Chapter 643: 121. Present (Combination of Two)
At the moment Fisher felt Elizabeth’s gaze sweep over him, even he, who had just returned to being an ordinary person, clearly sensed an extremely familiar sensation. Especially the chilling feeling that seemed to pierce through everything he had, not to mention Valentina beside him.
The cold wind in her hand was fierce, and as she was about to make a move, a warning resonated in her heart. She instinctively took a step back, and soon a layer of gray stone appeared in the spot where she had been standing, which was clearly different from the surrounding brick structures and evidently formed by Elizabeth’s gaze.
She couldn’t help but think, if just now the light from that gaze had shone upon her, wouldn’t she be the one turned to stone?
“This fluctuation is from Pandora… No, how is this possible? She should have died in that cursed place ten thousand years ago.”
“Pandora, who is that? Are they very powerful?”
Valentina was extremely unfamiliar with the name mentioned by the Duke of Peach in her mind, clearly hearing it for the first time. The Duke’s initially dismissive “small fry mode” gradually faded, becoming especially serious.
“Pandora, like me, is one of the two types of mythical beings that pre-existed this world, an angelic race (demons and chaos are excluded). Coincidentally, she happens to be one of the seven most powerful archangels; she, Gabriel, and Michael are the three strongest among them. However, she was supposed to have died in the Ideal Nation ten thousand years ago, when your dead husband was also there. I’m not sure why her power suddenly manifested in that human woman, but if I’m not mistaken, her eyes are the key.”
Hearing the Duke’s reminder, Valentina had to get ready for battle. The human form that had been restored by Life Chaos gradually sprouted cyan feathers. At the same time, a long sword imbued with biting cold wind was forcefully drawn, covering the walls of the entire room with frost like it summoned a storm.
It was the sword of the Phoenix King from ancient times.
Elizabeth was slightly taken aback, seemingly not fully aware of the power she possessed in her eyes, still shackled by a human perspective, thus showing obvious apprehension towards the storm brewing in Valentina’s hand.
At this moment, the advantage of having guidance from a “senior” became apparent. Seeing her hesitation, Valentina quickly made up her mind.
In her eyes, the Duke of Peach had already become an immensely powerful being. Based on the words the Duke usually spoke to her, she had automatically regarded him as a being far beyond human and even the Phoenix’s imagination from ancient times. The only opponents worthy of her were equally powerful demigods and mythical beings, or the “chaos” she often mentioned.
And if Elizabeth potentially harbored power comparable to the Duke of Peach, the optimal solution was, of course, to quickly leave with Fisher.
The Duke of Peach’s ability hadn’t fully recovered, and Valentina couldn’t fully understand Elizabeth’s situation and true powers. Even if they were fighting against that detestable old woman who was trying to snatch Fisher, she wouldn’t lose her mind and engage in combat.
After all, she had already married Fisher; she was the winner.
As both sides readied themselves for conflict in an instant, Fisher’s pupils contracted slightly, and he instinctively reached for the Fluid Sword in his embrace to intervene. But when he realized that his movements to shift his feet and raise his arm were a thousand times slower than usual, he belatedly remembered he was still under a secret blessing!
This blessing was good in many ways, first allowing him to resist the attention and power of chaos, and later facilitating infiltration and action. But why couldn’t it prevent this situation?!
They could easily detect him, and Fisher couldn’t actively deactivate this blessing, which meant he had to watch as Valentina and Elizabeth clashed?
No, no way, this absolutely couldn’t happen. If Elizabeth struck, she would certainly not hold back. Moreover, the power in Elizabeth’s eyes was clearly off, and he wasn’t sure if Valentina could handle it.
“Wait, Valentina, stop!”
After considering it, Fisher quickly made a decision to escape from this direct confrontation. He braved the cold wind and came to Valentina’s side, saying to her, “Let’s leave here first.”
“Just as I wanted!”
Valentina smiled slightly, thinking Fisher was in sync with her thoughts. The cold wind in her hand condensed to its peak, making Elizabeth nearby even more wary as she prepared to face her attack.
