Chapter 661: Not Yours To Judge

Three.

The Unholy creature landed heavily on the stones, but immediately raised its head and saw the Hollow Sun.

Its entire body became stiff, its hands trembled, and a wave of fear was sent to Lian through the Colony Link.

The same reaction again.

But this time, Lian did not even have time to calm it down.

"Three!"

The Dreadmaw Sovereign lowered its head with difficulty.

"M-Master..."

He pointed toward the broken path in front of Rindo.

"Just hold that path for a few moments, then I’ll send you back."

Three looked at the sun for a moment and then raised both hands despite its trembling body.

"I... obey."

[Ossuary Gravefield]

Huge bone pillars rose from the stone surface of the northern platform.

These pillars were part of the Dreadmaw Sovereign’s battlefield control abilities and could block the paths of enemies.

Several Withered that were trying to cross the narrow path became trapped behind the pillars.

Three then extended its right hand.

[Crimson Decree]

A red beam was released from its hand and struck the group of attackers, throwing several creatures backward.

Two used the opportunity.

Its huge claws pressed firmly against the stone, and with a long jump, it carried Rindo to a higher platform in the north.

Lian noticed that his friend had escaped the dangerous area.

Good.

But just as he was about to praise the newest member of his colony....

The wind stopped.

The sound of the golden leaves moving disappeared.

And the Withered that had been attacking the humans with rough roars only moments earlier almost simultaneously turned their heads toward the sky.

Lian remained still for a moment.

It had arrived.

The huge rings of the Hollow Sun began turning more slowly, the black pupil remained still in the center for a moment, and then the Judge’s huge and emotionless voice spread across the entire Domain of the Condemned.

"The Fifth Judgment has begun."

Rindo raised his head.

Two let out a low growl.

One slowed its movements for a moment in the south.

And Three.....the Dreadmaw Sovereign became completely motionless.

The young Vorhelm immediately recognized the streams of golden light.

The identification phase.

The same phase he had observed during the previous Judgments.

He knew that the identification threads first moved over possible targets, and only after that would the main connection of the sentence form.

But this time, he had no intention of waiting for the second phase.

"Three!"

The Dreadmaw Sovereign turned its head toward Lian in fear.

At that exact moment, the first golden thread descended from the sky, and its path was directly toward Three.

Lian narrowed his eyes and frowned deeply, that bastard sun had targeted a member of his colony.

He closed his right hand and cut off the colony summoning connection.

The mana flows around One, Two, and Three changed at the same time.

This action did not destroy the permanent bonds of the colony members; it only closed their summoning connections to the battlefield and returned the creatures to the Colony House.

Three’s body began to disappear just as the identification light reached the place where it was standing.

For a fraction of a second, the golden light settled on its shoulder, but before the main structure of the sentence could form, its body disappeared among the colony’s mana flows.

One and Two also returned at that same moment, and the northern platform remained empty for several seconds.

Then three messages appeared in front of Lian.

[Special Member One: Returned to Colony House]

[Special Member Two: Returned to Colony House]

[Special Member Three: Returned to Colony House]

Lian immediately checked the status of the bonds, all three connections were still active.

One.

Two.

And Three.

None of them had been injured, and he slowly breathed out, he had no idea why that sun had immediately targeted Three.

Could it be related to the past of his colony member? Were its sins so great that the Judge placed it at the highest priority for Judgment?

If that was the case and his guess was correct, then he might finally have understood how this sun worked, but he doubted it, so far, all the selections had seemed random.

But the situation was not over yet.

The golden thread that had remained fixed on Three for a moment stayed in the empty space.

Then the Hollow Sun’s black pupil moved, as if searching for a target that was no longer on the battlefield.

Lian looked up at the sky.

’You lost your target.’

A few seconds later, the identification light separated from the place where Three had disappeared and moved toward a group of Withered in the southern area.

The Judge’s voice was heard again.

"Condemned identified."

This time, several Withered trapped among the cracks had been targeted.

The threads of the sentence connected to them, and the voice announcing the charges spread across the land.

