yournovel Chapter 845 - 457: That Demon Named Louis
Chapter 845 - 457: That Demon Named Louis
A few years ago, on a sunny afternoon, but for the town of White Stone, it was the beginning of a long night.
It wasn’t a large-scale army siege; it was a missionary corps dressed in white robes, including a hundred fully armed knights of the faith.
They arrived at the ancient stone shrine dedicated to the Dragon Ancestor in the town center.
This was the spiritual sustenance for generations of townspeople, as the old priest Cohen was telling the children stories of the dragon knights.
Bishop of the Golden Feather Flower smiled as he approached and spoke in a tone full of pity and compassion: "Poor children, you have been blinded by the beast’s lies for too long. The dragon is a greedy reptile, and the Golden Feather Flower is the only truth."
The old priest Cohen raised his magic staff in anger to resist: "False gods are not welcome here!"
The bishop merely sighed: "Heretic, your soul is already rotten and needs fire to purify it."
The knights behind drew their swords and rushed forward.
The old priest’s head was severed, and his blood sprayed onto the stone statue of the Dragon Ancestor.
Immediately, the stone shrine was toppled, and the knights smashed every dragon-engraved slab.
They planted a golden thorn flag among the ruins, declaring that this place henceforth belonged to the throne of God.
That night, the townspeople wanted to resist but were suppressed and massacred by the knights, who then took control of the water source and granaries.
The former shrine of the Dragon Ancestor was rebuilt into a magnificent Golden Feather Cathedral, and the town began to change.
The Church Court didn’t plunder directly; they invented a new term, holy quota.
The bishop gently said, "The land was created by God, and the sunlight was bestowed by God. The grains grown by the farmers should be offered, half of the fullest, as rent to God."
"But we’ll starve to death!" someone shouted.
The bishop showed a sad expression: "That’s because you are not devout enough. Hunger is the practice of the flesh; only by offering more will God grant abundance."
Thus the warehouse was taken over, and every sack of flour leaving storage had to bear the Church Court’s red stamp.
The fur caught by the hunter had to be offered first to the church, and the cloth woven by the farmer’s wife had to be made into robes for the clerics first.
The first intense resistance erupted logically.
The town’s strongest blacksmith, Baron, went mad when he saw his pregnant wife fainting from hunger.
He picked up his blacksmithing hammer and rushed to the church doors.
"Give our food back!" he roared, followed by dozens of townspeople with pitchforks.
Of course, these townspeople could not be a match for the knights, but the blacksmith was not killed on the spot.
The bishop said, "He is possessed by a demon; we need to exorcise him."
The next day, the blacksmith was hanged alive on the bell hammer of the clock tower.
Every time the bell rang, the huge copper hammer would strike his spine
"Dong—Crack." accompanied by the blacksmith’s shrieks.
The whole town was forced to watch this exorcism ceremony in the square.
The screams continued for a whole day until they became intermittent moans, finally fading into silence.
The bishop prayed under the platform: "Look, pain has cleansed his sins; he is finally quiet, and God forgives him."
From that day on, the light in the townspeople’s eyes was extinguished, leaving only fear.
As the resisters were eliminated one by one in the name of heresy, White Stone Town grew quieter.
For example, the owner of the grocery store, who hid a bag of beans under the bed, was reported by a neighbor because the informer could get half a bowl of flour.
The knights did not rudely arrest people; they politely knocked on the door: "You have hidden God’s property, which is disrespectful to God."
That night, the entire family of the grocery store was taken to the church’s basement for contemplation, never to be seen again.
Thus hunger became the sole ruler.
The people in the town stopped discussing right or wrong, only where to find something to eat.
The bark was gnawed off, edible earth was dug out, and people became inhuman, like wolves maddened by hunger.
When despair reached its peak, when all dignity had been worn down by hunger, the Church Court presented the final remedy.
A large pot was set up in the square.
The bishop spread his arms wide: "God cannot bear to see His people suffer, behold this golden soup, a blessing sent from the Holy City, flowing with gold and honey."
Initially, no one dared to drink it, but hunger is undefeatable; the first vagrant crawled over, took a sip, and his eyes lit up.
He no longer trembled, no longer felt cold, and a warmth and smile never before seen appeared on his face.
"Not hungry... really not hungry!" He knelt on the ground, kissing the bishop’s shoe tips, "Praise God!"
People’s psychological defenses crumbled, and from that day onward, White Stone Town was utterly dead, and those who drank the soup became docile livestock.
They no longer complained about taxes, no longer yearned for the Dragon Ancestor, and didn’t even care about their own children.
Their only purpose in life every day was to wait for the meal bell to ring.
The white church, like a giant blood-sucking spider, perched on the town’s carcass, drained the last drop of blood, yet the corpses were grateful.
......
Hans looked out through the dust-covered window of the mill.
The street was crowded with people, yet there was no conversation, no quarrels, not even footsteps sounded real.
They lined up, holding broken bowls, waiting for the golden soup.
The plump aunt who could scold half the street a few years ago stood in line. At this moment, her eyes were cloudy, with a layer of gray-gold luster, her pupils dilated, like a fish dead for several days.
The cleric ladled soup into her bowl.
She immediately devoured it; the soup dribbled down her mouth, even dripping onto her collar, and she didn’t even wipe it off.