Chapter 524 213: Garbage Authority, Blind

"Heretics deserve to die..."

The woman wore platinum-gold armor, the golden radiance around her body coalescing into a pair of dazzling golden wings. As she moved, her long silver hair billowed in her wake.

The next moment, she appeared at Hector's side and slashed horizontally with her longsword.

"Judgment!"

As the fleeing Hector sensed the golden flash, his heart seized with terror. The blood in his veins felt as if it were being boiled away by the power clinging to the light, erupting from his pores in a crimson mist.

The blade's light flashed past in an instant.

"Ce... Ce... Celestia Edas..."

As the blood mist around him dissipated, a deathly pale Hector staggered to a halt. His face twisted into a smile uglier than a pained grimace, the depths of his eyes filled with utter despair.

"Wh-why are you..."

SCHLICK.

The sickeningly smooth sound rang out before he could finish his sentence.

Then, his head fell to the ground.

THUD. It rolled across the ground, the sound piercing the silence of the village.

Hector's lifeless eyes stared fixedly at the golden figure, his mouth gaping as his severed head desperately roared out its last words, "...here!?"

The silver-haired woman turned slightly, her gaze settling on the retreating back of Padilla from the Red Moon Church. Her voice was level as she said, "Heretics will always face judgment."

SWOOSH.

With that, the golden wings on her back pulsed, and she vanished in a streak of golden light.

"Ghh... ghh... d-dammit..."

Hector's eyes widened, as if watching Padilla, who had already fled a great distance, also get cut down by that terrifying woman. 'How wonderful...'

As his consciousness faded, one last thought surfaced in his mind. 'The Dawn Church... they're such fucking bullies!'

Meanwhile, Padilla's face was a mask of terror. He drew upon the power of the red moon to speed his escape, cursing all the while. "Damn that Hector! Damn the Despair Sect! If I ever work with them again, I'm the stupidest swine on earth!"

Even worse, he had heard Hector's final scream from behind him.

'What rotten luck. Of all the people to run into, why did it have to be that crazy woman?'

'In his eyes, the fanatics of the Dawn Church were all lunatics, and the craziest of them all had to be the Judgement Saintess, Celestia Edas!'

"Light of Judgment!"

Just then, a voice came from behind him.

"Fuck!"

Without a second thought, Padilla gritted his teeth and gathered what little Origin Power he had left, channeling his Power of Faith to merge with the crimson glow of the red moon in the night sky.

"Boge, Lasiao, Ni!"

Just before the blade's light struck, Padilla's figure vanished, leaving only his red robe, emblazoned with the symbol of the red moon, to continue forward. Momentum carried it into the golden slash, which split it in two.

Celestia's brow furrowed slightly. She glanced to her left, her gaze falling upon a low hill in the far distance. A stark naked figure had just appeared there.

But the next second, he disappeared again, fleeing even further away.

'Red Moon's Afterglow...'

Celestia gazed at the distant figure, a flicker of disgust in her eyes. She sheathed her longsword at her waist, and the golden radiance enveloping her slowly dissipated. The village returned to its quiet state.

As for the hundreds of scantily clad, beautiful men and women, their expressions seemed to be frozen under the hazy crimson glow of the red moon, making the scene all the more bizarre.

Celestia stood atop a wooden hut on the village outskirts, looking down at the "masterpiece" jointly created by the Holy Professionals of the Despair Sect and the Red Moon Church. She let out a soft, low sigh.

'Sooner or later, I will bring judgment to all the heretics of the Red Moon!'

She stood there, quietly watching the eerie figures. Despite being fully exposed to the red moon's light, her expression remained unchanged. Like the beautiful men and women, she stood perfectly still.

Before long, the sound of synchronized footsteps echoed from the distance.

CLANK, CLANK.

The footsteps, accompanied by a shimmering golden glow, drew nearer and shattered the silence.

Just then, a girl in a magnificent dress broke from the front of the group, jogging forward with her long golden hair swinging.

A man in platinum-gold armor followed closely behind her. A plume rose high from his helmet, yet it remained uncannily still, not swaying in the slightest regardless of his pace.

It was none other than Kali and Melbel, who had left the Holy Sanctuary of the Dawn Church.

"Sister Celestia, didn't you say you'd be waiting in the little chapel here?" Kali asked. She wore a pristine white dress and a magnificent coronet. The silver-haired woman's reflection was captured in her blue eyes, which remained clear and bright even under the red moon's light.

"There was a small incident... Kali, look." Celestia raised a finger, gesturing straight ahead. "Over there."

Following the direction of her finger, Kali looked towards the depths of the village not far away, shrouded in darkness and the light of the red moon.

"Over there... Huh? What's wrong with them? Why are they just standing outside? Aren't they afraid of being corrupted by the red moon?"

"Corrupted by the red moon?" Celestia glanced at her and said faintly, "The red moon can't corrupt them."

"How could that be?" Kali faltered.

At the same time, she noticed something strange about the villagers. 'They're all so handsome and beautiful?'

She lowered her head, thinking for a few seconds before asking uncertainly, "They've already been corrupted?"

"Yes and no," Celestia said without further explanation. "Just keep watching. Wait a little longer. Soon, they'll change."

Kali nodded thoughtfully. She seemed to recall reading about something like this before, in the chamber within the Holy Sanctuary that housed countless Era Relics.

'Which one was it, though?'