Cthulhu Gonfalon Chapter 98

Liv fell deep in her thoughts for a while then sighed.

"... It is a long story !"

As she was sure that they were friends who she could trust, she didn’t continue hiding, but told them the whole story.

About five years ago, the church of the Nobility God had sent a powerful priest, whose schemes were very high-grade, to strengthen their influence in the Golden Tower city.

The Nobility God was an active member in the Human God system. Although this God’s rank was not high, the new goddess, who had been canonized for more than two hundred years, was very proactive to develop her religion. On one hand, her church increased their cooperation with the adventurers. On the other hand, they made use of the advantageous position of their nobility to overthrow the church organizations of other Gods, gaining dominance in many areas.

But this Nobility God also had rivals. No need to mention those who were far away, but even in the Human God system, there was a God who had a pretty intense relationship with her; the God of Knight and Exploitation.

In terms of God Power and prestige, the Knight God was a veteran powerhouse in the Human God system. He had been canonized for several thousand years. His seniority was even older than the current God’s King in the Human God system. He stood for the exploitation and the protection of the human military. In ancient times, he was once a God’s King in the Human God system. The reason for the decrease in his power afterward was because of the constant development of human society. Many new Gods continuously appeared, dividing his field and clergy, and thinning out his religion.

But even so, he was still much stronger than the Noble God.

The powers between Gods could not be decided by the victory of their churches in the mortal world. Due to the born status of the knights, they were always pushed down by nobility. Therefore, the church of the Knight God was the same way; in a disadvantageous position. They almost became the vassal for the church of the Nobility God. Only in a few exploited territories was the influence of the vagrant knights and the church of the Knight God not able to be suppressed.

The evangelization of the Nobility God’s church usually started from the invasion and occupation of the Knight God’s church. There wasn’t an exception in the Golden Tower city.

Facing the imperious provocation from the Nobility God’s church, as the most prestigious knight in the Golden Tower city who didn’t follow any King, Parn the Knight naturally became the main tower of strength in the Knight God’s church to fight against the invasion. He was the leader of the mortal influence of the Knight Church, destroying schemes of the Nobility God’s church one by one, firmly keeping the religion’s territory. Regardless of tricks that the newly arrived Priest of the Nobility God’s church would play, from the beginning to the end, he wasn’t able to take the upper hand.

This situation had been dragged on for three years, long until one thing occurred "out of expectation".

Around two years ago, a merchant with many assets from doing business for many years in the area decided to take part in a big transaction. He had prepared a large number of magic materials----the devil beasts, which he had chosen himself, were intended to be moved by sea to the Blue Moon Kingdom on the east mainland, trading with the Garles city, which specialized in producing bay leaves (a type of edible mid-level spice).

Trading spices and some magic materials had all along been the most profitable transaction. The danger was no doubt the biggest as well. More than half of this kind of business required one to go far distances. Storms on the sea, giant sea creatures, as well as the densely packed number of pirates could lead to the tragic outcome of destroyed boats and dead people. To make sure the transaction was safe, that merchant had sent the invitation widely. Almost all the reliable adventurers in the Golden Tower city were invited at once. In the end, more than ten masters, including Parn the Knight, decided to join this transaction. Following the suggestion of that merchant, they took out almost all their saved properties to buy magic material to set off together.

Normally, with the protection from so many masters, as well as several abundantly experienced captains whom the merchant had specially invited, the safety of his boat was pretty high. But for some unknown reason, when their boat passed the Iron Cliff mountain range- "Great Desolate Horn" in the southeast coastal, they encountered a terrorist devil creature, "Undercurrent" - Tim Thrall.

"Undercurrent" Tim Thrall was the most frightening as well as the most dangerous sea creature in the Southeast Coastal, which was known as the nightmare on the sea. Almost any boat encountering it couldn’t survive.

It was said that in ancient times, there was a mighty Semi-God named "Living tsunami" Sarah Clement. She was the incarnation of the storm and raging wave, one of the terrifying lords on sea, but was defeated in the battle against the Wind God. Its terror and resentment which was accumulated for countless years had torn its Semi-God body in half, turning into the "Raging tide" Sarah Heim and "Undercurrent" Tim Thrall.

"Raging tide" Sarah Heimm was a violent and rational Semi-God. It liked to wander around near the shore. Whenever people saw the sudden howling wind and torrential rain coming over along with huge ocean tides, which swiped off all the deolate beaches and isolated islands, they immediately knew it was coming. At that time, people usually made offerings to ask for its blessings. This kind of prayer only stood one-third the chance of receiving a response. But when Sarah Heim responded to everyone’s prayer, it would stop playing, and protect the sea area from the danger of demons and ghosts and attack from the storms. After about one or two years, it would float off in gale and heavy rain, heading to some unknown places.

