On a forest path on Roswaal's border, two figures moved unhurriedly. It was an extremely mismatched pair: a raggedly dressed boy and a woman in luxurious attire, walking together, they seemed out of place.
The smaller of the two was a boy who looked to be only in his teens.
His messy, long hair looked as if it had never been combed, appearing disheveled and unkempt. His clothes were worn and tattered, even stained with dried blood and mud, making him look like a wandering beggar. What was striking was the arm-sword strapped to his arm, an oddly shaped short blade whose edge glowed with an ominous dark red.
The other was a white-haired, white-skinned woman.
Her attire was simple yet luxurious; her pure white clothes had no superfluous decorations, but the sheen of the fabric and the precision of the tailoring were enough to prove its high value. The woman's face was not stunning; her features were regular but not beautiful, yet her golden eyes exuded a suffocating sense of pressure, like a high-and-mighty deity looking down on ants, devoid of any emotion.
The two figures slowly advanced. Suddenly, the white-haired woman walking in front stopped.
Before them, several abandoned Dragon Carriages lay askew by the roadside, like a makeshift camp in disarray: overturned tent frames, scattered pots and pans, and a pile of long-extinguished campfire ashes.
"Oh dear..." Regulus narrowed her eyes, her voice filled with exaggerated disappointment. "Look what we've found? A few abandoned broken carriages, and... is this a temporary camp? How incredibly shabby."
Ley hopped and darted to a Dragon Carriage, poking its wheel with his dirty fingers. "Did they run away?"
Regulus said, rubbing her forehead in distress. "What is this? I specifically adjusted my schedule, put aside so many important things, and made a special trip to meet these so-called Whale Hunting Heroes. And the result?"
"They actually ran away? They don't even have the courage to face me? It seems those heroes of the lower class are nothing but a bunch of cowardly, incompetent wastes."
She suddenly paced back and forth in the camp, agitated. "Ah~ how infuriating. Someone as generous as I am made a special trip, and they dare to be so rude? Even an angel would be provoked, wouldn't they?"
She suddenly stopped. "But... I seem to have heard there's a village ahead?"
"Village! Village!" Ley excitedly waved his arms and legs. "Lots and lots of people! I wonder if there's any delicious food that can whet our appetite!"
"Quiet!" Regulus sharply interrupted. "Do you think everyone is like you, with only appetite on their mind?" Her voice returned to that condescending tone. "Let's go see if there's any man in that village who can pique my interest a little..."
"If not... slaughtering the entire village would also be a good pastime. After all, if a perfect being like me makes a special trip for nothing, someone has to pay the price for it, isn't that reasonable?"
"...But if I think about it carefully... even if I meet a man I like, I'll probably still choose to slaughter the entire village, because, I'm very serious about matters of the heart. If my beloved has other social relationships besides me, that would be the most severe betrayal to me."
Regulus folded her arms across her chest, tilting her head slightly like a young girl dreaming of love.
"So, to uphold my rightful claims, the deaths of those villagers are also an unavoidable fate. But you know... I am kind-hearted, so I will at least let them die in an instant, without any pain."
She sighed, shaking her head as if troubled.
"It really is troublesome to think about... but thankfully, I am the one to carry it out. If it were someone else, those poor souls wouldn't be so lucky to meet such a gentle and considerate executioner as me."
After speaking, she casually kicked the nearby Dragon Carriage. The moment her boot tip touched the carriage board, the entire Dragon Carriage disintegrated like a fragile sandcastle. Wood chips flew like snowflakes, but in their scattering trajectory, an unnatural red flash became visible.
It was a fire magic stone hidden in the carriage frame's interlayer, now emitting a dazzling, dangerous light.
"Hmm?" Regulus tilted her head, her golden pupils slightly widening.
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion tore through the forest's silence. A scorching wave of fire surged skyward, and the expanding fireball completely engulfed Regulus and Ley. The shockwave stirred up layers of earth, even pressing down distant bushes.
"Fire!!"
Subaru's voice came from a distant high slope. Almost simultaneously, dozens of white magic railgun beams, already fully charged, streaked across the sky, accurately hitting the still-dissipating fire cloud. The magic energy reacted violently with the flames, and the shockwave of the secondary explosion scraped away a layer of the ground. A mushroom cloud, mixed with fire and dust, slowly rose.
On the high slope, everyone stared intently at the scene within the explosion.
"Crater diameter fifty-three meters..." Julius felt the information transmitted by the micro-spirits. "Depth... at least seven meters."
Rem asked gravely. "An attack of this magnitude..."
The smoke and dust were suddenly torn apart by an invisible force.
"What the hell!"
Regulus's voice came. She stood in the center of the giant crater, her pure white clothes spotless, not even a single strand of hair out of place.
And gluttony had disappeared.
"Sneak attack? You actually launched a sneak attack?!" Regulus paid no mind to gluttony's disappearance or fate; she stomped her foot angrily. Each stomp caused spiderweb-like cracks to spread across the ground. "Do you know what I went through for this meeting? Do you know how many important appointments I canceled? Someone as generous as I am made a special trip, and you treat your guests with such despicable methods?"
She suddenly spread her arms wide and slammed them down onto the ground.
Rumble!!!
With her as the center, the ground rolled like ocean waves. Trees turned to dust the moment they touched the shockwave, turf was peeled up in entire sections, and even the rocks beneath the earth were pulverized. The wave of destruction rapidly spread outwards.
"Subaru!"
Carlisle grabbed the stunned Subaru, throwing her onto Patrasche's back. The Earth dragon let out an anxious whinny, bolting into a frantic run the moment her master landed in the saddle. The others quickly mounted their rides, and the Earth Ground Dragons began to flee.
"Get out here! Despicable scoundrels! Inferior beings! Ungrateful vermin!" Regulus's roar echoed behind them, each curse accompanied by a new explosion.
Everyone galloped through the dense forest on their Earth Ground Dragons, the booming sound of falling trees constantly coming from behind. Patrasche's scales glistened with sweat in the sunlight, and Subaru could feel her mount trembling violently.
"Temporarily... safe." Wilhelm reined in his horse. "But only temporarily."
His words proved true as another earth-shattering roar came from the distance. Trees fell in swathes like stalks of wheat, and the dust stirred up by the shockwave formed a moving wall of sand, spreading outwards at an astonishing speed.
Julius closed his eyes, micro-spirits anxiously fluttering around him. "No..." He slowly opened his eyes, his voice low. "The micro-spirits have confirmed that there isn't a speck of dust on that woman's clothes."
Subaru's nails dug deep into her palms; she stared intently at the ever-expanding destruction in the distance, her throat tight. "How can this be... Is she really completely flawless?"
Carlisle suddenly dismounted his Earth Dragon, his eyes under his blue hair gleaming with thought. He knelt on one knee, his fingers lightly touching the ground, feeling the vibrations from afar.
"I have an idea." His voice made everyone turn their heads. "Greed's attack range is so astonishing, is it possible that when she releases an attack, she temporarily lifts the blockade on the surrounding space?"
Julius looked thoughtful. "Could it be... you mean..."
"Just like you have to open your hand to throw a stone." Carlisle stood up, patting the mud from his knees. "Her 'time stop' ability might have a brief vulnerability at the moment of attack."
...
Re@d adv@nce ch@pters on p@t
guilt_free_daoist
Jo!n d!sc0rd I!nk in synops!s.
GIVE ME YOU POWER STONES.