“Unless one of you brats has the same Substitution Blessing that slut has, you can forget about leaving this place. Considering the fact you can’t even access that damned thing without being a Level 1 Missionary… Forget it, it’s like I’m talking to a bunch of pigs.

“The only reason she hasn’t killed you all yet is because you need to be alive to take up the basilisk’s energy. Best believe that after that succubus finishes sucking that Half-Beast mutt dry, we’re all dead.

“FUCK!”

The male Apostle roared, his veins practically popping out of his forehead.

…

A sudden light forced Leonidas to close his eyes.

But, in that very instant, he found himself dropped heavily to the floor, a splatter of hot liquid drenching his face and tunic.

Before Leonidas could understand what was happening, he was pulled up by his collar as though a strung-up chicken and tossed to the side.

When Leonidas finally got a chance to wipe the hot liquid from his face, he found that Jacque and Yako had already been beheaded.

Lady Eve’s sword tore into their chests with deft movements, revealing their still-beating hearts, only for her to cut them out an instant later.

Leonidas watched as Lady Eve plucked these two hearts out as though they were just fruits hanging from a tree. Then, watched in silence as she brought them to an altar.

His pupils constricted when he laid eyes on it. No, it was more like his entire body seized. If he could have still forced his body to move under the presence of the basilisk, at this very moment, he couldn’t move a single finger even if he wanted to.

Standing above the altar was yet another statue, but this one was of a God. Leonidas was certain.

Compared to Yves’ wooden statue, this one was several levels more valuable and by far its superior in size.

The man it depicted had a towering and dark presence. His hands were clasped behind his back, his eyes looking down at the world with an unbridled disdain.

However, what was most important was none of this, but rather the fact that this man was most definitely a Half-Beast. His eyes were a deep black, the fur that covered his long tail and his tall ears matching its tone.

If Leonidas didn’t know why Lady Eve needed him before, he definitely knew now. She wanted to use him to appease this Half-Beast God.

Leonidas’ heart skipped a beat. He didn’t understand enough about what was going on.

Shouldn’t a human killing a Half-Beast in a Half-Beast God’s presence be offending it? Leonidas wanted to cling to this hope, but logic told him that Lady Eve wasn’t enough of a fool to make such a mistake. Or, maybe her goal wasn’t to appease this God at all.

Leonidas didn’t know much about Apostles, but what he did know was that transferring between Gods was impossible. Any attempt to do so would result in one’s Blessings being burnt away. The more powerful an Apostle you were, the more powerful the backlash. And in all cases, it would result in death. The only variable was how much torture you would experience prior.

Gods were too territorial to allow mere mortals they bestowed with power to betray them.

Lady Eve set the hearts down, uncaring for the bloodied state of her hands. This woman’s heart was clearly cold to the bone, she had not a thought for things.

Without a word, she picked Leonidas up by his collar.

“Oh, so is that why?” Lady Eve spoke to herself, realizing that Leonidas was still paralyzed. “So my calculations weren’t off. You couldn’t move because you’re being suppressed and that’s even more the case here, hm? That makes my job easier. It seems that there are consequences for your Half-Beast talent.”

Lady Eve seemed to be speaking more to herself than Leonidas. As for whether Leonidas had talent or not, she didn’t care. Anything that wasn’t her own power was meaningless.

She wasn’t foolish enough to try to leave Yves to worship another God. Such a thing was suicide.

However, Abandoned Shrines like this one were extraordinarily valuable. If she gave this place to Yves as an offering, she would likely be able to promote from a Level 2 Missionary up several Levels.

The issue was that handing over an Abandoned Shrine as an offering wasn’t something someone at her Level could accomplish. She would have to invite a Level 7 Priest over because only they could build a Temporary Shrine in this place. Only then would an Avatar of Yves be capable of descending and absorbing the Blessings left here.

