Chapter 374: A Bad Case of Paranoia

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The stinging sensation finally subsided, leaving Baiyi sure that the troublesome enemy was no more. He was about to heave a sigh of relief when the Devil Walker muttered, “Pfft, what a waste. That guy had some organs that are priceless materials for space magic…”

‘You should have said that earlier!’ Baiyi bellowed in his mind, aghast at the loss he had just realized he had suffered. However, he quickly shelved the thought and grabbed his communication slab, with the intention of contacting his students. Fortunately for him, they had not been attacked.

“Alright, then. We’ll proceed as planned. We’ll meet up soon,” Baiyi said, bringing the conversation to an end.

The Fifth Walker had not expected the Wise Mad King to stoop so low that he would work with demons. What else was waiting to happen? Moreover, there were no Voidwalkers standing guard over Mia at the moment.

“We have to move now,” Baiyi said to Nydore and the rest. After battling the slippery demon, the fairies were more than willing to leave the area.

Baiyi now had an idea as to what the altar was being used for, and he was currently running his deduction by the other Voidwalkers in the Void.

After putting some distance between themselves and the altar, a large black tome suddenly appeared in the air, above Baiyi’s palm. As soon as the book appeared, its pages began to flip all on their own.

Suddenly, a blazing inferno swallowed the altar and the area around it. Regardless of the type of evil that lurked in the altar, the forbidden spell’s flames devoured everything completely.

The inferno generated gales of hot air, which swept through the area, causing Nydore’s silvery-white hair to flutter. This caused the Zephyr to stop and take a look behind her, and a stunned expression crossed her face.

“Keep walking. If you wish to see more of this, you would get a lot of chances in the future,” Baiyi said without stopping as the stunned fairies had.

Meanwhile, back in the Wise Mad King’s hall, Xeron, who had been waiting for news from N’loth, suddenly frowned and interrupted the Royal Principal Advisor, who was reading out a report.

With a low growl, Xeron said, “One of the altars has been destroyed! N’loth was slain!”

“N’loth was slain?!” The other two demons did not hide their surprise at the news.

Morningstar Sage and Green Sword Saint were both surprised at the demons’ reactions. These bastards… Were they not happy to send their comrade on the suicide mission? Now that it had been killed, which was something anyone would expect, why are they acting surprised?!

The demons’ expressions of surprise were not faked, though.

The two fairy Demigods did not know that N’loth was a Leaper. The other demons did not like N’loth — and they kept their distance from it — but they knew how powerful it was. Its natural ability to assassinate and spy had earned their respect. They knew that once N’loth activated its alternate dimension, no one would be able to touch it.

They had not believed that N’loth could deal any damage to Hope, but they knew that it could flee easily if it wanted to, even though it would look like an idiot while doing so. They did not know of any techniques that could perfectly counter N’loth’s alternate dimensions. Furthermore, the Leaper had fought Hope close to an altar, which could be considered its home turf. With all these taken into account, there should have been no way for N’loth to get killed.

Although they had gleeful sent N’loth out to gather intel on Hope, they had expected it to return looking disheveled. They did not, however, expect it to meet its end there. After all, N’loth’s ability had zero countermeasures, making it a pain for its opponents to deal with. None of the demons had really wanted an invaluable pawn like N’loth to die just like that.

Xeron seemed to be the most disturbed by the turn of events, and the demon could not stop frowning. After a short while, it looked up at the Royal Principal Advisor and growled, “Pass this news to Lord Second High Reverend, right this instant!”

“B-but, The High Reverend is having a meeting with the ministers — Urrrggh!”

An unseen force gripped the Advisor by the neck before he could finish, and it lifted him up into the air.

“I don’t give a f*ck! You tell him about this, right now!” Xeron bellowed.

The Advisor was dropped unceremoniously. After that, he could only crawl out of the hall.

When the Advisor left, Morningstar Sage, who had been watching from the side, said, “It’s just the death of one demon. Do you really need to be this rattled?”

Xeron was no longer in the good mood it had been in earlier, and no traces of laughter could be found on its face. It glared at Morningstar Sage in a chilling manner and growled, “You f*cking moron! Things are now worse than you can imagine!”

“Hmph!” Morningstar Sage snorted before sitting back down. Although the rude reply had enraged him, he was not bold enough to scream back at the demon.

In another part of the palace, the Wise Mad King was about to fly into a rage. The Royal Principal Advisor had just barged into the room, interrupting the meeting, and whispered hurriedly into the Wise Mad King’s ear. What he had heard made him freeze for a few moments.

