Chapter 329 — Conspiracy and Mutation
Drip... drip...
Blood fell onto the floorboards.
The surrounding walls gradually became older and more decayed, while the light outside the windows dimmed little by little.
In the end, two separate timelines completely overlapped.
Mia and Simon also witnessed the bloody scene unfolding before them.
Simon's injuries had already been treated as best as possible, and he was currently leaning weakly against a corner.
The moment he saw what was happening, he quietly switched his camera back on.
Meanwhile, John's condition had become utterly hopeless.
Not only was his aura rapidly fading, but even if he were taken to a hospital immediately, it would already be too late.
Unless someone like Sid—a holy cleric specializing in healing—was present, there might still have been a slim chance to keep him alive.
But for John...
death was already inevitable.
Even so, he continued staring at Gideon, his eyes filled with countless regrets.
Yet none of it mattered anymore.
Moments later, John's head finally slumped lifelessly to one side.
Gideon silently clenched his fists before looking toward the man standing behind the corpse.
"Your eyes tell me you didn't have any personal grudge against him."
"In that case, the only explanation is... this was about the Deputy Commander position within the Cleric Order."
"Hmph. Smart." Ambrose curled his lips into a smile. "Looks like you already suspected something."
Gideon spread his hands.
"It was obvious."
"Back during the initiation ceremony, everyone around us was talking about you as though the Deputy Commander seat already belonged to you. Honestly, I expected you to come confront me that same day."
"And shouldn't I have?!" Ambrose suddenly snarled, his emotions flaring violently.
"Everyone could see that position should have been mine!"
"But that man pretended not to notice! After all these years, I climbed from an ordinary—"
"Alright, alright." Gideon raised a hand and interrupted him.
"Maybe you've suffered greatly. Maybe you sacrificed a lot."
"But the moment you turned against your own companions, all of that became nothing more than excuses."
Ambrose narrowed his eyes, clearly displeased at being cut off.
"Then they can rot beneath the earth alongside him."
Gideon ignored the threat entirely and calmly changed the subject.
"There's something I'm curious about."
"From our limited interactions, you never struck me as someone reckless. So your actions right now don't quite add up."
"Heh... You really are perceptive. I can understand a little better now why Jolan chose you."
Gideon simply stared at him quietly.
"You're right. Someone did order this operation behind the scenes," Ambrose admitted with a faint smile.
"But it also happens to align perfectly with what I want."
"Oh?" Gideon replied calmly. "Killing members of the Vatican Cleric Order and disobeying Archbishop Jolan's command... who would dare do something like that?"
"What Archbishop?" Ambrose spat onto the floor.
"He's just a lucky bastard born into the right circumstances."
"As for who gave the order..." He chuckled coldly. "You think I'd tell you?"
"The moment you admitted this wasn't personal, the answer became easy enough to guess."
Ambrose's eyes narrowed sharply.
"Jolan. Members of the Cleric Order. Both carry enormous weight."
"So if someone dares move against them, then it can only be people of similar status."
"For example..." Gideon paused slightly.
"The Holy Bloodline families."
Ambrose stared deeply at Gideon.
"You're very different from the other holy clerics."
"I heard you also came from a lower parish district. What a shame..."
He sighed softly.
"If we'd met under different circumstances, perhaps we could've gotten along quite well."
"Save the meaningless talk." Gideon quietly moved one hand toward the pocket inside his robe.
"You should know something."
"If those Holy Bloodline nobles are willing to do this, then they obviously see you as nothing more than a disposable pawn."
"Aren't you afraid they'll abandon you afterward?"
Ambrose laughed quietly.
"Hmph. Being useful is precisely what allows someone to be used."
"Otherwise, you stay trapped at the bottom of the mountain forever."
"I simply seized the opportunity that belonged to me."
Then his tone shifted.
"Judging from your attitude toward Jolan... you don't seem especially loyal to him either."
"If you publicly stand against him, I could introduce you to the people above."
This time, contempt appeared in Gideon's eyes.
"A man who can't even tolerate losing a promotion expects others to believe he'd sincerely recommend them?"
"The fact you'd even try such a pathetic trick tells me something."
"You're not confident you can defeat me alone... are you?"
Ambrose fell silent.
Before coming here, he had investigated Gideon's performance in the Holy War Grounds.
And every piece of information pointed toward the same conclusion—
this man was extremely dangerous.
Seeing Ambrose remain silent, Gideon continued.
"If that's the case, then why assassinate John first?"
"After all, Jolan was the one who appointed the Deputy Commander. I'm just the one who accepted the position."
"Unless..." Gideon's eyes sharpened.
"You knew you couldn't handle both of us together, so you vented your anger on someone weaker?"
"Hmph. When the numbers aren't equal, naturally you eliminate enemies one by one."
Ambrose slowly pulled his hand back out from John's corpse.
"You said I'm not confident enough to face you alone?"
