TBR CH62

Chapter 62: As One Wishes

The Bishop’s speech was very appropriate. His tone was steady, his gaze faintly revealing a look of compassion as he looked at the crowd. No matter which direction they were in, the people below the stage could be surprised to find that the Bishop’s gaze was meeting theirs.

Only the devil in the crowd knew that the only one Edwin was paying attention to was it.

Like an eagle staring at its prey.

Satha walked into the square. The banquet had ended early to leave time for the Bishop’s speech in the square. At this time, the rose-colored evening glow spread a soft brilliance on the stone steps of the church. The moment its feet stepped on the heavy stone slabs, the Bishop slightly raised his eyes and met its gaze, but did not flinch in the slightest.

The stone slabs under its feet were slightly scorching. From all around the devil, countless invisible “threads” with Light magic as their core swept towards it.

Ordinary people couldn’t see the devil. Edwin must have used some means.

It exerted force with both hands. The flames jumping between its fingers burned the threads that were silently approaching to entangle it to ashes. The threads were light and tough, not a physical entity, originating from a pre-arranged trap. After being burned by the fires of hell, the broken “threads” turned to ash, lightly sticking to the devil’s body and feet.

Satha suddenly had a bad feeling.

He realized that his feet, sprinkled with ashes, were firmly shackled to the ground, as if locked by invisible chains.

The Bishop had clearly spent enormous power to create this trap. At this moment, this trap was also consuming his power. The magic of Light was continuously being injected. His face seemed to have paled a little.

Even so, the flaw of the formation was also fatal.

It was very sturdy, but at the same time very fragile. At most, it could only last for five minutes.

At the same time, the devil’s other actions were not hindered.

After a moment of wavering, Satha began to feel it was nothing more than that.

Did the Bishop think that fixing its feet in a certain place for a short time was enough to stop its movements? It stood among the shattered “threads,” revealing a malicious smile at Edwin. Its black nails were sharp, its skin like rough bark. It was the gaze of a pure beast.

They sized each other up. This was the first time.

Edwin read contempt from the demon lord’s gaze. Those pupils, burning like flames, cracked with disdain and disregard for humans. The gaze was like a thorn dipped in poison, which could be called terrifying.

The Bishop did not stop speaking. His gray pupils were like a thick fog. Even the devil could not see his emotions. It was only during the pause between one paragraph and the next that he revealed a very light smile.

“Therefore, our God has sent down His decree,” he said. “He has bestowed grace to shepherd His flock, and at the same time, given us the power to drive out uncleanness. Only submission is the right path.”

The human speaking from the high platform was himself the greatest uncleanness.

Even Satha couldn’t help but think that if people were ranked by piety, Edwin would probably be the last. He was even more greedy and arrogant than his own contractor, Angelo, his hands stained with blood, without a trace of remorse. An extreme individualist, his so-called faith was nothing but a preposterous joke that would make people laugh their heads off.

The devil’s hands grew hot. Now was the time.

Didn’t he think he could control everything? Whether it was because of Angelo’s request or because of his own desire for revenge, whether it was against a fragile human body or a filthy half-breed demon, he would prove that absolute power would not tolerate offense.

At this time, right here, he would reveal Edwin’s true face.

What broke the solemn silence of the crowd was a scream.

The scream carried an indescribable pain and terror. The owner of the voice’s heavy, wretched panting came from a certain part of the crowded square, or rather, from the direction of the stage. Everyone clearly heard a panting sound similar to that of a wild beast.

The guests attending the ceremony didn’t know the situation, but they still pushed each other back until they saw the Holy Knights standing at the ready around the square, which brought them a little relief. And those knights were all approaching the direction where the sound came from. Their faces were ashen, filled with shock—their experienced eyes had read the signs of a demon from the burning flames.

In those few seconds, no one saw clearly what had happened. The stage was covered by a sulfurous thick smoke. Something was rolling in the smoke, it was unclear.

