The Church Knight, Third Order saint Agni, discovered Kavensis's disappearance.
According to the Holy Knights' regulations, they should report in using a magical device at regular intervals, yet Kavensis had not responded for several minutes now.
Perhaps he had encountered an attack.
They had not been on good terms these past few days, to the point where they had almost drawn swords against each other.
Frankly, Agni was very disappointed in Kavensis and even wondered if he had gone mad.
But Kavensis was, after all, the son of a Priest and a prospective saint of the Church, and as the overall responsible party of their team, she would have to take responsibility for any issues arising.
So, despite her dissatisfaction,
she quickly convened her teammates and, following the location shown by the magical device, they set off in pursuit.
Along the way, they saw a horse that had been pierced by a light spear and an abandoned carriage.
Agni recognized the traces left by that light spear; they were uniquely Kavensis's.
She frowned.
It appeared that it was not Kavensis who had been attacked.
On the contrary, it seemed likely that it was Kavensis who had attacked this passerby.
They followed the trail and continued to chase ahead.
And from a distance, they saw the scene before them—
Kavensis's eyes were bloodshot, his expression ferocious. The killing intent that radiated from his pupils was so intense that even from a great distance, they could feel it;
His abdomen unnaturally bulged, emitting a deeply ominous and evil aura.
Kavensis clutched a holy spear and charged straight at a young man in attack, a stark contrast to the gentle and refined perfect knight he usually was!
This murderous desire was even denser than that of a Cultist.
Yet, the young man being attacked showed not a hint of resentment, and instead, his face revealed pity.
He did not dodge or evade, and instead of casting any curses or offensive magic against Kavensis, he used a Blessing Skill of the Holy Light type.
Though Agni did not know the specifics of the magic, she was certain it was a blessing of the Holy Light.
After all, the gentle and luminous aura spoke to the essence of the magic.
Agni had never seen such a man: the other was trying to kill him, had already swung the light spear, and yet he still offered a blessing to his enemy.
Only a madman, or a saint, would do such a thing.
Agni did not understand why the young man in front of her would do this, but she had completely lost faith in Kavensis.
Was severing contact with the main troop just to hunt down such a young man?
Despite this, she had no choice but to assist Kavensis, reluctant as she was.
At that moment, the anomaly occurred.
The young man easily blocked the strike from Kavensis's holy spear, an action even Agni could not decode.
The strangeness lay with Kavensis.
Perhaps realizing he couldn't defeat the young man, or perhaps out of sheer frustration,
Kavensis's face suddenly twisted into a terrifying visage, his pupils unnaturally protruding with blood vessels spreading throughout his eyeballs.
A sinister and dark energy was gestating from his body, vastly surpassing the most wicked of Cultists.
Agni could feel that Kavensis was terrifyingly abnormal at this very moment!
"Kavensis—!" Agni spurred her horse, rushing forward.
"Don't come over, it's dangerous."
A calm and tender voice sounded.
It was the young man... the one who had been attacked.
He slowly shook his head, his gaze falling on Kavensis, filled with pity and tenderness, brimming with compassion and care, and even faint glimmers of tears could be seen sparkling in his eyes.
Agni was stunned.
"I originally intended to use the Holy Light's blessing to stop him..."
An Su lowered his gaze, "I didn't expect it to be too late."
"He's really... really foolish, despite his youth, yet he worships the evil Mother Goddess."
"He was too impulsive... after being exposed, he actually offered himself to the void... alas."
You fucking... what the fuck are you babbling about?
On the other side, Kavensis was seething with rage internally, wanting to vocally accuse An Su of his malevolent acts, but he was in too much pain to speak.
The severe pain overwhelmed his thoughts, leaving only the most wretched screams from his mouth.
"Ahh...!"
Only at this moment did he experience the pain of others—
The children, those Dark Ones that he had hunted and summoned, when they endured such punishments, they too couldn't speak, and could only emit such agonized cries, couldn't they?
"Ah!!"
Hearing those cries made him sound even more like a Cultist.
"You...!"
And what pained him even more was that the bastard before him had started spouting nonsense again!
"Child, I don't blame you, I know you feel remorseful... I forgive you."
An Su watched over him with pity, "Though you chased me down all the way, I never blamed you, and I never harbored any resentment against you."
"I... I..." he stuttered on, but could no longer speak, only spewing out burst after burst of fresh blood.
