Chapter 703 - 702: What Are They Waiting For?

Chapter 703: Chapter 702: What Are They Waiting For?

Of all the things Ailetta had expected to witness that day, seeing someone else drive a blade through Bailey’s chest certainly hadn’t been one of them.

And she was far from pleased about it.

After all, Bailey was supposed to die by her hands, not those of some human.

But it wasn’t simply the satisfaction of killing her that Ailetta was being deprived of.

She had been planning for this moment precisely because of what Bailey’s death would mean for the human soul still residing within her. If she could inflict enough suffering upon Bailey before killing her, the resulting emotional turmoil might finally leave that soul vulnerable enough for her to deal with it.

And now someone else had interfered.

For a moment, Ailetta could barely contain her anger.

Had everything she had been planning been ruined? If Bailey died here, how was she supposed to provoke the other Ailetta into exposing herself? Was she now supposed to find the others that were connected to her path self?

There had to be another way.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to devote all her attention to finding one.

The battlefield had already resumed with their earlier battle after they understood the dangers of Noah’s aura.

Even while fighting, Ailetta kept track of everything happening across the battlefield. With her slimes spread throughout the area, there was little that escaped her notice, including the ritual Malachi had begun performing around Bailey.

She had been watching it from the beginning, observing the changes in Bailey as more holy energy gathered around her.

Yet despite her curiosity, Ailetta had made no attempt to interfere.

After all, if the Church intended to strengthen Bailey, then all the better.

The stronger Bailey became, the more likely she was to believe that she finally possessed enough power to overturn the situation.

And Ailetta wanted her to believe that.

She wanted Bailey to experience that hope, only to have it taken away when she was killed by the very person she once cared for.

But her intentions went beyond making Bailey suffer.

Ailetta wanted that suffering to reach the other Ailetta buried deep within her. The more devastating Bailey’s death became, the greater the impact it would have on the woman who still existed somewhere inside her.

But now that Malachi had stabbed Bailey, Ailetta was forced to reconsider her plans.

Her mind raced through the possibilities, searching for some way to salvage the situation.

And it was during that process that she began to understand what the Church was attempting.

The celestial beings she was fighting, along with the Seraphim Noah was confronting, provided enough evidence for her to recognize the ritual’s purpose.

They were using her as an offering.

And judging by the amount of holy energy the ritual had accumulated, whatever they intended to summon was unlikely to be an ordinary celestial being.

What Ailetta couldn’t determine was exactly what that being would be.

However, Ailetta had little reason to concern herself with the two celestial beings she was fighting.

Ever since Noah had strengthened his Fallen, the difference in her capabilities had become increasingly apparent.

Even the rate at which her slimes devoured the holy energy covering the battlefield had increased considerably. And with so much of that energy being consumed, the celestial beings were gradually losing the ability to maintain their holy field, leaving them with little choice but to concentrate their remaining power around their own bodies.

Unfortunately for them, without the holy field, their disadvantage grew even worse.

The slimes that had absorbed enough holy energy were already beginning to merge back into her body, and with each one that returned, her aura grew increasingly powerful.

By now, the battle had become almost entirely one-sided.

Several tentacles extended from Ailetta’s body, repeatedly lashing out at the Virtue as they attempted to seize any part of it they could reach.

The celestial being responded by raising barriers of holy energy, desperately trying to prevent the tentacles from making contact with its body.

But even that was proving insufficient.

Each time a tentacle struck one of its barriers, the holy energy maintaining it began to disappear, gradually being absorbed until the barrier could no longer withstand the attack.

And Ailetta showed no urgency in bringing their confrontation to an end.

Why would she?

As long as the Virtue continued using its holy energy to defend itself, she could continue feeding on that power.

The celestial being, meanwhile, was finding it increasingly difficult to retaliate. With so many tentacles constantly threatening to seize it, nearly all its attention was being devoted to protecting itself.

The better decision would be to regroup and fight as one. Yet the Virtue couldn’t take the idea of being forced back so easily without achieving anything.

It strove to devise its own counterattack. Several feathers detached from its wings, each one transforming into a blade of concentrated holy energy before shooting toward Ailetta from different directions.

Yet rather than attempting to evade them, Ailetta made no effort to defend herself until the feathers were almost upon her.

Slime suddenly surged upward from her neck, spreading across her head until it was completely concealed beneath a thick layer.

