Inside the luxurious carriage, Rael thoroughly leaned back and enjoyed the passing scenery. The sprawling meadows outside were an impossibly vibrant shade of green, the afternoon sun was perfectly warm without being oppressive, and the gentle breeze carrying through the air was completely devoid of industrial pollution. Free from the screeching train tracks and roaring traffic of his past life on Earth, the vast blue sky felt endless, decorated with soft, scattered clouds.
As a cool gust of wind swept through the carriage window, rustling her white robes, Solenne turned to Rael with a polite smile. "Mister Rael, could you perhaps close the glass window? It is getting quite windy in here."
Before Rael could even reach for the latch, Vhal’Zar shifted his sharp, piercing gaze toward the Saint, his handsome face narrowing in disapproval. "Why? Are you fragile, Saint? If you find a simple breeze so troublesome, why not just cast a defensive barrier to protect yourself? It should be an easy feat for someone of your status, is it not?" solenne then politely just smiled to vhal’zhar and try not to make anger him.
"Ah, it's alright, Vhal. I don't want to be rude," Rael intervened smoothly, pulling the tinted glass window shut to defuse the tension. He offered Solenne an apologetic look before turning back to his companion. "Besides, the glass is perfectly crystal clear, so I can still enjoy the view with it closed."
Rael genuinely felt a deep sense of peace. Back on Earth, his life had been a monotonous, gray routine. He would wake up in the dead of winter, rush to the station to ensure he wasn't a single minute late for his grueling office job, leave after dark, and spend his remaining hours locked in his room playing Echoes of Eternity. He had never possessed the time, nor the luxury, to simply sit and admire a beautiful day.
Watching the serene, content expression washing over his master's face, Vhal’Zar felt an immediate wave of satisfaction. For a fleeting moment, the terrifying Undead King completely forgot his cold demeanor and smiled warmly from the bottom of his heart.
Solenne caught the sudden, drastic shift in the vhal expression and couldn't help but comment on it. "Ah... I did not know you were capable of smiling so genuinely, Sir Vhal'Zar."
Vhal’Zar’s eyebrows lifted slightly, his voice dropping into a proud, rhythmic baritone. "Seeing my Master happy is the only catalyst required for my own joy."
Solenne smiled back, genuinely moved by his words. "Is that so? Your loyalty to him truly knows no bounds, does it?"
"Naturally," Vhal’Zar replied, his eyes flashing with a deathly serious, absolute resolve. "In fact, I was entirely literal when I stated before that I would gladly welcome death if it meant preserving his life."
Rael just stare the windows and the view while he clearly hear that loud and clear, it creep rael when he hears that
But before the awkward could continue, the relaxed atmosphere inside the carriage vanished in an instant.
both Rael and Vhal’Zar simultaneously sensed a sudden, violently chaotic surge of malice erupting from high above the clouds. An intensely dangerous aura was plunging toward their location at an incredible, earth-shattering speed.
Rael’s casual posture evaporated, his eyes snapping toward the Saint. "Solenne! Brace yourself! Something highly dangerous is approaching us from above, and it's moving fast!"
"Huh? What do you-"
Before Solenne could even process the warning or activate her sensory magic, a deafening, thunderous CRASH shook the entire highway.
The ground fractured violently as a massive, monstrous shadow plummeted directly from the sky, slamming onto the dirt road just meters ahead and screeching the Pegasus steeds to an absolute, panicked halt. The sheer kinetic shockwave sent a cloud of dust and debris washing over the levitating transport.
Outside, the captain of the escort yelled at the top of his lungs, his armor clanking loudly as he drew his silver broadsword. "AMBUSH! Form a defensive perimeter around Her Highness's carriage! Prepare for combat!"
As the dust slowly settled on the fractured highway, two terrifying figures materialized through the haze.
The first creature possessed the provocative, voluptuous figure of a beautiful woman, complete with curved obsidian horns, a slender black spade tail, and massive, leathery bat wings. Beside her stood a monstrosity clad in full, heavy midnight-black armor. The armor had no head; instead, a thick, ominous black smoke billowed from the neck guard, illuminated by a pair of glowing, malevolent blue eyes. The headless knight wielded a colossal greatsword, mounted upon a skeletal warhorse whose ribcage and eyes flared with the same eerie blue fire.
A demon and an undead.
Solenne, Rael, and Vhal’Zar quickly stepped out of the carriage to confront the threat. The moment they stepped onto the dirt, a collective cold sweat washed over the five Royal Guards.
"It's... it's a high-ranking Demon!" one of the guards yelled, his voice trembling as he gripped his spear.
"Do not fear! Stand your ground and brace yourselves!" Solenne commanded, her voice firm and authoritative despite the danger.
Without wasting a single heartbeat, the Saint began chanting, weaving her fingers through the air to cast a high-level, wide-area support spell. A massive, intricately detailed golden rune expanded across the ground beneath the guards' feet.
[Divine Heart]
The moment the holy light enveloped the Royal Guards, the status effect instantly purged their terror, forcing their racing hearts to calm down.
Seeing the golden spell, the demon girl giggled, her voice dripping with a sultry, flirtatious tone. "My, my~ Isn't that the Radiant Saint? The holy maiden everyone loves to talk about?" She licked her lips, her eyes twisting with malice. "She looks so beautifully pure... it makes me want to break her into pieces. Khehehe~"
Beside her, the headless knight raised his colossal blade, a deep, echoing voice resonating directly from his hollow armor. "I bring absolute death to you all... Surrender your souls."
Solenne’s calm facade instantly shattered into panic as she fully recognized the entities before her. "Why... why are a Death Knight and a Succubus all the way out here? No, that's not just a normal succubus... That is the high-tier Succubus Queen, Vespera. And that headless knight... is a Dullahan!"
