God-Tier Villain

Chapter 77: Chapter 77

Nice words, trouble was, her tier with Soren hadn’t lit Absolute Loyalty yet.

At Deep Affection and Righteousness she still carried a lot of unpredictability, and Soren didn’t hand out trust cheaply.

"You said Grant was the only public Upper-Tier Human Emperor in the domain."

"Could there be hidden ones?"

Lysara wasn’t sure. She nodded, then shook her head. "Only rumors, my own master mentioned it once."

"They say every Human Domain, Moonveil included, keeps a mysterious Domain Protector hidden somewhere, in ordinary times they stay out of power struggles inside the domain."

"But the moment the Spirit race, beast race, or demon race invades and puts the human race in a life-or-death crisis, they show themselves."

Mysterious Domain Protectors, the rumor wasn’t baseless, digging through his inherited memories Soren turned up the same hearsay, still just a legend, as far as anyone could prove.

Plenty of Human Domains had fallen to the other three races, and no so-called Domain Protector had ever come to the rescue.

There were back-alley versions of the rumor too, each Domain Protector was said to be one of a kind.

They carried the burden of guarding a whole Human Domain, and the duty of finding the next one to inherit that will.

If a Protector failed to find a worthy heir and lost their edge to old age, the line for that domain broke.

Few who reached Upper-Tier Emperor were willing to stand watch over an entire domain alone, in silence.

Most people wanted the opposite, status, to tower over the crowd and be known by everyone.

Whoever could shoulder the role had to be strong and steady in equal measure, mind like stone.

Soren dropped the subject, whether the Moonveil Human Domain had a Protector or not changed nothing.

Back as a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor he could already crush an Upper-Tier Human Emperor.

Now, at Upper-Tier, even an Ancestor Realm expert would shiver on sight of him.

The trip had two goals.

First, to shape Lysara into what he wanted, even short of lighting Following to the Death, she had to light Absolute Loyalty.

Second, this region’s position was genuinely critical, and he meant to walk it himself before deciding whether to spare Moonveil’s humans and put them to work, or tear them out root and stem.

For a heartbeat Lysara caught the killing intent bleeding off him, and her pulse jumped.

The border of the Moonveil Human Domain.

As the two crossed over one behind the other, ripples spread across the air, a barrier of some kind.

Soren gave it a glance and looked away, unbothered.

Lysara was less calm, her brows drawing together. "The territory of each domain is enormous, even an Upper-Tier Emperor couldn’t wrap the whole thing in a barrier."

"They can only plant sensory formations at intervals to catch strong fluctuations, how strange."

"I don’t remember the Moonveil border being walled off by a half-transparent barrier like this."

Soren’s voice stayed light. "It isn’t a barrier over the whole domain."

"Just a local one, covering the stretch that borders Black Dragon Mountain." He snorted, a flicker of interest in his eyes.

"Looks like you humans already guessed I’d come in through here."

"That regional barrier was probably thrown up within the last few days."

"Our position’s already been pinned." Lysara asked, "Master, should we change route? Or tear straight through the void to the Moonveil Imperial Palace?"

"They went to the trouble of a local barrier, that means they’ve already rigged the palace with restrictions and traps."

Realization crossed her face. "I see it now, they don’t actually want Master to walk into the traps around the palace."

"The opposite, they want to signal that the palace is fully prepared, so tearing through the void straight to it looks like a fool’s move."

"Their real aim is to drag the fight out here, to the outskirts."

"To stop Master from pushing deeper, right here."

Soren’s look turned to contempt, close to a sneer. "A waste of effort."

"I never planned to slink into the Moonveil Human Domain quietly."

"Let’s make some noise for them, draw in every clueless human cultivator while we’re at it."

"Anyone who dares interfere, kill them."

"Kill every last one that comes."

"Slaughter them all."

Lysara shuddered.

Those old fools in the palace were being far too clever, and completely blind to how terrifying he actually was, did they really think they could stop him here?

Back then, she’d taken this exact same devastating blow.

"What are you waiting for?"

Soren’s tone was flat.

"N-nothing, I will see to it at once."

She would never disobey him, she was still a hundred times unwilling to make war on her own race.

All she could do was hope, once she drew them over, maybe they’d have the sense to read the room, maybe they wouldn’t be stubborn fools.

The ones who should flee would flee, the ones who should keep distance would stay far back.

Otherwise she’d have no choice but to fight them to the death.

Lysara drew a deep breath.

Facing forward, she used a powerful technique.

Boom, it detonated.

The ground shook hard, the shockwave rolled outward in every direction.

Buildings thousands of miles off swayed and tilted, and inside a few breaths they were rubble.

Human cultivators crawled out of the debris, filthy and rumpled.

They cursed under their breath, and curiosity got the better of them.

Then the crowd surged like a locust swarm, packed thick enough to blot the sky, pouring toward where Soren and Lysara stood.

"A commotion that size, it had to be Great Emperor-level, right?"

"A fight broke out?"

"Who’s fighting who?"

"No clue."

"We’ll know once we get there."

"We won’t get caught in the crossfire, will we?"

"If you’re a coward, sit tight and don’t come."

Battles between Great Emperors were unstoppable, they could flatten everything to bare dirt and reshape the land itself.

For most people that was hearsay, they’d never watched one happen.

Now there was a chance to see one up close, high odds of getting caught in the blast or not, they had to go look.

Her technique used, all Lysara could do was wait in silence, she prayed that not too many would come.

Every extra body was one more wrongful soul.

Soren hung in the void, black hair whipping in the wind, the demonic might off him slicing the air like invisible hooks.