His eyes brimmed with bloody tears.
And there stood An Su above, titled 'Rising Dawn', gently shaking his head, "I understand what you mean."
"I swear to the glorious Goddess, I never resented you, I never attacked you, I only bless you."
"May the Lord forgive your sins."
What An Su said was the truth.
Every word accurate.
Because he indeed hadn't attacked Kavensis, he had used only Blessing Magic.
He also never harbored any resentment towards Kavensis.
Thus, An Su dared to swear to the Mother Goddess.
Now I see!
After listening to An Su's explanation, Agni and her subordinates all suddenly realized—everyone knows that oaths sworn to a god cannot be lied about.
The traces along the road had also been seen and examined with Scouting Magic; it was indeed Kavensis who had been pursuing the youth all along.
This nameless youth hadn't even fought back.
It was a one-sided pursuit.
A thought struck Agni; it turned out that this youth in front of her,
would rather injure himself than let Kavensis fall into corruption.
Otherwise, why would he cast Blessing Magic on Kavensis?
She had encountered a situation like Kavensis's before, when she hunted High-Rank Cultists with the Priest.
That Cultist, too, in a fit of rage, had used his own life as a sacrifice to wield forbidden magic.
Back then, they had been too slow to stop him, allowing him to summon a high-rank demon from the void.
In that battle, their squad had nearly been wiped out.
And the state Kavensis was in at the moment closely resembled that High-Rank Cultist.
It could only have been a self-sacrifice to summon a demon.
How could they have imagined that there existed such a uniquely conceived school as the Light and Dark Priesthood?
The monster wasn't summoned; it was birthed by Kavensis!
Monstrous birth indeed.
Her thought process was wrong, but the conclusion was accidentally correct—of course, this was also the result of An Su's deliberate leading.
All of it was connected.
Why the once-perfect Holy Knight had changed so drastically turned out to be the seduction of the Mother Goddess.
Reflecting on the three days of the Blood Moon, everything became clear.
Why did the Cultists always disappear whenever Kavensis led them to hunt witches at a stronghold?
Kavensis said they had been cleared out by despicable people beforehand,
but would those despicable people, after clearing out the Cultists, bother to clean up nicely?
That didn't make sense.
The only thing that did make sense was that someone was tipping them off.
And that someone could only be Kavensis.
After all, only he knew the locations of the Cultist strongholds.
At the same time, he planned to pin this blame on another innocent person—that someone had cleaned out the Cultist strongholds in advance, stealing his prey.
This righteous young man before her was the one Kavensis had framed.
The youth was probably just a simple folk witch-hunter who had the misfortune of encountering him.
That's why he had split from the main group to secretly pursue this youth.
The carts attacked along the way were proof.
But unexpectedly, he proved no match for the youth before him.
Having no other choice, utterly crazed, he used his own life to sacrifice and summon a demon from the void.
"Ahh..."
Kavensis screamed miserably as blood gushed from his lower half, which was shattered beyond recognition.
Beneath the Blood Moon, the two Void Moths were finally born into this world, bringing an unparalleled horror.
One male and one female, they took the form of giant moths, with insect-like sinister mouthparts.
Under those mouthparts were layer upon layer of additional mouthparts, each opening to reveal billions of tiny teeth.
But while they appeared insect-like, they also had traits of mammals.
Their mere existence was a desecration.
The ranks of Holy Knights were so afraid that they dared not approach.
[Void Moth (Male): Fourth Order Void Entity]
[Void Moth (Female): Third Order Void Entity]
However, they had another hidden trait, one that only Kavensis, as their mother, could see:
[Due to the influence of all things growing, lifespan is one minute]
So this was not as terrifying as imagined, just needing to hold on for one minute—which wasn't difficult.
But he no longer had the chance to speak.
Because the two Void Moths turned to look at him, and Kavensis noticed that each had a small human face on its abdomen.
Next, Kavensis heard the most terrifying words of his life,
also the last words he would ever hear.
Those two human faces opened their mouths, their tone childish and whimsical, they told Kavensis:
"Mommy..."
"Hungry..."
"Want..."
"To drink milk... to drink milk..."
Kavensis didn't even have the chance to use amulets—and even in his current state, he didn't have the strength to use them.
The twin moths opened thousands of mouthparts towards Kavensis.
"To drink milk."
"Mua."