The human hero laughed sinisterly, holding the sacred sword. The two-meter-tall metal figure trembled, then another hero behind him waved his hand. A golden power hit Nebai’s armor.
*Crack!*
The whole armor exploded into countless pieces, revealing the small red-haired dwarf with the ethereal blade pierced through her chest.
She spat out a large amount of blood but looked coldly into the hero’s eyes, showing no sign of fear or pain.
"You have a lot of surprises. I’m curious to rip everything out of you," the human laughed disdainfully.
Nebai just gave him a dry, bloody smile. In her eyes, a celestial blue light shone. In that moment, all four heroes felt a divine presence staring at them coldly. She slowly opened her lips: "Fuck you."
*SHOOOSH!*
Suddenly, a pulse of celestial blue light erupted from Nebai’s body. The human hero smiled sinisterly and charged forward with the sacred sword.
The ethereal blade pierced more than half of her chest. Nebai spat out more blood, but at that moment, the blue around her began to twist. Then it thickened and started to flicker... like flames... they were the Celestial Flames.
Those strange flames engulfed the human hero. His face soon twisted, and his entire body seemed to be immersed in a sea of lava. An indescribable pain hit him.
Nebai snorted, her fist clenched, covered by small metal plates. With a violent motion, she spun her small fist.
*BANG!*
The hero was violently thrown against the wall of the room. The other three were stunned, staring at the dwarf who was slowly getting up from the ground.
The ethereal blade was still lodged in her chest, and she spat out another mouthful of blood with a cold face. Her eyes pulsed like beacons, and her small body looked like a torch engulfed in Celestial Flames.
Nebai smiled slightly as she faced the heroes. In her mind, a cold voice echoed: ’Don’t trigger the market dwarves, and don’t even think about sacrificing yourself. If you try something stupid again, I’ll bring her back from hell if necessary, just to kill you for real.’
’But...’
’No "buts," value your life. You have a child to raise. He’s fine; I can feel it,’ the whale’s voice sounded harsh. ’Just hold firm and pretend this is the power of the God of Merchants.’
At that moment, the human hero stood up. The Celestial Flames had already vanished, but his clothes were full of holes, and the visible skin through them was frighteningly black.
The Celestial Flames would have surely killed anyone with 1% of that hero’s karma, but heroic power wasn’t simple. Bruno was well aware of that power. The celestial laws themselves protected the hero. He felt a lot of pain, but it would never be fatal.
"You bitch... what the hell is this?!" the human turned to the dark elf, thoughtful.
He replied calmly, "It’s a power that a god receives from their worshippers. It’s like the materialization of their faith. I’ve never seen it used like this before either."
"The rules of the God of Merchants cannot be broken! I won’t reveal anything, even if I die!" Nebai exclaimed.
"You won’t have that chance." The dark elf snorted. "You two, focus on sealing this room; she can’t use those strange things. We’ll slowly remove those laws. This is irrelevant before the Holy Goddess. If she tries to kill herself another way, it’ll be even easier; we’ll just take her soul."
The three nodded, activating their powers to the max. Quickly, Nebai was surrounded by a golden light coming from all sides. It was so intense that she couldn’t see anything around her.
The Celestial Flames around her formed a protective layer that burned slowly to defend her, but they were trembling and being affected. In a few minutes, they would be extinguished.
Outside that building, at the Yinblood sect...
The whale was next to Mistie and her whole group. He spoke seriously: "She has less than an hour. We need to be quick."
Everyone listened anxiously. The situation had unfolded suddenly. The heroes had invaded another distant Larimar market and arrived directly at that building. Luckily, Nebai was quick to send a message before sealing everything. Now, no one could enter or exit that place easily.
Nebai, like all the dwarves, was already a follower of the whale’s faith. Bruno had long been able to transfer power and energy to his followers, and now he was using that ability to the max to buy time.
"Almin, you need to create the Nine Heavens Pills again. We don’t have time; her life is in your hands. They need to be of the highest level, without attracting a tribulation, and must be made in a few minutes."
The whale spoke quickly, sending several leaves from the tree. When they were still on the Pristine planet, those pills made from the leaves of that tree were essential for their cultivation. Now, in the divine world, that became irrelevant.
Almin received the pills and immediately took out his Mithril furnace, the same one that Alm and Bruno had made for him in the past. Though it was still functional, it was already at its limit, and soon he would need better equipment.
Bruno let out a heavy sigh. Since Nebai’s message had come through quickly, he was able to connect through the power of faith and hear what the heroes were saying. They had made a serious mistake, but there was no way for them to know that this legendary tree had anything to do with the Queen and the heroes.
The moment Nebai decided to fight and sacrifice herself, Bruno knew it would be useless to try to stop her. So, he let the hero hold her back with his sacred sword; however, he focused all the power of faith on her son, ensuring no harm would come to him. She was heavily injured inside, but she wouldn’t die.
The whale turned to Zaimo, who, though calm on the outside, was in total chaos inside his mind.
"Calm down, both of them are fine. You’re not alone anymore like before. You trusted your brother; now trust your allies. My power is limited, but they’ll sort this out."
Zaimo nodded, taking a deep breath to steady himself. The whale then addressed Kaiyka: "We need your power at full blast. It has to be something so terrifying that it even makes a hero hesitate."
Ten minutes passed...
Twenty... Thirty... Fifty...
Inside the Larimar market.
Nebai, now surrounded by only a fragile celestial blue aura, could barely stand. The heroes laughed sinisterly, seeing she was about to crumble. Yet, she looked at them calmly.
