Chapter 389: Pollution

"Die!!!"

The gale carried by the charge spiraled through the crowd; they only heard the sharp clang of metal meeting metal after the stinging pain hit their skin.

Dimia suddenly looked up from within the crowd.

There, not far off, was the bard, one of the stars of the engagement banquet, the man who should have been laughing and chatting with everyone on the strength of his father-in-law's reputation and was destined to rise straight to the top — 'Aidan' — now holding a rapier that had been sliced clean through at the hilt, his face full of shock.

A thin crimson line ran across his neck like a zipper; his head seemed to lose its connection at the same time, tilting over first under gravity, crashing to the ground, and then being swiftly wrapped in a shifting black metallic slime.

A column of blood spurted up like a fountain.

It splashed down onto the forester behind him, who was still holding his sword-swinging pose — brutal, clean, and carrying a surging, untamed momentum.

In an instant, it sent huge ripples through what should have been Dimia's calm heart.

"Ah——"

Screams erupted from the crowd.

Then came chaos and flight.

The witch reacted swiftly, frowning hard, about to raise a question.

The banshee Chris beside her immediately grabbed her: "Aidan was a dark elf in disguise; they mean to attack Shi Ying Town. Calm the crowd and cooperate with the elves outside the ritual to break it."

The words had only just been spoken.

When she saw Rod snatch up the still-dazed Tobeka, explode off the floor with a massive jump on the spot, smash through the roof of the main house, and vanish.

"No!! Tobeka!!!"

Humbert let out a wretched scream.

He screamed so terribly that Dimia was afraid he might pass out on the spot.

She was thrown off by the successive surprises, but she adjusted quickly, and naturally chose to trust Rod.

She circulated her magic power and rapidly began to chant and cast.

"Calm yourselves!"

A joint casting of 【Hypnotism】 + 【Phantom Sound】.

The former can raise a creature's friendliness toward the caster, making it easier to obey or believe the caster's words.

The latter can produce illusory sounds, the volume varying with the amount of magic power used.

The spell's tier wasn't high, and for a witch of Dimia's caliber, she easily produced a sound equal to twenty ordinary people shouting.

Everyone present was stunned and turned to look at her.

Dimia took a deep breath and quickly soothed them.

Chris was watching from the side; her eyes rolled, and she spotted a few small pieces of jewelry on the ground that had been dropped during the brief chaos.

Just as she was about to sneak them back, a shadow suddenly slid up beside her.

The succubus, transformed into a handsome version of Rod, leapt out from it and swiftly handed the unconscious half-deer woman in her arms to her.

"Keep her safe, I have to go help Master."

"Why me? I don't know how to take care of people! And I have important things to do!"

"The little deer girl did us a favor; if you don't watch over her, Master will make your life hell!"

Chris hunched her shoulders, hurriedly cradling Miss Xiao Ke's head against her chest, pressing it deep into her bosom.

Rod leapt into the sky, and just as he cast the spherical defensive barrier of 【Chang En Fa Yin】, he slammed into the edge of 【Wind Wall】.

It was viscous like a swamp; the moment he touched it, it felt as if he would sink into it.

Was a spell like 【Slime Wall】 mixed in?

Rod immediately detonated 【Chang En Fa Yin】.

The stickiness vanished briefly as if blasted apart, but quickly gathered again.

But for Rod, that was already enough.

Carrying Tobeka, he swiftly crossed the ritual's range, then switched to jet mode with 【Flight】 + 【Repulsion】, speeding toward the uninhabited area outside Shi Ying Town.

"Ah!!!"

Tobeka let out a wretched scream.

She turned her head and saw that the hem of her carefully tailored gown had been mostly corroded away, and a large patch of her exposed calf showed signs of acid corrosion.

Ah. Sorry.

Was there acid on the ritual too?.

Leaving her wounds untreated wasn't an option either.

Even now, the trigger for that dark elf bio-bomb was still unknown.

When Miss Xiao Ke's divination had just been discovered, 'Aidan' had immediately begun casting; Rod didn't dare gamble on whether he was triggering the bio-bomb, and had no choice but to strike first with a forced kill.

What if her emotional agitation could also trigger it?

Rod could only use the domain skill 【Rot-Born Unity】 to heal her wounds.

"You like me?"

Tobeka, who was being carried, suddenly shouted.

"???"

When I put up question marks, it's not that I'm the one with the problem — it's that I think you're the one with the problem.

"You came to crash the wedding, so you must like me. You're a bit more handsome and stronger, but Aidan is gentler and sings better — who should I choose?"

C-crashing the wedding?

Rod thought it over carefully, and indeed, killing the groom of an engagement and taking the bride did look a lot like that.

I'm a respectable, well-known figure in Shi Ying Town — what kind of trash would I be, snatching a whore like this?

The woman is a fool too; she didn't even notice that the so-called 'Aidan' had just been beheaded with a single sword stroke.

Still, her head was full of tender affection and talk of love.

Seeing her dreamy look, it wasn't hard to understand why she'd been so easily swindled away by a sailor back in the day.

Rod couldn't be bothered with her.

Flying all the way out of Shi Ying Town, he stopped at an open hillside in the Twilight Hills and set Tobeika down on the ground.

Before long.

A ripple of 【Spatial Shift】 appeared beside him, and Lady Kali's beautiful, cool, and aloof figure materialized.

"How's the ritual deconstruction going?"

"I've already done a preliminary breakdown. Selina and Dimia are handling the deconstruction now — shouldn't be a problem."

Tobeika on the ground was stunned for a moment at the elf's exquisitely perfect appearance, then revealed a jealous disgust.

"Who is she? An elf? If you're going to fight for my love, why are you hooking up with an elf?"

Lady Kali's gaze turned strange.

Rod said helplessly, "This one's had the clap. Even if it was cured, it's clearly gone to her brain — a total vegetable."

"What did you say?! My father is Humbert, do you hear me?!"

Still couldn't be bothered with her.

Lady Kali naturally wouldn't care about the words of such a clown either, and proceeded to appraise and examine the biological bomb in her belly.

Tobeika still didn't understand what was going on, thinking the elf was jealous of her unborn baby, and made a huge fuss demanding Rod help her — only to be cowed by a cold glance from Rod, not daring to move like a quail.

"It's a Flesh Bomb from Abyssal magic — should have been crafted by that dark elf when they were mating. I can dispel it, no problem."

Lady Kali's tone was calm, as if she were discussing something utterly ordinary.

After advancing to seventh tier, she appeared even more at ease with all manner of spellwork.

"However, the baby has been corrupted by demonic bloodline. Even if we dispel the Abyssal magic, the moment it's born it'll transform into a tiefling — and one with a high demonic bloodline ratio at that. I recommend dealing with it together."

Tieflings are the offspring of demons and humans.

Someone like Sashiel clearly has a higher human bloodline ratio, so her temperament is no different from a human's.

But if the demonic bloodline ratio is higher, they'll come across as far more bloodthirsty and brutal.

"What are you saying? What tiefling? What demonic bloodline?"

Rod shook his head, glanced at the increasingly terrified Tobeika — he had no desire to shoulder this responsibility:

"Let her and Humbert decide this matter themselves. We just handle dispelling the Abyssal magic."

Saying so, he looked up toward the south of the Twilight Hills.

After Slime Little Black had devoured 'Aiden's' head, he'd obtained the positions of some of the dark elf ambush forces.

He had to deal with it.

"There's still urgent business over there. Lady Kali, sorry to trouble you to handle this on your own."

"Have you troubled me any less?"

(End of Chapter)