Then, she just needed to leave quickly with Fisher when Valentina paused, letting the slime teleport them away from here.
All her plans were good, but Valentina underestimated the synergy between Elizabeth and Fisher.
Because the moment Fisher turned to run towards Valentina, the on-guard Elizabeth suddenly had veins bulging, gritting her teeth and her gaze seemed to spit fire as she quickly realized that he intended for Valentina to take him away.
“Fisher, where do you think you’re going?!!”
“Crack, crack, crack!!”
Elizabeth’s cold voice arrived simultaneously with her gaze. Before Fisher could react, he felt his clothes turning into hard stone. Strangely, although he was bathed in Elizabeth’s gaze, he seemed entirely immune to that light.
“Ugh!”
His hair and skin remained unchanged in that gaze, with only his clothes turning into stone.
His pupils contracted slightly as if he had realized something, but at that moment, his clothes had completely transformed into a cage that trapped him, his current human form struggled to break free from.
“Fisher!”
Seeing the feigned attack plan to take Fisher away fail, Valentina no longer cared about anything else. The power of the Phoenix King’s sword was fully gathered, and the biting cold had turned into countless firm ice towards Elizabeth.
“Where do you intend to take my Fisher?”
Elizabeth’s hollow gaze flickered slightly, as her head tilted slightly, a slender sword engulfed in golden flames slowly materialized in her hand. That sword blade seemed to also be some kind of relic, but once again, it couldn’t fully unleash its power due to Elizabeth’s body.
“Boom!”
The golden flames surging from it appeared like a small flame roasting the hardened ice in front of the fully-realized Phoenix King’s sword. In an instant, Elizabeth’s form became so small that she seemed about to be engulfed by the frost filling the entire room.
As she saw the figure covered in golden flames about to be engulfed by solid ice, Fisher instinctively felt his heart stop, as if his throat developed a mind of its own, tearing through his concealed concern for her safety.
“Elizabeth!”
“Fisher, we need to leave here right away. Don’t worry, I haven’t attacked yet.”
Taking advantage of that time, Valentina rapidly turned to look at Fisher, who was ensnared in stone, and tightly grasped his hand, wanting to pull him out of the stone. But inside Fisher’s heart, a feeling that connected him with Elizabeth made him feel something was off.
Was Elizabeth really this easy to—
“Buzz, buzz, buzz!!”
Just as Valentina’s hand was about to touch Fisher’s palm, a scorching golden light suddenly brightened amidst the solid ice before them. Before Valentina could react, a terrifying shockwave shattered the ice formed by her sword.
“Boom!”
The entire room and half of the church collapsed under that horrific shock, and the crowd that had been carrying Heilson’s crystal coffin had already moved far away, startled by the sudden explosion behind them, causing chaos as they sought refuge, with some significant figures even lying flat on the ground, showing their desperation for life.
While huddling in fear, they shouted,
“Ah!! Protect the Empress!! Protect the Empress!! There’s an assassin!!”
The crowd was in a disarray, even the clergy carrying the coffin hurried to turn back, hesitating about whether to abandon the coffin to hide. However, upon glancing behind, the figure draped in black veil, holding Alicia, remained motionless, like a mountain.
From outside, swarms of cardinals, flocking in like bees, encircled the church, and farther away, countless heavily armored warriors rose from standby, entering from the outer area.
Meanwhile, the “suggestive illusion” of Elizabeth formed by Pandora’s eye raised her hand. Her voice, calm to the point of indifference, echoed through the air, transmitted by the flying cardinals to everyone present,
“Ladies and gentlemen, Elizabeth conveys her personal condolences regarding the recent incident. An unknown situation has arisen at the venue, and the Golden Palace’s security forces have fully intervened for investigation. I hope everyone maintains calm and prioritizes their own safety before the proceedings of Heilson the magician’s coffin burial continue. Please leave in an orderly manner or follow along. Next, everyone is prohibited from approaching the site of the incident; violators will be subjected to immediate execution for disrupting defenses and threatening public safety.”
