The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness Chapter 788: The Shame of the Evil Gods

“...”

The atmosphere congealed for a beat.

Compared to the endless Holy Light Feier had unleashed, the sight of a vicious, horrifying Evil God’s residue being smashed to pieces by a dignified young woman wielding cold steel sohow felt... oddly cute in its contrast.

“Yo~” Paul couldn’t help letting out a frivolous whistle. “Now that’s a woman with personality.”

“...”

An didn’t respond. She simply controlled the iron thorns and ground it down again.

Only then did Muen finally snap back to himself.

He stared hard at the few remaining charred scraps—what was left after the Holy Light’s scorching and the iron thorns’ churning—and suddenly felt like the story had veered off-script.

He hadn’t even gotten to make a move. How had the Love God already kicked the bucket?

First appearance: heart pounding, terrified.

Second appearance: a brutal, desperate battle.

Third appearance: tense, fully braced.

And now? This ti it showed up, and he hadn’t even finished drawing his blade before “little Love” was already done for. The pressure it gave off was honestly weaker than your mom cleaning your room in the morning before you’ve even gotten out of bed.

The “aura” kept dropping—at this rate it was going to fall straight through the floor.

“Miss Feier... you ca prepared?”

“It’s not that I ca prepared. This power was ant for sothing else,” Feier replied. “We only happened to notice its traces. As a mber of the Church of Life, I couldn’t just stand by.”

She’d already closed her eyes again. Her face was pale. Even as a re vessel for Holy Light, burning through that much of it clearly wasn’t sothing she could sustain for long.

In terms of affinity with Holy Light, she was now completely inferior to Liya, who had beco a Saintess.

“Yeah, yeah. What a coincidence.” Muen rubbed his chin. “But this thing isn’t going to play dead and co back, is it?”

He used the tip of his blade to poke at the remnants, carefully prying them around.

Even in this state, it had been that sly Love God. Low “aura” didn’t an it wasn’t still weird as an Evil God. Who knew what kind of backhanded trick it might still have? He couldn’t afford not to be cautious.

So...

“Go on, Teacher la!”

“Do what?”

“Please check it.”

“I can check it, of course,” la said with a very sweet smile—one overflowing with doll-like innocence. “But if you don’t let go...”

“My flower sea happens to be missing a daylight lamp. And wouldn’t you know it—my dear disciple has a perfectly good head. Don’t you agree?”

“...”

Tch.

He’d been hoping to take the chance to pinch the doll’s cheeks a little.

Muen let go with a regretful sigh. la’s head floated up on its own. Paul—who’d been watching that moving doll head the whole ti—widened his eyes and sidled over, lowering his voice.

“A few months and your tastes have gotten this... specific? You won’t even let a head go? I an, it is pretty cute, but...”

“What tastes? Do you think I’m so kind of pervert?” Muen rolled his eyes.

Paul didn’t answer, but his look clearly said, You seriously don’t realize?

Muen’s mouth twitched. So his reputation really was getting ruined by {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} these idiots’ nonsense.

He didn’t argue. He just suddenly hooked an arm around Paul’s shoulder.

“After saying that, you should be careful.”

“Careful? Careful about what?”

“That ‘cute doll head’ you’re talking about might look like she has a good temper right now,” Muen said cheerfully, “but she’s actually petty. When we get back, she might have soone send a ssage to so long-unseen elder in your family... say, a great-grandfather...”

“And then?” Paul swallowed.

“And then you’ll experience what ‘an elder’s affection’ really ans.” Muen patted his shoulder, his gaze already full of an elder’s affection.

“...”

Paul froze for a long mont before finally reacting. He’d caught the hint that the doll head’s identity wasn’t simple. His expression turned strange at once.

“But didn’t you also say she’s petty?”

“It’s fine.”

Muen lifted his head at a forty-five-degree angle, staring into the sky. In his calm, lake-still eyes gathered the weariness and depth of soone who’d seen through the world.

“At worst, my head gets hung up in the sky as a lamp. Compared to what I’ve suffered in Teacher la’s hands, that’s basically the lightest punishnt there is.”

“...”

“So you’re unhappy with my kindness,” la’s head said.

At so point, it had drifted back.

She didn’t spare Paul even a glance. In truth, from the beginning she hadn’t cared about these young people at all—what they said, what they did.

Of course she wasn’t going to “make things hard” for them.

She didn’t care.

But her disciple was another matter.

“Looks like my dear disciple misses the feeling of his teacher personally bathing him.” la smiled with exquisite gentleness. “When we get back, I’ll satisfy you properly~”

“...”

Muen’s heart lurched.

Personally bathing him... she ant tossing him into a huge cauldron and boiling him alive, right? Then adding a bunch of “ingredients” like Evil God fragnts?

