I upgraded and added points in the Holy Inquisition

This time the explosion did not produce a particularly exaggerated effect. It simply completely engulfed the entire settlement and failed to create a large desolate dead land like last time.

But the noise caused was still loud enough to alarm the third priest who was far away in the suburbs.

In the center of a luxurious manor, a dead tree over ten meters high suddenly moved, and began to slowly turn its branches, "looking" in the direction of the settlement.

The entire body of this tree is composed of a gray stratum corneum and connective tissue that looks like withered flesh and blood. Each branch is composed of bones, nerve bundles, tentacles, limbs and other structures, which looks particularly strange and curious.

And on the tops of the branches and on the surface of the dead gray tree trunk, you can see various human faces, including men, women, young and old, as if they had been skinned alive and embedded into the tree trunk or hung on the branches.

It was impossible to count how many there were. I could only hear them making different sounds, which came together to form an indescribable sound, as if many different people were speaking in unison.

"Oh? An invader from the real world?"

Through the vision provided by those human faces, the third priest seemed to have caught something.

But the next second, its sight suddenly blurred, and it instantly came to the edge of a lake with beautiful scenery, singing birds and blooming flowers.

Clearly, this is a sign of visual disturbance.

But the third priest remained calm and showed no sign of anxiety. All the faces spoke calmly:

"It seems that I guessed wrong. It was a dagger from behind... Did someone think that I am weak now and couldn't wait to replace me?"

"What a pity... it's too weak!"

After saying that, the branches made up of monster limbs suddenly extended out and turned into sharp black arrows, piercing into a ball of air beside the lake.

Puff~Puff~

In the air that should have been empty, there were several dull sounds of sharp blades piercing flesh.

The third priest's vision immediately returned to normal and he was back in the familiar courtyard.

And from the air that had attacked previously, a cockroach-like humanoid monster emerged. It had been completely pierced by the tree branches and was nailed to the spot, unable to move.

"Who sent you? The fifth priest?"

The third priest asked in unison, and then controlled the branches made of several arthropods, slowly rotating them, causing the cockroach monster to emit a series of shrill roars.

"Oh? You're still a tough guy? Then don't blame me for being cruel... Hmm? Wait! That's not right!"

The third priest seemed to have sensed something, and several branches suddenly exerted force, first tearing the cockroach monster into pieces. Then, all the human faces all over the body let out a shrill scream at the same time, forming a sharp sound wave that spread in all directions.

The human face on its trunk also began to show fine cracks until it completely shattered and peeled off from the trunk.

The third priest's sight reappeared and he returned to the familiar courtyard for the second time.

Those faces looked at an empty corner nearby at the same time and discovered something hiding there.

Several tree branches poked out again, directly surrounding the entire corner of the wall.

"caught you!"

"Uh... ah!"

Following a dull sound of a body being pierced, a scream was heard in the air from the corner of the wall.

Then, a figure emerged from it, with several branches stuck in his body and covered in scars.

Although he was still struggling, he was completely unable to break free, which only increased his pain and caused streaks of cold sweat to appear on his face.

"He is actually a human? A human who has mastered the power of [Distortion]? This is really rare..."

As the third priest spoke, he took back the branch and brought the person wearing the clothes on it in front of him and examined him carefully.

The man had the appearance of a middle-aged man with a beard. His face had turned pale with pain, and streams of blood were flowing out along the branches that had pierced his body, forming a pool of blood at his feet.

"There are no signs of abnormalities in the body, which means there is no backlash or influence from the distortion. This is truly miraculous..."

"Just let me see how you did it."

As the third priest spoke, he waved a branch made up of bundles of nerves, and the branch spread out into clusters of flowers made up of fine tentacles, like a jellyfish, wrapping around the man's head.

Then, the tiny tentacles split into smaller and finer shapes, like strands of hair, piercing the man's skin and extending towards his brain.

The man completely lost the ability to struggle in an instant, and his body could only twitch as a conditioned reflex.

But just when the tentacles were about to touch his brain, the third priest suddenly stopped.

"No...it's still not right..."

After saying that, the human faces on its body raised up again and let out another sharp scream like before, creating even sharper sound waves that swept around.

This time, the five human images on it became fragmented, peeled off the tree trunk, and shattered into debris on the ground.

So the third priest's vision changed again, and he returned to his familiar courtyard for the third time.

This time, it fully learned from its previous lessons and no longer used human eyes to search. Instead, it controlled them to close together, and then let the nerve bundle branch release more and finer tentacles, until they were completely invisible to the naked eye, quietly exploring the surroundings.

Soon, these tiny tentacles seemed to touch something and then lost control in an instant.

"here!"

The attacking branch stabbed out again.

However, it was not as easy to succeed as the previous two times. Instead, a clever force deflected the direction of the attack.

"Interesting, you are the most special prey I have ever seen, and the most powerful. If it were those other losers who can only chant and pretend, I'm afraid you would have succeeded..."

"But unfortunately, you chose the wrong opponent this time."

The third priest was talking to himself when he suddenly waved his bony tentacles and stabbed them into the ground.

Huge white bones immediately rose from the ground on all sides, completely surrounding the entire courtyard and blocking all retreat routes.

Then, the branch that looked like an octopus tentacle began to flutter and wave, causing bursts of fire and explosions to burst out in the air around it. From time to time, electric currents passed through the air, and the ground underfoot began to become soft and sticky, like a dangerous quagmire that one could not get out of if they fell into it.

