Chapter 524: The Witch Trials

Hearts washed the city of the skies in blood, and on a rainy night he turned the place above the sky, which the Holy See had hailed as a pure land, into a hell on earth for these people.

It rained heavily for three days and could not wash away the blood from the island.

But he didn't kill the men, he reaped the pain of the group in a more chilling way -

--He turned the city of the sky into a court of judgement, a court of judgement for men only, where every man at fixed coordinates on the island of the sky could accuse the men who had been on the island, and those men had to come to the island to be judged, to be sanctioned, to receive the penalties demanded by each other.

Otherwise, there's something even worse in store for you - Hearts has the means to torture them.

In the four years that followed, Sky City became Hearts' Island of Judgement, over which he had complete control, and from which the men who had been on the island were arranged by Hearts to leave and start a new life after a fierce trial of the men who had been there.

In the end, the city of the skies became an island again, with only the Hearts left, and the men who were dying after the trial.

Hearts still didn't let them go, and there was a seemingly endless hatred within him that would have allowed him, if he'd only wanted to, to hold another trial, to call the men to the island one by one.

No man dared to disobey him, everyone called him the Empress in private, a horrible one who would torture them and make them suffer, who was like a sword of Dacromos hanging high above everyone's head, making everyone live in fear of him, afraid to act rashly, afraid to do it again, afraid to remember what they had done in the first place.

In the intervening four years, Hearts, with the help of the men on the island of punishment, had reached out from the Sky City to the Holy See, and he began to try to control the growth of the Order, forbidding any man who entered it to touch a woman, or he would be brought before the Sky City Inquisition to be judged by him.

The Holy See was caught in the crossfire of Hearts' oppression, and while everyone was afraid to say anything outwardly, they were privately resentful.

"A guy in a woman's skin." The bishop said, taking a hard sip of his wine.

After having his bottom cut off by Hearts four years ago, he had aged badly and his face was all wrinkled, which made him look even more sinister as he said grimly, "To actually try to control the Church."

"God will punish him severely!"

"But not today, at least." Quan Zhendong looked sympathetically at the Bishop, who couldn't help but say with some fear, "He's got you on the island again tonight."

The bishop began to tremble even at the thought, and he barely managed to maintain his composure: "What other tricks could he be up to?"

Quan Zhendong reminded him in a whisper, "Like shoving fireworks up your ass like last time? You were in the hospital for two months."

The bishop fell silent as he heard this, he broke down and he sprang to his feet in the tavern: "I don't want to go to the island! Kill me! I don't want to see him!"

-- Four years ago, he never imagined that going to the island would be such a frightening thing for him.

"Suicide is a sin." Quan Zhendong could only advise, "He won't always go that far."

Quan Zhendong proved wrong in his guess when he saw the bishop, who was lying dying and looking at him from his hospital bed, with tears chewing in his eyes and his tone even choking as he held his hand: "He, he put me with the horse in heat ...... "

"That thing has, has ......"

The female doctor next to him pushed up her glasses and explained with little emotion, "We've amputated about 40cm of his intestines, so he can't eat too heavily in the future, and will also be more prone to prolapse and farting, so I hope you'll take care of that."

"Yes, yes." Quan Zhendong nodded blankly as he looked at the emaciated Bishop on the hospital bed, curled up covering her face and crying in pain like those women who had once cried after they had violated her, and his mind went blank with only one thought -

--Can't let Hearts go on like this any longer.

They will all be played to death by him.

The Holy See quietly established a secondary island, and they held meetings on that island.

"This can't go on!" A priest said almost in horror, "You've all been ordered, I'll be the next one on the island!"

"It can't go on like this!" A priest echoed as he cried out in pain, "He torments me every time he comes in women's clothing, I have no access to women at all anymore, I'm terrified at the sight of them!"

"Me too!"

"Me too, a woman came to me for prayer and I couldn't help but scream out when she touched my hand, I'm still scared."

"These sinful women!" One priest stood viciously and slammed his fist on the table, he had been testified against by seventeen women on the island in the first place and tried a full seventeen times at the request of these women, he couldn't even sit down now, he spoke of women with deep hatred, "They are all horrible, mutilating our witches and deserve to go to hell!"

