This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
The Voice of the Dragon Cross Necklace
Due to the Prime Minister Qiusi’s interruption, Liola’s plan of escape collapsed. Barker had assigned the older guard to watch over him inside his room, and all the glass windows in the room were replaced with electrified metal windows.
There were also more than ten guards outside of his door at all times. The intent was obvious: even if Liola had wings, he would have a hard time escaping.
But the treatment for the Dark Arena Pyramid exhibition competitor still hadn’t changed: all kinds of delicious food would be presented at Liola’s whim, and Mama Sang still brought her Seven Fairies to let Liola take his pick, but Liola stood still watched at the stadium like he did before.
Within the past three days, Mama Sang didn’t want to give up and went to Liola’s room three, four times. After she got so angry and even her make up fell on the ground, a familiar voice called out.
“Liola.”
Liola’s body froze a little, but he didn’t turn around, instead said with an apologetic tone, “Sorry, you warned me, but I still failed, and I even dragged you down with me.”
Meiji looked at the lonely but proud person standing by the window, she laughed lightly,
“I’m okay. The Prime Minister specially told Barker not to do any harm to me, and even told me to serve you, in this last hour…”
“I don’t need any servants.” Liola answered lightly.
Meiji didn’t back off from such a cold reply, but instead changed the topic, “Do you have Dragons in your world?”
Liola originally had no plans to talk, but Meiji was, after all, someone who warned him. Liola paused briefly, and finally answered Meiji’s question, “No.”
“A Dragon is a powerful being.”
Meiji didn’t care whether Liola had any interest in listening. She talked as if she was telling a story, and slowly described everything about a Dragon: its habitat, weaknesses, habits, etc.
The older bodyguard who was standing on the side didn’t stop Meiji, instead he looked to see if Liola had heard any of it.
“Dragons have always been the most mysterious creature in this world. Some people say that their intelligence is far greater than humans’, and some say they are only large and strong beings. But what cannot be denied is, if you were fighting them one-on-one, very few people could win. They have immense power and a natural instinct for battle, not to mention different Dragons will use different magics, such as…”
Meiji coughed intently, “A Red Dragon will always spit fire.”
Liola still remained quiet, and Meiji couldn’t help but worry, did this clean, pretty boy before her actually hear any of her words?
Meiji could only continue to explain, and beg in her heart that the boy would listen to her.
“The weakness of a Dragon is also their most terrifying place. The weakest part of a Dragon is its eyes. However, if you can’t stab through its eyes and its brain in one strike, then it’s better if you don’t try to do so, because it will anger the Dragon even further, and it will retaliate with fatal strikes. Even if the Dragon loses both of its eyes, their sense of smell isn’t any worse than their sight.”
Meiji spent a long while talking, but Liola didn’t even move at all, which made Meiji felt a bit discouraged. At the same time, she said pretty much all she had to say, but she didn’t want to leave so she continued to chit chat about various rumors about Dragons.
“Dragons, like people, are divided into ranks, or perhaps I should say they are even more rank-oriented than humans. Red Dragons have always been pretty high in the ranking, and most other Dragons couldn’t match it, but Black Dragons are even a step higher than Red Dragons. Rumor has it that the Dragon Empire’s Sacred White Dragon is the highest rank of Dragons, as if they are the royalties among Dragons. Even their scent strikes fear into the hearts other Dragons.”
‘Ranks…’
Hearing this, Liola finally felt that he heard some useful information. Liola was someone who had been called “papa” by a Dragon for months, so he probably had much better idea of a Dragon’s habits and properties than Meiji.
It looked like the Dragon he would have to fight was a Red Dragon, and coincidentally Daylight’s Dragon was also red, so of course Liola knew they would spit fire.
‘Red Dragons were terrified of Sacred White Dragon… Would they fear the Sacred White Dragon’s master?’ Liola thought.
Perhaps the only way to test the theory would be to test it himself. But if he only show his Dragon scale briefly, Baolilong shouldn’t have time to trace him, right? Liola was hesitating.
The older guard looked at the time, and said to Liola, “Time to go.”
