Six hours.

It only took six hours to turn Green City into ash. Now there were only four hours left before reinforcements came. Everything was starting to reach its peak.

The light of day finally showed up, it was dawn. The raging fire outside the city was still continuing on, still spreading seeds of destruction everywhere. Sunlight only lightened the city only a tiny bit, replacing the Holy Fire that raged and ate everything in its path.

Without hesitation, the Fanged Lioness brought most of the mercenaries on her side to go forward. Their path was clear of obstruction, only showing ash particles being blown away as they ran past it.

No bodies remained, no debris remained, only ashes. The once rancid smell of rotting corpses and blood-stained streets was no more, only the smell of ash remained.

They couldn’t hide anymore they finally had to face Higher Deacon Raxor while being buffed by the God’s Domain.

The Fanged Lioness saw the small army of a mere few hundred still trying to protect that effigy. These inquisitors were trying to protect the very same thing that caused countless of their companions to die. It was a really twisted scene.

“You and Raxor! What else do you have to gain?!” The Fanged Lioness bellowed out an earth-shattering scream, making sure the enemy heard her.

Yio narrowed his eyes, it wasn’t supposed to end like this. It wasn’t even supposed to be this cruel. Their initial plan was to slowly integrate the entire city into believing the God of Trials but that sudden initial explosion forced their hands. Especially now that there’s a Holy War happening, it was better to bolster his own power to ensure his own safety.

Yio initially didn’t care about the casualties from the common inquisitors they converted but his own personal army was his core lifeline, their deaths really hurt his own chances of survival.

Higher Deacon Raxor heard about the news of another Holy War coming once more so he decided to join one of the stronger religions. He partnered up with Yio to join their forces to also ensure his own safety. So far, he had been trying to use the trials to bolster his own power but the sudden turn of events really forced his own hand.

Both of them decided to take over and murder an entire city for their own selfish reasons. Unfortunately for them, the very reason why they were put into these dire straits was also because of people who were trying to survive their trials.

Reinhold had to convince people to follow his hands, either by coercion or by threats. He threatened the Fanged Lioness with guild-wide murder by poisoning everyone while he appealed to the humane hearts of Houston and Hannah to follow him.

There were also a few others like Brun who owed his father a favor and those two mercenaries who were lured in by Brun’s words and promises of money.

He did what he had to do. Aya was only a small scheme in comparison, she was being subtly guided into learning about how cruel the world is. He was cultivating her to be Luke’s protector, ever since she acted up when he was testing out the God’s Domain.

He learned the Path of Unity even more in-depth when he realized that the symbols on the scrolls were somehow able to work within the God’s Domain. This was his one core way out, he didn’t even consider the metal cylinder Gerald gave him as his most reliable safety net. Relying on oneself is best.

He learned that symbols had differences and similarities with each other, using this as a basis. He constructed theories upon theories on how these symbols worked and how they related to one another. This knowledge was already known to everyone else since it was being taught all over the place, what he did was nothing special, if he was taught.

What made Reinhold stand out in Houston’s eyes was simply that he managed to figure out the well-known theories all by himself. It was similar to being able to glance at the truth of the world on his own. His situation was similar to how people in the olden days went about it, completely lost but using every clue at their disposal to theory-craft the proper path.

Granted, Reinhold was already given the right direction using the magical scrolls as the basis, it was still an amazing feat considering everything.

Based on Reinhold’s plans and his ability to comprehend complex systems made Houston think highly of Reinhold.

Now the Fanged Lioness was following Reinhold’s reminder.

The Fanged Lioness continued her speech, “Yio, everyone here just wants to live. If you dispel the God’s Domain, we’ll all leave here alive. At least whoever’s left.”

Yio’s eyes glistened with distrust, “Your words don’t hold a lot of weight. You do realize this, right?”

Meanwhile, Higher Deacon Raxor tried to persuade Yio, “Yio, can you still summon it?”

“I can… but I don’t know what I can do with how much I have left.”

“Can you empower me, stronger than right now?”

“I could.”

“Let’s do the deal.”

“Higher Deacon Raxor, I know you want this to stop but we can’t trust them!” Yio had sweat dripping down his face.

“I know we can’t, but we have enough chips to guarantee our safety,” Higher Deacon Raxor was getting more and more impatient with Yio. There were too many times when he just laid back and let him do all the work, now that there was a way for him to start pulling his weight but he’s still refusing.

“Even then I can’t just bring it down. What if they’re trying to lower our guard to burn down the effigy!”

“They’re trying to burn the effigy since they want to get out! If we can end it here, there’s always the future,” Higher Deacon Raxor was trying to rack his brain on how to convince Yio.

“Then… how about this…” Yio leaned closer toward Higher Deacon Raxor and whispered his own plan.

Higher Deacon Raxir was a bit skeptical at first, this was already a decent way to end everything but Yio’s plan was safer for them, relatively.

In the end, Higher Deacon Raxor subtly nodded toward Yio. Their plan was set.

Higher Deacon Raxor raised his voice, strong enough for everyone to hear him, “We’ll compromise but we want to see that red-eyed man first!”