"But ......" was also hesitantly questioned by a priest who was mainly fearful of Hearts, "I have a feeling they are just trying to return the favour, maybe the trial will be over and we will be fine. "

"What do you mean, an eye for an eye!" The priest who was standing, holding his back, exclaimed bitterly, "We only did to them what we had to do! Who are they to return an eye for an eye to us!"

The priest didn't respond for a moment, "The thing to do?"

"Right." This standing priest said in a low voice, reciting the prayer they recited every day, "Have you forgotten what we say about women, in our catechism?"

"They are supposed to serve us, to pray for us, to sleep at our bedsides, to contribute to the creation and continuation of humanity, to relieve our desires, otherwise why make women?"

The priest stressed, "It is stated in the Catechism that women are made by us men, created to help us, and it is only right that we do anything to them!"

"Of course I know all that." This priest nodded in agreement with the other man's words, but soon, with some slight hesitation, he asked, "But Hearts ......"

"It's a guy."

"Isn't he supposed to do that for us as a matter of course, according to doctrine? Isn't it normal for him to return the favour?"

All fell silent, and this great banner of sacred doctrine, which had just been pulled up, seemed to be pierced in a moment.

"He grew up stealing his mother's clothes to wear, imitating her behaviour, and going every day to those dances that only women do." Sitting in the corner, the bishop, who had only just been tried, was dying and spoke again in a sombre tone, "He looks like a woman, speaks like a woman, and helps those arrogant women to punish us, and although he has been ennobled with a man's body, his heart is undoubtedly with a woman."

"He's volunteered to come to the island and dance for us and had such a good time."

This bishop said without irony: "How is this different from the wicked witches in the catechism who actively seduce men?"

"So what if he's a man? He has degraded himself into a woman, into a lower breed that God has pinched out to assist us." This bishop slapped his wheelchair viciously, "Then we can't blame ourselves for treating him the same way we treat women."

"What right does he have to call a spade a spade, he deserves it himself!"

Meanwhile, on the City in the Sky.

Hearts is not always alone on the island, and those who have left the island resist the place at first.

But in time these people will return to visit Hearts who are still on the island.

Hearts is always open to everyone who leaves the island.

Tonight it was raining again off the island and Hearts opened the door to welcome in those who had come to the island, smiling at the once familiar faces, "I told you not to come if it was raining."

"I have something important to tell you today!" One girl said excitedly, subconsciously trying to shake Hearts' hand.

Hearts jerked away as if he'd been electrocuted, but the moment he did he paused: "...... I'm sorry."

Immediately afterwards, he turned his head and headed to the bathroom with hurried steps, "I'm going to the bathroom."

The girl also watched in awe as Hearts darted away.

The woman next to me said with some sadness, "...... Is he still not comfortable with normal female touch?"

Hearts practically ran into the bathroom and then quickly unlocked the door as he used the wire brush with an almost brutal intensity and scrubbed his right hand, which had just been touched by the girl, so hard that he didn't stop until it was covered in blood.

He braced his hands on the edge of the sink and slowly looked up at himself in the mirror.

Blood dripped from the fingertips of his right hand, dripping into the sink basin and spreading in a circle, staining his purple eyes reflected in the water.

He was eighteen years old in the mirror, and despite wearing a wig and carefully applied make-up, his masculine features were becoming more pronounced as he grew older.

The knot in his throat, the broad shoulders and bony joints, the gradually taller frame, no matter how much he tried to stop it, it was as if a terrible man was slowly growing inside him, to replace this female face he had dressed up as and become the real him.

He felt an unspeakable nausea, one that was especially evident when he accidentally touched the girls.

He would realise that no matter how much he tried to hide it, when he came into contact with these girls, he would inevitably come across them as a man.

--same as the brutes.

Hearts propped himself up against the sink, unable to control his nausea to the point of dry heaving.

He was getting older and older, understanding more and more what was going on back then, knowing more and more what she had been through, understanding what kind of dance she was doing with all those men watching -

--He then grew to hate men.

Hate the way these men stare at her, drool over her, play with her and destroy her.

