Bai Shi left the site of his battle and soon returned to the crossroads where he had parted ways with Leda and Freya. This time, Bai Shi chose a different direction, heading down the path the two women had taken earlier. He hadn't gone far down the road, however, before the path before him ended abruptly, having completely collapsed. Bai Shi stood at the edge of the chasm and glanced down. He realized this was the source of the sewage that had formed the "waterfall" he'd seen earlier. Several Hornsent corpses lay at the edge of the wastewater channel. Due to the shadowy nature of their bodies, Bai Shi couldn't tell if Leda and the others had just dispatched them or if they had been dead for some time. However, there were still plenty of Hornsent moving about below, none of whom seemed interested in a fight. Bai Shi leaped forward, easily clearing the collapsed section of the path and landing on the other side. He likely intended to shove Bai Shi off the ledge before he could gain his footing. But whatever his plan, Bai Shi easily sidestepped the attack. The Hornsent couldn't stop his momentum and stumbled to a halt right at the precipice. With a casual push to the man's back, Bai Shi sent him tumbling into the cesspool below. The other Hornsent near the channel were startled to see one of their own perform an impromptu dive. From their vantage point, however, they could only see their comrade fall from above, unaware of what had actually happened. A moment later, a faint stream of Runes drifted up from the corpse in the sewage and into Bai Shi's body. Just then, Bai Shi felt a faint surge of power well up within him. The surge slightly boosted his strength, though the effect was minimal. At the same time, however, it bolstered his spirits. Bai Shi quickly identified the source: the Holy War Medallion he had just obtained from Kunlan, the Fire Knight. Why did it suddenly activate on its own? Bai Shi retraced his steps, but it felt like he hadn't done anything special... No, wait. Was it because I just killed one of the Hornsent? A wave of realization washed over Bai Shi. So that was the meaning of "Holy War." It was a naked slaughter, but such an unsanctioned atrocity needed a justification. If the soldiers had been told they were simply committing a massacre, it's unlikely any of them could have done so with a clear conscience. That past slaughter had been branded with the name of a Holy War. Only by convincing themselves they were fighting for a holy cause could the warriors deceive their own hearts and avoid collapsing under the weight of such inhumane carnage. Even a false justification was enough to console their hearts. And the Holy War Medallion was designed to produce exactly that effect. Kill an enemy, bolster the spirit. The morale boost was the true key, far more important than the faint increase in strength. Only then could the soldiers believe—truly believe—they were giving their lives for a holy cause. Bai Shi clenched his fist. The medallion's effect had come as quickly as it had gone; it had already faded. He wondered about the mechanics. Was there a kill-streak bonus that would amplify the effect? Fınd the newest release on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵 If there was, he mused, the "Holy War" would probably have been even more successful. Bai Shi glanced at a corpse lying beside him on the edge of the broken path. Next to the body were a few shiny throwing knives, wrapped in strips of cloth. Bai Shi casually picked one up and twirled it in his hand. The pickings in Belurat were getting ridiculous. He had yet to find a single decent item. The only remotely useful thing, the Holy War Medallion, had come from a Fire Knight. With a sigh, Bai Shi stepped onto a crumbling wall and onto the eaves of an adjacent house, making his way inside. There was an upward-sloping path before him, but he decided against it. While leaping across the gap, he had spotted a corpse on a covered walkway connecting the adjacent buildings. A system prompt had flashed in his vision, indicating there was an item there. Since his focus had been elsewhere, the notification had only been a flicker in his periphery, which, paradoxically, now made him more curious about it. Besides, wasn't it perfectly normal for a Tarnished to take the strangest route possible? Bai Shi crossed onto the walkway and approached the corpse. The small text that had flashed moments before appeared again, perfectly clear this time. ‘Whiteflesh Mushroom’. Bai Shi picked up a mushroom and held it before his eyes. It's just a mushroom... Bai Shi tossed the mushroom aside, his hopes for finding anything worthwhile in Belurat