Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

“I think I know what this is.”

Zombies, ice that won’t melt—Loren immediately thought of the Lost Snow Mountains, where the snow never melts and can trigger mutations in any creature that touches it.

After mutation, creatures lose reason, retaining only appetite and madness; they’re very much like zombies.

Once he understood the principle, the problem became manageable.

“The Plague Church turns people into zombies by using the snow from the Lost Snow Mountains. What they did was make this mutation contagious, and they made the infected controllable by them…”

“So that’s the Plague Church’s method?”

William sighed. From Loren’s description, he could roughly guess how terrifying the God of Plague’s methods were.

He still remembered the Rainbow Plague incident clearly, but the Rainbow Plague wasn’t very aggressive; one could resist infection with willpower, and a beating could cure an infected person.

If the zombie virus spread to this degree, that would be truly dangerous.

“The key issue is that those controlled people can very likely provide faith to the God of Plague… directly turning followers of the God of Bountiful Harvest into followers of the God of Plague…”Saying this, Loren thought for a moment. In fact, the spread of the zombie virus might not be all bad for him.

The God of Plague wasn’t as strong as the God of Bountiful Harvest, especially since Loren had strengthened the latter somewhat. If they really fought, the God of Plague would probably be crushed by the God of Bountiful Harvest.

If the zombie virus existed, it could balance things out. Mutual destruction would be the best outcome for Loren.

“Is there any way to stop it?”

“There is.”

After pondering briefly, Loren finally decided to say what to do.

He hoped the two gods would weaken each other, but he couldn’t bear to see ordinary people suffer.

“What’s the method?”

William knew Loren had a plan, but after Loren confirmed it, he couldn’t help releasing a breath of relief.

“Fire can solve that ice, but ordinary fire is ineffective. You need the flame of life.”

“What is the flame of life?”

William didn’t know what Loren meant by the flame of life, so he asked.

“It’s a broad concept. Plainly put, any flame that burns life counts—for example, a necromancer’s soul-fire, or certain fire magics that consume life force.

“Of course, the simplest method is to set a living person on fire; that also counts as flame of life.

“It must be a living person; corpses won’t work.

“The safest way is to melt your own body fat, stuff a rope or similar with it, and when the rope is soaked with fat, light it.”

“…”

Hearing Loren’s suggestion sent a chill through William; just listening made him feel a wave of pain.

“Even with a necromancer’s soul-fire, it has to be lit using a living person. A soul, after all, is an energy body with attachments; it’s not the same as life.”

If it were purely soul-fire, it would be simple—those souls in Loren’s Ten Thousand Soul Banner could burn for years.

“Then can we just set the infected people themselves on fire?”

“No. They’re almost impossible to ignite, and they are no longer considered living.”

“…”

Even knowing the solution, William felt depressed; the cost was too high.

“You don’t need to panic. The requirement is life, but it doesn’t have to be human life—human life just works best.

“Also, we can simply use those fattened nobles as lamps.

“By the way, since we’re going to clear out the nobles anyway, we can round up a few fat ones and keep them for emergencies.”

“You make sense…”

William wiped his sweat. He was glad he had chosen to side with Loren. Luckily he wasn’t fat, otherwise he might have been put aside as a spare candle.

“All right, let’s do that. I’ll take a few heads back for research; you two handle the rest. Ring production and sales are on you.

“I’ll go home for a bit and check the list the Bishop wrote for me.”

“Yes…”

Loren left. William looked at Noah, and Noah lifted his head to glance at him.

“What did those rats outside get bitten by? Is it dangerous for you to live here alone?”

William asked with concern. He thought Noah was one of Loren’s confidants, so being on good terms might help. He was already thinking of assigning someone to protect Noah.

“I eat leftovers. Other creatures help clean the rotting corpses.”

“…”

William became fearful. He wanted to finish his conversation and leave as soon as possible—he was afraid Noah would eat him. A plump live human would surely be tastier than a rat.

…

“That’s all the people on the list?”

Loren glanced at the list the Bishop had written and questioned it.

“Yes. Even during the time you… had no news, those who dared act against you were in the minority.”

The Bishop weighed his words carefully, afraid of displeasing Loren and unintentionally adding his own name to the list.

“All right, I’ll go home and rest for a bit. You go find more people. Tomorrow we start settling things. Remember to bring William.

“I don’t want to waste too much time here.”

Loren’s main purpose in coming was to find Noah; the settling of scores was incidental.

He wasn’t overly angry, just a little annoyed—and when Loren was annoyed, people tended to die.

“Yes…”

Only after Loren entered did the Bishop breathe out and turn to leave.

…

“Now it’s just the two of us, daddy…”

Loren lay back in his bed, and Reflection Naclis suddenly flopped onto him. Somehow Reflection Naclis had put on lipstick.

“Mm.”

Loren didn’t think much of it and simply stroked Reflection Naclis’s hair, turning over to pull her into his arms.

“It’s getting late. Rest first.”

“Mm…”

Reflection Naclis hid silently in Loren’s embrace, enjoying his hug.

She had planned many little tricks, but being held by Loren disrupted her plans; maybe this was even better.

“Although Naclis has followed you for a long time, I haven’t had many chances to stay by your side.

“Now I finally do. I’m afraid something sudden will happen and take you away from me…”

Reflection Naclis mumbled suddenly, which left Loren a little stunned:

“How did Naclis’s real form turn brave, and you turned sticky…”

“Ugh…”

Reflection Naclis said nothing, only hugged him tighter.

…

The night passed without incident. The next morning when Loren woke, Reflection Naclis had vanished, slipping back into his shadow.

Loren glanced at his watch. It was already noon. He yawned and planned to use the bathroom before setting out.

But while in the bathroom, he discovered a kiss mark—its shade matched Reflection Naclis’s lipstick exactly.