Chapter 170: Hunted (Part 1)

  The bells of St. Peter's Basilica struggled to penetrate the blockade of the fierce wind and rain. By the time they reached the palace, they were faint and blurred, like the moan of a dying old man. In a tower within the palace, a court mage who heard this faint sound almost jumped up.

  "It's the bells of St. Peter's Basilica. They're calling for aid... It seems something has happened." The court mage stood up and ran to the window, looking out towards the direction of the great cathedral. "And I don't think they've ever rung the bells like this before. Whatever happened must be significant."

  "It probably couldn't be minor, especially at this time." General Orrin also walked to the window, looking out towards the great cathedral. His originally listless eyes were now filled with an excited light. "I was only hoping for it, but I didn't really think it would happen as I imagined..."

  "Could it be that Archbishop Eschol really..." The court mage thought for a moment, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "I really can't believe it..."

  "Actually, based on logical deduction, I find it hard to believe myself. But whether something happens is not decided by whether we believe it or not..."

  "If, if this assassin really killed Archbishop Eschol..." The court mage said cautiously, as if afraid that speaking it aloud would make this possibility disappear. "Perhaps we should really thank him..."

  Orrin nodded and coughed lightly. "Of course. I'll go find him now and thank him properly. You should come along too."

  The court mage asked, "How do you plan to thank this person who has helped us?"

  "By cutting off his head, of course." Orrin replied flatly. He drew the long sword from his waist, and faint magical runes rose from the blade. The leather armor on his body also began to reveal the same magical runes. "If he has the ability to cut off Archbishop Eschol's head, then he also has the ability to cut off anyone's head in Erathia. A person like that is dangerous to keep around."

  "If he really had the ability to kill Eschol... do you think the two of us can handle him?"

  "Assassination and a direct confrontation are always two different things. And as long as Archbishop Eschol or his guards aren't complete pushovers, it's enough that they don't let this assassin escape unscathed. The key is that now, he is the prey, and we are the hunters." General Orrin looked at the court mage. "It seems there's no time to mobilize men for a large-scale search... Against an expert like this, more people would just get in the way. Can you find this guy's trail in such wind and rain?"

  "The wind and rain are too heavy, and the other party is presumably a master of stealth and concealment. The key is that this is the royal city. There are too many people. It might be a bit difficult..." The court mage looked at the pouring rain outside the tower, hesitated for a moment, and then replied. "Within about a hundred meters, my Mana Divine Eye can guarantee that I won't miss him within that range."

  "Good, within a hundred meters." General Orrin nodded, and without further ado for the mage, he leaped down from the tower.

  The court mage closed his eyes and chanted a spell in a low voice. Countless blue magical symbols flowed out from his body, then converged above his head. The magical symbols gathered and transformed into a huge, eye-shaped orb. This magical eye, as large as his own head, rotated at a slow, unhurried pace, its eerie, blue-glowing pupil scanning everything around it.

  The mage chanted another long string of incantations while making complex hand gestures. His body slowly floated into the air. He then cast a few more magic shields on himself before flying out of the tower. The huge eye above his head paused for a moment, then followed in the direction where Orrin had already disappeared into the wind and rain.

  At the top of St. Peter's Basilica, a figure stood on the cross atop the church, quietly waiting for the next clap of thunder.

  Her golden long hair was soaked by the rain, clinging to her forehead, cheeks, and armor. The water poured like a waterfall from her neck into her armor; her whole body was already soaked. Her hand was raised to her brow to shield against the rain, her eyes unblinking as she stared into the pitch darkness where there was only wind and rain. She hadn't moved from the start, like a statue cast upon the roof.

  St. Peter's Basilica was the tallest building in the royal city, and its peak was the closest to the crisscrossing lightning in the sky above. For someone to have the audacity to stand in such a place at this time, there seemed to be no other reason than to seek death. The power of the thunderclaps from the sky was far beyond what the lightning in the hands of mages could compare to. Even a protective spell against lightning released by an air master would be no different from a piece of paper in the face of the might of heaven and earth.

