Chapter 131: Dekan Goes Offline
A hundred kilometers away from Tristin City.
Though it was noon, the sky seemed to be enveloped in reddish-brown smog, as if a volcano were about to erupt.
The original small town here had turned into a pile of ruins, with the air still thick with gunpowder and remnants of battle. Collapsed houses were filled with burnt limbs, blood either dried or evaporated, and the stench of blood hung heavily in the air.
The entire town had become a living hell, suffocating and oppressive.
Amidst the ruins at the edge of the town, a red-haired priest stood quietly atop a pitch-black flying dragon.
He looked down upon the silver-armored female knight battling a massive monster on the ground, a faint smile on his face.
The female knight’s face was smeared with blood and dirt, and her once radiant holy armor had lost its luster.
Compared to the disheveled female knight, Archbishop Evans of the Destruction Church had not broken a sweat; not even a single tear in his clothing.
His calm demeanor did not match the inferno beneath him, as if he were enjoying an afternoon tea.
Only a few large mansions remained standing in the town.
But inside them, all the people had been slaughtered.
The piled-up corpses displayed unmistakable signs of despair and terror on their faces.
The town was overrun with a swarm of black, monstrous creatures darting through every corner at terrifying speeds.
They were still hunting down survivors, with many charging towards the female knight to attempt suicidal attacks.
It seemed their numbers were growing.
They were undoubtedly a result of Archbishop Evans’ means.
“Proliferation Oblivion Beast”
“Type: Summoning Card”
“Rarity: Orange Epic”
“Rank: 8”
“Effect: After killing a unit, it converts its corpse into a derivative Oblivion Beast that exists for one hour. These derivative Oblivion Beasts possess combat strength ranging from 2 to 6 ranks. Killing units triggers the Proliferation Oblivion Beast effect. All derivatives vanish upon dismissal.”
“Note: Endless! Nation destroying power!”
No regular summoner could control so many creatures.
But Evans could.
Derivatives did not consume the summoner’s mana.
The “Proliferation Oblivion Beast” was far weaker than normal eight-rank summoned creatures, not even reaching a seventh-rank level. However, once it proliferated within a town, it wouldn’t take long to wipe out the entire city.
Among the ten archbishops of the Rebirth Church, Evans was not the strongest in single combat, but he was one of the most notorious.
The reason people shuddered at his name was because years ago, using the “Destruction Demon King” and “Proliferation Oblivion Beast”, he had annihilated a minor principality overnight.
Nobles and commoners alike had disappeared as if wiped off the earth, the principality reduced to ruins.
From that day forward, he became known as the Destruction Archbishop that the world feared.
At this moment,
Evans still wore a gentle smile, as if he couldn’t hear the gradually weakening cries from the town.
Though massacring civilians in this battle held no practical purpose for Archbishop Evans, it might even help his opponents by clearing the battlefield,
Evans seemed to be deriving his own unique pleasure from it.
He constantly commanded the Oblivion Beasts to grab some maimed, bleeding civilians who were crying out in agony.
Then he ordered them to make suicidal charges at the female knight.
He even maliciously had the Oblivion Beasts clutch children as they approached the female knight, restricting her movements.
The aftereffects of an eighth-rank battle were uncontrollable.
He enjoyed watching the female knight’s expression of near-breakdown whenever her attacks inadvertently killed civilians.
As if savoring his afternoon tea.
“Oh my, Miss Knight, that’s the 23rd civilian who has died by your hand.”
Evans chuckled, calculating with his fingers, calling out to the ground below.
Counting from the sky seemed to be his greatest pleasure at the moment.
“EVANS!!!”
The female knight’s face was filled with endless sorrow, as if blood tears were about to stream from her eyes as she fought amidst the blood on the ground.
Her howl, like that of a wounded beast, was incredibly tragic.
Though Evans was playing with the female knight like a cat with a mouse, he could not easily kill her.
