Chapter 303: From king to peasant
Vlad, Jormungandr, Ouroboros, Freya, and the Royal Guards pressed forward, their pace steady but cautious, following the trail of clues left by their unknown target. As they moved deeper into the forest, a sharp sensation struck the three Depravitas, causing them to exchange meaningful glances.
From the beginning of the search, they had been focusing the full power of their A.I. Chips into their scanning force fields, and they had just detected something significant.
Freya, Mirena, Frank, Roman, Clasius, and Amara immediately halted. The group was aware that the Depravitas possessed unique scanning abilities, so they must have detected something critical to react that way. The viking princess and the Royal Guards knew their perception could not compare with the trio’s, and they trusted the Depravitas’ instincts, so they stopped without question.
Vlad, Jormungandr, and Ouroboros had found their target—a group of fifty angels about two thousand meters ahead, near a flowing river. The Depravitas’ faces turned grim as the scene that played in their minds, thanks to the scan of the A.I. Chips, was anything but good.
A pack of monstrous crabs had attempted to confront the angels, but what transpired could hardly be called a fight. The angels were slaughtering the creatures effortlessly.
The leader of the angelic group, a woman wielding a strange, glowing orb, stood at the forefront. The orb seemed to hold a sinister power, and the monsters trembled in its presence. As blood leaked from their eyes and their bodies collapsed, it was clear that their souls were being torn from them, harvested by this powerful artifact.
Vlad’s expression darkened. The realization was immediate—the angels were responsible for the deaths in the town. They were harvesting souls, indiscriminately slaughtering anyone or anything in their path. Whatever their objective was, it was far from complete. They had no intention of stopping, and if they kept going south, they would reach the domain of the Xaos Kingdom.
There was no way Vlad or the others would allow those angels to steal the souls of their people. Cold determination settled in Vlad’s eyes; there was no question now. They had to kill these angels—all of them. But he knew better than to underestimate their enemy.
The group leader was a woman with a Level 14 High Champion cultivation and a Guardian Tier Bloodline, which made her a powerful opponent even for Vlad. Additionally, there were three other High Champions at Level 11, and the remaining angels were all either Level 9 or 10 Champions.
This was an elite troop, not the kind sent to rally human forces but to accomplish a far more dangerous mission. These angels were here to harvest souls, and Vlad was sure they would rather die than fail since the one who sent them on this mission would do something much worse if they did not succeed.
"Fifty angels," Vlad said quietly, his voice sharp with focus. "A Level 14 High Champion, three Level 11 High Champions, and the rest are peak Champions. All of them are well-trained, with powerful bloodlines and constitutions."