Chapter 352
Chapter 352: Caught in a Trap—Snared by the Evil God
The 2 Tiger-folk could no longer contain the fury burning within them.
More than whether they could win the fight, what they despised above all else was being looked down upon so completely.
The 2 Tiger-folk drew a deep breath, bodies coiling into a combat stance.
With their aura rising, a pale white cloud of vapor swirled up around them.
Like mist and fog, hazy currents of energy began circling their bodies.
The flow gathered through their limbs toward the chest, then wound around the spine and waist and looped back around their extremities.
【Martial Stance】
The noble lords present noticed that the auras of these 2 Tiger-folk felt somewhat different from before.
In this moment, their presence was steadier, and their power more replete.
Naturally, Viktor had noticed this as well.
With combat mode engaged, the 2 Tiger-folk before him had their HP bars and levels revealed.
Lv49
Lv47
And the Class of both Tiger-folk was, without exception—
"Martial Artist."
Viktor looked at them and gave a faint smile. The Coat behind him began to change.
The originally fresh, stream-blue stripes slowly merged with a pale white hue.
That flowing azure, once like a clear running brook, became more turbulent after fusing with the pallid color.
Like 2 forces coiling around each other, endlessly colliding in surging waves.
Enormous raindrops poured down, crashing against the Coat at his back.
As if each drop of rain carried with it a unique kind of power.
The status bar beneath his HP was flickering rapidly, one Buff effect after another appearing in quick succession.
The Buff of the Calamity of Water layered his combat strength higher and higher.
The downpour fell faster and faster, more and more ferocious.
Then, all at once, a violent gust surged.
A terrifying whirlwind swept up around Viktor, the wind twisting around his legs, blurring his indifferent expression.
Amidst the rain, a smile carrying a trace of malice seemed to slowly emerge.
The speed of the Calamity of Wind made him swift as the wind itself.
The verdant natural elements, concealed behind hurricane and downpour, slowly melded into Viktor's body.
The vitality and self-regeneration of the Calamity of Wood granted him the most powerful physique imaginable.
At this moment, he had truly entered the state most suited for close-quarters combat.
The gale continued to rage through the vast, shattered hall. Even the dense dark clouds beyond the dome were stirred and thrown into chaos by the violent winds.
The dome, already on the verge of collapse, shattered apart completely and caved in.
In the blink of an eye, the debris was torn away and swallowed into the hurricane, blending entirely with the raging downpour.
The roaring rain slammed against the golden floor in a constant barrage, bang bang bang.
Then, all at once, the frenzied downpour seemed to freeze and suspend in midair.
Within that suspended moment of halted rain, it was as though everything here had been commandeered entirely by Viktor's will.
"Then let me show you—"
His voice drifted like the wind, so light it seemed he didn't regard the enemies before him in the slightest.
"The gap between us."
***
Under the cover of night, thousands of Demi-humans surged like a black torrent along the outer edges of Royal City, sprinting away into the distance.
They plunged into the dense forest beyond the city walls, weaving through it in concealment.
The downpour soaked every last one of the fleeing Demi-humans without mercy.
Thousands upon thousands of raindrops struck each body, bringing a cold, slightly heavy sensation.
No one could have imagined that this terrible storm covered the entirety of Royal City.
Even as they fled beyond the walls, the tremendous rain continued to chase them.
The harpies who soared overhead beat their wings against the wind and rain, each wingbeat demanding an enormous expenditure of effort.
A journey that had once been easy was now rendered exhaustingly difficult.
The Demi-humans dared not take the main roads, and could only sprint along the muddy, narrow paths deep within the forest.
To walk the main road was to be too conspicuous—they would be spotted easily by the reinforcement armies converging from all directions.
After the long, exhausting flight, many Demi-humans had already been driven to the edge of their limits—gasping, panting, their strides reduced to a shambling mess.
Most of the rescued Demi-humans slaves had stopped, leaning against tree trunks for support.
They hunched over, pulling in ragged lungfuls of air.
Above, the harpies beat their wings with great difficulty, their sharp voices cutting through the air.
In a tone that could barely hide its frustration, they called down to the masses below:
"Do you want to be caught? Do you want to go back to that dark room and be slaves again?"
"If not, then keep running!"
With those sharp words ringing out, countless Demi-humans who had suffered long captivity and prolonged hunger forced their frail bodies onward, fighting desperately to keep moving.
Then, all at once, the several leopard-folk at the very front of the column came to a halt.
Their ears twitched—as though they had heard something.
From the dense forest not far off came a sound: bone-plate armor and steel armor rattling together, clatter clatter, growing closer.
And that sound grew clearer and clearer. Clearer and clearer.
As though it were nearly upon them.
An army!?