The female knight’s most prominent characteristic was her incredible resilience.
At the eighth rank, even if her arm was broken, it would heal quickly.
Not to mention, she was clad in heavy armor.
Without his main summon “Destruction Demon King,” Evans would find it difficult to overpower the female knight.
Still, Evans did not need to go all out; he only needed to stall.
Moreover, his true adversary had yet to arrive.
Soon, other eighth-rank fighters from the Norton Kingdom would appear, and Evans would have to stall them as well.
He had to conserve his mana as much as possible.
But he noticed something strange from the start.
His mana seemed to be draining slightly faster than expected.
Perhaps the battle with the Ice Snow Princess was more intense.
After all, the state of the summoned creatures affected the consumption of mana.
Summoning them and using their abilities drained a significant amount of mana, and the consumption was higher in combat than on standby.
Evans took out the “Ultra-long-distance Communication Magic” card and tapped it, but it remained silent.
Isabel had lost contact for a while now.
She must be at the critical moment.
In that case, his battle should be drawing to a close soon.
“Even if you flee the Norton Kingdom, I will hunt you down to the very last moment!”
The knight, bloodstained and her face twisted with rage, appeared grotesque and pitiful.
“Heh, you’re not enough,” Evans responded, observing the female knight’s expression with satisfaction.
The sensation of someone being driven mad, wanting to kill him but completely unable to reach him, was utterly exquisite.
Suddenly.
A deafening roar echoed across the sky!
In the dim, overcast skies, a colossal bolt of lightning streaked across!
The thunderous rumble seemed to make all summoned creatures and derivatives tremble in fear!
Moments later, the sky over the small town lit up with a brilliant white light!
A horizontal white lightning struck, obliterating the position where Archbishop Evans stood!
With a roar, the black dragon Evans was riding screamed in agony as it was erased by the lightning.
The light dissipated.
Evans floated in midair, slightly furrowing his brows and raising his hand, his long sleeve shielding him from the attack.
Appearing unscathed, but a ring on his finger had faded, clearly indicating he used a valuable artifact to deflect the eighth-rank magic attack.
“What if I join?”
Before Evans could locate the source of the attack, a cold and imposing voice resonated from all directions!
The voice seemed distant, yet right beside his ear.
It was a voice cold to the extreme, belonging to a man.
“Oh, you’ve finally arrived, the Great Sage of Kuran Territory.”
The unexpected occurrence did not startle Evans.
Instead, he exuded the air of a host who had been waiting for his guest.
The previous female knight was merely an appetizer for Evans.
This newly arrived Great Sage of the Norton Kingdom was the opponent worthy of Evans’ respect.
The female knight was the first to react; she hurled her sword, which shot through the air like an arrow and pierced directly where Evans’ head was.
However, from another angle, Evans seemed to have anticipated this, slightly turning his head, leaving the sword with only a minor scratch on his cheek.
“Dear me, if your sword had less blood of innocents, perhaps your aim would’ve been better,” Evans said, brushing the blood off his face with a smirk.
The female knight stood on the ground, panting heavily, her eyes red.
But Evans paid her no more attention, instead having his summoned creatures continue to harass her.
Summoning another flying dragon, he mounted it and rushed off without looking back.
Subsequently, thunder rumbled in the sky, and lightning illuminated the ground, resembling a sea of lightning flowing wildly and rushing across the land, interlaced with the groans of creatures in pain.
Within seconds, almost all of Evans’ derivatives on the ground were wiped out.
Only a few of his strongest summoned creatures remained alive.
A man in his middle age, resembling a living incarnation of thunder, holding a staff, solemnly appeared beside the female knight.
“You deal with Evans, the Oblivion Beasts and other summoned creatures are mine.”
The man Evans referred to as the Great Sage said.
He had to stop the Oblivion Beasts spreading like a virus to nearby cities in time.
Otherwise, it would develop into an uncontrollable calamity.
