Cthulhu Gonfalon

Although the hypnosis spell had been removed and Ryan was not bound, he did not intend to escape or resist at the moment. He slumped to the ground without saying a word.

He knew the other’s strengths. The giant Gerrard was in front of him. Even if Gerrard were not there, he might not have been able to defeat Master Satan alone— provided that he was in a good condition.

Now as the bones on his shoulders had mostly been broken, he was seriously wounded. Had he not just drunk healing potions, he might have died from the pains without any being able to resist at all.

At this stage, he could only resign to his fate without any illusion.

“Ryan, why were you plotting against us?” Gerrard shouted with a loud voice. His roar resounded in the forest like a gust of wind.

“I was dying, so in order to please the Darkened Moon and be qualified to go to his Holy Kingdom, I designed such a hoax with which I could please His Majesty by deceiving you,” Ryan said frankly. “But I failed. His Majesty abandoned me and now I am done. For me, life is meaningless. The gate of purgatory has been open to me. The only thing left to worry about is when I fall into it.”

Hearing these words, thieves suddenly turned angry and glared at him. If not for the awe of Gerrard, perhaps they would all have arisen to attack him, cutting off the old man in a chaotic way.

The God of Thieves and the God of Conspiracy had a bad relationship because both of them had the overlapping holy mission of “hallucination,” so they could be described as deadly enemies. For thieves who believed in the God of Thieves, Ryan who believed in the God of Conspiracy was not only an enemy but also a despicable traitor.

In the world of some martial novels, people like Ryan would certainly be attacked fiercely!

Ryan did not care about these murderous eyes. Anyway, he had no way to go. What was it that he could be scared of if the only result was death?

“Ha-ha,” Sui Xiong’s laughter sounded in the air. “The God of Conspiracy did not abandon you. On the contrary, your actions greatly pleased Him.”

“What?!” Ryan’s eyes turned bright, and he hurried to look towards the small transparent jellyfish that popped up in the air. “But why did His Majesty not respond to my prayer?”

“Because his response was intercepted by me,” Sui Xiong said with a smile. “His envoy was also stopped by me. By the way, the envoy called “Four-faced Monster” under the command of the God of Conspiracy looked very strange, but tasted unexpectedly good. His flesh was fresh and delicious. It’s memorable!”

Ryan suddenly startled and realized the identity of Sui Xiong. With his face suddenly turning pale, he lamentingly fell silent and was unable to say anything.

He had thought that he was exceptionally wise and arranged the whole thing properly because he succeeded in deceiving and maneuvering against a huge giant, a small mage, plus a rookie god. But it turned out that what went wrong was not his strategy, but who he was plotting against.

The god behind the Giant Gerrard was by no means a rookie, but clearly a hidden superman! Even the envoy of His Majesty the God of Conspiracy was eaten by him, so it was impossible to imagine how powerful he was!

Ryan thought, What terrible fortune I had! How dare I plot against this powerful god! Maybe I have done too many evils, so that the Goddess of Fate has bound me with her threads invisible to mortal people, with another end tied to purgatory…

After a complete desperation, he instead turned calm. With a pair of deadly eyes, he calmly looked into the eyes of Sui Xiong and said, “Your Majesty, pardon me for not knowing your name. But it does not matter, please feel free to punish me in any way as you like.”

Seeing this hopeless and sorrowful expression, Sui Xiong could not help but be a bit disappointed. Who he wanted to punish was the old thief master that was crafty like a fox, not this good-for-nothing that was different from a dead man only because he could breathe.

The transparent jellyfish circled around Ryan for a few laps. After a while of careful analysis, an idea suddenly occurred to Sui Xiong.

“Since you volunteered to be punished, then do not blame me for giving you any excessive punishment!” He sneered. Using the power of his soul to transform his transparent body into a big rough palm with a glittering pattern of the Chinese character “ten thousand,” he patted Ryan’s forehead.

“Never too late to mend your ways!” Sui Xiong shouted loudly.

He silently contemplated all kinds of sincerity, goodness, beauty, and scenes of prosperity and development, of unrelenting success, of joy and encouragement… These countless ideas merged into a golden light and were seemingly transferred into Ryan’s head through the strength of the pat, but in fact, suddenly broke into his soul and body.

Ryan screamed and twitched. The pain of the soul being wounded was far more fatal than that of the flesh. Even if he already felt hopeless, he could not stand this pain. He suddenly wanted to die, even being tortured in purgatory after death was better than being tormented now.

Thieves around him, looking at the miserable appearance of their leader, were startled. No sound was heard except a rustling sound. A few thieves who were not very courageous were so scared that they wet themselves, giving off an unbearable foul smell.

Fortunately, they carried a lot of supplies for this treasure hunt, so they found several pairs of clean trousers for the cowards who threw the dirty trousers far away. Then Satan cast a magic that summoned a gust of strong wind that blew away the foul smell, relieving everyone’s nose.

It was strange; just for a while, the previously yelling Ryan calmed down. His eyes showed that he was at a loss. No one knew what he was thinking, but he just stared at the sky.

“Ryan, have you realized your mistake?” Sui Xiong’s avatar changed back into a floating jellyfish and asked loudly.