Liola finally turned around. When he was passing by Meiji, a quiet voice said, “Thank you.”
Hearing this, Meiji’s face went soft, and she sighed quietly, “Unfortunately I don’t have another life to give to the arena.”
* * *
Liola walked with the elder guard into the elevator. The elevator went to the top floor. When the doors opened, the elder guard calmly said,
“I’m old, and I’ve seen many people in my time. I can tell, young one, you were born to turn the tide of this era, so you can’t possibly die at a place like this.”
He would turn the tide of this era? Liola’s face sank,
“Perhaps if I died at a place like this, this world would be a slightly better place.”
The elder guard’s eyes flashed with a sense of thought as he opened the door and saw Liola stepping out of the elevator without any hesitation.
The elder guard, however, remained in the elevator. He looked at Liola, and judged his figure: it was long and thin. The guard murmured,
“Indeed, those dispirited shoulders looked like they’re not enough to shoulder the entire world. But you will sail through this. In time, those silver eyes of yours would probably cause tsunamis.”
The waiter at the side asked curiously, “Mister, aren’t you going to watch the exhibition match? I heard that the sacrifice this round is quite strong, and it should be an interesting match.”
The guard answered with a shake of his head, “I’ve grown quite old, and I don’t want to be kicked to the side by the eager, young crowds.”
The guard pressed the button to close the elevator door, and leaving a confused waiter behind. He went back to the room for sacrifices, and planned on watching the match next to the Dark Street’s most beautiful woman.
* * *
Liola slowly stepped into the arena. It was very broad and completely different from the arena he saw before with the young guard. In fact, it was actually somewhat similar to the academy ranking match’s arena: it was surrounded by seats elevated from the ground.
There was one box far up in the audience, and it was surrounded by thick walls. The Aklan Prime Minister, Barker, and a few others were sitting in that box. Compared to the excited, bloodlusting crowds surrounding it, the box seemed very quiet and elegant.
In the actual stage for the match, there were nothing but a concrete floor. Liola calmly walked into the center of the stage, and his face remained expressionless.
This dissatisfied the crowds, who were used sacrifices crying in fear and begging for mercy.
In turn, started yelling things like “Go to hell”, “Hurry up and let the Dragon eat you”.
Liola didn’t care about the cries from the audience. He pulled out Broken Silver and unsheathed it.
Liola examined his somewhat tattered Sorcerer robe. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t care, but with his abilities sealed, Liola didn’t want to be hindered by the cumbersome Sorcerer robe. Liola tore off the Sorcerer robe, showing the silver-lined white Knight uniform underneath.
Everyone in the audience immediately went silent. What a Silver rank Knight represented, they couldn’t have not known.
A Silver Knight would most probably have the strength that would far surpass a Dragon. The exhibition was almost like a sacrificial ritual, and the competitor was the sacrifice to open the gory arena matches. How could they have found someone with the strength to surpass a Dragon?
The people in the box also seemed to panic, and blaming eyes and words were all thrown in Barker’s direction.
Barker immediately clarified, “It’s not possible. It’s impossible for him to have the strength of a Silver Knight, otherwise how could he have been threatened by my two guards and follow me obediently?”
Seeing uneasy emotions were spreading among the audience, Barker immediately grabbed the broadcast and said,
“Everyone, don’t worry, that set of Knight uniform is just for the purpose of entertainment. This person is just a normal sacrifice, and he can never beat our invincible red Dragon.”
Hearing Barker’s speech, the crowd went wild again. Being in the Dark Street, the crowds wouldn’t even have the chance to see a Silver Knight, and some of them even complimented Barker, saying that he was quite creative.
A sacrifice with Silver Knight uniform being torn into pieces by a Dragon would be definitely more interesting to watch.
Ignoring the bloodlust filled yells of the crowd, ignoring the fear in the eyes of the people who looked at his Knight’s uniform, and ignoring Barker’s panicked explanation, Liola continued to quietly stand in the center of the stage.
He lifted his chin slightly, and his silver eyes calmly looked into the sky. It was as if he wasn’t in a crowded arena, but instead at a quiet dark night. The thin man looked as if he was raising his head to look at the stars, even his eyes seemed to reflect the silver star light.
