Everyone went inside the ferry’s tearoom, while Eithne went to find Hesata.

After a short explanation, Hesata already understood the situation. He breathed deeply, fatigue instantly disappeared from his face. Looking at him, nobody could relate to the person who was near dead because of seasickness before.

“Listen to me, don’t let temporary emotions control your mind. I know you’re mad but don’t choose violence.” – Hesata sighed. “Think of the consequences.”

When he looked at her dour face, he knew right away that Eithne had been thinking of some bad intentions, probably throwing the Solinue off the ferry.

The priestess nodded, seemingly approved of his advice, but who knew what was inside her head. Hesata suddenly had a headache. Actually, he still felt seasick. He just knew how to hide it well.

‘I need to act fast.’ – Hesata thought. ‘Urgh, I still want to vomit. Cannot supervise her with my current state, but at least I can handle the other side.’

The ‘other side’ meant the Solinue and the Imperial Prince. Hesata frowned.

‘High Priest, I need a raise after this.’

While he was thinking of a strategy, the red-haired priest did not forget to drag Eithne along, just in case she ran off to somewhere that was out of his range.

Eithne did not want to directly face the Solinue anymore so she intended to sneak up somewhere to spy on Alos Solinue, but before she slipped away, Hesata already put a hand on her shoulder.

“Where are you going? Come with me.”

“…”

__

“Your Highness, which good wind brought you here?”

“Priest Ragnar, my respectable hero. How have you been?”

“I have been very well thanks to God's blessing, your Highness.”

“You must be the rumored youngest priest of the War temple’s Warrior faction. Nice to meet you. My name is Alos Solinue. I’ve heard great things about you.”

“Great! It’s completely mutual. Very nice to meet you too!”

“I’m the Duchess of Solinue, Astraea Solinue.”

The reputation of Hesata Ragnar was higher than Eithne Noceur, mostly because he often went outside for the War temple’s missions. Except the Imperial Prince and Rigel Solinue, everybody thought the red-haired priest was Eithne’s superior.

A thought flashed in Azriel and Hesata’s mind. Since the incident of the demonstration battle, news and information about Eithne Noceur was covered by the temple of War. Demir Noceur even asked the Imperial Prince to collaborate. To keep a good relationship with the temple of War, Azriel Daneva had silenced the bodyguards, who had accompanied him that day, with bribes, but the prince knew that the incident had already reached the Queen’s ears. The Queen was silent and did not make any move, indicating the royalty’s cooperative attitude.

As a result, many people only knew that Eithne Noceur was a normal priestess, including Astraea and Rigel. That was why Eithne could freely come to Isny village without any trouble, even after she caused such a fearful incident.

Moreover, the recent bombing incident in the Royal Palace had become a hot topic so people did not notice much about the War temple. Thus, the truth about Eithne Noceur was slowly forgotten.

Hesata Ragnar was a professional talker. Eithne just needed to quietly stand behind and observe everything, secretly admiring his smooth tongue. The original priestess and Eithne were similar, they did not talk much and often handled problems with impatience. On the other hand, Hesata had fire as his spirit element, yet ‘hot-headed’ was barely a word for him.

Eithne did not find it annoying to be misunderstood as a lower- rank priestess than Hesata, instead, she felt lucky because people focused on Hesata, as Eithne had no good word to spare for those Solinue people. Her fist was itching, so she might as well choose violence.

Alos Solinue eagerly talked to the priest of the War temple.

“Esteemed priest, we will hold a party next Saturday in our mansion in Capital, and I’d love it if you could join us.”

Everyone instantly understood that Alos Solinue wanted to form a good relationship with the red-haired priest. However, Hesata shook his head. A vague smile formed on his face.

“I’m sorry but I won’t be staying in the Capital for a long time, so I cannot attend any party.”

“Then when will you be back? We’ll wait for you until then.”

Alos had not given up. Surely, a party would be thrown in the Solinue mansion on whichever day that Hesata returned.

Astraea suddenly felt worried. Though she and Alos were both Solinue, Alos had been the greatest opponent that Astraea ever faced in the competition for Solinue dukedom’s resources. With Rigel, she had Eithne’s support, but Hesata Ragnar had considerably more influence in high society. This red-haired priest was the best student of the Warrior faction Chief of the War temple. He was one of the young, distinguishable figures of the Lumovas Empire, having carried out many missions under Demir Noceur’s name.

