She did not speak.
She only lifted her tiny gel hand.
Holy Light burst forth like the morning sun, emitting warmth and radiance that drove away the darkness that had enveloped the Slime worshippers.
The followers bathed in the light felt warmth spread through their bodies, as if standing under a spring sun; the chill and exhaustion that had been gnawing at them vanished completely.
At the same time, Lya was resurrected again, letting out a “heave” as she pulled herself up from the ground and brushed the dust from her hands.
Then she raised Illumination and, in one sweep, pushed the shadows back onto the street.
The two sides fell into a stalemate once more.
The New Sun cultists watching the scene had long since gone numb.
At this point, even if something strange suddenly popped up, they would probably no longer be surprised.
Slimes that radiated holy light, priests who could never die… how did such a group end up full of extraordinary figures?
The cultists exchanged glances, seeing each other’s hesitation and unwillingness, but above all they felt powerless about the situation before them.
They began to manipulate the shadows in secret, preparing to shrink their defensive line and slip into the darkness when the chance arose.
But to everyone’s surprise, the shadow that cloaked the city suddenly surged and churned violently.
A streak of swordlight flashed across the sky. It was neither blinding nor ostentatious, it simply sliced through the air quietly.
The curtain of shadow tore open.
Like a black silk being ripped down the middle, the real sky was revealed.
The tear widened and deepened until the shadow relic itself was split in two. The shadow that shrouded all of Darkness City slowly began to dissipate, revealing the dull, lifeless mushroom houses and streets beneath.
“The shadow’s been split?”
Casimir looked up toward the sky, toward the source of the swordlight.
A jade-green slime was floating in midair, a deep red little cloak fluttering in the night breeze like a waving banner.
It was Chen Yu — their Majesty had returned.
“King, it’s the King!” Slime citizens leapt up in joy.
At the same moment, Little Ka’s massive dragon body flew through the rent in the shadow curtain, followed by the snow eagle Penny.
Nilly crouched on Penny’s back, arms folded, looking down from above.
Beside her, Sekashi lifted her staff to act, Semiaya expressionless as she swept a cold glance over the panicked cultists below.
Further away, Yano returned with the Gargoyle Legion; those gargoyles surged into the city like a black tide, their crimson eyes flashing in the dark, sharp stone claws ripping apart any enemy daring to resist.
On the ground, led by Peachy’s snorting charge, the Magical Creature Legion began reclaiming the city.
“It’s over.”
The cultists’ faces drained of color, their minds occupied by only that thought.
They tried to flee into the shadows, but a suddenly appearing black slime squashed them out like a belly bump, sending them sprawling. Before they could get up, they were surrounded by Slime guards.
Countless short swords were pressed to their throats.
“Gulr!” The lead Slime guard let out a dignified cry.
The cultists looked at one another, then raised their hands to surrender one by one.
The shadow over Darkness City had finally been torn apart.
The mushroom houses began to glow again. The light was dimmer than before, but it was there.
The reversal happened so quickly that it wasn’t until the Magical Creature Legion began sweeping the city that the surviving citizens, adventurers, and merchants realized what had happened. They embraced and wept, grateful to be alive.
“Martha, does our promise still count?”
“Of course.”
“Oh no, the coins I hid under the bed—”
“Thank the King, thank Bishop Lya…”
People celebrated this moment, but not everyone was lost in the joy of survival.
The Slime guards carried those who had been shrouded in shadow back to the cemetery. Some clutched the lifeless bodies of relatives and friends, wailing uncontrollably in grief.
Watching the mourners, Lya’s earlier joy faded; her small face showed worry.
She hesitated, then cradling Rem carefully, stepped toward the area where shadow still lingered and reached out to touch it tentatively.
Light glowed from her fingertip, dispelling the last stubborn dark patch.
With a muffled thud, a heavy, dark-gold object dropped out from the dissipating shadow and nearly hit Lya’s instep, making her jump back a step in fright.
“What is that?”
Chen Yu had just landed and looked over with curiosity.
