Red Shroud didn’t have a great time during this period.
She was the owner of Desolate Town, the daughter of the succubus queen, and also a powerful spell-caster. She had ruled Desolate Town for thousands of years and could also be said to be one of the well-deserved, powerful beings of this land. Besides, as a succubus, she had outstanding wisdom and bewitching charm. She was also one among her race who uncharacteristically wouldn’t mess things up due to her chaotic nature. She ran Desolate Town meticulously and made it the most notable hub in the Rift Plain. Judging from her achievements, she was indeed unique in her own ways.
But now, she was in a pinch.
The reason was simple. Grazite, one of her allies, who she had worked with for countless years, had fallen from power all of a sudden. Grazite was playful by nature and had a record of being imprisoned by humans in the past. But this time, it apparently wasn’t as simple as being imprisoned. Grazite’s plane of existence began to crumble and his palace was completely destroyed. All of these proved one thing: Grazite was entirely done for. This and also due to the ‘geographical location’ of Desolate Town (even though it didn’t make sense to use this term in the abyss) left Red Shroud in a difficult situation. Desolate Town was always being spied on by devils and even though Red Shroud was powerful, she didn’t have an endless source of power. Although she dominated Desolate Town and the formidable devils, as a matter of fact, Grazite’s protection over Desolate Town was one of the main reasons it was able to remain in peace over the years. Without Grazite’s flag, perhaps Red Shroud’s Desolate Town wouldn’t survive from the devils for that long.
But now, Grazite was completely doomed and the blissful life of Red Shroud had reached the end.
The biggest reason why Red Shroud and Grazite worked well together was because they were similar to demons to a certain degree. They were able to trust and collaborate to a limited extent and didn’t need to worry about each other breaching the contract. But it was different with other devils. Even though there were plenty of powerful devils in Bottomless Abyss, Red Shroud wasn’t sure if asking them for help was a good idea because among them were Grazite’s mortal enemies who weren’t willing to help her. On the contrary, they might even take over Desolate Town and toss Red Shroud aside immediately. But this wasn’t the worst outcome. If Red Shroud died in the process, she would be totally speechless. Although some devils had strong and massive forces, they weren’t concerned about the Rift Plain because they lived too deep down the abyss. Even if they were concerned, they were out of reach. Therefore, they weren’t interested in Red Shroud’s proposal at all. Even though some were delighted to work with her, Red Shroud didn’t feel like they were trustworthy. Due to this reason, she had been in a headache ever since Grazite fell in power.
As of now, Red Shroud didn’t dare to leave Desolate Town anymore. In the past, she left for a period of time to attend to some matters and as a result, her home was almost demolished by devils. In the end, she had no choice but to stay behind and maintain the operations of the place. What gave her a bigger headache was that as the number of ambushes from devils increased, the ‘amount of traffic’ to Desolate Town also declined. After all, the reason why everyone chose this place as the hub was because the Rift Plain was a rare land of ‘peace’. At least they didn’t need to worry about being slaughtered by devils while roaming the streets. But now, this place wasn’t safe any longer and they lost most interest in it.
This left Red Shroud in a thorny situation. The reason why she was able to rule Desolate Town for so long was that apart from her powerful subordinates, she also had some methods to ‘lure’ inhabitants who came to the underworld to fight for her. As a matter of fact, there was no lack of beings who were exhausted from the bloodbaths, trying to find a steady place to recharge themselves. As long as Red Shroud ‘recruited’ them to defend Desolate Town and provided them a certain amount of beneficial facilities, she could ‘rope in’ their firepower. Since these foreign beings managed to arrive at the Rift Plain, it meant that they were certainly powerful. But now? Not only did the number of visitors decline, but some were also trying to leave!
This was definitely bad news for Red Shroud…
But as this pitiful succubus was pondering about the predicament, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a trail of white radiance.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Lesa raised the staff high in the air and pointed forward. Along with her action, a dozen rays of glaring light descended from above like shooting stars. Before the devils reacted in self-defense, they were bombarded by the berserk attack and turned into ashes.
“Ugh…”
Gazing at this scene, Mini Bubble Gum couldn’t help but turn slightly pale.
“What’s wrong, Bubble?”
Upon realizing the discomfort on her face, Canary asked with knitted brows. Normally, it should have been Canary and Bubble who led the attacks. But due to the sudden loss of strength, Rhode had no choice but to act more cautiously. He changed his plans at the very last minute and pushed Lesa to take the stage instead. As for Cheryl and Stefania… it was none of the former’s business, while the latter happened to be around and was watching from the back. Rhode had no high hopes for her since it was normal for plane merchants to not be involved in battles. The fact that she helped to connect him with the crucial parties was kind enough of her.
“I just realized… so powerful.”
“…?”