‘Eithne Noceur is Hesata Ragnar’s peer, yet Demir Noceur only has Hesata to work under him. It’s evident that Demir favors this young priest more.’ – Astraea thought. ‘He has greater potential than Eithne. I cannot let Alos take all the attention.’

If Hesata could support Astraea, then her seat of Solinue Duchess would be more secured. It also greatly benefited Rigel later when he inherited the dukedom, borrowing the power of the War priest.

If Alos could form a friendship with Hesata Ragnar, then she and Rigel would be in danger.

After a short thought, Astraea curved her eyes. Her beautiful lips formed a smile.

“I believe you’ve met Rigel before. I’d like to invite you to be Rigel’s teacher. What do you think?”

Having heard what Astraea said, Alos frowned. This woman wanted to use the heir of Solinue to get Hesata Ragnar to her side, he clearly knew. Nonetheless, the man quickly hid his dissatisfaction, pretending to look forward to it. Even if Hesata really became Rigel’s teacher, he had some tricks up his sleeves to make this priest one of his supporters.

“Oh, how could I haven’t thought about this! We’d be honored if our esteemed priest becomes Rigel’s instructor.” – Alos said.

Rigel listened to the adults, dumbfounded. Was that man going to teach him swordsmanship? How about Eithne?

Being an instructor of the future Duke was a tempting offer. It was the prestigious position that many aristocrats wished for every night before their sleep.

However, Hesata shook his head again.

“It’s a pity that I have to refuse your offer. I must prioritize our temple’s mission first.”

“Don’t refuse us too quickly. Please think about it again later.”

Astraea already predicted this result. The one working under Demir Noceur must not be a frivolous person who coveted normal fame, still she let him have more time to consider. Who knew he might change his mind later?

“We are always welcoming you, priest Hesata Ragnar.” – said Alos. “By the way, what kind of mission must you travel such a long way to here?” – he asked, trying to gain some information.

Hesata did not answer the question, instead, he turned to the Imperial Prince.

“Your Highness, are you coming to Kole fort as well?”

Azriel was having fun watching two Solinue people fighting each other in the dark, he did not expect that Hesata would make him lead this conversation too quickly. The Imperial Prince nodded.

“I’m coming to Kole to learn.”

He said, then pointing to his two bodyguards standing behind.

“These are two mages coming from The Royal Mages faction to help Kole fort.”

A woman and a man stepped up. They both wore ivory-colored robes and held long staffs in their hands.

“Hello. I’m Evie, a mage from the Royal Mages faction.”

“And I’m Liam. Nice to meet you all.”

Their staffs were made of precious materials like white crystal that shone beautifully in the dark. Each detail of decoration on the staffs was top-notch intricate – one had a lion head, one had an eagle head – which had mana light constantly flowing inside. The staffs were objects indicating the mages’ prestige, as well as showing off the royalty’s wealthiness.

The mages were absolutely highest ranked. Hesata could sense their mana's fluctuation being five times stronger than all the guards of Solinue - meaning the two mages were five times stronger than Solinue's elite guards!

Rigel looked at the beautiful staffs in bewilderment. There were mages in the Solinue mansion as well, but their staffs were hardly as ravishing as these mages’ staffs. Many poor mages could only use wooden sticks to cast spells, thus deduction in power’s effectiveness.

“Wow, these staffs are so pretty! Are you going to be a mage as well, Azriel?”

The young boy asked. There were stars of admiration blooming in his eyes.

Azriel scratched his head.

“Uh… yeah. I think becoming a mage is more suitable to me than swordsmanship…”

“Then, can I see your staff?”

A prince’s staff should be even more dazzling than those mages’ staff. Rigel eagerly looked at Azriel, but the Imperial Prince’s expression was a bit off.

“Of course… The Queen made it for me herself.” – Azriel said.

Other people became extremely curious. The Queen crafted a staff for the young prince herself! They wanted to see what it looked like too.

However, the prince cut down their excitement.

“It’s a precious gift so I’ll show it to you later, Rigel. I’m tired now, let’s have dinner.”

Azriel knew Rigel could not keep his secret for long, so he decided to stop this conversation’s development. The Solinue people were a bit disappointed, but they could not boldly ask the prince to show his staff.

Looking at the sky, it was already dark, a perfect time for dinner.

Everybody headed to the dining room after the prince.

_

Eithne did not join the dinner. She silently walked to the ship deck.

