‘Ha.’

Cale let out a short sigh internally.

Cale saw dozens of people as soon as he entered the priestess’s room.

They were surrounding and protecting the bed at the center as if they were walls.

These people, who had not even groaned as the wall crumbled, also had masks on their faces as they observed Cale.

It was as if they could not forgive an enemy who was aiming for the priestesses.

Cale looked at the bed behind them.

“It really wasn’t just one person.”

Myung had given this order when they first saw her.

She had said priestess-nims, plural.

– Human, are there two priestesses?

“Yeah. I guess so.”

There were two women on the bed.

To be more specific, there was a woman who seemed to be old and a young girl.

The old woman glared at Cale.

Cale nonchalantly commented after seeing her gaze.

“You must be the priestess of the last generation?”

Hoya and Yoon had said that a new priestess had been selected, not multiple new priestesses.

That meant that the answer was obvious.

One was the last generation’s priestess.

The other person was the one who became a priestess this time.

“…….”

The old woman kept her mouth shut while continuing to stare at Cale.

Cale did not pay much attention to this woman who did not answer.

Instead, he looked toward the other person.

“…It’s a familiar face.”

One of the important noble houses in the Roan Kingdom’s capital…

The Duke’s House of Orsena.

That place was burned to the ground.

Most of the people had lost their lives and the person who was suspected of being the culprit, the eldest young lady Orsena was missing.

Furthermore, the youngest young lady of the House of Orsena, the only one to survive, had been abducted by the Hunters who had attacked the Roan Palace.

– Human, it is the youngest young lady Orsena!

That youngest young lady was in front of them as the new priestess.

All emotions disappeared from Cale’s face.

– …Human.

Raon cautiously commented.

– …The youngest young lady’s condition seems weird. It’s a bit, a bit, mm.

Raon could not describe it.

It could not be helped.

The young girl’s eyes were not focused. She was blankly looking into the air with her mouth open.

This young girl, who was even younger than Hong, had been pretty petite to start, but she was extremely skinny and fragile looking now.

Of course, the clothes she was wearing were dazzling as if they were embroidered in gold and her hair and wrists were decorated with beautiful accessories, but…

– Mm mm. She seems a bit crazy…

As Raon mentioned, the young girl’s condition was too different from her original appearance.

She looked like someone who was drugged.

“Haa.”

Cale was flabbergasted.

This little girl had seemed quite anxious when the Duke’s House of Orsena was destroyed, but… At least her body had been fine.

Furthermore, her eyes had been bright despite having been scared.

He subconsciously made a comment.

“What the hell did you do to a kid?”

He scowled.

The people protecting the priestesses did not respond to Cale.

Furthermore, the old woman tightly hugged the young girl and glared at Cale.

She then mouthed something.

No sound came out.

‘!’

However, Cale’s eyes clouded over.

It was at that moment.

“We must evacuate the priestess-nims!”

Cale heard Myung’s shout behind him.

“Attack!”

Clang, clang!

The people who had been blasted away by Raon’s wind magic regained consciousness and charged toward Cale with their weapons.

Oooooo-

Blue aura was rising from Myung’s sword as she charged in front of the group.

Boom!

Furthermore, the people protecting the priestesses all took a step forward at the same time and put their hands on their scabbards.

They looked ready to pull their swords and charge at Cale at any moment.

“Please come this way.”

A few of them who had been closest to the bed approached the priestesses.

They looked ready to run whenever they saw an opportunity.

Myung shouted.

“Capture the enemies! Buy us some time! Focus only on that!”

In order to buy the priestesses some time to escape… They were going to attack Cale with that being their only goal.

Dozens of people charged toward or aimed their swords at Raon and Cale.

That was not all.

Boom!

“I found you!”

The guard. He had reappeared. He had dozens of his subordinates behind him.

Of course, he did not look normal.

His whole body was covered in blood.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

They could hear rumbling in the distance.

“Tsk.”

The guard clicked his tongue as he shouted.

“We need to finish it before Old man Baek gets here! Capture that bastard right now! Avoid the attacks of the Dragon and just, just get that bastard! You can kill him if you have to do so!”

The guard shouted after making eye contact with Myung.

“Young Blood Demon candidate, you listen to me as well! We must get the core back from that person! That is the top priority!”