Every Demi-human's heart lurched, pounding wildly.
Though their numbers were large, the vast majority had just been freed from underground cells.
They were starving, deeply exhausted, physically spent, and possessed no combat capability whatsoever.
So the Demi-humans who could actually fight were pitifully few.
On top of that, those with combat strength still had to protect those without.
With so many to account for, there was no way to flee quickly enough.
In this moment, their only hope was that the approaching force would be small.
The Demi-humans' ears quivered faintly, their eyes brimming with wariness.
The rustle rustle of marching footsteps advanced from far to near, echoing in their ears.
With every step that drew closer, the sound of bone and steel colliding grew ever more distinct and pronounced.
Until those crisp footfalls at last came to a stop directly before them.
The escaping Demi-humans all froze in stunned silence.
They had not expected this force to be so small—fewer than 100 in total.
Though equipped with fine-quality gear, the cat ears and dog ears swaying atop their heads still revealed their true nature.
This was a unit composed entirely of Demi-humans.
"Could it be… kin?"
The harpy overhead let out a breath of relief.
At the same time, the leopard-eared Demi-humans retracted their sharp fangs.
The minotaurs that had been stamping anxious craters into the mud began to settle.
Though none knew where these kin had come from, the Demi-humans relaxed.
The harpy wheeling above on beating wings turned her gaze downward.
She was just about to call down to ask these kin of theirs where they had come from—
When, all at once, a black streak silently sliced across the night sky.
The harpy blinked, momentarily taken aback.
When she looked down again, she found a jet-black crow, dropping noiselessly onto the top of a cat-girl's head.
The crow's appearance left all the Demi-humans puzzled and unsettled.
Especially its single remaining eye, which made it seem all the more uncannily strange.
And when Weija's gaze swept across the assembled Demi-humans, surveying them for a brief moment, it finally spoke:
"Only a few thousand?"
"No matter. Better than nothing."
？？？
A crow that could talk?
The Demi-humans stared at one another, at a loss.
The crow… could speak?
Were they imagining things?
But soon enough, Weija put their doubts to rest.
This crow could do far more than talk.
It bowed deeply before the dumbfounded Demi-humans, with a grace and elegance befitting a perfect gentleman.
"Allow me to introduce myself."
"I am, in all likelihood, an Evil God."
The moment those words fell, it was as though even the surrounding air had frozen for an instant.
In that instant, the Demi-humans suddenly felt their bodies seized by some invisible, enormous hand—unable to move.
Even their beast-like ears, which never stopped trembling, went utterly still beneath that terrible pressure.
Even the harpies in the sky above were locked in place mid-flight, completely unable to move.
Yet strangely, their bodies seemed to be held up by something—suspended motionless high in the air.
Then the rain stopped.
A profound darkness seeped out from Weija's body, flowing past the cat-girl's head and sinking slowly into the muddy ground below.
That darkness spread rapidly across the earth, weaving together beneath the feet of thousands of Demi-humans.
The next moment, the world around them began to warp, as if a splash of ink had been hurled across it and stirred without mercy.
A green mist rose, swallowing the countless Demi-humans whole.
Even the surrounding forest twisted and fractured in response.
In a sudden, disorienting shift, a boundless space of deep, dark green appeared before everyone's eyes.
Bizarre and churning mist blanketed the sky, and a deathly, suffocating stillness swept over the Demi-humans.
The next second, they found themselves standing in a sea of golden wheat.
Tall golden wheat fields engulfed nearly half their bodies.
The endless golden waves rolled with the wind, surging like a rising tide, ripple after ripple drifting across that shimmering sea of light.
The radiance lit up every pair of deep Demi-humans eyes, reflecting countless specks of golden gleam.
This golden sea of wheat was utterly out of place within this land of chaos.
As if in this desolate, lifeless world, anything sacred was an absolute transgression.
Then, without warning, the vast expanse of sky was swiftly devoured by black ink, spreading outward in all directions.
And with it came a chill—seeping into every Demi-human's heart.
In that moment, every Demi-humans raised their head and looked to the sky.
In that dim and darkened expanse above, a strange solitary eye cracked open.
The enormous eye carried an unfathomable depth, and within its pupil were nested countless fragmented compound eyes.
Dense and teeming, like something terrible reaching out from festering muck.
From within those compound eyes, countless twisted tendrils began to crawl out.
Like unspeakable, inscrutable things, writhing and contorting in the air.
That great eye reflected back the golden waves and every last Demi-humans within them.
And then, a deep and chaotic voice surged in from all directions, flooding into the ears of every Demi-humans present.
"Viktor may have promised to let you leave, but—"
In that moment, the distorted words seemed to pass through the blood itself, spreading through every body, burrowing into every soul:
"I never said you were free to go."