The crowd passed by Satha as they fled, and he stared at the direction of the stage without blinking.

Just now, it had made that gesture.

He had made the demon seed that belonged to him shatter inside Edwin’s body. It should have been so. After so many days, the demon seed must have taken deep root. Edwin would be powerfully transformed into a demon at this moment, his whole body filled with a sinful aura.

The sulfurous smell and the wail that erupted from the stage were the best proof.

But, there was something vaguely wrong. For example, the dust under his feet was still playing its role in trapping him.

A warning siren subconsciously went off in the devil’s mind.

A part of it told itself it had to escape as soon as possible. The other part of it knew very well that escape was futile. Before it could figure out the root of this ominous premonition, a huge sense of shattering swept from the depths of its soul, shattering most of its power.

How could this be possible?

Power was continuously draining away. The soul seemed to have cracked open a bottomless pit.

The devil clutched his chest in terror, motionless. And at this time, the shackles on his feet felt as heavy as a mountain, making it impossible for him to break free. It was no longer a temporary spell of five minutes, but five hours, or five days, because its situation was really terrible now.

Then, the thick smoke suddenly dispersed in an instant.

A holy light pierced through the surging evil. The young Bishop stood on the high platform, holding his scepter, like a god. The Holy Light originated from his power. The crown of the great archbishop of the Holy See shone in Edwin’s hands. Everything was once again given order. He had a power that made people calm and convinced.

Edwin’s every move was calm. He calmly bent down and subdued the figure rolling on the ground with his holy power. It was not until the figure was completely unable to move that people saw his face clearly—a face covered with hideous, blood-red demon markings. One could vaguely recognize the pair of baby-blue eyes. Prince Angelo lay on the ground, panting heavily. He looked to be in a terrible state. The terrifying markings seemed to be sucking his life away. His left arm was especially horrifying. From under the skin stretched almost transparently, one could clearly see something black seemed to be moving, having cut through his blood vessels, about to break free from this mortal body.

The Bishop very quickly used a purification spell on him.

The bright light had just fallen on Angelo’s skin when it burned out a large blister.

But in any case, the power of Light still played a role in resisting the darkness within his body. He let out a low cry of pain, desperately feeling his life draining away bit by bit. His Highness the Prince finally realized he was heading towards death. He saw the God of Death; a huge shadow had already covered his head.

And death was what people like him feared the most.

“Save… me.”

Angelo even exhausted all his strength to raise his hand and call out to Edwin for help. Looking at the prince’s wretched state, the young Bishop’s face was filled with concern. A bright light further gently enveloped him. But Angelo clearly sensed the power of Light silently withdrawing from his body, leaving only an endless expanse of empty darkness.

How could this be? How could the end come so suddenly?

His ambition, his great cause, his ideal of swallowing everything, was it all just going to be thrown into a bottomless well?

His Highness the Prince desperately twisted his body, looking at the crowd. He tried to sense the demon he had a contract with, suddenly feeling surprised by its absence. But he was about to die. At this time, he no longer cared about any reputation or concealment. He used the last of his strength to scream at the blurry figures: “Satha!”

A final call for help… but there was no response.

The devil at this moment had understood everything, after seeing Angelo in this state.

If the demon seed exploded within a half-breed demon, it would instantly and intensely stimulate his bloodline.

So, what if it exploded within a human body?

A human body cannot withstand magic power. The magic power would cut through the human’s meridians inch by inch, and in the end, only death would remain.

Prince Angelo’s death could be directly attributed to its actions. And that contract—

The devil at this moment无比 regretted the contract he had made with Prince Angelo. The contract required both parties to absolutely not harm each other, otherwise they would suffer a strong backlash. In fact, the contract also prevented them from having the thought of harming each other. The only loophole was what had happened today: acting without knowing.

He had almost killed the other party. The reason he said ‘almost’ was only because Angelo was still being kept alive by Edwin at this moment.

