The corpse fragments "crackle" and wail, burning with the midday night's shade.

Lu Li was brought to the square by the heretics, bound to the stone pillar engraved with intricate runes and patterns.

The flames blazed, and Professor Hagrid ascended the steps, holding a short dagger wrapped with cloth in front of Lu Li.

"Are you going to sacrifice me to the Evil God?" Lu Li asked Professor Hagrid, who smiled gently.

"You don't seem surprised?" Professor Hagrid saw his reflection in those calm black eyes.

"Just suspicion."

For instance, why he was simply detained without guards, why in the last dream, the heretics bowed to them.

"You trust others too easily."

Professor Hagrid said, turning Lu Li's head, like a butcher facing cattle and sheep destined for slaughter, revealing a tender neck.

"Until suspicion accumulates to a certain degree, I won't alter my judgment."

After all, Professor Hagrid's respect was never false, making his betrayal shockingly inexplicable.

As the words fell, a stabbing pain came from the back neck, and moist heat flowed along it, dripping onto the rune stone pillar pressed tightly against his back.

"You did well, His Excellency Lu Li." Professor Hagrid discarded the blood-stained short dagger, maintaining his courtesy towards Lu Li: "Even outstanding... We once envisioned needing a long time to complete the ritual's preparations. My child Xisone was just the beginning of the plan. He was supposed to feign persuasion, lead us in escape, then betray unexpectedly as we were close to succeeding, causing us to be captured again, then you would escape once more, save me, and it's now my turn to betray... Your exceptional performance merely expedited the ritual's completion."

"Looking back now, it's wise we weren't greedy to continue the ritual prematurely." Professor Hagrid was about to step down from the sacrificial platform: "Otherwise, you might have discovered the truth earlier and found a way to escape."

"Why."

Professor Hagrid halted: "What do you mean?"

The wound didn't heal, blood continued to flow endlessly down the back of the neck, merging into the grooves engraved on the stone pillar. "You're a professor at Giant Tree Academy, you've gained what everyone longs for, why join the cult of the Evil God?"

"Or were you already part of it before becoming a professor at Giant Tree Academy."

Due to blood loss, Lu Li's face began to turn pale, yet the serenity never left his face, as if he could escape at any time—

The reality, however, was Lu Li had no means of escape, and rescue wouldn't coincidentally arrive at the last moment.

"No... His Excellency Lu Li, I joined the Equilibrium Church after becoming a professor at the academy."

Professor Hagrid candidly revealed his betrayal: "Giant Tree Academy wasn't as glamorous as supposed... Did you know, junior professors are 'consumables.' To protect students, we do not engage in any learning of mystical powers beyond the basics, besides knowledge itself, we are mere mortals... Unable to leave the tree canopy layer, unable to leave Midnight City, unable to possess faith, I call it... a bird in a cage."

"From an objective standpoint, Giant Tree Academy was not wrong. We needed protection, students needed protection. But life isn't perfect, when we hunger, we require food; when sated, we crave warmth; when warm, we desire safety; when safe, we seek emotions... We've obtained emotions and desire more... wealth, longevity, power... our desires are never satiated, much like a snake, hence faith is needed for spiritual salvation... Equilibrium Church then appeared to help me, while offering redemption."

"Would you like to know why I embraced faith in the Equilibrium Church?"

Gazing at the increasingly frail, gradually drooping silhouette, Professor Hagrid slowly recounted the last story heard by Lu Li before his death.

Professor Hagrid was very smart.

The title of "wisdom" followed him from childhood to adulthood, making him stand out among candidates and become part of Giant Tree Academy.

But as Professor Hagrid said a decade later, when sated we crave warmth, warm we desire safety, safe we seek emotions, human desires are never fulfilled.

At that time, Professor Hagrid gained everything others couldn't easily reach, desires grew, culminating during that peculiar incident—

When rescue hadn't arrived, his wife Mim revealed her true nature, able to save their dying son, Professor Hagrid didn't hesitate, offering faith and cost, saving their child Xisone.

"So... Did you ever ponder... Perhaps the incident harming Xisone... was orchestrated by the church..."

Lu Li's thoughts grew sluggish, speech became laborious.

The heretics at the edge of the sacrificial platform didn't hear this blasphemous rhetoric against the divinity, and the only listener, Professor Hagrid, was wise and rational.

"A Master's lambs don't question the shepherd dogs." He said. "Master of Balance will relish the splendid offering we present Him."

Professor Hagrid retreated down the steps, raising both hands parallel to his chest with distance between, maintaining the posture, reciting with a lifted head.

"We offer You a perfect ritual weaved from this—bone made of the conflict between light and darkness, flesh made of the clash between life and death, blood made of the spanning between hope and despair, sinew made of the shift between kindness and hostility, skin made of the contradiction between trust and betrayal, harvest made of the capturing and escaping—"

The heretics' chants gradually overlapped, regardless of Professor Hagrid's family, the heretics on the square, the corners of the camp and patrolling silhouettes, their prayers converged, sounding above the campsite.

In the unseen, some indescribable, indescribable, incomprehensible, unapproachable hazy awareness descended, nearing the sacrificial platform.

Lu Li, bound to the stone pillar, bowed his head, chest seemingly no longer rising and falling. Amid the echoing prayers, a symmetrical golden scale slowly unfolded behind him, resembling a fantastical, bizarre light wing.

Responded by the divinity, Professor Hagrid grew increasingly fanatical, arms spread wide towards the miracle: "Supreme truth, Master of Balance, please accept Your pious believers' prepared offering!"

"Supreme truth, Master of Balance, please accept Your pious believers' prepared offering!"

"This is... false... balance."

At that moment, a weak whisper vaguely echoed during the intervals of the reverberating prayer.

"The minions of the Outer God stretch into the world... The surface shrouded by darkness... Monsters roam the land... Humans cower in corners... Native deities hunted..."

"Is strength and weakness... also balance?"

"Bone made of the conflict between light and darkness... flesh made of the clash between life and death... blood made of the spanning between hope and despair... sinew made of the shift between kindness and hostility... skin made of the contradiction between development and betrayal... harvest made of the capturing and escaping... ultimately forming the reversal where the offered becomes the offerer... from this, the perfect ritual offered unto You—

The weakened Lu Li lifted his pale face, repeating the heretics' prayers, adorned in light golden rays, black eyes reflecting the silhouettes of heretics on the camp square, and that terrified face.

"Supreme truth... Master of Balance... please accept Your pious believers'... prepared offering..."

"Heretics who betrayed the truth of balance..."

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