But surprisingly he grew into a man as well.

He hated it, he feared it, he couldn't escape it, he even wanted to rip the shell off, he went more than once to inquire about sex change surgery, he never presented himself as a man in the game, he used every means to disguise himself, there was no way to control the great disgust he felt for his own sex the moment a woman approached him.

But every time he was on the verge of that tipping point of madness, her voice would ring very softly in his ears - [Even though you are a boy].

[But you're good looking too.]

[You are most valuable.]

That guest's voice with a smile would also say - [You have a very beautiful soul and dance].

Hearts gasped violently as he looked at his own face in the mirror, his eyes red and his breath catching, before he finally reached out uncontrollably with his right hand and smashed the mirror.

Why should he be a man!

By the time Hearts emerged from the bathroom again, he was again on his heels and measuring himself with great elegance - except for his bandaged right hand.

The girl looked at Hearts' right hand and she paused for a long time and said, "I'm sorry."

"Nothing." Hearts changed the subject quickly as he leaned back on the sofa with a lazy smile, "Is there something good you want to share with me, an old man on an empty island?"

Quickly amused by Hearts' description of herself, the girl locked eyes with the woman and then said carefully, "That's right."

"She's getting ready to get married."

The woman also looked very gently at Hearts with something very hesitant in her eyes, "I wanted to let you know."

The smile on Hearts' face completely disappeared as he looked at them with a stunned, vacant, almost slightly overwhelmed look and repeated very softly, "You ...... are getting married?"

He had the feeling that he was going to step off the island and fall off.

"It's you two together is it?" Hearts' hands were shaking but he quickly calmed down again quickly and smiled again as he winked then, "Bless you then."

Both girl and woman were silent for a moment, then looked up at him, "No."

Hearts took a long time to ask, hoarsely, "Why?"

"I had a child when I was on the island, Phoebe, she was taken away from his father as soon as she was born." The woman smiled bitterly, "Now his ex-wife has died and he needs a beautiful woman to be his next wife, so he has approached me."

Without hesitation, Hearts spoke up, "I can help you kill him."

"He's an arms dealer, far more powerful than you can imagine, and I don't want you to go through this for me." The woman's smile grew bitter, "And he is particularly strict with his children and their training, his ex-wife's child Daniel was nearly trained to death by him, if I wasn't Phoebe's nominal mother, Phoebe would be illegitimate and she would have a hard time."

"I don't want her to be the next card, you understand?"

"I can raise her." Hearts replied without any hesitation as he looked at the woman, almost in a tone of urgency to prove himself, "I can bring her to the island."

She asked softly, "And then what? She will have to leave the island one day, the world is full of her father's forces, just like the Order, and she can't stay on this island for the rest of her life."

"You're still fighting the Holy See, you don't have the energy or ability to take on such a big mess anymore, you'll draw fire."

Hearts stalled.

"I won't be able to come up to the island to see you." The woman looked at Hearts with wistfulness and reluctance, "Be good to yourself."

She reached out to tap Hearts, who was sitting still, on the shoulder, but eventually stopped just short and turned away.

They left again.

Hearts alone maintained that pose in silence, sitting motionless in place until a man wearing a mask and cloak and carrying a black whip knocked on the door of his island.

"Hello." The uninvited guest who had come on a rainy night smiled, "It seems the island has a new owner now?"

Hearts jerked his head up and he stood up.

Meanwhile, the secondary island.

The priests said sadly, "No, the Queen is too powerful now, and is getting bigger and bigger, he has even started to take control of the minerals, we can't fight her in any way!"

"Not necessarily." The bishop in the wheelchair grunted and gasped grimly, propping himself up and half standing, "Guys, guys, look over here!"

"It's true that we can't gain an advantage against the Queen in this peaceful environment right now."

"But!" The bishop's gaze was sinister to the point of no return, "When the people are in distress and they have no recourse, they are bound to come to us for refuge in the midst of their confusion!"

The priests' faces faintly moved, "You are right, my lord bishop, but there is no tribulation now ......"

"If you don't have suffering, make it." The bishop smiled arrogantly as he folded his stale, senile hands in front of the small of his back, his gaze sinister like a viper, "Gods send suffering to test the world, so why not us?"

