Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio

The White Leaves Village was very quiet, and it seemed that there was still some cold air lingering. The houses were already broken, there was a thick layer of ash covering the earth, and Sui Xiong could see some remains from the ashes. Looking from afar, he shook his head and sighed deeply.

He had already known the causes and effects of that incident, as well as why that old officiant sneak attacked him—because the good and the evil were always each others' natural enemy.

The war between the good and the evil, the war between different ideas, and the war among people of different stances… To put it simply, they were the wars between ideologies. On the earth, the war between different ideologies had developed into a war between two groups lead by two superpowers respectively, and to intimidate each other, they had laid out weapons of mass destruction that were enough to kill the entire human race several times. But in this world, among different Gods, countries, races, and religious sects, they would have had a big fight with each other simply because of the different ideologies. Compared with this, the old officiant's acts of returning his generous act with enmity and sneak attacking him were actually nothing.

The few hundreds of people in the White Leaves Village died, and it was simply because of the old officiant's desire to have a fight between different ideologies.

Sui Xiong did not regret what he had done, which was using his cold energy to defend himself, although he was sacrificing the lives of the innocent. Because at that moment, he did not know much about this world, he was facing big crisis and struggling to win, so what was wrong with that? Even so, he still felt very sympathetic for those innocent villagers who died, and was very angry with the world where the wars between different ideologies could be so serious that few could understand.

"This world is kind of sick…" While sighing, Sui Xiong walked around the village in a circle in his huge jellyfish body, dug a deep trench, and made it a simple magic circle with his tentacles, which were much stronger and more powerful than any hoe.

This simple magic circle was the Guarding Circle, which could prevent the dead inside the circle from turning into creatures that came back to life. The so-called creature that came back to life referred to the creature whose body would be revived, and became moving war-crafts after being eroded by the Dark energy, or the Negative energy in this world. But they had no intelligence, and would only attack things, even the most common creatures in nature that contained the positive energy by instinct. This was based on the principle that two objects with opposite charges would attract.

Before Sui Xiong was transported, he was addicted to the online game, and had played many computer games. In his view, the creature that came back to life and became war-crafts should be called the Undead. In fact, the so-called "Undead" could be divided into two categories: the creatures that came back to life, and the creatures that never died. As for the former, they were just simple war-crafts without any intelligence, while for the latter, they had both intelligence and strength, and could become demons that would continue to grow stronger and stronger.

The creatures that never die were from all sorts of different backgrounds, and

they were also backed up by Gods and other war-crafts, so they were a force that could never be underestimated. While the creatures that came back to life were not quite the same, and had no intelligence, they could not provide the energy came from belief. They would neither be cherished or protected because they could not do a job that was even a bit complex, and they would even be despised by most other creatures of the same kind. They had the lowest status and could not go any lower. Although, in fact, many creatures that never die evolved from them. But it was them that had been a huge threat to the people who lived in the Dark Forest.

The Dark Forest, which should be called in its formal name, is known as the the Ash Forest. It is said that in the ancient times, some Gods got into a big fight there, and the Gods who died turned into ashes and spoiled the forest. Since then, the forest had become the cradle of negative energy, continually sending out the energy which kept eroding the land around it, and integrating and turning the remains in the forest into creatures that came back to life.

What was strange was that no matter how strong they became, they could not evolve, which made the Ash Forest not appealing to thugs who tried to recruit creatures that came back to life. Only poor farmers would be willing to work hard to plow the land here.

After analyzing the energy on the baldacchino that belonged to the God Wu Mian, Sui Xiong had mastered the tactic of absorbing the negative energy. The magic circle he made was meant to extract all the negative energy inside the circle, and then disperse it. Without the negative energy, the remains of the dead would not become the Undead anymore.

It was really convenient to do things with a big body. Although Sui Xiong did not have any tools, he still quickly made a magic circle only with his powerful tentacles. As a student who came from the department of fine arts of a third-rate school of art, Sui Xiong managed to draw a perfect magic circle with what he had learned.

Before activating the magic circle, he walked into the White Leaves Village again, and had a closer look at it. This magic circle could greatly weaken the intensity of the negative energy inside the circle, and if there were some creatures that came back to life, they would also die.

Although the creatures that came back to life were very rare, maybe he could even find one or two. As he had expected, he did find one in the remains. It was an Undead that had only its soul left. It was in a fighting stance, and ready to fight with an enemy that did not even exit.

Sui Xiong instantly recognized it as the bald man, who was tall and agile. The strongest warrior in this village! According to the information he got from the baldacchino, this tough man was called Gerrard Cabannes, who was once a lansquenet. Because he had offended a big gun, he ran away and began to live in seclusion in the Ash Village. He had no faith or respect for the Gods, and only believed his own axe. Since he liked to teach people, and had a high reputation in this village, he became a sore in the officiant's eyes and a thorn in his flesh.

All the powerful creatures in this world could be put into three ranks based on their ability, which was the Bronze Rank, the Silver Rank and the Gold Rank. When a creature got a higher rank, its life form would change, which was the symbol of getting a higher rank. On the Gold Rank, were the legendary creatures who had an extremely long lifespan and were amazingly powerful. and past the Gold Rank… Was the Saviors. Gerrard and the old officiant were on the Bronze Rank, so normally, if twenty or thirty strong men attacked one of them all together, neither of them would lose. But since the officiant was old and feeble, while Gerrard was in his prime of life, the old officiant was always the one who lost during the few conflicts that had happened between them.

