Chapter 683: The Sins of a Monster

The moment Lian’s fingers touched the condemned prisoner’s shoulder, a strange feeling spread throughout his body.

There was no pain or unusual mana pressure, but the voices of Rindo and Noah, who were standing a few steps behind him, slowly became distant.

The hall also disappeared, and before he could pull his hand back, everything around him fell into darkness.

Has it started?

He tried to move his fingers, but received no response.

A few moments later, he heard someone breathing, short and trembling breaths, along with quiet crying that was being held back with difficulty.

Then the darkness disappeared.

Lian found himself inside a large hall.

The walls were made of white stone, and tall windows made of colored glass spread soft light across the floor of the hall.

Several wooden benches stood around the room, and in one corner, large pieces of cloth covered several tables.

But what caught his attention the most were the small hands in front of his eyes.

Thin and trembling fingers, and the sleeves of clothes that did not match the size of his own body at all.

’So I’m seeing through someone else’s eyes.’

He tried to move his head.

But he failed.

The body he was inside did not follow his will, and at that moment, a weak voice came from beside him.

"Do you think they’ll find us?"

His head turned toward the voice.

A little girl with brown hair was sitting beside him, both of them were hiding behind one of the large tables, and several other children were also sitting a short distance away, staring motionlessly at the entrance door.

"I don’t know." A voice came from Lian’s throat.

But that voice did not belong to him, it was the voice of a little girl.

The child beside him pressed her lips together.

"My mom told me to stay here, she said she’d come back."

Lian could not answer, the little girl’s body only lowered its head and held its hands together more tightly.

This is what Alicia experienced.

At that moment, the child’s gaze moved toward the tall windows of the hall, and something outside caught young Vorhelm’s attention.

Five huge stone arches were floating in the sky.

Upside-down arches, each several times taller than the highest towers of the city, and beneath them, a wide river with a black, glass-like surface flowed between the white buildings.

Lian focused all his attention on the scene for a moment.

Wait...

He knew this place.

Not because he had traveled there before, but because he had seen pictures of it while studying information about the Ruined Realms.

The five upside-down arches, the black river, and the unique architecture of the white buildings.

The Fifth Ruined Realm?

This memory belonged to the Fifth Ruined Realm!

Of course, this memory was probably from a time when the Fifth Ruined Realm had not yet become a Ruined Realm, but was still a healthy world full of different civilizations.

But before he could think more about it, the sound of footsteps came from behind the entrance door.

The children immediately became silent.

The footsteps came closer, and then a man spoke in a calm tone.

"I know you’re here. Come out and don’t make things harder for yourselves."

One of the children started crying.

The girl beside Lian immediately placed her hand over the child’s mouth, but the man’s voice continued.

"If you come out quietly, everything will end sooner."

Lian narrowed his eyes, there was not the slightest sign of hurry or anger in that voice.

The man spoke just like someone who wanted to finish an ordinary administrative task.

The hall door opened.

Several soldiers wearing dark armor entered, and behind them, a tall man wearing formal clothes and a gray cloak appeared.

His dark hair was carefully arranged, and a large silver symbol was on his chest.

He looked around the hall for a moment, and then one of the soldiers approached him.

"My lord, several more children have been found in the building."

"From the families we’re looking for?" The man asked without changing his expression.

"Yes."

"Then why are they still here?"

The soldier paused for a moment.

"Sir, some of them are very young."

The man looked at him.

"My order was not about their age."

The soldier immediately lowered his head, and the man slowly continued.

"The seeds of the enemy must not remain alive."

For a moment, Lian felt the small fingers of the body he was inside become tense.

So it’s him.

The same man who was giving the orders, and the same person whose presence terrified the victims.

One of the children came out from behind the table.

"Sir..."

The man looked at him, and the child continued in a trembling voice.

"We didn’t do anything."

There was silence for a few moments.

The man slowly knelt down until his face was at the same height as the child’s.

"I know."

His answer was so calm that even Lian waited for him to say something different for a moment, but the man only stood up and gestured toward the soldiers.

"Carry out the order."

One of the children screamed.

The little girl whose eyes Lian was seeing through tried to hide herself farther behind the table.

The sound of something hitting the ground was heard, and then a small hand fell from the edge of the table.

The little girl stopped breathing for a moment.

Lian tried to turn his head, but the body did not obey him.

The man spoke again.

"Check the next building, I don’t want anyone left behind."

And just as the soldiers’ footsteps approached the hiding place, the scene disappeared.

Lian did not have time to feel relieved before the surroundings formed again.

This time, he was lying on the stone pavement of a wide street, the sky was red, and thick smoke was rising from among the half-destroyed buildings.

The smell of ash and blood filled the air.

The right hand of the body he was now inside was injured, and with every movement, severe pain ran from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers.

Another one?

Lian quickly examined the situation, this time he was inside the body of an adult man, and through his blurry vision, he could see dozens of people gathered beside a large square.

Some were sitting on the ground, some were trying to help the injured, and at the end of the street, a group of soldiers wearing the same dark armor had blocked the exit.

The man whose eyes Lian was seeing through tried to get up, but the pain in his shoulder stopped him.

"Please..."

His voice was hoarse.

"We surrendered..."

One of the soldiers walked past him without even looking at him.

At that moment, the sound of slow footsteps came from the direction of the square, and a man wearing a gray cloak entered.

The same person.

Lian immediately recognized him, it was the same man from the previous memory.

Looking at the man gave him a strange feeling, he felt that this man was a creature wearing human skin, but his consciousness did not belong to a human.

The man looked across the square with his hands behind his back.

One of the commanders approached him.

"My lord, the eastern and southern gates have been closed, no one can leave the city without your permission."

The man nodded.

"Good."

"But many people have surrendered, some officers are asking that we at least release the civilians."

The man glanced at the crowd, among them, an old man was trying to help an injured woman beside him stand up.

A little farther away, a family was silently holding each other.

The governor looked at them for a few moments and then asked.

"What will happen if we release them?"

The commander answered hesitantly.

"They’ll probably escape to other regions."

"And they’ll talk about what happened here."

"Yes, my lord."

The man lowered his head.

"Then releasing them has no benefit."

The commander remained silent for a moment.

"What should we do with the survivors?"

The man answered without changing his expression.

"Let their screams continue until morning, fear is more useful than death."

Lian stared at him for several seconds.

What a disgusting creature.

The commander said nothing more and only gave a short bow before returning toward the soldiers.

The injured man whose body Lian was trapped inside tried to crawl backward, but his foot struck a stone, and severe pain passed through his back.

He raised his head with difficulty.

The governor was standing right in front of him.

"Please..."

The injured man took a trembling breath.

"I only wanted to get my family out of the city."

The governor looked at him for a moment.

"Your mistake was thinking you still had a choice."

Then he walked past him without caring.

Lian wanted to move his hand, he wanted to stand up and stop that man, but even with all the power he possessed in the real world, the victim’s body did not obey him.

The only thing he could do was watch and feel the injured man’s fear, the pain that spread through his chest with every breath.

And the helplessness of someone who knew there was no way left to save his loved ones.

In the distance, the sound of the city’s huge gates closing was heard, and the memory became dark again.

The third time, Lian found himself inside a small room.

A woman was kneeling on the ground, or more precisely, he was now seeing the world through that woman’s eyes.

Her arms were wrapped around a small child, and her shoulders were shaking from crying.

In front of her, the same man with the gray cloak was standing, and two soldiers stood beside the door.

"Please... I’ll do anything you want." The woman said in a broken voice.

The governor remained silent.

"Just let this child live." The woman pointed toward the child while holding the child more tightly in her arms.