The aura was completely different from that of the Divine Soldiers.
If the Divine Soldiers were solemn war machines, then the girl who had suddenly appeared exuded a suffocating holiness. This purity was precisely what the Demon Race despised most—an absolute thorn in their side that had to be eradicated.
Her body was shrouded in a voluminous white robe, but the refined features beneath the hood were still clearly visible: pink, tender lips like those of a girl in the full bloom of youth, untouched by the world. A few strands of silver-white hair danced in the wind.
Setra cradled the drowsy Sophia in her arms and looked up, her face etched with gravity.
The Divine Soldiers might have offered a fighting chance, but this girl had long surpassed anything she could hope to challenge.
A god.
A genuine, battle-hardened god.
Her pressure was similar to the Evil Dragon’s yet utterly distinct. It was clear they were both powerhouses beyond the Soul Tier. Rumor had it that Lady Dragon Consort could summon stone giants at Soul Tier Layer 4 or even Layer 5—a height most Demon Race members could never reach in a lifetime. Many other races couldn’t even cross the Soul Tier threshold, a realm countless souls yearned for. For Xuefei, though, it was as simple as a wave of the hand.
“You bastard, wrecking our terri—”
“Swish—!”
!!
Xuefei hadn’t even finished speaking when, with a faint whoosh, the other party sprang into action.
And the direction the god girl hurtled toward was… Sophia?
Setra reacted in an instant. Her sword, wreathed in purple light, required no two-handed grip. She backpedaled a few steps and unleashed a slash at the incoming god.
“Crack—!”
But the god gave Setra no opening whatsoever. The instant the blade touched her body, it shattered and crumbled to dust. She extended one hand, and Setra couldn’t fathom the fate that awaited her if that strike had landed.
The Birdcage continued to burn steadily. This custom-made prison hadn’t weakened with the Divine Soldiers’ demise; if anything, the god’s arrival made it even more unyielding. The Divine Soldiers themselves had been reduced to a heap of scrap metal, still faintly gleaming. The girl paid no heed to the remnants of their power, ignoring them entirely.
“Boom—!”
A golden blade speared toward Setra. She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched the sleeping Sophia tightly to her chest.
No…
No pain followed.
She opened her eyes. A crimson-purple energy shield—Xuefei’s signature—had blocked the god’s strike. Even so, cold sweat drenched her collar.
From this angle, she got a clear look at the god’s face:
A tall girl with flowing silver-white hair.
Unlike Sophia’s shade, it evoked thoughts of a supreme being: Leia.
But in that moment of peril, only her battle instincts remained.
“Damn god.”
Setra hadn’t expended much energy. Weaponless, she still possessed at least Soul Tier Layer 4 power. She gathered magic around her body, determined to make this would-be killer of Sophia suffer at least once.
“You’ve been spared once—learn to cherish it.”
The general’s attack was utterly futile.
The girl simply reached out. Even shielded, Setra was hurled a hundred meters away. Without that barrier, she was certain she’d have been pulverized. And clearly, the girl hadn’t unleashed her full strength!
“Urgh…!”
Sophia, still asleep, furrowed her delicate brows in evident pain. Setra feared her own rough movements had hurt the little Vampire Princess. She stroked the girl’s head, bit her own lip until it bled, squatted down, and pressed her lips to Sophia’s.
Only after feeding her a generous amount of blood did Sophia murmur anxiously,
“Where does it hurt, you idiot?!”
“Urgh…”
Tasting Setra’s sweet blood, Sophia settled down somewhat, but her petite frame still trembled faintly, a sign the pain lingered.
What in the world was causing this?
The recovered Baron Dibius raised his hand and barked swift orders. Several Demon Race warriors finally swooped in, intent on spiriting the two general ladies away from the battlefield.
More reinforcements flooded the scene. Another general swept her hand wide and roared,
“Loose arrows! Protect Lady Dragon Consort!”
“Swish-swish-swish—!”
A torrent of magical arrows descended like a raging storm.
Xuefei, still struggling to break free from her cage, let out a sigh.
These Demons had no business challenging a god in the first place. The only reason they’d damaged the Divine Soldiers at all was thanks to the magic tools Laer had provided, which amplified the arrows’ destructive power.
The Great Sage, who had once striven for world peace, had long devised countermeasures against the gods…
However, if the Gods had been willing to lend her a few Divine Soldiers back then—instead of that paltry drop of divine power and their cryptic, useless guidance—her battle would undoubtedly have been far easier. On second thought, those Gods were utter black-hearted scoundrels, rotten to the core in both mind and soul. Even Leia, for all that she pinned her down and left her bedridden for days, would at least bring her meals with her own hands. No—Leia’s tenderness was far too precious to even compare to the likes of them.
Xuefei’s gaze shifted downward to Sophia, who was struggling beneath her amid Setra’s anxious stare. For a fleeting moment, her eyes dimmed with sorrow.
Is that how it is?
I see. Those damned bastards—they all had to die, every last one of them, at the first opportunity.
Incorrigible liars.
~~~
“Weakling attacks… I’ll repay them to you double!”
The God girl murmured softly.
The words had barely left her lips when the incoming black arrows erupted into fierce flames, as if an invisible barrier of scorching heat had reduced every assault to nothingness.
With a gentle lift of her hand, the space behind her warped and twisted. Countless golden Space Gates materialized as swirling vortices, and in the next instant, over a hundred blazing beams of light erupted forth!
“Soul-scattering oblivion—that is the Demon Race’s true path.”
Her proud voice faded to a whisper as she added, her tone laced with profound meaning:
“If I cannot destroy you… then I’ll simply have to destroy all of you.”
Apocalypse.
It was less an explosion than a vision of the Apocalypse itself.
As though the God’s Judgment had descended, sacred Stakes plunged from the heavens, leaving nothing for the Demon Race but merciless retribution.
Of course, it all vanished in the blink of an eye beneath a single purple-red slash. The overwhelming pressure dissipated in an instant, leaving only a cluster of pitch-black Blazing Fire flickering at the girl’s side.
But for her—the bearer of the Complete God Soul—it was nothing at all.
She whirled around, ready to mock Xuefei that her power wasn’t so impressive after all:
“You almost failed to protect—”
“You… had enough fun?”
Yet the Dragon Girl had already vanished from sight, as if the figure Lydia had glimpsed moments ago was nothing more than the lingering afterimage of a flash.
Suddenly, the girl felt a weight settle on her right shoulder. She whipped her head around in disbelief.
When…!
When had she gotten so close?!
But the sensation wasn’t her own fear. It was the Dragon Girl’s fury, searing through her like a brand—beginning to erode, to shatter, her very emotions.
Even at this intimate distance, all she could see amid the pitch-black flames were the abyss-born pupils of the Evil Dragon, peering into her turbulent, fragile soul.
“Had enough fun?”
