The First Pope - Chapter 154
Chapter 154
The war general Blood Demon was rumored to be jealous and short-tempered, but now it seemed "dim-witted" could be added to the list.
The black mist, imprisoned by the golden light, continued to struggle relentlessly. Before Cynthia, the Blood Demon's fury was almost palpable. It turned its head to stare at the long spear lying quietly on the ground, now that no one was controlling it, and tried to command it to pierce straight through the God Race member opposite her.
Although the Blood Demon had no physical form, Cynthia could roughly guess its intentions just by watching the movements of the black mist. She held her staff in one hand and raised the other to tidy her silver hair, which had been mussed by the wind. Unlike the flustered and exasperated Blood Demon, her face was a picture of calm indifference. "This is a spell left by the Goddess of Light. You don't even have a body; struggling is a waste of effort."
"To be honest, I've already consumed a great deal of spiritual power to drive out the Vampires. If I wanted to kill you, I would have to pay a price as well. So, Excellency Blood Demon, you need not be afraid."
The Blood Demon, still wrestling for control of the long spear, grew even angrier at Cynthia's words. "Afraid?"
The black mist suddenly swelled to half a person's height, looking even more like a monster. "Where does a lone soul like you get such confidence?"
From the very beginning, the Blood Demon had called Cynthia a lone soul, and her tone was incredibly certain. This piqued Cynthia's interest. "How are you so sure that I'm a lone soul?"
"I woke up from an Ice Coffin, after all."
"The Goddess of Light never had any intention of launching a plan to exterminate demonic creatures. Her creation of a God's Descendant was merely for show," the Blood Demon sneered. "Waking up from the Ice Coffin was just your good luck. If not for that useless bunch of Vampires destroying the Temple of the God of the Ocean, causing the seal on the Ice Coffin to fail, you'd still be drifting around who knows where."
The power and influence of the demonic creatures from the era of the gods were unimaginable to the other races of today. In the later stages of that era, the gods had ceased their internal conflicts. They had rare-ly united on a common front, deciding to confront the demonic creatures together and eliminate them completely.
But the Goddess of Light was so cunning. To avoid consuming her own divine power, she created only one God's Descendant and immediately sealed her away. In the end, she produced a bunch of half-finished products and placed them in the temple to deceive the other gods.
Of course, back then, there was someone even more cunning than the Goddess of Light: the God of Darkness, who created no new race at all. But the Blood Demon didn't see this as cunning; to her, it was clearly her master's brilliance.
Cynthia couldn't even see the Blood Demon's expression, let alone know her inner thoughts. Seeing that the Blood Demon was quite knowledgeable about the gods, she tried to probe for more information, but the Blood Demon just repeated the same few lines over and over. Getting no useful intelligence, Cynthia promptly dropped the topic. Her gaze shifted slightly, glancing at the Garcia Witches who, perhaps sensing the Blood Demon was trapped, were trying to approach but were being held back by the God Race. Her eyes darkened slightly. "How did you bewitch the Garcia Witches?"
"Bewitch?" The Blood Demon snorted with disdain. "They are my believers. Of course, they are convinced of me from the bottom of their hearts."
Cynthia chuckled lightly. "Then if you die, will they still believe in you?"
Cynthia hadn't chanted the full spell; she had only used a sacrificial art to trap the Blood Demon. The two hadn't truly fought to the death. Having been trapped for a while, the Blood Demon was already burning with rage, even willing to consume her soul power to summon the long spear on the ground. Under her persistent summons, the spear finally showed some reaction. The Blood Demon's heart leaped with joy, and she began to summon her weapon even more frequently, giving Cynthia a perfunctory reply, "They are my believers. Even if I die, they will still believe in me."
"Unless…" The Blood Demon paused, her tone suddenly turning strange. "They die."
As her words fell, the long spear on the ground suddenly stood upright. Hair-thin red light emanated from its tip, spreading out like an inescapable net and enveloping the golden light that surrounded the Blood Demon. The two forces collided, producing a harsh, grinding sound.
When the long spear erupted, Cynthia was already prepared and withdrew her staff. A whirlwind swept in and carried her away. At the same time, a pale green arrow shot out from the whirlwind and collided with the bloody light.
As Olivia formed another arrow, she turned her head to look Cynthia up and down. Seeing that she was unharmed, she returned her gaze to the front and asked softly, "How did it go?"
Cynthia shook her head slightly and sighed, "She's a soul form. I saw nothing when I touched her."
"It's alright," Olivia said calmly as she released the arrow. "We can find another way through the Garcia Witches."
Although the Elves had little contact with the Witches, Olivia's impression of the Garcia Witches, based on their interactions with the God Race, was much better than her impression of the Sethite wizards. If it weren't for the Anderson Witches, the Garcia Family would likely still be allies with the God Race, just like the Morgan Family was now.
The Garcia Witches' sudden defection to the Blood Demon was too strange. Even without her connection to Betty, Cynthia couldn't just let it go.
To have bewitched an entire family in such a short time—if the reason wasn't uncovered, the other races of the Sitatul Continent could face the same danger.
While Cynthia and Olivia were talking, the Blood Demon had already used her long spear to break free from the golden light's restraints. Cynthia's Power of Light was different from ordinary light power; being trapped for just a short while had devoured a significant amount of the Blood Demon's soul power.
One had to remember that the Blood Demon was currently in a soul state. Every bit of soul power consumed was gone for good. Losing so much for no reason left the Blood Demon both furious and wary. She gripped her long spear and floated in the air, maintaining a great distance from Cynthia. The black mist flickered in and out of solidity as a rain of blood-red arrows flew toward Cynthia and Olivia without warning.