Hesata saw the priestess leaving but he did not stop her. He had to attend the dinner with the Imperial Prince as the representative of the War temple.

Moreover, his stomach was still churning. The deck must be more unstable than inside the ship, if Hesata went out, he might puke.

Looking at Eithne’s back, the Ragnar priest murmured.

“Eithne, you’re the only hound in the pack that Demir couldn’t control…”

Demir Noceur gave them - the orphans- a home for a sole reason: become his hands. Hesata had become the High Priest’s dog to repay the favor, but Eithne seemed to stray away from the pack…

“But sometimes the collar needs to be loosened…”

A slight smirk twisted on his lips, Hesata glanced at the lone priestess. Her tall figure entered the blue sunset in the wide sky, becoming a part of the invading darkness from the earth.

He was not worried about Eithne. Demir told him to find out about Eithne’s source of power, not observing her every second. Although Hesata was seasick that he could not supervise her, it was a part of the plan.

He was fishing for something bigger.

Eithne’s guard should drop gradually when he was unable to follow her. She would move more freely.

Later when he pulled back the fishing rod, or the leash, the lone hound should have enough time to bite a bigger prey, surprising him.

In the deep crimson eyes of Hesata Ragnar, there was a burning ember which hid itself under a stack of cold firewood. It was unpredictable which branch of firewood was going to be touched by the fire first…

Eithne stepped on the wooden floor of the ship deck. The winds were getting colder as the ship was closer to the northern land. Her hair was blown messily in the breaths of air.

Darkness rose again. It was an infinite cycle of life. The sun went up and down so many times that it was taken for granted. The moon showed itself, but its light was so weak that the road ahead was barely visible in normal people’s eyes.

A dense humidity swirled in the atmosphere. Everything was dull and dark. Unattractive night scenery disappointed several tourists, so they gradually returned inside the ship for the exuberant buffet dinner. Soon, harmony melodies were played by musicians in the ferry’s large cabin. Warm light escaping from the windows made the ship look like a floating golden lantern on the river.

Nonetheless, Eithne was not affected by the joyous sounds inside. She was just staring at the murky river water.

Hesata’s little plan… How could she not know? Eithne sighed.

Hesata Ragnar understood Eithne Noceur most, likewise, no one could know Hesata Ragnar better than Eithne Noceur.

‘… But I’m not Eithne Noceur.’

The priestess smiled feebly. This secret, she wanted to hide it until she lay under her grave. No one should know the truth.

“It seems like I couldn’t stay in the War temple longer…”

Since the day she discovered that Demir and Hesata were keeping her under their surveillance, she had been insecure. She would often open all of her nine eyes – the ‘cameras’ that watched others’ movement.

The eighth eye had been observing Hesata for a long time.

The second eye was watching Demir Noceur, but due to the far distance, its function was disabled. She could not see him through this eye anymore.

Opening ‘cameras’ would wear down Eithne’s mental power quickly, if not, she would have spied on them every day.

‘Until now, I can only see through five eyes. From left to right, the first one is the front view, the seventh one is the back view. The second and the eighth eyes can be used to watch different people. The fifth eye only sees Raphael. The rest are disabled.’

There was a three-by-three screen appearing in front of Eithne. She had been practicing a lot to identify the function of each eye, though she was not sure why they distributed like that. The fifth eye had only worked twice when she met Raphael. There were four eyes that were deactivated, their role was unknown.

Eithne leaned on the cold metal handle. A spirit flew up and landed on her shoulder.

“Is it him?” – She asked.

The spirit nodded strongly. It said something more in the spirit's language, but she did not really care. Her suspicion was confirmed – Alos Solinue had been in the Isny forest, witnessed by the forest spirit of Isny.

The spirit opened its mouth. A man’s voice eerily came out from its neck.

‘Ha! That wench thought if she could find the heir back, then we can’t take the duke position.’

‘You are too noisy.’

‘…’

The voice was croakier than Alos’s voice that Eithne heard this afternoon, but the spirit did not point the wrong person. It could differentiate a person based on their smell and many other aspects. Alos Solinue was definitely the culprit behind the assassination of Rigel Solinue. And the spirit was replaying the voice recording just to give more proof to the allegation.

Eithne was watching Alos Solinue eating with other people through her second ‘camera’. After the confirmation of the spirit, she closed all nine eyes.

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No need to watch anymore.

Malice swirled up in her mind.

“Tsk.”

