Chapter 1795: Chapter 1794: Hawke’s "Importance
Ains
"Are you injured?" Medala stepped on the broken bricks in the ruins and walked towards He Ao.
At this moment, in her field of view, He Ao almost seemed to be a man covered in blood, with his whole body bathed in blood touched by gray-purple radiance.
"It’s not too bad." The last flicker of flames converged within He Ao’s body. He lowered his head, glanced at the fine wounds and blood seeping from his hand, and shook his head slightly, casually replying.
He glanced at Medala, "Are you alright?"
Earlier, He Ao deliberately allowed those dark forces to cover Medala, obstructed by the angel power he left on her, which also became a sort of shield to block off the extended impact from He Ao and Des’s battle.
So Medala, at the moment, did not seem to have any injuries.
"I’m doing fine, thanks," Medala nodded slightly, looking at the blood on He Ao’s body, she fished out a white ointment from her pocket, "It’s a healing item I got before. See if it’s useful; you just need to apply it to the wounds."
He Ao looked down at the ointment in her hand, sensing the surging life power within, "I really don’t have much issue now."
Then he noticed Medala’s somewhat anxious gaze, reached out, and took the ointment, "But since you’ve given me, just let me have it then."
"Okay." Medala said with a smile, "I was going to apply it myself for you."
"That’s not necessary," He Ao put away the ointment, "I have my own healing items."
The Blood Surge Ring on his hand glimmered softly, continuously channeling life power into his body, healing the wounds covering his body.
The small wounds were gradually healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
These wounds were tears caused by the angel tier’s power within his soul. This time, the use of angel tier power was much greater than before, resulting in much more damage, and the recovery time was longer.
However, the damage caused by his own power wasn’t serious, and relying on the Blood Surge Ring, they could soon heal.
He Ao’s gaze fell on the wrinkles on his hand as he gently reached out and pressed on his chest.
The originally firm chest, filled with muscles, now appeared somewhat slack. When he pressed down, it took a moment to bounce back.
Without needing to remove his clothes, he could sense the flesh on his chest areas demonstrated a stronger trend towards aging compared to other parts of his body.
This area was precisely where his bones were covered by those black spots earlier.
The continuous influx of life power through the Blood Surge Ring wasn’t reversing the aging of his chest.
The gaze from death was irreversible; even though He Ao could cleverly use the loopholes of imprinting himself to incarcerate Des, destroying Des’s soul, the majestic power of Death God’s Divine Grace wouldn’t change.
The mighty divine power-induced aging was also irreversible.
One must acknowledge, this imprint was truly an ingenious design. It allowed a mortal to wield a power far stronger and more terrifying than his own.
Currently, He Ao had just broken through to the Secret Wizard rank, allowing him, under the power boost of Secret Wizard abilities, to incarcerate Des using the loopholes outside the imprint, achieving quick victory with relatively small costs.
Had it been before the breakthrough, in a scenario where he had to fight head-on, even if the Divine Grace’s power was limited, exhausting this power would cost him most of his life.
This copy world’s intensity, facing enemies possibly stronger than before.
Shaking his head, refocusing his thoughts, He Ao began to organize the ’memories’ he obtained from Des’s mind.
Des’s memories weren’t complete, but this was within He Ao’s expectations. That behind-the-scenes higher being had long demonstrated prudence; had Des’s memory been intact, He Ao would have to consider falling into a trap.
But even if memories weren’t complete, as a core figure in the overall plan, Des held a lot of intelligence.
Including the identity of the behind-the-scenes figure—the Leader of the Church of the Grim Reaper, the Death Pope, a higher being with an Angel Designation.
As for appearance and real name, there was none.
Besides this, Des also knew a reason behind the Church of the Grim Reaper’s overall departure from headquarters, seemingly due to this Death Pope needing to execute some crucial plan, insufficient manpower, thus mobilizing all elite personnel.
Not only from the Church’s headquarters, but even most of Des’s elites being pulled away, left him unresourced in Ains.
Thus, he had to personally come to ’deal with’ Medala.
Moreover, in Des’s memory, there was the reason for dealing with ’Hawke.’