The backlash had now fallen upon it.

He had created his own wound with his own hands.

The powerful demon lord was injured by the soul contract. In an instant, he had lost almost half of his power. The remaining half of his power was more than enough to deal with ordinary humans, but he was currently in the Holy See, in the center of the human capital. Edwin was not far in front of him. The ability this human possessed was enough to put him in a desperate situation.

Although he had no idea why the demon seed had suddenly transferred to the prince’s body, it did not prevent his vision from turning black. He felt a heartfelt despair at the sudden reversal of the situation.

The devil heard Angelo calling for help, having already lost his mind, calling out his name in public, simply handing a blade to the enemy.

He almost wanted to rush up and cover this blasphemous human’s mouth.

Of course, his feet were rooted to the spot. He could only stand where he was.

Edwin did a good job of concealing the mockery in his eyes. Only Angelo, who was closest to him, could see all the emotions in the Bishop’s gray pupils. It was a cold and scorching arrogance, taking everything into his grasp, as if it were what he rightfully deserved.

“You…”

Seeing his composed expression, Prince Angelo suddenly lost all his strength. He understood that all struggle had lost its meaning, and there was no room for maneuver in the current situation.

He began to regret. A montage of his life flashed before his eyes. His greed had not yet been satisfied, his unfinished career, the plans that had not yet been launched. He had once thought he was close to victory.

Edwin’s face showed a look of sorrow. He shook his head at the onlookers.

The meaning was, Angelo was beyond saving. No one questioned his judgment. The prince looked completely defeated by the evil force. His body had collapsed before his will. His light blue eyes overflowed with tears. Perhaps he was repenting for the sins of his life. As was customary, Bishop Edwin bent down to listen to the dying man’s last words.

“Tell me,” the Bishop stroked the rose rosary on his neck. “Do you have anything you can’t let go of, or anything to repent for? This is the last chance. As long as you make a sincere wish, God will forgive your sins.”

Angelo could only make a weak sound. Calling Satha had used up the last of his life force. He lay weakly on the ground, the terrified and indistinguishable discussions of the crowd around him ringing in his ears.

Only Edwin could hear his words: “I regret…” Almost word by word, His Highness the Prince uttered his last words left in the world. “I regret not killing you ten years ago.”

A faint smile finally hung on the Bishop’s lips. He stood up, and Angelo’s body began to grow cold at his feet. He announced to the public, in the name of God’s messenger: “He has repented.”

What happened next was as swift as lightning. People looked with awe at the Bishop on the high platform. The light from his scepter was brighter than any of his predecessors.

Edwin ordered everyone to stand in place. The Holy Knights guarded the four sides of the square. His words had an authority that could not be ignored. Everyone silently and quickly obeyed his command.

The Bishop said: I’m afraid the devil is still among us.

He felt a subtle irony as he said this, but for him, it was in a positive sense. The child of a human and a succubus acted as the mouthpiece of the Light, walking through the crowd. Wherever he passed, everyone obediently lowered their heads, listening to the sound of his hard leather boots tapping lightly on the stone bricks.

At this moment, everyone was captivated by a strange magic. This power was perhaps a distorted version of trust.

No one was even worried.

What had happened was too terrifying. The most powerful prince of this country had just died violently in the last second. And at this moment, the crowd was like a flock of lambs, subconsciously following the shepherd, believing he could lead them through this difficult time.

No one was even worried that Edwin couldn’t do it, even though people had a vague premonition of the enemy’s terror.

Edwin’s footsteps paused. He stopped.

With his raised right hand, even the air seemed to begin to distort with scorching heat. First were the devil’s feet. Legend has it that devils all have goat’s hooves, but unfortunately, he was wearing magnificent boots and they could not be seen. Then came the huge body, with rough skin and eyes like torches. The fires of hell burned fiercely in Satha’s eyes. Finally, the pair of large, pointed, and curved horns.

The people around were so frightened. They couldn’t imagine a devil was so close.

