Miss Witch's Devotion Has Gone… Twisted-Chapter 195: Sacrificial Ritual

The moment the child shouted, he lost all vitality.

Not just him, all the children stopped moving at that instant. Simultaneously, a blood-red barrier enveloped Loren and Movila. Everything happened in a flash; even Loren didn't have time to react, and his intuition didn't even give a warning.

This barrier was created from the lives of those children. Loren had already recognized what this was. Immediately afterward, the people hiding in the shadows all walked out, surrounding the barrier.

"Divine Beast, we've finally captured you."

These people wore white robes, clearly announcing their identities. They were all Happiness Believers.

"Honored Divine Beast, we have decided to sacrifice you. This sacrifice targets your very existence itself. Even with your abilities, you cannot survive.

"Offering you up will surely please the God of Happiness. He will definitely bestow true happiness upon us. It will not be in vain that we lured you back."

More and more believers emerged. Most crawled out from tunnels. Their true base was underground; the village above was merely a front.

Seven believers stepped out from the crowd, placed their hands on the blood-red barrier, and began chanting incantations. The barrier's color grew deeper and deeper. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Loren glanced at the children on the cross, then at these believers, his expression terrifyingly dark.

This sudden turn of events was hard for Movila to comprehend. She never imagined these usually amiable Happiness Believers would do such a thing.

Rather than saying they had changed drastically, it was more accurate that Movila had never truly understood these cultists of evil gods from the beginning.

"Is this the reason you betrayed the God of Happiness? No matter. We shall offer both of you to the God of Happiness."

A believer conducting the ritual glanced at Loren and uttered a disdainful remark.

"You all..."

Movila wanted to say more, but Loren interrupted her.

"Movila, no need to say more. They won't understand anything."

Loren was truly angry this time. He pulled down the hood of his black robe, revealing his face. Seeing Loren's face, the believers showed no change in expression. The only person here who knew Loren was already dead.

So many vibrant lives extinguished in an instant. Even now, Loren still felt disgusted by this insane world.

Perhaps that child who warned Loren came from a happy family, could afford newspapers, and had seen Loren's face in the papers. That's why he recognized Loren, knew he was a great hero, didn't want Loren to be harmed here, and desperately tried to warn him.

Loren didn't know any of this, and had little chance to find out now. That vibrant life had quietly slipped away.

And at this moment, Loren also understood the reason for Movila's corruption. It was because of these Happiness Believers. Movila had given so much for this village. In the game without Loren, Movila's feelings for this village must have been much deeper than now.

But no matter what Movila did, these Happiness Believers would ultimately choose to sacrifice her.

"This ritual requires the sacrifice of seven vibrant lives to activate, and also needs seven people to maintain it simultaneously.

"However, the ritual's effect is also extremely powerful. It sacrifices the very existence of the offering itself, making it very effective against certain unkillable enemies.

"The barrier is directly powered by the strength of the sacrificed target, making it nearly impossible to break. Because the sacrificed target is usually a deity, how can mortals compare to a god?

"But the ritual also has flaws. It is very slow, and once started, it cannot be stopped. Not just the offering, but even the people maintaining the ritual cannot move. The only way to stop it is for all those maintaining the ritual to die."

Loren spoke the characteristics of this ritual word by word. With each sentence he uttered, these Happiness Believers grew more alarmed.

Anyone would panic when their trump card is laid bare.

An old man walked out from the crowd. Judging by how others treated him, he was the person with the highest status here.

"Even if you know all this, what use is it? The ritual has already started. You are undoubtedly doomed to die. I believe you understand that too.

"Although I don't know where the Divine Beast found you, none of that matters now. You are powerless to change the situation."

The old man's words gradually calmed the others. Yes, even if they knew about the ritual, so what? The only way to interrupt the ritual is to kill those maintaining it, and they are trapped inside.

"The one maintaining this barrier is your deity. If it were an Orthodox God or an Angel, I naturally couldn't break it. But who is your deity? Bountiful Harvest? Plague? Or Confusion? Oh, it's Happiness. Which roadside one is that?"

Loren's disdain for the God of Happiness instantly enraged these fanatics. They wished they could swarm forward immediately and tear Loren to pieces.

Before they lost control, the old man stopped them and said to Loren:

"Trying to provoke us is useless. We don't need to lift a finger. Once the ritual is complete, you will naturally die."

"Why do you think I need to provoke you? I have never taken you bunch of misfits seriously. You are trash, and your god is too...

"Heavy Slash!"

Loren raised Requiem high. The blade suddenly grew heavier and descended with the force of ten thousand jun. The blade struck the blood-red barrier. The scene Loren imagined, where the barrier would be torn apart, did not appear. There wasn't even a scratch on the barrier.

"..."

Loren had encountered this ritual before. This ritual was also mostly used by evil gods. Forget Requiem, even using a slightly decent weapon plus a martial skill could break it. To put it bluntly, these evil gods only bullied ordinary people.

For the barrier to be truly unbreakable, the sacrificed target needed to have the strength of an Angel or higher.

"Could it be that the God of Happiness is some kind of Angel?"

Loren thought of a terrifying possibility. This world was heavily sealed off by the Orthodox Gods. Unless one gained the favor of an Orthodox God and became their Angel, it was almost impossible to obtain Angel-level strength.

Although it wasn't that no one had done it, those capable wouldn't risk offending all the Orthodox Gods to become an evil god.

Faith could indeed provide combat power for evil gods, but by the time they achieved that level through faith, their bases would have been slaughtered dozens of times over by the Orthodox Gods.

Recalling the experiences along the way, Loren found more and more suspicious points. The scope of the God of Happiness's interference was far too extensive. It even stretched its hand into the territory of the God of Bountiful Harvest. Ordinary evil gods, like the Sea God, only dared to carve out territory for themselves in godless lands.

Moreover, these Happiness Believers were far too devout. Generally, evil gods would offer some benefits to recruit believers, but Loren hadn't seen these believers receive any benefits.

They could even be instantly annihilated by Loren using a single third-tier spell.

After eliminating all impossibilities, only one possibility remained.

"The God of Confusion!"