As the officiant of the Evil God, he had received many tactics to use. But Gerrard was a very cunning man who had years of life experience, and never gave the old officiant any chance to sneak attack him, until the night of that big fight, when the old officiant sacrificed himself to activate the Thrall and sneak attacked Sui Xiong. However, the result was that both Gerrard and all the villagers became the funerary objects, which was something he never thought would happen.

Sui Xiong was watching the Undead, and found that most parts of its body had dimmed, and almost became nothingness, apart from a light was still shimmering in the place of its heart. He was sure that soon the Undead was to disappear and turn into a part of the negative energy that was permeating in the Ash Forest. Now that Sui Xiong had come, things may turn out to be different.

Sui Xiong thought for a while, then he released his magic energy and turned it into a gray ball which shrouded Gerrard. Inside the ball, was the pure negative energy. Controlled by Sui Xiong's magic energy, it continually sank into Gerrard's soul and made the fragile Undead quickly grow strong. In a short moment, this undead's face was just like a living person's, and the face was glowing intelligently.

The undead stood still, while looking around in a puzzle. "What…is going on?"

"You were dead." Sui Xiong said.

Gerrard turned around to see the huge jellyfish monster, and it was easy to tell from his eyes that he was still confused. "Then why on earth am I here?"

Sui Xiong sighed, then he explained what had transpired to Gerrard in detail.

"I see…" After Gerrard heard what had happened, he was silent for a long time, and then he heaved a long sigh.

"What are you going to do then?" Sui Xiong asked when he saw Gerrard was quite depressed. "Will you go to Hell or the Holy Kingdom?"

In this world, there were only two places to go when a soul did not want to vanish or become a creature that never died. One place was Hell. There, it could take its chances to see if it would degenerate into an evil monster, or walk into the River Styx to wash away all the marks of its preexistence and be reincarnated. The other place was the Holy Kingdom where the gods that it believed in lived. There, it could become a creature of the Holy Kingdom, and got to live many years, and at last, it would integrate itself into the Holy Kingdom and became a part of the building of the Holy Kingdom.

Actually, Sui Xiong did not get too much information about this, so he was not clear about what on earth the life in Hell or the Holy Kingdom was really like, but in his view, neither of them was a good place to go.

If a soul wanted to be reincarnated, let it be. And by the way, why on earth was there a chance that it could become a monster in Hell!? Also, it was not bad to live in the Holy Kingdom, but why it would have to be integrated into the Holy Kingdom and become the building material!?

Gerrard was silent for a while, and he said, "I once had faith in the Patron of Thieves, but later I gave up my faith and became a non-believer ever after, so I can not go to the Holy Kingdom. And about Hell… I do not want to go there either…"

"Well, there were only two ways left then: to vanish or become a creature that will never die. Which would you choose?" Sui Xiong said, "I do not recommend you to choose the first one, and if you want to be a creature that never dies, I can help you with my power, which is kind of strong, if you do not mind me saying so. And I can help to prevent you from losing your senses completely."

"I do not want to be a Wraith or a Death Knight…"

"You are indeed a bit fastidious."

Gerrard laughed and replied, "Who would've thought I could joke together with a legendary powerful creature when I am already dead, even after I was chased after by a few killers of the Bronze Rank, and being hunted like a dog… Okay, never mind, I have moved on already. It is fine even if I am going to vanish."

There was a phrase from a Chinese poem, which was "The most difficult thing on earth would probably be his willingness to die" Now that Gerrard was not even afraid of death, this made him look a bit more dignified.

However, Sui Xiong did not want him to die just like this, since Gerrard was not a bad person, and had had a thing or two up his sleeve. Besides, the most important thing was that Gerrard had been many places all these years, and was very knowledgeable with abundant experience. Sui Xiong, on the other hand, was not familiar with this world. As for the information he got from the baldacchino, the more he referred to it, the more doubtful he became. If Sui Xiong could get Gerrard to his side and make him his guide, it would be really nice.

Also, he could save himself a lot of trouble by making Gerrard agree to pretend to be a Archmage, and faking a legendary creature himself summoned by Gerrard. After all, he had such a huge body, if he did not give himself a decent identity, no matter where he went, there would be panic!

Then Sui Xiong pondered a while, and finally made his decision. "How about… I make a new body for you…?" he said.

"What?" Gerrard stared at him as if he was in a trance, and had no idea what he meant.

"I can try to make a new body for you to see if you can possess it with your spirit, and be reincarnated."

Gerrard was overjoyed, but still a bit hesitant since Necromancy was notorious, and he could not be too wary of what repercussions he would face when he agreed.

On a second thought, he believed that there was no need for such a powerful creature to lie to a small ordinary person like him. Among the many stories in folktales, there were always some devils managing to tricking people into signing a contract. Even so, those people were often some great people with a bright future. Who would willing to spend his precious time in tricking a soon-to-be vanished soul of an already dead pathetic adventurer like himself? If this creature intended to do so, it could cast a spell and be able to command the creature that never dies…

While thinking of this, Gerrard finally calmed down, but he could not help but ask, "Will this really work?"

Sui Xiong laughed and encouraged him, "Just have a try, and maybe it will work. And since you have already been ready to die, you have nothing to lose, even if it does not work."

This was all very convincing, like when a person had decided not to play a certain game, but they could gain experience or currency by using an unauthorized third party plugin. In other words, it was extremely enticing.

"Okay, fine!" Gerrard thought about this for a while, then he did what he had been told by Sui Xiong.

The process of making a new body began.