Chapter 2229: Shared Madness
It is said that among zealots, there is a special spiritual connection. They can share what they see, dream of, and prophesy with their companions, which is said to be the reason why madness spreads to those close to them.
I heard about this from Cherise. In the ghoul society, there are many large organizations, such as the Ghoul Secret Ritual Cult and the Bronze Tree. Among them, the most powerful organization is the Carnivorous Royal Court, which I have also encountered at the undead trade fair in Cando City. Cherise is an outer member of that organization.
Via also knows about that organization. It is said that the strength of the Carnivorous Royal Court is enough to wage war against any human country and even gain the upper hand. Moreover, although most of its members are ghouls, its founder was a vampire who was cursed by a god and went mad.
It is said that before his madness, the vampire was a gentleman with true virtue and character. Although he was a vampire, he protected human commoners, offered aid to the weak, and adopted homeless otherworldy beings, gradually building an underground empire.
But after he went mad, he spread this madness to his bloodline, and from his bloodline, it spread to his otherworldly subordinates and the undead. In the end, everyone in his underground empire went mad.
In the mad Carnivorous Royal Court, there is no distinction between vampires, ghouls, skeletons, or even human otherworldly beings. Instead, there is a strict hierarchical system in their spiritual world.
In their eyes, a small, filthy ghoul might be a noble king, a skeleton soldier might be a glorious knight, and a female ghost with a decaying, festering body might be a Hime Knight wearing a princess dress. A group of stray spirits might be a well-trained and well-equipped royal guard.
When you step into the territory of the Carnivorous Royal Court, their spirits will automatically assign you an identity that fits their worldview. If you are friendly, they will regard you as a distinguished guest and treat you with the highest protocol. If you come with hostility, they will see you as a worthy opponent and engage you in a fair competition.
I know what human madness is like, but I never imagined what a group of undead would become when they went mad, until I encountered these oddballs at the undead trade fair.
My personal experience confirmed that the rumors were indeed true. These undead, even after going mad, still possessed extremely high moral restraint, even much higher than normal humans.
The Ghoul Kings within them all believed themselves to be enlightened rulers and held themselves to the standards of ancient, wise rulers. The nobles all considered themselves to be virtuous and cultivated gentlemen. The guards all believed themselves to be glorious knights, and all commoners believed themselves to be decent citizens in a prosperous kingdom.
My view is that it is a utopia, a utopia formed purely because everyone is insane. Their madness is the belief that they are good people, benevolent people, or even saints.
This madness can spread to outsiders and even enemies. When I stayed in their magnificent palace for a long time, I would truly hallucinate, thinking that those flesh-eating ghoul spirits dancing were elegant noble gentlemen and beautiful Eldest Misses.
It is said that a demon, upon seeing the army of the Carnivorous Royal Court, had its sanity severely impacted. It saw the opposing force as valiant heroes leading the most elite kingdom soldiers and, feeling ashamed, immediately knelt in surrender.
The most outrageous thing is that this madness can affect reality. I realized long ago that in this world, whatever situation you see is reality for you. For example, in the mine, I could walk where I saw a path, but others who couldn’t see the path couldn’t walk there. Suddenly waking up could even get you stuck in a wall.
In the Carnivorous Royal Court, a Ghoul King would see a broken bone as an Epic artifact, imagining himself wearing legendary enchanted armor made of the most precious materials over his tattered body.
Then, to it, these would be real. That broken bone would be enough to unleash an Epic attack, its rags could withstand the bombardment of a forbidden spell and remain unharmed, and the stray spirits under its command would be equivalent to well-equipped elite guards.
It is said that this situation also occurs among Orcs, and I have experienced it myself during the battle for the lighthouse on the North Sea coast. It was very troublesome. Fortunately, the Orcs there were not numerous, and we launched a surprise night attack on their lair. Otherwise, there might have been considerable losses.
This is why the Carnivorous Royal Court is the most powerful organization among ghouls, and its strength is enough to wage war against any human empire. This is because no army can defeat a group of lunatics with the power of “Wind Spirit Moon Shadow.”
I can only be thankful that these people’s madness is merely chuunibyou. Their imagined world is a beautiful Japanese fantasy RPG, where both social order and personal morality reach extremely high levels. They have no desire to invade others or persecute other races, which is truly a good thing.
But what if it were not so? What if the madman at the head did not possess the virtues of that god-cursed vampire? What if the moral cultivation of the members was far less noble than those stray spirits? What would happen?
That would likely be the zealots before me. They live in their own worldview, acting only according to their own values: fervent, cruel, stubborn, and mad.
Undoubtedly, they are also sharing madness, otherwise all their members would not possess a faint Divine Power. When those few high-ranking zealots activated their Spirit Vision to observe the mine, the other normal zealots also saw the scenery inside the mine.
See only the corpses of demons lying on the ground, as well as the bodies of witches covered in vines, mutated monsters with Origin Stones growing on them, and the remnants of the Research Society.
Their Spirit Vision, which can predict the future, also shows that the mine, which should have been the scene of the incident, is now incredibly quiet, and no Demon God will emerge in the future. What she said was not false; the Demon God incident was indeed resolved by her.
But these zealots still find it hard to accept. Even with the facts before them, they are still unwilling to admit that someone else resolved the disaster in the prophecy, and they didn’t even get the chance to witness it.
I also guessed that these stubborn zealots could not accept it. Their current silence is simply because they cannot think of a rebuttal. If they continue to suppress their resentment like this, they will soon seize the townspeople here to vent their dissatisfaction.
So I spoke, “However, there is one matter that has not been resolved, and there is still a hidden danger. The main culprit who caused this disaster has not been apprehended.”
“Who is it?!” the zealot leader asked ferociously. He was currently seething with anger and needed something to re-establish his authority.
“It is the owner of the mine. I discovered a statue of a Demon God beneath the mine. Clearly, the mine owner worshipped the Demon God and sacrificed his miners, causing this disaster,” I said solemnly.
