Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"The speed at which Hell is connecting to the mortal realm is accelerating. We must find a way to close this door."

Around them, the腥臭 (xīng chòu - rancid, putrid) and turbid tides of the blood sea flowed and surged in a swirling motion.

Lake and the others stood together, the Starstrike Sword emitting a dazzling starlight curtain, blocking the blood that poured out from behind the bronze door—

But as the blood water rose above their heads, the light of the Starstrike Sword seemed to gradually be swallowed by the blood.

And the demonized Bluebeard had long since disappeared.

Looking at the rotating crimson waves, there were only countless phantoms of vengeful spirits, wailing and spinning, and in the deeper shadows, red pupils and sharp claws scratched in mid-air.

"Those are demons from Hell. They want to use this to tear through the veil of the mortal realm and invade the human world."

Goldwing Ciparro looked at those illusory ghost phantoms and thought of something, "We need to shut it down—"

"Closing this Gate of Hell is a bit beyond my capabilities."

Polo's gaze pierced through the sea of blood, staring at the dark door in the shadows, upon which black-red flames burned, the flames of Hell.

Those ritual symbols, under the connection of Hell's magic, vaguely formed complex patterns.

"I haven't studied such profound demonology... If I close it, I might need more angelic power, which is a necessary requirement."

Polo used the [Spiral Beacon: Witch]'s second-tier insight ability to forcibly analyze the inscriptions on the bronze door.

Fortunately, Bluebeard's magical abilities were not outstanding. This Gate of Hell, which was about to be completed, still had many weaknesses that could be exploited, or rather, flaws.

Otherwise, with Polo's level of demonology, closing an almost completed Hell Gate would be almost a fantasy!

"That's good. Now, all of my angelic power is yours—close it."

Upon hearing this, Goldwing Ciparro did not hesitate. The last trace of golden light on her body slowly faded, condensing into a slender feather at the tip of her wing, until that feather became incomparably dazzling.

After that, she used her beak to bite the feather, tore it off, and gently placed it in Lake's hand.

After this, only black feathers remained on her body, and she transformed back into the shape of an ordinary swallow.

"Miss Ciparro, you..."

The grey-clad secret agent, covered in blood and lying on the ground, looked in shock at Ciparro, who had given her last bit of angelic power. His eyes showed a change of expression, and finally, a trace of crystal light flashed.

"Mine too, please stop this disaster..."

As he spoke, without waiting for Lake and Polo to stop him, the golden glow around the grey-clad secret agent's body also dissipated rapidly, and the angelic features on the surface of his body also quickly receded.

Finally, he also handed the smaller golden feather that had re-condensed on his wrist to Lake.

"I'm sorry, I underestimated you before. If I had gone to the castle with you, perhaps none of this would have happened."

"But your body—"

Lake understood that the grey-clad secret agent's life had been saved by the power of the angels.

But now, without the power of the angels, the body of an ordinary human being would have no chance of surviving such severe injuries!

"My ability is not enough to end this chaotic world... In the end, I failed to complete what His Majesty entrusted to me.

I'm sorry, let me rest for a while like this."

The sea of blood was roaring, and there was no time to wait. If Hell truly swallowed this space, no one would be able to survive.

Even Lake and Polo did not have the confidence to find their way back in a Hell that suppressed magic and the Starstrike Sword.

"Use angelic power to block the magic patterns connecting the space, and further hinder the transmission of Hell's magic..."

Polo's eyes were burned red by the magic. Beside him, the two golden feathers handed over by Lake spun and intertwined in mid-air under Polo's mental control.

They began to melt, turning into two sharp arrows, cutting through the sea of blood.

Along the way, the blood water evaporated and receded within a few millimeters of the angelic power—

"Guests from Hell, please go back. Unfortunately, you have encountered a few rare gatekeepers of the mortal realm."

Polo chanted complex incantations.

The two angelic powers trembled in mid-air, interweaving into a circular magic circle, which flew towards the illusory bronze door in the depths of the sea of blood and overlapped with the blood array above.

"Buzz..."

The energies that were as incompatible as fire and water intertwined, burning fiercely.

After that, the door to Hell began to slowly close. Those devils who had seen the light behind the curtain scratched at the curtain, but the rustling sound of their intertwined claws quickly receded and dissipated.