completely dashed. Why is this place filled with nothing but junk? Bai Shi turned to leave. Just then, a circle of light suddenly appeared at his feet. A small halo of light began to form above his head, preparing to descend. The spell formed so slowly, however, that Bai Shi had already walked out from under it by the time he noticed. Bai Shi peered into a room off to the side of the walkway. There, at the far end of the chamber, stood a Hornsent sorcerer holding a short staff. He was the one waving his staff, casting the strange spell. Bai Shi turned and walked toward him. The Hornsent sorcerer’s legs trembled as he slowly backed away. He waved his staff again and again, repeatedly casting the only spell he seemed to know. But the sluggish incantation did nothing to slow Bai Shi's advance. A Hornsent hiding behind the door lunged from his blind spot. Before the man could even swing his dagger, Bai Shi grabbed him by the head and slammed it into the doorframe. The Hornsent’s skull was instantly obliterated. His dagger clattered to the floor as his headless body slid slowly down the doorframe. The sorcerer inside shrank back in terror. After casting one last spell at Bai Shi, he turned and fled. He leaped out of the room and landed hard on the level below, but he never got back up. A throwing knife had pierced the back of his head and exited through his eye socket, ending his life. It was the same knife Bai Shi had picked up moments before. Bai Shi stood at the edge of the room, looking down at the corpse. This was the second floor of a residence near where he had fought the Hornsent Warrior. Feeling the power well up from the Holy War Medallion, Bai Shi now understood how it worked. He had just taken out two Hornsent in quick succession, but the effect was completely unchanged. The duration was slightly longer than before, however. It seemed killing an enemy simply refreshed the timer. So, no kill-streak bonus... Then again, it was probably too soon to tell. Maybe he just hadn't killed enough yet? Ignoring the body, Bai Shi turned and left. Following the walkway out, he emerged onto a wide road on the upper level of Belurat. A major thoroughfare now stretched out before him, extending in different directions. To the left was a magnificent spiral tower that reached toward the upper levels. To the right, the road continued on, connecting to a network of streets. Bai Shi thought for a moment, then chose to go left. That path clearly led to the highest point of Belurat, which aligned with Leda and Freya's objective. It was also the most likely place to find a powerful enemy. Besides, if he remembered the map correctly, one of Miquella's other crosses was somewhere nearby. Not far down the road, a side path sloped downward, leading to a lift at its end. Spotting the elevator, Bai Shi stepped onto it and rode it down. When he reached the bottom, he found himself behind the sealed main gate of Belurat. The mechanism behind the gate had been pulled, and the heavy doors now stood open. This confirmed it for Bai Shi: Leda and Freya had come this way. Bai Shi activated the lift again and returned to the upper level. He was now close to the tower leading to the summit. As he neared the tower, small scorpions began emerging in droves from between the ruins. The scorpions swarmed toward Bai Shi upon seeing him. Bai Shi unleashed a wave of gravity around himself, and the small creatures were instantly crushed into pulp against the ground. Before entering the tower, Bai Shi decided to investigate the location of Miquella's cross first. It was a good chance to see what part of himself Miquella had abandoned this time. Bai Shi followed the path from his memory of the map, weaving through the ruins beside the tower. He soon entered a narrow doorway nearly buried by rubble. The moment he stepped inside, a swarm of bizarrely-shaped creatures charged him at high speed. Startled by the giant black shadows flying toward his face with flapping wings, Bai Shi reflexively summoned a storm. The wind howled, and the black figures were all slammed against the walls by the fierce gale. Bai Shi took a closer look and saw that they were a swarm of fly-like creatures with human heads and strange limbs. He breathed a sigh of relief. That was a scare. They're just twisted, human-mutated creatures. For a second, I thought they were some kind of super-jumbo-sized cockroaches. Giant, flying cockroaches that aim for your face were one of the creatures from his past life that he least wanted to encounter. Bai Shi carefully examined the humanoid flies he had plastered against the wall. They had been pressed flat by the intense wind pressure, resembling