"Sending down tribulation?!" A priest, incredulous and with astonished eyes, asked, "And what is that tribulation?"

The bishop's eyes swept casually over the newspapers on the fence next to him, and the smirk on the headline [Water Pollution Widens Due to Industrial Development] caught his attention, and his eyes narrowed as he smiled, "God Sends Flood to Wash the World."

"Then let's drop the water pollution."

On the City in the Sky.

"Why are you coming again." Hearts looked across at the guest incredulously, "I thought you said you'd never come back?"

"Because I have been summoned again this time." This time there was a distinct pleasure in the guest's voice, unlike last time, this time he had come with obvious pleasure, "I am very happy."

"On my way back to my shrine I found the island had changed, came up to see it and found you had become the new master."

The guest praised: "You have decorated this island beautifully and I can smell the pain everywhere."

There was no place on the whole island that was not used for the trial of the men, as there were trial courts all over the island.

Hearts listened and, dropping her lightly trembling eyes, replied haughtily, "Thank you for the compliment."

"You look ......" the guest looked like he was sizing him up this time, his voice pausing slightly, "like you've changed quite a bit from before."

Hearts' fingers clenched momentarily and his voice tightened as he pursued, "It's more like a man, isn't it?"

"That's not true, I see you have a hard time seeing the exterior, it's usually the soul that counts." The guest laughed up, "Your soul seems to be bearing more pain than it did before."

"What are you suffering from?"

Hearts was quiet for a long time, he raised his head slowly, took a deep breath and said, "I'm suffering, I'm not strong enough."

"I thought I would be the master of this island and that would be it, but I found that wherever I put them in any part of this world, those people-"

Hearts' face grimaced uncontrollably, his purple eyes shining like reflective swords, his murderous intent blazing.

"- the men, still trapping them with islands made of their own foul desires!"

"And would you like to continue to become stronger?" The guest seemed to hear some interesting answer as he opened his hands slightly and asked, "Thank you for your company tonight and for sharing my rare pleasure, I can tell you how to become stronger."

Hearts breathed heavily for a moment as he raised his eyes to gaze at the man, "How?"

"No matter how strong you are, your power alone will always be weak." The guest smiled and spoke to him, "Go and form guilds, go and join leagues, tame the members in these guilds like the Holy See tamed you, make them your followers and work for you."

"When you have God-level faith and power, you can do anything."

Hearts asked softly, "Including killing any man?"

"That includes killing any man." The guest laughed up, "Including killing me."

Hearts, as if the words hit him out of his emotions at once, looked at the other man incredulously and subconsciously retorted, "I'm not going to kill you."

"I am a man in this world as well, and you are perfectly capable of killing me." The guest seemed to find his reply amusing, forming one hand into a fist on the handle of his chair and lightly resting it against his crooked head, smiling, "I don't hate your aggressiveness, on the contrary, I very much appreciate the thought."

"If you do manage to kill me, I might fall in love with you a moment before I die."

The guest smiled and said to him, "I suppose you like me, judging by your attitude? Aren't you impressed by the offer?"

Hearts' heart pounded uncontrollably, his feigned calmness and composure since the man had arrived on the island shattered by the words, and his head felt dizzy for a moment.

"I didn't ......" he opened his lips pale, his expression almost a little breathless, "I just ......"

"Didn't like me?" The guest laughed lightly and asked in return, "Then why did you hate men so much and let me on the island anyway?"

For a moment Hearts' voice was silent and his head went completely blank.

He hadn't let a man on the island for four years, except for the trial of those men.

"I won't force you to kill me, it's just that your soul is just too valuable ...... sorry for bringing up something that upset you." The guest appeared to be a little sorry, but he soon smiled again, "But no matter, the most likely person in the world to kill me is about to enter the game."

"I will soon be dead by his hand."

The guest laughed heartily, "I came today to share the good news with you."

"What?" Hearts' mind literally stopped completely, now he even blanked out a bit on his expression, "Who are you going to be killed by?"

"Do you remember the child I asked you to play four years ago?" The guest smiled and said, "The child who gave Him a soul is eighteen years old and he has just summoned me in a lake."