What was unbelievable was that, the crowd also seemed to quiet down and wouldn’t dare to make a noise, as if doing so would disturb this quietly man of the night.
“Oh, what is this boy’s name? I did forget.” Qiusi sat in the box, and his mouth had a faint smile.
Seeing something was wrong, Barker’s face turned pale, and answered while trembling, “Th-this man is about to lose his life, Prime Minister, Sir, why would you want to know a dead man’s name?”
“Or is he… about to die?” Qiusi’s smile widened.
Cold sweat ran down Barker’s head. Flustered, he yelled at his subordinate.
“Why don’t you let the Red Dragon out, now?!”
The subordinate on his side hurriedly nodded, and at the same time pressed a few buttons on the control panel in the box. With the accompaniment of a hungry Dragon roar, a fiery red, and deadly Dragon appeared in front of Liola.
The hungry Dragon took one look at Liola, and rammed its head against the steel cage, wanting to swallow this little man whole.
“Turn on the electric shield.”
When the cage was lifted, the subordinate didn’t dare to ignore the dangers of a Dragon. He immediately pressed another button, and an electrified shield appeared in the center of the stage. On one hand it stops the sacrifice from escaping, on another it also prevents the Dragon from harming the audience.
Even though Dragon roared in front of Liola, he didn’t even frown a bit. Liola was even examining the Red Dragon, and thought to himself:
‘The scales on this Dragon weren’t as red as Daylight’s Flames, and it didn’t look as pretty. Its level should be well below Flames.’
Liola was unusually calm, and he didn’t know Barker was angered so much by his calmness, because Liola’s composure and dark attitude was killing the bloodthirst of the crowd.
If this continues, then the exhibition would lose its purpose to provoke the lust for gore in the audience. Barker panicked like a rat in a forest fire.
At this time, the young guard anxiously walked into the box, and said to Barker,
“Boss, the people outside seemed to be fighting, and the fight is getting more and more intense. It’s at the point where the whole street had to be closed down. Should we send security guards to maintain the order?”
“Who cares how it goes outside, what’s important now is the inside…”
Barker suddenly stopped, and an idea seemed to have dawned on him, “Is it really severe?”
The young guard nodded desperately.
“For all the times I’ve been here, I hadn’t seen anything this bad. It’s practically a little war going outside. I don’t know who the culprit is or what they did to cause such a large, chaotic battle.”
Barker pushed the young guard aside, and said excitedly to his subordinates who were at the control panel.
“Q-quick and show the video from the security cameras on the Dark Street.”
Though the subordinates didn’t know what their boss had planned, but they obeyed his order. A giant 3D projector showed the scene on the arena, and all the scenes from the battle outside could be clearly seen.
The crowd’s bloodthirst was re-ignited by the chaotic scene, and many of them yelled something like “Go kill them”.
Liola glanced at the 3D projections, and he knew it was Barker’s way of exciting the crowd, but he didn’t care, because he didn’t care about the state of the crowd, and it wouldn’t affected him in any way.
“Purity, hold on!”
‘Daylight’s voice?’
Liola trembled as he looked towards the projection. A familiar Red Dragon was surrounded, and the Angel Mecha on its side was already heavily damaged, but it continued to shoot out arrows at its enemies. Meinan, who desperately tried to maintain the protective shield seemed to have blood slowly dripping out of the corner of his mouth.
“W-why are they here?”
Liola’s calm was finally broken, and he couldn’t ignore the thought in his heart that Daylight and others were here to look for him, and they were in this predicament because of him.
Liola’s heart shook again, and he hoped the other two would not care about him and not come looking for him… but Liola’s hope was shattered.
Though Kaiser cleverly wore a hat, Baolilong was hanging on Kaiser’s back, and its anxious expression was obviously because it was hurrying Kaiser to look for Liola.
“No!” Liola’s cold eyes finally went up in flames.
The angry Assassin yelled at Barker, “Hurry up and let the Dragon out! I have to duel with this Dragon! There is no time!”
