Chapter 89.1 - Protagonist: He is not me.

Chapter 89.1 – Protagonist: He is not me.

The town completely disappeared into the darkness. The mage lay on the ground, exhausted from casting the spell. Xiu stayed behind Eric and did not hesitate to return to the city. When the light elements were displayed at the palace, the Archon’s face paled when he saw the amount of light elements that Xiu had gathered. When his men went forward to whisper a few words in his ear, the last trace of blood left his face.

The governor was surprised when he saw such a large number of chests. After a brief pause, he praised Xiu. In contrast, Eric, who did not gather any light elements, was reprimanded by the governor. One of Eric’s feathers was given to Xiu as a type of punishment for Eric and as a reward for Xiu.

Now Eric only had two and a half feathers remaining. Although Du Ze didn’t know what would happen if he lost all of his feathers, it would probably be a bad end. The governor is forcing the tower climbers to gather light elements, and Du Ze felt some pity for the people in the towns. Do these angels really not know that excessive collection only brings them a momentary benefit while it brings them closer to destruction?

That night, the Archon of the Third Layer rebelled. He assembled a large group of people, trying to kill the angels. The reason for the Archon’s downfall was simple yet tragic – he had endured the exploitation of the Third Layer for so long but the death of his son was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

This was narrated to Du Ze by Xiu the next day. When the rebellion occurred, Du Ze’s headphones had run out of charge. After listening to Xiu’s retelling, Du Ze finally understood why the Archon’s expression was so ferocious when he was shouting at them and why Eric was so moved. Du Ze can imagine what thoughts were running through the son of god’s mind when he, who worshipped the light, saw the Archon’s dead body.

The rebellion went on until midnight. The Third Layer’s fallen were mostly ordinary civilians. There were only a few warriors and the most powerful ones were only at the Grand Swordsman level. The angels, on the other hand, were mostly at Sword Saint level. The fallen were all killed but only 1/6th of the angels were killed. The next morning a group of angels arrived to make up for the previous day’s loss.

What?! Are you angels heaven fun cheating?1

“In the Second Layer, an angel died and a new one arrived to replace him the next day.” Compared to Du Ze’s indignant reaction, Xiu was exceptionally calm. “They must all be defeated at the same time.”

Ah, it seems that Xiu already noticed this and has taken it into account in his plan. Du Ze decided that he should just relax and let the Moe Lord handle the “saving the world” events like overthrowing the governor.

After eating breakfast in the Palace of the dead, an angel guard appeared and told them that except for the desolate First Layer, their party had completed their rounds. The next round will now begin and the Second Layer will be bypassed this time, meaning their next destination will be the Fourth Layer.

Xiu did not seem to be surprised to hear this news. After the angel guard left, he smiled at Du Ze and said: “I promise you, in the Fourth Layer, that person will let us collect light elements.”

********

“Because the First and Second Layers did not turn over light elements, a lot of the carriages are still not filled. You will have to make up for the shortfall, which means a full levy,” said the governor to the Archon as he sat on the seat of honor. It looked as though the Archon wanted to protest but in the end he kept silent.

The Moe Lord is a prophet! He predicted this. Du Ze almost fell down on his knees – why is the governor acting this way? He’s practically forcing the people to rebel.

The governor’s orders were straightforward and Xiu promised that they would be quick. They moved swiftly to execute a full levy. This time Eric did not follow them to take part in the main plotline. Earlier, when Du Ze had just arrived in the Fourth Layer, he met Eric as they came down from the carriage. The son of god looked very thin and pale. The expression on the rival’s face reminded Du Ze of a caged beast who wanted to escape his confinement but was too fond of the easy life and security of his current situation, and thus all he could do was pace back and forth in confusion.

Without Eric’s interference, Xiu’s plan went very smoothly. The collection at the Fourth Layer had already been excessive before so the people’s reaction came quickly when Xiu arrived to collect light elements. In the beginning, every third town or city would rebel but soon every single place they went to would rebel. By now, when Du Ze glanced around there were about 5,000 to 6,000 rebels that had surrounded them. They were still on the way to levy more places when they were attacked by the fallen. The Moe Lord had marched across the entire Fourth Layer, forcing the entire population to rebel.

Because of the overwhelming number of fallen, the Archon’s men could only fight back for a short time before they were all killed. Xiu changed into his dragon form and protected Du Ze under his giant wing. He did not run away nor hide. He just crouched on the ground and let the fallen slash and stab at him with their weapons. The sound of weapons sliding off the silver dragon’s scales made Du Ze, who couldn’t see anything, feel very anxious. He missed Old John. That loyal mechanical puppet would certainly be of great help right now – ah, he hasn’t seen Old John for a long time. The last time he saw the mechanical puppet was five days ago. Has Old John been frozen inside the Moe Lord’s interspatial storage ring?

Xiu finished casting the draconic magic spell and the fight was won. It didn’t matter whether it was hundreds or thousands of people, as long as they were underneath the gray magic circle, it only took a moment for gray light to rain down on them and they all disappeared without a trace. The battlefield quickly became empty except for the bodies of the Archon’s soldiers. Xiu rested for a while – the number of times he had used high level magic today made him feel tired – then he grabbed the treasure chest and returned to the palace with Du Ze

They were still in the air when Du Ze noticed that there was something different about the palace. There seemed to have been a rebellion not too long ago. The bodies of the fallen were everywhere, along with a few angel corpses. Du Ze and Xiu soon found Eric and the governor in the main hall where the Archon was down on his knees, trembling.

“My lord … I, I truly didn’t know this was going to happen.”

Seeing that Xiu had brought back a chest, the governor uttered a sigh of unknown significance then praised Xiu with a kind of “this hall full of dead bodies is of no significance” attitude: “You did well today, tomorrow continue your work in the Fifth Layer.”

When he heard these words, Eric could no longer bear it.

“Haven’t you noticed?” Eric glared at the governor. “You will only make more and more people rebel against you – sooner or later you will be killed by them!”

He said it! The rival actually told the truth like this?!

“Ha.” Du Ze heard Xiu beside him make a mocking sound but it was the governor’s reaction that frightened Du Ze.

When he heard Eric’s outburst, the expression on the governor’s face instantly became solemn.

“Do you think these inferior creatures can inflict harm on us? Nonsense!” The governor shrugged, waving his hand and shifting a feather from Eric to Xiu. “You didn’t finish the task today, you should learn from him.”

Du Ze … Du Ze immediately thought that the shining person was really too naive. The angel’s arrogance was too deeply sunk into the very marrow of his bones and there’s just no saving him anymore. In the face of such a foolish person, Eric did not know what to do. He looked at the governor and at Xiu, then finally decided to close his eyes. He didn’t speak again.