Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After heading to the north along the river valley for several minutes, Lucien told Natasha that they had to change the direction and head toward the east. Using Advanced Flying, Lucien and Natasha flew as fast as they could in the new direction. Meanwhile, Lucien removed the layer of dim moonlight on Natasha.
“You’re attracting Demigod-lich’s attention so that aunty Camil can leave the city of Husum and go into the desert in the east in safety, right?” asked Natasha. She did not complain at all when Lucien suddenly changed the plan, instead, she accepted Lucien’s decision and realized his plan right away. They had gone through fire and water multiple times together. They knew each other well.
Natasha knew that on the east side of the desert was a secret liaison magic circle set up by the Congress of Magic. The magic circle could send voice messages across the ocean to the areas under the control of the Congress.
Once knowing where Lucien was, Fernando and Hathaway could go back to the main material world first and then open another Portal to Alternate Realm to the northern mountains in Erdo Peninsula. This was the fastest route, although it would still cost them a day to come.
If a radiant knight was familiar with all the semi-solidified space barriers in this dimension, he or she would be able to get to the liaison magic circle in the desert within two days; if not, it would take three to four days. Unfortunately, Camil belongs to the latter.
Flying at a high speed in the sky, they could hear the wind howl as it thrashed the coldness into their bones. Lucien smiled. He nodded and said to Natasha via the telepathic bond between them, “it Demigod-lich can’t find our traces when he returns, he will definitely go after Camil, who is the closest person to us that survived the fight. When he gets aunty Camil, we will lose all our hope of waiting for Hathaway and my teacher’s help. What’s even worse is that he will for sure use aunty Camil to threaten us. We must eliminate this potential danger.”
“That’s true. If Demigod-lich can lock on our trace, he will come after us.” Natasha agreed. “Thus, as long as aunty Camil can hide properly, she will have enough time to recover.”
“In this dimension, even a legendary’s spiritual power field only has a radius of three hundred meters. At that time, aunty Camil will have already left the city of Husum. By then, Demigod-lich will have a very difficult time if he still wants to find her. And we all know that following one’s track of destiny isn’t very accurate.” Natasha added. “Within a day, aunty Camil will be able to get in the mountains in the northeast, where His Excellency Varantine is patrolling. Unless he loses his mind and wants to challenge the Church right now by himself, Demigod-lich will have no choice but to give up tracking down aunty Camil.”
Natasha, who was flying in the air like a sharp arrow, completely understood Lucien’s plan. She told Lucien where Varantine was, in case he would run into Varantine.
To escape by fueling a fight between Varantine and Demigod-lich was not a possible plan, because Varantine could always inform the Church, and then Lucien would have to run away from the entire Church’s hunting. The situation would be much, much more dangerous than what they were facing now.
“So we have to keep distracting Demigod-lich for a whole day,” said Lucien seriously.
Natasha lifted her left eyebrow, “You are not worried that aunty Camil might tell His Excellency Varantine about you?”
“There’s no perfect plan facing such a great danger,” said Lucien honestly, “but after seven days, when Alterna finishes absorbing the pieces, I might be able to survive even facing the Pope. And, I trust you.”
Natasha lips curved into a smile,
“I told aunty Camil that it would only take Alterna four days to fully absorb the pieces. If she chooses not to sell you out and successfully sends the message to the Congress, the Lord of Storm and granny Hathaway will come find you even earlier than you planned. If she indeed sells you out, when the Pope sends the priests here, it will have been three days later. His Holiness will definitely consider how big is their chance of winning when facing Alterna, who will have recovered to the level of demigod. I don’t think he will take the risk, especially when he’s currently unable to cast God’s Arrival.”
Lucien tilted his head and examined Natasha up to down. He was quite impressed. “I thought you were always very straightforward, no matter when fighting or dealing with things. I didn’t expect it at all that you could also be very sophisticated. But… aunty Camil has been protecting you for so many years, won’t you feel bad lying to her?”
Natasha grinned. “Hey, I gave aunty Camil the wrong message because you deceived me in the first place. A dignified knight like me doesn’t lie.”
After the joke, the look on Natasha’s face became more serious. “Although I do like to solve problems on my own, as the future duchess, I’ve always been living in great caution, or what happened to me last time with my cousin Verdi would definitely happen again. I trust that aunty Camil will never betray me, but I am not so sure whether she’d also not betray you. Maybe in her eyes, sending you to the gallows is the best way to protect me from the danger of being hunted by Demigod-lich. I can’t count on anybody by simply saying ‘I trust her.’”