  But she knew she had to wait here. Because only here was the highest point in the royal city, allowing her to overlook the farthest and most complete area. And only in the moment the lightning struck could it tear apart this all-encompassing darkness and wind and rain, allowing her to see a panoramic view of the royal city for an instant.

  She knew, of course, that the Radiant Battleplate on her could not withstand a heavenly lightning strike that could land on her head at any moment. If that lightning were to descend upon her, she would instantly become a pile of charcoal within her Radiant Battleplate. But she didn't care. She only knew that she had to wait. And she had to wait until she saw the person fleeing in panic. The faint light of the Radiant Battleplate was like an insignificant firefly in this all-devouring night, but no matter how great the wind and rain, no matter how dark the night, no matter how violent the thunder and lightning, that speck of light was always there.

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  Several specks of white light moved through the streets. The guards from the church had already split into several groups to give chase. Those lights were from the illumination spells maintained by the priests in the teams. In such a heavy downpour, it was impossible to use any light for illumination. The Kingdom's Knight Brigade, having heard the bells, should also be rushing here. But in such a great wind and rain, even a large-scale pursuit would not be very effective. The rain was so heavy one couldn't even open their eyes, and even if they did, they couldn't see more than a few meters. Furthermore, in such heavy rain, not even the most skilled tracking expert could discover any traces. Such a search was no different from a futile effort.

  A pale bolt of lightning tore open the black night sky for an instant. Then, a muffled thunder echoed above St. Peter's Basilica.

  She discovered nothing, but Talise didn't even blink, simply maintaining her posture and changing her direction. She felt no fear, no impatience, or any other emotional fluctuation. The only thought filling her chest now was to find that person, to catch him. Her eyes, enhanced with high-level Eagle's Eye and scouting spells, were already bloodshot, and the light of magic and extreme anger mixed together, shooting out rays of brilliance.

  She was angry. She was unwilling, and more than that, she was bewildered, because she had clearly seen that the person who had beheaded Cardinal with one sword was Yabin. The person she had always trusted, had a good impression of, and could even call the first friend of her life. She could not accept this reality. She was convinced that this person was behind it all, manipulating everything. Now, only by catching this culprit could she find an explanation and a solution to all of this.

  Accompanied by a sound loud enough to tear one's ears apart, a larger, brighter bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. For an instant, this dead city-like royal capital seemed to have returned to daylight.

  Talise's pupils suddenly narrowed. In this instant, she finally saw him. A figure in the middle of a street about two or three li away. Stumbling but running swiftly into the distance. Like a leopard that had finally spotted its long-awaited prey, she suddenly sprinted towards the eaves, leaped into the air, and jumped down from the roof.

  A dull, loud thud. Water and stone chips flew everywhere. Even with the cushioning of Feather Fall, the impact from this nearly hundred-meter drop was immense. The bluestone ground where Talise landed was smashed into a pit. She stood up with a stagger, feeling as if her bones and internal organs had been turned over, and there was a trace of blood in her throat. But she didn't pause for a moment, casting a healing spell on herself and sprinting off in the direction she had seen.

  The rain was heavy, so heavy it was as if someone was pouring it down with basins. In the rain, one couldn't even open their eyes; opening their mouth would fill it with water. A breath would draw water into the nasal cavity. Standing in the rain was like standing in water. The wind was also strong; a more slender person could barely stand steady in this wind. The raindrops, driven by the wind, hit one's body like countless small fists.

  It was dark. Except for the occasional flashes of lightning that illuminated the world in a blinding white instant along with the thunder, the entire royal city was a pitch-black mass. So dark there was nothing, as if between heaven and earth, besides the sound of wind, rain, and thunder, there was no longer any light or life. Even the warning bells from the great cathedral had been completely drowned out by the sound of the wind and rain.

  Ethan knew nothing. He couldn't feel the surprisingly strong wind and rain around him, couldn't feel the water choking his nose and lungs, couldn't feel himself coughing as he ran, like an old man with fifty years of lung disease, couldn't even feel himself slipping, falling, getting up, and running again. He was now like a dog that had been blinded, deafened, and had one of its legs broken, stumbling, staggering, rolling, and crawling, struggling to escape in the rain.