Alos Solinue… a weakling, just one smack and he was done for. His bodyguards? Needless to say, they were also like thin papers. Solinue’s guards could not stop her, neither did the royalty’s mages.

They were all weak.

However, it was so close yet so far.

Hesata would not let Eithne simply kill an aristocrat right before his eyes. And Demir Noceur, he would not stand still either. After killing Alos, Eithne was not sure that she could survive the next day if the High Priest was determined to make her pay for the murdering crime.

The safest way was to reveal Alos’s crime to the world so that the royalty would execute him.

“But it isn’t my style.”

Too humanitarian.

If Eithne could not kill the culprit by her own hand, she could not sleep peacefully.

Also, Alos was not the only one that Eithne wanted to kill.

“All involved people should die as well…”

Her voice was cold like it came from the abyss. It felt like her throat was thirsty for blood as well.

Darkness gradually seeped in her eyes. She was still staring at the murky water, as if there was a treasure box lying on the river’s bed.

The spirit could sense her mood. Its wings trembled in excitement. The power of dark was like a drug that it was addicted to, causing the creature to feel a bit bloodthirsty.

After a while, Eithne finally looked up at the sky. A piece of pale moon and several twinkling stars were just a small part of the wide sky. She could not see any way on the ground since it was dark, but she could still see the open space on her head.

“I don’t believe that I can’t find a place to live in this wide world.”

Sooner or later, she would betray the temple of War. It was an inevitable outcome. The temple was like a chain that tied her down, but she did not like to be controlled by them. She was not Eithne Noceur, she had no bond with this place. Someday, she would leave for further lands and water.

Cold winds continued to pass by her. What humans desired did not matter to them, they would continue to blow for many next centuries, even if the human turned into dust in the flow of time.

It was uncertain how long Eithne had been standing on the ship deck.

Until dark clouds covered the far horizon, and lightning flashed, she had not left.

What was beyond the muddy water, no one knew, but Eithne was looking for a way in the least expected place. She was staring at the river again, until she saw a small boat lunging forward to keep up with the large ferry’s speed.

On the deck of the small boat, there stood a man holding a large cider mug. Meeting Eithne’s gaze, the man smirked, raising his mug to her.

“Ha!”

A corner of Eithne’s mouth twitched.

Even if the man was burnt into ashes, she could still recognize him.

Wearing a brown Breton cap to cover his white hair, he held down the big scarf wrapping around his neck. His loose jacket was blown backward like a cape in the strong gales.

“All important figures are gathered here.”

The male lead, the female lead, the prince, the villains.

Eithne smiled dryly.

Raphael Ascian sipped the hot drink in his mug, comfily squinting his eyes. The man waved at the priestess, inviting her to come down.

Eithne took a quick glance to check on Hesata. Then she stepped on the deck’s handle and jumped to the small boat.

Her figure landed lightly on the floor like a graceful leopard. The boat heaved weakly under her weight.

“Hello, Saint Raphael.”

The Saint sat down on a wooden recliner, hugging the warm mug in his lab. The face behind the scarf was tranquil, as he knew the guest could easily come and go from the ferry to his humble boat.

“Haven’t seen you for a while, priestess Eithne. Please, take a seat.”

The priestess did not sit right away. She glanced around the boat. It was similar to most small fishing boats, which were full of fishing tools like nets and rods. There were two sailors in the cabin, they must be Raphael’s underlings.

Eithne took a chair and sat opposite to Raphael.

“Say the main point.”

Suddenly, the man’s gentle lips bloomed into a smile. The smile was as sweet as sugarcane.

He did not seem like a shining angel that she usually felt, more like a real mortal with sincere feelings. It was an affable beauty that made people unconsciously drunk.

“Don’t be so grim.”

Raphael chuckled.

“It’s nothing. I just want to invite you here for dinner. You’ve stood outside for quite a long time, so I guess you haven’t eaten?”

Eithne squinted her eyes. It was clear that this man had been watching her. Nonetheless, she accepted his invitation. She had just remembered that she really had forgotten the dinner buffet for being occupied with her thoughts. Raphael’s intention was suspicious, but the priestess did not think deeper. ‘That man would reveal his goal eventually, wouldn’t he?’

Raphael stepped inside the boat’s cabin. After a few minutes, he brought out a big fish with a mini cooker.

The man took a kitchen knife, skillfully scaling and eviscerating the fish. One sailor helped him carry the vegetables. Raphael threw the ingredients in the air and wielded the knife in his hand at a speed of lightning. After a few seconds, all vegetables were finely chopped.

