“Wh-!”
The person who was preparing to attack was clearly very surprised when Gu Lim suddenly attacked with true murderous intent and with an attack from which even a demon general could not come out unscathed if they did not take cover.
This person quickly realized what was happening and a bitter smile tugged at the corner of its lips.
“Really…”
With no other choice, this person rescinded the attack and defended to avoid losing the head as Gu Lim’s lightsaber was close to its neck.
BOOM!!!
The traitor’s feet slid across the ground more than 90 meters and its arms shook hard, but somehow it managed to withstand the attack without suffering serious injuries other than a slight shaking of its internal organs.
“Che, just let yourself be decapitated once and for all, backstabber.” Gu Lim spat on the ground in disgust and got ready to continue attacking as he said in a voice thick with mockery, “You’ve already been discovered by big brother days ago, he was simply waiting for this moment and now that you’ve shown yourself you can only take the blame for your actions.”
It was just at that moment when a tremendous explosion shook the entire area for more than ten kilometers around. Dull blue flames shot up into the sky and swept away the few clouds that had not yet been dissipated by the shock waves of the ongoing battles, buildings began to melt and rock turned into fiery lava that raised the temperature even higher to almost intolerable levels.
There were more than a thousand soul evolvers who lost their lives on the spot, among them were two humans who unfortunately were unlucky. The others managed to get away in time as they retreated under the protection of barrier-like skills but they all stared in terror at the seemingly hellish flame that kept growing.
Bai Zemin and the Demon Lord were at the center of that explosion so no one knew what the current condition of either of them was like. However, the only ones who were in a position to worry were the demon generals as the humans forgot about Bai Zemin’s existence for an instant as they looked with shock at the person who had just betrayed the human race.
“You… Why…?” Evans looked at the person in disbelief and the voice that came out of him was clearly somewhat subconscious as his eyes expressed his lingering disbelief.
On the other hand, King Philip Di Gales’ face was as pale as if all the blood in his body had suddenly been drained from him as he looked at the person who carried his blood looking at everyone with a complicated expression on her face.
After several seconds of silence, the king asked in a hoarse voice, “Why? Do you know what you are doing?”
It was simply hard for the king to believe that his own blood was betraying all of mankind…. No, what was hard for the king to believe was the fact that one of his own daughters was betraying her family and defrauding the death of her own mother by assisting the main cause of her downfall.
“Didn’t you say that your eyes saw Bai Zemin as your fated partner? Then why?!” The king’s voice thundered louder and louder as anger and grief began to overcome disbelief.
“She never saw my name in pink, that’s the reason.”
A somewhat exhausted voice sounded from the core of the explosion, attracting everyone’s attention.
Bai Zemin emerged with somewhat staggering steps from the sea of flames. His face was at least 40% disfigured, his gravity armor had weakened to the point where his feet were now touching solid ground, his left arm hung heavily at the side of his body, and there seemed to be not an ounce of energy left in him. However, the sparkle in his eyes was as strong as ever.
Princess Bianca and Gu Lim were the first to sigh in relief as they saw Bai Zemin emerge alive from what had been one of the most terrifying explosions they had all seen or heard of in their lives.
“Looks like Bai Zemin made it.” Princess Bianca muttered as she patted her chest.
“Heh, but of course he made it!” Gu Lim raised the right saber and let it rest on his shoulder as he watched the Demon Lord being suspended in the air by chains of blood. He smiled proudly and boasted, “After all, we are talking about the big brother of me, the great Gu Lim!”
Princess Bianca rolled her eyes, but she was too happy to care about Gu Lim’s nonsense. In fact, she didn’t even care about the betrayal at all since with Bai Zemin’s victory everything was done.
The demon generals wanted to rush forward and help the Demon Lord whose lower half had disappeared along with his one remaining arm, but being closely watched by the human soul evolvers they did not dare to act precipitately. Especially because all of them had suffered some degree of wounds during the battle against the human powerhouses.
Bai Zemin looked at the first princess of the Gales Kingdom and sighed, “I really wanted to think I was wrong, Ellis.”
Ellis’ expression was complicated at first but she soon regained her composure, at least on the outside. Her brave expression returned and as she looked at Bai Zemin she asked curiously, “How did you find me out though?”
Ellis was tremendously dismayed in her heart, she was sure that she had not revealed clues at all and had been careful enough to fool even the gods themselves. No matter how many times she thought about it a thousand times, she could not understand how it was possible for Bai Zemin to uncover her in such a short time.
“Actually, from the very beginning, I knew that you were not in love with me and that you also had no intention of trying to fight in order to become my beloved.” Bai Zemin tried to smile but all that came out was a hideous expression due to the wounds on his face. He continued, “However, at that time I didn’t think too much about it even though I couldn’t find a reason why you would say that.”
However, Ellis was not satisfied and shook her head, “I may not be the best actor, but I don’t think it’s that easy.”
“Ellis, what is love to you?” Bai Zemin asked suddenly.
Ellis frowned at the sudden question and muttered under her breath, “What is love? Of course… Love is….”
However, after several seconds, she found no response to a question she thought would be easy to answer.
