Chapter 409 (1): Get Me a Marker. I Need It for Something Important.
“Ahhh—”
“So hot!”
“Hahaha—”
“I’m going to die!”
“Why-why haven’t you died?”
“Soon. I’ll die from the hotness soon.”
“...”
“Just go hotter. I’m close.”
“...” x2
Corte yanked her hand back, teleporting away from Wayne. Her brows furrowed as she stared at the demon taking a leisurely stroll in the lava. Forged with his thoughts, his clothes maintained their form in the intense heat. Even his hairstyle remained undisturbed.
Such incredible fire resistance. Is it because of his territory in Hell? Is it all molten lava?
While analyzing him, Corte soon noticed something unusual. She couldn’t recover the fire elements roaming the surroundings. The cantankerous little things barked while rushing toward Wayne without looking back, giving her the cold shoulder.
Don’t contact me. I don’t want Wayne to misunderstand.
“No, it’s not fire resistance, but affinity...” Corte broke into a cold sweat. “To my knowledge, the demons with the greatest fire affinity were Pride, Wrath, and Lust among the Seven Demon Lords. Which are you?”
“To my knowledge, the one with the greatest fire affinity is the Sun Knight, with Dawn Doctrine,” Wayne shot back. “I suggest you consider that.”
“Still trying to make your lie work?”
Corte pulled off her hood, tossing the golden robe aside. The figure revealed was tall, slim, and compact. Standing out particularly were her long legs.
As the Holy Maiden of the Church of Sun, Corte was undoubtedly beautiful. Her sculpted face and delicate facial features made her look like a statue of the goddess. Her bright golden eyes added to the dignified appearance.
Most pronounced was her long red hair. Cascading like fine silk, her hair swayed and blazed like fire given form, with a golden glow.
Given her tendency to laugh out loud, her personality was most likely what her red hair would suggest.
“Galen, this demon is fascinating. Leave him to me and don’t get in my way.” Corte stretched her arms and legs haughtily. “Five minutes! I can take him down in five minutes!”
Galen silently moved to the side. Clearly, she trusted the power of her fake best friend.
Wayne was intrigued, but that didn’t make it right for him to beat up the Holy Maiden of Sun. He said diplomatically, “Why don’t you come at me together? Five minutes is a bit difficult. I’m worried that you’ll be three-quarters dead in two minutes.”
“You’ve got a sharp tongue!"
“It’s actually quite soft. Wanna check?”
“...”
A vein in Corte’s forehead pulsed. She made a move in fury.
With a step, she unfurled her vitality field to envelop Wayne while giving Galen a VIP seat so that she could witness her epic battle with the demon. The world of fire filled the space between heaven and earth, spilling fiery red all the way to the distance. A massive sun hung in the sky, bringing down infinite heat to overwhelm and scorch the world to distortion.
Wayne didn’t find it that intolerable. It was pleasantly cool.
He was an unusual case. No matter what opponent he faced and how their vitality field changed, he could always make himself at home.
Seeing him being unbothered and even downright enjoying the fire, Corte raised her guard and cursed at the trouble despite her poker face. A trick like manipulating his senses would only lead to humiliation. The demon’s thoughts were too strong for him to be affected by the vitality field. She didn’t want to make herself a clown.
Eyes squeezed shut, Corte surrounded her body with air currents, her clothes fluttering in the wind. Following a flash of spark, the ocean of flames gathered and reshaped her into a phoenix with unfurled wings.
It was a form Wayne was familiar with. Funnily enough, his flying ability and heat vision both came from the phoenix bloodline, which was closely connected to the Church of Sun.
If he killed Corte and tortured her before her death, making her a wraith he could contract with and transform into a vengeful spirit, perhaps he would make some progress in becoming a son of the sun.
He decided against it after a brief consideration. He shouldn’t act like an actual demon!
Rumble!!
Wrapped in flames, Corte flapped her wings and streaked toward Wayne like a shooting star, her phoenix eyes mixing gold and red with the vibrant light of a living being. Her golden claws tore into the air, cutting smooth lines into space and going straight for Wayne’s neck.
Amid the flickering light, Wayne suddenly charged into the phantom phoenix, ignoring the blazing flames. Coming face to face with Corte, he hit her with an upper hook, pulling a shoryuken in the blink of an eye.
Corte grunted, her slim, fair neck elongated as her body launched into the air. Wayne got into a proper stance and swung his arms in a flurry, so fast that his punches couldn’t be perceived by the human eye. The only signs showing that he had punched her were the way her chest and abdomen sank in the shape of his fists.
He grabbed her ankle and slammed her around with spectacular force. Detonating air with a step, he plunged toward the ground with the phantom phoenix in his grip, going into a lightning-fast freefall.
Now, she was actually turning into a shooting star.
Boom!!