Cynthia waved her staff, and golden flames shot up from the ground, intercepting the rain of blood arrows midway. The Power of Darkness and the Power of Light clashed. Suddenly, a red light shot out from within the golden flames. The long spear, glinting with a cold light, pierced through space and appeared before Cynthia in the blink of an eye.
The long spear pierced Cynthia's chest without any resistance and passed through her, but the Blood Demon, floating in the air and controlling the spear, did not relax. She looked down, scanning the surroundings, and beckoned with her right hand. The long spear flew back toward her. Behind it, the figure that had been pierced had already dissolved into golden light and vanished into the air.
Cynthia and Olivia's figures appeared behind the Blood Demon. The Blood Demon, who had been searching for something, keenly sensed the danger. Without turning to look, the black mist vanished on the spot. The instant she disappeared, a golden arrow and a pale green arrow pierced through the space she had just occupied.
"Two fools trying to ambush me?" The Blood Demon reappeared ten meters away, holding her long spear and laughing uproariously. But her laughter was cut short after just two laughs. Countless beams of Light Magic completely engulfed her, and the brilliant golden light made it impossible to see any trace of the black mist.
Seeing that the Blood Demon had entered the God Race's spell range to dodge the arrows, Cynthia's lips curled slightly. She immediately had the God Race change their target. Upon receiving Cynthia's command, Darcy led the God Race to unleash the Light Magic they had prepared for the witches all at once on the Blood Demon. The Garcia Witches, unfortunately, were cut off by the God Race, so they could only stare blankly as their "God of Darkness" was swallowed by the golden light.
"Is she dead?" Darcy came to Cynthia's side, looking at the brilliant golden light in the sky as she asked.
Cynthia stroked her staff without speaking. Olivia lowered her longbow, glanced behind her, and said, "The witches are trying to escape."
The Garcia Witches, who had just been fighting the God Race to the death, were now desperately trying to retreat, as if they had received some kind of order.
Seeing the witches trying to flee, Darcy frowned. Just as she was about to lead her people to intercept them, a golden flame moved faster than she did. Cynthia softly chanted a spell, and chains formed of fire erupted from the ground, wrapping around the Garcia Witches' feet. Some, unable to withstand such overwhelming Power of Light, fainted on the spot.
However, a portion of the witches used the Power of Darkness to break the chains' shackles and quickly fled before the God Race could catch up.
As Cynthia chanted her spell, the golden light overhead slowly dissipated. It was unclear whether the black mist had been purified or had escaped like the witches.
Darcy put away her staff and led her people to treat the unconscious witches. The Morgan Witches, who had been watching the battle nervously from nearby, also hurried to join the rescue effort. Chelsea was the first to run over. She bent down and searched for a while before finally finding the unconscious Betty on the ground.
"The Blood Demon has probably returned to the Temple of Darkness." Cynthia stopped her spell, looking at the witches scattered on the ground. She narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow. "But I've detained so many of her believers. Is she not going to do anything about it?"
"Whether she does or not depends on how important these witches are to her." Olivia put away her longbow and turned to look at Cynthia. Noticing that a lock of hair on the side of her face had been cut in the middle, she reached out and gently stroked it. A pale green light flickered at her fingertips, and the severed hair slowly grew long again, cascading down to her waist.
After Cynthia's hair was restored, Olivia intended to pull her hand back, but Cynthia caught it. Holding Olivia's hand, Cynthia brought it to her lips for a kiss, her expression still that of someone seriously discussing business. "I feel that the relationship between the Garcia Witches and the Blood Demon is more than just that of believers."
She carefully recalled her conversation with the Blood Demon and felt that something was strange, especially the line about how the witches would still believe in her even if she died, unless the witches themselves were all dead… Cynthia frowned, her gaze involuntarily shifting to the Garcia Witches. A bad premonition suddenly rose in her heart.
The Garcia Witches all seemed to have lost their own will, so Darcy didn't rashly use a Healing Spell to wake them. Instead, she had them brought into the city to be kept under strict guard.
Chelsea carefully checked Betty's condition. Seeing that she wasn't injured, she breathed a small sigh of relief. She had the Light Knights take Betty away and then walked over to Cynthia.
"Cynthia." Chelsea walked to Cynthia's side with heavy steps. Her slightly red-rimmed eyes made her look somewhat fragile, but it might have just been an illusion. "Eunice is awake."
"She wants to see you."
Capri Plains, inside the Temple of Darkness.
The Blood Demon, having fled back from the Slade Sea Region in a sorry state, was throwing a tantrum in the temple. Black gales sent the statues of beasts inside the temple crashing into the stone pillars on either side. Each booming crash caused the ground outside to shake violently.
This time, the Blood Demon was truly infuriated. She had gone out full of confidence, only to abandon a portion of her soul power to make a pathetic escape, even losing half of her believers. It was simply the most humiliating experience of her tens of thousands of years of existence.
And Wolf Fang had seen it all!
If not for the fact that she had consumed too much soul power and couldn't leave the Temple of Darkness for the time being, she would definitely take her long spear and charge back, killing that detestable God's Descendant at any cost.
Wolf Fang sat atop the statue of the God of Darkness, watching the Blood Demon rage below. She offered no words of comfort out of camaraderie from their tens of thousands of years together. Instead, she mocked her unceremoniously, "Your first step to conquering the Sitatul Continent, how did it miss?"
The Blood Demon was so angry she began stabbing randomly around the temple with her long spear. She glared fiercely at Wolf Fang and roared, "What's it to you!"
Wolf Fang watched her vent her anger with cold eyes. When the Blood Demon had more or less exhausted herself, she said flatly, "What about the Sethite wizards? Why didn't they return with you?"
The Blood Demon's form froze.
Wolf Fang understood. "It seems you were played."
The Blood Demon roared, "Shut up!"
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