“Giving a logical definition to a feeling might not be very smart, but at least for me love is the emotion that makes you feel that there is something more important than you in this world… Well, it may not be perfectly worded, but I think you get my point.” Bai Zemin said.
He paused before continuing, “Leaving aside my family, in my entire life I have only seen two people who have looked at me with eyes willing to do anything and give their lives for me. One of them is the woman I love… and the other person is a sweet silly girl who despite being cruelly rejected is still trying hard to earn a place in my heart.”
Lilith looked at Bai Zemin with complicated emotions. He wasn’t wrong about the emotion, but he was wrong about the number. She knew that there were definitely more than two, it was just that the young man in front of her had his eyes set on a target in front, therefore, he was inadvertently forgetting to look to the sides.
Seeing Ellis in silence, Bai Zemin quietly remarked, “However, you never looked at me with the eyes of a person in love, not even remotely close.”
“That’s not good enough.” Ellis shook her head and smiled as she said indifferently, “Even then, even if you found out that I’m not even a little bit smitten by you, how did you find out that I would betray you?”
“Actually, it was all a suspicion.” Bai Zemin waved his right hand gently and his storage ring glowed for a second.
Ellis’s pupils trembled at the sight of what Bai Zemin had taken out and her face turned slightly pale.
Bai Zemin knelt on his right knee, causing the wounds on his body to worsen. Even though he had stopped the Sacrifice of his greatsword, his Health stat at this point was only 231 points, which although not bad for a First Order existence, didn’t seem to be enough to help considering that his internal organs were practically destroyed.
He carefully moved Kat’s hair to one side of her pale face and said calmly, “That night, when I found Kat nearly lifeless, I promised to find the culprit and make them pay. After she died I inspected her wounds, and was surprised to discover that apart from sword cuts her body also had burns caused by magic skills.”
As everyone listened in silence and while most of them were still trying to come out of the state of shock they had fallen into due to Ellis’ betrayal, Bai Zemin slowly stood up after putting away the lifeless body of the young assassin.
“While it is true that Kat might have been facing two enemies, a warrior and a mage, I refuse to believe that both the mage and the warrior possess spatial skills to disappear from the scene before I get there.” He said casually. “Not to mention Kat’s attitude before her death, she seemed really energetic about wanting to pass on an important message to me…. That’s when my suspicions about you grew. After all, you are a warrior capable of using magic power equivalent to that of a mage.”
“Oh?” Ellis was truly surprised and the more she listened the more her admiration for Bai Zemin grew despite the circumstances.
“Of course, I can’t deny that I suspected about Liam. But I dismissed those suspicions before when I asked him if he would prefer revenge or bringing back his mother.” Bai Zemin gave the young hero of Gales an apologetic look.
Liam smiled bitterly but shook his head, “All good…. I understand.”
If Liam had replied back then that he would prefer the Demon Lord’s head over seeing his mother alive again, then Bai Zemin would probably have dismissed Ellis as a traitor. After all, Liam’s hatred of demons was mainly born out of the death of his much-loved mother; it would simply be weird if Liam would prefer the Demon Lord’s head over the well-being of someone he claimed to love more than his own life.
“Finally, what ended up confirming my suspicions was the Demon Lord’s question.” Bai Zemin spat out some blood and said in a taunting voice, “Demons definitely have their intelligence net in every human kingdom, that much is undoubted. Even then, Ar’gon tried to make it look like he didn’t know where I came from because his intention was to divert any attention I might have from the people closest to me, those who know the truth.”
Ellis looked at him dumbfounded before smiling beautifully, “You are truly impressive, Zemin. The most terrifying talent I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I think I can speak for everyone here…. I take my hat off to you.”
She made a chivalrous gesture, removing an imaginary hat and leaning forward slightly as she brought her hand to her chest.
Bai Zemin frowned slightly at Ellis’ attitude… She was too calm despite her current situation.
He looked at the unconscious Demon Lord and narrowed his eyes.
Swoosh!
With a move that took everyone’s breath away as it was hard to believe that despite his injuries he could still move like that, Bai Zemin’s right hand pierced the center of the forehead of the demon race’s ruler whose eyes widened in shock.
“You…” Ar’gon whispered in a hoarse, disbelieving voice.
The faces of the general demons turned white and their hearts sank as they saw the head of the one who ruled them falling forward powerlessly.
[You have obtained the Soul Power of Third Order Ar’gon level 199…..]
Feeling calmer now, Bai Zemin looked back at Ellis. However, he again had a strange feeling when he saw that she was still calm as if nothing bad had happened.
It was just at that moment that Seraphina, who had been in a state of shock all this time, staggered forward a step.
“Hey!” Evans quickly helped her when she almost fell and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I- I’m fine…” Seraphina nodded, her eyes still fixed on her older sister, the person she most admired and the kind of woman she aspired to be. “B- Big sister Ellis…. W- Why? T- There must be some misunderstanding…? After all, your eyes-“
“Sera.”
Ellis cut her sister off and said in a cold voice, “Bai Zemin’s name is in red, not pink as I said.”
The first princess looked at Bai Zemin and said indifferently, “He was destined to become my doom, therefore I did my best to erase him. This was all predestined, there is no other reason than that.”
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