"Undercurrent" Tim Thrall was exactly the opposite. It was just a monster, which only knew how to destroy and kill. There was absolutely no way to communicate with it. Every time it showed up, there would be a huge decadent ice-cold shadow that swept across the bottom of the sea. Countless departed spirits and immortal creatures would surround it; crazily attacking all the creatures on the surface of the sea, pulling them into the dead abyss. It left no trace of its coming and going, no sign of its action. Whenever people noticed a dark sky and the sea water below turning pitch-black, it was normally too late to escape from its devil hands.

When the fleet of ships of Parn the Knight encountered this frightening creature, they put all their might into fighting. In the end, there was still only one boat that found a way to escape. And the other remaining boats, including the flagship (at that moment, that merchant was on the flagship) and the boat which had Parn the Knight could not escape and were buried in the seabed. The advanced priest of the Nobility God’s church was also among the fleet. People said that he had been planning a scheme at the back all along. Even though he had fought bravely at that time, he still could not save his own life.

Around one year ago, the lucky boat fled to the Mystique Tower Federation. The trading route had been established. All the merchants on the sea could reap tremendous profits later on. But those that had gone to explore the way had already died and could never come back.

When the bad news spread to the Golden Tower city, about one-fourth of the families fell into miserable situations. But before people could recover from their loss, the Nobility God’s church suddenly came out, and brought up many signed agreements to collect debts.

According to the agreement, the adventurers, including Parn the Knight, had joined this trip by the "donate shares" method. If they could earn money, they could rely on the share right to divide the commission. If they lost, of course, the compensation was divided by the share right.

Honestly, this agreement was not wrong either. But it wasn’t until that moment that everyone discovered that the merchant had borrowed a huge amount from the Nobility God. It was a frightening number!

According to the agreement, the group of Parn the Knight had many share rights. Hence the compensation was big as well. For a long time, due to the loss of the capital from the accident on the sea, all the families were no longer able to find such a large amount of money. They immediately fell into a plight.

The people of the Nobility God’s church didn’t have good men or trustable women. They immediately went to knock on the doors of the each family to collect the debt. There were even two families of adventurers that were under so much financial pressure that they committed suicide. The other remaining families were forced to sign an agreement, betraying their own religions and labor forces to become the subordinates for the Nobility God’s church.

The arrow on the corner of the house of Parn the Knight was caused by the conflict between Liv and the dunners. The trace was left behind to threaten her.

Luckily, some families, including the family of Parn the Knight, still had some connections. At that time, an advanced shaman had stepped out to persuade the Nobility God’s church. In the end, they bitterly agreed to give Parn the Knight’s family a little more time, but each day had to be counted as interest!

To pay off the debt, Liv became an adventurer with the sons and daughters from the families which were also in debt. They established a group of adventurers that tried to hunt dangerous devil creatures to earn money to pay the debt. However, at this moment, the Nobility God’s church had used a commercial scheme to lower the buying price of the magic materials in the city. On normal days, they had to risk their lives fighting for one day and one night. Yet, their income was not even enough to pay the interest!

Under such a situation, without a doubt, those young boys and girls gradually became fretful. In the meatime, the people of the Nobility God’s church usually came to their doors to push like deadly ghosts, reminding them nonstop about the debt, and that the duration of their debt payment was constantly shortened.

"If this is the case, ....the moment ago when we came, did you mistake us for the people of the Nobility God’s church?" Lei asked.

Liv nodded and said while puffing. "Those guys are really disgusting!"

"Was there perhaps no one coming to visit you?" Lei asked again.

Liv shook her head, felt disheartened and said, "No. If my father’s friends didn’t die in that far trip, they would be forced by the church of the Honorable Court Lady (alias of the Nobility God) to cut off dealings with us. Right now, it’s only us; the youngsters left to help each other out and encourage each other... But, I don’t see any hope in it."

"Sister, don’t be sad. We have got money now!" When little Agnes saw her sister dispirited, she hurried and brought up several gems, "Big Sister, look, so many gems! We can definitely pay off all the debt!"

After all, she was a girl. Although she could not calculate the true value of these gems, her female nature had told her that these gems were very valuable and that they would be enough to help them pay their debt.

Liv couldn’t constrain her laughter as she saw the excited and worried look on her younger sister’s face.

"Right, thanks to mister Satan’s blessing, we no longer need to worry about the debt anymore." She said, "But when I think of the situation of our close friends, it is very hard for me to be happy..."

She didn’t have any intention to borrow money to help everyone pay off their debts. She really needed to have a frightening amount of money to do so. Even if mister Lei and lady Stelle were willing to lend it, they didn’t bring such a huge amount of money along with them on such a far journey.

Lei silenced as he slightly furrowed his brows.

"This thing. . . I always feel there is something strange. . ."

Chapter end