  Run, run. Ethan only knew to run now. But he didn't even know where he should run, or how. It was as if someone had poured a kettle of boiling lead into his brain. All consciousness was fuzzy, chaotic, and incredibly heavy, churning, tumbling, and turning in a scalding mess. He seemed to feel his brain marrow being stirred into a pot of dregs by his own thoughts.

  Although Eschol was dead, and the mind magic power he had left in Ethan's brain no longer had a controller, in that encirclement, he had not only unleashed all his Battle Qi and magic power at once, but had also radiated killing intent. Everyone present was an expert. No matter how astonishing or realistic his Battle Qi and magic, feigned through meditation, were, without killing intent, there was no oppressive force. It was like a tiger roaring ferociously but showing no claws or fangs; that, in turn, was proof of a bluff.

  Releasing the magic fluctuations and Battle Qi, which were originally far from that level, all at once, and finally having to supplement with a necromantic fireball to block the pursuers, had almost completely drained the Battle Qi and magic power within his body. And killing intent was not something anyone could just emit at will. It had to come from real killing intent, a strong desire to attack from the bottom of one's heart, mixed with one's own aura, to be produced. Therefore, at that time, there had to be that real hostility and fighting spirit. In this way, the originally suppressed power disappeared, and the killing intent in his heart surged like throwing a torch into a just-extinguished pile of dry firewood, igniting that originally dormant mind magic power.

  Although this mass of magic power no longer had a controller, it was, after all, the full-force strike of a top-tier mind mage on the continent. If not for the meditation technique, which could slightly alleviate it and maintain that sliver of clarity in his heart, he would have probably gone mad long ago.

  The huge Erathian capital was like a dead city abandoned for many years. Whether it was the knights reporting the dire news or the pursuers, all were completely hidden in the darkness and the immense sound of wind and rain. Ethan alone stumbled and ran in this dead domain where he could see nothing and knew not where to flee.

  At this time, the Barbarian Highlands were filled with a sky full of stars.

  Especially on the wide city hall square of Oufu, one could take in the entire view of this rugged-style city and the starry sky. The teleportation magic array was in the very center of the square, with not a single guard around, only three figures that had just been teleported there. The noise was particularly jarring in the silent middle of the night.

  "If it weren't for him, you would have long since become a stinking mud in a gutter. And now you have the nerve to escape alone?" Jessica looked at Yabin with a face full of killing intent. If she weren't certain that he wasn't on Archbishop Eschol's side, she would have made her move immediately.

  "I didn't want it to be this way either. But what else could I do?" Yabin's face was flushed, not from guilt, but from helplessness. He was now thousands of miles away from Erathia. No matter how anxious or worried he was, it was useless. He couldn't even find out what was really happening over there.

  "You'd better pray he's safe and sound..." Drow's venomous gaze glanced at Yabin, and at Aimee on the ground. "Otherwise, I'll make you two siblings regret being born into this world. Was that little girl crazy? She was lucky. But I assure you, you will watch me carve her to pieces with your own eyes."

  A vein on Yabin's forehead throbbed: "You..."

  A team of beastmen, alerted by the sound, hurried over. This was a team composed of fully armed Ogres and werewolves, but the one leading them was a dwarf whose height didn't even reach a werewolf's waist.

  "Lord Bolgan." Yabin recognized this dwarf as the chief of staff and deputy to the City Lord of Oufu. He had met him when he came here with a merchant caravan last time.

  Jessica watched these tall and dangerous demi-humans with vigilance. Although Ethan had already told her about the situation in Oufu, this was her first time here and her first time dealing with these humanoid creatures on the surface.

  "You... should be from the Shadow Corps, right." Lord Bolgan sized up the three of them. He had also heard from Sedros about Ethan's new subordinates, and now only these people could use this newly established teleportation magic array. "Where is your leader?"