Our Family Has Fallen

Lance almost couldn’t keep it together when he heard those somewhat abstract words. Beneath his serious face was an uncontrollable amusement, so he had to press his lips together to hide his embarrassment.

But Alhazred felt no embarrassment because the reason he was willing to mention these things was actually very simple.

It was because the Saintess had summoned the Limping Walker.

Although he had defeated the Limping Walker before, and even ascended to Champion because of it, at that time he was so full of pride and ambition.

However, after years of torment, the arrogance and confidence that belonged to a genius had long been lost, replaced by fragility and sensitivity.

He had always been trying to avoid contact with the power of the Abyss, locking himself in a tower full of seals, meditating for long periods to resist the corrosive corruption.

Ironically, his reason for recovering evil objects wasn’t as noble as Lance imagined, like redemption or something.

It was entirely to cut off the power from invading the real world through other channels and thus targeting him.

He just wanted reality to become a barrier to protect himself; it was a form of escapism.

But all of this was completely overturned when he arrived in Hamlet.

Here, the boundary between the Void and reality was as fragile as paper, and the corruption that had spread made his long-standing avoidance a joke.

The moment he glimpsed the secrets of Hamlet, it almost drove him mad. If Lance hadn’t been right in front of him to bless him, he might have gone mad.

But the flaw had already appeared, like a crack in an eggshell; bacteria and viruses would seep in through the gap, and the rot would spread uncontrollably.

Similarly, the corruption Alhazred endured during his time in Hamlet deepened, staying behind was a forced choice.

In fact, he had lost hope to some extent, especially when the appearance of the Limping Walker utterly shattered his mental defenses.

So when facing the Limping Walker with its Aura of Dread, Alhazred, who had once defeated and killed the Limping Walker, was ironically the first to collapse.

Because he knew that this time there were no followers providing endless life force to protect him, the Abyss would devour him.

But the problem was, in that situation, he thought he had collapsed, but in reality, he hadn’t.

That man single-handedly stabilized the situation.

What was absurd was that he led those two not only to hold up the Limping Walker, but surprisingly, as the battle progressed, they became more and more courageous.

What made a barbarian warrior dare to charge at the Void Demons?

What made a notoriously infamous Romani man persist in battle without retreat?

Alhazred didn’t really know; he only knew that in the moment when that man waved his hand, a surge of power emerged, and the strangeness that was about to devour his soul was directly dispelled.

And he also gained a moment of peace, this feeling he had felt before, but mostly it was fleeting, suppressing only the restless spiritual essence, never as strong as this time.

This... this wasn’t as agreed, was it?

Ever since he realized the erosion of corruption, he had used all his power to find a solution. Many of the artifacts on him, like the Sacrificial Dagger, were designed to target Aberrant Demons.

However, these things could only help him suppress, the real confrontation against the corruption was himself.

Until this moment, he finally understood—even the corruption could only retreat in the face of his great power.

A force of hope, unprecedented, was fostering, and his collapsing consciousness quickly reorganized.

The mystical scholar Alhazred stood once more on the battlefield facing the Limping Walker.

This time, I will confront the abuser head-on!

A single move of Sea of Fire Galaxy pulled a meteorite burning with Dark Flame out from the Void, and in an instant, it heavily injured the Limping Walker, ending the battle.

That long-repressed release still felt so exhilarating to recall now.

What Alhazred saw in Hamlet was no longer the spreading corruption but also hope that stood strong within it.

Lance wasn’t very clear on Alhazred’s feelings, but when he revealed the predicament he faced, Lance understood why the impression he gave off was so strong, yet his actual behavior was so absurd.

Indeed, these supernatural powers weren’t something humans could easily control, and they often required a great cost.

But who was Lance?

”Tell me about that ancient civilization, or perhaps the ruins and that Evil God worship.”

When Alhazred heard this, his already haggard face twisted, but after a slight hesitation, he still spoke.

”The objects unearthed from the ruins didn’t mention the details of that ancient civilization. The only thing we can confirm is the symbol of that Evil God is ’a thick tentacle twisting upwards, forming a hook shape.’

In the records, it is often described with red and black, and the symbol of the Evil God is also manifested in the statue at the top of the Pyramid Temple.

From our subsequent research, it seems the ruins are more like an altar of that Evil God, a passage from reality into the Gate of the Golden Sands.

Those practitioners entered the Pyramid Temple through the ruins in reality, then underwent rituals, and finally became beacons.”

”Wait!” Listening to Alhazred’s description, Lance suddenly had a bad feeling, and couldn’t help but ask, ”What is the name of that Evil God?”

”No name, incomprehensible, and indescribable; that’s how it is described in the records of the ruins.” Alhazred followed with a hymn, ”It brings the origin of the world, and will witness the end of the world. It is the controller of probabilities, the ferryman of endless chaos...”