For one, this would require her to travel from their Sub-Shrine located in Violet Waters, to Yves’ Primary Shrine. Secondly, she would then have to entrust her findings to someone who was capable of contacting a Level 7 Priest. After all, who was she as a Level 2 Missionary to contact such a person? To the current her, such an existence was untouchable. And finally, she would then be forced to split a large majority of the Blessings with this Priest.

Even if in all this, Lady Eve managed to survive the long journey, then didn’t get conned or betrayed by the Apostles of the Primary Shrine in the face of such wealth, she would still be unwilling to give up all her hard work to someone who had done nothing but show up. She refused!

However, there was another way.

Long after a God had faded, their lingering influence and consciousness would remain. This wasn’t enough to do much and couldn’t exhibit real power. However, what it could do was continue to maintain whatever Exchange remained.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

This God, who went by a name that had faded to the annals of history, was one that favored Blood Sacrifices. Those Gods that had altars as opposed to wells like Yves, were all like this.

The value of a Blood Sacrifice would be decided by the strength of the ones being sacrificed and the kind of blood being offered. Gods always had their own preferences and this was exactly why Leonidas was brought.

It might seem counterintuitive to sacrifice a Half-Beast to a Half-Beast God, but these were exactly the kind of offerings these sadistic Gods wanted.

If this worked well, Lady Eve had one more Substitution Doll. She would use it to kill the male Apostle and sacrifice him along with Leonidas’ blood as well.

Whatever offerings she received from this, she would hand over to Yves and continue to accumulate her merits. Though she could have promoted to Level 3 Missionary long ago, she had her own reasons for not doing so and this would be a perfect opportunity to take a further step toward achieving her goals.

Her plan had been, originally, to keep this Abandoned Shrine hidden and continuously benefit from it. But, it was obvious that the Ogres had found it now and this was no longer an option. In that case, she would take everything she could get now.

Leonidas was forced onto the altar. He could feel the hot blood soaking through his back, the uncomfortable moistness and the slight twitching of his hearts making him clutch his jaw even harder.

No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t find a way out of this. Beneath the suppression of the statue, he couldn’t even fight back.

‘How is this a God for Half-Beasts if your people can’t even move here?!’ Leonidas lost his cool, his thoughts beginning to rage.

It was at that moment that Lady Eve tore his tunic open. But, as she did so, his mother’s letter happened to get caught.

Leonidas’ crimson irises finally flashed with emotion.

When he saw Lady Eve twirling the letter between her fingers and even opening it, it felt as though hot coals had been hammered into his heart.

Lady Eve seemed to notice the fury that suddenly lit Leonidas’ eyes. For a person who hardly showed reaction regardless of the situation, such an emotion was something she never thought she would see from him. For a moment, it caught her off guard.

When she opened and saw the contents of the letter, she simply threw it to the floor. What good was such a letter to Leonidas now? It wasn’t like her treating it with care would suddenly change her mind about killing him. Since he was going to die anyway, what was the point?

Leonidas’ gaze followed his mother’s letter fluttering to the ground. As much as he wanted to reach out toward it, there wasn’t anything he could do.

Leonidas looked up toward Eve who now towered above him. If looks could kill, he would have already torn her to shreds.

In all the fantasy novels Leonidas had read, it would be at this very moment that the hero of the tale rose up and broke past his limits, teaching his enemy a lesson they would remember even in death.

However, Leonidas received none of this. All he got was a sword right through the chest.

Leonidas’ mouth spluttered, violet-red blood spilling over and pooling onto the altar.

Lady Eve emotionlessly stood above him, waiting patiently. She didn’t even bother to look Leonidas in the eye, all she cared about were the changes that would occur to the Shrine soon afterward. Yet, as the seconds ticked by, her face couldn’t help but give way to a frown.

Why was nothing happening?

Lady Eve’s frown deepened. Looking down at Leonidas, her brow creased when she saw the odd color of his blood.

At first, she hadn’t thought much of it. After all, the only Half-Beast she had ever ‘seen’ was in the form of a statue, whether it be Yves or this forgotten God’s. So, she had never had the opportunity to see their blood before.