Direct ’order’ from the Church of the Grim Reaper’s highest level, namely, the Death Pope.
’Hawke’ himself, seemed related to some scheme by this Death Pope, and was a significant role.
Of course, the scheme’s stage was Dawn City, so the Death Pope hoped ’Hawke’ would go to Dawn City, in whatever form, as long as he was alive; in extreme conditions, if deceased, could be possible, but required series treatments.
Des was handling this issue.
Originally, his plan was to let the Menshu Group dismiss ’Hawke’ from his position, stripping ’Hawke’ of interfering factors, then directly have the priest severely injure ’Hawke’, hanging his life, and transport him to Dawn City.
But ’Hawke’ exhibited formidable strength, instead killed the priest he sent, and later cooperated with Medala to kill Wild.
He had to try other methods, utilizing things ’Hawke’ cared about, to lure ’Hawke’ to Dawn City.
But he didn’t expect ’Hawke’ to come personally.
The overall situation wasn’t complicated, after all, from ’Hawke’s dismissal until now, only a few days had passed.
But if ’Hawke’ died, how to handle the related memories of ’Hawke’ corpse, He Ao didn’t see.
When he attempted to touch those memories, Des’s soul exhibited a strong tendency towards self-destruction, beginning to collapse.
He could only bypass those memories, to read other memories.
Concerning what the Church of the Grim Reaper actually aimed to do, Des wasn’t clear either; merely adhering to the Death Pope’s instructions, completing tasks step by step, the Death Pope didn’t explain the reasons.
Could be explained, or simply related memories were erased.
Meanwhile, on Ains’s side, Des figured a method to blind the detection network.
It was about using loopholes to disguise one’s power anomaly as the power of an angel forming the detection network, fooling the network.
But Des didn’t know who this angel was, just received the method from the Death Pope.
From this situation, clearly, there did exist angels assisting the Church of the Grim Reaper in Ains.
When He Ao probed here, Des’s soul had started swiftly collapsing, obviously, triggering some technique left by the Death Pope.
Finally, amidst this collapsing soul, he could only faintly catch some incomplete memories.
Including the key prop to handle ’Hawke’ ’corpse’, precisely the Illusion Badge He Ao obtained from the priest.
Since ’Hawke’ was significant, thus the Illusion Badge used for managing ’Hawke’ corpse should also be critical.
He Ao took out the Illusion Badge from his pocket again.
In other words, the Illusion Badge is very likely related to the core of the entire plan.
Moreover, the power of the Death God’s Divine Grace, the imprint created by the Death Pope, seems to be connected to this Illusion Badge, creating some sort of linkage.
But until now, the clues that He Ao has grasped seem to be just some vague, scattered fragments, unable to be fully related.
Also, Des’s soul is quite odd; its average strength is much stronger than that of normal Transcendents, but the complete soul is only slightly stronger than that of a normal Transcendent.
The average is large, but the total is not much, indicating a lower overall quantity.
Des’s soul seems to be significantly smaller than that of a normal Transcendent’s soul.
Or it could be said that his soul is inherently incomplete.
This might hide some kind of secret, or it could simply be a side effect left by the imprint or the Death Pope’s operations.
The Death Pope’s understanding of souls far surpasses He Ao’s, so He Ao can’t determine why the soul is in this state.
This guy is obviously strong, yet overly cautious.
In Des’s memory, the Death Pope hoped he would send ’Hawke’ to Dawn City today, and Des has already been too late, which is why he’s urgently rushing the progress.
From this perspective, it seems that there’s not much time left for He Ao.
Looking at the Illusion Badge in hand, He Ao raised his head, gazing at the falling sunset into twilight, eyeing the shattered ruins around, slightly furrowing his brows, "Something’s not right."
"What’s wrong?" Medala beside him was somewhat puzzled.
He Ao lowered his head to glance at the Illusion Badge hiding a purple glow in his palm.
The reason Des could conceal his higher powers was that he had been exploiting loopholes in the vigilance network, but after He Ao killed him, this concealment was rapidly fading.
When He Ao couldn’t fully control the Divine Grace power earlier, some of this mighty power actually leaked out.