Myung shouted as well.

“We must also save the priestess-nims, sir!”

“It’ll all be resolved if we just kill that bastard!”

“Wouldn’t it make sense to take care of the Dragon first since that is his backer?!”

The two of their opinions seemed a bit different. However, they did not say anything else.

They realized that everything would end if they just captured their enemies.

“Attack!”

Myung and the guard… The hundred or so people they were leading all charged toward Cale.

Of course, the guard and Myung were in the front of the pack.

“Raon.”

Raon moved in front of Cale after hearing Cale call his name in a calm voice.

“Don’t worry, human! I will destroy everything!”

A solemn aura swirled around Raon.

Raon had made up his mind to be Cale’s shield and his feet as he knew that Cale could not use his shield or wind powers right now.

Raon then heard a nonchalant voice before a rugged hand landed on his head.

“Why would we fight?”

“…Hmm?”

Cale and Raon made eye contact.

Cale whispered at that moment.

“Let’s take the priestesses and run.”

He then snickered.

Raon smirked as well.

Destroying everything was fun but smacking their enemies on the back of their heads and running away was even more entertaining.

Raon’s wings fluttered.

“Sounds great!”

Nothing else needed to be said.

Swoooooooosh-

A gust of wind shot Raon and Cale up into the air.

The gust then quickly charged the two of them toward the bed.

“No!”

“Attack!”

Someone threw a sword, a blue aura flew toward Cale, then there were some spears and daggers thrown at them as well, but…

Although it was quite chaotic…

Bang!

Baaaaang!

Nothing could pierce through Raon’s shield.

Ooooooooong-

Raon’s chubby front paws were holding magic stones. The highest-grade magic stones sparkles.

Cale and Raon then stopped on top of the bed.

“Protect the priestess-nims-”

The person closest to the priestesses opened her mouth before she flinched.

“Ugh!”

She let out a deep groan. She started sweating bullets and her hand that was holding the sword started shaking.

She was not the only one feeling this way.

The people who had created the wall around the priestesses… The eyes that were staring at Cale through the masks were all shaking.

“Eek.”

Even Myung gasped and flinched.

Ooooo–

This eccentric aura that instantly spread out as if it was taking over the area…

The aura coming out of Cale started dominating everything.

“……!”

This aura was so strong that even the guard, who had experienced this twice, got scared again for an instant.

Cale released only enough of the Dominating Aura so that he remained relaxed.

The sudden release of this aura that dominated the area made it so that nobody dared to move.

Bang!

“Ugh.”

Actually, a portion of the people around him dropped their weapons and covered their necks. They were all succumbing to the aura and finding it difficult.

They couldn’t help but be anxious and scared about this aura that seemed to be suffocating them and wanted to even dominate their breathing.

‘H, how can he have such aura-’

Myung, who was experiencing this aura for the first time, barely managed to hold her weapon with her shaking hand as she looked at Cale.

No, she couldn’t even look at him properly.

Her whole body was shaking and she felt as if she would be dominated to death.

Had she felt such an aura from the Blood Demon?

No. This was even worse.

‘…Then a Dragon?’

It made her think of an existence.

‘…Dragon Lord.’

That individual’s aura had definitely been like this.

‘That’s right.

It felt like it would dominate everything as if the aura was enough to kill a person.

No.’

Myung shook her head.

It was different.

This person’s aura was different from the Dragon Lord.

It was a bit more-

‘…How can I describe this?’

It was definitely different from a Dragon Lord but made her feel suffocated the same way.

‘What do I do?’

Could she kill, no, could she go against this person?

Myung’s back started filling with sweat.

It was at that moment.

“Let’s go.”

Cale moved down and extended his hand.

“N, no-!”

Myung subconsciously shouted. Her voice was shaky as well but it could not be helped.

The priestess-

“Why-”

The priestess grabbed Cale’s extended hand.

The old woman held the young girl in her arm as she grabbed Cale’s hand with the other.

Myung watched this and barely managed to react.

“S, stop them so that they cannot escape! Throw your bodies at them if you have to!”

The people protecting the priestesses started moving. However, it was not easy to do so.

Cale’s aura made it so that they even feared lifting their heads.

“Fuck!”

Myung had to charge forward again. She bit down hard on her lips and they were bleeding. She had to do that so that she could find the strength to oppose this overwhelming aura.