"It's incredible to think that this kid, even though he's not in the game, has a soul quality that's becoming more and more desirable, and if he gets into the game, he'll definitely grow quickly to the point where he can kill me."

The guest spoke with a rare tinge of emotion as he sighed, "Unfortunately he declined my invitation to let him into the game."

Hearts was running out of time to think about what the man was saying, but he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at the ending and asked immediately after, "So are you not going to be killed?"

"Of course not." The guest smiled slowly, "He's going to come into the game one day, to kill me."

"It was his destiny and we were destined to be enemies."

The guest joked wryly, "After all, I'm the ultimate villain in his story, and the day will come when he kills me."

"Why ......" Hearts asked with a little tremor in his voice, "why did you have to be killed?"

The guest looked at Hearts, who again felt the look in his eyes as if he was watching a character on a television show, and then the guest smiled a little: "Because it's funny, isn't it?"

"You look as if you are sad." The guest inquired softly, "I'd also like to ask you to play someone for me, if that's not appropriate then I'll be off for the night."

"If I am killed, this is the last time I will see you."

The guest rose and said goodbye with a slight bow: "It has been a great pleasure to see you this evening."

Hearts jerked his head up, tears still chewing in his eyes, and he replied with force, "I'm not sad, I'll play it!"

"That would be nice." The guest pulled out a school uniform and handed it to Hearts, then a pair of contact lenses and explained in a soft whisper, "He's rather cold."

Hearts took a deep breath as he took the clothes and went to the bathroom to change.

As he walked up to the guest in his school uniform, he said in that tone of admiration, "I can't believe you haven't seen him, you do a great imitation."

"Except for the eyes."

"Oh yes, I forgot to bring you black invisible eyes."

Hearts, in a heartbeat - black, isn't it silvery blue?

"But there's something else that's different besides the colour." The guest looked thoughtfully at Hearts as he gazed into his eyes, "That boy wouldn't look at me like that."

"He hates me."

"You like me."

The guest smiled and said, as politely as if he were talking to a character in a game, "Can you please change that like look? It's not like that kid."

A shiver ran down Hearts' back, he clenched his fists, took a deep breath and looked up again as he gazed at his guest in the chair.

The guest finally smiled with satisfaction, "Yes, that's the look."

"This look that's going to kill me."

Hearts seemed to realise something and spoke slowly, hoarsely, "Isn't the child I'm imitating ...... the same child I imitated last time?"

"Not the last one." The guest chuckled, "It's the one that's going to kill me this time."

"Why ......" Hearts' voice was full of emotion as he struggled to control his composure and inquired, "Why should I imitate the child who is going to kill you?"

"Why?" The guest looked at Hearts with seeming understanding, then replied with slight distress, "Because I just want to die so badly, but the boy won't kill me now."

"I want you, who are good at impersonation, to play him first and simulate killing me all over again."

The guest looked up and he smiled, "Do you mind?"

Hearts can no longer remember how he sent his guest away, staring out at the heavy rain outside the island in a trance, his mind constantly recalling that last conversation between them.

[Will you be in the game?]

[I am everywhere, the game is my incarnation.]

[Can I find you in the game?

[Sure.]

What do I have to do to see you?

[To be number one in the league, I only receive the most valuable players.]

[...... Who is the player who killed you?]

[It is I who have a soul.]

[What is the name of your ......?]

The guest stood at the edge of the stormy island, his cloak rattling in the gale, his laugh soft and indistinct: "Name?"

"You can't call me by my real name, just call me by my code name, you can call me Spades."

Then he fell backwards with open arms, falling from the island in the sky and disappearing into the endless, choppy waters.

Hearts stands at the edge of the island, he stands in stoic silence, then turns back and logs off with a determined gaze into the game.

-- he's going to win, he's going to be strong enough to beat everyone, he's going to get first place!

He's going to kill the man who ...... killed him!

Quan Zhendong, whose face has aged considerably, looks at the young queen in the photograph with a complicated look in his eyes. He shakes his head and ends his memory, turning his head to the two eels in the tank, his eyes sinking anew.