“Yes, Your Majesty! It’s good that Your Majesty is safe!!”
“We will listen to Your Majesty.”
Meanwhile, Alicia, grasped by “Elizabeth,” instinctively tried to break free from the Empress’s grasp, seeing the church behind suddenly explode. Yet the hand holding hers felt like cuffs, completely immobilizing her.
She was anxious but didn’t know what to do. Her little heart raced, and she hastily urged Emhart,
“Mr. Book, over there… You quickly leave, go check on Big Brother. I’m worried about him.”
“I… I’m caught by her, I can’t fly! Boohoo, we’ve all been discovered!”
“Huh? Caught?”
Alicia blinked slightly, turning her head to look at Emhart, who stood on her shoulder. There was nothing beside him, but he seemed restrained by something, struggling but unable to move.
She swallowed hard, looking back at the “Empress Elizabeth” who had tightly grasped her hand and refused to let go.
“Boom, boom, boom!!”
Amid the smoke from the church’s explosion, a sound explosive burst forth, swirling through the dense smoke rapidly escaping from the half-collapsed ruins.
Coming into view was a stunning figure wrapped in turquoise feathers, resembling the beautiful, robust subhuman spoken of in the Northern Region, the “Overlord,” the Phoenix.
The last Phoenix, Valentina, had now completely shed the human form crafted by Life Chaos, restoring to her original Phoenix form. She bore no injuries, but due to the immense shockwave, she flew several dozen meters before finally landing on the grassy field outside the church.
“Fisher!”
But before she could do anything else, she anxiously looked towards the church shrouded in thick smoke, seemingly wanting to go back.
Because just now, she hadn’t managed to pull Fisher out.
Yet, in that moment of glancing up, she saw something difficult to accept and stood frozen in place.
In front of the ruins of the church stood Elizabeth, who had also somehow escaped, clad in black veils, tightly embracing the man named “Fisher.” At that moment, because Fisher’s clothing had all turned to stone, when Elizabeth forcibly pulled him out, he was left only in a white shirt underneath.
At this moment, Elizabeth firmly pressed one hand against his back, tearing apart his already fragile shirt, while the other hand locked his chin like a vice.
From Elizabeth’s wrist, a force emanated that no human body could resist.
“Elizabeth, you…”
But before he could finish speaking, Elizabeth had already seized the moment, abruptly lowering her head.
Thus, rather coincidentally, just as Valentina lifted her gaze, she witnessed the intimate contact between Elizabeth and Fisher, or perhaps, it was more accurately described as Elizabeth’s “violation” of Fisher?
“Pop!”
It seemed like all the unspoken longing from years apart, the grievances of not seeing him for so long, and the joy of reunion were all expressed at once. Elizabeth disregarded everything and tore apart the white shirt on him piece by piece, restraining his note of resistance while emitting exaggerated sounds of demand, which sounded even more jarring in front of the whirl of cardinals.
Or rather, especially jarring to Valentina?
“Fisher.”
Valentina, who had just lifted her head, stood frozen in place. Meanwhile, the entranced Elizabeth slightly opened her long golden eyelashes, her cold and provocative gaze fixed on Valentina from a distance, seemingly declaring to her:
“Your husband will now belong to me.”
“Crack, crack, crack!!”
Valentina gritted her teeth hard, the divine light on her body becoming increasingly difficult to suppress, and the cloud above turned particularly gloomy as if gathering a storm in the sky.
She abruptly raised the sword in her hand, her eyes slightly reddening,
“Elizabeth!! How dare you!!”
That salacious mode of kissing seemed like she wanted to consume Fisher whole… The tongue… the tongue must have touched too?!!
Clearly, I am Fisher’s wife.
Clearly, I haven’t even tried such a kiss myself. How could you—
No! This old woman!!
Clearly, she is already past her prime, with no husband and still trying to snatch someone else’s!!
This humiliation…
The more Valentina thought about it, the angrier she became. Her originally sharp-witted brain swelled with blood in an instant, and evidently, her anger took over.
