Chapter 6: The Judgment of the Sacred Remains

As the platinum chains of the Holy Temple wrapped around my wrists,I caught the lingering scent of hemostatic herbs in Lila's hair.The silver armor of the Judgment Legion reflected the dying morning stars,like countless sharp daggers piercing the retina.The grinding sound of gears from Roger's mechanical eye reminded me of the ill-omened sparrow whose neck he had broken in my previous life.

"Blasphemer Ian Black,"the Cardinal's voice was laced with honeyed venom,"do you know the dew of the Holy Spirit Flower..."He suddenly paused as I rolled the True Sight Crystal,stolen from the auction house,on the tip of my tongue—a forbidden item that could reveal all disguises.

Lila suddenly let out a soft laugh.Her blood-stained skirt brushed against the corner of the Cardinal's robe,which was adorned with sacred remains cloth.Dark elements condensed into butterflies that perched on the so-called"saintly relics."As the butterfly wings lifted the fabric,a tsunami of gasps erupted from the execution crowd.

"Faking sacred remains with ghoul leg bones?"I snapped my fingers,shattering eighteen chains of judgment,"Have you taken up the trade of a necromancer?"

The pseudo-sacred crystal at the top of the Cardinal's staff began to crack.I crushed the chains under my heel,and the fragments reflected Roger's mechanical fingers forming seals—the unmistakable Raven Curse of the Shadow Moon Council.

"Dear brother,"I appeared behind him,the light blade pressed against the junction of his mechanical eye and flesh,"Your new prosthetic eye,made from the eyeballs of northern elves,isn't it?"The blade tip flicked out half a digested elf iris,precisely landing on the Cardinal's twitching lips.

Lila suddenly blew a clear dove whistle.The square tiles,"purified"by the Holy Temple,flipped in response,revealing the hidden necromantic transformation array.The sacrificial ring at the center of the array still bore the Cardinal's family crest,stained with the blood of the missing choir girl from yesterday.

"Shall I summon the spirits for a confrontation?"I kicked over the trembling judge,and a gilded ledger fell from his embrace—recording the Holy Temple's transactions of child souls to the Shadow Moon Council.

The crowd's roar burned faster than the flames of the Holy Fire Pillar.I slammed the Cardinal into the smoking pseudo-sacred crystal,and a raven brand appeared on his forehead as he screamed.Lila took the opportunity to tear open his collar,revealing the wisteria-shaped controller embedded in his cervical spine—identical to the one Roger had used to control our father years ago.

"Everyone,take a good look!"I raised the True Sight Crystal high.The beam pierced through the Cardinal's increasingly mechanized chest,exposing the curse beetles gnawing at his heart.Lila timely released a memory projection:last night in the underground altar,this"saint"was kneeling and oiling the masked man's mechanical arm.

The rioting crowd began to hurl stones.Amidst the chaos,I shattered the Cardinal's controller,and Roger's mechanical eye suddenly burst into green light.His rigid limbs twisted into a spider-like form,and his mandibles sprayed toxic mist flavored with dragon's tongue.

"Brother,be careful!"Lila's gear pupils shrank counterclockwise abruptly.The splashing poison bizarrely reversed direction before touching my robe,instead extinguishing the flames of the judgment pillar.Amidst the thick smoke,the sticky sound of flesh recombining echoed,and a blood-red teleportation array suddenly appeared beneath our feet.

As the seventeen Shadow Moon incantations completed their closure,I recognized it as a one-way passage to the"Tomb of Time."Lila suddenly stuffed the inherited pocket watch into the center of the array,and the temporal chaos blew back her bangs,revealing the faint gear-shaped birthmark on her forehead.

"Hold on to me!"I tore open the closing rift with my bare hands.Roger's mechanical leg got stuck in the crevice between reality and void,and the burning sensation of splashing lubricant reminded me of the night I perished in the fire in my previous life.Lila suddenly bit her fingertip and drew a blood rune on my forehead,and the surging magic instantly rewrote the teleportation array into a reverse vortex.

The moment we fell into the temporal chaos,we heard the distorted electronic voice of the masked man echoing from the abyss:"Godslayer,you will ultimately sacrifice your sister on the altar with your own hands..."

Floating in the chaos were fragments of memories:five-year-old Lila burying a gear hairpin in the garden,that very hairpin was now burning hot in my sleeve pocket;when our mother was injected with the green liquid,the heartbeats of the twins in her womb gradually split into a hybrid frequency of human and machine;the raven crest inside the silver armor of the Judgment Legion was identical to the navel ring worn by Father's mistress...

"Brother!"Lila's scream jolted me awake.We were falling towards the boiling Sea of Time,but the reflection on its surface was an entirely different scene—my reflection was casting a forbidden necromantic spell,while she was nailed to a gear-shaped crucifix.

The pocket watch suddenly disintegrated on its own,and its parts assembled into the form of our mother above the Sea of Time.Her mechanical hand pressed against the Godslayer marks on the back of our necks,and the vortex of the Sea of Time froze instantly.As our mother's artificial vocal cords squeezed out a distorted"Go now,"I hugged Lila and crashed into the suddenly appearing mirror passage.

When we breathed the air of the mortal world again,the smell of blood stung the nostrils.We fell into the Black family cemetery,where our mother's tombstone was cracking.Under the moonlight,Father stood in front of the split grave,holding a blood-dripping controller,with thirty-seven withered corpses of maidens drained of time lying at his feet.

"Welcome home,my son,"he turned the controller's knob,and all the tombstones opened in response.The corpses crawling out of the coffins were mechanically assembling a giant gear device capable of covering the entire capital city.