"Then let's test that theory."
The instant the words fell—
three golden rings appeared within Ambrose's eyes.
Gideon immediately felt his body becoming sluggish, while the spiritual runes around him thickened like glue.
But he showed no panic whatsoever.
Golden rings likewise emerged within his own eyes.
Immediately, the spiritual runes before him became layered in entirely different colors.
"There's the flaw."
Gideon fixed his gaze on one section of empty air before releasing an enormous burst of holy power from his eyes.
CRACK!
With a sharp sound, the restraint shattered.
He regained his freedom instantly.
"How is that possible?!" Ambrose's face changed dramatically.
"You deciphered the spiritual structure instantly... Don't tell me... you completed Holy Perception?!"
Gideon narrowed his eyes slightly, making silent guesses in his heart.
But outwardly he remained calm.
"It's far too late to regret this now."
"Hmph. Arrogant bastard."
Ambrose suddenly crouched down, dipped his fingers into the blood on the floor, and rapidly painted several strange symbols.
"With blood as oath, I beseech holy power—"
"Drive the evil of this world beyond the boundary..."
The moment the chant ended, the blood staining John's corpse suddenly came alive, transforming into two crimson streams that shot toward Gideon.
"So you've decided to classify me as evil directly..." Gideon narrowed his eyes slightly before raising a hand.
A pure white barrier erupted outward from his body and rapidly expanded in all directions.
"Holy Domain?!" Ambrose's eyes widened in shock.
"Impossible! Back in the Holy War Grounds you could barely extend it two or three meters!"
His information hadn't been wrong—
it was simply outdated.
After returning from the Holy War Grounds, Gideon had spent all his time researching the new applications of holy arts he'd discovered there.
Combined with the support of the system panel, his progress had long surpassed what he was capable of back then.
"Looks like you've investigated me thoroughly," Gideon said while tossing several holy relics outward.
An isolation formation instantly materialized around Ambrose.
Then Gideon raised a finger and pointed toward Ambrose's forehead.
Several emotional currents flowed there—scarlet, gray, and others.
The next instant, the gray energy suddenly expanded violently, transforming into chains that tightly bound Ambrose's body.
THUD!
Ambrose collapsed onto the floor.
Nearby, Mia remained hidden behind an overturned table, too terrified to even breathe loudly.
Everything happening before her had completely surpassed her understanding of reality.
These two men were practically superheroes.
Simon felt exactly the same.
Every few moments, he would rotate the camera toward himself and his wristwatch, desperately trying to prove the footage was real and not staged.
"If this is all you're capable of," Gideon said coldly, "then your earlier confidence was honestly laughable."
Ambrose frowned deeply.
At this point, even he felt bitter frustration.
Who could have imagined that some newly recruited holy cleric from a lower district church would possess so many advanced holy arts?
And not only that—
he switched between them seamlessly, without any signs of exhausting his holy power.
Is this bastard made of holy energy or something...? Ambrose gritted his teeth inwardly.
But then—
he suddenly smiled.
Gideon's eyes narrowed immediately.
"That smile is incredibly annoying."
"You asked earlier why I killed John first."
Ambrose slowly lifted his head.
Gideon instantly turned toward the corpse.
But there was nothing unusual there.
"It was for the sacrifice," Ambrose said softly.
The instant the words fell—
everything inside the room suddenly slowed down.
Gideon turned sharply.
Kayako was crouching silently in the corner.
She held the glass bottle tightly in her arms, pressing her fingertips together as though performing some kind of ritual.
On a spirit overflowing with hatred and resentment, the sight was disturbingly unnatural.
A terrible feeling immediately rose in Gideon's chest.
Earlier, after the sacrificial vessel began acting strangely, Kayako had also been affected.
But because Gideon had been focused on dealing with Ambrose, he hadn't handled it immediately.
And now—
something inside Kayako was mutating again.
Black hair slowly rose behind her head before intertwining together into several floating masses of tangled hair.
They hovered in the air like grotesque balloons.
At the same time—
John's corpse suddenly moved.
He picked up his own heart and staggered toward Kayako.
Mia and Simon both widened their eyes in horror.
Without hesitation, Gideon threw a bottle of holy water.
Whatever they were attempting, it definitely wasn't anything good.
But in the next second—
the bottle suddenly dropped from midair onto the floor.
"Hehehehe..."
Ambrose abruptly regained movement and pointed at Gideon while laughing madly.
"A member of the Cleric Order openly conducting an evil ritual..."
"And even using the corpse of his own companion as a sacrifice..."
Gideon's expression remained calm.
He immediately understood Ambrose's true objective.
Then—
John's heart suddenly exploded.
Blood and flesh burst across the air, filling the room with an overwhelming stench of blood.
And in that exact instant—
the entire house became deathly silent.
Gideon's brows twitched.
From his perspective, Ambrose was still laughing hysterically.