Upon hearing Mini Bubble Gum’s words, Canary blinked dubiously and followed her gaze. Then, she realized that Mini Bubble Gum wasn’t staring at the group of devils, but Lesa who stood in the front.
Lesa didn’t realize they were speaking about her. Or perhaps she wouldn’t have any reaction even if she knew. After demolishing the devils who tried to stop her in one attack, this young lady in a white robe clutched and struck the bottom of the staff to the ground abruptly. Shortly after, a golden shield appeared over them and resisted the scattering fireballs thrown by the devils. White rays of light erupted with her standing in the middle all of a sudden and turned into a magical ritual like a running clock. The instant the devils fluttered their wings and entered the range of the magical ritual, they suddenly came to a halt and froze like sculptures for a second. On the other hand, Celestina grunted and lashed out the steel chain sword that resembled a viper ferociously. The devils regained their freedom quickly, but the black flames had arrived before them. At the next moment, in a series of loud wails, the devils were engulfed in black flames, before vanishing entirely.
Even though Lesa’s movements were small and gentle, Mini Bubble Gum and Canary witnessed clearly that she had used one of the most powerful spells of Order: Time Stop!
They had to admit that Lesa’s strength was a mystery to even the people around Rhode.
As the guardian of the Astral Temple, Lesa spent most of her time in it. Her job was to look after the heroic spirits that Rhode summoned and ensure that they didn’t cause any troubles. It might sound simple, but it wasn’t easy at all. Although battle angels and elves were relatively lawful, demons were a hard bunch to deal with. But under Lesa’s watchful eyes, there were no clashes between the unique races and they were living peacefully with one another. Based on this fact, it was clear how capable Lesa was. Since she was the psychic of the Astral Temple, it was expected of her to more or less be this capable.
However, Lesa’s usual performance seemed too harmless and overly-puzzling. She basically spent all her time praying in the Astral Temple and would only follow Rhode whenever he summoned her. Besides, this docile psychic had never defied his orders. As Mini Bubble Gum, Canary, and the rest were often by Rhode’s side, Lesa was most commonly used by him as a ‘large-scale teleportation tool’. Due to this reason, they didn’t know that this quiet psychic who had been quietly following Rhode at the back was so powerful!
After being repelled by Lesa and Celestina, the devils changed their initial strategy and dispersed to two sides quickly. At the same time, the space began to tremble. Facing this sudden change in situation and enemies who launched their attacks without speaking a word, the devils weren’t surprised. In the abyss, it was rare for both sides to get in a battle with reasons!
Shortly after, as the space trembled, five six-armed snake devils emerged out of the voids. They swung their arms with glistening blades in hands. The razor-sharp, ice-cold aggression was so strong that one couldn’t look straight at them.
But in the face of the menacing blade rays, Lesa had no reaction at all. She raised the staff high and chanted a string of curses melodiously. In the blink of an eye, she pointed the staff forward and swept it across horizontally. In this movement, swords coalesced from white radiances appeared above her and burst out at the mighty six-armed snake devils, skewering them altogether.
“Woah…”
Judging Lesa’s performance, Mini Bubble Gum hugged her head in agony as though she was the one being penetrated by the light swords. Canary became increasingly confused. But as she turned to Mini Bubble Gum, she understood what she was feeling distressed about immediately. All this while, Mini Bubble Gum felt really proud of her position beside Rhode because in her perspective, her position was unique. In this area, no one could compete with her and that was actually the truth. But now, the situation had taken a turn. Lesa wasn’t a player, but was a psychic of Astral Temple. According to the rules of the Dragon Soul Continent, NPCs generally possessed subclasses that not even professional players could have. For example, Lesa was in the ‘psychic’ class and also the ‘cleric’ and ‘Order mage’ subclasses. Judging from this point, Lesa was indeed the definition of being capable of attacking and defending perfectly. Upon facing attacks, she used her spiritual spells as a cleric for defense and healing. When she attacked, she used the spells of Order. It was especially so for the high-level spell that manipulated time, which was like a powerful bug in the system!
Besides, Lesa was adorable, gentle, quiet, and lovable; it was just that she seldom showed up in front of everyone. But she was one of Rhode’s subordinates, after all. If Rhode were to bring her to bed, there wouldn’t be an issue at all.
If it were in the past, Mini Bubble Gum definitely wouldn’t mind at all. But as her strength declined, she officially began to worry about such problems. Her position might be replaced by Lesa!
It’s about time now.
But right now, Rhode didn’t know what was going through Mini Bubble Gum’s head. He sensed the surging evil aura from before him and smiled because he had already sensed something brewing within Desolate Town.
Now!
At this thought, Rhode held his hilt abruptly.
Then, the incomparable dragon’s prestige erupted from his body. An enormous and translucent image of a Void Dragon appeared behind him all of a sudden, enveloping the entire sky!
