Chapter 512: Anna (2)

“I can’t stay calm.”

Seeing portraits of the Pope everywhere on the walls, Elvire suddenly remembered something. “Our enemy is the Bright King’s Court.”

Sean asked, “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember Carlos?” Elvire said. “He was a Soul Reflection, just like us.”

“Faced with certain death, he chose to log off.”

“It looked like he’d escaped us, but what happened in the end?”

It wasn’t just Carlos; his entire Wolf Family was buried beneath the endless snows of the frozen plains because of that one act.

They themselves were cultivating the Fallen Nether Technique, so they knew where Carlos came from and where he would try to escape.

By the same token, if they dared to log off here, the Bright King’s Court, which also possessed the Fallen Nether Technique, would recognize them as Soul Reflections.

It was obvious what would be waiting for them.

Hearing this, Sean’s eyes widened. The heart that had been hanging in suspense… finally died.

Now that Elvire had pointed it out, he realized he had been overlooking this problem all along.

In the New World, the Church Court truly had no way to deal with them; it was impossible for them to be truly killed.

But it was possible in the Farm World.

The Farm World was also the Church Court’s territory.

Sean took a deep breath and said, “There’s only one way now.”

“What way?”

Sean: “Run!”

The two women: “?”

Before they could react, Sean grabbed each of them by the hand and made a break for the entrance of the secret chamber.

‘We can’t log off here, so we’ll find another place to do it!’

People have an instinctive fear of death, and that doesn’t change even for a Soul Reflection.

Because your consciousness is still your own. It was like someone intending to jump off a building, only to get to the ledge and change their mind. Sean felt the same way. If he could avoid dying, he didn’t want to die.

After all, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.

Sean led the two women on a mad dash, first out of the secret chamber, then out of the church, and then toward the city gates.

He assumed the phalanx of the dead in the secret chamber hadn’t moved because the Potter Family hadn’t gotten the message yet. It was like how people don’t stare at their phones every second of the day; even the most urgent matters can’t always be handled immediately. They might be able to leave Cadola Royal City before their enemies had a chance to react.

Sean knew this was just wishful thinking. There were too many things that didn’t make sense. But in their current predicament, clinging to a sliver of hope was all they had left to keep them going.

But reality soon taught him that you can’t rely on blind luck.

The woman in the white dress had indeed been guiding the trio. Someone wanted Sean to find what he was looking for and see the truth for himself; otherwise, he would never give up.

But helping Sean didn’t mean she would let him go.

Even if she wanted to, the Church Court wouldn’t agree.

So, when Sean pulled Elvire and Elise out of the church and onto the main street, the moon in the sky suddenly disappeared.

In that instant, it was as if someone had hit the pause button on the entire Cadola Royal City. The people on the street, who should have been enjoying their nightlife, laughing and talking, all froze and fell silent.

The air became terrifyingly quiet.

The next second.

Like the phalanx of the dead in the secret chamber, they all snapped their heads around in unison. Their once lively eyes turned dead and listless. Only now did Sean understand what Elvire had meant the night before, when she’d said the receptionist’s skin was whiter than his, and he’d been dead for hundreds of years.

The difference between fair-skinned beauty and a ghastly pallor was just a matter of the eyes.

“Give up. You can’t escape.”

A man in a long black robe appeared in the air.

This time, his hood was down, revealing the familiar face Sean had been searching for.

Fan Ke’er, Captain of the Bright King’s Royal Guard!

“It’s him.”

Elise’s expression changed slightly.

Only when truly facing a Grand Mage would one know how terrifying a Wizard of this level could be. The aura alone was suffocating. Facing an enemy of this caliber, they had no chance of winning.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the streets full of zombie-like Living Dead staring at them.

In terms of both quality and quantity, they were outmatched.

Without another word, Sean turned around and continued to run.

This was different from when they were cornered by the Florist Family at World’s End. Fan Ke’er was far stronger than Robert. Sean didn’t even consider trying to stall for time with empty threats. There was no point; if you were outmatched, you were outmatched. Delaying the inevitable just meant dying later instead of sooner. It was more practical to just turn and run in another direction.

“So you won’t cry until you see the coffin.”

Fan Ke’er sneered.

He barely lifted a hand, and the road in front of the trio suddenly split open, rolling upward like a rising drawbridge as countless fragments of stone rained down like hail.

“Watch out!”

Luckily, Elvire was quick to react, instantly conjuring a flame barrier in front of them to block the falling stones.

“Damn it!” Sean cursed, staring at the road ahead, which had been bent upward into a near-vertical wall.

Fan Ke’er wasn’t killing them or capturing them outright. Instead, he was using these methods to block their escape. To Sean, this was just toying with them—an insult. It was like a hunter teaching its prey which paths were permitted and which were forbidden. ‘He, Carl Black, had been a man of war his entire life! When had he ever been so humiliated?’

“Fan Ke’er, don’t think I can’t do anything to you just because you’re a Grand Mage!” Sean’s eyes flashed with menace. “If you piss me off, believe me, I’ll take you down with me!”

Fan Ke’er laughed. “You?”

“Stop your bluffing.”

“Since you know I’m a Grand Mage, you should understand that I can see every last drop of your Magic Power.”

‘A mere Tier Three wants to take me down with him?’

“Let me rephrase that, then.” As Sean spoke, he gave Elvire and Elise a look, signaling them to find a chance to escape. “Seeing isn’t always believing. What if I told you that this is just a Puppet, and you can’t beat my real self?”

He was trying to lay the groundwork for “logging off.”

But unexpectedly, this one sentence drew out an even more powerful enemy.

A female voice that Sean found all too familiar came from all directions.

“He can’t beat you, but what about me?”

The air in the sky suddenly began to distort.

A woman in a cyan court dress stepped out of the vortex.

Sean and Elise’s eyes widened at the same time.

“Anna?!”

Elise’s mind went completely blank.

First, there was Chris, who was supposed to be dead. Then Fan Ke’er, who should have left Cadola Royal City after his escort mission. And now Anna…

What the hell was going on??

It wasn’t just her; Sean’s mind was also a complete mess.

Appearing anywhere at any time by crossing the void was Space Magic that only someone at least Tier Eight could possibly master. But wasn’t Anna a commoner from Blake City?

How could she possibly be Tier Eight and, even worse, have defected to the Bright King’s Court?

“Who the hell are you?” Sean glared at Anna.

Two Grand Mages, one of them Tier Eight or even stronger. There was no way they were getting out of this today.

He didn’t mind dying, but he had to die with answers.

Sean was furious.

Everything was too much of a coincidence. He suspected Anna had betrayed Blake City, betrayed him and Elise. She must have told Fan Ke’er they were investigating him, which was why they were now caught red-handed.

And just like Sean, Anna was also furious.

‘That bastard still hasn’t recognized me.’

‘God knows what kind of floozies he’s been wasting his time on.’

She looked down on Sean from above and said coldly, “I warned you not to come.”

“I also told you, my name is Anna.”

“Anna, as in Diana.”

As she spoke, Anna’s face began to change, transforming from the young girl Sean had once found merely pretty into the Saintess who now filled his face with terror.

Anna is Diana?!

Sean: “???”