After that, the illusion of Hell also became extremely illusory.

The sea of blood began to recede, evaporate, or seep deeper into the ground. They seemed to have lost the most essential force driving their flow, leaving only ordinary, foul-smelling liquid.

"It's over, I have not failed my mission."

Watching the golden-white and black-red magic circles burn each other and finally turn into nothingness, Polo breathed a sigh of relief and ended the spell.

If it hadn't been for the rapid progress in magical abilities, he wouldn't have been able to complete such magic even half a month ago.

After all, angelic power and Hell magic were not familiar to Polo.

"Mr. Secret Agent, your body... Do you have any other life-saving abilities?"

Lake took the healing potion that Polo conjured and poured it into the secret agent's mouth.

But these potions from the bishop were already powerless against such injuries.

"Don't save me, I know I probably won't be able to withstand it this time..."

The secret agent stretched out a hand, wanting to salute, but could only drop it weakly. Under the spiritual glow of his final moments, he looked at Ciparro, who had turned back to black, and smiled faintly,

"But with you around, Miss Ciparro will not be in any danger when she arrives in the Kingdom of Goth—

Thank you, but after that, I'm afraid you'll have to find your own way..."

After saying the last sentence, he closed his eyes, without a sound.

Lake and Polo looked at the secret agent's body and walked up the stairs towards the top of the castle. Although the sea of blood had receded, he heard the vibration of horses' hooves outside the castle again—

The hell on earth had not yet left the territory of Dant.

"Heh, Bluebeard..."

"Polo, what exactly does the story of Bluebeard tell? What kind of person is he?"

Lake clenched the Starstrike Sword in her hand and finally couldn't help but ask.

"Bluebeard... this fairy tale, strictly speaking, doesn't mean much."

This time, Polo did not delay any longer.

The footsteps of several people echoed in the deep castle corridor, and Polo's voice, against the backdrop of the stone walls, seemed even more profound:

"Bluebeard, as you see him now, is no different. He is a tyrannical and cruel person who has killed many people, old people, children, men, women, and his own wives.

Then he put all the corpses of the people he killed into the basement—

A pure villain, but in the fairy tale, he does not have such power as he does now, and was killed by the last wife's brother."

//Grimm's Fairy Tales·Bluebeard

Speaking of this, Polo stretched his claws into the air and grabbed a page of a book.

The picture on it showed a Bluebeard man, covered in blood and with a ferocious face, standing in front of the room at the bottom of the castle.

[Circular Return: Bluebeard·Evil Secret]

[Fairy Tale Authority: Unknown]

[Unsealing Ceremony: Kill Bluebeard, such a butcher, must not be allowed to survive in the world!]

[Description: When the last door in the underground was opened, the woman was stunned, with bones all over the ground, and corpses with their skin peeled off...]

[In horror, the golden key fell to the ground, stained with blood, but could never be removed]

"Well, in any case, this circular return has given us some bad news—this Bluebeard only has a head left, but he is not dead yet?!"

Polo sneered. Outside the castle, the sound of horses' hooves became more frequent and rapid.

"It seems that he has also called in his army that is still slaughtering the city.

Heh, this is really... the wicked live for a thousand years."

Outside the castle, hundreds of Bluebeard's cavalry had surrounded the castle, gradually shrinking the distance of the encirclement.

In the center of the army, Bluebeard rode on a new war horse.

His body had regained the general shape of a human being, without the wrappings of those wronged souls, but many twisted, spider web-like blood lines remained on the surface of the newly grown body.

They flickered somewhat unstably, as if they were a little difficult to support.

"Kill those thieves who sneaked into the castle."

He said in a hoarse voice, waving the lance carrying the blue flag in his hand.

Instantly, hundreds of cavalrymen went to the gate of the castle, their eyes blood red, and each of their armors was covered with blood.

Whether it was enemies or innocent civilians, the number of people who died at their hands was unknown.

"Kill—"

They roared, jumped off their war horses, waved the swords in their hands, and rushed in.

In the dark castle, they used lances and long swords to explore every possible hiding corner, the sound of shattering, shouting, and heavy footsteps began to echo in the air inside the castle.

"Invisibility, an unusually powerful swordsman, and that kind of magic that summons vines..."

