God-Tier Villain

Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Soren swept a glance over Althea’s trio, unbruised, unpunished, untouched, his expression shifted.

Lysara knew what that meant for her, she raised her voice to prop up her own courage.

"Soren! My human race will never compromise, never."

"You should give up now."

"You’ve caged me here and slaughtered thousands upon thousands of human cultivators, Emperor Grant of my human race will not let you off!"

"He will find a way to destroy a menace like you!"

Off to the side, Bruce started up a low "hehehehe."

Lysara glared daggers at master and servant both, she had no idea what could possibly be funny.

"That Great Emperor of yours isn’t fit to carry our Master’s shoes!"

"Hehe, the ignorant know no fear!"

Whenever Lysara invoked Emperor Grant, her eyes went bright with pride.

"Emperor Grant commands powerful methods beyond counting, he is the only Upper-Tier Great Emperor of my entire Moonveil Human Domain, with a colossal faction at his back."

"And Soren? Soren has no backing and no allies, even his own demon kin can’t stomach him, what does he have that compares to Emperor Grant?"

"Bullshit! If Grant offered himself as my Master’s mount, my Master would complain the ride’s too bumpy!" Bruce glared at her, itching to introduce her to his hammer, anyone who spoke ill of Soren, he’d fight to the death.

Lysara lifted her chin, all haughty disdain.

In the very next second, Soren crushed that pride flat.

"Is this the Emperor Grant you keep talking about?"

His wrist flicked, a spatial door tore open, and a blood-soaked figure came rolling out onto the floor.

Lysara’s vision went black, she stood there, struck dumb.

"Emperor... Emperor Grant!"

Grant’s face was swollen like a pig’s head, and still Lysara knew him at a glance.

The shock was unlike anything in her life, the strongest Upper-Tier Human Emperor of the Moonveil Human Domain, reduced to this.

Grant’s breath came thin and ragged. "Demon Emperor Soren, spare my life."

"I can hold the Moonveil Human Domain for you, I will serve you as my master, the human cultivators there all answer to me."

The words hit Lysara like a bolt of lightning.

"Emperor Grant, what... what are you saying?"

"He is a demon! A demon of the demon race!"

"Why would a Great Emperor of the human race ever bow to the demon race?"

Grant had little strength and none to waste on her questions, he ignored them.

The only matter of consequence was prying his life out of Soren’s hands, if that meant selling the entire Moonveil Human Domain, spending every faction and every cultivator as the price, so be it.

Lysara stood rooted, refusing to believe her own ears, she could not bear to accept that the Upper-Tier Human Emperor she had held as her benchmark was, underneath it all, a coward who clung to life and feared death above everything.

Her loyalty to the human race and her faith in Emperor Grant both teetered on the edge of collapse.

Soren flicked a glance at Bruce, who fed Grant a healing pill, there was still use for the man, Soren needed him to open his independent spatial storage.

By the time an incense stick might have burned down, Grant’s condition had visibly improved, he scrambled onto one knee. "Spare my life! I will give you everything I have!"

Bruce, delighted, decided to fan the flames and watch Lysara’s face while he did it.

"Hey! She says my Master isn’t fit to be mentioned in the same breath as you."

"I say you aren’t fit to carry my Master’s shoes."

"So which of us is right?"

"Neither." Terrified of a misunderstanding, Grant rushed to elaborate.

"Comparing me to Emperor Soren is itself a grave insult to Emperor Soren."

"I am not fit to carry Emperor Soren’s shoes."

"Letting me lick the soles of Emperor Soren’s shoes would already be flattery."

Lysara stared, her thoughts a hopeless snarl, these words, from an Upper-Tier Human Emperor? degrading himself this far to curry favor with Soren?

"Emperor Grant, I misjudged you, you are unworthy of the title of Great Emperor of the human race, you are the scum of our race, a disgrace."

"Shut your mouth! You led an army against the Ice Heaven Demonic Realm, Emperor Soren is still gracious enough to spare you, and this is your gratitude?"

"What!?" Lysara staggered back three steps.

"Attacking the Ice Heaven Demonic Palace was the mission you assigned me!"

"You were the one who told me..."

"That only by taking the Ice Heaven Demonic Realm could I build the prestige to one day inherit your position, and carry on the great cause of eliminating demons, defending the Dao, and protecting the human race!"

"That was merely my own selfish design, I have a son who has coveted you for a long time, if I didn’t paint you a grand picture, how would you ever feel indebted to me? And how would you find it impossible to refuse when I matched you with my son?"

"You’re despicable!"

With Grant and Lysara at each other’s throats, the last shreds of pretense burned away, and Lysara finally saw the man’s true face in full.

Soren and Bruce watched the drama from the sidelines in comfortable silence.

For a moment, Soren toyed with keeping Grant as a puppet to manage the human race, but the strategy panel was blunt.

Grant was treacherous by nature, conquering him would demand enormous time and a heavier price still.

He weighed it, found it wanting, and dropped the idea without regret.

Over the stretch that followed, he extracted answers to everything he wanted to know, including why Grant had bid on the Spirit siblings at the auction.

Eager to prove devotion, Grant voluntarily opened his spatial storage and surrendered the siblings, along with the accumulated hoard of a lifetime, spiritual pills, miraculous medicines, natural treasures, he held back nothing.

"Soren, let me kill him."

"Lysara! You’re courting death!"

"Let me kill him, and from this day on I will do whatever you say, even if it means betraying the human race, I accept it!" Her trust in Grant had struck zero, the realization that she had been a pawn, that every faction in the Moonveil Human Domain was a pawn Grant would happily discard, made her want to cough up blood.