Chapter 342: The Unclean Nun (Final)
This was the journal of the castle's former owner, Duke St. Carta, recording the method for the sacrificial ritual.
Back then, the duke had experienced multiple failures, so every time he prepared the materials, he would ready two sets.
And on the day the passage was finally opened, the witchcraft ritual succeeded on the first try, so the backup materials were left behind.
"But after so much time has passed... wouldn't they go bad?" William thought to himself.
Subsequently, he asked this question out loud.
"Hmph, what do you think I've been doing lying dormant in this abbey for all these years?" Valak sneered.
"The materials were prepared long ago. It was only out of wariness toward the Holy Blood that I hadn't made a move."
It then immediately continued.
"Don't think I am exposing my own weakness by telling you this. I have prepared multiple sets of materials as well, so even if you harbor malicious intentions, I will only fail this one time."
"A Demon God can live for a very long time. I can absolutely wait until you are completely dead before making my move again. It's nothing more than waiting a few more decades."
William waved his hand dismissively: "Alright, alright, stop nagging. I wouldn't waste such a precious holy relic here anyway."
Valak remained silent, only the corners of its eyes twitching slightly.
Afterward, William asked for the method to initiate the ritual and immediately instructed a skeleton to step forward and perform the operation.
"Wait!" Valak suddenly spoke up. "You said... as long as I told you the method, you would let me go. Now is the time to fulfill your promise."
"Oh, that," William shrugged. "I lied to you."
"What!"
"Isn't this something you guys do all the time? Since you can deceive others, you have to be prepared to be deceived yourself."
"You motherf—" Valak's entire body convulsed violently.
"I'll take that as a demon's compliment." William smiled faintly.
Subsequently, he signaled the skeleton to begin the operation once more.
However, the moment he turned his head, the corners of Valak's mouth also curled up slightly.
Accompanied by the sound of a certain mechanism turning, multiple openings suddenly appeared in the surrounding walls.
Immediately after, the massive sound of rushing water echoed through the hall.
Just as William went on high alert, a massive amount of fresh blood suddenly surged out from those openings.
Splash!
The hall was instantly filled with a thick, overpowering stench of blood.
The blood flowed along the grooves in the floor, converging toward the pentagram magic array, which instantly lit up with a red glow.
Immediately after, a powerful beam of energy shot out from it, plunging directly into the wooden door facing the pentagram.
Behind the door was a pool of water.
The red light penetrated the water and shone toward the center, where a shattered stone altar lay at the bottom, its surface carved with mysterious runes.
Ultimately, the red light sank into the largest fissure on the stone altar.
A moment later, numerous pairs of amber eyes suddenly lit up from beneath the fissure.
Bang... Bang!
The things underneath slammed against the stone altar, causing the entire abbey to shake along with them.
But whenever those eyes approached the fissure, a scarlet barrier would flare up at the breach, completely blocking all the entities below.
Even so, this barrier was rapidly weakening, and it was only a matter of time before it shattered completely.
Inside the cellar hall.
"Hehehe..." Valak suddenly let out a spine-chilling laugh, raising its head to stare at William.
"Ignorant human, no matter what your plans are, the moment you decided to open the passage, you were destined to fail."
"Perhaps you can set up new magic arrays, or perhaps the original seal can restrict the monsters below, but..."
Its tone grew excited.
"The moment the passage is activated, the existing barriers cannot withstand a true Demon God."
As soon as its voice fell, the calm surface of the water behind the wooden door suddenly began to churn.
Immediately after, a massive splash erupted upwards, accompanied by an overwhelmingly dense evil aura.
This energy shot straight toward the ceiling, piercing all the way through the entire abbey, and ultimately bursting forth into the sky.
The few people at the entrance also heard the commotion, and upon looking up, they happened to witness this scene.
"Just what kind of existence is buried down there..." Father Burke gaped in shock.
Even from this distance, he couldn't help but feel terrified. If he were at the core of it, the intensity of the power he would have to face would be simply unimaginable.
But the next moment, that evil aura was blocked by a barrier radiating a pure white glow.
Subsequently, a magic array covering the entire abbey also manifested.
"This is... the magic array he set up earlier!" Gail's eyes lit up.
Meanwhile, inside the cellar.
The original black-robed old woman had disappeared, and in mid-air, a child had appeared.