Those segmented branches were not idle either, but stretched out violently and began to chase the enemy following the guidance of the tiny tentacles.

"You are indeed quite capable and can seize the initiative before me. However, how long can your spiritual power last? How long can you continue to interfere with me?"

The faces of the third priest all showed a hideous smile, and then screamed in unison again.

This time, twenty faces on his body were shattered into pieces.

The third priest felt that he had returned to the familiar courtyard for the fourth time.

But the previous offensive showed no signs of abating, and it continued to attack madly, not giving the enemy any chance to breathe.

It also took advantage of this gap to prepare its fifth scream.

"It's the fourth floor. Next, it's the last floor."

As another round of screams sounded, a hundred faces on its body disappeared at once, but it opened its eyes again and looked at Lloyd who was standing not far away and breathing slightly.

"Huh~ I have to admit, you are indeed more difficult to deal with than the previous monster. You can actually get rid of my [Distortion] by constantly destroying yourself."

Lloyd commented pertinently.

The third priest stared at him closely and asked in confusion:

"You... are the followers of that evil god's offspring, right? You have been able to go so far on the path of [Distortion]? Even in terms of attainments and understanding, you are a bit better than me. It seems that the offspring is particularly fond of you."

"Ha~"

Lloyd just smiled disdainfully without answering, and disappeared from the other party's sight.

But the third priest said calmly:

"It's useless. You know nothing about my power, and your spiritual power is almost gone. Just surrender. I still have some interest in you, so I won't kill you for the time being."

However, just as the words fell, an entire segmented branch on its body shattered and turned into debris all over the ground.

"Oh? You know you can't interfere with my thinking, so you switched to physical attacks? Haha~ Naive thinking."

The third priest spoke in unison, and the branches that had just been broken down grew back in an instant, and then continued to wave, stabbing towards the place where Lloyd had just disappeared.

The tentacle that could control various elemental forces released attacks at a higher frequency, continuously consuming Lloyd's spiritual power, forcing him to consume more spiritual power to reverse these attacks. He had no chance to stand still and distort his mind again.

"How long can you hold on without interfering with my thoughts and perceptions? I'm giving you one last chance to beg for mercy. Please note that my patience has a limit."

The third priest said in unison.

Lloyd's answer was a little strange:

"That's enough..."

After saying that, several strange steel needles suddenly flew out of the air, pierced the third priest's trunk, and sank deeply into it.

The faces on the tree trunks quickly looked down, revealing a look of surprise.

Obviously, he didn't expect that his defense would be broken by the opponent's physical defense, and in such a relatively easy way.

In fact, after it completely broke free from its distorted thinking, it did not allocate its strength to attack, but instead focused more on protecting itself.

In this way, even if Lloyd intends to attack its body, he will have to spend more spiritual power to break its defense.

And its spiritual power can almost be said to be endless.

At the same time, its physical strength far exceeds that of ordinary monsters. Even the sharpest weapons cannot leave any marks on the surface of the trunk. It has a strong defense that is almost immune to physical attacks.

So if it keeps consuming like this, it will definitely win.

But those steel needles easily broke through the force it used to twist and attack, and pierced into its body easily as if it were tofu.

This indeed gave the third priest a great shock.

Unfortunately……

The steel needle is too thin and the damaging force is not enough.

It can repair this little damage in a breath.

However, just as it was about to repair its injuries and squeeze the steel needles out of its body, it discovered that at the end of the steel needles, there was a very unique force connected to it, like a long and thin tentacle.

what is this?

The third priest was a little confused.

I heard Lloyd say:

“I hope you can appreciate this wave of language art.”

Then, there was a burst of gibberish in a language that the third priest could not understand at all, spoken at an astonishing speed.

The third priest didn't even know what language this was, he just vaguely felt that the other party seemed to be scolding him and his parents?

It didn't quite understand why the other party would choose to curse at this time.

But the next second, it 'saw' a huge wave, with enough momentum to destroy the world, sweeping towards it.

Strictly speaking, this is not what it sees, but what it feels.

The huge waves are not made up of water, but a huge torrent composed of various knowledge.

A powerful [distortion] system may be able to [distort] many things.

But the one thing that cannot be distorted is knowledge.

Under the impact of this huge wave, the countless human faces on the tree trunks suddenly broke into pieces like foam in the water and completely dissolved into it.

The entire trunk became bare in the blink of an eye.

The various tentacles on its body also ceased to exist, and began to shrink and wither at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The third priest had long lost his sense of pain, but at this moment, he truly felt the long-lost pain.

Under the impact of this torrent of knowledge, its vision blurred again, and it came from the familiar courtyard to a dead and silent wasteland.

But this time, it was not an illusion caused by [distorted] vision.

Rather, it is a piece of information hidden in the torrent of knowledge.

The third priest felt as if he had turned back into his human form in a trance, small and fragile. Standing in this dead and silent wasteland, he seemed to have lost the ability to think and could only look around in confusion and helplessness.

It saw tall spiral towers rising up, supporting the gray sky above.

It saw a mountain that looked like a throne, on which sat a noble and great being, whose figure was shrouded in the mist of the mountains and could not be seen clearly.

"What's this?"

The third priest asked with his remaining rationality.

The next second, its eyes went dark, and it fell into eternal silence, falling into the abyss of chaos.