The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1274

Chapter 1272
When the Sky Collapses

The illusory transparent pointer, like the sword of Damocles, pierced through Eivass’s body, which was impaled in the center of the Mirror Lake, overlapping with the Holy Sword.

Clang—

With the clang of swords clashing, the illusory light sword completely crashed into the Holy Sword.

The Holy Sword, in its trance, seemed to have grown larger, but in reality, it was only because the radiance enveloping it had enlarged its outline.

Eivass instinctively straightened his chest, as if he were actively welcoming the light sword, or as if he wanted to drive the Holy Sword impaled in his heart even deeper.

—Or perhaps, he simply wished that the sharp blade could pierce his chest more quickly, ending this long torment filled with pain.

The pointer suddenly erupted with a dim yellow radiance, and Eivass’s body was lit up by it at that instant.

It was like blowing air onto a burning piece of charcoal.

Eivass’s skin dissolved and withered in an instant, turning into a coke-like black, then peeling off and dissipating. The flesh beneath his skin transformed into thick, slowly flowing golden lava, emitting an increasingly brilliant and dazzling golden light.

“Ughhhhhhhhhhh—”

Eivass could not help but let out an extremely piercing scream.

It was as if a red-hot branding iron had pierced directly through his chest—

An ever-expanding heat, as if solid, fiercely surged into his chest, tearing his flesh apart and melting his bones. The heat instantly spread throughout his entire body, every nerve overloaded by the boiling pain.

That was the terrifying mana stored in the ritual. These activated energies could directly trigger destructive earthquakes—they could cause ancient mountains to collapse like tofu, and plains to cave into basins. Yet, these energies were being injected into a tiny human body.

For an ordinary person, it would likely be a moment of pain followed by peace.

But Eivass’s vitality was too tenacious. Even after suffering such a fatal wound, he still had a tendency for self-recovery—if there were no follow-up attacks, a fatal wound like being pierced through the heart would allow Eivass to recover in no time. Even with this level of mana injected into him, Eivass’s nerves could maintain their activity.

Thus, the pain became even more prolonged—

“…What’s going on?”

Some Good Lords were confused and bewildered by this.

Who killed Eivass?

“He’s defeated! He’s defeated!”

Some Good Lords shouted excitedly.

They had previously been intimidated by Eivass’s oppressive aura. Now, seeing Eivass killed by the ritual, they could not help but get excited—at least this meant they wouldn’t have to confront Eivass themselves!

“…He’s defeated?”

The Brave Isma’i murmured.

He found it hard to believe for a moment… Eivass, so powerful, the Savior of prophecy, who could even wield the power of the Pillar Gods, was now killed by them with a ritual like this?

What an ironic end!

“…No, he won.”

Aimel Nour whispered, taking two steps back and leaning against the stone wall.

He closed his eyes in despair.

Among everyone present, only he knew what had happened.

As the Good Lord of the highest status and most ancient lineage, he possessed the knowledge and power of all other Good Lords, including the Shepherd’s Secret Manual of Heaven City.

The original copy of that Grimoire was currently stored in Holy Spring City.

It was only now that he finally understood Eivass’s trump card…

—The Shepherd’s Method.

The forbidden technique with which the Shepherd had nearly tamed a Fallen Heavenly Envoy.

If not for his wavering will, the Fallen Heavenly Envoy would truly have been made into a Familiar!

And Eivass was so resolute now.

That Abyss Heavenly Envoy, wouldn’t he…

Eivass’s consciousness clearly felt his soul being pulled, chewed, and devoured, while his physical body was slowly being blown apart by the infinite power erupting from within.

Finally, his body reached its limit, shattering and disintegrating.

But Eivass’s remains did not explode with earth-shattering force, nor did they emit light and heat. Instead, they collapsed inwards, devouring everything around them like a black hole.

All the white mist was sucked away, and the Sacred Lake dried up.

And that point of absolute darkness floated silently in mid-air.

—Crack.

Accompanied by a shattering sound, like broken glass, that echoed throughout Anxi.

The next moment, the deep blue sky, like a convex lens or a crystal ball, suddenly cracked.

First came strands of fine rain… and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a downpour.

People watched all this with unfamiliarity, their eyes filled with fervor and ecstasy.

They shouted, seemingly free from fear and confusion. They bathed in the pouring rain, and many children or adults who had never seen heavy rain before, fearing the falling water, wanted to touch it yet dared not.

