The night was restless.
Soran heard the sounds of fights and explosions. Fires broke out in other places. The originally prosperous and orderly City of Wealth had now become a place of chaos. Neither of the gangs in the Evil Alignment was an easy target. They were all violent members of evil. They may not be as well equipped as the city guards, but fighting to the death could create chaos. No one was naive enough to think that those who were tainted with blood would stand down without a fight.
Curfews began to be imposed on the streets. The city legions lighted torches to mark out the defense lines to avoid the chaos affecting the ordinary people.
Scoldings and weepings could be heard everywhere.
Their relatively quiet life was broken. Many people fastened their doors and windows, making it st.u.r.dier to prevent chaos outside from affecting their families. There were traces of Rogues in the darkness. The members of the thieves have always been the backbone of the grey area. From time to time, they could hear the screams of the city guards. In the darkness, they could hardly deal with the Rogues above the grade 2. Soran's figure was hidden in the shadows. He stood on a bell tower and looked at the city in front of him.
In the middle of the night, the once-bustling city revealed a depressing scene.
Warehouses in the docks were set ablaze. The city guards controlled the spread of the fire. Sporadic fighting took place everywhere, and members of the dark domains broke through the encirclement to escape. The fire seemed to have spread a little. Cries and howlings could be heard from the direction of the slums. The Paladins had also joined the fight but the south-west corner of the slum has already started burning. No one knew if it was because of the chaos, or it was retaliation by the dark domains.
Their actions today undoubtedly made grudges with many people!
The City of Wealth was a very prosperous city. But this prosperity stemmed from evil. Now, some of the people were being cleansed and attacked. Their armed forces would inevitably resist. Trade would be affected in the aftermath of a period of time. Ordinary people would lose their jobs with the lessened smugglings and black markets. In the next few months, nearly 30% of the dockers will be unemployed and their coming New Year doesn't seem as forthcoming anymore.
"Ugh."
Soran sighed softly and said slowly, "Sure enough, it will only turn into a farce in the end!"
The City of Wealth compromised along with the Paladins as well.
Victims did not receive the justice they deserved. Mainly because they were too weak and insignificant.
Maybe the Evil Forces of the City of Wealth will be more restrained in the future for a period of time. But the chaos that has happened will ultimately affect and change their lives. They may not be able to live as well in the future, but it was certain that the present and near future would only become harder and tougher. The cleansing by Paladins would severely disrupt the trade in the City of Wealth. Cutting off smuggling, slavery and black market trade. It was not known how many people would be unemployed as a result. These unemployed poor people would have it even harder. They may even consider selling their own children.
The wealth was still here.
But, it will only be transferred to the hands of the strong and powerful. It would never fall into the pockets of the weak.
Transient justice was all but a false pretense of justice!
Soran's figure shuttled through the darkness as his robust shadow jumped between the roofs. Leaping more than ten meters away in a moment's time. He traveled through the darkness like a ghost as he looks for his target. Now, it was a time of chaos and also a time to exploit and plunder. There were many people with the same motives as him. Whether they could get a large sum of money from those organizations that have been cleansed depended on whether they had enough strength.
Pull the chestnuts out of the fire!
People in the Evil Alignments were never afraid to take risks. This was originally a dangerous industry anyway.
The City of Wealth was simply too rich. Those organizations that have mastered smuggling trade and so on may have acc.u.mulated more than 100,000 Gold Dehrals. This level of wealth had enticed many people to take risks. Especially taking advantage of the chaos to make a profit, easily bagging thousands of Gold Dehrals, this could be considered just taking the risks once. If one's mind was even more wicked, they could even rob ordinary people directly. Since the blame could be easily pushed off to those organizations afterward.
Once you lose the order, evil descends.
"My Daughter! Mira!... My Mira!..."
A b.l.o.o.d.y-eyed man stood in front of the fire. He was wearing torn and worn-out clothes. One could see that he worked very often through his strong arms. He looked at the house which had turned into a sea of fire and made a sad howl. There was no one else that was alive in it. The fire was so fierce that his wife and his daughter could not run out in time.
"No!!!"
The middle-aged man made a sad howl and rushed at an old man with pale hair beside him. He was trembling all over. He grabbed the old man's neck and lifted it up. He roared, "It's you! It's all you guys! If you hadn't begged the Paladins, the bad guys would not have retaliated on us! My daughter will not die like this!"