Normal people may not feel this pressure that spilled, but it definitely should trigger the vigilance network.
Now, Ains has at least one Angel; at the speed of an Angel, they should have reached here by now.
But at this moment, he didn’t see any trace of an Angel.
"Look at the sky!" Medala in front of him seems to have seen something, raising her head, saying in surprise.
He Ao looked up, following her gaze, only to see a grey, dim expanse.
Veils of dark clouds, unknowingly, have already covered the glow of dusk, concealing the falling sun and swiftly spreading around the sky.
——
Dawn City
"Finally done." The man in black looked at the black coffin covered with ancient palatial banners before him, took a deep breath.
He raised his head to look behind; it was a serpent of coffins spiraling inside the room.
One after another, transport robots had already lifted these sealing spirit coffins, resembling muscles wriggling beneath a long serpent, seemingly ready to await commands anytime.
"Shall we start?" Dest, who had a broad face beside him, raised his head and asked softly.
"It’s about time," the man in black nodded, looking at the serpent forming with black coffins, then lifted his wristband, glanced at the time above, "Everything outside should be about ready."
"Shall we go?" Dest looked at him, tentatively asked.
"Alright." The man in black nodded; the truck ahead had already left, revealing the spacious freight hall.
He lifted his steps, walking forward, and Dest greeted others in the room, following behind the man in black.
"Big Brother Dest," a young man walked up to Dest, somewhat curiously said, "They’ve been talking about some reception ceremony, what exactly is it, Sett Mr. isn’t nearby anymore, don’t know where he’s gone, nobody to ask."
"Sett Mr. is the Deputy Mayor of Dawn City; he should be out helping prepare the ceremony." The man in black casually remarked.
"Oh, so it’s this—Ah?" He raised his head, looking at Dest, "What is Sett Mr.? Deputy Mayor of Dawn City? What does that mean?"
"Meaning he is Christos’s partner, Deputy Mayor of Dawn City, the second figure of the whole Dawn City," the man in black instead looked at him with some puzzled, "You didn’t know he’s the Deputy Mayor of Dawn City?"
"I didn’t know," the young man scratched his head embarrassedly, "I only knew he came from Dawn City and seemed to have some connection with Christos."
The man in black turned his head, looking at others behind.
Found others were a bit shocked and bewildered too.
"You all didn’t know?" the man in black asked again.
The ponytail girl walking in front turned her head, others just scratched their heads, showing a silly smile or avoiding eye contact.
"You didn’t even know their identity, yet dare to accompany them on such a daring rescue mission for these remains and then return to Dawn City?" The man in black once again said dubiously.
"It’s not that complicated," the young man chuckled, speaking slowly, "Sett Mr. just told me to protect the remains of some parade organizers, so I came."
The others nodded slightly, indicating agreement.
"When Sett recruited us initially, indeed, he didn’t mention these," Dest, who hadn’t said anything, also spoke slowly, "just told us what these remains had encountered."
"Remarkable," the man in black exclaimed, "You all are true heroes."
"We don’t count," Dest shook his head, turning his gaze, looking at the coffins behind, "They are."
At this moment, they had already crossed the spacious freight hall, a heavy door appearing in their field of view.
Crossing this gate, they’ll entirely enter Dawn City.
The crowd stood here, gazing at that door.
It seemed everyone was somewhat nervous at this moment.
"This gate is reserved for your entry and exit," the man in black walked to the authentication device on the side, entered the password, verified the identity, then turned his head, looked at people behind, "Welcome to Dawn City,"
The tightly closed door slowly opened, the man in black continued, "However, this street outside isn’t particularly bustling, might be a bit empty..."
Ka—
Before he could finish, he heard the sound of flashlights, and at the same time, sparkling dots continuously lit up outside the door.
The people inside the gate looked up, seeing only a strip of yellow barrier tape, and beyond the tape, pairs of large and small eyes in varying heights.
Ahead were reporters, and behind them were crowds of people squeezing forward.
The dusk’s glow penetrated the edges of the city’s skyscrapers, falling on this gate front, shining upon every aged road face.
