Chapter 150: Fallen Heavenly Emissary

What is going on?

The man raised his head, looking around in bewilderment. As far as the eye could see, there were shards of crystal standing everywhere. Under the sunlight, these crystal fragments reflected a dazzling brilliance that merged into one, shining so blindingly that it was painful to keep one's eyes open. However, such trivial matters were not what concerned him right now. He turned his head and looked down at his thigh—it had been completely pierced by a prismatic ice spike, and he could feel the chilling frost spreading upward along his leg, so freezing cold that even his blood seemed to be congealing.

Though he did not know who had launched the attack against them, the man was certain of one thing: they had been discovered! Dammit, he should have known better than to trust those nobles. They had no understanding of how to respect the greatness of the gods, blindly rushing to define anything they failed to understand or recognize as evil before destroying it. Out of fear, they had abandoned the path leading to the truth, and now, everything was over!

No! It was not over yet!!

At this thought, the man glared with bloodshot eyes, reached into his tunic, and pulled out a pitch-black dagger. Visually, the dagger was completely unremarkable, even appearing somewhat crude, with a few strands of hemp rope casually tied around the hilt, which seemed stained and filthy with dark, dried blood.

"Stupid mortals! I will make you pay the price!!"

Whispering an angry roar, the man raised the dagger in his hand.

"Great God of Wrath, I beg you to listen to my pain, I beg you to feel my anger! Thunder and lightning are yours to command, please send down your divine wrath and annihilate these detestable oath-breakers!!"

Accompanied by his roar, the dagger began to vibrate slightly. The weapon, which should have been a cold, lifeless object, seemed to come alive in that instant. The next moment, the man flipped his right hand and, without the slightest hesitation, plunged the dagger straight into his own heart. A satisfied smile then appeared on his face. He collapsed onto the ground and closed his eyes.

The earth began to shake.

"Everyone, charge immediately!!"

Rhane frowned, fixing his gaze on the Starfall Fang ahead. He could feel a powerful aura rapidly surging upward. This was no good sign; generally speaking, such an aura only appeared during a divine descent. Could it be that the cultists here were "spares" favored by a true god?

Thinking of this, Rhane could not help but let out a helpless sigh, lamenting his poor luck. There were tens of thousands of cultists on the Klein Continent, but very few were truly favored by the gods. Or rather, ordinary evil gods would not risk being discovered to manifest on the prime material plane. Strictly speaking, however, Gershu, the God of Wrath, did not belong to Rhane's pantheon either. As mentioned before, after the shuffling of the Second Great War of Heaven and Earth and the repositioning of the gods, aside from the Light and Dark pantheons, there remained a considerable number of neutral pantheons. They had no direct relations with either the Upper or Lower Planes, which allowed them to act without any scruples. In truth, Rhane had not taken the words of those three mad believers too seriously at first, because cultists were just like sufferers of severe delusions; regardless of the facts, they swore up and down that they were truly favored by a true god, and that everything they did was for the glory and praise of that deity.

Rhane had originally thought this was merely an ordinary gathering place for cultists. He never expected to accidentally hook a giant fish!

Now it remained to be seen whether he could actually digest this fish.

"Boom!!!"

Just as Rhane, accompanied by the maiden knight and Patilina, rushed to the entrance below the valley, a thunderous roar suddenly echoed. Immediately afterward, a massive wave of mist erupted head-on, rolling forward toward Rhane. Seeing the dust and mist before him, Rhane’s eyes shifted slightly. The next instant, the longsword at his waist was suddenly unsheathed, tracing a deep azure arc through the air. Following his movement, the previously chaotic wind seemed to have found its commander in that very moment. Whirling and howling, the gales condensed upon Rhane’s sword blade, and then, like a knight leading a charge, they roared toward the dust and mist ahead, forcefully blowing it apart.

However, at the same exact time, the entity concealed within the dust and mist had already shrieked across the sky, arriving directly before Rhane.

A huge, weathered axe reached Rhane in the blink of an eye, threatening to cleave him in two. Yet, facing this sudden attack, Rhane showed not a trace of panic. Instead, he reversed his grip on his sword, using the hilt to strike a heavy blow against the side of the axe. With a dull, deafening clang, the axe brushed past Rhane and slammed heavily into the riverbank not far behind him.

At that moment, Rhane finally caught sight of the true appearance of the enemy standing before him.

It was a flesh giant standing a full four meters tall, its body appearing pale red and bloated, exuding a fatal stench. Its entire form was wrapped in tattered armor, and in its hands, it clutched an iron chain—the other end of which was connected to the axe that had just attacked Rhane. It possessed two independent heads, though they seemed entirely devoid of any intelligence.

