madnovel Chapter 186 Innocence is an Illusion
Chapter 186 Innocence is an Illusion
Chapter 186 Innocence is an Illusion
Damn it, we've been found out!
The goblin wizard was startled by the vulture's menacing gaze, and the spell slipped out!
"Occisor Phantasma!"
The vulture charged menacingly at Geb, but just as it took a step forward, the halfling in front of it suddenly changed its appearance.
The witch hunter's vision blurred for a moment, and when he looked again, the person in front of him was no longer a young man, but a little girl.
Her small, dirty face, brown pupils, and large eyes filled with weariness and fear evoked pity.
This little girl...she seems so familiar...
A distant memory surfaced in Gascoigne's mind—
The Old Kingdom, the dungeons, the air thick with the smell of metal.
Flies buzzed around, a dead rat slowly dried in the corner, and everything was inevitably heading towards decay.
Three days and three nights.
The interrogator, like the "prisoner" being interrogated, had not eaten or drunk anything and had not closed his eyes.
In the small room, the young witch hunter had a strange hallucination, as if the tormented farmer, who was no longer human, was the interrogator, and he himself was the heretic being interrogated.
Gascoigne was distressed by his fatigue and weakness, which he believed must be due to his lack of faith, which allowed his physical senses to overcome his will.
That was Gascoigne's first interrogation. Like a hawk being trained, he strictly followed the interrogation manual of the court, using every means to push the prisoner's body and mind to their limits.
However, the unremarkable middle-aged man in front of him still refused to reveal the witch's whereabouts.
Why would this ordinary farmer refuse God's blessing? Didn't he know that if he didn't repent wholeheartedly, his soul and that of his beloved witch would both fall into the endless void?
Ignorance, foolishness!
Alice is innocent—my blood flows in her veins, I gave her life—
Let me, her father, atone for her sins—
The man groaned indistinctly through his toothless, bloodied mouth.
Is the word "father" really heavier than that of a god?
Anger, denial, despair — finally accepting reality.
This doesn't describe a prisoner, but rather the inner journey of the witch hunter Gascoigne.
This man didn't have an eleventh finger to cut off, nor any other holes to insert the torture device.
Gascoigne's healing has run out; the next torture will be the man's death.
"Your death will be meaningless. Do you really want to resist divine grace with your life?"
"Please—spare my Alice—she is innocent."
Innocence is an illusion; people are born with sins.
But Gascoigne couldn't bring himself to say those words to the man. He even felt a touch of admiration for the farmer, unsure if he, in the man's position, would have maintained the same loyalty to the gods as a father to his daughter.
Young Gascoigne and the man spent another day together, and finally, he decided to give him death.
But in the moment when death was imminent, the man broke down.
Yes, he told the witch hunter where his daughter was hiding. Fatherly love triumphed over faith, and the instinct for survival triumphed over fatherly love.
But all of this is meaningless.
The man only lasted five more minutes before he breathed his last.
Four hours later, the witch hunter Vulture discovered the girl's body, frozen solid, in a hidden compartment in the farm's cellar.
A rat was gnawing on the witch's eyeballs, its sharp teeth smeared with red icicles.
Gascoigne still vividly remembered the crunching sound of the rat's teeth grinding together, and at that very moment, the rat was lying on top of the witch hunter's heart, gnawing at his arteries.
Hmm————
The vulture gently clutched his chest—the dull pain in his heart brought him to his senses. The girl was dead, the father was dead, they were all dead, only he was still alive.
No, he fulfilled the mission given to him by the gods—he did nothing wrong; guilt is a weakness of mortals!
Repentance is blasphemy!
Gascoigne stepped forward, his brows furrowed in anger, and slashed at the pitiful little girl before him with his sword—it was all an illusion, a wizard's evil illusion!
"Shield!"
A burst of blue light erupted from the little girl, instantly deflecting the witch hunter's slash. In the instant the magic was released, the illusion created by the Phantom Force was torn to pieces!