The Fanged Lioness hesitated a bit at their request, “What does that have to do with anything? Who knows if you’ll just go out of your way to kill him? Meeting him doesn’t change anything.”

“I don’t care, we want to negotiate on how this plays out. Bring him here.”

Meanwhile, Yio started to bring out this ‘terror.’ Every mercenary finally felt the bone-chilling sensation coming from where Higher Deacon Raxor and Yio were standing by. Its oppressive feeling, unhindered by the Holy Fire, was finally being felt in its entirety.

“What the hell is that?”

“I’m getting chills from this far away.”

“This is looking bleak.”

Doubts and hesitation finally started to set in the mercenaries’ hearts. They felt a terrible omen of what was to come.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The Fanged Lioness screamed out, “What are you doing?!”

Yio casually replied, “To prepare.”

She couldn’t say anything against this, she had no idea how they could make this unknown entity move. They only knew that Reinhold had any information on it since he immediately ordered everyone to run away the moment, he felt its existence appear.

“We’ll try to find him,” the Fanged Lioness ordered some mercenaries to start searching for Reinhold.

In the midst of this, coins were disappearing from Yio’s pouch leaving it empty.

Yio mentally activated, “Trial of Time. The passing of time changes.”

No one else heard this but himself.

The Fanged Lioness’ sharp senses let her feel that something was amiss, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Regardless, she now had to stay put and wait for results. There might be some new trial that’ll come up but with the protection Reinhold gave them, it should be enough to prevent deaths.

It should be fine.

Everyone felt the complete terror disappear, easing their mental burdens. By their estimations, four hours was enough to find Reinhold and finish up the negotiations. Some mercenaries looked out at the area outside the golden red barrier, smoke was quickly rising to the skies.

Reinhold was taking note of the time left, there were approximately four hours left before reinforcements from either side came. They should have enough time to break apart the God’s Domain.

The mercenaries spread out, trying to find Reinhold. Their searches finally came to a halt when they found Reinhold conjuring odd shapes of different elements, clashing against Houston’s laws. Hannah was still standing by, awaiting Reinhold’s next orders, her gaze still looking at the smoke suddenly increased in speed.

Hannah thought to herself, “That’s odd. Must’ve been the wind.”

One mercenary explained the entire situation to Reinhold, who was sitting down. His crutch was burned away earlier and there wasn’t a suitable replacement. Reinhold asked Hannah to help him up, his leg was still healing, and he couldn’t put any pressure on it unless he wanted to crack his healing bones once more.

With Hannah carrying him, Houston led the charge back to start negotiations. They ran extremely fast, only taking a few minutes to run from the edge of the city to the middle of the city.

“Houston, I feel like there’s something wrong, if there’s anything odd, even slightly, tell me.”

“Got it.”

Hannah kept her weird observations to herself. She felt that she shouldn’t embarrass herself with her delusions.

“If they wanted to dispel the barrier, they would’ve done it already. Meeting up with me has another reason, I just don’t know what that reason is.”

When the trio, accompanied by the rest of the mercenaries finally arrived at the plaza, tensions were high.

Two groups of enemies were facing each other, each one’s intentions unknown. On one hand, were the inquisitors trying to defend the effigy, while the other was trying to burn it, trying to break the God’s Domain. They were finally facing off.

“Yio, Raxor, what’s this about?” Reinhold was being held by Hannah, Houston couldn’t do it since he was a valuable fighting force.

“We want to negotiate with you,” Higher Deacon Raxor was boldly facing against an entire army, the inquisitors by his side were nothing more than dead weight.

“You’re not fooling anyone, if you wanted to take the deal you would’ve already dispelled the barrier,” Reinhold stared directly at Higher Deacon Raxor but his expression was still the same.

“That’s where you’re wrong. Who’s to say you won’t try to kill us when the God’s Domain gets dispelled?”

“Cause we know very well that taking you out isn’t worth the casualties. Fanged Lioness, why did you listen to this nonsense?” Reinhold directed his gaze at the Fanged Lioness who also had thoughts running through her mind.

“I thought it’d be best to comply. The faster it gets done the faster we can get out.”

“Fine. Raxer, what do you want?”

“We would like your entire party to be at the edge of the city. We’ll dispel it by then. You have enough time.”

Something felt wrong with how Higher Deacon Raxor said it. ‘You have enough time.’

At first, this request was extremely reasonable, they wanted to ensure that the enemy was as far away from them as possible. But Reinhold felt like they were up to something, if this was their only request then the Fanged Lioness could’ve finished the deal on her own since he was already on the outskirts.

“What happened here? Tell me everything,” Reinhold looked directly at the Fanged Lioness, despite him still clinging to a young girl for support, the Fanged Lioness did not hold back.

“They brought out that terrifying feeling and used it as leverage to negotiate with you. That’s about it.”

“That’s… it? There’s something missing.”

Reinhold’s thoughts rapidly ran through his mind when he started to think of this entity’s qualities. The first time he experienced this entity, he asked for a wish, and it disappeared. It only reappeared when he was faced with a fatal strike, it disappeared after it did that.

