Chapter 274: It

Seeing Bi Gelei was truly at a loss now; she had seen Saint-Bearers before—in her previous world, the Church of Light had once sent out so-called officially sanctioned "Heroes" to hassle her, and these Heroes were often accompanied by a Saint-Bearer. Most of them were women, their combat power roughly equal to that of ordinary Divine-Descent clerics, yet they could frequently use rare, utterly unreasonable divine arts.

Unlike ordinary clerics, they never constantly mouthed the names of gods or the Church, yet the Church of Light treated them with great courtesy, even more respectfully than they treated Heroes.

Back when she was still naive, every time she knocked a Hero to his knees, a Saint-Bearer would leap out, using some bizarre artifact or spell to snatch back the Hero—or even his corpse—and a few days later, the Hero would be back on his feet, lively as ever.

Only after she learned to conceal her true strength did she begin to first engage with slightly more power than the Hero, giving the opponent the illusion that one final push could win—then, when the Hero was nearly exhausted and the Saint-Bearer was ready to retrieve him, she unleashed her full power: obliterate the body, grind the bones to ash, all in one seamless strike, then follow up with a relentless assault on the Saint-Bearer. After killing seven or eight Heroes this way, the Church of Light finally fell silent, not appointing any new Heroes for years.

In her prime, Heroes and Saint-Bearers were nothing but roadside vermin to her—harder to kill, yes, but still swatted away with a wave of her hand. But the problem was, she wasn't in her prime anymore!

"Wait, this one doesn't seem intent on charging up?" Seeing Bi Gelei felt anxious, but her sharp mind caught the anomaly.

Though Saint-Bearers usually preferred to let Heroes fight for them, this one was clearly different.

"Is she here to protect those two Heroes? But don't Heroes in this world have resurrection protection? Or is there some self-restraint built into that barrier she used earlier?"

Seeing Bi Gelei rapidly analyzed and quickly devised a plan. She still maintained her haughty demeanor as the Blood Queen, her bat wings fluttering gently as she hovered in the sky, looking down:

"I never expected to meet a Saint-Bearer here. So? Is this your Hero partner? How utterly weak!"

Daelis, whose heart was filled with "so scary," heard Seeing Bi Gelei's words and felt bewildered—but she finally recalled that "Saint-Bearer" was a term used in some native-faith worlds for divine agents, so…

"Oh my god, this is a Demon Lord who's fought Heroes before! No, no—that's not right. Being sent to the Exile Lands means her original world is probably frozen in time, which implies there were no Heroes there… So, this is a Demon Lord who actually killed Heroes outright?"

Daelis felt her legs go weak, but fortunately her armor was knight's plate, its structure alone keeping her upright. Still, that didn't solve the problem. Her inner panic reached its peak, but as an outstanding graduate who'd passed the civil service exam, she summoned the same composure she'd shown facing interviewers, forcing her expression to remain calm and speaking with false confidence:

"Heh, are you planning to fight here?"

"What the hell, why aren't you following the script?! At this point, aren't you supposed to send the Hero in?!" Seeing Bi Gelei was momentarily stunned. She'd never encountered a Saint-Bearer who charged in himself like this—she'd practically spelled it out, yet this idiot was still charging headfirst?

Daelis was clearly trapped. If the Research Maniac and Professor Wang were truly her signed Heroes, she'd have dumped everything on them and run for her life—but they weren't! She knew exactly what kind of tier these Exile Lands Heroes were—even with world rules limiting them, tens or hundreds of thousands couldn't kill a Demon Lord. To expect two Heroes to fight a Demon Lord who'd broken her restrictions? Ridiculous.

"Should I… use a divine art to buy time? But the Exile Lands suppress all faith-based demonic gods—even divine power is sealed. Though this armor can draw divine energy from the Divine Realm to cast over-tiered divine arts, the fluctuations can't be hidden. If I cast now, the Demon Lord won't die, but I'll be dead for sure."

Daelis's heart clenched, but she still drew her knight's sword from the ground. Above all, her life came first. Even if she exposed herself, she could always become the Great Saint of Account Settlement—serve her full sentence, and maybe she'd earn some karmic reward!

Watching Daelis begin to gather divine energy, Seeing Bi Gelei gritted her teeth and started preparing her own spell. The spell she'd intended to test on Kingdora was clearly unstable, but now she had no choice but to try it!

The flow of magic twisted the heavens into something unnatural. The female Demon Lord in the sky and the female knight below with her sword formed a stark contrast—but just as tension peaked, a discordant noise approached from afar.

"Holy shit! New wife!"

"Fight! Fight!"

"I love watching women fight!"

"If I go help now, will I get some favor points?"

"Idiot, that's Blood Sister! You need fifty people coordinating to beat her in a dungeon—do you really think you can flip the world map?"

While the Goddess and the Demon Lord faced off, the Research Maniac had already posted the event on the forum. If the boss had been a Demon Dragon, he might've hoped for some xianxia plot—but it was Blood Sister? Forget it.

Considering this NPC clearly wouldn't let anyone leave until the plot finished, the Research Maniac chose to sacrifice his comrade and save himself.

Yeah, those lps would gladly take the bait.

"Huh…" Seeing Bi Gelei exhaled in relief at the flood of players rushing in, but her face showed clear disdain as she swept her gaze over the crowd below like they were filth—triggering a chorus of cries: "Ah, that look!" "Blood Sister stepped on me!" "She looks disgusted while…" "Great idea, screenshot taken, going to have AI edit this now!"—then she sneered:

"Heh, you Saint-Bearers have really degenerated. You actually recruited such trash? Fine, I've lost all interest."

As she spoke, Seeing Bi Gelei's body suddenly exploded into a cloud of smoke, hundreds of thousands of tiny bats scattering in all directions—what had nearly turned the sky blood-red instantly cleared.

"I made it!" Daelis forced back tears, sheathed her longsword, and swiftly extinguished all divine energy fluctuations—but she clearly didn't realize that Seeing Bi Gelei's seemingly majestic exit was, in truth, a desperate escape.

(End of Chapter)