‘I have to beat this Dragon quickly, then go help Daylight and others, and I can’t allow Kaiser and Baolilong to cause trouble in the Dark Arena Pyramid.’
Liola had never felt so anxious before, even his heart was pounding out of his chest, as if it was telling Liola to hurry.
Barker was surprised by Liola’s anger for the first time, and even crowds were shocked by the eyes with a burning cold flame.
Barker actually unconsciously said, “Let the Dragon out!”
The Red Dragon was finally freed from its cage. Seeing the hungry Red Dragon, Liola didn’t hesitate, and he used Broken Silver to cut off the rag on his left arm, and the white scale on his left arm was revealed.
Liola lifted his left arm, as if a thin arm could stop a ten-meter giant Dragon.
As the Dragon charged, the whole arena was shaken along its footsteps. Its distance from Liola was getting closer and closer, but Liola still held his left arm in front of his chest.
His eyes were still burning with a white flame, one that looked like Kaiser’s white fireballs. When the Red Dragon ran up to Liola, it lifted its huge claw, and swung it at Liola.
To the sealed Liola, if this attack lands, Liola would probably become a pancake.
“Kneel!”
Liola roared with rage.
Baolilong from afar seemed to have sensed something: its pink eyes instantly glowed, and Baolilong also gave out a mighty roar with its master, which made Liola’s roar sound like a Dragon roar.
At that moment, the air froze. The crowd, Red Dragon, and people in the box all felt their minds going blank, and they had no idea what was happening.
They felt like they couldn’t move, and the only thing they could see were Liola’s burning eyes, and his roar echoed in their ears.
‘Kneel! Right, we have to kneel.’
All the crowds felt their legs give out beneath them, and kneeled as if it were the natural thing to do.
In the box, even Barker kneeled on the ground and stared blankly. The only person standing in the box was Qiusi. His face was no longer filled with a smile, but with a frigid expression on his face. He thought, at that moment, even his mind went blank, and the command to kneel almost made him…
Fear showed on the face of the Red Dragon, stopping only inches away from Liola.
The giant Red Dragon timidly looked at the tiny scale on Liola’s arm, and it seemed to be naturally in fear of higher ranking Dragons, especially since the scent before it was the highest of the Sacred White Dragons… The scent of a prince.
The Red Dragon growled in grievance.
What was strange was Liola actually understood what the Red Dragon was saying.
The Dragon actually said, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. But I was too hungry and I didn’t notice your scent, so I didn’t know it was you. Please forgive me.”
Liola stood stupefied at where he was, and Baolilong said via telepathy,
“Papa don’t move, Baolilong and Kaiser are here to save papa. Oh and, papa, that Dragon is just a low-ranked Dragon, and he doesn’t have a master to command him, so he wouldn’t dare to harm papa anymore. Papa, don’t be afraid.”
Liola was dumbfounded. Why did it seem like Baolilong was treating him like a little kid?
But Baolilong seemed to be more chatty than before, which was uncharacteristic of it. It acted more like… Kaiser.
Liola sighed, a chatty Dragon prince? Hopefully when Miluo sees his chatty son, he wouldn’t want to kill him because of it. But then again, Miluo already wanted him dead.
Liola suddenly realized the crowd was already out of their daze, and they looked baffled as they saw the confrontation between Liola and the red Dragon.
Liola had an idea, and used telepathy to say to Baolilong, “Baolilong, can you tell this Dragon to feign defeat when I attack it?”
He heard Baolilong’s voice saying, “Okay, papa, just turn Baolilong’s scale to the Dragon.”
In the eyes of the crowd, Liola raised up his left arm again, as if he were an emperor giving commands, and Red Dragon was indeed following the King’s wish. The Red Dragon growled again to indicate it understood.
Liola placed Broken Silver back into its scabbard. He didn’t want to harm this obedient Dragon. He raised Broken Silver, and purposely started to struggle, looking as if it were trying to throw Liola off. But it also continued to growl, and Liola heard,
“How is this? Is this too much force to shake you off?”
Though the crowd didn’t know what was going on, but the exhibition match had finally began, and the sacrifice seemed strong. His graceful moves made the crowd yell in satisfaction.
