Chapter 288: Those Who Claim Absolute Defense Never Last More Than One Episode
Ys Origin has three storylines, each controlling "Unica Tovah," "Hugo Fact," and "Toal Fact" respectively. Although all of them involve climbing the tower, the three characters' stories develop differently, and can even be seen as three parallel timeline paths.
Among them, completing Unica's and Hugo's routes leads to a normal ending, while only Toal's route can trigger the true ending.
After defeating the demonized Dalles, the true mastermind will appear.
It can be said that the entire Kingdom of Ys falling into such a predicament was entirely orchestrated by Cain Fact, the head of the Six Priests and the 'Priest of the Heart.'
Cheng Tian's revelations at the time were incredibly satisfying, directly frying the CPU of the young man, Hugo.
As expected, the stubborn young man actually went to confront his father, and also selectively revealed the key points of Cheng Tian's revelations to his father.
However, Cain Fact's cunning was profound; upon hearing so much explosive information, he not only showed no signs of wavering but instead revealed an attitude of keen interest.
He was particularly interested in the illegitimate son Hugo spoke of.
As a bloodline divine tool of the Fact family, the Eye of Fact, which assists and magnifies spell effects, is undoubtedly unique, meaning it's almost impossible for non-bloodline holders to possess a similar item.
Cain scoffed at the idea of Cheng Tian being an illegitimate son; he had long since moved beyond the low-level interests that humans needed and was pursuing higher dimensional changes. But the fact that Cheng Tian possessed a magical item capable of imitating the Eye of Fact was indeed one of the few things that could currently pique Cain's interest.
Facing his son's questioning, the unhurried Cain merely displayed the demeanor of a strict father he had maintained for the past twenty-odd years.
"Do you choose to believe your own father, a Priest of the Heart who has toiled his entire life for the Kingdom of Ys and offered all his loyalty to the Goddesses, or do you choose to believe an unscrupulous liar who popped out of nowhere claiming to be a branch of the Fact family?"
With just that one sentence, the seemingly firm attitude of the young Hugo instantly shattered.
There was nothing he could do; while Cheng Tian's information was incredibly explosive, it was still quite difficult to overcome the bloodline suppression accumulated by his own father over two decades.
However, Cain was well aware that while his younger son was easy to fool, the Goddesses and his elder son were not.
Thus, Cain proactively left the shrine and began to intervene with Hugo.
The appearance of the Dark Clan was actually entirely guided by Cain. On the surface, Dalles was the leader, but in reality, the entire Dark Clan was merely an experimental subject used by Cain to test the effects of demon factors on humans.
The Fact family's bloodline is very special; while their genius rate is extremely high, their pursuit of power is also aggressive to the point of obsession. And obsessive people almost never compromise, which leads to the Fact family always taking extreme paths, whether they walk the righteous path or the evil path.
And Cain was the extreme of extremes.
He not only treated the Dark Clan as experimental subjects but also didn't spare his own blood relatives.
The reason Toal Fact survived the monster siege during the rear-guard battle was all at Cain's instruction.
And forcibly implanting demon factors into his body was merely Cain testing the potential of the Fact bloodline in the dark arts. As for whether his eldest son would survive, it was not even within Cain's consideration.
As for his younger son, who dared to question him... Hugo, radiating evil energy and surrounded by six floating Eyes of Fact, fully illustrated Cain's choice.
Hugo was also forcibly implanted with demon factors, and under Cain's catalysis, they proliferated very rapidly. He was now in a state of semi-collapsed personality, acting as Cain's puppet, striking wherever he was commanded.
Toal, however, was clearly still struggling. Although his body didn't obey him, his spirit remained unyielding, even when facing his own father.
Hugo demonized but didn't demonize into a full demon, while Toal demonized but wasn't very obedient.
Both sons were quite useless... Leveraging his identity as one of the Six Priests, Cain openly passed through the defenses of the two old-timers, Saoul and Sion, and directly summoned his two sons to launch a surprise attack from behind, while he himself went straight for the Twin Goddesses.
Due to sharing Cheng Tian's revelations from Fina, Reah was also aware of Cain's true situation, but when she witnessed with her own eyes the Priest of the Heart, who was supposed to protect Ys, actually appearing before her, a sad emotion still showed in Reah's eyes.
Fina, on the other hand, this little lass was corrupted by Cheng Tian in a very short time. When she saw Cain, her mind was filled with all of Cheng Tian's explosive remarks, and when she thought about how even such a serious priest would have an affair and an illegitimate child, she even uncontrollably chuckled.
This emotional contrast made both Reah and Cain feel somewhat bewildered.
However, the Twin Goddesses reacted quickly. Almost in the same instant that magical fluctuations appeared on Cain, they simultaneously took control of the Black Pearl, jointly exerting force against the magical backlash from Cain's side that was attempting to extract something.
With the Twin Goddesses gathered, and both having a 15% magic power amplification under Cheng Tian's Holy Radiance, they displayed a resistance against Cain's dark magic that exceeded his imagination.
"Why are you doing this!?"
Reah, not taking up his words, still found it hard to accept the reality of Cain's substantial betrayal.
"Why? Is there a problem with pursuing a stronger form, a higher level?"
Cain retorted directly, with a look of utter righteousness.
"I vaguely perceive that this world is too small, as if something covers the entire world, obscuring the perception and vision of all people, including you so-called gods, like turtles in a jar, mistaking a cramped well for everything.
In my opinion, only the perfect combination of the Black Pearl and the Root of Evil can possibly break through this ineffable world barrier and see the true world."
Hearing this, the Twin Goddesses couldn't help but exchange glances.
Having completed the Sun and Moon Radiance pact with Cheng Tian, and having helped Cheng Tian complete the modification of the entire dungeon type, and having witnessed the intervention of players, they had, to a certain extent, already broken through the shackles of the dungeon and learned things beyond what NPCs should know.
But they hadn't expected that Cain's extreme actions would also have some connection to it.
However, at this moment, a holy light from outside the tower shone in. This was the Sacred Fire from Priest Chief Sion.
But this holy flame, just as it reached the entrance, was intercepted by a tangible magical barrier.
Besides their family heirloom Eye of Fact, the Fact family is also very skilled in barrier magic, and their proficiency is exceptionally high compared to other spellcasters. Not only is their conversion rate astonishing, but their protective performance is also extremely strong.
And the magical barrier personally cast by Cain Fact could almost be called absolute defense.
This holy light spell, which the Priest Chief had to cast even at the cost of being injured again, failed to shake this barrier in the slightest.
"Hmph! There is no being in this world that can penetrate my barrier, not even the power of the Goddesses!"
Cain's face was full of arrogance.
However, no sooner had he spoken than another attack, unwilling to give up, appeared.
This time it wasn't a spell, but an object like a meteor hammer.
"I told you it's useless—"
Before he could finish his sentence, the barrier, touted as absolute defense, shattered with a resounding crack!
The rapidly rotating meteor hammer slammed heavily into Cain Fact's face, frozen in astonishment.
As the chain at the end of the meteor hammer rapidly recoiled, a Ghost Rider was dragged backward into the White Tower.
Raising the handle of his chain hammer, which had just been reshaped from infernal fire to Clelia ore, the Ghost Rider Cheng made a crisp clacking sound with his bones at Cain.
Meanwhile, the Hell Serpent, under the remote control of the Chariot Master, was spewing hellfire and mutually harming the frenzied Dalles.