Only someone with a multitude of wide-area magic, like him, could quickly clean up all these Oblivion Beasts.
The female knight nodded without a word and leaped into the air to chase after Evans’ main body.
“Dear dear, mages are truly troublesome.”
Evans muttered mockingly.
Just as he complained.
Without considering counters based on enemy class cards, in same-rank battles, mages typically have an advantage against summoners because they can clear the battlefield quickly.
Summoners, in turn, usually do better against knights, who look clumsy when surrounded by summoned creatures.
Knights tend to perform better against mages, with their maxed-out resilience and physical stats allowing them to recklessly charge forward.
Despite this, there was no sign of tension on Evans’ face.
The Oblivion Beasts sprawled across the area were enough to tie down the Great Sage for quite some time.
And as for this female knight…
A barbaric fighter was nothing to fear.
Turning around, Evans saw a silver shadow racing swiftly from the ruins!
The female knight’s incoming form was extremely fast; she activated her martial techniques, and a faint glow immediately rose from her sword. With both hands gripping it, she closed the distance between her and Evans, her blade cutting through the air, creating a streak of light across the sky.
Evans had no intention of stopping; flipping through his spellbook, a dark energy emanated from him, and he charged straight at the light curtain of the female knight’s blade!
Suddenly, the female knight felt a chilling, sinister energy surge through her sword!
This coldness caused her to shiver violently, as each of her fingers stiffened, nearly unable to hold her sword!
Immediately after, an immense force struck her from the sword, leaving her unable to resist. She groaned as she felt as though she were struck by electricity, her entire body going numb.
Clang!
Her sword hit the ground, and the female knight was thrown backwards, landing heavily on the ground.
Her undergarments appeared to be eroded, her lips tightly clenched, clearly bearing great pain!
Yet, under the influence of blessing magic, the wounds on her body appeared to be healing, visible to the naked eye.
“Ho ho ho, do you really think you can win just because you’re fighting the main body of a summoner like me?”
Evans laughed coldly, his eyes flickering with shadows.
Even giving up the “Destruction Demon King” and using other summons to hold off the Great Sage, Evans was not the least bit afraid of the female knight.
After all, no ordinary eighth-rank powerhouse could defeat any one of the Rebirth Church’s archbishops in a one-on-one battle.
Evans was so powerful because, in addition to having powerful magical cards, he also possessed monstrous physical attributes.
His mental attribute growth was SS, and his mana and stamina were S.
Thus, as a summoner, he was no weaker than an eighth-rank tank in his own right!
Even as a priest, his spiritual and physical stamina could bring extremely high healing and status-enhancing capabilities.
“Yo…u bastar…d…”
The female knight struggled to sit up, her hands trembling.
Only now did she truly realize Evans’s overwhelming, despair-inducing strength.
The way Evans earlier toyed with her like a cat with a mouse was not exaggerated.
Evans had legitimate reasons to be so confident.
Even among eighth-ranked powerhouses, Evans was a human calamity.
To defeat Evans, she would need to wait for another eighth-rank powerhouse to come to her aid.
The closest eighth-rank was undoubtedly Princess of Ice and Snow.
But the female knight knew that the direction the “Destruction Demon King” flew to was Tristin City.
Princess of Ice and Snow was surely in a desperate battle.
The Princess’s side was probably awaiting their reinforcements.
If it weren’t for preventing the “Proliferation Oblivion Beast” from causing catastrophic devastation, the Great Sage would have surely rushed to Tristin City first.
“Are you thinking that reinforcements will arrive soon?”
Evans seemed to have read the female knight’s thoughts, asking with interest.
“…”
The female knight gritted her teeth, lifting her sword, staying on guard.
“Stop dreaming. Tristin City will surely be cleansed soon, and when Princess of Ice and Snow arrives…”
Evans paused, his eyes becoming increasingly sinister.
“She will become my companion. Hahahaha!”
His laughter was manic, as if the entire Norton Kingdom had become his playground.