“Shred my shirt, and let me hurt a bit.” Liola whispered into the Red Dragon’s ear. He fully understood the desire of the crowd to see blood. If Liola was completely unscathed, he was afraid that Barker wouldn’t be willing to let him go because the crowd would’ve been dissatisfied.
As unwilling as the Red Dragon was to hurt the master of the white Dragon, but he had no choice but to obey the order.
While fighting with Liola, the Red Dragon waved its claw, and three claw marks appeared on Liola’s chest, from which blood oozed out, and the crowd went wild as a result.
Liola saw it was time, so he jumped onto the Dragon’s back, and took Broken Silver to hit the Dragon continuously. Though it looked like heavy hits, but in reality Liola didn’t put any force into it and he was doing it for show. Besides, after losing all his Ki, Liola actually didn’t have enough strength to damage a Dragon.
“Yell a few times, then fake a faint.”
Liola commanded on the Dragon’s back, and the Red Dragon obeyed as he yelled in pain and ran around the stage. And when Liola acted like he was giving a final punch, the Red Dragon screamed, then fell to the ground.
Liola stood slowly up from the Dragon, and his gaze was fixed on Barker in the box, reminding him the promise of letting him leave if he won against the Dragon.
* * *
Barker’s face was completely frozen. He could have never imagined he had made the wrong judgment and underestimated Liola. He really did win against the Red Dragon! What would the crowd think now…
“Great, he really did win.” The crowds exploded with screams.
“My god, that was just too awesome. Looks like he really is a Silver Knight?”
Unexpectedly, the crowd began cheering for the competitor’s beautiful performance. Seeing this, Barker had no idea what to do. Had the crowd been unhappy, then Barker wouldn’t even hesitate a moment to hire someone to kill Liola, but now the crowds were this happy…
“Aren’t you going to let him go? Or are you going to break your promise like you always do?” Qiusi smiled, but a pair of shiny golden eyes held their gaze on Barker.
Scared of him, Barker felt weak in his knees.
He seemed to have understood Qiusi’s meaning, and without any other plans, he grabbed the broadcast and said,
“The current exhibition match was won by the competitor, and as a result, the competitor will be…”
“Shut up! Barker.” A seductive and soft woman’s voice interrupted Barker.
Liola felt a weight in his heart. This deadly and seductive woman’s voice was far too familiar. Liola almost didn’t want to look at the origin of this voice, but his eyes still looked towards the entrance.
Black Rose’s sexy and charming body stood at the entrance. Wearing a tight-fitting dress, she looked more beautiful than ever. Like always, countless rose petals surrounded Black Rose, and her fingers were wrapped around the handle of a long bramble whip.
Black Rose yelled lightly with a sweet voice, “Aiya, pretty little brother, you really know how to pick the place. You actually came to the headquarters of Adorning Flowers organization. Did you miss me, and specially came here to be collected? Hehe.”
Liola was severely shocked. The Dark Street was the Adorning Flowers’ headquarters? Could he have walked into the lion’s den?
Seeing Liola’s unbelievable expression, Black Rose laughed with satisfaction. She thought this otherwise expressionless man having such helpless expression satisfied her desires. If it were possible, she’d play with this pretty boy sometimes, she thought with dissatisfaction.
Unfortunately, they were in the headquarters, and her boss was enraged because she failed last time. She would probably be best off killing the boy right away, or otherwise she would find herself in a difficult predicament. After thinking of her boss’s shiny blade, Black Rose couldn’t help but touch her own thin neck.
“It’s too bad. Even though you won against the Dragon, but I had already known three days ago that you actually came to the headquarters, hehe. Seeing you think you can escape, then killing your hope in doing so seemed to be throwing you into an abyss, and it makes me… really satisfied!”
Black Rose waved her whip around, leaving a trail everywhere it hit.
Liola examined his surroundings.
Black Rose of the Six Forbidden Sins was in front of him, and around him were outlaws who were excited at the appearance of Black Rose. The whole pyramid was like a large cage, imprisoning Liola within.