But the only creatures Lady Eve had ever seen to have violet blood were Ogres. Though Leonidas’ blood wasn’t nearly as violet and was even redder than it was purple, it was still tinged oddly.

After coming to this point, Lady Eve suddenly thought of Leonidas’ uncharacteristically heavy weight. Then she noticed that while Yves and this forgotten God had tall, furry ears, Leonidas’ ears looked more like an elf’s. As though this wasn’t enough, she then noticed that Leonidas’ tail was far longer than both Yves and this forgotten God and his stature was far taller in proportion to the two of them as well.

When the realization hit Lady Eve, Leonidas suddenly released a low, baritone chuckle.

Laughter wasn’t something Leonidas did, but he had to admit that this situation was quite funny. Even as he felt his life slipping from him, he couldn’t help but see the irony of it all.

“I guess … your forgotten God… doesn’t want the blood… of a half-breed mut…”

Lady Eve’s gaze finally flashed with a hint of fury. She could tell that Leonidas was mocking her. But, how could she punish an already dying man any more? Even if she tried to torture him now, that would only last at best a few more seconds. There was no one that could survive a pierced heart, even she would have no choice but to die at that point.

By this point, Lady Eve’s face had darkened considerably.

She had never expected that Leonidas was only a half-breed. Humans were the ruling race of their small town, they only chose to worship Yves because they had no other options and could only make do. There were no Half-Beasts among the upper class at all.

But, this wasn’t even the real problem. Lady Eve had wanted to use Leonidas’ blood to bolster the Blessings she received, not trigger them. Even if Leonidas’ blood was as pure as this God wanted, shouldn’t there at least be some reaction to sacrificing the hearts of two strong Knights?

Could it be that this God’s consciousness had already completely faded? Or was Leonidas right and it felt insulted by such an offering?

To Yves, the life of a Knight of an opposing God would still be worth at least one Blessing unit. The sacrifice of two as powerful as Jacques and Yako would be worth five or six. This alone would be worth 6000 silvers! And, the Blessings it could buy were worth far more than this.

Lady Eve had no way of knowing how other Gods did things, but a single unit of Blessings should be practically universal from her understanding. Even high-level Gods would need to provide to their lower-level Apostles, so the threshold couldn’t possibly vary by much.

So why was this happening?!

Unfortunately, Lady Eve felt she already had the answer… It was just that she didn’t want to admit that her hard work of several months had all been for naught.

She felt sick to her stomach. She had invested so much into this, hundreds of Blessing Units just into that useless nephew of hers alone. Yet, it was all squandered.

She had bought three Sacrifice Dolls, each of which was worth 10 units of Blessings. She had promoted her nephew to a Paladin, that alone was worth 100 units of Blessings. Then there was all the time she had spent researching Blood Sacrifice Gods and learning about petrification statues.

All this time… Wasted!

“FUCK!”

Lady Eve ripped her sword out from Leonidas’ chest, her fury palpable. She couldn’t even come here at a future date due to the location being exposed, but who even cared if nothing here worked properly?!

Leonidas fell into another violent fit of coughing, blood flooding from his mouth. But, Lady Eve didn’t even spare him a glance as she turned away, moving to leave this Abandoned Shrine altogether.

“… Fuck you.” Leonidas squeezed out.

Lady Eve’s steps didn’t even pause as her figure vanished.

Leonidas’ head turned toward the direction of his mother’s letter.

He knew his true heart hadn’t been pierced, but at some point… did it make a difference? This wasn’t the same short knife Lacroix had used, this was a sword that ran through his entire body. Soon, second heart or not, he would die.

Leonidas’ vision blurred, his mother’s letter doubling and tripling in his sight.

How laughable. He hadn’t even managed to survive his second step. This world was indeed cruel.

What Leonidas couldn’t see was that a spirit had long since appeared above him. In fact, it had been there for several minutes already, yet not even Lady Eve had noticed.

It silently stood there, its hands clasped behind its back, its expression unmoved.