Bluebeard did not return to the castle with his army. None of the soldiers waiting outside the castle noticed that Bluebeard's hand holding the lance was still trembling.

This time, he was really scared.

"Die—they all have to die... no matter who it is, they all have to die! You are only one person, how can you resist my army?!"

Bluebeard murmured somewhat madly, he stretched out his hand and stroked his neck.

The pain of the Starstrike Sword tearing his body apart still remained in his memory, but what he feared most was the nothingness of years of killing, but failing at the last moment.

"Must kill them! Now, I am a devil, on the battlefield, I will not die!"

And in the castle, those soldiers were confidently searching.

"No one in the east corridor."

"West corridor... there seems to be some sound, probably those little mice that Lord Giles mentioned!"

"Be careful, Marshal said those guys are very strong, and they also have magic and invisibility."

"Magician? It seems that today, we will kill a mage—haha!"

After capturing a trace of movement in the depths of the corridor, all the Blue Cavalrymen tightened the spears in their hands, and at the same time as they moved forward, they aimed at every possible hiding corner.

Even corners that were empty, they swept with the spear heads—

They are not worried that they will lose.

But obviously, Bluebeard did not fully see the ability of Lake and Polo. These ordinary people, in the complex terrain of the castle, could not find the shadows of Lake and Polo.

"Caught it!"

Finally, at the end of a room in the corridor, three cavalrymen surrounded a shadow that had just stopped moving behind a curtain!

"Go to hell!"

They shouted loudly, swung their spears, and the sharp spear tip instantly pierced the shadow behind the curtain, but no blood flowed out, no screams, but the touch of the spear tip was a little wrong.

"No... what is this?"

They frowned and lifted the curtain, but behind it was a gingerbread assembled figure.

A... ornament? Or a sculpture?

Just saw it wrong?

They leaned their heads closer, wanting to observe this thing that they had just "killed".

But at this time, the gingerbread man's hand holding the gingerbread long sword moved—

"Crack!"

In just an instant, the gingerbread long sword slashed at the neck of a cavalryman!

His helmet deformed inward, and the force broke his neck, and blood with bone residue overflowed from his mouth—

"This thing is alive?!"

The other two soldiers were horrified, but their spears were still inserted into the gingerbread man's abdomen.

The second knife slashed down, and the second soldier died on the spot.

After that, there were three...

"Forty-seventh... forty-eighth..."

On the top floor of the castle, Polo leaned on a chair, slumped his limbs, and in the depths of his eyes, flickering magical light shone.

In every corner of the castle, the pre-ambushed gingerbread men lured the soldiers in.

Through the perception of these gingerbread men, Polo can see the route of all the soldiers who invaded the castle—even Bluebeard himself, now in the castle, cannot win such a battle.

Gingerbread men have no sense, but have more power than humans.

"If you are awake, don't come in. If you want to kill me, be prepared to die here. Too many people have died in this castle..."

Polo sighed.

In the east room, two cracked gingerbread men waved their spears and pierced a knight's body.

On the north side, the blood in a knight's eyes faded, he felt fear, and fled out the window.

But on the windowsill, a flower raised its thorny branches as he leaned over to die and pierced the knight's carotid artery.

Third floor, close to the room where Polo is located.

Lake's figure flashed across in mid-air, and the fleeting sword light neatly took the lives of six knights...

"What's going on? Haven't caught them yet?"

Outside the castle, Bluebeard wanted to enter the castle, but this time, the fear in his heart prevented him from taking a step forward.

It was clearly his own castle, but at this time, it was like a demon cave that devoured humans.

Only entering but not exiting.

"Wait, that's... what..."

Bluebeard finally realized something was wrong. The castle gates opened, and a few knights finally emerged!

But they were covered in blood, fleeing in panic!

Behind them, dozens of cracked, blood-soaked gingerbread soldiers charged out!

A wounded knight fell to the ground, and in the next moment, a gingerbread spear pierced him through.

"Go! They're coming out! Take those guys down!"

Bluebeard gritted his teeth and shouted.

Instantly, the last few hundred cavalrymen around him rode their warhorses, charging towards the gingerbread men like a tide!

"They're just fragile cookies... against the power of war cavalry..."