She drew her sword, the wings symbolizing the Phoenix’s immense power flaring wide open, looking both determined and unwilling to let it go.
“You damned old woman!! You’ve gone too far!!”
“Wait, small fry, calm down!!”
The Duke of Peach’s voice sounded like an alarm ringing nonstop in her head, reminding her of the danger of Pandora’s power, urging her to act rationally.
“This human woman absolutely possesses Pandora’s power, but I still don’t understand the details of how much or how she inherited it. If she holds all or even most of Pandora’s power, today we’ll be in serious danger!! Don’t forget, this is Nali, not your Parasol Tree! If you get in trouble, the consequences will be severe!! We have to leave here first!”
In truth, from the Duke’s rational perspective, leaving Fisher behind quickly was the best strategy.
Currently, her power had not fully recovered, and with a great enemy of chaos ahead, she didn’t want to waste it on such a meaningless struggle. Moreover, she hadn’t understood how Pandora’s power had crossed tens of thousands of years to appear within this human empress. That’s why she suggested that the isolated Valentina should quickly retreat; otherwise, it would be quite troublesome once those cardinals comparable to high ranks surrounded them.
After all, considering what that human empress had done to Fisher, leaving him here wouldn’t matter much; it would only injure him a bit. Perhaps she even thought Valentina owed something related to that dead husband of hers, and she had hinted these matters to Valentina outright and indirectly when the Parasol Tree had just awakened.
However, as a lofty mythical being, she obviously didn’t know how fiercely angry Valentina would be upon seeing her “husband” humiliated.
“Fisher is still in her hands!! How can I just leave now?! Especially in front of me!!”
“You small fry really…”
But the Duke of Peach was merely a guest residing in her body and could not make decisions for her. In the next moment, Valentina already intended to advance further against Elizabeth ruthlessly, at the very least to retrieve Fisher!
And seeing Valentina charging forward, Elizabeth, while kissing Fisher, slightly opened her eyes, and golden light flashed within.
Just as she was about to act, Fisher once again sensed with great intuition that Elizabeth was preparing something, waiting for Valentina to come to her.
No!
Seeing that his human strength couldn’t break free from Elizabeth’s clasp, he had to adopt a very primal method of resistance.
In a moment of instinctive action, he allowed his formerly resisting tongue to slacken its defenses and took on a demeanor of surrendering to Elizabeth’s pursuit. Elizabeth was slightly taken aback but wasn’t fooled. Observing that Fisher’s tongue was retreating and no longer advancing, she merely glanced at him, evidently having the same connection to see through his small ruse.
Sometimes, knowing a person too well and having mutual understanding isn’t necessarily a good thing, is it?
“…”
“Fisher!!”
Not far away, Valentina had unleashed her massive wings, rapidly diving towards them, creating sonic booms in her wake, her speed approaching dangerously as she seemed about to fall into Elizabeth’s trap.
It was too late!
Fisher hesitated for a moment, and in a moment of contemplation, he suddenly launched an attack, returning the kiss right back, strategically aiming to catch Elizabeth off guard just as Valentina’s line of sight fell upon them.
“Pop!”
Elizabeth was momentarily thrown off by this sudden response; her formerly aggressive rhythm was abruptly interrupted. It was like being prepared to carefully touch the world’s most adorable cat, which had a bad temper and didn’t let anyone touch it, but upon contact, the cat unexpectedly became docile and began to purr contentedly.
This must have been bewildering; Elizabeth was indeed in that state.
I was ready to take control, and you surprise me with such initiative?
Or was it a trap?
Elizabeth blinked, just as her internal thoughts began, yet that active kiss from her beloved made her eyes glaze over. Her previously stony hands and body gradually melted away under Fisher’s passion, losing the will to resist.
A great opportunity!!
In the next second, Fisher abruptly stood up, firmly pressing down on her wrist, taking a step back as Elizabeth was still languishing in their kiss’s aftermath, glancing at Valentina, halting her advance.
“Valentina, turn back! Let’s leave here first!”