"You d.a.m.n old fart!" I'm going to kill you!... I'm going to kill you!..."
Thud.
A young Paladin raised his hand and knocked him unconscious. The old man suddenly fell to the ground. He watched the fire in front of him, and the old man's face was full of tears. It seemed that he had no idea that things would turn out like this.
He muttered as if he had dementia, "How did this happen!... How did this happen!..."
The young Paladin was also conflicted. He had no idea that things would turn out to be like this. In the end, he was thrown into uncontrollable chaos. He did not know how many innocent people had died in this. For the first time ever, he doubted his beliefs and whether the justice he upheld was right or wrong. Because even if they had great power, they still could not stop the chaos.
"Affirm your beliefs!"
An elderly Paladin appeared behind him patted his shoulder. He murmured, "There must be sacrifices to maintain justice!"
"Why did this happen?" The young man murmured in a low voice, with a trace of sadness and regret in his eyes. Why did he kill so many people with all his heart and soul for justice? Why did the maintenance of justice descend into a war? How many people must die just so the war could end?
——"Devils!!!"
Screams echoed throughout the city. Everyone was silent for a moment. Then the Paladins turned into a shadow and rushed towards the sound.
—— "Alignment Detection!"
They finally used the spell. The Paladins' power began to spread, and there was a faint light on everyone in the vicinity.
Many of them were white, but there were more greys. There were many light red, dark red, blood-red lights emerging as well.
For a very long time.
These ordinary people worked for the evildoers. Carrying goods for them, guarding forbidden goods for them, and covering up their sins for them. They were equally guilty in the light of the Paladin, but their sins were very light.
They were all grey areas.
These people wandered between good and evil. They may not be aware of their crimes, but they were part of evil.
All over the fire.
The City of Wealth had a tinge of blood. The acc.u.mulated wealth here had been obtained with sins for a long time. Eventually, under Alignment Detection, it turned into a blood-red light that shot into the sky. The power of magic light was no longer controlled by the Paladins. Extraordinary Energies gathered by themselves for some reason and turned the whole sky crimson red with bloodied lights.
The devils had arrived.
No one knew who summoned the demons. But from the moment they appeared, the ma.s.sacre had begun.
Perhaps the existence of a more evil being was hidden in the City of Wealth has long been taking note of this place. They must have been waiting for an opportunity to cause chaos and start ma.s.sacring. The emergence of the Paladins was a great opportunity. The good people had turned the Paladins into a blade against Evil, and why wouldn't the Evildoers take advantage of the blade to provoke more serious conflicts?
No one could stop it now.
Within the fire, Hezrous that were three or four meters tall appeared. It had a burst of crazed laughter while it swung its axes to cut a group of civilians in half. The devil's eyes were only filled with killing intent and satisfaction. Even Soran would not like to deal with these guys. From the moment they arrived, they only wanted to fulfill their desire to kill. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of people were killed. Their heads were rolling in the ruins, with severed limbs and broken arms everywhere. Blood stained the ground in stark red.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
The strong man led his army and angrily roared: "Those d.a.m.n Paladins! Those d.a.m.n degenerates! My city! My City of Wealth!..."
"Send someone to the temple to ask for support! Faster!... Stupid dumba.s.s!... Quickly invite the Ascended Priests to come help!..."
Quasit, Retriever, Vrock, Hezrou, and Marilith.
One by one, figures of different devils emerged from the fire. They howled excitedly and rushed towards the city in front of them. The brilliance of the Paladins was so small compared to the evil in front of them. These demons, who had a strength that was higher than grade 3, were like a raging current, crus.h.i.+ng the city legions in an instant. Then, slaughtering any living creature in their sights.
"Ha ha ha!..."
A distorted illusion emerged in the fire. It turned into a ferocious figure and stood up slowly in the fire. It grinned bitterly and said, "Silly mortals!"
"At last it's time!"
"This evil city should have been sublimated in the fire long ago! I heard the wailing of the souls! Bring them to h.e.l.l and I'll grow even stronger!.... First, let these idiotic demons go on a killing spree!..."
"The devils were the real winners!"
The distorted shadow gradually turned into a physical manifestation of itself. A devil stood up in the flames. Instead of joining the battle in front of him or quenching his desire for killing, he went directly into the sea of fire. The burning flame seemed to be harmless to him. He disappeared in the flames bit by bit. It felt as if a conspiracy was brewing.