little insect splatters stuck to the wall... Bai Shi shook his head, realizing the imprecision of his wording. No need for 'resembling.' He'd forgotten they were, in fact, flies. These humanoid flies had originally worn tattered rags over their heads, but the storm had torn them away, leaving their corpses fully exposed. He saw that the humanoid flies were emaciated and that their heads retained startlingly Hornsent features, their faces almost entirely unchanged by mutation. The skin on their backs had almost completely disappeared, revealing pale shoulder blades and withered, gray flesh. Up to this point, their structure wasn't too different from that of a normal Hornsent, but below that, their physiology had changed drastically. The torso tapered sharply below the shoulder blades into a narrow, inverted triangle, leaving only a single, exposed spine. A pair of gaunt, secondary limbs had inexplicably appeared on either side of the spine, replacing where the ribs should have been. Beneath flimsy wings, identical to those of a real fly, their twisted legs were equally emaciated, and an insect-like abdomen protruded from their rear. With wings and three pairs of limbs, they were practically indistinguishable from flies, aside from retaining a few humanoid characteristics. Within the room, there were even a few different types of humanoid fly corpses. Some were massive in stature, with enormous skeletal frames. But the insectoid abdomens of these larger corpses had been strangely ruptured, as if something had burst out from within. All of these corpses lay on the floor, their hands invariably covering their faces as if they had died in despair. After observing them for a while, Bai Shi couldn't help but feel a little nauseated. These must have been the strange 'Hornsent' Sir Ansbach had mentioned. He couldn't imagine what had caused such a mutation. And yet, in this room filled with corpses and despair, a part of Miquella's body was hidden. Bai Shi touched Miquella's cross in the room. The inscribed words surfaced in his mind: ‘Here, I divest myself of my left arm.’ Bai Shi gazed at the cross, rubbing his chin. "Last time, he said it was the first flesh he cast off..." "This time it's the left arm? He's being that specific?" "How many pieces does he plan to split himself into?" A question suddenly occurred to Bai Shi. If Miquella dismembered himself bit by bit, would he eventually be just a pair of legs running around? Or, if he was down to just his hands, would Bai Shi get to see a Miquella-special edition 'Fingercreeper'? Leaving the room, Bai Shi saw a small tombstone before him. In front of it lay a lovingly arranged bouquet of dried flowers, from which he could feel a deep sense of mourning. The bouquet had already gained a power of its own, becoming a talisman, though he didn't know its effect. Bai Shi didn't take it, letting it remain as a silent tribute to the deceased. He shook his head at the tombstone and returned to the front of the tower. As soon as he entered, several giant scorpions leaped down from the walls, assailing him from all sides. With a wave of his hand, countless wind blades materialized and sliced them in half. Another scorpion, positioned directly above the entrance, tried to ambush Bai Shi from behind. He easily detected its intent and, without even looking back, crushed it with his control over gravity. Bai Shi's mastery of gravity magic was now quite close to Radahn's level. It was just a shame that Radahn's Great Rune, the one that had granted him immense magic and vitality, was now inert. Otherwise, he might have been able to pilot a rock mecha of his own. After dealing with the scorpions, Bai Shi found a weapon called the Bone Bow in front of a collapsed staircase. As its name suggested, the bow was made of bone. The bones used to craft it were gaunt and gray, with black splotches clinging to them—clearly unhealthy. It looked like the bow couldn't withstand much tension. Perhaps it was some kind of catalyst used for spirit-calling, rather than an ordinary bow. Bai Shi looked up, examining the tower's interior structure. The internal staircase spiraled upwards, but it was now completely broken, the stones and bricks collapsed in a heap before him. The upper levels were relatively intact, but the sections nearby had all fallen away, cutting off access. The gap in the spiral staircase was quite large. Bai Shi wondered if Leda and Freya, their strength suppressed, could have possibly made it up there. In any case, he would go up and take a look first. He could always look for them later. Using gravity magic, Bai Shi floated upwards and reached the upper floor of the tower.