If it had stopped at this point, it would have been a miracle of prayer for rain.

—But clearly, this was impossible.

After the downpour, it turned into columns of water.

One after another, the water columns were like thick lances. The deep blue water columns were like crystals, emitting white foam. They pierced through buildings, broke bridges, and in the panicked screams of the people, instantly swept away unfortunate individuals who couldn’t dodge in time, their limbs instantly contorting like rags.

Some were flung away, others were compressed into flat discs. Their heads were driven into their chests, or they were cut in half at the waist by the water columns after falling…

From bewilderment and fear to laughter and ecstasy, and from laughter and ecstasy to weeping and despair, it took only a minute.

They had nowhere to go, nowhere to escape.

At this moment, holy songs began to resound in the city—

“We offer the pearls of the sinful (gazing at the sky),
“We light the seaweed of the devout (drying it in the wind).
“Lord of the Dark Abyss, please look upon this fire (never-extinguishing)!
“The umbilical cords of the children are not yet cut (we beg for your mercy)…”

The priests of Holy Spring City sang in unison, with even two vocal parts.

It was a style that was sacred yet carried a hint of the bizarre, a hymn praising the Abyss Heavenly Envoy.

It was also a liturgical chant offered to the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, to placate the enraged monster and quell its anger.

The priests wearing bird-beak masks sang and moved forward.

In the pouring rain, they focused intently on chanting the sacred song of the ritual, moving inward against the tide of fear, screams, and weeping.

As they moved forward, one companion after another was crushed and swallowed by the water columns descending from the sky.

Those water columns became increasingly solid.

They were no longer tapering cones and water bubbles hitting the ground, but gradually transformed into spear-like tentacles.

The chanting of the eulogy grew weaker and weaker, more and more solitary.

In the end, only one person remained.

—He was the Water Crow Guard, who Eivass had ordered to kneel and never to do such a thing again when he was making the Thirst Stone outside the city!

He was not unaware that his colleagues were dead.

Rather, he was trembling uncontrollately. Not just his limbs, but even his teeth were chattering. Yet, he still gazed at the sky and bravely sang the hymn with strength.

But the Abyss Heavenly Envoy showed no signs of being appeased.

“In the era of the drowned… we…”

His lonely and minuscule voice was instantly drowned out by the storm.

And at this moment, the sky completely shattered.

In an instant, the vast power from the Dream Realm poured down!

An immensely giant sea monster, roaring in fury, crashed into the Material Realm!

It had an extremely bizarre appearance—its head resembled that of a giant whale, but it had no fins. From its head backward, there were endless tentacles.

Seen from a great distance, it looked like a deep-blue shuttlecock. Its head was pale blue with bloodstains, and the closer it got to the “feathers,” the closer it became to a pitch-black deep blue. Yet, this head alone was almost larger than the entire Holy Spring City.

This was even its volume after being forced to compress its rank and scale down upon descending into the Material Realm!

When it landed, its head alone directly collapsed the Fourth Ring!

A towering pagoda collapsed and fell with a mournful cry. It should have kicked up a cloud of dust that would linger for a long time, but at this moment, it only splashed up white foam.

This did not even cause the giant whale to sustain a scratch.

Its furious eyes were scarlet—there were no pupils, only blood filling them.

The giant whale’s arrival shook heaven and earth.

Buildings collapsed on a massive scale, and visible shockwaves coalesced outwards. People bled from their seven orifices, kneeling on the ground in agony.

Endless seawater flowed from its anemone-like clustered tentacles.

In an instant, the ancient city was submerged. The scale of the rain from the collapsing sky also grew larger and larger, threatening to drown the entire Holy Spring City.

—This was the Abyss Heavenly Envoy.

The Heavenly Envoy of Despair, representing the principle of annihilation, equally destroying everything!

Just as it was about to destroy the entire city-state, the people had nowhere to escape, all of them to be submerged in this sea that had appeared out of nowhere—

A tsunami had already formed.

The heavy curtain of water, falling from an altitude of several thousand meters, was about to pound the earth into ruins of civilization…

However, at this very moment.

Some part of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s scarlet pupils turned purple.

It was a dangerous color, interwoven with purple and red.

And that falling curtain of water, those waves about to swallow the crowd, suddenly stopped at this moment.

As if time had stopped.

Even the white spray that had risen high into the air turned into standing rocks at that moment.

—The sea froze.