"Everyone, do not enter the city until we give the go ahead!" Hao Xuan shouted at the crowd.

"Stay here, keep the container safe," he patted Bai's head and ran towards the castle.

Bai stood there until Hao Xuan's back vanished from sight and then slowly walked towards the periphery of the encampment where the Miller family's carriage was. The container with Zhurong and Xiao Xiao was in his mouth. He went up to the rock where Hao Xuan sat for six straight days and laid down next to it.

Sophia who was still in the carriage looked out of the window upon hearing the commotion outside. Hundreds of people had also followed Bai back as well which attracted a lot of attention. She saw Bai lay down next to the rock like it was his own place and everything suddenly made sense to her.

The wounded boy disappeared and the Red Legion's Ninth captain appeared out of nowhere. Even if she was blind it wouldn't take her long to put two and two together.

"Help me up," she said to Damian who was standing outside, also looking at the massive beast with sparkling eyes.

****

Harp had already flown towards the castle while Silex never even showed himself. Only his scythe appeared once and cut off one of Fel's arms before disappearing once again.

Hao Xuan ran along the city streets alone. There was not a single person anywhere in sight. He checked a few houses but there were no bloodstains, no heads like in the village, not even any sign of struggle. It was like they all up and left on their own.

All the dark energy was slowly congregating towards the castle in the middle of the city. The closer Hao Xuan got to castle, the stronger that feeling of despair got. Every fiber of his being was shouting for him to run away and never come back to this place, but he had no choice this time.

A man could only run so far before having to face the harsh realities once again. He knew this better than most, having lived in his own little deluded world for so long. Blaming everyone but himself and waiting for things to get better on their own.

"I'm kinda tired of it," he gave a short, mirthless laugh.

It didn't take long before he appeared next to the castle. It was at the very center of the city and one could tell from the walls that it was the oldest building here. Architecturally, it looked very much like a castle from Europe in the middle ages. With large stone walls, a few watchtowers every few hundred meters, and many windows for archers, it looked like something straight out of a movie.

The castle's gate was closed shut but that didn't pose him much of a threat. He jumped on the wall and climbed straight up with the help of the glaive.

*BANG*

Loud noises came from the tallest castle tower where he could see the Sorcerer and Harp floating in mid-air.

"Follow the energy, can you sense it?" a voice rang in Hao Xuan's head. He looked around but couldn't see anyone so he simply nodded.

"Good, go and check where it's going. There seems to be something below the castle somewhere," the voice said before going silent.

Hao Xuan looked at the two fighters in mid-air one last time before jumping down a stairwell.

It seemed to go down without limits. He had already been going down for over five minutes straight, passing through one hallway after another. By now he was hundreds of meters below the castle.

The dark energy kept getting stronger and stronger which made his skin crawl. And a dreadful smell accompanied the energy which also made him vomit. He had to form a Qi barrier just to keep walking normally.

Finally, he landed on a flat surface and breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't going any deeper. There was darkness all around him and he couldn't see more than a few meters ahead of him. He waved his hand and a dozen or so lightstones appeared. He threw them in front of him one by one which lit up the entire room.

When he caught a glimpse of the surroundings, his eyes contracted and his countenance worsened. He was in a massive hall, filled to the brim with corpses. There were literal mountains of corpses all around him. There were bodies of men and women, the old and the young, and everything in between.

*Blegh*

He couldn't hold it in anymore and retched up a thick stream of vomit all over the ground.

Hao Xuan had seen bodies before, he killed before and even drank their blood, but nowhere else had he seen something like this.

All the corpses around him were naked, without a single string anywhere. And they had these 'expressions' of merriment on their faces as if their lasts moments were the most joyous ones.

Their mouths formed smiles from ear to ear and their eyes formed narrowed slits like they had heard the funniest joke just before their deaths.

All of their necks were slit open but there was not a single drop of blood anywhere.

*Clang*Clang*

A noise came from the other side of the hall, somewhere behind the piles of bodies. It sounded like chains being rattled.

"Someone's...still alive??" Hao Xuan wiped the sides of his mouth and tried not to look at the corpses. He followed the sound and passed mountain after mountain, finally entering a corridor leading to another room at the end.

The noise got louder, as did the dark energy as he got closer. He circulated the Qi and held the Glaive in front of him just in case.

At the end of the corridor, a giant wooden door obstructed Hao Xuan's way. He took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the door.

