“What are you thinking about?” Mary asked, blinking at the demon.

Tafel was staring off into the distance as if she could see beyond the webs and trapped insects inside. “Volearden and Malvina went through to the insects’ territory to deal with the princess bug.”

“You’re worried about them?” Mary asked.

Tafel blinked and looked at Mary. “Worried? Not really,” she said and shook her head. “If they weren’t confident, they wouldn’t have charged out like that.” A sigh escaped from Tafel’s lips. “If I could turn myself into flames like other phoenixes, I could ignore physical attacks, and I’d be the one capturing the princess bug.”

“And you can’t show off your innate talent here either because you’ll set the web on fire,” Mary said before nodding. The red-haired woman’s eyes narrowed as she lowered her voice. “Do you want to capture the princess bug with me? If we work together, I’m sure we can do it.”

Tafel’s horns glowed silver, and a portal appeared in front of her. A deafening drone rang out of the portal, causing both women to squint and take steps back. Within the portal, there were a countless number of massive insects, but they weren’t able to pass through the portal since Tafel made it tiny. Tafel squinted and pointed her finger at the portal, concentrating on the tip of her finger. A red flame burst into existence. It turned blue, then white, before finally vanishing from view.

Mary leaned over to get a better view. Heat assaulted her face, the sweat on her brow evaporating. The bugs droned even louder as they were burnt and sliced apart by an invisible, concentrated flame shooting out of the portal. One bug even swallowed the portal, giving Mary and Tafel a good view of its interior—a good view they did not want to see. Luckily, it was burnt apart by the flames quickly, revealing the beautiful scenery of bugs behind the curtain of guts and blood.

“Yeah…,” Tafel said, her brow furrowing. She couldn’t even identify the ground because the rift was in the air, only accessible to flying insects. “I don’t think I want to go out there.” She tilted her head before retrieving a seat from her root bracelet. She also opened another portal and took out her staff. “If I open enough portals, maybe I’ll get lucky and find the princess bug.”

Mary stood next to Tafel’s chair, and the demon took out a second seat. “I’ll help,” the black-armored woman said and placed her hand on her sword’s hilt as she took a seat.

“Thanks,” Tafel said as the scenery behind her portal disappeared. She squinted, and it reappeared with a different sight. “It’d be nice if these bugs were labeled. How’re we supposed to tell which one is the princess?”

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***

Ouyang Feng held his shield out and braced himself. The severed hand slapped against the metal, and the Martial Lord’s bones ached as strong vibrations traveled up his fingers, through his body, and down to his toes. He gritted his teeth and pushed back, shoving the floating hand away from his shield before stabbing it with a knife he held with his other arm.

The knife struck the hand, and the metal shattered upon impact, causing Ouyang Feng’s expression to darken. As a lord of the tower, his weapons weren’t cheap, and the materials often had to be sourced by himself to create them. Now, his best knife had been destroyed, and there wasn’t even a wound on the severed hand to show for it. Ouyang Feng narrowed his eyes as strength flowed through his body; his attack had enraged the severed hand even further, triggering his innate ability.

The severed hand balled up into a fist, and a dark-red aura appeared around it like burning flames; the aura was so dark it was nearly black. The fist drew back as if someone were controlling it to move to their waist, and with an explosive movement, the fist punched Ouyang Feng’s shield. The Martial Lord’s eyes widened as his feet left the ground while his body flew backwards. His shield shattered during the flight, and he crashed into a building, creating a perfect body-sized niche in the wall. Evidently, his opponent also became stronger when it was angry, even more so than his innate ability.

The severed hand turned into a blur as it flew towards the crowd of people, following a trajectory as if someone was running. Kim Hajun’s brow furrowed. It wasn’t just him who hadn’t had enough time to grow; Ouyang Feng was definitely weaker compared to how he was within the prophetic dream. He couldn’t even properly block one of the severed hand’s normal attacks.

“Alright,” Kim Hajun said. “It’s difficult for Ouyang Feng to block the Oebu Sin’s attacks by himself. The Frost Lord and Shadow Lord will have to step in and help him. The Frost Lord should keep Diamond Ice between the Oebu Sin and Ouyang Feng, and if the severed hand switches targets, the Shadow Lord will have to mask the new target’s presence—make sure Ouyang Feng is the most appealing target.”

“Got it,” the Frost Lord said and made his way to Ouyang Feng’s side.

The Shadow Lord nodded and spread out his arms. His shadow expanded and encompassed the group of people, causing the severed hand to falter on its way over. After a second, the hand turned around and flew towards Ouyang Feng once more, following the same looping trajectory.

“The rest of you,” Kim Hajun said. “I had you bring all your consumable spell scrolls to improve Ouyang Feng’s defense and decrease the Oebu Sin’s power and speed. As for damaging the Oebu Sin, we’ll have to leave it to Ashley.”

Everyone turned to look at the Light Lord, and she nodded with a blank expression. “I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee I’ll succeed.”

“Don’t worry,” Jasmine said. “Even if you fail, Lindyss will step in and clean up our mess.”

“Yeah, at the cost of Kim Hajun’s soul,” Gaegukja Yeol said, causing everyone to peek at Lindyss. “That’s why we’re fighting the severed hand first.”

Jasmine shrugged. “I’m not sure about you guys, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”