Chapter 1 The Start

The church knight who suddenly appeared in the banquet hall wore divine robes lined with silver armor, and the high-level insignia of the Radiant Church on his chest indicated that he was at least on par with a regional bishop in the entire church system, and perhaps even higher in rank to be able to enter and exit this place at will. After entering the hall, the church knight strode straight to the Pope with a hurried expression. Two bishops rose to intercept and inquire, and the knight paused slightly to report something to the two bishops, who nodded and sat down, seemingly granting permission for this emergency audience.

However, Hao Ren still felt that the knight who suddenly appeared was strange in every way, and a peculiar sense of crisis stirred his sixth sense.

Vivian also stood up and moved silently to a more open area, while Izhaks patted Elizabeth's little head: "Don't move around later."

At this moment, the knight had arrived less than ten meters away from the Pope and the King. Before the latter could rise to inquire, he respectfully bowed: "Your Holiness, Your Majesty, news of the heretical 'Return Sect' has been discovered!"

Moron immediately rose: "What? Have you finally caught them?"

"We found a gathering place near the royal capital. The heretics have fled, but a large number of personnel rosters and ritual records have been found," the high-ranking knight took out a scroll from his arms. "This is the main information compiled by Cardinal Brooke."

The Pope raised his hand, and the scroll automatically flew to him. Then he opened the scroll and frowned as he read it carefully.

"Your Holiness," the high-ranking knight waited a few seconds, then looked up at the Pope. Seeing that he was still reading the scroll and not moving, he turned around, opened his arms to the hall, and announced in a strange tone, "His Holiness has been summoned by the Lord!"

The hall was instantly silent. After a brief moment of stunned silence, Moron suddenly shouted, "Seize him!"

The secret guards stationed throughout the hall suddenly reacted, causing an uproar. Some of the richly dressed guests suddenly drew strange short weapons from various corners of their clothes, and rushed towards the knight with the light of various magical blessings surrounding them, while a large number of royal guards also poured in from outside the hall a moment later, and the scene instantly became chaotic.

However, the first to pounce was the bearded man who had been sitting at the long table to the left of the Pope. After realizing that something was wrong with the Pope, this ascetic had quickly applied a large number of divine magic blessings to himself, and he had already pounced on the enemy before the King had even given the order.

With a muffled "噗" sound, the bearded man's fists, surrounded by a pale golden light, struck the knight simultaneously. The divine magic stirred and burst out a circle of shockwaves around them, but the latter showed a hideous smile to the bearded man as if he felt no pain, and raised his hand to grab the ascetic.

The bearded man immediately realized that the technique, which was enough to destroy the enemy's internal organs and instantly resolve the opponent's combat power, was useless, and that the guy in front of him was probably not human at all. So he quickly retreated. At the same time, the surrounding soldiers had already swarmed up, and a dozen long and short weapons pierced the strange knight simultaneously.

A strange sound, as if metal piercing rotten wood, came from the knight's body. The wounds where the weapons pierced spurted out an abnormally black-red and foul-smelling blood. The guards realized that something was wrong and prepared to retreat, but the weapons were already stuck in the strange enemy. The extremely quick-witted elite warriors immediately released their weapons and scattered, while some soldiers rushed to form a human wall in front of Moron and the still-rigid Pope.

The next second, continuous "噗噗" sounds came from all over the strange knight's body. A large amount of foul-smelling black-red blood poured out from his wounds as if it had a life of its own, flying along precise trajectories towards the nearest royal guards, while a wisp of black blood fell on the ground, hissing with white smoke as it quickly attacked Moron, who was surrounded by layers of guards!

At this critical moment, a burst of dazzling electric light suddenly flashed across everyone's vision. A large group of dark bats suddenly appeared out of thin air and surrounded all the space around the strange knight, even forming an airtight bat sphere. Electric light flashed between the bat swarm, and it seemed that endless lightning storms were brewing inside. In the ear-piercing sound of air tearing, strange black-red blood, accompanied by beast-like roars, continued to splatter from the gaps in the bat swarm. This blood twisted and flowed everywhere, as if it was escaping, but there was still a cold gale mixed with ice blades swirling around the bat swarm, and every wisp of blood was frozen into crystals the moment it escaped!

The others in the distance of the hall only then reacted to what had happened. The civil officials hurriedly fled this dangerous place, while the martial officials and high-ranking priests with combat power tried to rush to the center of the hall to protect the Pope and the King. The scene was noisy, with shouts and cries rising and falling. Amidst this chaos, the Erem elves also quickly activated their respective magic shields and protected Hao Ren and Hilda and the others.