Malvina, the Two-Headed Monster.

Upon seeing this monster, Rhane finally breathed a sigh of relief. Initially, he had feared the opponent was desperate enough to trigger a full Avatar Descent, which would have been troublesome if someone like Lolth popped out. But looking at it now, he had overthought things; the surging power from before was undoubtedly an artifact. Yet, even after resorting to an artifact, the enemy had merely summoned a servant of Gershu to aid in battle, which showed that these fellows' strength truly could not amount to much.

It was no wonder Rhane had misjudged. After all, the difference between the Underdark and the surface was simply too vast. In the Underdark, any race possessing a quasi-artifact could summon a god's servant at any time and place, and if they were desperate enough to fight to the death, summoning a deity's avatar descent was nothing out of the ordinary. The surface, however, was different. Due to the exceptionally strict laws here, surface residents could not summon divine emissaries for tea and chat on a whim like those in the Underdark. Look at the dark elves; almost every clan war involved prayers for the guidance and protection of choldiths. On the surface, unless facing life-or-death survival, no faction dared boldly pray for the descent of a divine emissary.

To draw an analogy, the Underdark had evolved to the level of thermonuclear missiles flying everywhere, while the surface still treated nuclear bombs merely as nuclear deterrence; the two sides' understanding of a "trump card" differed vastly. In the Underdark, while divine emissaries could not be said to roam the streets, they were common enough. How could they be as rare as on the surface? Thus, the moment Rhane sensed the divine power reaction, his first thought was that the enemy intended to summon an avatar descent. But upon seeing that the entity that emerged was merely a divine emissary of Gershu, Rhane immediately felt much more at ease.

To make such a huge commotion and only summon this kind of creature—it seemed the gap between the surface and the Underdark was indeed quite substantial.

At that very moment, the fallen divine emissary let out a fierce roar, and a ring of dark green, highly dangerous aura immediately spread outward in all directions centered around its body. Following that, those dark green wisps rolled and drilled directly into the bodies of those who had miraculously survived the prior frost strike. The situation changed instantly.

The kobold opened its eyes.

Those eyes, which should have been timid and filled with resentment, now burned with the flames of anger. Its limbs, previously as fragile as firewood, began to swell rapidly like an inflated balloon. Its stature, which was only the size of a human child, also began to grow swiftly. In just a moment, that short, frail kobold transformed into a two-meter-tall monster whose torn skin revealed raw flesh. With a roll, it shoved aside the prismatic ice crystal that had pinned it down, let out a long howl, and charged forward. Behind it were dozens of similarly robust and terrifying monsters.

"A Fallen Divine Emissary!!"

Running down from the slope, Daly clearly witnessed this scene, and her face instantly turned as pale as snow. Perhaps she did not know what kind of deity Gershu was, but she understood the traits of a fallen divine emissary. Seeing that the opponent could instantly ignite an unimaginable, terrifying force of renewed life in so many dying beings, this kind of "aura" skill was something only a divine emissary could achieve!!

"Lord Dobby, hurry up and go help Mr. Rhane! That is a divine emissary! We must stop them here, or the entire territory will be doomed!!"

"Elder Miss?"

Hearing Daly’s near-hysterical cry, Dobby was also startled. He was not one of those erudite mages and did not know what a divine emissary was. But clearly, the terrifying and massive monster before them was certainly not to be trifled with. At that moment, Rhane’s maiden knights had already charged forward, and behind them, the noble private soldiers gritted their teeth and followed closely, clashing in a fierce melee with those horrifying monsters.

Just then, Daly saw that terrifying monster finally make its move. Its figure flashed violently, and in the next instant, it rushed toward Rhane like a violent hurricane. The divine emissary raised the battle axe in its hands high and swung it down hard toward Rhane.

Seeing this, Daly screamed and closed her eyes. A divine emissary—the very term brought her infinite pressure, and she could almost imagine Rhane being hacked to pieces by the creature.

Yet at that moment, accompanied by a deafening "boom," an angry roar suddenly echoed beside Daly’s ears.

This is…

The young girl opened her eyes in astonishment, but all she saw now was the fallen divine emissary being sent flying in an ungraceful retreat, tracing an arc through the sky before crashing heavily onto the ground.

As for Rhane, he still stood there quietly, without moving an inch.

"This…"

Witnessing this scene, neither Daly nor Dobby, who had intended to rush forward to help, could do anything but stand frozen in utter shock. (To be continued.)