Then, on the other side, the two men were still standing outside the room’s door.

They didn’t know what had happened to their team members.

They simply waited there.

Then...

Footsteps came from behind them.

Both of them immediately became alert.

They quickly drew their swords and took battle positions.

But when the person finally arrived, they lowered their swords again.

Because the one who returned was the man who had been left downstairs.

One of them asked,

"What happened to you, Three?"

Inside their group, they used numbers instead of names because they didn’t want anyone to know their real identities.

Another one asked,

"What happened?"

"You said you were going to climb the wall."

"Where are the others?"

The other man said,

"I know... They climbed up, and he came back here to help us."

Three slowly turned toward the door.

Before they could realize what was happening...

Slash!

Three suddenly thrust his sword straight into one man’s chest.

Then he pulled the sword back out.

The man fell to the ground and died instantly.

The last man quickly turned around in shock.

"What the hell?!"

"Why are you attacking us, Three?!"

"What happened to you?!"

Before Three could attack again, the last man quickly drew his sword and blocked the strike.

Clang!

Their swords collided.

The two of them began fighting.

Throughout the entire fight, Three didn’t say a single word.

His face was completely expressionless.

The man shouted while blocking another attack,

"Now I know!"

"You killed the others!"

"You betrayed us!"

"Tell me!"

"How much money did they give you?!"

"Tell me!"

But Three gave no response.

Instead, he attacked again.

Before Three could swing once more, the man kicked him hard in the chest.

Bang!

Three was knocked backward and fell to the ground.

Before he could stand up...

The man rushed forward and drove his sword straight through Three’s chest.

Blood slowly flowed from the wound.

A few moments later...

Three stopped moving.

He was dead.

The man finally relaxed.

But before he could understand what had happened...

His own hand suddenly moved on its own.

Without his control...

He grabbed his sword.

Then...

He drove the sword into his own body.

Because after killing Three...

He hadn’t noticed that a Shadow Monster had already entered his shadow.

The Shadow Monster had quietly taken control of his body.

And in the end...

It made him kill himself.

Then, on the other side...

Arya was still flying high in the air, quietly watching what they were doing below.

He didn’t know why they were worshipping their god in the middle of the night.

When he looked at the giant statue, it didn’t look like a god at all.

Instead, it looked more like the head of a goblin or some unknown monster.

But Arya didn’t know the history of this kingdom.

So he didn’t judge anything.

He simply continued watching everything silently from above.

After a few minutes...

Some people were brought out from the carriages.

When Arya saw them, he noticed heavy collars around their necks.

Their hands and legs were tightly tied with thick ropes.

Arya became confused.

"If they’re slaves... shouldn’t they be demi-humans?"

"Why are there human slaves here?"

"And why are they bringing them out only now?"

"If they were brought here to work, they should have started working from the beginning."

"So why wait until they reached the mountain?"

Another strange thing caught his attention.

All the villagers had walked here.

Only the slaves had been sitting inside the carriages.

Then the villagers dragged the slaves to the front.

They pulled them roughly.

Some of them even kicked the slaves to force them forward.

But the slaves refused to move.

One of the men took out a rope and repeatedly whipped them.

There were seven adults...

Four women...

And three children.

All of them were being dragged toward the front of the giant statue.

Arya quietly flew a little lower so he could hear their conversation.

One of the villagers laughed.

"Trash like them deserves to die here."

"They’re lucky."

"They have the honor of offering their heads before our God."

"This is our ritual."

"If we do this..."

"Our God will be happy and protect us."

Another villager laughed as well.

"We’ve been doing this for many years."

"People from other kingdoms always come here."

"They think they’ve reached a safe place."

"But they’re completely wrong."

Everyone around them laughed.

After hearing those words...

Arya finally understood everything.

Anyone who came here from another kingdom became their target.

He had already suspected something was wrong after leaving the inn.

Now he knew the truth.

Those slaves were all people from another kingdom.

Arya’s expression slowly turned cold.

"They..."

"They could be from my village..."

"Or from one of the nearby villages."

Without hesitation...

Arya made his decision.

He would save them before anything happened.

But it wouldn’t be easy.

The captives were surrounded from both the front and the back by many villagers.

If Arya wanted to save them...

He would have to fight every single one of them.

Then all the people gathered there.

They pulled the slaves to the front.

Those who were wearing the same clothes and hiding their faces looked like the heads of the temple workers.

They were busy preparing everything.

Some of them stood around the giant statue.

Then one of them took out a book and began reading it aloud.

He started worshipping their god.

"Today, we bring another offering for you, my God..."

He continued reading from the book in a loud voice.

A few minutes later, another man returned carrying a giant sword.

He carefully placed the sword in front of the statue’s feet.

After the man finished reading from the book, another man walked forward and picked up the sword.

Beside him was a large sharpening stone.

He slowly rubbed the blade against the stone again and again, making it even sharper.

Because if they failed to cut off the head in a single strike...

They believed it would bring bad luck.

That was why he carefully sharpened the sword until its edge became razor-sharp.

When the slaves saw the giant sword...

Fear filled their faces.

Some of them trembled.

Some quietly stepped backward.

But the villagers didn’t care at all.

Instead...

They laughed.

They enjoyed watching the slaves suffer.

To them, the slaves weren’t even human.

All they wanted...

Was to blindly worship their god.