NOVPUB"Ugh..."
Anello could hardly believe his eyes, drool and tears slid down his cheeks, all he could muster was a hoarse cry of pain.
The elite warriors didn’t cease their onslaught for a moment, taking advantage of Anello’s inability to dodge the attack, they pierced his calf with an ice thorn, the icy magic power making him feel as if his leg had been cut off, losing all sensation.
His head was forced to the ground by a pair of large hands, while the other men began to forcefully drive ice thorns into his hands and feet, piercing through his collar and trousers, his dark grey coat immediately soaked with blood, which froze instantly on its surface.
He could only feel a moment of pain before losing sensation, the terrifying cold touch almost eliciting an instinctive scream from Anello.
Eventually, he slowly lost feeling in his body, the blood drained from his face, turning it as pale as paper, he could only watch in frozen horror as it all happened, unable to fight back.
Even if they were to sever his limbs at this point, he doubted he would feel any pain.
The Demon King’s personal guards from Xue Yuan Province coldly secured Anello, successfully accomplishing their mission.
Even if it were the Saint Heir or the Saintess from other bishops who dared to cause chaos in a city-state, and easily walked into this room laden with prohibited zones against mages, besieged and hunted down by a well-coordinated group of warriors, even a peak sixth-ranked individual like him wouldn’t have any room to maneuver.
"You...you..."
Anello was down on the ground, struggling to look forward.
The viscount Chinston before him seemed to have changed, standing there, coldly looking down at Anello like one might look at a lamb ready for slaughter.
His body was numb, cold, and in his shock and rage, the weakened Anello had still not given up.
His voice had become hoarse, but he still shouted angrily, "I am Anello! The Saint of Nirvana of the Rebirth Church! Viscount Chinston, do you realize what you’re doing?!!"
He vowed, no matter what, he would see to it that this provincial nobleman’s family received the severest of punishments!
"The Saint of Nirvana, you say? That sounds impressive. Do go on, I’m listening."
Viscount Chinston seemed utterly indifferent to Anello’s threats, nodding his head casually, as if indulging a furiously frustrated child.
"Viscount Chinston! You’ve brought great trouble upon yourself! You’re committing a crime!! You’ll be trialed by the Empire’s Military Tribunal!!"
Though Anello’s body was severely damaged, his spirit had not collapsed.
He continued to threaten Viscount Chinston using various methods, but the viscount only snorted coldly, completely disregarding him.
"The military tribunal, eh? You actually know about that."
Viscount Chinston burst into laughter, and the elite warriors of Xue Yuan Province who were holding Anello also showed sarcastic grins.
A stubborn Ghost Gang member trying to scare them in this place.
"Have you lost your minds? Loren has arrived, Loren is on the Northern Continent!! I must contact the imperial capital, Herram!!"
Anello’s voice started to choke because of his coughing, every shout was consuming his life force.
Faced with the stupidity and absurdity of these nobles from Xue Yuan Province, Anello, whose spirit was collapsing, finally got it.
If they were here, they would probably even dare to kill the emperor.
But Viscount Chinston’s gaze did not waver; his eyes were filled with pity, and the gaze of the other elites was quite similar.
Viscount Chinston did not alter his attitude as Anello hoped, he looked at the captured Anello, shook his head and laughed, "It’s laughable that a ’Saint of Nirvana’ is pleading and begging here; you must have lost your mind."
The whole atmosphere of the office became even weirder and heavier because of Viscount Chinston’s words; it no longer looked like a governor’s office, but like an isolation ward in a mental hospital instead.
Anello was just about unable to calm his nearly explosive emotions.
Anello’s cries and struggles became the only sound in the ward, contrasting sharply with Viscount Chinston’s cold laughter. It was like a vicious cycle, the more Anello tried to prove himself, the more Viscount Chinston treated him like a lunatic.
And Anello was sinking into a depth of despair that he had never experienced before.
He could never escape this fate of being misunderstood and ridiculed, the truth he knew, which was significant enough to shake the empire, became meaningless in front of these people from the snowfield.
He suddenly realized.
The Viscount Chinston’s gaze, actions, and smile all conveyed a strangeness he had never seen before.
This province - or more accurately, this Governor’s Mansion - was starkly different from the outside world. Every detail, every word, every interaction gave him a sense of alienation as if he had crossed into a parallel timeline, finding himself in a completely different nightmare space.
The eerie communication that chilled Anello’s heart was still ongoing from the mouthpiece hanging at the edge of the office desk, emitting a faint crackling sound, becoming a distant echo.
"Viscount, it seems everything is going smoothly."
The sound of a voice came again from the mouthpiece.
"Report to the governor, a set of sixth-order magic ban nails has been inserted into the criminal’s body according to specifications,"
Chinston looked at the desk and said.
Despite the absence of anyone behind the desk, he reported the progress of his task as if he were whispering to a transparent person sitting behind it.
At this moment, Anello was finally sure that since he entered the Governor’s Mansion, it was the person on the other side of the mouthpiece that controlled these people from the Xue Yuan Province.
But he couldn’t understand what kind of wicked mind control spell High Priest Loren had used to make the people of the Protoss Empire serve him so madly and lose their selves!
"Move him five meters to the left, have him face the sofa in the office."
From the mouthpiece, the crackling sounds and the man’s gentle words intertwined.
Like a blunt knife slowly carving into Anello’s heart and dignity.
"Yes."
Viscount Chinston replied.
Several elite guards immediately moved Anello on the ground to directly in front of the sofa in the Governor’s Office.
"Anello, I didn’t expect you to come to my Governor’s Mansion so soon, I didn’t even have time to greet you at first."
The clear voice from the mouthpiece echoed in the office, each word seemed so laid-back, cordial, and kind.
Anello felt it was more unbearable.
"But it’s okay."
Until the sound from the mouthpiece became more and more three-dimensional and hallucinatory, the outside of the room gradually began to overlap with the same voice.
Finally, two figures entered through the door of the Governor’s Office.
The light shone on the two of them, like a brilliant streaming light.
Lanci’s suit and coat fluttered with the wind, his deep eyes seemed to be smiling, and thinking. He held the communication magic in his left hand, and held a black kitten in his other hand, a long black tail cleverly coiled around his wrist.
When he and Sikder entered the office, they sat on their sofa like the masters returning to their own house, looking at Anello lying on the ground.
"Anello, I believe all encounters are reunions."
Upon hearing Lanci’s calm words, Anello’s heartbeat pounded like falling into an icy cave.
He shakily raised his head, meeting those suave eyes, as clear as the most pristine spring lake.
Even if this man had changed his appearance to brown hair at the moment, those eyes and voice remained unchanged from the beginning to the end.
It was this man who gave him a brief redemption earlier on, and at this moment became the nightmare he couldn’t escape from again.
