“Nothing is impossible,” Leon said coldly, though a flash of surprise crossed his face before he quickly regained his composure.
Impossible...
With only half of his head remaining, Martin could no longer maintain his flight. Like a turkey with broken wings, he plummeted straight down from the sky.
Even though he had temporarily transformed into an elemental body through a sacrificial ritual, and despite having only half a head left, a sliver of life still clung to him.
Lying flat on his back on the ground, he looked up at Leon hovering in the sky. His eye was filled with blank bewilderment and unbelievable horror.
“...I clearly... already had an elemental body... How could I... be destroyed like this...”
“An elemental body cannot stop my attacks either.” Leon flew down from the sky and stood on the ground, looking down at Martin with cold eyes.
“Your level is too low to comprehend my power.”
Martin lay in the ruins, his heart like cold ashes, utterly powerless to refute.
Whoosh!
Right at that moment, two figures hurtled over from the horizon, so fast they practically whipped up a gale.
“Where is the enemy?” Viscount Finn's entire body erupted with Battle Qi, and raging flames swirled around the greatsword in his hand.
Miles flew over the Gold-Touch District. Without a word, he cast a protective Divine Art on Leon and Viscount Finn, and only then did he scan the surroundings and ask, “Priest Leon, are you alright?”
Leon shook his head, grabbed Martin by his half-head, and said:
“I'm fine. Besides... I've just finished off the enemy.”
Finished off?
Viscount Finn stared at the object Leon was holding, only to realize that it wasn't some kind of trophy, but half of a head still crackling with fire elemental power!
The eye in this half-head could still blink, and it radiated intense hatred.
“Holy crap! You can still stay alive with only half a head?” Viscount Finn was utterly shocked.
Miles also noticed the half-head in Leon's hand. He hesitated for a moment and asked:
“Is this... the enemy you were just fighting?”
Leon nodded and said:
“He is a bishop of the Black and White Hand.”
“Earlier, he used a magic circle to merge himself with a fire elemental creation, causing his strength to skyrocket.”
“At the time, I wasn't sure of his exact strength, so I fired a signal flare for backup first. However...”
“To think he was so confident with only this level of strength. What a waste of my signal flare!”
Viscount Finn and Miles: “...”
The two of them exchanged a glance, both seeing the astonishment in each other's eyes.
For Leon to fire a signal flare, the opponent had to be at least an expert at the peak Gold rank, right?
Yet from the moment they received the signal to when they arrived at the battlefield, barely five minutes had passed.
Just five minutes... and the battle was already over?
Viscount Finn's lips twitched. He felt that the speed at which Leon finished off his opponent was even faster than how quickly his wife used to disarm and surrender when they fought in their younger days...
It was just a pity that times had changed, and their combat effectiveness had now completely reversed...
Beside him, Miles was also surprised for a second, but thinking of Leon, he quickly came to terms with it.
He said:
“Since this bishop of the Black and White Hand is still alive, Priest Leon, I'll leave the interrogation for information to you.”
“Interrogate me? Hahaha! In your dreams!” Before Leon could even speak, Martin, with only half a head left, suddenly burst into laughter.
Even in his current state, Martin did not show the slightest intention of begging for mercy. He curled half his mouth—indeed, only half a mouth remained—and snarled:
“This is the time of destiny! Even if you disrupt this operation, it is nothing more than a futile struggle!”
“The Gray Fog... The Gray Fog will descend upon Ommisiah once more, swallowing the entire continent! Only by joining our Black and White Hand can one grasp a sliver of hope for survival!”
“O mysterious Sovereign above the Gray Fog... Your believer will strictly uphold our creed. Even if subjected to endless torture, I will absolutely never leak a single piece of the church's information to these believers of false gods...”
Watching the rambling Martin, Leon slapped him across the face several times.
Normally, he wouldn't say anything if the Black and White Hand just shouted their slogans.
But the God of Sacred Light had just responded to Leon, and now Martin was calling the God of Sacred Light a false god right in front of him?
The God of Sacred Light might tolerate it, but Leon certainly couldn't!
Slap! Slap! Slap!
After delivering several resounding slaps, Leon prayed in his heart: God of Sacred Light above, I have punished this heretic who defiled Your name. Please make sure to respond to me again the next time I pray...
Having delivered those crisp slaps, Leon gripped his scepter. His mental power surged out, condensing into strings of memory upon it.
His fingertips glowed with a faint light as he gently plucked the strings of memory, and the sound of a holy chant began to spread.
Tring~ tring-tring-tring~
Hearing the holy chant, Martin's eye quickly grew vacant, and a look of confusion appeared on his half-face. His heart, which had firmly believed in the mysterious Sovereign above the Gray Fog, began to waver at this moment.
“No, that's not right...”
It had to be said that he was indeed a devout believer at the Gold rank. Even under the influence of the Memory-Weaving Stringed Scepter, he could still briefly maintain his sanity and guard his mind, resisting having his core obsession altered immediately.
However, just like the plot of countless NTR manga, the protagonist would eventually find it unacceptable, yet fall straight into corruption—
Bah!
When it came to the God of Sacred Light, could it really be called corruption?
This was called turning over a new leaf!
Leon continued to play the Memory-Weaving Stringed Scepter, its notes compassionate and deep.
Martin's expression became increasingly dazed, finally falling into an endless state of melancholy.
“Tell me all the orders and information you have received!” Leon commanded.
Martin spoke blankly, word by word:
“The... the order I received was to... destroy the mana-sensing device in Stormveil City... eliminate the members of the Mages' Association... and draw attention...”
Hmm?
Hearing Martin's words, Leon and everyone present couldn't help but freeze.
The primary function of Stormveil City's mana-sensing device was to monitor abnormal mana fluctuations, detecting the real-time status of various mana focuses throughout the Abyss and the Dusk Sea.
Just recently, it was thanks to the early warning of this device that Leon and the others were able to detect the anomaly of the dragon going mad and intending to attack the city.
The intelligence Doncic gathered previously showed that the cause of the mana surge more than half a month ago was the Frozen King trying to use it to break through the barrier of the Burns ruins... Leon's mind raced.
However, judging by the result where two of the Four Kings of the Dusk Sea died and one was heavily injured, this mana surge clearly did not go as the Frozen King desired.
The intensity of the surge far exceeded the Frozen King's range of control, and even a merchant island under her command was affected...
Leon's eyes narrowed as a suspicion surfaced in his heart:
Could it be... that the Black and White Hand was secretly pushing things behind the scenes of the out-of-control mana surge?
After all, the magic research team dispatched from the imperial capital to Stormveil City had the mission of investigating the exact impact of that mana surge.
And at this very moment, the Black and White Hand had targeted the city's mana-sensing device, attempting to destroy it.
To say this wasn't to stop the mages of the magic research team from investigating—forget Leon, even Alicia wouldn't believe it!
Rate on N.U.
