CHAPTER 165: | HER STATE OF MIND [WARNING:MATURE, EXTREME GORE]

  ---

  [Content Warning: This chapter contains extreme violence, sexualized brutality, graphic gore, and themes of trauma and defilement.]

  ~ ? ~ West of the Lahaina Empire — In the Border of the Kingdom of Loika ~ ? ~

  "Foolishness can be defined when one thinks that their sense of justice is right," Anastasia's voice reverberated across the stronghold, alight with flames consuming the small town. This was where the knights of the Loika Kingdom had been stationed to fend off the invasion by the collateral branch of the Ohar Clan, led by branch chieftain Tashin with a thirst for inhumane rule.

  Anastasia’s face grew heavier the more she stared at the corpses staked onto crosses, laid bare for all eyes to see. It was a cruel punishment for these women to be dishonored even in death—they were staked so that the harsh heat of the sun could burn their corpses. She felt the inhumane experiences they had endured, since she too had done similar things in the past to the masses targeted by the Holy See.

  She could not deny that she had partaken in such matters, but after being enlightened by the gracious goddess, conveyed by the messiah, Anastasia stood still. She herself, as a sinner, should be staked onto a cross, hanged in the sky bare naked so that the heat of the sun would slowly devour her.

  She clenched her teeth; though her reactions might look hypocritical, her heart was pure. She swore to herself that she would save as many women as long as she lived, to atone for the sin of desecrating human remains. So she stood still, her eyes red with tears as she gazed at the sun, ignoring the pain that its radiance brought to her eyes for a full minute before she shook her head.

  Then she gazed at the horizon, where men of shades from light brown to complete darkness could be seen approaching her with lust evident in their gaze. She smiled at how convenient they were to come to her, to receive judgment from the heavens themselves. Tears flowed in her eyes as she stared at her sister.

  "Foolishness is latent in all of humanity, even if we've shed our humanity—our beliefs as humans still wrought us to this point... My belief had been shattered the moment I've seen the goddess, but I've held onto my pride, to what I believed to be right, only to be shattered into multitudes of fragments like glass." Her gaze was hollow as she said those words.

  Her sister Aliya clenched her teeth as she turned her head, then watched as her sisters trembled in fear—the men had already surrounded them. But Anastasia remained unperturbed as she disarmed her heavy armor to reveal a piece of cloth wrapped at her chest to her back to hide her nipples, along with a loincloth at her groin and an undergarment beneath to not reveal her intimate parts.

  Her abdominal muscles rippled with power, and the members of the Ohar Clan witnessing her drooled at her body, but Anastasia ignored them since they were insignificant as she continued her dialogue. "They were once more humane than anyone... more compassionate than anyone!!! But why!! Why do they have to suffer this injustice?!!"

  The screams of injustice shook her sisters to the core. They didn't expect that a former Templar could say those words. They couldn't believe that a former Templar of the Holy See was showing compassion to their fallen sisters that had been defiled, mistreated, and tortured until the goddess reached her hands into them to liberate them of their pain—to grant them peace, to grant them freedom in exchange for their service, in exchange for their bodies that had already been contaminated by men, that had been defiled by men!

  The goddess only required them to offer their unworthy bodies to her—an exchange so absurd even to them; they couldn't believe that such a worthless body that brought sufferings in this patriarchal world would be enough for the goddess.

  Their skins had been flayed raw, whips carving bloody furrows into their flesh until bones peeked through, their intimate parts violated repeatedly in rituals of dominance, left broken and oozing as symbols of conquest—these women, reduced to meat, had clawed for any escape.

  So when fate gave them the opportunity to be free, these women didn't hesitate to grasp it as they swore their eternal loyalty to the Evernight Church, to the goddess, to the messiah that led them to liberation—to be liberated from the men that oppressed them, from the men that treated them no differently from livestock, from the men that whipped them until their skin was shredded, from the men that put them into that misery, from the households that brought them into hell where their rights as living beings didn't matter.

  So they stared at their eldest sister, at the former Templar that stood at their front like a bastion of salvation, as they whispered to each other then nodded.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then they've said with zeal visible in their eyes. "The world may have forsaken us the powerless, but fear not for the goddess has saved us from hell! Let the world be liberated so that none shall be treated like livestock!"

  Anastasia, hearing her sisters' cries, steeled herself as she shouted with fanatical zeal: "OH GODDESS.... PLEASE TELL ME THAT THIS ISN'T REAL?!! TELL ME!!! Please...."

  Aliya, on the other hand, watched as all of her dearest sisters cried in pain at the scars still itching in their bodies. She bit her lips and steeled herself to never let these sisters of hers experience the horrors that they've once experienced, even if it cost her misery, even if she had to go against the entire world. So she clenched her hands until her claws dug into her bones as her hands bled, but soon she sighed as time didn't wait for them.