That soul-piercing, sour-sweet sensation seed to rise back up in his mind.

That sort of thing—no, thank you.

“All right. Back to business,” la said.

She had no interest in continuing this warm teacher-disciple skit in front of outsiders—especially after that “personally bathing Muen” line had made everyone’s expressions weird. An was even starting to wonder if this was a new kind of pest.

la didn’t care at all. She returned to the point.

“It won’t co back. At least not here.”

“So there really isn’t any backhanded trick? It’s just that weak?” Muen asked, surprised.

“It’s not ‘weak.’ The Love God is one of the Evil Gods, but it doesn’t actually have much power of its own.” la’s face was full of disdain. “Most of what it has now is basically stolen.”

“The Love God has to rely on those it controls—those it corrupts—to gain power. While most Evil Gods gain followers through brute force and ntal Pollution, it can only exploit holes in the human heart. Among all Evil Gods, whether in raw strength or in the Authority itself, it truly doesn’t asure up.”

She nodded toward the ash.

“Like now. It used that demonfolk crowned one’s body as a vessel. Once the body is destroyed, it can’t do anything.”

“So that’s why it’s called the sha of the Evil Gods,” Muen sighed.

Its first appearance had been overflowing with “aura,” but the more ti passed, the more he felt “little Love” had a faintly codic vibe.

“You can’t put it that way,” la said. “It might be lacking in power, but it’s still an Evil God.”

“Its Authority is still extrely disgusting. That Pollution is completely different from any other Evil God’s. It isn’t affected by any external force, and it isn’t affected by how strong the corrupted person is.”

“It only targets the human heart.”

“The human heart?” Muen frowned.

“Yes. The heart. The Love God’s corruption is special. It can plant a seed in your heart ahead of ti. The process might be a single glance. It might be one contact with a corrupted person. It might even be touching so object related to it.”

“In any case, once the seed is planted, it hides in the deepest part of the mind. Under normal conditions, it’s almost impossible to detect.”

“That scary?” Muen’s brows knit tighter.

“Relax. That almost unconditional planting also ans the seed itself does nothing. It doesn’t affect your thoughts, and it can’t influence your mind in the slightest. It’s more like a mark placed in advance.” la’s expression grew a shade heavier. “But...”

“Once the ‘soil’ inside your heart ets the right conditions and the seed actually takes root and sprouts, you’re finished. No matter how strong you are... it’ll give it a perfect opening.”

“...I see.” Muen’s eyes narrowed.

It was true. Whether it had been Eluca in the beginning, or that forr Saintess from the Church—none of them had been corrupted by brute-force ntal overwrite.

They’d fallen because a crack ford inside their hearts.

Twisted love—an Authority that sounded half-true and half-false—was exactly what made the Love God so disgusting and so uncanny.

To be honest, even now Muen didn’t know where the boundary of “twisted love” lay. What kind of love counted as twisted? How far did it have to go before it beca twisted?

Most people probably couldn’t answer that either—so before the Love God set its eyes on them, they stayed blissfully unaware of danger.

“You should be careful,” la said with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “With how promiscuous you are, you might get hit soday.”

“What are you talking about?” Muen said solemnly. “My love is very devoted and pure.”

“Heh... I hope so.”

Muen had zero desire to keep discussing “true love” with this out-of-touch old doll. Once the Love God topic ended, he turned to the others.

“So you’re still here because you were specifically tracking the Love God’s traces?” Muen had run into Paul and Reta earlier in a room, and he’d guessed Annie would be with Reta. What he hadn’t expected was that the other person wasn’t Margarita, but Feier.

Then again, Margarita was still a princess of a nation. She couldn’t possibly take part in a dangerous deep-Abyss mission like this.

“That’s one of the reasons,” Feier said. “But the most important thing is that we’re also here to help the female adventurers trapped inside escape.”

“We already secretly led a third of the captives out, but...” She paused. “Just now, sothing unbelievable seed to happen. All demonfolk died.”

“To be safe, we’re investigating the cause. Mr. Campbell, do you know anything about this?”

Annie had asked the sa question earlier, but Feier still couldn’t suppress her curiosity.

Gutongs Castle—maybe even the entire demonfolk—had completely vanished from the world. The Abyss was no longer humanity’s forbidden zone; it had beco unowned land.

Sothing this absurd was enough to shake the entire continent. Compared to it, the war between Empire and Kingdom felt trivial.

And those chains that had filled the sky earlier, and that rainbow light that had split heaven and earth—those weren’t things you could just ignore. They’d even faintly heard a terrifying roar... like a dragon from legend.

“Well...” Muen glanced at la.

“You don’t need to worry about it,” la sighed and took over. “I’ll talk to Hezekiah myself. If you want answers, go ask him when you get back.”