The feathers pierced her slime-covered body, releasing bursts of holy energy as they attempted to purify the corruption within her.

For a moment, steam rose from the areas where they had struck, making it appear as though the purification was taking effect.

But Ailetta showed no indication of being troubled by it.

Instead, her slime began enveloping the feathers, gradually drawing them deeper into her body.

And as the holy energy sustaining them was consumed, the steam disappeared along with it.

Before long, not a single feather remained, and Ailetta’s aura had only grown stronger.

That was partly due to the nature of Ailetta’s current form. Unlike before, her body was no longer as vulnerable to the purifying effects of holy energy, and with her slimes capable of devouring that same energy, even attacks meant to be particularly effective against her could end up strengthening her instead.

The Virtue understood that it couldn’t defeat her anymore, at least not alone. It needed assistance.

However, the others were having just as difficult a time. In fact, the others were in worse condition. The only celestial being capable of providing it was the Potentate, but it was already occupied with Ailetta’s two shadow guardians.

Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t much better for it.

Like Ailetta, her guardians had grown considerably stronger after Ailetta’s empowerment, and both could absorb holy energy.

And while the Potentate was still capable of resisting their attacks, there was something else making its situation increasingly desperate.

Fear.

Ailetta could already sense how much its fear had grown, and judging by Nightmare’s increasingly robust body, her shadow guardian had been feeding on that emotion for quite some time.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be much longer before the Potentate succumbed to that fear entirely and became another of her shadows.

Everything was proceeding in Ailetta’s favor.

Yet just as the holy energy surrounding Bailey began to intensify, something strange happened to the celestial beings.

The Virtue suddenly stopped attempting to retaliate as a barrier manifested around its body, one that didn’t contain even the slightest trace of its own aura.

And it wasn’t alone.

The Potentate was similarly enveloped by a barrier, followed by the other celestial beings.

What made the change particularly unusual was that Ailetta recognized the barriers.

They were the same barriers Heaven had granted the summoners to protect them when the celestial beings were summoned.

Yet now, every celestial being had withdrawn that protection from its summoner, using it to defend itself instead.

And with all of them doing so almost simultaneously, Ailetta doubted it was a coincidence.

They were following orders.

And considering what was happening around Bailey, she had a fairly good idea of the cause.

This action in itself wouldn’t be an issue. Now they could easily kill off the summoners, indirectly defeating the celestials. But that’s where the problem lay.

Why would they do it?

The question immediately made Ailetta replay the scene from when they first battled an Archon, and that being had done the exact same thing. The reason was that its summoner could die, so it could retreat back to heaven.

But in this case, it wouldn’t make sense to do that at all, unless they were waiting for something.

Or... they were going to do the same thing. Allow their summoners to die so they could retreat for Noah to gain their souls.

But before Ailetta could determine whether that was truly their intention, something else caught her attention.

The holy energy surrounding Bailey had begun to change.

Her body slowly rose into the air, and as it did, a brilliant pillar of light suddenly descended from the "heavens", connecting with the energy surrounding her.

The moment it appeared, the entire battlefield seemed to change.

Unlike the holy energy the celestial beings had been using, there was something incomparably pure about this radiance. Even the slightest exposure was enough to make the demonic creatures recoil.

And that included Noah’s Fallen.

They struggled to endure its presence. Each of them retreated further as their instincts screamed that the energy could destroy them.

Even Ailetta couldn’t help but frown.

It wasn’t that the energy was powerful enough to overwhelm her. Rather, there was something about its purity that made her instinctively uncomfortable, almost as though the light itself rejected her existence.

And judging by the reactions of the other Fallen, she wasn’t alone.

What made the phenomenon particularly strange, however, was that the humans seemed to be experiencing the exact opposite.

Rather than recoiling from the light, those exposed to its radiance began to calm down. The fear and desperation that had gripped them throughout the battle gradually subsided, replaced by an inexplicable sense of peace.

It was as though Heaven itself had descended to reassure them.

But Ailetta had little interest in whatever comfort the humans were experiencing.

Her attention remained fixed on Bailey, whose body was now rising higher into the air.

The holy energy surrounding her had become so concentrated that her figure was no longer visible. And as more of that heavenly radiance descended, the light began expanding, gradually taking on a shape that Ailetta found disturbingly familiar.

A humanoid figure.

And from its back, several enormous wings began to emerge.