It had a petite frame, deathly pale skin, and rode atop a two-headed monster. This demonic beast was covered in scales, possessed a pair of wings on its back, and its heads looked serpentine, though small horns grew from the tops.
Every time the monster flapped its wings, the surrounding temperature rose a bit higher.
And the ground directly beneath it had already turned into a small puddle of magma.
"Human, can you still be as arrogant as you were just now?" the child spoke with a sneer.
However, paired with its tender, childish voice, the scene looked somewhat jarring.
William remained expressionless, quietly watching the other party.
This action clearly enraged Valak.
"Hmph! I will properly torture your soul."
Saying this, it reached out its hand, and a powerful force subsequently materialized at the outermost layer of the magic array.
Crack... Crack!
Fissures appeared on the magic array's barrier at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it continuously caved inward.
"To be able to shatter a defensive magic array set up with forty-year vintage holy artifacts barehanded... it seems you truly are the Demon God's true body." William suddenly spoke up at this moment.
"It's just that you don't seem to be particularly strong either."
He recalled his time in the Land of the Holy War; compared to the oppressive aura of those two angels, the entity before him, while possessing some pressure, still fell far short.
"Hmph, ignorant human. This is nothing but a fraction of my avatars," Valak sneered.
"How could a tiny fissure allow a Demon God in its complete form to pass through."
William looked thoughtful: "So that's how it is. Thank you for clearing that up, now I can put my mind at ease."
Valak instantly frowned. It didn't see any fear on this human's face, which was clearly abnormal.
"Do you think you still have a way out? That magic array outside the abbey is indeed not bad, but it still can't save you," it said in a deep voice.
"That was only to prevent what happens here from affecting the outside world," William said, reaching into his coat. "To deal with you, I have other methods."
As soon as his voice fell, he pulled out a black leather-bound book.
"This can..."
Valak was just about to scoff and mock him, but the next second its eyes widened drastically.
"How could you possibly have this thing!"
It watched as William flipped open the pages, and immediately after, a powerful suction force erupted from it, forcefully extracting the surrounding evil aura.
"The Book of the World! The Book of the World! To think this thing has actually appeared in the human realm!" Valak's eyes were filled with sheer terror.
At the same time, numerous streams of black aura flowed out from the surface of its body—a clear sign that its power was being drained.
"Wait! Wait!" it cried out in alarm.
"I'll let you leave—no! I will leave the abbey right now! Make it stop!"
William smiled faintly. Instead, he gently pushed his hand upward, allowing the Book of the World to levitate automatically in mid-air.
"You demons are really all the same. Always waiting until you're at a dead end before you know to beg for mercy. But... it's too late."
Valak turned its head and tried to fly toward the Source Power passage, but the powerful suction force surrounding it firmly anchored it in place.
Feeling its core power continuously slipping away, it finally could no longer maintain its composure.
This wasn't just simple depletion. Once this avatar was extracted by the Book of the World, it meant permanently losing this portion of power.
It might even cause its main body to drop in rank.
In the dark and treacherous Hell, the weak didn't even have the right to exist.
"I curse you!" Valak stared venomously at William.
The next second, its entire body turned into black smoke, and along with the surrounding evil aura, it was sucked entirely into the book.
The whole cellar was instantly swept clean, and even the air felt much fresher.
William reached out and caught the descending Book of the World. The page corresponding to the Source Power passage of the 72 Demon Gods was currently glowing a bright red.
This meant he could close the passage here at any time.
However, he didn't do so, instead walking over to the space behind the wooden door.
The water in the pool had long since boiled dry, leaving the stone altar completely exposed.
William peered deep into the fissure, and the countless eyes below instantly shrank back.
"Does anyone else want to come out and play?"
As soon as his voice fell, those eyes sank downward in unison, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
William shrugged, only then pulling out that bottle of Holy Blood.
"Next is this thing."
Saying this, he suspended the fresh blood above the Book of the World. The pages flipped on their own, quickly stopping on a specific page.
Immediately after, that suction force appeared once more, and the blood in the transparent tube automatically flew onto the page.
At the same time.
Vatican, Papal Basilica.
Fissures suddenly appeared on the statue of the Son of God situated in the center, and subsequently, a massive amount of blood seeped out from within it.
This scene left the Cardinals praying below completely dumbfounded on the spot.