They couldn’t help but start to retreat, almost causing a riot, if not for Edwin’s timely intervention. As the scepter touched the ground, countless tiny threads of light spread out from that point, gradually revealing themselves.

The devil’s face was so ferocious. He looked at the Bishop before him, his anger almost overflowing, but the dazzling dust by his ankles was like chains, binding Satha firmly in place. He shot out flames with both hands. A foul, sulfurous smell spread. Some of the deadly attacks were aimed at Edwin, while others were aimed at the innocent crowd around.

All the attacks were blocked by the Bishop of Light.

“Confess your sins,” he said with a solemn expression. The human body, compared to the huge devil before him, seemed so small. The Holy Light locked the devil’s hands, then his neck, pierced through his collarbones, and nailed him to the square of the Church, like an insect nailed to a wooden board.

People looked at Edwin as if looking at their only savior.

Even the Holy Knights on the side hardly dared to breathe, until Edwin signaled, did they dare to take a step forward and carefully restrain the devil. However, the devil at this time was safe and harmless, unable to harm anyone anymore.

“Bishop,” its nose snorted with angry steam. Satha struggled with all his might, unable to believe he had really fallen into a human’s trap, and not even a real human. “You will regret this! You will regret angering a demon lord. You can’t even imagine my revenge—”

Edwin didn’t even respond to him. The Bishop’s gray eyes were like the center of a storm. Everything around was spinning crazily. All order was reshuffled, and he stood in the eye of the storm, undisturbed by anything.

“Devil,” he said quietly. “Besides your own sins, you will also be punished for the murder of Prince Angelo.”

There was enough evidence to prove this, such as the black fragments in Prince Angelo’s corpse, whose magic fluctuations were completely similar to the devil’s. Evidence of his dealings with the devil would surely be found in the prince’s residence as well. Even if Angelo had burned all the evidence, it was completely meaningless. If Edwin said there was, there was.

Everything was already proceeding in an orderly manner under his arrangement.

Satha clearly also knew this. The devil was furious, to the point that he suddenly began to laugh hysterically. “You think you’ve calculated everything, don’t you?” it shrieked. “You will get your retribution, Bishop. Even if my words won’t be believed by anyone at this time, filthy blood flows in your veins. Everything you have is stolen. You will ultimately not get your wish. I don’t believe you have no weaknesses.”

Edwin didn’t care about these curses.

He was often cursed. Even if the other party was a demon lord, it was nothing strange.

Satha was about to be locked in the Church’s prison. There, there was none of the gloom and dampness he was used to. It was full of light everywhere, scorching light, one hundred percent effective against devils.

People watched with such awe at the incredible events happening before them, until the devil was dragged down, and the Bishop politely apologized for the recent chaos, promising that the Church would thoroughly investigate the matter and bless the frightened flock again.

Some wise people looked at Edwin with more complicated gazes.

With Prince Angelo’s death, the bell of a new era rang. The high and mighty Bishop was as young as a new dagger. The old Pope’s death was almost a certainty. This young man could not be described as having a boundless future. “Boundless future” seemed too frivolous. In fact, the authority he would hold in his hands almost represented the entire human world, which was half of the continent.

Power was now in his hands, like the beautiful ruby scepter in his hand.

He would obtain everything he had never had before. It was almost just a few more steps. As long as he didn’t do anything to obviously cut off his own future, the golden carpet was laid out at his feet to the end. Probably tonight, the nobles trying to visit Edwin would wear out the threshold of the Holy See.

—And most of them would not even be allowed to enter.

Edwin’s eyes showed no emotion. He had such a pair of gray eyes, both deep and shallow like a fog. He knew he could not show it, because showing emotion would let people guess your weakness.

He had succeeded.

A fire burned under the gray fog. He walked up the steps of the white tower step by step, feeling an unprecedented sense of ease. His wish was granted. It was probably like this. All the planning had borne fruit, just as all ambitions had finally been properly placed.