Lian no longer paid attention to it, he only looked at the sun for a moment and then lowered his gaze.

Rindo was now standing on a relatively stable platform, but without Two, he no longer had a quick way to leave that area.

The young Vorhelm called out to him.

"Rindo! Stay right there!"

His friend nodded.

"Alright!"

Then Lian turned toward the Nine-Venom Castellan again, the Unholy creature was still maintaining its nine poisonous rings, and the entire time, even when the Judgment began, its gaze had never left Lian.

He looked at the creature for a moment and then opened and closed his hands.

"Well."

Mana began flowing along the World-Devourer Bastion armor.

"Now there’s no one left to interrupt us."

The Nine-Venom Castellan lowered its head slightly, and then the nine poisonous rings behind it began to rotate.

But this time, unlike before, the creature did not gather all the streams into one point, the rings separated from each other and spread across the battlefield.

Emerald from the left, purple from the right, gray from below, and the other streams from different angles.

Lian examined the battlefield for a moment.

’It wants to block my escape routes.’

He had noticed that the Castellan was now using the surrounding environment to limit his movements.

On the left, the emerald poison was breaking down the stone surface, on the right, the purple poison was disrupting mana flow, and below, the gray poison was spreading faster than the others.

But he had no intention of escaping through them.

He took a step forward.

[World-Devourer Bastion]

The armor’s lines became brighter, and then the young Vorhelm raised his right hand.

[Glacial Reaper Claw]

A huge ice claw formed in front of him, but this time, instead of sending it directly toward the Castellan, he quickly moved the claw across the ground.

CRAAACK!

A large part of the stone surface in front of him split open, pieces of stone were thrown into the air, and at that exact moment, [Core of the Fallen Star Activated]

The gravity of several large pieces changed.

The stones stopped in the air and positioned themselves between Lian and the poisonous streams.

The green and purple vapors struck them, the surfaces of the stones began to break down, but before they could be completely destroyed, Lian moved.

BOOM!

His body passed through the opening he had created in the defense, and in a short moment, he appeared in front of the Castellan.

The monster immediately raised its right claw.

But this time, the young Vorhelm did not move out of its path, instead, he grabbed the creature’s wrist with his left hand, the Castellan’s claw was only a few centimeters away from his face.

The purple stream tried to enter through the armor plates.

But before the poison had a chance to spread, Lian drove his right fist into the creature’s elbow.

BAAANG!

The armored joint broke, and the Castellan’s arm bent at an unnatural angle, the creature let out a rough roar and tried to raise its other hand.

But Lian had already moved first, and his second punch struck its shoulder.

BAAANG!

Several plates of natural armor broke, and then the young Vorhelm turned his body.

[Glacial Reaper Claw]

The ice claw passed along the Castellan’s side.

SLASH!

Three deep cuts appeared across the creature’s armor and body, and dark liquid came out from beneath the broken plates.

The monster took several steps backward, but unlike Roderick, it did not attack again without thinking, instead, it created some distance and then lowered its crown.

The poisonous streams stopped for a moment.

Lian noticed the change.

Is it going to try something else?

At that moment, the almost colorless poison spread from around the Castellan, not in the form of ordinary vapor, but as very thin threads moving across the ground.

The threads reached the remaining Withered corpses and then passed through them.

Through [True Sequence], Lian noticed that these streams were extracting the remaining life energy.

The ninth poison again.

But this time, the Castellan did not intend to feed on only one corpse, it wanted to absorb energy from dozens of corpses at the same time.

The young Vorhelm glanced across the battlefield.

Some of the corpses were still inside the smoke; the same place where the Devourer Egg was feeding.

[Bloodborne Calamity Domain]

The red mist became denser again in the central part of the battlefield.

Then Lian used Corrupt Sun to corrupt the surrounding light along several paths.

Threads of dark light descended from the sky and struck the corpses that the ninth poison’s streams were approaching.

But Lian’s goal was not to destroy the corpses, he was targeting the structure of the life-absorbing threads, and Eclipse Energy began to weaken them.

He would not let anyone disturb his precious egg.