Eithne observed the prestigious Saint handling the raw material in bewilderment.

‘Is he cooking? Cooking right here??? But why?’

Her jaw dropped. The fact that a villain cooked dinner out of nowhere had sent her mind into the sea of incomprehension. Furthermore, his blade skill was impressive. It was artistic yet perfectly accurate. Every piece of ingredients was cut equally, even the original priestess Eithne Noceur could not reach this level.

“What in the world…?” – Eithne gasped. ‘Is he trying to threaten me somehow?’

Raphael maintained his smiling face. He beheaded the fish and placed the fish’s head in a soup pot along with chopped vegetables. The remaining fish body was placed on a grill mesh.

Eithne clicked her tongue. As the soup boiled, she could already smell the delicious food.

‘I hope he won’t poison me…’

__

The priestess drank the soup.

“Not bad.” – She said.

The taste was good, more importantly, not poisonous.

‘It’ll be better if it’s spicy.’ – Eithne thought.

The white-haired man was also satisfied with his work. When his stomach was filled, Raphael finally had the mood to talk about important things.

“We’ve found traces of monster’s food in the ship of Quenaz diplomats. Your intelligence has alerted and helped us greatly. Thank you.”

“Monster’s food?” - Eithne asked.

It was the first time she had heard of this term. The original priestess knew that monsters ate almost all living things. They usually liked fresh blood, but some termites-like monsters munched on woods and mana rocks.

“Monster’s food is a special kind of drug invented by Quenaz’s chemists. It contains high nutrition which is suitable for any kind of monster. Most importantly, it causes addiction.” – Raphael explained. “It’s Quenaz’s special method of taming monsters.”

“Are they going to sell the monster’s food to Lumovas?”

“No, not at all.” – Raphael shook his head. “They carried a large amount of monster’s food to Lumovas’s harbor, but they hid it and never asked to import.”

The guy stopped talking to chew the grilled fish, then he continued.

“So I guess that they might dump the monster’s food along the sea route that they wanted to sell us. To attract monsters.”

“Will it cause a monster's temporary rehabilitation? Since they could be addicted to the drug and wouldn’t leave.” – Eithne caught the key point.

Raphael nodded.

“Yes, most likely. Quenaz has monster’s food to calm the monsters down, but we don’t. Black markets aren’t selling those foods because the Quenaz royalty has cut every transporting line within the country. Therefore, the sea monsters will attack us instead.”

“So what’s your purpose in coming to the North?” – Eithne asked.

Instead of learning more about Quenaz’s plan, she would rather know what Raphael was up to. She was curious – why the villain would fight for this country.

“It’s reported that the northern sea monsters moved away from their homeland, most likely because Quenaz’s spies had done something. I want to check it with my eyes.”

Raphael said. His words seemed truthful.

‘It’s similar to my mission!’ – Eithne thought, rolling her eyes.

“Then we’ll meet each other again soon.”

The priestess drank another bowl of fish soup. Suddenly, she sensed an approaching mana wave. Eithne glanced at the river. There was something swimming fast to their boat like a torpedo.

“Do you know that the prince is coming as well?”

Eithne smirked. She did not warn about the unidentified mana fluctuation.

“What? I didn’t know.” – Raphael was surprised, raising his eyebrows. “The Queen covered the news really well.”

He stopped eating and hastily swallowed the food filled in his cheeks. The Saint made an eye signal to Eithne to proceed with the story, completely turning into a gossipmonger.

“It starts with the leaders of Solinue…”

Eithne was talking when a tall figure rose up from the dark water.

Splash!

The wavering lamp on the small boat shone upon the uninvited guests. It was a great serpent with a human riding on its head. Malice flashed in the rider’s eyes.

Clang!

The serpent’s rider drew out their sword. However, their reaction was not as fast as a white object flying toward their head.

Bang!

The object broke apart. It was a clay bowl. The rider staggered and fell back into the river.

SPLASH!

After throwing his bowl away, Raphael stood up and stretched his shoulders. As the serpent lost its commander, the creature growled angrily. It bared the scary white fangs which the poison dripped from its tips.

“Please do me a favor. Protect the soup pot.”

Raphael smirked, then he disappeared in a flash of lightning, leaving Eithne no time to refuse.

Right after he left, the serpent thrusted at the boat. Its black scales were perfectly camouflaged in the dark, making the serpent almost invisible.

