thefictionvixens Page 205
Page 205
"Awaken the divine magic of the 'Shield' to protect you..."
Before the voice could finish speaking, a man also wearing a black top hat appeared at the end of the road and loudly stopped him:
"Hey, you over there, stop! This old man wants to join the Holy Church too!"
"Yes, yes, I'll join, I'll join..." The old villager clutched his chest and abdomen, rolled over a couple of times, and breathed heavily for a while before speaking with difficulty.
“I see. Please get up, sir.” The man in the top hat smiled and stopped the Grando couple, then straightened up and watched the old villager slowly get to his feet.
"I can't protect anything..."
Leafa watched helplessly as these people in black hats seemed like a group of demons looking down on and toying with the villagers, bewitching and enticing them until they had taken all their souls.
She followed the three men in a daze, and just as she took a step, suddenly, the old villager, clutching his stomach, hunched over, and panting heavily, pounced on the man in the top hat, grabbed his neck tightly, and screamed shrilly at the Grandu couple:
"Run!"
"Get out!" The man in the top hat struggled violently, his knee slamming into the old villager's abdomen. The old villager was thrown up, but his hands remained firmly entrenched in the man's neck like withered tree roots. He endured the repeated blows of the hard knee, gasping for breath like a parched pump, blood mixed with fragments dripping from his mouth. His eyes were barely open, and he could only mumble curses:
"A bunch of bastards dare to call themselves a holy religion..."
boom!
The old villager suddenly stiffened and became motionless. The man in the top hat kicked him, but his own neck was nearly snapped by the withered hands. He cursed and pulled away the hands that were holding his neck, and the old villager fell to the ground.
Leafa then noticed a small hole in the old villager's chest, with slight burn marks indicating that it was a magical wound. She felt a pang of sorrow, but when her gaze shifted to the man in the top hat, it suddenly turned icy.
The once-smooth black top hat was now covered in dust and wrinkled. The man in the top hat touched the wound on his neck and let out an unbearable cry of pain. His face was covered in the blood spat out by the old villager, and it was all scrunched up, making him look disheveled and cowardly.
The Grando couple looked panicked. For a moment, they seemed to be stunned by the audacity of the act, and hesitated for a moment, not even daring to go up and help the old villager.
Leafa's inner voice gradually subsided, transforming from a restless impulse to erupt into a profound sense of confusion and contemplation.
What should I protect...? What can I protect?
She lowered her eyes and looked at the old villager's eyes wide with fury. For some reason, in her extremely chaotic heart, a kind of lofty faith, so broad that she could not summarize it into any specific meaning, began to fill her.
"Leaf, come quick!"
As if her own voice had suddenly called out from afar, Leafa raised her head, her gaze passing directly over the three people waiting ahead, and looking towards the distant mountains.
She vaguely sensed that a vast and boundless light was watching over her.
……
……
"I am Viscount Bernard's daughter, how dare you arrest me!"
Bound by binding magic, Gita was led to a group of working civilians. A man wearing a black felt hat threw her to the ground and said with a sneer:
"You know what, you really do know, it was indeed Viscount Bernard who ordered all the townspeople to be arrested."
"Wha, what?"
The binding magic on Geeta gradually dissipated, and she quickly scrambled to her feet, rushed forward, grabbed the man in the felt hat by the collar, and shouted:
"what is going on?!"
The man in the felt hat frowned as he looked at Geeta's hand clutching his collar. After a bright flash of lightning, Geeta cried out in pain, clutching her charred left hand and collapsing to the ground, tears instantly streaming down her face.
"The Viscount has given the order!" The man in the felt hat ignored Gita and shouted as he circled the huddled, trembling civilians:
"The Black Hat Cult has identified an unexplored mithril mine forty miles northeast of our Ridge Rock Town. You are hereby ordered to complete your current tasks and depart immediately to mine the vein for the Viscount. No desertion is permitted; otherwise…"
He pointed to Nia, who was about to be whipped not far behind him, and sneered.
"Nia!"
Geeta screamed and jumped up, ignoring the pain in her hand, and gritted her teeth as she rushed over.
Snapped!
The whip's tail, sharp as steel, lashed against Gita's palm. Her eyes turned red, and tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. She endured the pain in her hand and roared:
"let go!"
The executioner stumbled, and Gita snatched the whip from his hand. He was shocked and tried to grab it back, but his legs trembled involuntarily, his steps faltered, and he stopped.
With a powerful throw, Gita tossed the whip more than ten meters away. She helped Nia up, watching the overseers closing in on her in the distance. Enduring a pain and grievance she had never felt before, she shouted:
"Where is the Viscount? I need to see him!"
"Oh? You want to see the Viscount?" The man in the felt hat approached slowly, scrutinized Geeta's ordinary coarse cloth training clothes and her body devoid of any magical energy, and shook his head, saying:
"Of course he'll come. He'll naturally appear when it's time to depart. But before that, don't waste your time struggling, huh? Hahahaha..."
