Moon Realm Worship
"You…"
Sigmonds pointed at the person in front of him with a trembling finger and opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
"Don't worry. He won't die," William—who had drawn his sword—said calmly.
As if to verify his words, the youth named Colt coughed.
"How did he…"
The remaining half of Sigmonds's sentence was blocked by the straight sword that had stabbed into his throat. The person who called himself the Presiding Judge looked down at him, and a faint silver light seeped out of his eyes.
A magic chanter…
This person is a magic chanter.
It was a strange feeling to have an iron sword deep inside his throat. Sigmonds found it difficult to breathe, and the smell of blood spread in his mouth.
What happened?
Chi…
The sword was pulled out of his throat. He subconsciously touched his throat, but he realized that there was no blood on his hand.
A strange feeling of something crawling deep in his throat surged. Intense nausea made him kneel on the ground and vomit with both hands on the ground.
Mixed with saliva, gastric juices, and blood, a palm-sized spider spat out from his mouth. The moment it fell to the ground, it curled up into a ball and trembled slightly. Soon, it stopped struggling.
Colt—who had fallen to the ground beside him—was also coughing violently. Sigmonds turned to look at him. Amidst the youth's panting cough, a curled-up spider was also coughed out.
"What's that?"
"Look at where you are now," William said.
Sigmonds looked up and saw everything not far away.
In his memory, this should be the narrow passageway in Mine Path #9.
But now, he was at the door of a hall.
A small mountain of skulls stood in the middle of the hall, and more than ten glowing spirits floated in the air. The tapping of the shovels had stopped at some point, and dozens of miners stopped what they were doing and looked at the three of them.
And in front of the mountain of skulls were three goddess statues that emitted an indescribably foul aura.
One was a statue of a voluptuous girl with a beautiful face, but her skin was festering; one was a statue of an empress wrapped in a tattered black robe with eight spider legs on her back and a silver crown on her head, and the last was a statue of a dancer covered in a layer of alluring gauze. Half of her face was that of a wrinkled elder, and the other half was that of a young and beautiful girl.
"Mine Path #7? That ruin? How is this possible? I remember I was clearly in #9…"
Sigmonds muttered to himself before his gaze landed on the spider he had spat out.
"Because of this?"
"The Soul-Ingesting Spider Demon will occupy a place filled with conspiracies. Once it parasitizes a person's body, it can distort their understanding," William replied.
"In addition, you should be glad that you haven't been parasitized for too long. They haven't built a nest in your body. Otherwise, even Judgment 2 wouldn't be able to save you."
As he spoke, he swung the straight sword in his hand, leaving a line of dark-green liquid on the ground.
Judgment 2 was probably referring to the name of the weapon in his hand.
What a strange name.
"What… are they?"
"I've already said that they are Soul-Ingesting Spider Demons—a type of Lunar Monster. Have you heard of it?"
Sigmonds shook his head.
"That's right… I didn't understand why you didn't know what a Lunar Monster was, but after seeing this temple, I have some idea."
As William spoke, he took out a magical medium from the spatial rift.
Why were all the other deeds related to William Kane and the Doomsday Watchers passed down—be it sealing the Seven Calamities, repelling the expeditionary army of the Damon Continent, or purifying the Tide of the Undead which wreaked havoc across the continent circulated to this day?
But why didn't anyone know about his greatest achievements—leading the Doomsday Watchers to repel the Moon Realm's invasion three times?
Even people these days didn't know what a Lunar Monster was.
"So that's how it is… The Lady of Starvation, the Whispering Empress, and the Lord of Nightmare. These three are the Void Sovereign's faith that once wreaked havoc in the Blackwater Kingdom. Their former temples should've been overturned by the Doomsday Watchers. Their former faith should've been wiped out, but they've been unearthed again and are now being worshiped."
The man who claimed to be the Presiding Judge seemed to sigh with emotion. His eyes seemed to be recalling something very distant.
Doomsday Watchers?
Sigmonds used to work in a tavern when he was a child, and he often heard bards singing epics of valor from ancient times. Therefore, he had naturally heard of the Doomsday Watchers, the name of the group of heroes who had saved the Vic Continent many times.
But what did they have to do with all of this?
In the hall, the dozen or so spirit bodies landed one after another. They roughly maintained a human form, but wailing human faces constantly appeared on their bodies.
The dozens of miners held their shovels and surrounded them warily.
"Hey, are they also controlled by those spiders? Also, what are those ghostly things? Will they attack us?" Sigmonds helped Colt up and kept retreating as he asked.
"You might not believe me, but the Moon Realm actually doesn't want to destroy Currere."
The person went forward and said something baffling.
"What do you mean?"
Sigmonds asked in confusion.
"The Moon Realm is the reflection of thoughts. They exist thanks to Currere. In other words, if all intellectual creatures in Currere are wiped out, they will also be destroyed. Therefore, what they pursue isn't simply destruction, but expanding the influence of their domain among mortals. For example, the Lady of Starvation will hope that there will be more hunger and abnormal rot in this world. Another example is the Whispering Empress's wish for mortals to have more schemes, betrayals, and assassinations."
William tapped the staff in his hand gently.
"Other than a few natural destructive freaks who symbolize destruction, most of the rulers of the Moon Realm—the Void Sovereigns—don't like to personally participate in the conquest of Currere. They prefer to secretly manipulate other mortals to strengthen their domains. For example, the former Blackwater Kingdom was famous for scheming and assassinations and the study of necromancy spells back then. The root cause is the faith of the Lady of Starvation and the Whispering Empress that flourished back then."
In fact, it wasn't just the Blackwater Kingdom. Back then, all the nobles in the Vic Continent secretly idolized the Moon Realm, and all kinds of cruel black magic rituals appeared endlessly in upper-class society. The rulers might even deliberately wage war or artificially create a famine just to please the Void Sovereign they believed in and seek their favor.
Using the suffering of his citizens in exchange for strength and the stability of his rule was much easier than working hard to become an outstanding ruler.
Back then, the main plot of the early and mid stages of Doomsday Watchers was for the protagonist's team to travel between the seven kingdoms on the continent and expose the Moon Realm believers hiding among the high-ranking figures for public judgment.
The names of the 13 judges gradually became famous until the last day before the game's plot ended. Therefore, all the factions that the Moon Realm worshiped on the Vic Continent were uprooted by them. And through the signing of the Gray Castle Agreement, the Void Sovereigns promised not to take the initiative to spread their faith in Currere.
And a thousand years later, William saw such a scene in front of him—
statues of three Void Sovereigns hidden deep in the mine, the miners parasitized by Soul-Ingesting Spider Demons, and the Nightmare Evil Spirits summoned from the vengeful spirits of the innocent dead.
All of this told him that the Moon Realm faith had risen again a thousand years later.
Why was it that only his achievements in repelling and sealing the Moon Realm were wiped from history?
This was the answer.
"At the end of the day, we are back at square one…"
William let out a long sigh and raised the magical medium in his hand. Lightning flashed over it.
"Then, won't I have to clear the levels again?"