The next time he experienced this creature, Yio summoned it to blow away Holy fire, creating the devastating scene right now. Everything was ash, no flesh nor concrete was left, only ash.

After it blew away the Holy Fire, it disappeared again.

“Fanged Lioness, this is extremely important, I want you to tell me the exact detail, word by word, don’t let a single thing out. This concerns life and death!” Reinhold’s eyes were glaring at her, expressing how serious he was.

“Fine, fine. Let’s see… we offered them the deal just like you said. They then proceeded to talk for a bit and decided to accept the negotiation. They said they could use that entity to empower Raxor to even greater heights. This was their bargaining chip, after saying all that they summoned that creature and then I sent my men to find you. That should be enough.”

“Houston… did you notice anything strange?” Reinhold looked back at Houston, trying to fit the pieces together, he was missing that one vital piece to find out what the enemy was playing.

“I haven’t noticed anything. If they set up a trial it should affect us but so far nothing’s happened.”

“Dammit! What is it?!” Reinhold was looking at the skies, trying to gather all the clues together.

Hannah slightly trembled seeing Reinhold look terrifying. Extremely mad.

“Hannah, do you know anything? Anything at all. It doesn’t matter if you think it's small,” at this point Reinhold was grasping at straws.

“T-There is something…”

“Hmm?”

“The smoke suddenly sped up but it’s probably the wind… forget it I’m just being stupid.”

“Sped… up?” Everything instantly locked together.

Countless clues and information combined into this one plan that the enemy made up. Reinhold immediately brought out a book from his cloak, he immediately willed it to create a massive domain, a domain nullifying the suppression of the God’s Domain.

“Houston! Kill them now! We’re out of time! Dammit! You too Fanged Lioness! Ignore casualties, make sure you keep Yio and Raxor occupied! Hannah, ignore me, try to set the effigy on fire, and kill everyone who stands in your way! This is life and death! Move!” Reinhold shouted out all at once, his voice reached out to everyone in the vicinity.

Houston slightly narrowed his eyebrows at Reinhold’s commands. Other than the people who knew Reinhold personally, everyone else thought he was a complete madman.

The Fanged Lioness was a bit baffled, “Reinhold, why? There’s no need to take drastic actions anymore, besides they can still summon that entity, this is basically suicide. I don’t under-“

“Shut up! They can’t summon the entity anymore! Burn the effigy down or we all die! Move!” Reinhold’s extremely oppressive mastery over the Eminence controlling the book made everyone subconsciously fear him.

Higher Deacon Raxor finally had a bead of sweat flow down from his forehead, “Red-eyes! What are you doing?! What about our-“

“Houston! What are you doing?! You said you wanted me to save everyone, right? Then do what I say!” Reinhold proceeded to summon an odd ball of iron, he made a winding motion and threw it directly toward Yio.

This ball of iron had an extremely odd property, it was as if it didn’t collide with anything mortal, it only stopped when it met with Yio’s barrier, it was as if it didn’t exist in the first place. Its path was straight, as if it was unaffected by gravity, being its own being. Everything that this ball of iron went through disappeared as if it turned into nothingness.

This ball of iron pierced through twenty inquisitors, some through their hearts, some through their arms, one person even had his head pierced through due to his short stature. It was a completely unexpected attack from a very unexpected person.

Reinhold drew first blood.

Houston saw Reinhold take action and realized that there really was something wrong. He summoned his Law of Madness. Shadowy hands started to swarm the area around his feet. He dashed through the inquisitors immediately going for Higher Deacon Raxor, clashing against his golden-red seven-fingered hand.

Reinhold’s artificial domain was using his father’s book as the catalyst, unfortunately, even though it could remove the suppressive effect of the God’s Domain, he still couldn’t remove the buffing effect of it.

Reinhold glared at the Fanged Lioness, she felt an unbearable chill down her spine, it wasn’t fear for this person but fear that she may die if she went against him. It was completely unreasonable, she was already much stronger than Reinhold but that lingering fear still existed.

She summoned her of Law of Iron, a silvery mist gathered around her, strengthening her body to its limits. She ran through the inquisitors as if they were blades of grass, completely unable to stop her path. Her steps only left behind blood and guts, bringing the color red back into the city once more.

The Fanged Lioness immediately headed straight for Yio, trying to forcefully bring him down and wrest that ceremonial sword away from him.

The mercenaries followed suit, although they couldn’t affect the higher-tier battles, dealing with the inquisitors would be enough. Some could summon their own laws but it could barely affect anything other than being stronger than a normal person. Their mastery and comprehension were leagues below the Fanged Lioness and Houston.

Hannah had already blended into the shadows. She still hasn’t awakened her law, but that didn’t mean that her Eminence was weak. Her talent, her Eminence, revolved around stealth so she went away, biding her time to strike.

Everyone was starting to take their place in this final battle. The final battle for survival.

On the horizon, two different armies came from two opposite directions. Oddly enough, they were both extremely geared. Both raised two different flags, one side had the symbol of the sun and moon, while the other side had the symbol of a cross piercing a circle.

Time left… 40 minutes…