Valentina blinked slightly, her wings, once rushing toward the ground, came to an abrupt halt, and at that moment so close to the ground, she spun around, the surge of air tearing toward the ground behind her.
In this final moment, reason still triumphed. She quickly grasped Fisher’s hand, intent on leaving this tightly surrounded place.
But behind them, Elizabeth’s body was still reeling in shock. At that moment Fisher let go, and her reaction took a second to process. However, the gust of wind from Valentina was already pushing against her veils, disorienting her to the ground, tumbling her several feet away.
Through this retreat and advance, Elizabeth raised her hollow eyes to the half-empty sky, and Valentina had already flown away with her beloved Fisher over a hundred meters.
Her pupils were about to shatter, and her expression twisted into something slightly grotesque as she finally screamed out with her last breath,
“Fisher Benavides!! How much longer must I wait for you?!! How long will you run away?! Tell me!!! Tell me!! Boohoo, tell me!!”
Her eyes were gradually reddening, and amidst her sorrowful, broken voice, the terrible power hidden in her gaze seemed to awaken with her emotions.
In the next instant, everything in her sight, the flying cardinals, the grass, the distant mountains, along with the silhouettes of the two fleeing her began to bizarrely turn into gray-white stone.
That terrifying, spectacular petrification began to reverse from a great distance, threatening to turn everything she could see into lifeless stone.
“Quick! Pandora’s power is still rising!! I seriously suspect that human has stuffed Pandora whole into her head! How is this possible…”
Valentina felt the horror behind her, and the Duke of Peach’s increasingly serious and cold voice also sounded, prompting her to act swiftly. She hurriedly took out a slime token intended for teleportation,
“Fisher, we’re leaving right now. I’ll take you back to the Northern Region first.”
“…”
Yet behind her, Fisher, being grasped by her hand, did not respond at all, merely remaining silent.
“Ugh…”
But behind her, the sorrowful and angry cries of Elizabeth spread within his heart like the encroaching petrification, causing his body to tremble in mid-air.
He bit his lip and after a moment of silence, he finally spoke softly,
“… Valentina, Emhart and the teacher’s granddaughter are still with her. I need to save them.”
“No problem, once we return, I will deploy the forces immediately. The power in her eyes is strange; we need to study it well…”
But in her urgency, Valentina failed to detect that what Fisher said was merely an excuse.
In the next second, just as the golden light of the slime’s power descended from the edge of the sky, Valentina suddenly felt Fisher, holding her hand, loosen his grip actively.
“Fisher?”
She was wrapped in the transmitting golden light, but with disbelief, she turned back to look at Fisher, who had actively let go of her hand.
“Fisher?”
Fisher merely sighed with a complicated expression and then said with some remorse,
“I forgot to prepare the ring I owe you during this meeting, but I have already thought of the style that would suit you in my mind.”
“A ring? Now? Fisher, you…”
However, Valentina’s shocked words had yet to finish when she was completely engulfed by the transmitting golden light and quickly disappeared from the scene, heading to the unknown “slime’s edge.”
“Buzz, buzz, buzz!!”
Amidst the shimmering golden light of the slime’s value, Fisher descended, ultimately crashing into the slightly moist grass with a painful gasp.
He lay on the ground for a while, the uncertainties and regrets that had inevitably sprouted within him gradually dissipating, extinguished without a trace.
Because he heard, Elizabeth’s broken cries seemed to have stopped.
“…”
Just like that, it was enough.
Fisher blinked, and then he dragged his human body, which felt particularly heavy, inhaling sharply as he sat up, wanting to find Elizabeth’s voice. Yet all he saw was emptiness.
“Elizabeth?”
“Bang!!”
Just as he was about to call out to her, a violent impact came from behind.
His eyes widened slightly, and he suddenly lost consciousness, collapsing before a figure clad in black before completely fainting. Just before losing awareness, he still heard a voice, distant yet close, filled with joy whispering,
“Great, great, Fisher. You’re back, it’s so good.”
“We’ll be together forever soon.”
“Forever.”
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(End of Chapter)