They had planned for six or seven years to hunker down under the Queen's oppression until the day when the Papacy could rise again!

This is a rare opportunity that cannot be missed!

Game Prep Witch Sorting Warehouse.

Bai Liu looked at the large screen with seeming understanding and did not move.

The Witch's Heart, the central thing in this game connected to that trial, is either in the possession of the Virgin or the Son of the Virgin, whose codename is Queen Hearts, which would most likely be the login identity of Hearts.

That means that the possibility of this game's key prop [Witch's Heart] being in the player's possession is not ruled out.

After all, on their side, there was a little witch who also sounded like she had a witch's heart - the game might as well have been a tower defence scramble, competing against each other for the witch's heart on the other player's team.

The loudspeakers on either side of the warehouse play on a continuous loop in various languages.

[Be on the lookout for witches, report them, they are the source of sinners!

[If you find a witch invasion, please report it to the Holy See immediately! Do not contact any witches in private, or you will be treated as a witch's accomplice! Trial with the witches!

Next to them, two of the Order's security guards sighed and hugged their chests and chatted.

"It's been a rough time in the east lately, it seems like witches are attacking the edges of the contaminated area every day."

"They say there are witches mixed in with the Order? What are they up to?"

"The Holy See is fine, it is said that a number of witches have infiltrated the civilian areas and a number of civilians are secretly helping to smuggle witches from the eastern contaminated areas to the western side of the safe zone, and I wonder what these civilians are thinking?! The Holy See is the one protecting them, okay! How dare they go and help the witches!"

"Yeah, yeah, all the civilian areas have been patrolled more recently to prevent witch smuggling which has made our workload so much heavier."

"We'd better be careful."

The two men discussed walking past Bai Liu while Bai Liu's ears twitched and he inclined his head to look in the opposite direction.

" Bai Liu ......" someone called out to him in a small and squirming voice, " Bai Liu, come here now!"

Many of the taller women over there look to be from countries a little further away.

The voice calling out to Bai Liu just now came from there.

But there didn't seem to be anyone in men's clothes over there, and as it seemed to be a local custom to wear big, curvy dance dresses, Bai Liu's feet paused subtly and he went that way anyway.

Then ......

Bai Liu looked up once, calmly: "Pfft."

Mu Sicheng, who was already out of breath in his tight corset and wide skirt, was so angry at Bai Liu's poof that he grabbed his head with his squeak and dragged him aside: "What poof! You think I don't hear you laughing because you're pretending to be expressionless! Ha!"

"You're laughing your ass off! You're wearing women's clothes yourself, okay!"

Bai Liu slowly averts his eyes from Mu Sicheng's foundation-covered, bloodied face and asks calmly, " Where's Tang Erda? He should have landed about the same time as you."

"I'm looking for him too." Mu Sicheng was just about to scratch his head in annoyance, but as soon as he raised his hand he choked on the tightening corset and almost took a breath and went straight back, "Fuck, that's too tight!"

"How do they move around in these clothes!"

Mu Sicheng couldn't help but look at the group of women with a kind of awe, "Amazing."

" Tang Erda is taller than me, he should be in that group." Mu Sicheng pointed, "Are we going over to him?"

Bai Liu nodded and they walked over together, only to hear the group of tall women gather around one of the tallest women in awe before they even got close.

"Your breasts are huge! Can I touch them?"

"You've got a fit body too! It feels all muscular!"

"You look so healthy and strong, where are you going to work?"

Bai Liu could see from afar Tang Erda's face straining to avoid the girls' curious touch on his chest and waist, and pretending to express her gratitude in a calm and serious manner, but in fact her ears and the back of her neck were already red.

"Thank you for complimenting me on my ...... large breasts, but no touching."

"I work out more regularly, so my muscles are more visible."

"Haven't thought about where to go yet."

As they watched Tang Erda, surrounded and kneaded by girls, give them a desperate plea for help, the two men took another slow, top-to-bottom look at the white lace basket hat on Tang Erda's head, her flushed cheeks, the huge skirt support on her body, and the upper part of her body with its corseted cleavage.

Mu Sicheng: "Pfft."

Bai Liu: "Pfft."