Lucien saw a true duchess in front of him — decisive, determined, and cautious.
What was even more important was that Natasha still knew what she really wanted.
Lucien smiled lightly. “We’ve done this much, and the rest of the things are not within our control. We should head northward and eastward in turns, so that Demigod-lich will believe that we’re heading for the desert in the east following an irregular route.”
At this time, the concrete colors black, white and grey climbed onto Lucien’s left hand again and then covered his entire body. The flying spell was interrupted, and Lucien instantly fell from the sky.
With a dive, Natasha clutched Lucien. Then she pulled out Pale Justice and swung it at the mix of black, white and grey.
However, this time one single strike turned out to be insufficient. Natasha frowned and kept hacking at it. After three times, the mixture of colors finally retreated.
“Are you alright?” Asked Natasha in concern.
Lucien said calmly, “don’t worry. The fight can get quite intense. When the absorption process approaches the end, there’ll be a big one.”
“You gotta ask Alterna some rewards when Alterna recovers,” said Natasha half-jokingly. “You’re taking such a huge risk.”
Lucien answered thoughtfully, “In fact, I think I’ve got some rewards already. Every time when this happens, the world around me stops working, but meanwhile, my soul is still growing stronger together with my cognitive world. When I first got struck by it, it felt like that I directly skipped two years. The two-year growth has turned out to be a great boost to my soul. Now, the power of my soul is at the seventh circle. When I finish analyzing a seventh-circle spell, I’ll try to advance.”
“This is not fair. We are at the same level again!” Natasha exclaimed in great surprise. “… I was working very hard to be a level higher than you. After this ends, you have to reward me as well!”
“I will, as long as you’re not asking me to wear weird costumes,” Lucien revealed Natasha’s secret thoughts.
Natasha shrugged. “Alright, then you’d better get up.”
Lucien finally realized that Natasha had been holding him in her arms all the time during the conversation. With a shy smile on his face, Lucien cast Advanced Fly again.
…
Half a day later, Lucien and Natasha arrived at a small town in the northern mountain range. Now, they were hiding in a mud hut and taking a break.
“The outbreak is happening so unpredictably! Before, we could still handle it, but after Demigod-lich sent out his specter minions, we are now under great pressure,” said Natasha.
Natasha’s eyes were fixed sharply on Lucien’s left hand, where the one to blame was residing. The only thing that could comfort her now was that according to Lucien, Alterna was a cute-looking blond girl. Thus, Natasha could still put up with Alterna. She also wondered why Lucien was always caught in big troubles.
Lucien could do nothing about this. “It’s completely out of my control. There’s no pattern in this at all.”
In the past hour, they had run into two teams of senior-rank specters. Many thanks to the fact that Pale Justice was the great bane of the specters, they were able to escape. Otherwise, they would have already been caught by Demigod-lich.
Natasha was about to say something to relax. Suddenly, the monotonous colors of black, white and grey haunted Lucien again.
She looked rather alert and serious. Pulling out Pale Justice, she hacked at the color layer from an angle as the many times she did before.
This time, the colors faded away immediately. But Natasha did not have time for celebrating. The next moment, Natasha leaped forward. Clutching Lucien, who was still not able to move, she rolled out of the mud hut.
Bang!
The mud wall was penetrated by a huge piece of stone. After a few shakes, the hut collapsed to the ground, raising dust everywhere.
Natasha held the sword and stood in front of Lucien. She saw the disgusting, rotten monster.
It was a group of huge apes two to three times tall as a man. But they had no skin, thus the green, rotten muscles and tissues were all revealed. In each of their hands, there was a huge stone.
“Only a group of middle-rank Rotten Looters?” Natasha sneered. Her movements were so fast that the series of piercing and striking only took her a couple of seconds.
When Natasha returned to where she was standing earlier, the huge apes had all collapsed to the ground one by one. Their huge bodies quickly dissolved into piles of pus and then disappeared.
“There must be a high-rank undead creature as the leader behind! Let’s go!” Lucien reminded. Besides, he did not want to get the innocent residents nearby involved.
After casting Speed on themselves, Lucien and Natasha ran into the mountains, changing their directions aimlessly.
A few seconds later, Natasha suddenly took a wide leap onto the big tree beside them and pierced through a huge animal. It was another Rotten Looter.
“We’re still being followed,” said Natasha seriously.
Lucien looked back and frowned. “Something’s tracking us. We have to find it out, or Demigod-lich will be coming for us soon.”