Cold dread pooled in Solenne's chest. She realized she had severely endangered herself by traveling so close to the border of the demon territory with only five guards. "But... why? The frontline reports said the Demon King hasn't even appeared yet! How is this possible?!"
Vespera chuckled, swaying her hips playfully. "Well, dear Saint, it seems your intelligence network is deeply flawed. Our supreme Lord was actually reborn not too long ago. And his very first order to us... was to slaughter you."
To normal humans, both Vespera and the Dullahan were catastrophic, high-rank threats boss-class monsters capable of wiping a medium-sized city off the map if left unchecked. Facing them with only five ordinary guards meant absolute suicide.
Yet, standing amidst the panic, Rael simply looked at them with a thoroughly bored, relaxed expression. "Ah... I felt an intense aura earlier so I thought it was something impressive. Turns out it's just a low-level demon and a bottom-tier undead, huh?"
Solenne snapped her head toward him, her jaw dropping in utter shock. "Mister Rael! What are you even saying?! Those monsters are city-destroyer class entities! Can you not see the danger?!"
Rael merely smiled, casually patting Vhal'Zar's shoulder. "Just calm down, Solenne. Let Vhal’Zar handle a bit of trash disposal." He then glanced at his servant, his eyes turning cold. "Vhal. Show them their place."
Vhal’Zar immediately placed a hand over his heart and delivered a deep, reverent bow. "As you command, Master."
Before Vhal'Zar could step forward, one of the panicked Royal Guards tried to rush the headless knight. However, with a lazy swing of his greatsword, the Dullahan unleashed a violent, invisible shockwave. Even though the blade never physically touched the guard, the sheer kinetic pressure blasted the armored human backward, sending him crashing into the dirt.
Paying absolutely no attention to the fallen soldier, Vhal’Zar began walking forward, his movements agonizingly slow, calm, and deliberate.
Vespera narrowed her eyes, an arrogant smirk crossing her beautiful face. "Huh? And who do you think you are to butt in, handsome? Are you trying to play the tragic hero~?"
Looking closely at Vhal’Zar’s human disguise his towering, muscular frame and staggeringly handsome facial features Vespera’s demonic instincts flared with lust. She closed the distance in a blur, gracefully sliding her arms around his torso, fumbling her hands against his chest. She deliberately pressed her full, soft bosom tightly against his chest, leaning up to whisper directly into his ear with a sweet, hypnotic breath.
"Why don't you become my personal toy instead? We can have so much fun together... forever."
[Charm]
She poured her absolute maximum mana into her signature seduction spell. Backed by her status as a Succubus Queen and targeted at a male opponent at point-blank range, the success rate of the spell should have been an absolute one hundred percent.
But instead of a dazed, submissive puppet, a cold, dangerously sharp voice rang directly above her head.
"Get your filthy hands off me, you lowly creature."
Vespera’s eyes widened in sheer horror. "Huh?!"
Feeling a sudden, crushing weight pressing down on her soul, she instinctively jumped backward, her wings flapping wildly. "You... you aren't under the influence of my spell?! That's impossible!"
Vhal’Zar’s lips curled into a thoroughly mocking, arrogant smirk. "A low-tier mental restriction spell? Hah. You wish."
Screaming in pure frustration, Vespera snapped her leathery wings forward, unleashing a barrage of compressed air blades at point-blank range.
[Razor Wing Slash]
Boom!
The gale-force blades tore through the earth, throwing up a massive cloud of thick dust and completely obscuring Vhal’Zar from view. Vespera smirked, fully expecting to see the arrogant human sliced into neat ribbons.
Unfortunately for her, the dust cleared to reveal Vhal’Zar standing in the exact same spot, his clothes and skin completely pristine without a single microscopic scratch.
"What?! What the hell are you?!" Vespera shrieked. Refusing to believe her eyes, she violently flicked her finger, forcing a massive concentration of chaotic mana to erupt directly inside Vhal’Zar's coordinates.
[Synapse Collapse]
The high-tier curse was designed to instantly shatter and vaporize the nervous system of any living organism. Yet, Vhal’Zar didn't even flinch. He just stood there, completely immune, looking at her as if she were a pathetic insect throwing pebbles.
"YOU!! How dare you look down on me, you worthless human?!" Vespera roared, her beautiful face contorting with manic rage.
Gathering every ounce of her remaining demonic mana into the palm of her hand, she compressed the magical energy millions of times over. The space around her hand warped violently, compressing into a pitch-black, swirling sphere of absolute gravity.
[Black Hole Orb]
With a screech of fury, she threw the catastrophic sphere straight at Vhal’Zar’s chest. The orb tore through the air, screaming with destructive power.
But as the black hole arrived, Vhal’Zar didn't even bother to dodge. He simply reached out with a casual, lazy motion, catching the dense ball of compressed cosmic gravity right in his bare palm. With a flex of his fingers, he squeezed.
Shatter!
The catastrophic spell was violently crushed into harmless, sparkling black particles, dissolving into nothingness. Vhal’Zar looked up, his smirk widening into a terrifying display of absolute dominance. "Is that truly the absolute best you've got, demon?"
Her ultimate, city-destroying spell had been crushed like a piece of cheap glass. Vespera’s pride completely shattered, replaced by a suffocating, paralyzing panic.
Terrified, she scrambled backward, screaming toward her companion. "OI!! DULLAHAN!! Don't just stand there, you idiot! Help me out!!"
But the headless knight didn't move a single inch.
The skeletal warhorse beneath him was trembling so violently that its bones clattered against one another, and the blue fire in the Dullahan's neck armor was flickering rapidly, on the verge of extinguishing. It was the absolute, unyielding law of nature-the primal, suffocating terror of a low-tier prey recognizing its absolute Supreme Predator.