NOVPUBOn the scorched earth of the Northwest Region of Nanwantina, a pure updraft constantly makes the flames dance, casting ripples of light into the silent night, as a man’s voice echoes into the stillness.
"Are you going to fight me?"
It was a soft murmur as potent as the thunderous decree of a heavenly edict.
Lanci’s gaze of transcendent pity swept over Solomon and then towards the decaying alchemical beast. It seemed he did not regard them at all, focusing only on the movements of the wind, speaking his mind.
In every sense of the word, one thing was clear -
No matter who fought him, the outcome would be the same.
"No, Loren, you can’t kill me..."
The operation of Solomon’s magic power, The Saint of Destruction, halted as though attempting to completely conceal his presence and existence. His features gradually darkened.
He observed the battlefield.
The eighth-order decaying alchemical beast crafted by Fa Mo was slightly stronger than the grey-haired eight order woman. Even though he was far from being her match, after taking control of the decayed alchemical beast, it proved to be quite lethal to her.
After the earlier skirmish, the energy of the decayed alchemical beast had been consumed by almost half. He himself had to bear the backlash of several eight-order curses and was now in a terrible state.
Had it been just a regular eight-order strongman, he would have dared to fight to the death.
But facing the monstrous Loren, even three decaying alchemical beasts would not be a problem!
Only a cardinal bishop at full strength could contend with the high priest!
"Let’s make a deal, don’t let those grand priests of destruction in the city-states kill innocent people. Everyone must withdraw, and I won’t pursue anymore."
Lanci sighed with a trace of frustration and exhaustion. Even when facing the Saint of Destruction, he desired to soften the opposition with his boundless love.
"But if you challenge me, I assure you that you will die in Nanwantina today, miserably. Even before you die, you will experience a fear far greater than the Archbishop of Destruction can instill in you."
Lanci’s gaze seemed to penetrate far into the distance, implying he wished for no such event to transpire.
"What are you talking about?"
The eyes of Solomon, the Saint of Destruction, flitted back and forth.
He did not understand why Loren seemed to have already seen through their arrangements, or what his cryptic words meant.
Yet, at this moment, Solomon felt that Loren was not deceiving him, but sincerely acting in his best interest, or predicting his inevitable fate in the near future.
A high priest of the noble Church of the Goddess of Destiny would not stoop to deceiving the Saint of Destruction or else Loren would have already personally eradicated the Saint and Saintess under the Cardinal Bishop of the South Continent.
A strongman of the eighth order like the High Priest personally planning and executing the death of a Saint and a Saintess would incite the Cardinal Bishops to hunt down low-level priests in a wild and merciless fashion.
This was the equilibrium and compromise Loren chose to a certain degree.
Solomon was aware of this.
Every second he delayed, his chances of escaping were diminishing by the minute, yet he had to consider if he truly had a chance to escape.
At this moment, he had two choices: either use confrontational tactics to buy time from the decaying alchemical beast or by allowing the Grand Priests to indiscriminately slaughter within the city while preparing to self-destruct at any moment, which would buy him plenty of escape time as Loren could not ignore such a situation.
Alternatively, he could trust Loren’s assurance of his freedom, abandon all resistance, and run away directly.
If he chose the former, despite having the initiative, Loren would not hesitate to act decisively. For it was Solomon who instigated the challenge, hence if Loren kills him in retaliation, it could not be blamed on Loren overpowering him.
Solomon’s brow twitched slightly as if he had come to a realization.
"The High Priest doesn’t go back on their word, do they?"
Swallowing hard, Solomon mustered the audacity to ask.
He had heard that Loren possesses a kindness that borders folly, even the Archbishop of Destruction and Decay admitted this with contemptuous laughter.
"Of course. It is best that you stop that alchemical beast from moving."
Lanci nodded.
His gaze upon Solomon remained tranquil, as though he never considered the mere Saint of Destruction an opponent. It was the gaze of a deity looking down upon the insignificant human race.
"Fine."