Reining in his anger, the Wise Mad King stood up suddenly, drawing perplexed looks from his ministers. “I apologize, but I’m suddenly not feeling well. As for the rest of our agenda, we’ll have to do those tomorrow.”

Then, without another word, the Wise Mad King stormed out of the conference room, leaving behind the whispering ministers.

Instead of returning to the hall, the Wise Mad King rushed into his study and slammed the door shut behind him. After that, he sat in front of his oblong mirror, and a silhouette shrouded in pitch black fog appeared on it. The Wise Mad King wiped his forehead unconsciously and was surprised to see cold sweat on his fingers.

He had been affected this much by the death of a mere Leaper.

“Summoning us in such a frenzy cannot mean anything good, especially for our plans.” The voice of the First High Reverend boomed from the mirror.

“One of your men, N’loth… has been slain while gathering intel on Hope. The battle was short and could not have ended so quickly because the demon was exhausted,” said the Wise Mad King, as clearly as possible.

“Impossible!!” The First High Reverend exclaimed in shock. “From what I know, there is no way to deal with a Leaper’s spatial ability, not one! Unless…”

“Exactly what I thought, too: the Law of space was forcefully rewritten! There’s no… There’s just no other explanation as to why he could kill a Leaper that had lived for so many years!” The Wise Mad King finished.

“Are you suggesting…that the War God had…” The First High Reverend began.

“This is the only explanation,” the Wise Mad King replied. “Only a god of space like him could easily slay a Leaper; after all, their abilities are child’s play before a god. But, of course, there is also the possibility that the War God had given Hope some privileges.”

“Blasphemy! No matter how much gods trust us, they would never bestow their privileges; not even a little. Else, we would not have had to go through this much trouble.”

Messengers are mortals loved and favored by their gods. Many had pretended to be Messengers, but the number of real Messengers to have existed were very few. The truly favored Messengers were the angels from God’s Grace. These remarkable creatures possess mighty powers and got to commune directly with their gods. This allowed them to attain much higher positions of authority than mortal Messengers. They also had access to more information than mortal Messengers.

No matter how much a god favored a mortal Messenger, they would never bestow the mortal the privilege of rewriting Laws! After all, this ability was what differentiated gods from mortals, allowing them to tower over other species. There was absolutely no reason to share such a thing with anyone!

“It doesn’t matter how it was done. This is proof of the War God’s stance. He is severing his ties with us,” the First High Reverend mumbled, with a grave expression on his face. “Having to deal with such a setback this far into our plan… we…”

He understood something very clearly: once a real god joined the game, no Demigod in existence would be able to stop them. Demigods could only lightly alter the laws in their small Territories. They did not even possess the ability to rewrite the Laws in their Territories.

The disparity between a Demigod and a god was just too vast.

“How much longer before we can proceed to the last stage?” The Third High Reverend, who had been standing aside all this time, suddenly asked

“At least, five more days,” the Wise Mad King replied.

“No! That is too long! Even if the War God does not destroy the altars himself, five days is more than enough time for Hope to destroy them. If we speed things up as much as possible, how long would it take?”The First High Reverend asked.

“Three days! Look, if we speed things up that much, the chances of success would reduce, contrary to what we had hoped…”

“Three days is still too long,” the First High Reverend said, in a tone of voice filled with disappointment. “Is there really no other way?”

“Other setups are almost completed. It’s just that, accumulating the maximum amount of power would require more time,” explained the Wise Mad King.

“So, it’s just the lack of power, huh? Why don’t you just offer more sacrifices, then?” The Third High Reverend asked. “Didn’t the First High Reverend just send you some men? If you add your own men, it should suffice, right?”

“Are you talking about live sacrifices?!” The Wise Mad King asked in shock. “You know what that would cause, right? We’d be creating a monster! A monster that would destroy everything in its path and everything it can see! I reject this suggestion!”

“Reject? So, you would rather see everything we have done so far wiped away in one second? Is that right?” The Third Reverend snarled. “Look, moving on with the plan is our priority. Everything else would have to come later! Don’t tell me you are attached to what little you have left.”

“I agree with the Third High Reverend,” said the First High Reverend. “Even if we end up creating a monster, it was still instrumental to the success of a part of our plan. Even though this deviation will taint our perfect plan, causing us to suffer a lot more than we had expected, it would still lead us a step into success. This first step will make the rest of the journey a lot easier.”

“It is the beginning of our Great Work! We will not fail now! Sir Second High Reverend, I beseech you to think wisely. Now, sacrifices must be made.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep