Chapter 20: The Land Where Bones Lie

Lilith’s consciousness struggled to coalesce from the intense pain of the blade piercing her chest.

She could feel that silent blade still inside her, continuously eroding her life force.

And that pitch-black barrier had severed all her connections with the outside world.

What frightened her most was that her connection with the Holy Blood had been cut off!

The Holy Blood crest on her forehead was dim and lifeless.
The contract between her and Bai Jin was also as if it had been thrown into an endless abyss of nothingness, completely imperceptible.

“Hehehe…” a hoarse, twisted voice, like sandpaper rubbing against dry bark, sounded in the absolute darkness.

The tone was playful, with a hint of surprise.
“I thought the Saintess assigned to this remote town was just a mediocre person sent by the Royal Court. I didn’t expect her to be a tough nut to crack.”

A cold gaze, as if it were tangible, scanned Lilith’s body up and down.
“To be able to stand after taking the Blade of the Void Abyss, quite interesting.”

Lilith endured the intense pain, mobilizing the remaining life force in her body to repair her wounds, while her azure eyes, restored, searched vigilantly in the darkness for the source of the voice.

“You can’t feel your contract anymore, can you?”
The voice was laced with undisguised mockery.

“Jiejiejie… without the infusion of contractual power, even the most powerful contractor is just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered!”

“This here is my Coffin of Delusion! It severs all contracts! This is your burial ground!”

Lilith’s pupils shrank, but a playful smile appeared on her face.
“Oh? Severing contracts? A bit interesting…”

“This power, it doesn’t seem like ordinary death energy. It has a sickeningly familiar feel to it?”

“Hmph! A dying person, yet so curious.”
The voice of the high-ranking God-Burying Society member codenamed “Necro” turned cold.
He wasted no more words.
Two points of eerie purple soulfire suddenly lit up in the dark space.

「Void-Reality Contract · Skeletal Revival」

Two skeleton warriors, composed of pure purple-black energy, condensed out of thin air, with soulfire controlled by Necro burning in their eye sockets.

They held bone swords and, with a whistling wind, charged fiercely at Lilith!

At the same time, Necro’s figure melted into the darkness like a ghost, leaving only his cold chant:

「Void-Reality Contract · Five Senses Deprivation」

「Void-Reality Contract · Withering Curse」

「Void-Reality Contract · Mental Scream」

「Void-Reality Contract · Decay Entanglement」

An invisible curse, like maggots clinging to bone, instantly wrapped around Lilith!

Her vision fell into complete darkness.
An irresistible heaviness and weakness spread through her limbs.

A sharp mental impact churned in her mind, and a decaying power stripped away the life force in her body.

“Pfft!”
Lilith spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered.
Faced with the slashing swords of the two skeleton warriors, she couldn’t even dodge.

“Clang! Pfft!”

The bone swords heavily struck her shoulder blade and arm, deep enough to see bone!
Blood spurted out in an instant!

Then, the skeleton’s huge bone palm slapped hard on her abdomen, sending her flying like a rag doll.
She slammed heavily against the viscous dark barrier and then slid down.

Intense pain!
Unprecedented, intense pain!
Without the support of the Holy Blood Contract’s nearly infinite life force, every injury became so real and fatal.

Her life force was draining away like a flood from an open gate.
The speed of her wound repair gradually slowed.

She tried to condense a Blood Contract to counterattack, but her mind was disturbed, her power weakened by the curse.
Even the simplest Blood Blade became difficult to form!

“Hahaha, do you see? The running dog of the Holy Blood!”
Necro’s voice echoed in the darkness, filled with cruel pleasure.

“This is the consequence of losing your contract! Grovel! Wail! Let me hear your desperate screams!”

However, the expected scream did not come.

Lilith, lying on the ground, was bathed in blood.
Her golden hair was stuck to her pale cheeks by the filth.

Blood gushed from the wounds on her body, and her internal organs were also severely injured.
But the corners of her blood-stained mouth curled up in a bizarre way.

It formed a wider and wider, crazier and crazier smile!

“Heh… hahaha!”
A low laugh came from her throat, gradually turning into a twisted, mad cackle.

This laughter made the lurking Necro feel a sense of inexplicable unease.
“What are you laughing at?! Are you still pretending to be crazy when you’re about to die?!”

“Despair? Screams?”
Lilith’s voice trembled with intense pain, yet it was filled with unparalleled joy!

“You’re right! This place can be my graveyard! This is… wonderful! Hahaha!!!”

Lilith struggled to raise her head.
Her bloodshot azure eyes were astonishingly bright at this moment, filled with hysterical ecstasy!

The ultimate desire for death, suppressed for five hundred years, had completely erupted like a volcano!

She struggled, supporting her body with broken bones, and shakily tried to stand up.
Blood pooled unstoppable at her feet.

“Come on! Kill me!”
Lilith opened her blood-stained hands, her face bearing the fanatical smile of a martyr, and screamed at the endless darkness.

“Use all your tricks! Show no mercy! I beg you… you must kill me! Hahahaha—!”

Her crazed laughter echoed in the darkness, carrying a creepy sense of joy.

This laughter made Necro more uneasy and fearful than any curse.
This woman was insane!
She was the out-and-out lunatic!
Who was the villain here?!

“A madwoman twisted by the Holy Blood!”
Necro became angry from embarrassment and controlled the two skeletons to launch an even more violent attack!

Lilith’s body was like a small boat in a storm, knocked down time and time again.
The sound of her bones breaking was clearly audible.
The ground was covered in a viscous pool of her spilled blood.

Her breath became weaker and weaker, her life force like a candle in the wind.

Necro looked at the dying Lilith, who still wore a strange smile, and a wave of evil fire rushed to his head.

He condensed a solidified dark body, and stomped hard on Lilith’s face, grinding her head into her own pool of blood.

“Beg for mercy! Beg me for mercy! Maybe I can let you die a quick death!”
Necro roared, grabbing Lilith’s hair and pulling her head in front of him.

Lilith’s face was squeezed out of shape, and blood gushed from her mouth and nose.
But her eyes stared fixedly at Necro’s blurry silhouette, filled with extreme mockery.

“You can’t… kill me, can you…”

This sentence completely enraged Necro.
“Want to die? Not so easy! I will turn you into my most loyal servant, to be forever submerged in pain!”

He changed his mind.
His hands suddenly pressed down on Lilith’s broken chest, and a thick, twisted, polluting aura burst from his palms!

「Void-Reality Contract · Necrotic Conversion」

“Ugh—!”

The cold death energy was like a billion poison needles!
It frantically drilled into her flesh, bone marrow, and soul!

She felt her consciousness being forcibly stripped away, and the tissues of her body began to collapse under the erosion of the death energy.

Her skin turned ashen, and her flesh visibly withered and dissolved, revealing the stark white bones beneath.

Death, had never been so close…

In Lilith’s remaining consciousness, the shackles of five hundred years seemed to be truly disintegrating.
The eternal torture was about to end…

A sense of true release, overpowering the extreme pain, made the smile on her face turn serene…