He knew, he had known long ago, that the one standing at the end would only be him.

Edwin’s footsteps became more and more brisk, even if others could not hear the subtle difference. He began to allow himself to think about the wishes that had long overflowed. For the first time, he was so full of expectation, ecstatic. Everything was finally in his grasp. He stood at the end of this road, examining all the corpses that had fallen on the steps, smiling with a bloody meaning.

And at the end of the road. Edwin stood before the room door, unable to restrain a smile. He curled his lips, thinking of how Tar had said he liked him smiling like this, sincerely, like a twenty-year-old young man.

At the end of the road, he was not alone.

Tar. He reached out and touched the door panel. The door panel was hard and silent. Tar. He inserted the key into the keyhole, which made a crisp click. Tar. He turned the doorknob, and the doorknob made the familiar sound of a mechanism operating. Tar. The formation he had set up was intact, very sturdy, operating without a moment of laziness, ceaselessly, guarding his greatest treasure.

For the first time, Edwin wanted so much to convey this feeling at this moment to another person. Like a young man finally about to meet his beloved, he instantly became clumsy and excited.

He wanted to tell Tar he had succeeded, had achieved such an incredible achievement. He knew the demon would smile and praise his wish that had come true. Even if he often guessed Tar’s preferences wrong, the demon had always been particularly interested in his success.

When he was seven, the parish priest had said: This child’s death would be no loss.

And Tar had told him: You are a remarkable human.

Even if in his future life he would hear countless such words, Edwin told himself not to pretend they were the same. That sentence was heavier than gold. It gave him the meaning to live on without shattering.

He had done it.

The morning’s hug was not formal enough, and the kiss had to end hastily because he was in a hurry. Those were all things he wanted.

Would Tar give these things to him as a reward?

Or better, because Tar was always a little better than he imagined.

Edwin pushed open the door full of expectation. There was no need to pretend anymore. His gray eyes finally softened, like damp silk. The room was a little dim. He subconsciously searched for the pair of pomegranate-red eyes.

The first time, he didn’t find them.

Perhaps the demon was resting.

Edwin walked towards the bed covered with deep purple curtains. He lifted the fluffy velvet. The bed was very tidy, exactly the same as when he had left. It was not here either. The demon was not here.

“Tar?” The Bishop called out. He had not yet realized what had happened, but his voice was already trembling slightly.

Perhaps Tar was playing a prank. The demon always liked to do this. Perhaps he was just hiding in some corner of the room. Edwin checked under the bed, in the closet, and behind the curtains. However, all exploration ended in emptiness. Everything was silent and cold.

Silent and cold. All calls had no echo.

Until Edwin suddenly realized his hands were trembling, standing in front of the cabinet by the desk.

That was the last cabinet.

The pearwood cabinet doors were tightly closed. He reached out several times, but could not successfully push open the cabinet doors. That was the last place that could hide a demon.

“Tar…”

Edwin closed his eyes. He had never been so cowardly. Be hard, be cold, don’t be afraid. He pursed his lips and pulled the cabinet doors hard.

—Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Had he not realized he had been deceiving himself all along? The Bishop slowly bent his knees, propping himself up with his hands on top of the cabinet. The hard wood pressed tightly against his chest. He could hardly breathe, but only in this way could he maintain his balance.

He had already discovered it, the very second he entered the room. It was just that he was pretending everything was not yet over.

It was gone.

There was no smell of roses in the room, not at all. The scent of the demon, the scent of roses that filled this room every day.

If something had happened, this undoubtedly indicated that it was already too late.

Edwin froze where he was, almost blankly. He was in a plain, odorless air. The room was empty and quiet. He was familiar with this silence, because he had been alone with this silence for more than ten years. But, now this silence made him feel extremely strange.

He couldn’t even perceive his own emotions.

…He just couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t ask. That was all.

And Tar was not here.

Absolutely not.

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