*Creeeeeak*

The first thing he saw was a black figure, chained to the ground and the walls. All the dark energy was surrounding it so Hao Xuan couldn't even see its real appearance. In front of it was an altar made of old bones upon which laid hundreds of infant corpses.

"What the actual f*ck," he unconsciously blurted out looking at the gruesome scene in front of him.

*Clang*

The chained up figure in front of the altar slowly turned around and looked at Hao Xuan. Its eyes were completely empty but every now and then there would be a spark, making it look alive.

"What...are...you?" Hao Xuan asked while tightening his grip on the glaive, ready to strike any second.

"I...am...??" a hoarse voice that sounded neither feminine nor masculine came from the figure's mouth. It looked even more confused than Hao Xuan.

"Sever it quick! Before it wakes up!" Hyde's voice rang in his head like a gong.

"What? What is it?" Hao Xuan didn't make a move and waited for an answer. Last time he did something like this it almost cost him his life.

"Its a clone, a Fiend God's clone! He is trying to come into this world through it. This is a golden opportunity, do not let it go to waste. That "thing" has the blood of a true god in its veins, albeit an evil one. Sever its soul and hence its connection to the evil god. Then you will have a servant with God's blood serving under you," Hyde sounded extremely agitated and explained as quickly as possible.

"Fiend god? What the hell is that? And what do you mean it's trying to come into our world!?"

"We do not have time for this, I'll explain later!"

"Why are you helping me?" Hao Xuan asked suspiciously.

"Because we are the same you moron, you die, I die. If that thing wakes up then we're all dead. You, me and the two demon hunters above. None of us can handle it," Hyde appeared next to Hao Xuan and shouted angrily.

Hao Xuan looked at him for a few seconds before nodding, "Fine."

He looked back at the chained figure and smiled, "I'm here to help you master, to make your arrival easier," he said respectfully and walked towards the figure slowly.

The figure seemed confused at first but then its eyes glinted with understanding.

"Mortal, you have good eyes. You will make a nice servant for me. Come, unchain me and I will give you a reward," the figure's voice suddenly turned masculine and it smiled at him.

"Of course, master," Hao Xuan's tone was so servile that it even surprised Hyde. He suddenly looked at Hao Xuan in a different light.

He went up to the figure and respectfully bowed once, showing the proper attitude of a servant.

"If you'll allow me, master," he said gently and extended his hand towards the figure.

"Mhm, very good. You know your place mortal. Looks like there are still some sensible creatures left in this world," the figure smiled.

"Thank you, master," Hao Xuan smiled kindly and suddenly placed his hand on its head, "Master, you can go to hell now, SEVER!"

A bright light illuminated the room with Hao Xuan and the figure as the center.

"AHHH! Soul Severing?! How dare you?! I'll kill your entire race! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??" the figure shouted as soon as it realized what was happening.

Hao Xuan looked down at him with a raised eyebrow, "Do you know who 'I' am?"

The figure suddenly went silent for a few seconds and then asked somberly, "Who are you?!!"

"Oh thank God, I thought you were omniscient or something. But since you don't know, you can suck my ass, biatch!" he let out a sigh of relief.

"AHHH, I'LL KILL YOU!!"

"Shut the f*ck up b*tch, you're lucky your real body isn't here, otherwise I would take it too!" Hao Xuan grinned and increased the Qi output.

"NOOOO!" Fel who was fighting Harp and Silex above the castle suddenly started screaming. "My baby! Who? HOW?!"

Unfortunately, screaming was all he could do because neither of his opponents would give him the chance to interfere.

About 30 or so seconds later, the light vanished and everything returned to normal in the underground room.

The dark energy was gone and in front of Hao Xuan was a kneeling figure. It had black armor on which seemed to be a part of its body, and a single black sword which seemed to have come out of nowhere. (check author's notes for pic).

Mr. Hyde appeared once again and nodded satisfactorily, "Good. Its connection to the Fiend God is severed. A few more days and it would've been too late."

"Phew, great. So I finally got a powerful servant!" Hao Xuan smiled while looking at him.

"Mhm, as soon as you defeat it in battle," Hyde patted his shoulder.

"E-Eh? Defeat? Battle?" he looked back at the figure who was now standing in front of him with burning red eyes.

"Yeeeah~, good luck with that, try not to die," and with that Hyde grinned and quickly disappeared once again.

"Oh f*ck me..."

****

Authors Note:

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