be unfounded.

They gradually occupied most of the Dark Realm under the Eternal Rift, and established a complex fallen kingdom there.

Honestly, if just considering force and war potential, today’s Shadow Elves have become their own faction, able to contend equally with the Castilia Elf Kingdom.

Fortunately there’s half a continent and the obstacle of the Genoa Peninsula between the two groups, otherwise the internal war between elves would definitely have started long ago.”

Tris shook her head and said:

“In short, don’t underestimate these madwomen who use spiders as their symbol, if a tender little puppy like you fell into the hands of Shadow Elves, I’m afraid those hopeless nymphomaniacs would really eat you up completely.

In the physical sense”

“Stop joking, with you here, am I afraid of them?”

Murphy snorted, but then frowned and said:

“Tris, you’re the best theologian on the continent, can you answer a doubt of mine? Why is there such a big difference between the Spider Lady and the other three aspects among Avalon’s four aspects?

The Moon Maiden, Storm Queen and Forest Mother are all clearly of lawful alignment, but this Spider Lady is considered extreme even by vampire standards.

This really doesn’t make sense.”

“Mm, good question.”

Tris looked left and right, she lowered her voice and said:

“I went to the Dark Realm back then precisely to seek this answer, obviously I could get a concrete answer, but my travels among the thirteen families gave me an idea.

There’s no evidence.

But I guess the birth of the Spider Lady wasn’t a coincidence.

Avalon may have been ‘corrupted’, and the Spider Lady is just the manifestation of that corrupted part in terms of divinity”

“Bang”

A knock on the door sounded right at this moment, making Tris immediately fall silent and also making Murphy’s heart skip a beat. In this world where gods truly exist, discussing these secrets about the gods is troublesome.

You have to be constantly on guard against being heard by Them.

“Come in!”

Murphy turned back and called out, Tris’s guard captain “Mad Woman” Bonnie poked her head in to secretly survey the room.

When she didn’t see the scene she wanted to see, the expectation in Bonnie’s eyes quickly turned to disappointment, then she said in a muffled voice:

“Lady Shani has arrived, she’s waiting for both of you.”