The crowds were excited again, and the bloodthirsty audience were like layers upon layers of chains surrounding Liola, and Black Rose was the guillotine, preparing to behead him momentarily.
Even for Liola, who had seen plenty of such situations in his life, this was too much and he sank into despair.
The yelling around him acted like tidal waves continuously shoving him.
Liola held his ears in pain, but even if he could block those deadly screams, he couldn’t stop the voices in his head nor could he get rid of the scenes in his mind.
Why did Kaiser and others come to look for him? Did they not know how dangerous it would be? Did they not understand that being by his side meant death?
Scenes after scenes flashed before Liola’s eyes: Anise drowning in her own blood desperately reaching out her hand, and giving the Dragon cross necklace to him.
Anise, who, in his eyes, was always smiling, could no longer smile. The lines of dried tears criss-crossed on her white face.
He didn’t want Anise to die, why did she have to die?!
Lanski’s blue eyes were filled with tears and shame, and pointing her sword at him to kill him, wanting him to return Baolilong to her… Yes, he took away Lanski’s Baolilong, but he didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t think it would end like this.
“Papa!”
Baolilong’s scared scream pierced right through Liola’s heart. Even if he closed his eyes as hard as he could, Liola couldn’t block away the scene of blue blood dripping across his eyes, and Baolilong using its little body to block Black Rose, as well as the scene of Black Rose tossing Baolilong aside like trash.
Liola imagined the situation outside, could it be…
Meinan trembling as he held the blood back from coming out of his mouth. Purity falling out of the sky like a kite with broken line.
Daylight struggling to keep his battered body standing, but still holding on his sword, perhaps even reaching out to hold Meinan up, and they were stepping over their enemies’ bodies in the Dark Street that was foreign to them. All of this, because of him.
Kaiser! Kaiser and Baolilong, too, were in the pyramid. Liola looked around, and all he saw were enemies, enemies, and more enemies. If Kaiser and Baolilong really came here, wouldn’t that mean…
Liola painfully closed his eyes. Cold tears fell down along his cheek.
Liola murmured, “Me, it’s all me, why is it all me?!”
Countless scenes flashed before his eyes, and almost everyone of them was a scene where everyone was bleeding. Liola felt completely heartbroken. He held his fists and repeatedly struck the ground, as if he couldn’t feel pain.
Liola yelled, “If I die, will this all end? Anise! Tell me, why did you save me? Is it to bring harm to other?!”
Pity flashed across Black Rose’s eyes. Her white hands lifted Liola’s chin, and took pity, “Pitiful brother, if living is so painful, then let me help you escape it!”
Liola felt the hand on his neck tighten, and even Black Rose’s sharp nails sank into Liola’s neck. Being heartbroken, Liola didn’t have any intention of resisting, and he let his sights blur and consciousness fade…
Liola suddenly seemed to regain his consciousness. Both of his hands grabbed Black Rose’s hand, and suddenly asked,
“Are you going to let them go? It’s enough for me to die, right?”
Black Rose seemed shocked, then showed a seductive smile, “Don’t worry, little brother, if no one is paying, I wouldn’t even be willing to lift a hand.”
Liola slowly let go of Black Rose’s hand, and Black Rose continued to tighten her grasp. Seeing Liola’s arms already fallen from the lack of power, Black Rose said as if she suddenly remembered something,
“Oh! Right, I forgot to tell you this, but little Dragon is an exception. My employer specifically told me I have to kill you both.”
A ray of light shone across Liola’s darkened eyes, and Black Rose’s expression changed too, then she kicked Liola in the stomach, which sent him flying. After landing, Liola withstood the pain of his stomach and stood up, with rage flashing in his eyes.
Black Rose held her stomach with her right hand, but blood seeped out between her fingers.
Black Rose’s beautiful face again twisted into something ugly beyond belief, and her voice sounded like nail on blackboard.
“You dare to harm me?!”
“Don’t touch Baolilong!” Liola’s cold voice made people felt like they were listening to an abyss.
“Just a Dragon.” Black Rose screamed with a strange voice, “You are about to die, why do you care about whether that Dragon dies?!”
Liola growed, “Don’t touch Baolilong, he’s… is…”
‘What is he?’