The chill racing up his spine caused Solomon to turn and escape from the scorched lands at the fastest possible speed, morphing into a shadow that disappeared into the night, stirring up a wild gust of wind along his path.
It was only after a considerable distance that he stopped.
He had managed to put several kilometers between himself and Lanci.
Solomon entered the alleyways of Nanwantina undetected, merging his magic power with the ordinary public around him and only proceeded alone, not giving Loren a chance to detect his presence.
At this point, Solomon was confident that he had successfully escaped.
"Thank you, High Priest Loren…"
Solomon sincerely murmured.
Underneath the shadows.
The corners of his mouth kept twitching, almost unable to contain his laughter.
The most logical course of action seemed to be to run first, and then to cast the Grand Priests into indiscriminate slaughter within the city-state once he was safe. At that point, Loren would have no choice but to care.
Once the clueless Loren was drawn away, Miss Duchess Hyperion would no longer have the protection of this eighth-order woman, her life-saving trump cards would have been exhausted, and she would truly be left in the dark.
Loren, who had merely intruded into the Hutton Kingdom as its guardian, was not specifically assigned to guard Hyperion. To him, the safety of the citizens of the Hutton Kingdom was of prime importance.
Then, once the Grand Priest made a second attack, the life of Miss Duchess Hyperion would be in jeopardy.
Solomon’s racing heart told him how fortunate he was that his opponent was a compassionate simpleton like Loren, and not some sadistic psychopath.
Regrettably, mercy comes with a price.
Tonight, he would give Loren a tough lesson.
The tuition fee.
Would be something Loren would remember for the rest of his life. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
"Haha! Hahaha!"
Solomon finally let out a laugh.
...
The Northwest Region of the Nanwantina, the Path of the Guardian, all the nearby buildings were shattered to pieces, as if they had just experienced a war.
After a long while.
"..."
Lanci glanced in the direction where the Saint of Destruction Solomon had fled in fear until he disappeared, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Meow Meow Meow! Tata!"
The cat boss flew out from the shadows immediately and started to heal the weakened Talia slowly. Although it was puzzled why Tata had grown so powerful, to the point where she was at the eighth-order, it had no time to think about that. Even with its Mana almost exhausted, it was desperately casting healing spells on Tata.
Seeing Tata awake, Lanci felt relieved.
Initially, if he had not interfered, and Hyperion along with the Duke’s family had all died, Tata might have turned evil. After acquiring the ancient heirloom of the Demon Clan, the Poem of Pity, she would have become a terrifying ninth-order Demon Race Great in the distant future.
However, it seemed that she had been wasted now, and she hadn’t obtained her biggest cheat - the Poem of Pity. Over the past year, she hadn’t shown any signs of strengthening, the only change might have been a slight increase in her weight.
"…"
Talia, laying on the ground, looked at Lanci, then tilted her head for a better look at him, but without the energy to speak anymore, she simply chose to lay still.
"You finally scared him away. That was close…"
Hyperion took a deep breath and rested against Lanci’s chest after holding her breath for a very long time, finally feeling relieved.
She knew Lanci was playing psychological warfare, risking to scare away the Saint of Destruction, Solomon!
"Ah? I didn’t scare him."
Lanci looked down at Hyperion, confused.
"Ah?"
Hyperion also stared blankly at Lanci.
"If he dared to fight me just now, he would really have died."
Lanci responded matter-of-factly.
"…"
Hyperion was starting to understand.
The Three Illusion Demons should be on Lanci right now. After discovering the Grand Priest of Destruction in Nanwantina, the first thing he did was summon the three Great Demon Races from Ichrite.
Wait a moment.
Judging from what Hyperion knew about Lanci, he had set things up to win either way, even lured Solomon into choosing flight - but what was waiting for Solomon?
"Lanci, you’re not going to do anything too condemnable today, right... I haven’t accumulated much good karma recently..."
Although Hyperion was close to Lanci, her timid voice was so soft that he almost couldn’t hear her.
