Chapter 237: Roy’s intervention

Back to the Present

The air inside the trapped chamber grew so thick and pressurized that the stone walls began to groan under the sheer weight of the unnatural aura.

High Priest Arnold hovered in the center of the ruined room, his bare, muscular chest bathed in crackling, superheated violet plasma.

The twin orange fires burning behind his eyelids stared down at the four beast leaders with an alien, vacant detachment.

Every single commander felt the sudden, terrifying shift in the atmosphere.

The pressure rolling off Arnold’s body was no longer the desperate, volatile mana of a dying cleric.

It was the refined, ancient, and unyielding weight of something far above the mortal plane.

This is wrong, Manuses thought, his sharp golden eyes narrowing into razor-thin slits as he flexed his claws.

His aura… it isn’t even human anymore.

Manuses glanced sideways at Pope Croak.

The squat, dark-robed pope slowly turned his head, his narrow reptilian eyes grave as he gave a firm, subtle nod.

Both high-tier warriors immediately realized the truth: the man standing before them was no longer High Priest Arnold.

His mind, his soul, and his very identity had been completely erased, replaced by a divine puppet of absolute destruction.

Manuses exhaled a heavy, hot sigh through his teeth.

He turned his head slightly toward Duchess Alisa and Duchess Eurenia, his voice dropping into a low, deadly serious whisper.

“Alisa, Eurenia… get out of here,” Manuses commanded, his usual arrogant, playful demeanor entirely gone. “You two are only Martial Generals. No matter how skilled you are, you cannot contend with a disaster of this magnitude. Fall back to the perimeter at once.”

“What?!” Eurenia snapped softly, her eyes flashing with instant defiance as her silver rapier hummed with dark mana. “Grand Chancellor, I am a captain of the Crusade of the Church of the God of Beast! I will not turn my back and flee like a coward just because the enemy has powered up!”

“Eurenia, listen to reason!” Pope Croak hissed, stepping closer to her with a stern, authoritative glare. “This is not a simple duel of martial arts! That vessel is overflowing with true divine essence. A single direct wave of that energy will vaporize your body into ash before you can even react!”

“I don’t care!” Eurenia ground her teeth, her knuckles turning white around her weapon’s hilt.

She stood her ground stubbornly, her chest heaving with pride. “I am a warrior! If I run now simply because the foe is stronger, I am unworthy to serve our divine lord!”

Beside her, Duchess Alisa remained completely silent.

She didn’t argue, nor did she raise her weapon.

Her sharp, dark eyes were locked onto the hovering, orange-eyed entity, quietly evaluating its fluid, friction-free movements and the sheer density of the dual-element divine aura wrapping around its skin.

Just as Eurenia opened her mouth to argue with Pope Croak once more—

“Enough, Eurenia.”

A calm, raspy, yet overwhelmingly authoritative voice resonated directly inside Eurenia’s mind.

Eurenia’s body froze instantly. The fiery pride in her eyes yielded to a sudden, absolute reverence.

“Leave at once with Alisa,” Roy’s voice echoed smoothly across the mental link, his tone leaving no room for debate.

“If you remain in that chamber, you will die. My church has no use for dead warriors who throw away their lives out of senseless stubbornness.”

Before Eurenia could even process the command, Roy’s divine voice expanded, echoing simultaneously inside the minds of Manuses, Pope Croak, and Alisa.

“Manuses, Croak… both of you are Martial Saints of our faith,” Roy spoke, his voice vibrating with a dark, divine weight that made their blood surge.

“While the ladies retreat, you two shall remain and face this divine puppet. Prove your absolute worth to the God of Beast… for I am watching your every move.”

Manuses’ lips curled into a fierce, bloodthirsty grin, his golden eyes blazing with unbridled excitement.

Pope Croak bowed his head slightly toward the ceiling, his reptilian eyes gleaming with dark, fanatical devotion.

Eurenia tightly clenched her left fist until her nails bit into her palm.

She was deeply frustrated by her own weakness, hating the fact that she was forced to retreat, but she knew that the Apostle’s word was absolute divine law.

She could never disobey.

She turned her head to Alisa, who offered a quiet, firm nod.

Without wasting another millisecond, Alisa grabbed Eurenia firmly by the shoulder.

The two women kicked off the stone floor in perfect unison, throwing themselves backward and plunging straight out of the high, shattered window into the dark, moonlit night!

“Hmph.”

Above the room, High Priest Arnold’s orange eyes flickered with cold, lethal malice as his head snapped toward the window.

“Do you truly think…” the distorted, overlapping voice echoed from his throat, “…I would allow heretical fools to escape with their lives?”

Arnold raised his right arm, pointing a single, glowing finger toward the open window.

HUMMMMM—!

A blinding, superheated beam of violet-gold solar light condensed at the tip of his finger, carrying enough destructive force to erase the entire eastern quadrant of the mountain range!

He was about to discharge the lethal strike—when suddenly, Arnold’s frame twitched violently in mid-air.

A sharp, microscopic distortion rippled deep within the spatial boundary of his mind! Roy, observing from the rooftop, had subtly flicked a thread of his Divine Authority of Mindcraft directly against the divine proxy’s sensory perception, throwing off its spatial calculation by a fraction of a degree.

BOOM!

The devastating beam of divine light shot out from his finger, but the sudden mental distortion caused his aim to jerk upward!

The blinding pillar of fire blasted straight through the heavy stone ceiling, obliterating the roof of the pavilion in a towering column of violet flames, completely missing the two retreating women.

Outside, Alisa and Eurenia landed smoothly on a distant rooftop, disappearing into the shadows of the night without a single scratch.

Inside the ruined, open-air chamber, High Priest Arnold lowered his smoking finger, his orange eyes locking onto Manuses and Pope Croak, who were now standing side-by-side in the center of the crater.

Manuses cracked his knuckles, his massive frame humming with wild, primal aura as he looked up at the divine entity.

“Now then…” Manuses sneered, his golden eyes burning with violent delight. “It’s just us, proxy. Let’s see if your false god can handle a true Martial Saint!”