Bluebeard repeated, his eyes filled with blurry shadows. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he looked up at a window high in the castle.

There, a pair of wolf eyes were glowing with a ghostly green light!

"It's that wolf? No, how could those trees—"

Bluebeard's heart suddenly lurched. The next moment, he saw the bark on the trees planted around the castle twisting into the shape of human faces, their roots pulling out of the soil—

The trees were granted temporary life. These tall treants were closing in on the cavalry!

In that moment, it was Bluebeard's cavalry that was surrounded!

"How... how is this possible..."

Bluebeard's gaze began to twist and tremble.

The power of demonization allowed him to see, in the corner of the battlefield, an invisible sword flashing, and a cavalryman suddenly falling to the ground.

It was that invisible swordsman!

Run! I must run!

Bluebeard lost his last courage, abandoning the army that had slaughtered with him. He turned his horse and fled towards the city in the distance.

Behind him, Lake was blocked by the chaotic army, slowing her down.

"I can't catch him..."

Lake stopped. Her eyes were fixed on Bluebeard, who was galloping away. Bluebeard's horse was surrounded by a dark red glow, the power of the demon at work.

Lake stopped chasing. She sheathed Star Killer and took down a longbow she hadn't used in a long time.

The metal bow of the longbow glowed with Boron engravings—

"Whoosh—"

The arrow tore through the air, streaking across the battlefield like a shooting star!

Then, it accurately pierced Bluebeard's back. After that, Poro in the castle tower flashed a ghostly green light in his eyes.

Inside the arrowhead that pierced Bluebeard's body, a seed rapidly took root and sprouted!

Green and red vines tore apart Bluebeard's flesh from the inside, blood gushing out!

Bluebeard screamed. A cloud of black and red blood mist suddenly appeared, stiffly repairing his mangled body, before he disappeared into the city's buildings.

"Bastard... Damn it..."

As the demonic energy weakened, Bluebeard's horse collapsed and fell to the ground.

Bluebeard was thrown to the ground by the great speed, rolling in the dust.

"Damn it, damn it..."

He cursed venomously, his vision blurring, unable to even muster the strength to support himself.

In the dim vision, he saw a golden banner in the air.

Many people in white armor surrounded him. At the front was a robed priest—

It was the Sures, who had not come forward to stop him during his massacre of the city, but now appeared before him.

"Heh, what a narrow escape. To encounter you cowardly fellows at a time like this... Is God really going to destroy me?"

Bluebeard spat out a mouthful of blood, trying to struggle, but he had no strength.

A Bru civilian walked out from the side.

He saw the dying Bluebeard, his eyes filled with hatred. He drew a sharp knife from his waist:

"Ha, haha—God has eyes! Lord, your army killed my wife! Now, I will kill you to avenge them!"

As he spoke, tears of excitement flashed in the Bru civilian's eyes. He raised his dagger and charged forward.

"Heh, you stupid insect... Heh, God? What a bother."

Bluebeard knew he could not escape and gave up resisting.

But in the next moment, an unexpected scene occurred!

A Sure drew his longsword and swung it—

The Bru civilian, filled with the joy of revenge, fell to the ground with astonishment and unwillingness, the dagger in his hand drooping weakly.

"Kill them all, don't let it leak out."

The Sure priest at the head said calmly.

At his command, all the Sure soldiers drew their swords. Several screams were heard, and in a moment, they killed all the Bru people around who had seen Bluebeard!

Finally, the priest slowly walked to Bluebeard, bent down, and poured a bottle of "holy water" into Bluebeard's mouth:

"Marshal Gilles, there may have been some misunderstandings before. You and us have never been enemies, but friends. You are the most devout saint.

Unfortunately... I only see your excellent soul today."

In Bluebeard's astonished eyes, the priest gently twisted the crucifix on his chest.

It turned into an image with a longer top and a shorter bottom.

At the moment of inversion, the golden pendant completely turned into a black-red color that Bluebeard was very familiar with—

That was the color of hell.

"You don't need to talk about God anymore, Marshal Gilles. That high and mighty guy is already dead—and the hell of blood and fire will eventually rule the whole world.

Only destruction is the ultimate eternity, and killing is the most real sacredness.

Marshal Gilles, your era and ours has just begun."