Chapter 1065
Thinking back, it still has to be Avalon.
Eivass didn’t specifically differentiate which individuals were the truly obstinate blood slaves loyal to Count Orléans and which were innocent victims kidnapped here.
Sherlock held a different view on this matter –
From a legal perspective, Sherlock viewed those blood slaves as “accomplices under duress.” This was understandable, given he was originally a Law Master from Avalon.
There was a distinct difference between the laws of Avalon and Star Antinomy. Avalon’s laws did not recognize the principle of “imminent necessity” for self-preservation that harms others, whereas Star Antinomy’s laws allowed for it.
Specifically, if a kidnapper threatened someone, ordering them to go out and kill a random person, and threatened to kill them otherwise—in Avalon, the threatened individual would still be prosecuted as a murderer. In Star Antinomy, even if not deemed innocent, their sentence would at least be reduced.
This was because Avalon believed the purpose of the “imminent necessity clause” was to promote the overall interests of society, and that the meaning of law was to allow society to purify itself and develop in a better direction. Therefore, when facing kidnappers, Avalon tended to disagree with all the kidnappers’ demands—this was a legal principle established during the reign of Tudor III.
The tyrannical “King of Hangings” believed that compromising to protect a few individuals was tantamount to encouraging such behavior, or rather, acknowledging the possibility of such criminal acts.
For example, if kidnappers believed that “kidnapping civilians in public could extort the government into doing something,” it would actually increase the likelihood of kidnappers abducting civilians. Similarly, if someone was forced to kill, knowing they would be exonerated, they would be more willing to comply with such behavior and commit crimes, thus increasing the kidnapper’s success rate. Conversely, if they knew they would still face the death penalty for killing, they would resist the kidnapper more fiercely, making the kidnapper realize it was not a wise choice.
This was the most typical authoritarian thought: the collective is greater than the individual, and rules are more important than human sentiment.
In Star Antinomy, where balanced thinking prevailed, the issue was considered from the perspective of the coerced individual. They believed the purpose of law was to maintain stability, that is, to maintain “balance.”
From this perspective, the law could not supersede ordinary citizens. If the law put an ordinary person in a dilemma, then it was a bad law—or at least a controversial one. When controversy arose, it proved that the law’s function in mediating disputes had been invalidated.
—A law intended to mediate disputes had instead sparked greater controversy, and could even lead to more trouble. This proved that the law itself was unqualified in terms of “maintaining balance.” As for what other criminals would think, that was their own business; people are independent of each other, and events are independent of each other.
But Eivass’s approach was simpler.
He was a typical follower of the Path of Devotion—regardless of whether a person was at fault or guilty, if he had the means to save them, he would save them first.
If he accidentally saved the wrong person, he could always kill them back to make up for his mistake.
—What personal versus society, law versus mortals, he couldn’t understand any of that. In short, he would save everyone in front of him first, preferring to save the wrong person rather than not save anyone. At most, he would lose some of his own Mana and Life force if he saved the wrong person; he could always kill them back. The loss would only be his own. But if he saved fewer people, then one person would not be saved.
Before Arsen could even begin to distinguish which blood slaves were salvageable, Eivass had already revived all the humans in the Count’s Mansion. He was only about half an hour behind Sherlock’s massacre of all the Children of the Moon here. Some blood slaves were even revived by Eivass shortly after being electrocuted to death by Sherlock.
You kill, I heal. There was no need to worry about stray Chain Lightning damage.
To improve healing efficiency and to forcibly “resurrect” those who had just died, Eivass directly transformed into the form of a Sin Eater Beast.
Strictly speaking, this was not resurrection, as their Souls were still intact within their bodies. It only involved healing the physical body—it didn’t even advance Eivass’s transformation progress bar by 1%.
As if sensing the Count’s death, or perhaps because Eivass’s current form was too sacred and mysterious… even the blood slaves who had previously rushed out to attack Eivass were now obediently standing aside, following Eivass.
They dared not leave, nor did they dare to look up at Eivass. Instead, like loyal servants, they stood hunched over quietly behind Eivass.
Even though all the Children of the Moon in this building were dead, their formerly conditioned minds still lingered within them.
There wasn’t the slightest smile on their faces. They all looked as if their entire families had died, their faces pale as ghosts.
—Perhaps if they had appeared too cheerful, they would have been beaten, tortured, or even interrogated.
Eivass had encountered knowledge regarding this in his High-Tier Divine Art textbooks while studying in the Church, but he had never truly experienced it.
The Blood Heavenly Envoy, as a Child of the Moon and Dragon, when ignored by Hengwo, disregarded by the Banquet Master, and loved only by Sister Sasha, harbored admiration only for Hengwo, along with desires of greed and possession. He treated the Banquet Master with distance, respect, and a hint of challenge—like a rebellious adolescent wanting to challenge his father and embrace his mother.
His attitude towards Sister Sasha was almost one of disregard, akin to an emperor’s illegitimate child desperately trying to deny his own ordinary parentage. It was said that he even viewed it as his own disgrace, though there was no evidence—Sister Sasha’s existence was the only thing that gave him a trace of mortal characteristic.
From his naming his own created race “Children of the Moon,” one could discern his inclinations.
Because of this, he was clearly dissatisfied—even enraged—that he had not become a Perfect Being. After leaving behind words for his descendants to develop in this direction, he directly entered the Dream Realm with his physical body.
Even now, the Children of the Moon had not produced a true Perfect Being.
The Blood Heavenly Envoy believed that humans and Children of the Moon clinging to pleasure was due to the primal beastly desires deep within them.
Whether it was the appetite for food, procreation, or sleep, these were instincts shared by beasts. It was this bestiality that polluted the blood of the Children of the Moon, preventing them from ascending to the evolutionary form of humans—Perfect Beings. Therefore, he directly suppressed these instinctive desires of his followers.