The "bat storm" in the center of the hall lasted for more than ten seconds, constantly expanding and contracting as if fighting against the monster inside. Finally, accompanied by a furious roar, the bat swarm finally disintegrated with a bang and quickly condensed into Vivian's figure in mid-air. The vampire girl landed beside Hao Ren, looking pale, and explained the reason for her disadvantage: "Too... too stinky, the blood is expired! I really shouldn't have tasted it!"

Hao Ren almost threw up on behalf of Vivian when he heard this...

After the bat swarm dispersed, the figure of the monster knight also appeared in front of everyone. The armor on his body was almost completely tattered, and he was covered in scorch marks from being struck by lightning. The loss of a large amount of blood caused his skin to shrivel in patches. Thick ice covered all his joints, but the ice was rapidly disintegrating. The dozen or so weapons stuck in him had also been corroded by the black blood, leaving only the hilts to fall to the ground. This was undoubtedly a monster disguised as a human, and this monster was still alive even now!

After a series of crackling sounds, the thick ice on the monster's body was shattered by brute force. The remaining blood in his body was not much, and it seemed that it had lost the ability to respond to commands after being frozen. So he simply gave up attacking with blood, and suddenly lowered his head and rushed towards Hao Ren's direction.

"Damn, why is this guy eyeing this side!" Hao Ren felt disgusted when he saw the inhuman appearance of the other party, and quickly kicked him away. However, he underestimated the guy's strength. Although he kicked the enemy away, half of his leg was directly plunged into the ground for more than ten centimeters!

The kicked monster did not try to attack again, but suddenly let out a low roar and turned to rush towards the nearest window: he wanted to escape.

Hao Ren had already pulled out his sidearm, but at the moment of pulling the trigger, his head flashed and he reacted: "Take him alive!"

Lili had already chased after him wielding her claws. After hearing Hao Ren's shout, she quickly retracted her claws, then jumped over a distance of more than ten meters in mid-air and landed directly on the monster's path of escape, raising her hand for a punch.

The monster didn't dodge or avoid, and also swung its fist to meet it. Then, with a loud "砰" sound, the sound even shattered the cups, plates, and bowls on the nearby tables like a grand bell. The ground behind Lili cracked inch by inch, and a circle of cracks of more than ten meters spread out from under her feet.

"呜——" Lili's eyes glowed faintly, and she growled threateningly in her throat, then punched again.

This was a pure head-on collision with almost no skill involved. Two powerful creatures were using brute force to destroy everything within the range of their power. Every pounce of Lili's would bring an ear-piercing sound of air bursting, and every punch would cause a layer of dust to burst from the surrounding stone slab ground. And it was obvious that her hand-to-hand combat skills were far superior to that monster: she had all the hunting instincts of a wolf... canine, and she was as fast as lightning when pouncing, and she could also pick up a brick from the ground to smash it from time to time. The whole fighting style was simply unconventional. In comparison, the monster was too sluggish. Whether it was the injury caused by Vivian's attack or there was a defect in his strange body in terms of reaction speed, his movements were always a step slower than Lili's, and he was quickly beaten dizzy.

After an exchange of lightning and flint, Lili reopened a distance of more than ten meters from the monster. At this time, a large area of ​​ground and tables and chairs around them had been turned into dust. Lili's eyes were shining with golden light, and she was restlessly looking for something handy around her. However, all the large pieces of gravel and even tables and chairs had been thrown out by her as bricks, which made her super unhappy.

After realizing that he couldn't beat this freakish girl, the monster quickly turned his head and planned to escape from here in another direction.

He bumped into Izhaks.

The following scene can basically be covered with a bunch of mosaics. Izhaks, even in human form, was the most capable fighter on the scene, so of course, it was no problem to deal with such a monster knight. The great demon grabbed the opponent's arm and then broke the opponent's limbs into strange angles with a few clicks. The monster seemed to have used magic to counterattack in the process, but in front of the demon king level of magic resistance, these magics only produced a few harmless sparks.

Izhaks casually threw the enemy who had lost his ability to move on the ground. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he saw a white shadow rushing up with a whoosh. Lili bit the monster's arm hard and tore it while roaring, "嗷...呜呜..."

She was really angry.

Izhaks was a little stunned: "Stealing the kill?"

Vivian shrugged: "What else would you call a kill-stealing dog?"

Lili: "呜?"