“…Haaa-”

However, she soon stopped moving.

Oooooong– oooooong–

A black light started rising like smoke.

An odd circle appeared on top of the bed with the priestesses, Cale, and the Dragon.

Myung knew what this was.

“…A magic circle.”

The Dragon had drawn a magic circle.

“Hehe. We’re leaving!”

The teleportation magic circle activated with Raon’s bright voice.

Wave wave.

Cale waved toward Myung and the guard.

Paaaat!

There was a bright light and crack, the highest-grade magic stone was destroyed.

Once the light disappeared…

The two priestesses, Cale, and Raon had disappeared without a trace from the bed.

“…Ho.”

Myung loosened her grip.

Her sword fell to the ground.

“How can this be-, the core, the core-”

She could hear the guard’s voice of despair but she ignored it.

She simply looked at where Cale had disappeared.

The priestesses and the core of the formation…

The black Dragon and the human had disappeared with everything.

The human who had an immense aura that alone felt as if it would kill you… She did not have to fight against him now that he had disappeared, but…

Myung, who had lost everything now that Cale had left, simply stood there with a blank look on her face.

This was not just her but everybody in this place.

Boom, boom!

Old man Baek appeared with the True Jiangshis at that moment.

He also looked like a mess.

“Huh? Did they leave without me?”

It was just extra that his face filled with despair after realizing the situation.

* * *

Paaaat.

There was a bright light and Cale blinked his eyes. His sight soon returned to normal.

“…Young master Kim?”

The Fist King was the one to greet them.

The Fist King was the only person left on the ship with the captain.

Cale and Raon had appeared with the two priestesses in front of them.

– Human, I set this place as the coordinates! I thought that inside the island would be better!

“Good job.”

Cale gave Raon a compliment and let go of the priestess’s hand. He then looked at her.

“You asked me to save you, didn’t you?”

The priestess, who was still holding onto youngest young lady Orsena as if she was her lifeline, slowly nodded her head.

The priestess had mouthed something earlier.

She had mouthed the same thing over and over.

‘Save me.’

Cale had somehow managed to understand what she was mouthing, allowing him to extend his hand toward her. Cale looked at the hand he had let go and asked.

“…You’re young, aren’t you?”

Although she had white hair and her face and neck were full of wrinkles…

The priestess’s hand was smooth without any wrinkles.

In fact, it was a young hand that never seemed to have struggled in life.

He could clearly see her the moment he recognized that. Unlike her old appearance, an odd aura was wrapped around her.

Nod.

The priestess nodded her head.

She then pointed at her neck and shook her head.

“You can’t talk?”

Nod.

The priestess nodded her head again. She then continued to warily look at Cale. She seemed scared that Cale would throw her away.

It seemed quite different from how she had glared at him earlier.

Cale nonchalantly commented.

“I guess it would be difficult to talk about this right now. For now-”

Cale suddenly stopped talking.

Baaaaaang—–!

They heard a loud noise from a distance.

The direction was toward the Blood Cult.

– I’ll take a look!

Raon shot up into the air before subconsciously shouting.

“H, human! Stairway to Heaven is crumbling!”

‘What?’

Stairway to Heaven.

The place with the formation and the priestess.

Cale’s eyes opened wide after hearing that the building he had just been inside was crumbling.

‘We’ve only been here for a few minutes. What the hell happened there?’

As Cale looked confused…

“Ugh!”

He groaned.

“Human, what is it?!”

“Young master Kim, did something happen?”

Raon and the Fist King approached Cale in shock. Cale put his hand in his shirt pocket before saying anything.

“……What the heck?”

Oooooong– oooooong–

The formation core… the purple orb was rumbling as it slowly released a light.

‘…I have a bad feeling about this-’

The moment he had that thought…

Ruuuuuumble—-

He heard a noise he should not have heard. Cale turned his head.

He was not looking toward the Blood Cult nor the Guangdong shores.

It was the opposite direction of land.

The noise was starting from the vast sea in front of Hainan.

Ruuuumble-

The rumbling was coming from the night sky from the distant sea.

Cale lowered his head.

Underneath the sea…

The sea that had been calm just moments ago was starting to move.

—

Translator’s Comments

Uh oh, the sea! The sea!

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