  The savages of the Ohar Clan had already surrounded them since earlier, readying their weapons as they eyed them with lust visible in their eyes. But she wasn't the least concerned about their desires as she stared at her eldest sister, who was kinder to humans than saints themselves, as she tapped her shoulder with her injured hand then whispered with pain visible in her voice. "Sister... we should retreat so the others can survive..."

  Anastasia closed her eyes as her tears flowed in them, then she nodded at her sister's words. She was right to tell them to retreat, so she, the eldest, should do her role and be the sacrifice that would stall these savages here so that they could escape and report to the messiah, so that judgment could be brought to these sinners. She smiled then glanced at her sister as she clenched her sword, then drew it as she pointed its tip at the savages.

  Her sisters too nodded as they drew their weapons. Anastasia didn't wait for them to finish as her pupils took a darker tint, her murderous intent exploding outwards, then it enveloped the entire town in an instant as it pressed the weaker Ohar Clan members to the ground.

  Her gaze was directed at the branch chieftain of the Ohar Clan lusting at her, but she ignored his gaze as she apologetically spoke. "I apologize, sister, but I need you to report to the messiah that if ever I can't return in a week, then consider me dead...."

  Then she pushed Aliya toward her sisters as she dashed through the searing deserts. Her sisters, catching Aliya, nodded as they fled, leaving the unwilling Aliya wailing as they pincered the savages that blocked their ways then vanished into shadows, leaving no trails for the savages to follow. As Anastasia left behind became the center of attention to these savages, she recklessly charged at the branch chieftain of the Ohar Clan.

  She clenched her teeth then put more power into her legs as her figure vanished for a second, then reappeared hundreds of meters up in the sky thanks to her superhuman physique that she gained after becoming a creature of the night, though the sun suppressed more than half of her strength, but Anastasia didn't care as she stared at the chieftain straight in the eye.

  He too met hers, but before the branch chieftain could react, Anastasia’s figure turned into a blur that flickered through the empty sky as she unleashed a barrage of sword energy in all possible angles toward the chieftain.

  Then she took a step forward then appeared tens of meters away from him with her sword already in motion to unleash the last one as she muttered her technique name coldly. "Tempest Sword: Endless Maw."

  Tempest Sword, a sword skill cultivated in the Holy See, is a sword technique that boasted of its extreme speed and its difficulties to execute its techniques, though it didn't matter to Anastasia, who was a genius of the sword, as she observed and imitated the movements of the fastest demonic beasts into her technique, thus it became something akin to an entirely new sword technique with each of its movements imitating the attacks of all the demonic beasts in the desert.

  So when she unleashed the 'Endless Maw' into the branch chieftain of the Ohar Clan, which was derived from the maw of the deathworms, it meant that the chances of the branch chieftain avoiding her attacks were close to zero.

  To her dismay, the branch chieftain merely lifted his maul then smashed it into the ground as it sent a wave of spiritual pressure that washed the area, thus the hundreds of sword energies that she sent into him were crushed into nothingness.

  The chieftain lifted his finger in mock display as he yawned. "Is this all the Evernight Cult amounted to? If so, then the governor of Loika had made a serious mistake of withdrawing his soldiers since we the Ohar Clan shall take every opportunity to invade the Loika Kingdom with all our might."

  Then he eyed Anastasia as his grin widened and saliva dripped from his mouth like a savage as he stared at her supple legs and ample breasts before he remarked. "I didn't think that those ugly bitches of the Evernight Cult held such a beauty!!!"

  He grinned harder as he stared at Anastasia, who was fuming with anger, along with his subordinates as they imagined the moment they raped this bitch in their minds as they cackled but dared not speak a word, as their chieftain was eyeing this bitch—so maybe he would share her to them when he grew bored of her, or so they thought until a sharp sword energy cut through their necks.

  It was only then that they realized that the sword energy Anastasia sent to their chieftain didn't truly vanish at his attack, as they instead bounced off from the spiritual pressure of their chieftain's strike, thus it sliced their necks cleanly, heads tumbling, arteries spraying crimson arcs across the sand, bodies twitching in final spasms as blood pooled in thick, steaming puddles.

  But their chieftain wasn't the least bit concerned about his men dying as he unbuckled his pants then showed his penis to Anastasia, who glared at him with disbelief and disgust as he swung it around.

  Then he laughed loudly before he shouted. "Forget about chasing that Aliya bitch, who's not even that beautiful—or could she even be a match for me!!!" His eyes became savage as he grabbed his cock then shouted loudly: "PREPARE YOURSELF BITCH BECAUSE I WILL FUCK YOU SENSELESS YOU WHORE!!!"

  He stroked himself viciously, veins bulging, pre-cum glistening under the sun, his intent clear, to claim her body in the most degrading way, pounding her into submission amid the carnage.