The sea of fire exploded thunderously, sputtering embers everywhere. Red waves rose and rippled outward with violent momentum. In the center of the explosion was a large crater that resembled a meteorite landing site.
Wayne tightened his grip around Corte’s ankle, smiling at her. “Is that hard enough for you? If not, I can go harder.”
Corte was so nauseous that she didn’t recover until she heard his voice. She realized that she was dangling upside down from one foot in an indecent manner.
Without thinking, she bent her knee and hooked her other leg around Wayne’s neck, attempting to bring him down with a ground technique. He blocked his face with a hand to avoid making intimate acquaintance with her nether region, but he ended up petting an awkward spot.
He peeled the leg coiled around his neck off him. Then he grabbed her two ankles and jumped into the air to go on an accelerated fall, slamming Corte toward the ground.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
After more than ten swings, the two legs went weak, the taut muscles going slack.
Nice legs!
At the end of the day, she was the Church of Sun’s Holy Maiden, so Wayne should still show her minimal respect. Swallowing his sarcastic comments, he tossed the girl aside and curled his fingers at Galen, who had been spectating from a distance.
“What are you waiting for? It’s your turn.”
Galen didn’t react.
Wayne was going to charge at her and give her a punch when he sensed an incredible heat and rising power coming from behind him. Wirling around, he crossed his arms before his chest.
Awash in phoenix fire, Corte had recovered fully. Her eyes radiated golden light as she punched Wayne in the chest. She growled and pushed further when she hit his arms instead. Space itself became distorted, creating visible curves.
Wayne’s arms ended up slamming into his chest, the great power sending him flying off his feet. He was visibly shocked.
Ever since he became a Silver-ranked mage, his raw strength had been unrivaled. He was always the one to overpower his opponent rather than the other way around. It was quite nostalgic to be overpowered instead.
Black afterimages cut through the sea of fire, falling into the distance like a cannonball.
Following a rumbling noise, a hundred-meter-diameter pillar of fire shot toward the sky like a fire dragon before gradually dispersing in the air. Stepping on the flames, Wayne wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth; his stinging arms recovered, with his thoughts mending the injury.
He looked into the distance at Corte. The phantom phoenix flapped its wings, lifting its head to make a soundless cry. Behind the burning wings, the radiant golden phantom stood magnificent.
The figure was upright and graceful, with a golden halo crowning the head. The halo contained infinite energy, projecting an authority that deterred direct observation.
“Divine art?” Wayne had encountered his fair share of divine arts. They all involved drawing upon the power of the Divine Realms through devout faith. Most of the time, the power didn’t actually come from the gods.
Corte’s divine arts were different. She had borrowed the Goddess of Sun’s power.
Similarly, Anastasia could still tap into the Goddess of Darkness’s power, even after succumbing to Wayne’s influence, losing her purity, and changing her faith—because the goddess permitted her so.
“No wonder she would enter the demon-infested Palis with no fear of getting locked up and ganged up on...”
Wayne narrowed his eyes. Facing the Goddess of Sun’s divine power, it was necessary to exercise some caution. If the goddess was watching in secret, She could turn into another troublemaker like Ines.
He should avoid using the power of the Pale Knight!
Wayne took a deep breath, his eyes glinting with golden light. Heated waves of sunlight surged from him. He stepped on air and rushed into the phantom phoenix like a streak of golden lightning.
Between one blink and the next, he already had his fingers curled around Corte’s neck. It wasn’t until then that he saw her cold, seemingly divine eyes.
Is she really the Holy Maiden?
Wayne pondered. The hesitation slowed him down, allowing Corte to teleport away. When she appeared again, she was right above Wayne. With a wreath of fire around her long, well-shaped leg, she swung it down like a red whip, cracking it violently.
Wayne raised his arms to block the attack without even looking. He tensed. Her power was too great.
The two clashed as white air currents rippled from the boiling sea of flames, pushed further outward with rumbling noises. After another two clashes between Wayne and Corte, red ripples spread across the red sea, the volatile tides thundering.
Corte pulled her fists back in shock, surprised that the demon was able to react in time. Refusing to believe it, she disintegrated and reformed once more to launch another violent attack.
She moved like quick, unpredictable lightning, but all of her subsequent attacks failed.
Corte couldn’t believe it. She was experienced in facing demons, and this was far from her first time dealing with such attacks.
She couldn’t afford to dwell on the question in battle, though. Ducking down, she darted to Wayne’s front and grabbed his shoulders to push him down, all the while pulling herself up with her knee bent to strike his chin.
Clearly, it was payback for the upper hook she had taken earlier.
Their battle transitioned into something different as they wrestled and rolled around in the sea of flames. From afar, the red burning sea looked like a bed, while the phantom phoenix looked like a comforter. It didn’t look so much like a battle of the sexes but a battle of sex.
The projection of the Goddess of Sun stared at the tumbling pair in quiet judgment.
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