Chapter 294 : Chapter 294
Chapter 294. 【Greed】 Appears
All methods were unleashed at once, ruthless to the extreme!
However, Moran had ultimately underestimated just how terrifying it was when these three top combatants standing at the peak of Astrelia joined forces.
“A mere mental contamination dares show off before this old man?” A sharp gleam burst from Barnabas’s eyes, and his staff struck heavily against the ground. “【Clear Mind and Purify Soul】!”
A circle of gentle yet incomparably domineering emerald ripples spread outward. The mind spell Moran had cast was instantly interrupted, and everyone’s minds returned to clarity.
“Get lost!!” Aureus, who had regained consciousness, let out a furious roar after being toyed with.
He was not even willing to dodge. Dazzling golden Battle Aura flames as bright as the sun ignited around him, and he actually charged upstream against the dark Dragon Breath!
The greatsword as broad as a door panel was swung into a golden crescent moon that tore across the sky, and the sword aura smashed directly into the Bone Dragon’s right side!
Crack!
With a tremendous sound, the enormous Bone Dragon let out an exceedingly shrill soul wail. Nearly half of its body, along with its right wing, was smashed into bone powder that filled the sky by this single strike!
The Bone Dragon lost its balance and tilted violently.
At the very instant Moran staggered, his eyes filled with horror, a sword light as cold and desolate as the moon above the ninth heaven silently swept across his vision.
Elena’s sword had arrived.
Pfft!
The icy sword edge stabbed into Moran’s back and pierced through the right side of his chest.
The ultimate Frostmoon Sword Aura erupted violently inside his body, like countless tiny blades cutting wildly. In an instant, it froze more than half of his organs and completely destroyed the core circuits he used to mobilize his mana!
Moran spat out a large mouthful of black blood mixed with ice shards.
The political schemes he was so proud of, the hidden strength he had cultivated in both necromancy and the mind, the decades of effort he had spent plotting against the entire kingdom... At this moment, under the encirclement of these three monsters of the same tier, all at their peak and utterly unwilling to waste words with him, it all seemed so pale and so laughable.
An absolute sense of powerlessness swallowed him like an abyss.
As the remains of the Bone Dragon disintegrated, Moran fell straight down from the sky like a torn sack and crashed hard into the rubble below, smashing out a deep pit.
Moran, who had fallen heavily to the bottom of the pit, had his vision blurred by blood. He raised his head with difficulty, his venomous gaze fixed on Logaris, who stood at the edge of the pit in the distance as though he were watching a show.
It was you!
It was all because of you, you bastard!
If not for him, everything would still have been under his control!
Extreme rage and the terror of death forced him to use another trump card.
“Kresis!” Moran used the last of his strength and roared as he activated the contract he had signed with Hell in the depths of his soul. “Fulfill your contract!!”
Before his voice faded, at the center of the dense ruins, all light and shadow seemed to be devoured by an invisible black hole.
The shadows churned violently like boiling water. A terrifying aura mixed with the coppery stench of ancient coins, the scent of decaying contract paper, and the smell of sulfur appeared out of thin air.
Immediately afterward, a “person” slowly stepped out from within.
He wore a perfectly tailored black suit and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. His face was pale and handsome beyond mortal measure, his features like the most perfect marble sculpture, yet they carried a demonic and evil quality that pierced straight into the soul.
One of the Seven Grand Dukes of Hell, Grand Duke of 【Greed】, Kresis.
His avatar had descended!
“Moran, you incompetent fool who ruins everything you touch.” Kresis glanced at the three human powerhouses around him and frowned in displeasure.
He had only wanted to find a collaborator in the mortal world and harvest a few interesting souls and fortunes. He had no desire at all to be dragged into a mess involving top-tier powerhouses like this.
But the constraints of the contract could not be defied. Kresis raised his hand, and a gray, withered energy barrier that seemed capable of stripping the color from all things instantly appeared, blocking Elena’s pursuing sword edge at precisely the right moment.