Liola seemed to be at a loss for words. What was Baolilong to him? His Dragon? His child?
Liola suddenly realized that he didn’t even know what position Baolilong stood in his heart, but he was certain that he cared much about Baolilong, even though Liola didn’t know why.
“Child! You and Baolilong are like brothers, you are just like one another, as long as someone treats you well, you will treat them well many times over.”
A voice suddenly barged into Liola’s mind.
The tone was like a kind mother shaking her hand at her naughty child. Liola was baffled, he didn’t understand why a mother-like voice would appear in his mind, could it be that he was hallucinating?
“Look down, child.” The soft, kind voice said patiently, “I am in front of your chest.”
Liola was stunned, and at the same time felt a tingling sense of warmth flashing across his chest.
Liola reflexively lowered his head to look at the only thing in front of his chest — the Dragon Cross necklace. The necklace was emitting a warm, white light.
Liola blinked, he seemed to have seen Dragon wings briefly flapped around the necklace?
The mother-like voice spoke again to explain to Liola,
“Because Princess Anise really loved you, so you loved her more, and you were willing to defy the organization’s kill order for her. Because Baolilong really loves you, you wouldn’t allow anyone to harm it. Because your friends also love you, and they risk their lives to save you, so you would feel the intense pain in your heart… You are a kind child, Liola.”
Hearing the necklace’s words, Liola laughed bitterly. He was an Assassin, and Assassins were ruthless, cold-blooded, and cruel, how could he possibly be kind?
The necklace emitted an even brighter light, as if it were shaking its head to laugh at Liola’s silliness.
However, it didn’t say anything, because Black Rose had already noticed something was wrong. The necklace said somewhat anxiously to Liola, who was standing stupefied, “Child, I can help you temporarily suppress your seal, but you will only have three hours. Within those three hours, you must rescue all of your companions and get out of here.”
At this time, Black Rose had already commanded her petals to chop Liola to pieces, but an intense white light exploded from the necklace, and the light enveloped the entire arena.
The crowds covered their eyes and screamed in pain. Along with a Dragon roar, the light took the shape of a snow-white Dragon as it soared into the sky.
The giant Dragon then seemed to have poured itself through Liola’s forehead. Liola felt a bubble burst in his head, and immense Ki came out from within to fill every corner of Liola’s body.
The best Assassin was back!
* * *
“Damn! What is this light?”
Black Rose shook her head with agitation, trying to shake off the intense headache the bright light caused. At the same time, she looked around to prevent Liola from using this opportunity to escape, but Black Rose suddenly realized, she couldn’t sense Liola at all, as if he was no longer in the arena.
‘But that’s impossible!’
The arena was surrounded by electrified shielding. Even for her, escaping here through the shields would be impossible without sustaining serious injuries.
‘Where the hell was Liola?’
Black Rose searched panickedly, at the same time she surrounded herself with countless petal to prevent a sneak attack.
However, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in both her hand and feet. Black Rose screamed as she fell to the ground. She trembled as she lifted her hands, and only then did she notice that the nerves on all her hands and feet were broken.
Black Rose had almost lost it, “Come out! I’m going to kill you!”
The intense light finally faded, and a pair of cold, ruthless silver eyes appeared on the stage.
Black Rose and the surrounding crowds all quieted down. Liola had the unsheathed Broken Silver in his right hand. The light reflected the sharp edge of the blade, and it terrified people as much as his eyes. Along with his Silver Knight uniform, he seemed incredibly dangerous.
“Wow, really amazing, Silver Knight!”
Black Rose said mockingly, then she went into a frenzy, and burst out laughing wildly.
She sneered as she laughed, “Even if you are Silver Knight, you think you can get out of the Dark Arena Pyramid? In your dreams!”
“Silver Knight?” A lazy voice could be heard from the entrance, and the lazy body was leaning at the door frame,
“Aiya, if Liola was only as strong as a Silver Knight, then Lancelot probably still hasn’t reached Gold rank yet.”
“Papa!” Baolilong cheered with both of its arms in the air, and it was wiggling restlessly in Kaiser’s arms.