The heroes noticed something had completely changed in her eyes. It was as if the God that made her rebel had left. Now, her submission to them was back.
"Gentlemen, my client just contacted me. The dwarves from the market summoned him, and he arrived quickly." Nebai said, bowing. Bruno was amazed by her performance.
The heroes were surprised by this statement. Could it be a lie? But, at that moment, Nebai waved her tablet, which controlled the formation of the area.
Immediately, the heroes felt the runes of the building shift. The place that had been sealed now seemed completely open. They exchanged suspicious glances, but she wouldn’t have done that if she weren’t telling the truth.
The dark elf signaled to the other three, who sighed and removed the heroic power surrounding Nebai. The room returned to normal, and the sound of quick footsteps echoed through the space.
The four heroes turned to the entrance, where a door used to be. There, they saw a human dressed in black clothes, flaunting the symbol of a phoenix on his chest.
"Sect... Phoenix Cry Sect? An alchemist?" The dark elf looked at Almin, intrigued.
Almin quickly nodded and knelt, offering his spatial ring to the hero. "Gentlemen, I’m the one who found these leaves. Please, take a look."
The dark elf examined the contents of the ring, pulling out a pill that radiated nine high-level elements. All four heroes felt the connection to the legendary nine-star tree.
"Where did this come from?" the elf asked, suspiciously.
"I found it about a year ago, inside a sealed gray world belonging to my sect. It’s an ancient battlefield. I accidentally stumbled upon an underground cave, and inside, the legacy of the God of Alchemy," Almin replied promptly.
"Legacy?" the human hero asked dryly.
"Yeah," Almin confirmed. "There were these pills, some magical leaves, and a rune of knowledge. I absorbed all the knowledge, but I’m still studying the pills. Since the state of the universe is chaotic, I decided to sell the leaves to gather resources. I planned to buy rare materials and better weapons. Are these leaves really that strange?"
The heroes watched him seriously. Everything seemed too convenient. They had researched these leaves as soon as they learned about them at the auction and knew that these relics shouldn’t exist.
However, what had happened in the past wasn’t entirely certain. It wasn’t impossible for hidden secrets to have survived. Maybe the God of Alchemy had acquired these leaves ages ago, without the heroes knowing.
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The dark elf snorted. "Well, it doesn’t matter. We’ll uncover the truth easily."
He signaled and covered Almin with his heroic power, lifting him off the ground and holding him by the neck. Without hesitation, the dark elf invaded Almin’s mental sea, searching for his memories.
As he entered the mental sea, the elf’s power froze for a moment. He felt a powerful presence watching him.
He looked around alarmed. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t immediately identify the cause of that strange feeling. After thinking for a bit, he decided to ignore it and focus on Almin’s memories.
The dark elf began reading the most recent memories. Over the last few months, he saw only the alchemist preparing pills and studying incessantly. It was boring, and it didn’t make sense to see the details; there was nothing suspicious. So, he decided to move forward to the moment mentioned by Almin, where he saw him inside the sealed world.
After an intense battle that cracked the ground, he noticed something hidden very deeply by chance. Inside, he found the inheritance of the God of Alchemy. The memories seemed to match what Almin had reported.
Still, the dark elf couldn’t neglect anything. He tried to read all the memories from the last few years to be sure. But... suddenly, a rune pulsed in Almin’s mental sea.
The hero was stunned to notice that the rune was made with the power of faith, combined with a terrifying soul power. That was the source of the previous feeling. A clear threat was happening there; if he went any further, things wouldn’t be simple.
In a few seconds, the dark elf opened his eyes again. He huffed and released Almin.
"He’s telling the truth. This is a relic from a distant past, and it has nothing to do with a Heaven-Defier," he stated coldly.
"Did you check everything? We should check too," suggested the human hero, irritated.
"No need," the dark elf replied, blocking the other’s advance. "The knowledge rune he absorbed has a power similar to that of the dwarf. There was no record of this, but it seems that the God of Alchemy also had followers. If we dig deeper, it’ll become problematic."
"Who cares? The power of the Holy Goddess can remove this."
"It would take us months to remove everything. We can’t waste time on trivialities," the dark elf cut in. "We have a lot of work. The Heaven-Defier is acting somewhere else at this very moment. These pills just confirm they’re not related to him. This young alchemist could never create something of this level; it can only be the work of the God of Alchemy himself."
The human made a dark expression. He was humiliated by a simple dwarf; was he just going to walk away accepting that easily? However, he couldn’t challenge the dark elf. There was a well-established hierarchy among the heroes.
"What about that weird armor? Everything seems extremely suspicious," the human hero insisted.
"At the recent convention, all the dwarves presented similar artifacts. If you’re curious, you won’t find answers with this insignificant woman. This is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things; save your complaints for now," the dark elf replied, turning to Nebai. He watched her kneeling, with no signs of rebellion in her posture.
"These heretical gods... but that doesn’t matter now. Let’s focus on the main task. As soon as we locate that sinner and eliminate him, we can eradicate any worshipers of other gods. They’ve already spread, contaminating this entire universe, and that’s unforgivable."
With a gesture, the dark elf signaled to the other three, who quickly moved without looking back.
Fortunately, the urgency of the situation in the universe was too great for them to waste time on their own whims. In another context, even with the same evidence, no one there would leave alive.
The aura of the sinful and sinister Heaven-Defier permeated those heroes; they had to find him and couldn’t chase after useless things. Meanwhile, the sinister, round figure that had recently become quite popular sighed in relief.