Ryan was awakened by this loud cry and sat up again. After a long silence, he suddenly burst into tears.

He was crying fiercely and sorrowfully.

“No, drop it. It’s a wrong style,” Sui Xiong thought in silence.

Ryan finally stopped after crying for a long time. He was unable to lift his hand to wipe his face because of his shoulder injury. The tears on his face were mixed with dirt and he looked very embarrassed.

But now his eyes were clearer than his subordinates had ever seen in the past years. They were calm and mild, like two clear crystal clear lakes without the slightest shadow. Seeing his eyes, people would approach him without suspicion.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for making me realize my mistake, and now I am afraid of nothing,” Ryan said quietly. “I have done countless evils in my life, so I deserve to atone for my sin in purgatory. It would be nothing to be bitterly punished in purgatory compared to the pain I gave others throughout my life.”

“It is too late for you to realize your mistakes until you are about to die. But repenting at the end is after all better than never repenting.” He struggled to stand up and looked around at his subordinates with a face full of guilt.

“I’ve done a lot of things that let you down over the years. I have used you to do bad things, embezzled most of your hard-earned fruits and stopped you from progressing again and again… I apologize to you but do not dare to expect your forgiveness.”

After finishing this, he let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky.

“I remember when I was a child, I often lay on the roof of my house and looked at the sky. At that time I was always fantasizing. What was above the sky? Legend said that there was a heaven was above the sky and good people could go there to lead a peaceful life in the beautiful country created by the most benevolent gods… What exactly was the paradise like? I really wanted to see it…”

His voice gradually turned low, while he fell down softly and lost breath.

He died.

Sui Xiong saw it, as Ryan’s breath stopped, a transparent and old figure flew out of Ryan. This figure looked gloomily at its body, shook its head and sighed. It then bowed toward Sui, and slowly sunk toward the ground. It seemed that it would fall into the netherworld and be punished in purgatory.

Just then, a clear light in the sky fell on the soul of Ryan.

In the white light appeared an elderly man wearing a plain cloak made of grey cloth and a silver-fringed halo on his head. Smiling and holding a pipe, he took hold of Ryan’s shoulder.

“The God of Repentance says that ‘no matter how many sins one has committed during his lifetime, so long as he repents faithfully, he deserves atonement’,” the elderly man said to Ryan. “You should not go to the hell, but turn your penitence into atonement to help people in need.”

Ryan was shocked, and after a while, he recovered and asked incredulously, “You … you are the envoy of the God of Redemption? I have not worshiped that god…”

“His Majesty never decides who should go to his kingdom by faith, and only those souls who redeem themselves and redeem others have the qualifications to go to the Valley of Relief. You redeemed yourself at the last moment of your life, so His Majesty asked me to welcome you,” said the elderly man kindly. “Leave with me. Your path is still long.”

Ryan was surprised and happy, and could not help but shed tears. He bowed deeply to Sui Xiong in worship, then he followed the elderly man and flew to the sky by riding the clear light beam.

Sui Xiong watched him fly away and smiled. Before he wanted to express some thoughts such as “All he did yesterday seems to make him die yesterday, all he does today seems to give him birth again today.”

Floating in the air, the huge jellyfish turned his head and slightly bowed out of courtesy to the lady beside him who wore plain clothes.

“Hello, God of Redemption.”

“Hello, a good new god.” The woman looked about twenty-five or twenty-six. She wasn’t beautiful but was gentle and friendly. Her eyes were even soft and calmed others’ minds. She was the incarnation of the God of Redemption. She sensed that someone was using strange ways to make a sinful soul repent at the last moment of his life, which interested her a lot and made her take a special trip to the human world to meet Sui Xiong.

The God of Redemption was also called the God of Repentance and the Last Word Listener, etc. She was not a mighty god and her teachings required believers to redeem themselves and others— quite a hard thing to do. Therefore, her faith had not been widely spread, and even quite a few of her pastors found it difficult to practice the doctrine. And those who really could practice her teachings were often about to die and unlikely to spread her teachings and promote her glory.

She had always been in an awkward position despite her seniority. She was convinced that she was right but felt distressed about how to carry forward her idea. Only when she met Sui Xiong did she realize that she saw the path of fate.

The God of Redemption raised her hand, and a soft white light flew out and fell on Sui’s body. It was quickly absorbed and stored for future analysis and research.

“This is my supernatural power and some useful information that you can study afterward. I look forward to seeing you soon in the joint meeting of the most benevolent people, and I believe we will certainly be able to cooperate in a beneficial way at that time.”

“Sorry, but I still haven’t found the clue of apotheosizing for the moment,” said Sui Xiong.

The gentle goddess waved her hands, while her figure faded, “It does not matter. Time doesn’t mean much to you and me. I have been waiting for a long time, and now I finally know my waiting is not wrong which makes me very satisfied.”

Seeing the God of Redemption leave, Sui Xiong carefully felt the supernatural power he just received and engraved lots of information into his heart. Sui Xiong vaguely realized that a little light was shed on the road to the altar, although it was previously enveloped in a total chaos.