n

n

nYelna was too late.

nHer thundering kick landed squarely where the Star Emperor was standing... The only problem was, the man already moved away by the time the girl landed.

n

"Ugh, that was close!

" the surprisingly young man exclaimed as he dusted off his robe.

"But where is all this aggression coming from?

" he asked, leaning his head to the side.

n

"I can see through him,

" Yelna said before dropping her guard and relaxing. She simply stood in her place, roughly ten meters away from the man she just attacked.

n

"Great, that will save us some effort,

" Markus said with glee before turning his head to the man that replaced the high interrogator from before.

"The Star Emperor, I assume?

"

n

"I don't really like this name,

" the man roughly in his thirties shook his head with a troubled smile.

"This title makes people think as if reaching my level was the end of the path, while it's actually only a beginning,

" the man smiled, relaxing just like Yelna a moment earlier.

"But I believe it's my turn to question now. What the hell is going on here?

"

n

"I'm sorry, but I missed the part where that's your business,

" Markus replied harshly. After a single sentence from Yelna, he adopted a dismissive attitude towards the man.

"Now that we know you cannot match my wife, I don't see a single reason to explain my plans to you,

" he added, looking down at the man.

n

"And there it goes, passive-aggressive tone!

" The youthful man exclaimed, raising his hands to the sky.

"Why are all the villains like that?

" he asked the skies and actually waited as if he expected some kind of answer to actually come.

"Would it kill you to just be polite for once?

" he asked, squinting his eyes in the first reveal of a portion of the rage that was brimming in him.

n

"You have guts to accuse us of being aggressive after your subordinate threatened us,

" Markus countered before locking his hands behind his back. 'If Yelna can see through his moves, then this fight is already over,' Markus thought, putting his mind at complete ease.

n

"I will severely punish him for that... Or so I would say if I didn't know the worth of loyalty,

" the Star Emperor countered on his own but ultimately withdrew his hands back.

"I can already understand what he did and why he did that. As such, I can only hope you will understand that everyone is equal in the face of the law,

" the man announced, finally dropping the pretense of laidback attitude.

n

"We just want to leave the city and go explore the desert,

" Markus shrugged his shoulders as he opened his mouth.

"Surely, you are not going to claim that your laws restrict foreigners from leaving this place?

" Markus probed, slowly reaching the limits of his patience.

nWhile it was obvious that the locals wouldn't let such a massive group enter the desert at once, Markus expected all the resistance to cease within just a few minutes.

nFor every minute they spent talking on this side of the gate, they would have a minute less to travel through the desert.

n'If we don't hurry up, we will add one more day of sleeping in the sands rather than in the houses at the camp,' Markus thought as he looked up to gauge the position of the sun in the sky.

n

"There are surely no laws stopping one from leaving my dominion,

" the young man exclaimed as if he wasn't going to press the issue at all.

"But it's a different matter altogether if you are moving sizeable quantities of goods and wares outside of the human realm,

" he added, slowly allowing the aura of his power to circulate around him.

nNoticing the change in the air around the man, Markus cast a glance at Yelna. But the girl didn't act weirdly, still standing relaxed out in the open.

n

"We only took the supplies necessary to stay in the desert for a while,

" Markus shook his arm, still trying to solve the situation without needless bloodshed.

nHe wasn't against the idea of fighting per se. The former saint simply considered this solution as too wasteful time-wise to actively seek it out.

n

"Do you want to say that your people are going to eat wood?

" The man asked as he glanced over the many carts that Markus' organized crowd brought with them. And while those carts were hidden within the crowd, it was clear that this man had no problems peering into their content.

n

"I'm not sure if you ever visited the desert yourself, but wood is a scarce material there,

" Markus replied, squinting his eyes in annoyance.

"While it's desert, the nights out there are cold. Without fire and something to burn in it, half of those people would freeze to their deaths,

" Markus said before shaking his shoulders.

"Is that really what you want for them? So that half of them won't ever return while the remaining half will be permanently scarred due to frostbites?

" Markus continued to throw his accusations.

n'If my guess is right, then at least half of his power comes from the reverence of the people,' Markus thought, keenly observing the situation.

nThe entire ruse with Yelna attacking the man right off the bat was another ploy aimed at obtaining more information about this particular opponent.

nAnd while Markus wasn't Layn when it came to magic expertise, he was still more than capable of noticing several things about the weird flow of mana around this man.

n

"Still, there are laws in this place. It doesn't matter what do you think about them,

" the man said as he took a step forward. It was clear that he was also getting annoyed with how the situation appeared to stall out.

n

"There is no entity powerful in this world enough to enforce any laws upon me,

" Markus said without the slightest hint of care. But rather than just waiting for the man to attack in hopes that Yelna would come to his rescue, Markus properly fixed his position and leaned forward, ready to enter the battle at any given notice.

n

"So you really are villains,

" the star emperor said, putting a small, cheeky smile on his lips.

nAnd then, he attacked.

nAs if the laws of space didn't bound him, he reappeared right behind Markus.

n'I guess he judged I was the easier target,' the former saint thought, hiding the grin that was about to appear on his face.

nWith the man behind his back, Markus couldn't see his movements at all... But they were so full of the magical energy that he would have to be unconscious or dead drunk not to perceive them.

nBut he didn't dodge. He didn't jump away, nor did he attempt to do anything that could get him out of harm's way.

nMarkus simply... accepted the attack with his entire self, even going as far as to pull all of his energy as deeply into his body as he could.

nThe attack connected, sending a crushing wave of energy through Markus's insides.

nBut he continued to suck on the energy as if he wanted to condense it into a point that existed only theoretically.

nMagic attacks like this one normally were the more useful, the more energy the recipient of it had. While there was the part of strengthening the purely physical effects of one's fist, when compared to the energy attack that came after, they were nothing to be worried about.

nAnd thanks to Markus sucking all of his energy insides, there was no energy left for the enemy attack to disturb it. Rather than that, the energy of the Star Emperor had no other choice but to follow the flow.

nBy the time the Star Emperor realized what was going on, Markus already had quite a feast at his expense, filling his drained paths with fresh, undistilled mana.

n

"Not bad,

" the former saint said as he stretched the fingers of his right hand. He turned around and looked at the man who just stood there with a blank expression on his face. 'It seems he is still trying to understand what happened,' Markus thought with amusement. And then, he threw a casual punch.

nBut it was a casual punch for someone of his posture. Given how he was over a head higher than the man and at least twice as bulky as the youthful man, what Markus considered to be a casual strike turned out to be a hefty hit for the man.

nThat is, it would turn out if he didn't escape.

nRather than using the same weird technique as before, the man simply jumped away. Several feet away from Markus, he definitely felt safe.

n

"Not so fast!

" Markus shouted, infusing his fist with the same energy that he stole from the man a moment earlier. Given how it was yet to fully diffuse with Markus' own energy, once released, the mana instantly sought to return to its owner.

nAnd just like that, despite being far away from his reach, Markus struck the Star Emperor squarely in the face!

n