Chapter 697: Rose: Bet You Didn't Expect It, It's Me

Hilia felt something was off.

Ever since she learned from Rose that Haroldias was searching for her, Hilia had an unsettling feeling in her heart.

If it had been before she met Rose, she would definitely have waited with eager anticipation.

But now…

She was unsure of her emotions; they were complex and a bit bewildering.

Finally, she followed Rose’s guidance, did nothing, and found an empty, isolated place to wait slowly.

Due to her complex emotions, she didn’t even notice why there was such a large, flat meadow within the Elf Forest.

Now it was the second day after leaving the underground, and Hilia was meditating on the grass.

At this moment, Rose’s voice came to her ears: “It’s coming.”

Hilia opened her eyes and suddenly felt that something around her had changed.

A faint phantom appeared not far in front of her, seemingly scrutinizing her.

Hilia had seen this phantom underground; it was the projection of Haroldias, the God of Life and Death.

However, unlike the more solid phantom she had seen underground, the projection before her was very illusory.

Yet, even such an illusory projection exerted immense pressure on Hilia.

She nervously watched the phantom of Haroldias in front of her, swallowed her saliva, and dared not speak.

The phantom also did not speak. After a long silence, Hilia faintly sensed that the god before her seemed to have said something, and yet seemed not to have.

“No trace of him?”

“A perfect vessel… cannot be missed.”

After that vague feeling, Hilia saw the phantom in front of her disappear.

The next moment, her vision went black, and she lost consciousness, collapsing limply.

Soon after, Haroldias’s phantom reappeared, but this time it rushed out of Hilia’s spiritual space in a panic.

Threads of spirit followed out, quickly binding his phantom.

Rose’s spiritual form appeared next to them, arms crossed, watching the struggling phantom of Haroldias.

“Surprised, aren’t you? It’s not Zeus, it’s me.”

“You… how did you get out?” Haroldias looked shocked, and his entire phantom became somewhat unstable.

“You could escape, why couldn’t I?” Rose said with a half-smile.

“No, if you really escaped, it wouldn’t be so low-key; this world is still under the influence of Zeus, with no traces of your changes, so you haven’t fully emerged.”

Haroldias quickly calmed down, glanced at the unconscious Hilia, and squinted his eyes.

“I understand now; you have somehow descended onto this perfect vessel and are influencing the world through her. You’re afraid of losing this vessel, which is why you don’t influence the world directly and only act in the dark.”

“Sometimes being too smart isn’t good for you.”

Rose reached out, and the threads of spirit quickly contracted.

“Since I caught you, come keep me company.”

“Humph, do you think you can catch me so easily? Since I dared to appear directly, I naturally prepared for Zeus to discover me, or rather, I intentionally wanted to attract his attention.”

Haroldias let out a cold snort, and in the next second, his phantom shattered.

However, shortly after dispersing, faint waves of divine power flowed from all directions, slowly reforming his phantom.

With Haroldias’s dumbfounded expression, Rose said blandly, “As if someone wasn’t prepared.”

“What did you do to my body?”

“Just made sure you can’t escape, just something casual.”

“No, that’s not right…”

“Oh, and also weakened the influence of your resurrection, so that Zeus didn’t notice your awakening.”

“You…”

“Alright, anything else you want to say, let’s go talk in the Abyss; staying here too long may awaken Zeus and push you back down.”

“Humph, I’d rather Zeus push me back to sleep than be caught by you!”

Haroldias roared, bursting with waves of life and death divine power, attempting to break free.

Rose’s expression remained unchanged, he simply raised his hand, causing the elements around to flow rapidly, forming a strange harmony that easily dissolved the power of life and death from Haroldias.

“This is… no, this isn’t your power.”

“Correct, this is the power Zeus specifically prepared to deal with you, just happened to borrow it to use.”

If looked at from above, one would see faint light flows across the entire Elf Forest.

Under the polluted gray mist, these lights were not obvious; ordinary mages couldn’t detect such a wide range of flow.

This was initially set up by Rose for Hilia to purify during her patrol, and now, it’s time for it to come in handy.

The divine followers’ 500-year arrangement was not as useful as Rose’s casual setup in a month.

“Zeus!” Haroldias clenched his teeth.

He could feel that what Rose said was true; Rose was indeed just ‘borrowing’ Zeus’s setup to deal with him.

However, Haroldias’s anger only lasted a moment, soon calming down with a deep, insightful gaze.

“It seems you can’t use your own power and you care a lot about that vessel during the fight.”

With that, Haroldias looked at Hilia, weaving the power of life and death into a strange superposition, spreading towards Hilia from all directions.

Rose’s spiritual form shielded Hilia, the light streams from all over the Elf Forest gathered in his hands, gently dissolving Haroldias’s power.

“You really care for her, it seems if she’s removed, you won’t be able to keep watching over the Starfall Continent.”

Haroldias’s aura surged like a tsunami, a vast energy poured out, making everything around seem unstable.

Yet, Rose smiled.

“Come on, Haroldias, try to exhaust all the measures Zeus left behind.”

Haroldias’s assault halted for a moment, but soon became even more frenzied.

Everything around twisted, all the grass, even the earth, seemed to have the ability to transform life and death at Haroldias’s will.

However, he could not affect the area where Hilia lay unconscious, no matter what.

The power borrowed by Rose was like the gentlest stream, impervious to both violent storm attacks and subtle infiltration, unable to penetrate through to impact Rose or Hilia.

“I can feel it; the power left by Zeus is weakening due to the erosion from Demonic Qi. To avoid waking him, you haven’t fully unleashed it. It won’t be long before the power at your disposal will be completely exhausted. If you return now, back to your Endless Abyss, I might let this perfect vessel go untouched.” Haroldias said coldly.

Rose chuckled softly, “You’re in a rush?”

“Humph, I’m not in a rush.”

“If you’re not in a rush, why try to persuade me? If victory is assured, why not just defeat me in one swoop?”

“I simply don’t want to see such a perfect vessel get destroyed.”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll have to… take the initiative.”

As soon as the words fell, the gentle stream of light surged instantly, raising massive waves!