The blob was filled with terror, his parched lips trembling, yet not a word escaped.
A red tapeworm burrowed into his body, and he could feel his internal organs being devoured, on the brink of decaying and failing. The pain he endured was much more rapid than what was recorded, as if it had directly reached the final stage.
But... perhaps this was the destined behavior of the chosen ones. They are unique existences, synonymous with cruelty and bloodthirst. As long as something piqued their interest, they wouldn’t hesitate to strike other believers of the Heavenly Father. This was also the status bestowed upon them by the Heavenly Father.
He bestowed upon the chosen ones the power over life and death.
Ethan was oblivious to the terror in the blob’s eyes. Coming to Fireplace Bay had been the right choice. "The Scarlet Plague" provided him with much inspiration. The second trial bestowed by the Heavenly Father was a test of wisdom, but to Ethan, the true enlightenment didn’t come from the final reference answer given in the book, but from realizing he needed to view the problem from another perspective.
High-tier Priest Mary had spent years proving it was an incurable disease and had paid a heavy price for it. Ethan deeply sympathized with her plight and appreciated her contribution to the future, sparking a new idea in him during the reading process.
What if, instead of curing the disease, he created a new "plague"?
The Red Death prevalent in Gear City provided him with a plethora of experimental samples. The only current challenge lay in how he would combine the characteristics of the two ascension elements.
Or more precisely, whether the reconstructive properties brought by the Ascension Frost Arrow could reconstruct the elements themselves?
This was a bold experiment, and he didn’t want to be disturbed.
Red ice sealed the shop’s front door, blocking out the golden light that should not have belonged to this street block.
The blob lay on the ground in agony, unable to move, and could only stare wide-eyed at that terrifying holy radiance. He couldn’t comprehend why Ethan could harbor two entirely opposite auras, one being the heart-pounding radiance of a deity, while the other seemed to emanate from the Heavenly Father himself.
What terrified him even more was that these two opposing energies were weaving together, dividing the entire shop into two distinct colors.
Golden flames flickered beneath the bloody ice layer, its form constantly shifting, just like the book that had just fallen, reconstructed into some living insect.
A Sacred Beetle wreathed in golden light.
The Sacred Beetle crawled towards the blob, causing him to let out uncontrollable murmurs of terror.
"No, don’t do this, I beg you!"
This humble plea elicited no sympathy. When the Sacred Beetle forced his mouth open and burrowed into his throat, the blob almost immediately let out a painful wail. This pain far surpassed that of the red tapeworm. His tongue went numb, his throat burned, and the burning quickly traveled down his esophagus, igniting every part of his body.
The blob writhed on the floor in pain, a sensation unfamiliar to him, making his numb body seem to return to its pre-twisted state.
Black thick fluid oozed from his orifices, making him no longer able to sense the passage of time. This torment seemed eternal, and his shattered soul would eventually be obliterated in purification.
As a follower of the Heavenly Father, this unnecessary emotion should have been expunged from his body. In his flickering vision, Ethan’s visage was reflected, obscured by a mask, making it impossible to discern his expression, but there was no emotion in those eyes, neither anger nor pity.
Those eyes were suffused with a golden radiance, becoming a cold light in the space shrouded in darkness and blood.
And he, as a servant of the Heavenly Father, was utterly exposed under this beam of cold light.
The blob’s struggle continued for nearly five minutes. Ethan waited patiently for the shop to fall into silence, gazing down at the motionless, broken body. The blob’s skin was shattered, the surface covered in ghastly holes.
The red tapeworm had been purified, but the downside was that the host was killed along with it.
Undoubtedly, this was a failed experiment.
Before the last glimmer in the blob’s eyes faded, blood-colored ice enveloped his body. Those holes healed at a visible speed, and the organs burnt away were restored to their original function.
Fear once again appeared in the blob’s eyes. He looked at Ethan, his mouth moving incessantly.
"Rest for five minutes, adjust your state."
Out of humanitarian concern, Ethan allowed the blob ample time to rest.
On that day, wails echoed incessantly in the shop. The believers loitering in the alley were drawn in, yet when they approached, they were frightened away by the light occasionally emanating from inside. They realized that on the other side of the red ice, tortures unimaginable were occurring.
This was the chosen one of the Heavenly Father, a person a hundred times more brutal than the Red King, who took pleasure in torment and even stripped the tormented of the power to die.
The blob didn’t know how long this torment lasted, so long that he had grown accustomed to the burning pain. Even later, he found pleasure in the process of being shattered and mended, a sensation that was addictively delightful.