“Ti’s up... you have to make your choice.”
The masked woman’s voice suddenly rose in anger. “Mistress of the Desire Branch! What are you waiting for?!”
“I...”
Hu Xiaoqi barely opened her mouth before her fox ears were grabbed again.
A great force pulled her forward.
Vieya’s arm tensed, dragging Hu Xiaoqi in front of her and pressing the sword blade to her throat.
“Don’t even think about it. Tell —what’s the purpose of the barrier you set up here?”
“Guest... my life isn’t sothing you can use to threaten her.”
Hu Xiaoqi’s voice trembled. Her sensitive fox ears, caught in that firm grip, made her whole body flush crimson. The warmth of the sli girl behind her, the closeness of her breath—her nerves went haywire, her body weak and trembling.
“Besides,” she murmured, “the barrier’s purpose is to neutralize the restrictions left behind by the Demon King back then...”
“Hehe, Hu Xiaoqi, you do talk fast.”
The masked woman rose, smirking coldly. “But did you forget sothing you haven’t told your precious guest? Or are you too scared to say it now?”
Clang!
Vieya hurled the Holy Sword from her hand. It shot forward like a silver spear.
A cold gleam flashed through the air!
The masked woman jerked aside, and the ornate mask on her face cracked down the middle with a sharp snap.
“I’m not interested in your twisted sches...” Vieya released Hu Xiaoqi’s ear and said evenly, “But I won’t let you damage anything tied to this formation.”
Hu Xiaoqi, free at last, sank to her knees and gasped for air.
“Heh...”
The masked woman touched the blood seeping from the cut across her cheek, her voice suddenly calm and eerie. “I know we’re not your match. After all, even Bai Shui and that other one together still lost to you.”
“At least you’re self-aware.”
Vieya lifted her hand. The Holy Sword, still quivering in the wall behind the woman, shuddered once and flew back into her grasp.
Clap!
The masked woman clapped lightly, smiling. “But the opponent you’re about to face isn’t us, O new wielder of the Holy Sword—false Hero who stands between humans and monsters. Hehe... move!”
The mont her words fell, faceless masked figures surged forward like a tide of insects—countless, fearless, rushing in from every direction.
“False Hero, huh? What an ugly label.”
Vieya snapped her fingers, summoning the power of the Authority within her and the Holy Sword’s light.
Authority Five — Mystic Dragon, Purge!
A brilliant gold radiance burst from the blade. For an instant, she seed to beco a blazing sun. Her divine power burned through the air, and the faceless ones charging her lted like frost beneath a rising dawn—obliterated the mont they touched her light.
“If I weren’t fighting with only a tenth of my strength,” she said coldly, “you think you’d even have the right to stand before ?”
With a flick of her wrist, she dispelled the light. The world fell silent again.
Despite the overwhelming power of her attack, the ground and the surrounding buildings remained untouched. The only change—
Every single faceless figure in the courtyard had been turned to dust.
“......”
Hidden in the distance, the masked woman’s chest rose and fell violently. The new Holy Sword wielder was terrifying.
Now she understood what kind of enemy Bai Shui Dice Lord must have faced to abandon the mission and flee.
This kind of power—
She stared fixedly at Vieya, searching for any sign of weakness, fatigue, or the backlash such an attack should have caused.
But she found nothing. No trembling hands. No dimming aura. Nothing human.
This was a bug.
A living cheat—just like that “Chief Hero” of the past.
And now she understood why even the nine strongest Dice Lords of the organization had approached this mission so cautiously.
They had used her—just as she had used Hu Xiaoqi—as disposable bait to test Vieya’s power.
Heh... even as a branch master, in the end I’m just ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ another expendable pawn.
“......”
The masked woman lifted her hands, removed her cracked mask, and revealed a young, delicate face—marred only by a long, bleeding cut across her cheek.
“You’re strong,” she said softly, “but that’s as far as you go.”
With that, she offered her own blood, igniting the silver formation beneath her.
“I told you, your enemy isn’t us...” she whispered, kneeling. Blood poured from her wrist, flowing across the ground—where the silver runes flared alight as the liquid touched them.
“?”
It works even when incomplete?
Vieya turned, glancing at the formation behind her—a mangled ss of lines—and then back at the woman bleeding into it.
She raised the Holy Sword and, without hesitation, threw it straight at the woman’s heart.
If destroying the formation wouldn’t stop it, then killing the caster would.
The strike hit true. The woman let out a muffled groan before collapsing—her body shrinking, flattening, and crumbling into a sheet of human skin.
Vieya called her sword back with a gesture. “That’s it?”
“Guest, she’s not dead yet...” Hu Xiaoqi cried out weakly.
“False Hero,” the woman’s voice echoed, twisted and manic, “I told you, your enemy isn’t us... Everything ends here.”
Her laughter rang through the night. “Prepare to et the foe destined for you! Hahahahaha...”
......
Elsewhere.
The burst of golden light from the shrine had drawn every eye in Mount Aisa.
“That’s the aura of the Holy Sword...”
Rania looked up toward the distance. The familiar presence stunned her into silence for several seconds.
Then she snapped back to herself and said to nesis, “Vieya’s in danger!”
“Ah—that’s the shrine’s direction!”
nesis slapped her forehead. “Vieya must’ve found the enemy base. With a commotion that big, the captain’s squad must’ve noticed too!”
“Go! We’ll back her up!” Without wasting another word, nesis sprinted ahead, her short legs moving fast, leading the way.
“I know the shortcut there—follow !”
Rania hesitated briefly, then ran after her.
nesis might be small, but when she moved at full speed, a single leap sent her flying over ten ters.
anwhile—
Luna stopped her own task and turned toward the glow.
“Luna-sis, shouldn’t we confirm the situation first?” Kare called after her, unusually cautious. “What if it’s a trap ant to lure us in?”
“That masked woman earlier said they were building a formation here—one to break the space-ti seal,” Arc said.
“Just before the light appeared,” Rakaide added, “the enemies we fought—those faceless ones—started getting replaced by the drifting half-human, half-ghost natives. Then, right as the light appeared, they all scattered, like they’d seen a god descending.”
For veteran adventurers, that was no coincidence.
......
Silence.
Within the ruined courtyard of the shrine, not a single insect chirped.
Only Hu Xiaoqi’s ragged breathing, the crackling of the burning theater, and Vieya’s own increasingly uneven breaths filled the air.
After a long while, the masked woman—now wearing a new body—appeared again at the center of the still-active formation.
She laughed wildly, lost in so delirious confidence.
But Vieya’s eyes were not on her.
Her gaze fixed instead on the figure erging within the glowing circle—an indistinct shadow that grew clearer by the second.
As it took shape, Vieya froze.
No way.
She whispered, her voice trembling,
“Flaviel...”
She had imagined a thousand ways they might et again—but never like this.
Unease flooded her heart, so strong that even Hu Xiaoqi, sitting nearby, could sense it.
Eh...
What’s with this little sli now?
She looked like a child whose birthday cake had been stolen—wanting to be angry, but too afraid to break it.
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