Kaiser fumbled to hold onto Baolilong, to prevent this stupid Dragon from running into the electrified shield. At the same time, he didn’t forget to say to Liola,
“You irresponsible little father, don’t ever make me babysit your kid again. This Dragon has the intelligence of a water melon.”
Liola seemed to have pouted, but in his heart he sighed in relief that Kaiser and Baolilong were still well. Now what he must do was to handle everything here, then hurry to rescue Daylight and others.
With firm resolve, Liola immediately started to attack. The only thing Black Rose saw were a pair of cold silver eyes. Broken Silver instantly disposed of all her petals, and then it pressed on towards Black Rose.
Black Rose succumbed to fear as she covered her eyes and screamed at the top of her lung, until Liola knocked her unconscious.
Liola stood in front of the unconscious Black Rose with Broken Silver.
He hesitated: which one was more important, his promise to Anise or his friends’ safety? Liola really couldn’t decide, and he looked at Kaiser helplessly, who was flinging his fingers carelessly,
“As one of the Six Forbidden Sins, she has failed twice, and one of the times was even at their headquarters. Looks to me like she wouldn’t even be able to stay within Flowers.”
Kaiser lazily straightened his back and hurried, “Kick her a few times for revenge, then we have to hurry and save Daylight, I don’t think they can hold up much longer.”
Liola smiled, and he understood that Kaiser saying to kick her wasn’t because of vengeance, but instead prevent Black Rose from chasing them after she wakes up.
Liola stomped a few times on Black Rose’s hands and feet, then walked to the edge of the stage, looking at the electrified shield.
“He defeated Black Rose!”
“My god! H-he’s coming out.”
“That’s impossible! Nobody could break this electric shield…”
Before the last guy even finished his sentence, he saw Liola hold up his two arms and rammed against the shield. Without even showing his aura, the shield disappeared after crackling briefly.
After countless screams from the crowd, they all started to run every which way to try to escape.
“You should really learn how to have an aura, otherwise you don’t look imposing at all when you swing in the air a few times and you suddenly win, and it’s not fun to watch at all.”
Kaiser saw that the electrified shield had no effects on Liola, and started babbling like usual,
“Think about it, how handsome Lancelot and Blood Wolf looked when they fight, with sounds and lights, the whole atmosphere is different.”
“Papa is 1000 times better than Stinkelot!”
Baolilong, who climbed onto papa’s back as soon as possible, roared in dissatisfaction. As soon as it heard about Lancelot, Baolilong was enraged.
Kaiser painfully covered his ear with his left hand, and held up his middle finger on his right hand.
Who knew Baolilong would imitate him, and threw both of its chubby middle fingers up in the air, and grimaced.
“Aiya! Little runt, you even put up one more middle finger than me? Liola! Look at how you’ve taught your child! He already knows how to gesture his middle finger, and he’s only five years old, what’s going to happen when he grows up?” Kaiser was making a fuss at Liola.
Liola tilted his head to look at Baolilong. The Assassin raised his hand in hesitation, then put up his middle finger, and put his hand in front of Kaiser’s face and asked,
“Are you talking about this?”
“…”
Two streams of tears flowed down his face.
“Please, put your middle finger down, even Baolilong does it better than you.”
(Kaiser thought, put down the middle finger quick! Otherwise, the readers will think that I’m a bad influence on you, and then drag me to a corner to beat me up)
“Hurry and let’s go, Kaiser, there are still quite a few troublesome people here.”
Liola’s eyes glanced towards the box, where a gold-haired man was standing and smiling. Liola felt he better hurry and leave here with Kaiser before Qiusi got interested in stopping them, otherwise there could be an intense fight.
“Hot damn! Even the Prime Minister comes to the Dark Street?” Kaiser’s eyes followed Liola’s. But he wasn’t as clueless as Liola to not recognize the man in the box was the Prime Minister of Aklan.
Rumor had it, he’s a very powerful Sorcerer. Like Liola, Kaiser didn’t want to mess with someone like him.
“Wait, I have to go save someone,” Kaiser said anxiously.
“Kaigleser?”