BAM!

The serpent’s head struck the nose of the small boat but the boat did not break easily. Magic matrices were activated on the boat’s hull, creating a transparent barrier to prevent the impact from destroying the boat’s structure. However, the boat was still pushed backward a long distance by the serpent.

Splash! Splash!

Two men in black jumped up from the water and landed on the boat. They quickly swung their knives to attack two boat crews. Raphael’s underlings also took out their weapons to fight back. One sailor used a rod to strike on the assassin’s back, while the other sailor threw the small darts to the enemies.

Eithne stood amid the chaos. She felt as if her head had swollen up.

‘I think I understand why Raphael keeps me here all the time…’

Cooking and talking, buying time to keep her here as long as possible… That guy probably knew the assassins were coming, so he wanted to use her strength for this.

The serpent opened its mouth wide and bit on the boat’s barrier. The sharp fangs collided with the barrier’s surface, spreading waves of energy.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The serpent’s poison trickled down on the barrier. The surface of the barrier was gradually eroded away like a piece of tissue meeting water.

Eithne saw the ferry going further away. Her face was calm, but her mind was not. If she stayed still, the ferry would leave her behind.

“Start with you then.”

The priestess said, looking at the fearsome serpent.

Her left hand raised up to the monster’s eye level. Eithne did not defend, instead, she chose attack.

Darkness crawled on her fingers. Her golden eyes became somber as if all the light had disappeared from this world. The dark power then shot into the serpent’s eyes like sharp needles.

GROAR!

The monster roared raucously in pain. Its tail struck the ship hull to push the boat away.

The tiny human’s shadow suddenly became colossal in its mind. The shadow had the shape of a monster that the serpent had never seen before, but the pressure coming from the monster’s shadow was crushing the serpent’s consciousness.

“Submit, - or die!”

Eithne voice was as cold as the abyssal wind, when it reached the serpent’s head, it transformed into a thunderous roar of the shadow monster.

She was using the method of taming spirits on this serpent. The only way that the serpent could survive was to defeat the illusion in its mind or accept the darkness and transform like the spirit of Isny.

Eithne could sense that the serpent was about to surrender. She had never tried taming any other creatures except spirit, so she felt a bit excited. However, Eithne’s excitement could not maintain for long.

As the serpent started to accept the darkness, its body gave up resisting. Suddenly, from deep within its consciousness, a crimson lightning shot out.

The lightning erased all the darkness in one strike.

“Fuck!”

Eithne quickly withdrew her power from the serpent’s mind, but the red lightning continued to chase after.

Between the uppermost layers of clouds, a dense energy tore the space to enter the air. The sky was dyed in the light of blood, countless red lightnings ran across the clouds to gather at one place.

Every creature that stood near Eithne – including two sailors and two assassins – subconsciously kneed down below the immense pressure from the sky.

Only God could possess such power!

A crimson lightning struck down. Even the space was seemingly collapsing around the lightning. It was too fast, Eithne could not avoid it!

BANG!

In a place which was not far away, Raphael frowned when he heard the sound.

‘Something bad is happening.’ – He thought.

Raphael looked at the red lightning. He had never seen such a sight, more importantly, it occurred near his ship. Raphael trusted Eithne to protect the ship, but the current situation had fallen out of his expectation.

Standing opposite from Raphael was a man in black with two large serpents which were similar to the one attacking Eithne. He was the leader of this operation. His mission was to eliminate Quenaz’s threat.

“Let’s end this quickly.”

Raphael turned his head to face the assassin.

The assassin smirked.

“Why’s that? I haven’t played enough.”

They had been fighting for a while. Raphael’s lightning was dangerous, but it was not strong enough to injure the assassin and the serpents. However, there was also a probability that Raphael was not attacking with full strength.

The assassin watched Raphael in highest alertness. He had to be careful not to be caught, if he was held hostage, the assassin would commit suicide to protect Quenaz’s secret.

The white-haired man stepped up. When the assassin was preparing for another destructive blow of lightning, Raphael flexed his right hand’s fingers as if he was grabbing something, then his left hand swept across the air.

A jade green blade appeared out of nowhere. It was a long one-edged sword, but the blade seemed to be unstable like an illusion.

The man lunged forward at the assassin and serpents, silently passing them.

It was not violent and thunderous like he always did. After that, Raphael disappeared in a flash of lightning, running to his boat without looking back.

“What?”

The assassin was dazed.

