This place...
Violet raised an intrigued eyebrow as she observed the surroundings. Her vision far surpassed that of ordinary creatures, so even in the dim darkness of the night, she could clearly see the nearby area.
Towering trees and dense vegetation flanked both sides, and the somewhat ancient-looking stone steps beneath her feet were not uniform. They seemed more like giant stones that had been roughly polished and then moved here to be embedded into the ground.
There were no buildings in sight where her gaze fell, but the rough stone steps forming the path indicated that humans, or at least intelligent beings, had once tread upon this ground.
At that moment, Edwina couldn’t contain her surprise and exclaimed beside her.
“This is it! Miss Violet, I inexplicably ended up here yesterday! Although the scenery at night is different from that of daytime, some rough landmarks can still be distinguished. I’m sure this is the place!”
“Mm.”
Upon noticing the rising smoke and the sudden spatial shift, Violet immediately remembered what Edwina had mentioned earlier. The force behind this teleportation was quite considerable, and it felt more like their surroundings were being overlaid by a separate space—an interior within the smoke—directly altering the environment.
To be honest, it felt somewhat reminiscent of the arrival of a divine realm, but a divine realm wouldn’t be confined to such a small area. There were also differences in some details, so Violet didn’t immediately shatter it with her own divine realm. Instead, she intended to see what the other party was up to.
This change... was somewhat unexpected to her.
Initially, Violet was only slightly interested in the girl named Lan Tulls, intending to gather some information from this person of obvious status...
As for the insistence on engaging in combat, well, they could fight if they wanted to. There would always be a chance to talk afterwards.
Anyway, with a certain Miss Queen backing her up, it didn’t matter how intense things got.
At least, Lilya definitely didn’t know and absolutely couldn’t allow or tolerate the incorporation of those criminal poachers into the regular army. The high-level officials of Demon Suppression City definitely concealed many things from the capital.
Returning to this place.
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Without a doubt, this is a special dimensional space independent of the mundane world. When they first entered, Violet had already scanned it with her SP. Although it appeared to be surrounded by mountains, in reality, it was all an illusion. The only tangible entity was the mountain beneath their feet.
Or rather, in terms of spatial concept, all the mountains were essentially the same.
That’s why Edwina couldn’t find her way out no matter how she tried.
Moreover, this place always felt strange to Violet. Merely covering it with SP seemed insufficient to fully grasp the entire landscape of the mountain. There seemed to be a special force lingering in the space, which to some extent interfered with the priestess’s investigation.
That force seemed to be akin to a mental consciousness, colloquially speaking, similar to the divine soul-like power mentioned by SP, or what Sethlin referred to. It would spontaneously repel Violet’s investigation of the same type.
Although it’s not impossible to forcefully break through, those consciousnesses seemed to be integrated with this place. If tampered with, it could potentially lead to the direct collapse of the entire independent space.
Under the circumstances of unclear conditions, it’s best not to make rash moves if possible.
“Speaking of which, are we missing two people?”
Violet glanced around. Besides herself, Xiao Guang, Leila, Rene, Edwina, and Theresa were all present, but the man with Mr. Side-Swept Bangs and Uncle Lester, who were standing with them before, were nowhere to be seen.
This discovery furrowed the dark-haired girl’s brow involuntarily. They didn’t mind when they were outside, where tensions could flare up at any moment, but now...
Leila raised her arms with a strange expression. For some reason, since arriving here, both hers and her sister’s wings had naturally revealed themselves.
“Lady Violet, perhaps they were not teleported here, and this place...”
At that moment, a clear, bell-like voice suddenly rang out in the forest.
“Hehe, humans are not allowed to enter the sanctuary for refuge, don’t worry, they haven’t fought with those human army troops, they’re very safe~”
“Wow! Ghosts!”
The girl with the lightest courage trembled all over, darting three steps forward and two steps back to hide behind the nearest holy knight, only daring to peek her head out nervously, looking around for the source of the voice.
It couldn’t be entirely blamed on her. In this pitch-black night in the mountains, with a sudden voice from a woman whose identity was unknown, coupled with the eerie scene changes earlier, it was indeed quite terrifying.
“What ghosts? That’s too much. If it weren’t for me intervening earlier, you would have been caught by those humans long ago. Hurry up and thank Lord Tiyelu?”
“Lord Tiyelu...?”
Violet shifted her gaze, quickly focusing on a silver butterfly perched on a tree branch by the roadside, appearing to be no larger than the palm of a hand.
Although the voice seemed to come from all directions, it was merely an illusion. The priestess saw through the trickery at a glance, stepped forward a few steps, and easily caught the small butterfly just as it was about to flutter its wings in a panic.
“Was it you who brought us here?”
“W-why can you... Ugh, you disrespectful little brat! Let go of Lord Tiyelu right now, you young imp who doesn’t respect elders and love the young! Phosphorus! Ah, my precious phosphorus has been scraped off by you!!”
“?”
The dark-haired girl curiously watched the silver butterfly struggling desperately, its two small antennae twisting and turning on its head, but unable to move at all because its wings were firmly held. She then used her fingers to rub a bit of the powder on it and observed carefully.
Indeed, this was the same silver powder trace they found last night at the location where they encountered the sudden situation with the holy knight.
“Edwina, were all the butterflies you saw in the mountains yesterday like this?”
After staring at the butterfly with its wings held for a while, Edwina hesitated and shook her head.
“No, when we came here last time, it was daytime. Although those butterflies flying around were colorful, I’ve never seen ones with silver wings... Strange. Speaking of which, where did those butterflies go?”
“Nonsense! It’s late at night, don’t butterflies need to sleep? And you, you annoying little brat, don’t think you can do whatever you want just because you avoided suppression! If you don’t release Lord Tiyelu right now, I’ll kick you out of the sanctuary!”
Wow, this guy’s temper is quite something...
By the way, what does “suppression” mean?
It seems like the other party is almost at the limit of their patience, even the clear and pleasant voice has a hint of impatience. Violet felt embarrassed to continue bullying such a small butterfly.
Since Lester and the others were fine, she decided to give this guy the benefit of the doubt for now. Anyway, even if something did happen, the priestess could easily remedy the situation.
With that in mind, the dark-haired girl released her grip on the butterfly.
“Hmph...”
Returning to the top of the low tree, the silver butterfly fluttered its wings for a while, seeming to feel slightly better. Although it had no expression, Violet could sense its apparent grievance.
“Um... Tiyelu?”
The priestess tentatively greeted.
“What! I’ve already said it’s Lord Tiyelu, you young folks, don’t you have any basic respect for the managers of the sanctuary?”
Sanctuary manager... A fragile butterfly?
Suppressing the urge to retort, Violet realized that arguing with this person was a waste of energy. So, with a sense of resignation, she squatted down and looked at the butterfly at eye level, just like comforting a child.
“Okay, okay, Lord Tiyelu, how did you know we were in danger and pull us into this... um, sanctuary at a critical moment? Have you been quietly following Edwina around since yesterday?”
“Edwina? Who’s that, oh... you mean that light-element little brat? Lord Tiyelu doesn’t have time to keep an eye on some young one. I just happened to see her foolishly running into the human encirclement yesterday, and couldn’t bear to see a promising talent perish like that, so I pulled her in. Lord Tiyelu is very busy, you know!”