After learning what happened, the history of the town, and the story of the young man on the cross, Ryn found it somewhat difficult to pass judgment…
Yesterday, they were close friends and relatives; today, they are enemies who would stop at nothing to devour his flesh and sleep on his skin.
Even though Kalpas did indeed harm many people when the meteorite fell, this was a sin he could not escape.
After that, Kalpas also did his best, in his own way, to help the villagers and atone for the sins he committed.
But is it feasible to define an alien race by human standards?
Ryn didn't know.
But what the villagers did next was absolutely unforgivable.
They continuously tortured Kalpas, keeping him as a flesh cauldron and drawing his blood for consumption…
And it wasn't just Kalpas. Anyone who came to this place, if their appearance or abilities were even slightly prominent or different, would be captured by them and suffer the same fate as Kalpas…
For these vicious villagers, Ryn had originally planned to kill as many as came. Letting them live would be a desecration of the souls who died tragically at their hands, and it would weigh on Ryn's conscience.
But later…
When he saw Elysia's arrowless bow, Ryn hesitated…
Elysia was still a child, a child who would get so happy and puffed up from being called cute that she couldn't tell which way was up. A child who, when called a monster, would become sad and choose to walk through the forest alone…
She was still young, her heart full of infinite expectations for this beautiful world, and she held the greatest kindness for everyone…
Ryn didn't want Elysia to be exposed to such ugly and malicious human hearts so early. He prepared to take Elysia and leave the town directly, letting Volibear stay behind to carry out a bloodbath.
But just as he was about to leave, Elysia grabbed Ryn and asked him why he was leaving.
Ryn squatted down, placed his hands on Elysia's shoulders, and looked at her seriously.
"This is a shady hotel. They're going to make a move on us with ill intentions. Of course, we have to leave quickly."
"Aren't we going to teach them a lesson?" Elysia blinked in confusion, then, as if she had thought of something, she spoke in a naive but very serious tone.
"Then let's call the police first, and wait for them to come and arrest them! We can even act as bait here to buy enough time for the police to arrive!"
"…"
Ryn: "What if I told you the police are in on it with them! And not just the police, the entire town is in on it… Then, should we still call the police?"
"Oh my, what do we do then…"
Elysia was suddenly at a loss. Her orphanage mother had taught her that if she encountered trouble she couldn't handle, she should run and then call the police to arrest the bad guys.
Now the police were bad guys too, and she couldn't fight so many people on her own…
"So we're preparing to run." Ryn slung Elysia's small bag over his shoulder, tossed the Volibear doll on the bed, and took Elysia's hand to leave.
"No!"
The moment Elysia heard they were just running, she immediately shook her head in refusal, pushed Ryn's hand away, and stood her ground, unwilling to leave with him.
"If we just leave like this, what about next time? When other people come here, what if they don't realize the danger and get killed!
If we run away, then the next person who can't escape will become a victim. Wouldn't that make us accomplices!"
Wouldn't that make us accomplices!
This sentence immediately silenced Ryn, echoing endlessly in his mind…
He couldn't help but recall the time he and Kiana were staying in a hotel, discussing what to do if they encountered bad people…
He advocated for avoiding trouble, while Kiana insisted on fighting evil.
Back then, he had no power and was afraid of causing trouble… But now, was he still afraid?
Ryn suddenly picked Elysia up. Elysia thought Ryn was going to take her away by force, and her eyes instantly turned red, but she didn't resist.
Ryn was doing it for her own good, afraid she would get hurt, so Elysia didn't resist. The redness in her eyes was due to her sorrow for the evil in the town, for the harm that might befall future visitors, and for her own inability to do anything about it.
In reality, it wasn't as complicated as Elysia thought. Ryn just carried her to the window.
Ryn pulled open the curtains, letting Elysia see the town shrouded in darkness outside.
"When we arrived, this place was dead silent. But not long after we checked into the hotel, the whole town started to become active.
You want to teach the bad guys a lesson, Elysia, but what if the other party is the entire town, thousands or tens of thousands of people?
Faced with so many people, would you be afraid, Elysia?"
"I would… I'm already a little scared now…"
Elysia reached out and held Ryn's hand, looking up at him and asking in a naive and crisp voice:
"But… if I have Ryn with me, then I won't be afraid!"
"Heh heh… I might have to disappoint you then… I hope you don't throw up your dinner later."
"?"
Ryn patted Elysia's head without further explanation.
Afterward, Ryn moved two stones, one large and one small, and placed them on the table. Then, he and Elysia waited for them to come and take away "Ryn" and "Elysia."
Soon after, under the influence of Ryn's Authority of Consciousness, the villagers mistook the two stones for "Ryn" and "Elysia" and carried them away. The real Ryn and Elysia took a set of their black robes and blended into their large group.
Then, the two of them witnessed the nauseating scene of the demonic villagers feasting on Kalpas's blood in the Old Sorceress's underground base.
Ryn had originally covered Elysia's eyes to prevent her from seeing this, but Elysia refused.
She wanted to witness everything with her own eyes, whether it was good or bad.
Finally, when the villagers began to bleed the stone Ryn and stone Elysia, Ryn used a little trick of Creation to make stone dust spray out like a fountain. Under the modification of their consciousness, these villagers thought it was blood…
Seeing all this, Elysia, who was beside Ryn, finally understood just how vicious these villagers were…
She bit her lip tightly, her hand holding Ryn's trembling with force, as she kept muttering…
"Why? Why tie that person to a pillar? And make so many cuts…"
"Impossible… Why drink his blood… This kind of thing… why…"
"Why doesn't a single person think this is wrong? This shouldn't be happening!"
Elysia kept asking why, but none of the frenzied villagers paid her any mind.
Ryn bent down and hugged the trembling Elysia, gently giving her the answer.
"Because, this is Honkai."
As Ryn's words fell, the sky instantly filled with dark clouds, thunder rumbled ceaselessly, the storm raged, and lightning illuminated the land, revealing Elysia's already pale face.
"When the thunder rolls through the clouds, when the lightning illuminates the earth, I come with the storm, bringing the wrath of the gods."
Next, a seventy-meter-tall Volibear, wrapped in lightning, descended from the sky, crushing hundreds of people into pulp with a single landing.
Before Ryn's eyes were the empty walls of the base and the naive, petite Elysia in front of him.
And before Elysia's eyes were Ryn embracing her and a scene of a laughable and tragic human hell…
Flesh and blood rained down, and the crazed laughter mixed with the Sorceress's screams in a chaotic mess.
Faced with the danger of death, not a single one of these crazed lunatics fled. Instead, they shouted things like "A god has descended," and ran towards Volibear one by one, only to be smashed into pulp and crushed by it…
Elysia, held in Ryn's arms, her eyes wide open, trembled so much she couldn't say a word.
Finally, she leaned weakly against Ryn's shoulder, watching helplessly as thousands upon thousands of people rushed towards Volibear like zealous pilgrims, only to be torn apart and crushed.