By not providing them with positive feedback, he forced them to “abstain” from these cravings.
There was no taste in sucking blood, no flavor in eating, no happiness in sleeping, and no pleasure in procreation. They were like people living in a giant condom, interacting with the world through a membrane.
The Blood Heavenly Envoy hoped to use this method to accelerate his descendants’ enlightenment—if they could no longer feel anything, could they transcend? Then, he encouraged them!
“…Sigh.”
Eivass glanced at the densely gathered blood slaves behind him and sighed silently, “I can only say, the Blood Heavenly Envoy is truly an uncultured giant infant…”
Upon hearing this, the blood slaves behind him looked at Eivass with near terror.
They dared not rebel against their own master, yet this divine white deer called their master’s revered deity a “giant infant”?!
But the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s logic was indeed bizarre.
It was like the thought process of: “You don’t study hard, so I won’t let you play games, and then you can study hard.”
After being forcibly deprived of these instincts, the Children of the Moon were driven to madness by the thirst of the Path of Love within them. Yet, they could not satisfy the emptiness in their hearts… To this day, not a single Child of the Moon had successfully achieved transcendence; instead, they had all become twisted and insane.
Although most of their senses were suppressed, a faint sliver of pleasure could still be perceived—they continuously sought higher stimulation in pursuit of this minute sensation.
In this process, they differed from other Children of the Moon. Other Children of the Moon were arrogant in their ability to bring joy to others that humans could not, believing this was proof of the Children of the Moon being superior to humans. For these Children of the Moon who worshipped the Blood Heavenly Envoy, the pleasure they themselves felt was often far less than the pleasure others felt—whereas the sensation of pain was the same.
They could not feel happiness normally, and therefore, they envied the happiness of others. Or rather, they began to pursue a “perverted happiness”—much like how a eunuch who has been castrated might derive pleasure from torturing others. In a sense, they had been “divinely castrated” by the Blood Heavenly Envoy.
The Enchanting Kiss itself manipulated others through pleasure, and if they dared to display enjoyment in front of these psychologically distorted Children of the Moon, they would likely be brutally tortured.
And these blood slaves, enduring the pain of torture, would also be periodically subjected to the control of the Enchanting Kiss, thus resulting in almost all of them being brainwashed and turned into puppets.
They all stood behind Eivass like monsters, their backs completely contorted… with spines bent like wild elves.
But wild elves bent themselves like that because they were too tall and habitually spoke to the shorter humans around them. These individuals did it for self-preservation—everyone occasionally showed a smile, and if their master saw it, they would likely be beaten beyond recognition. Therefore, they could only bow their heads deeply, only able to force out a fake smile when greeting guests.
This was completely different from the Children of the Moon in Star Antinomy and Narcissus.
The blood slaves over there, while perhaps slightly younger and more scantily clad, were at least all spirited and full of laughter. Some blood slaves even dared to flirt with their masters, like the student from the Spirit Tower… he even dared to resist his master.
Although such “resistance” was mostly a personal whim of Blood Coral, like a cat playing with a mouse before letting it go and catching it again—at least the safety of the blood slaves was relatively guaranteed—and the worst environment was no worse than the White Dove Opera House.
They had genuinely borrowed money or helped others pay off debts… and had signed contracts relinquishing their human rights with the victim’s “consent,” thus becoming blood bags with emotional value. There was no violence involved in the entire process.
Even so, both parties were merely indulging. The few deaths occurred either because the Children of the Moon went mad from not having sucked blood for too long, or because a blood slave angered a capricious Child of the Moon, causing them to fly into a rage…
At that time, Eivass already considered this the worst thing in this world.
—Just as, when he was still in Avalon, he had already considered Avalon the darkest country in the world.
A group of merchants attempted to corrupt knights with money and seize power!
And these knights were actually corrupted successfully!
But the more Eivass traveled, the more he felt that Avalon was truly a peaceful place…
If we don’t count the issue of gangs and assassins present in every country… the darkest constituent of Avalon’s society was merely a group of merchants trying to manipulate the parliament by bribing knights. Even their attempts to control the parliamentary process were merely “rule-following” methods like “buying affirmative votes with money” and “intermarriage with high-ranking officials.”
Then, looking at the fanatics of the Church, the chaotic Star Antinomy, and now the Iris Flower…
Eivass felt that Avalon was actually quite good.
After healing those tamed blood slaves, Eivass also healed the injuries of those humans brought back by Arsen who had not yet become blood slaves.
Many of them were unfortunate individuals who had tried to resist the Children of the Moon, only to have their limbs severed and hung from roof beams. Under the healing of Blood Divine Art, they did not die—their severed limbs rejoined, and their spines grew twisted with iron hooks.
Their bodies were covered in scars—traces left behind from being bled.
Like rubber trees, they were covered in hideous cutting marks.
These were not made by the Children of the Moon, but by the blood slaves extracting from them.
Just as the Children of the Moon in Star Antinomy and Narcissus could feel pleasant joy from blood, the Children of the Moon of the Iris Flower could feel the pain, despair, and fear flowing within it.
Their ability to perceive positive emotions was too weak; only negative emotions could serve as nourishment.
It was like drinking soy milk, where sugar should be added, but they added chili peppers. Because they could no longer taste sweetness.
These blood bags were so mentally tormented that they were on the verge of collapse.
Even when Eivass healed them, they trembled as if mentally retarded, unable to speak or walk. Their pupils had lost their luster, and just touching their fingers would cause them to tremble with fear as if being cut with a knife.
“All right, there are no more problems.”
Eivass, transformed into the Sin Eater Beast, gently comforted them, nudging their faces with his horns. “It’s all right now… it’s all right now…”