But no sound emerged from him at all—
as if reality itself had muted him.
At the same time—
a blinding sphere of light suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
BZZZZZ—
A wave of light spread outward in all directions.
Gideon immediately contracted his holy barrier, blocking the radiance outside.
But the force was unbelievably powerful.
It actually seeped through the shield itself.
At the same time, a flood of incomprehensible whispers suddenly erupted beside his ears.
Without hesitation, Gideon instantly deployed multiple layers of formations around himself while taking out a century-old holy relic.
Only beneath the blazing golden light did the whispers gradually fade away.
Immediately afterward, he activated The Preacher, attempting to determine exactly what that sphere of light was.
"Don't!"
A cry suddenly rang out beside his ear.
Gideon abruptly turned around—
only to find empty space beside him.
Not far away, however—
Mia stood there with dazed eyes, clutching her chest while repeatedly bowing toward empty air, her face filled with strange excitement.
Simon, meanwhile, was holding both hands up into the air and grinning foolishly.
Judging by his posture, he seemed to believe he was still carrying the camera.
But the real camera currently lay abandoned on the floor, aimed directly toward Gideon.
"That voice..." Gideon narrowed his eyes.
"It didn't want me using The Preacher."
"Which means... there's something wrong with that sphere of light?"
Then suddenly—
his eyes brightened.
He had seen this glowing sphere before.
Philadelphia Memorial Day.
Back then, the members of the Wings of Vengeance had arranged some kind of ritual that dragged everyone at the venue into an abnormal dimension.
"And at that time..." Gideon's gaze sharpened.
"There were countless empty bottles at the scene."
"We will all become one."
A shrill female voice suddenly echoed through the room.
Gideon turned toward the source—
and saw Kayako standing upright.
No.
To be precise—
it was now a fusion of Kayako and John.
John's limbs had been severed and vertically embedded into Kayako's shoulders, while his brain had been fused grotesquely into the monster's abdomen.
"We meet again, cunning human," it said slowly as it raised its head.
"You truly are full of surprises," Ambrose added coldly.
"To think you even recognize an ancient existence like this."
"But that only makes the charge of 'colluding with evil' even more convincing, doesn't it?"
He pulled an ancient metallic chalice from his robe.
An overwhelming power instantly erupted from the relic, enveloping Ambrose inside a protective field.
Gideon calmly observed both sides.
An ancient entity... and an ancient holy relic.
So that sacrificial vessel was likely some kind of tool used to summon malicious consciousness.
Yet outwardly, Gideon still showed no trace of panic.
"As a holy cleric, summoning evil like this..." he said calmly.
"Do you not realize that the Lord watches from above?"
"The Lord is, of course, omniscient and omnipotent." Ambrose's expression grew fanatical.
"But if He hasn't stopped me now... doesn't that prove this is His will?"
"Conflict is meaningless," the Kayako hybrid said as it spread its arms.
"We were always one."
"Return to us."
The instant those words fell—
a horrifying aura descended upon the room.
Dark.
Ancient.
Mysterious.
The holy relic in Ambrose's hand burst with radiance, shielding him from the force.
Mia and Simon both collapsed to the floor instantly.
For a moment, Gideon appeared completely cornered.
Then—
he pulled out a black leather-bound ancient book from his bag.
The book suddenly began flipping through its own pages automatically before stopping on a particular map.
One location upon the map glowed with dazzling light.
"What is that?!" Ambrose narrowed his eyes sharply.
For some reason, he instinctively felt fear toward the book.
Yet he had never heard of any holy artifact resembling a book before.
Gideon glanced at him indifferently.
"You think I'd tell you something like that?"
"Hmph! Whatever it is, once you're dead, it'll belong to me!" Ambrose snarled viciously.
But beside him, the Kayako hybrid suddenly screamed in horror.
"The Book of the World?!"
"How could a mere human possess such a thing?!"
"Book of the World..." Confusion flashed through Ambrose's eyes.
He vaguely remembered overhearing that name once while meeting certain members of the Holy Bloodline.
"It seems..." Ambrose's breathing became heavier.
"This is something the Cardinal Council has been searching for."
"Since you recognize it," Gideon said with a faint smile, "then you should understand exactly what it does."
"No! Wait!" The Kayako hybrid's attitude changed instantly.
"I can help you kill this human! Just stop what you're doing!"
"Too late."
Gideon immediately threw the Book of the World into the air.
The black tome floated upward—
and the instant it did, all the evil energy in the surrounding area began violently converging toward it.
The objects throughout the room were instantly thrown into chaos.
Furniture, debris, shattered wood—
everything flew wildly through the air.
"You damned human! NO! NO—!"
The Kayako hybrid immediately collapsed to its knees.
Chunks of flesh began tearing away from its body and flying toward the black book.
In mere moments, the creature shrank dramatically.
Seeing this scene—
Ambrose stood frozen in complete shock.
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