"it is good!"
Geeta glared at the surrounding overseers, roaring like a threatened lion cub. Then, pulling Nia along, she walked to a pile of wheat, picked up a sack of fine wheat, and headed towards the wagon waiting to be loaded.
"Turns out he's just an ill-mannered brat."
"Hehe, I thought there was something serious going on. Let's go, let's go."
The overseers returned to their positions with relaxed smiles, watching Geeta's movements with great interest from afar.
"...Is that Miss Geeta?"
"She deserves to suffer like this!"
"Bernard certainly didn't expect his own daughter to be arrested too. Bah! No one escapes the judgment of heaven!"
The whispers of the common people made Geeta feel uneasy. She wanted to talk to Nia, but found that Nia had already run away to another work site.
Gita subconsciously pursed her lips, sniffed, and tossed the wheat into the carriage.
Everyone is targeting me...
Gita thought to herself, feeling wronged. She walked back to the haystack in silence and suddenly saw a small dog hiding in the corner, staring at her with its dark eyes. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Wright, who had run away in fright when she was captured earlier.
"Wright, what exactly happened?"
She sighed, calmed herself down, glanced at Wright again, gritted her teeth, picked up the second sack of fine wheat, and turned to walk towards the carriage.
Although the afternoon was sunny, her heart was gradually filled with gloom.
Chapter 218 How Divine Arts Are Created
What are we fighting for?
"For a goal."
"What goal?"
"No one is anymore a target of oppression based on identity and status."
……
Torso's mind echoed with similar conversations. He glanced at the civilians fleeing towards Listening Wind Terrace for refuge amidst the chaos of battle, sighed softly, and murmured:
"Your Excellency, you're lying to me... How could you lie to me?"
He looked up at Latis and Jennifer, who were standing in a pincer-like formation on the street in front of him. He smiled bitterly, took off the badge from his chest, stared at it for a long time, until his hands began to tremble slightly, before closing his eyes and throwing it to the ground.
"So, the so-called shared ideals were just a more sophisticated form of deception. How come I only realized it now..."
"Lord Torso, you must have some troubles you're facing. Tell us, and we can help you!"
Latis's voice reached his ears, and Torso lightly flicked his longsword, saying:
"There's no point in saying more, let's just fight."
Magic surged violently in his hands, revealing the information of the spell that was about to take shape to Latis.
[Sixth Ring Folk Magic - Wind Blade Barrier]
[Black Bread Tomato Soup (Torso) #Online]
Latis looked at the prompt in front of him and tacitly agreed, knowing that for someone like Torso, once he decided to fight, there was no turning back. So he took a deep breath and disconnected Torso from the net.
"Ok?"
The spell in Torso's hand vanished instantly. He was stunned for a moment, then looked up at Latis. After a long while, he suddenly burst into laughter and said:
"Fine, fine! Then I won't take advantage of you! But you can forget about getting anything out of me!"
He pulled something out of his pocket and slammed it to the ground. A massive wave of magical energy surged outwards from him, almost engulfing the entire town.
Along with this visible giant wave, Silver Path Town instantly became a vacuum of magic energy. Due to the huge difference in force, a gale that surged in from all directions swept in, almost lifting the three people on the street.
"This is……"
Latis sensed the broken magic network, exchanged a glance with Jennifer, took a deep breath, and pressed down on his magic book.
"Acceleration, Flight, and Shadow Steps!"
boom!
Torso turned to look at the hammer that was blocked by the longsword, his gaze sharp. Latis, who appeared beside him in an instant, did not hesitate and swung the whirlwind hammer at will.
"it is good!"
Latis was struck on the hammer by Torso's "Steel Slash," and he stumbled back two steps. However, he did not stop his attack. A cloud of silvery-white mist enveloped his body and he disappeared from the spot.
"At this!"
Instinct moved faster than Torso's thoughts, causing him to spin and deflect Latis's three consecutive hammer blows. However, this was not the end, as Jennifer's divine javelin was already fixed in front of him.
In a fraction of a second, Torso instantly realized that the two people in front of him were completely unrestricted by the magic network, while he himself became helpless after leaving the magic network.
"I thought my final battle would end quickly... Haha, having such an opponent is truly a blessing!"
He smiled slightly, closed his eyes, and then time began to flow.
Whoosh!
Torso suddenly fell backward, the laser-like javelin leaving a scorched mark on his forehead. Without thinking, he spun around and struck the ground, using the opportunity to bounce up his body that was about to fall.
Unexpectedly, Latis had already flown over Torso, picked up his hammer, and with a powerful swing from between his legs, struck Torso.
boom!
He blocked the hammer blow with his sword behind his back, but the strange hammer technique that had built up momentum knocked him and his sword back four or five meters.
"Good hammering!"