"Magnubier's ass!" Geb exclaimed in surprise. The anti-magic silver dust in the air hadn't even settled yet, and the effect of his shield spell only lasted for half a second before dissipating. The vulture flipped its blade, its body drawing a semi-circle, and slashed upwards at Geb's abdomen, pouring all its remaining holy power into the longsword. The blade was dazzling, a golden light about to rip the halfling apart!
"Obak above!" the vulture roared from the bottom of its heart.
Stab it! ! !
Gebu felt a heat in his lower abdomen, and the contents of his stomach leaked out all at once!
Mine is broken—broken—!!!
In a split second, the goblin wizard resorted to his last defensive measure, pulling out his dimensional bag and using it to block the witch hunter's slash!
Stab it!
The magical item lost its indestructible attribute under the effect of the anti-magic silver, and a golden light cleaved the dimensional bag in two!
Crash!
The bag was overflowing with miscellaneous items, pots and pans, herbs and tools, gold and silver valuables—all of Gebu's belongings that he hadn't kept in the camp were suddenly dumped into the air!
These things, weighing nearly two hundred kilograms in total, exploded in front of the witch hunter in an instant. Gascoigne couldn't dodge in time and was instantly buried in the debris. A section of cloth was also knocked to the ground by the flying debris. His head was hit hard by something hard and heavy, and he saw stars. When he opened his eyes again, he was already half buried in the debris.
Dizziness — Dizziness —
Splash, splash.
The halfling, enduring a splitting headache, clung to the floor, desperately grabbing whatever he was carrying and throwing it away. He heard a commotion behind him, turned around, and saw that the damned old witch hunter was still alive. A hand emerged from the pile of debris, followed by a head covered in blood. Seeing him, the head, like a demon, gripped a longsword and crawled toward him.
Gebu was suddenly startled and sped up digging himself out. As he dug, he suddenly touched something familiar.
The Book of Sand, heavy as it was, landed in my hands. The cover was warm, as if it contained endless magic.
The vulture spotted the treasure it had been searching for and its eyes blazed with fury.
Gebu looked at the bald man, who was looking at his book. They stared at each other.
The vulture, like a human-shaped centipede, dragged itself along on all fours!
I—I freaking—
Books or life?! Books or life?!
This is terrible!!!
At the crucial moment, Geb made a choice. He raised the Book of Sand above his head with both hands and then threw it with all his might behind the witch hunter!
The vulture's eyes widened. He dropped his longsword and stretched out his hands to reach for the Book of Sand. His fingertips just touched the spine of the Book of Sand, but he couldn't grab it. He only saw the book flip twice in the air, then fall to the ground with a thud, roll twice, and finally land at someone's feet.
The orc Goliath looked down at the Book of Sand at his feet.
"You! You foolish beast, don't touch that thing!"
Ignoring his wounds, Baldy forced himself to his feet from the pile of debris, picked up his longsword, and charged straight at the large orc without even assuming a fighting stance!
Goliath did not react. He slowly raised his head and gently extended a finger toward the witch hunter in front of him.
"Mortis."
A streak of crimson lightning connected the orc's thick fingers with the witch hunter's chest. In an instant, the vulture, like a weightless doll, had its head whipped forward like a whip, its body went limp, and it was sent flying, crashing heavily twice on the ground before crashing through the burning fence and disappearing into the flames.
"Magnubier's Tintin!!!"
Gebu was stunned and stood there, completely bewildered! He looked at the bloated orc in astonishment. In the firelight, the man's deformed and dull face revealed a glimmer of intelligence in his lifeless eyes.
Before the halfling could speak, a hunched figure approached from the side and knelt down on one knee with difficulty before the orc.
It was the old peacock. She gave the orc an extremely fawning smile and said, "Golden Masked Lord—you have finally shown yourself—please accept the gift that the peacock has prepared for you."
"
The old elven woman picked up the Book of Sand from the ground and presented it to the orc Goliath with both hands!