Only then did he realize it was a holy chalice.
A golden chalice, its body engraved with intricate patterns and eerie symbols. It was not large—slightly smaller than Lya’s head—but so heavy it split the floor where it landed.
Casimir walked over, first bowing respectfully to the floating Chen Yu, then fixing his gaze on the dark-gold chalice. Thought flickered in his blood-red eyes.
“Your Majesty, this should be the relic those shadow cultists relied on, the vessel that carries their faith and power.”
“Relic?”
Chen Yu hopped over, his gel body floating slightly as he peered curiously into the cup.
Inside the rim, a tiny world was faintly visible.
It was a pitch-black wasteland. There were no stars, no moon—only a black sun hung high in the sky.
The black sun emitted an uncanny, dim light that shrouded the land in dead gray silence.
Countless silhouettes wandered the wasteland in a daze.
Heads down, backs bowed, they shuffled forward step by step. No one spoke, no one looked up, not even at each other; they moved like walking corpses, merely mechanical in motion.
As they walked, wisps of barely perceptible black vapor rose from above their heads, slowly drifting upward to merge with the black sun.
This was...
Those whose lives had been taken by the shadow?
Wait... this thing feels eerily familiar to something he had seen before.
The more he looked, the more it rang a bell.
The world inside the chalice, a false heaven and earth...
Chen Yu’s mind snapped into realization.
This was the World Tree in a Bottle.
Damage control: Xu Xuan Heaven had been plagiarized.
These New Sun cultists had actually learned the essence of that trick.
“Relic?” Li Ye leaned in on tiptoe to look, “What’s in it?”
She peered for a few seconds, then suddenly cried out, “People! So many people!”
Tam bounded over too, landing on Lya’s shoulder and poking his head in to look.
“Tam, don’t fall in,” Nilly teased, scaring him.
Startled, Tam clung to her neck, then asked with a puzzled expression, “Are those people dead or alive?”
“They’re probably souls,” Casimir said. “Imprisoned within this relic, feeding the black sun.”
“How can we free them?” Sekashi and Semiaya moved closer as well.
Nilly thought for a moment, then slapped her palm once. “Why not just tip the chalice over and pour them out?”
Casimir said gravely, “In many sectarian texts, an inverted chalice often signifies overturning, blasphemy, loss of grace, or the arrival of catastrophe. Acting rashly could have unforeseen consequences.”
Nilly pouted. “Then what do we do? We can’t just leave it.”
Silence fell upon them.
Just then, Lya, cradling Rem, stepped forward and volunteered.
“Your Majesty, I can try.”
“For these innocent people, even if I die once—no, twice—wait, twice might be too few, then three times. Dying three times would be worth it.”
Chen Yu did not respond. Instead his gaze dropped to Rem in her arms.
The pale-gold slime lay quietly in Lya’s embrace, blinking its little green-bean eyes at him.
Chen Yu cocked his head. “Is this the Bishop Rem you spoke of?”
Lya nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, Bishop Rem is very strong. She saved everyone just now.”
Rem looked bewildered, as if she remembered nothing of what had just occurred.
Chen Yu was still puzzled. He felt the faith-light around this slime was not as intense as Casimir’s, yet he could indeed sense a saintly glow in it.
Strange.
After thinking a moment, he asked, “Do you remember what happened just now?”
Rem blinked, tried to recall carefully, then shook her head in confusion.
He looked back at Lya. “Lya, what were you doing at the time?”
“I was driving away the shadow,” Lya answered. “Then Rem suddenly floated up and became really powerful.”
After asking around and learning the sequence of events, Chen Yu formed a hypothesis.
This slime was likely not an innate clergy member; another consciousness was probably inside its body.
That consciousness awakened after encountering Lya, appearing at crucial moments to help Rem through danger.
This could explain why she easily took on the priestly mantle and even transformed into a holy-light slime.
However, Chen Yu didn’t yet know this “holy spirit’s” identity or how to communicate with it proactively. He could only instruct Casimir to pay more attention and guide it.