Clang!
With a piercing sharp sound, Elena’s sword was actually forcibly repelled by that seemingly fragile barrier.
The battle situation instantly escalated to a disaster level!
“Invader from Hell!” Barnabas’s cloudy old eyes abruptly opened wide, shooting out a terrifying gleam. “Perfect. This old man has not stretched his bones in quite some time either.”
Kresis ignored the clamor. He merely unfolded his power with some irritation.
【Domain of Greed · Deprivation of All Things】!
With him as the center, an invisible gray ripple spread outward. Elena and Aureus even felt that the vitality and Battle Aura inside their bodies were being slowly and continuously drained away by an invisible force!
“Playing with domains before me? You are showing off trifling skills before an expert!” Barnabas snorted coldly and struck his staff heavily against the ground.
“【Sanctuary · Arcadia】!”
A giant array more than ten times larger than the previous 【Four-Element Imprisonment】 unfolded with a roar around him!
Brilliant mana radiance shot into the sky and forcibly pushed that gray, withered domain back, creating an absolutely safe space for Elena and Aureus to advance.
Just as the battle sank into an extremely dangerous stalemate, Logaris, who had been hovering at the edge of the battlefield, finally showed an expression of “as expected” after confirming Kresis’s appearance.
He took a Communication Crystal from his pocket and activated it on the spot.
...
At the same time, several districts away, at the Holy Land outpost.
Aurora was meditating with her eyes closed inside an independent prayer room.
Suddenly, she abruptly opened her eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, she pushed open the door of the prayer room, lifted the hem of her dress, and rushed in an almost undignified manner toward the deepest part of the outpost—the heavily guarded papal meditation chamber.
“Your Holiness! Your Holiness!!”
She even forgot to knock and pushed open the heavy oak door at once.
Bang!
Inside the room, Pope Gregory VII, who had been sitting cross-legged and trying to calm the strange, evil fluctuation in his heart, was startled by the tremendous sound and abruptly opened his eyes.
“What happened?” His voice was low and dignified, forcibly suppressing the agitation in his heart.
“Demon!” Aurora’s voice trembled violently from “anxiety.” “Your Holiness! Urgent report! A high-ranking demon has appeared inside the Royal Capital! It is in the Black Iron District! Its aura... Its aura is evil to the extreme!”
Demon?
Upon hearing that word, a sharp scrutiny flashed through the Pope’s aged eyes.
He did not immediately fly into action. Instead, he slowly raised one hand, signaling Aurora to calm down.
“Black Iron District...” he repeated in a low voice, then closed his eyes.
In the next moment, an invisible golden ripple containing sacred pressure silently spread outward from him like ripples across the surface of water, instantly sweeping over the entire Royal Capital.
His perception was like an all-seeing eye, accurately locking onto the location Aurora had indicated from above the city.
In an instant, a filthy, violent, and blatantly provocative evil aura was clearly fed back into his Spiritual Sea!
Found it!
“Good...”
The Pope abruptly opened his eyes. In those aged eyes, there was no longer scrutiny or suspicion.
“Excellent!”
He had been worrying that he could not find the mastermind who had dared to invade his Spiritual Sea. Now, at this moment, the suppressed evil fire and offended dignity within him had finally found an outlet.
“God says that when the light of purification descends, all evil shall be reduced to ashes!”
The Pope let out an earth-shaking roar. He grabbed the holy relic scepter enshrined upon the shrine, and waterfall-like surging golden Holy Light erupted around him!
Rumble!!
He was not even willing to use the door. His entire body transformed into a pure golden pillar of light and smashed directly through the sturdy dome of the church in an even more violent manner. Under the horrified gazes of countless clergy members, he shot into the sky!
The golden pillar of light carved a dazzling trajectory through the air and charged toward the Black Iron District at a speed ordinary people could not comprehend!