“Have I been fooled by that bastard’s trick?”

He was safe and so did the serpent. But when they tried to move, their bodies were separated into two parts, falling all over onto the ground…

_

In a ferry’s cabin, Hesata woke up from his sleep.

“Thunder?” – He frowned.

The priest took out a small stone from his bag. The yellow stone was gleaming gently in the dark. It was a part of Eithne’s stone seal in the War temple which had her soul’s mark. The stone did not have any crack, indicating she was still alive.

“Meh, Imma go back to sleep.”

_

On the peak floor of the Lumovas Imperial Palace, a beautiful woman kicked the blanket and jumped out of her bed.

Her hair was like a bird nest, but the Queen did not care. She squinted her eyes, looking in a particular direction from her bedroom’s window.

“God…” – The woman murmured.

Not anyone could feel the presence of God, only those chosen by God could. However, if a person was as strong as the gods, they could feel it as well.

Next to her bed was a glass tank where a golden snake peaked its head up to look in the same direction as the Queen.

The Queen grabbed its neck.

“Come with me.”

Then the woman tore the space and walked inside the chaotic spatial crack, bringing the golden snake along. She did not even bother to draw a teleporting magic matrix, since it would take too much time.

…

On the small boat, four people looked at the big hole on the ship’s deck in fright.

A woman used to stand here, but a crimson lightning suddenly struck her. The lightning also penetrated the boat, but the magic matrices on the boat had quickly covered the hole to stop water from flowing in.

The huge serpent leaned its head on the ship’s bow. It had been long dead, blood and poison were trickling down from its mouth and eye sockets.

Two assassins reacted first. They thrust their knives to the sailors. The sailors flinched and continued to fight, but the enemy’s surprise attack had caused injuries on their skin. Poison started to invade their bodies.

The sailors quickly drank the healing potions. The poison was stopped, but the injuries did not heal.

Clearly, the assassins were priests.

Crack!

“Shit!” – A sailor shouted.

His steel rod was destroyed by the knife in the hand of the assassin. That knife continued to cut through his ribs, almost damaging his organs.

The other sailor withdrew next to the injured man. She threw one more dart to draw the assassin’s attention, then pulled her peer to run inside the ship’s cabin.

In the flowing water of Marah river, Eithne was trying to swim up to the surface. There was a violent energy running inside her blood veins, her skin was heated up to the point that the surrounding water was constantly evaporating.

“Fuc… Uc Uc… ck…!”

Why did things turn out like this?

Why did it never occur when she tried on spirits?

The priestess used all of her strength to gather mana to lift her body from the river. She crawled on the boat again, scaring both the sailors and enemies.

Eithne could not think much. Her skin was instantly dried as she left the water. Sparks of red electricity ran down her skin, destroying her blood veins inside.

The red lightning was similar to Raphael’s power, but Eithne felt it was even more dangerous as her consciousness could not maintain sober. Her darkness was fighting back the violent power as much as possible, but Eithne knew she would faint soon.

‘But before I faint…’

The priestess fiercely kicked to the nearest assassin’s ribs. Like a released beast, she grabbed his neck and smashed it onto the deck’s handle.

BAM!

A part of red electricity transferred into the assassin. He tried to scream but his neck was already burnt.

The other assassin quickly lunged forward with his knives. The knives were able to break the steel rod, yet when they collided with Eithne’s arm, sparks of fire flew out as if he was cutting a rock surface.

Eithne Noceur’s defense was scarily high because she used the Earth element. It was also the reason why she could withstand the destructive lightning longer than normal people.

The priestess did not dodge, her hand grabbed directly onto the assassin’s knife. Red electricity ran from her hand and jumped on the next victim.

“Argh!”

The red lightning instantly blew off his hand, even burning all of his spurting blood. The assassin decisively turned back to run away. He knew he could not defeat this woman, so he chose to abandon the mission.

“Shit I’m at my limit…” – Eithne murmured.

The flesh on her body started to burst. Blood was dripping down her eyes so she could not see the assassin’s back clearly, her vision was fading away. All she could see was the unceasing crimson color – the color of the scary punishment from the God above.

She regretted it so bad. She should not have been curious about testing the ability of the dark power. With the original priestess strength, Eithne could have handled all of this easily.

Who knew that only a simple trip to drink some fish soup would be this dangerous?

Before Eithne’s eyelids were completely closed, she saw a white blob coming close.

“Damn you Raphael…”