Looking at Lya and then at the holy-light-glowing slime in her arms, he felt a certain bittersweet amusement.
The Great Slime Religion really had all sorts of strange members.
A vampire zealot.
An unlucky Undying.
A slime harboring a mysterious inner consciousness.
What had once seemed like a child’s game of pretend was, in an unexpected way, becoming increasingly legitimate.
As he watched, Li Ye put Rem down and stepped forward, standing before the chalice.
“Your Majesty, may I try?” she asked, glancing back.
Chen Yu thought for a moment, then nodded. “Go ahead. You can’t die from it anyway.”
The others stepped back, leaving Li Ye alone before the chalice.
She took a deep breath and approached cautiously, tapping the chalice’s surface quickly with a finger as she had touched the shadow earlier, then withdrawing her hand.
Nothing happened.
The chalice stood silently; the dark world inside continued to turn slowly.
Growing bolder, Li Ye tried again—tapping, lightly knocking, even attempting to pour some holy light into it.
Still no response; the chalice behaved like a lifeless object.
“Huh?” Li Ye tilted her head in confusion. “Why isn’t it reacting? Weird.”
Chen Yu suddenly had a thought.
This relic seemed tied to the shadow...
He looked at Nilly. “Why not have your little coalball try?”
Nilly instantly hugged her shadow slime protectively and shook her head. “No way, no way. What if little coalball gets swallowed by that stupid chalice? No, I won’t let that happen.”
Yet the shadow slime in her arms had been restless since the chalice appeared. It poked out its head and gazed toward the chalice on the ground with curious little eyes.
“Little coalball?” Nilly looked down.
Then she felt an empty space in her arms.
The little black slime slipped out like a shadow, spreading as it crawled toward the chalice.
“Little coalball!” Nilly cried out.
But it was too late.
The shadow slime reached the chalice, touched the rim with a gel hand, and was sucked into the chalice.
“It’s over, my little coalball!” Nilly screamed, lunging to the chalice and peering inside desperately.
Chen Yu hopped over and leaned to look into the rim.
Inside the chalice’s dark world, the little coalball hit the ground and began to expand uncontrollably.
Ten meters, a hundred meters, a thousand—
In the blink of an eye, its body became a continuous mountain range stretching across the entire wasteland.
The dazed souls who had been shuffling along finally stopped and lifted their heads to stare at the suddenly towering behemoth.
Even the black sun in the sky seemed threatened; its light began to falter and flicker.
The little coalball raised its head and looked toward the black sun. Its belly bulged.
Bigger and bigger.
Then, flapping its tiny gel hands, it floated up and adjusted its direction. The enormous body slowly rose, inching closer to the black sun.
With every inch it neared, the sun’s glow dimmed a bit, and the black vapors floating from the souls began to falter and fail to merge into the sun.
The black sun trembled.
Not a flicker—an actual tremor.
Like prey being eyed by a hunter.
The little coalball climbed higher and higher until, at last, it opened its mouth and swallowed the black sun in one bite.
The entire world shook violently.
The souls let out voiceless wails and looked up; the wasteland began to collapse, the sky splintered, and the whole false world teetered on the brink of ruin.
In the end, only a single jet-black slime remained in the sky, blinking an eye.
It let out a satisfied belch.
“Fuu—”
That sound, like the voice of creation, reverberated through the world inside the chalice and then pierced the rim, reaching the outside.
Nilly stood dumbfounded at the chalice’s edge, watching with her mouth wide enough to fit an egg.
“Little coalball... ate the sun?”
Silence fell among them.
After a while, Sekashi whispered, “So little coalball became the sun?”
No one answered her.
None of them knew what to say.
Nilly still leaned there, staring into the chalice in a daze.
“Um...” Chen Yu began.
Nilly looked up, her eyes vacant as she glanced at him.
Chen Yu paused, then said slowly, “Your little coalball seems to have been promoted.”
Nilly: “...”