Chapter 3245

"Demon!"

"Hunter!" (Demon language)

The sharp night wind carrying snowflakes drifted between the two, yet it could not affect any actions of the two who had confirmed each other's identities.

The demon wielding the weapon had been imprisoned in the glacier by demon hunters for tens of thousands of years. Now, facing the appearance of another hunter, it immediately reacted as if by instinct, preparing to use its strongest power directly. In its empty left hand, countless souls wailed and screamed within the suddenly ignited black flames; the burning souls filled its domain with power:

"Soul Burning..."

"Soul Steal!"

A twelfth-tier white round-faced owl streaked across the sky. After crossing paths with the demon, the black flames that were about to be used as fuel simply vanished, and the owl flew into the distance, carrying the scalding soul crystal in its beak.

While Miss Reinhardt below and the demon above were equally astonished, Xia De, amidst the scattering sparks, had already narrowed his eyes:

"Adele's Time Stop!"

A "click" sounded from the void. The astonished demon, after a half-second delay, was shocked to find that its sword-wielding right hand was actually wrapped in a circle of pitch-black chains.

That right arm seemed to be imprisoned by time and space simultaneously, unable to move. When it tried to shake its arm, it discovered that the clattering chains were etched with eight pitch-black Sin Runes. Even an ancient evil spirit holding an angel-level weapon could not immediately break free from this level of chains. After all, the chains were not weapons; they truly had no offensive power:

"Sin?"

The empty-handed Xia De had already arrived before it in the air. Now at the ninth ring, he actually did not have many miracles suitable for close-quarters combat while unarmed. 【Thunder Wave】 was too weak, so while using the power of the Red Dragon, he once again let 【Moon Fire】 coat his right fist and struck toward the demon's chest.

The demon, whose body was already half-paralyzed, hurriedly retaliated with its left fist. But this time, it had learned its lesson and was not empty-handed; as it threw the punch, a black gauntlet attached to its fist as a weapon, greatly increasing its power and defense—

Boom!

The shockwave formed a white detonation cloud in the air, and the rumbling sound echoed like thunder in the night sky, lingering for a long time. Xia De, having nowhere to leverage his strength, tumbled in the air and stabilized his body with flight magic, his left hand still tightly gripping the 【Sin Chains】. The demon's left palm had already vanished, and with a small portion of its power suppressed by the chains, it was currently at a disadvantage:

"Duel Domain — Rule: No flight allowed here!"

After the ancient demon language was uttered, both Xia De and Miss Camille Eden plummeted downward. The chains clattered in the air; it wanted to take this opportunity to break free from the chains' restraint.

But Xia De, who should have fallen to the ground, did not descend. Because as a beam of pure white light shot toward him, amidst the exclamations of many people on the ground, a golden horn rose toward the sky, and the Miss Unicorn, radiating pure white light in the snowy night, caught Xia De.

And the demon's power was severely interfered with by the 【Sin Chains】. Not only Flora in her shapeshifted form, but even Miss Camille Eden was overcoming the influence of the demon's rule power to return to the aerial battlefield.

The demon at the highest point in the sky naturally noticed this. As the unicorn flew rapidly toward it, it recalled the countless years of hunger in the glacier and gave up on breaking the chains. Its left arm rose and transformed into a long blade, severing its own right arm in one stroke. It then discarded the falling right arm, only gripping the 【Sword Progeny Nest】.

Its left hand swung the sword, slashing a spatial rift again. Before it escaped into that rift, the demon's eyes looked at its falling right arm, and its blasphemous language whispered a sentence only Xia De could understand:

"Body Weaponization - Bomb."

Boom—

The black bomb detonated halfway up the mountain. The loudest explosion of the night so far disturbed the dreams of countless people at the foot of the mountain. The snow-capped mountain glowed slightly at this moment, suppressing the spread of the demon's power to the maximum extent.

But for Xia De, who was at the center of the explosion, short-range spatial movement was meaningless against an explosion of this magnitude. He used the 【Seaton Seal】 at the last moment, trying to protect himself and Flora. Flora, whom he shielded beneath him, was fine, but he was blown away.

His body fell like a parabola from the mountainside toward the forest at the foot of the mountain. After landing heavily, his consciousness was dazed for a few seconds before recovering, and he immediately began to worry about Flora's condition:

"Is that demon so afraid of me? It ran away so decisively."

A large patch of trees in the cedar forest was snapped directly by his impact. The pain all over his body was not the key; the physical discomfort after close contact with the demon's power made it impossible for him to stand up immediately.

But fortunately, as snowflakes fell on him bit by bit, this discomfort was gradually easing. Before he could move his body, he heard the sound of hooves treading on snow approaching.

Even though he was lying on the snow and could not lift his head, he felt the pure white light getting closer. The unicorn finally stopped in front of him, lowering its head to press its golden horn against his body.

With the appearance of the unicorn's purifying power, Xia De's own self-healing ability allowed him to gradually regain control of his body. Finally, with a low, pained groan, he was able to sit up, leaning on the snow.

The unicorn seemed to want to leave, but was hugged by a relieved Xia De:

"Flora, you scared me just now. Are you okay... hmm?"

Sensing something was wrong, Xia De let go and leaned back to look at what exactly he was holding.

It was indeed a genuine unicorn, with a golden horn, blue eyes, and pure white fur. But the problem was that it was too real; it didn't look like something created by shapeshifting magic at all.

Although Xia De had not yet mastered the ability to distinguish unicorn appearances as thoroughly as Amelia, he could tell that the timid adult female unicorn in front of him was likely not any one he knew—not Flora, and certainly not little Liana currently at St. Byrons.

Then Xia De discovered that it was even in an injured state, with obvious bloodstains and black wounds on its right hind leg. Seeing Xia De looking at it in astonishment, the timid holy beast wanted to turn and leave, so Xia De hurriedly called out to it:

"Wait a moment, do you need medical treatment? I have food here. Do you want to eat an apple?"

The red apple caught the eyes of the emaciated unicorn. It stretched its head to bite the red apple and chewed it to pieces in a few bites. At the same time, footsteps sounded in the forest again, and before long, Miss Stella Larson appeared, clutching her chest.

The white-haired girl had clearly run over; she panted several times after stopping before she recovered:

"Good evening, Mr. Watson."

She said embarrassedly, then explained the reason for her appearance:

"The young lady said I didn't need to go up the snowy mountain, so I brought people here to look for the white figure you saw this afternoon, which the young lady mentioned this evening... hmm, why are you here? Oh, are you okay?"

Most of her attention had just been drawn by the unicorn, and only now did she notice that Xia De also seemed to be in a disheveled, injured state. She hurriedly walked over to help Xia De up, but she blushed slightly while supporting him.

However, before she could speak again, the unicorn stretched its head to nuzzle Xia De. Xia De, who already had plenty of experience raising cats, took out another bright red fruit, and the emaciated unicorn bit it and chewed it up as well.

"Something happened on the snowy mountain. Send a signal now to call Miss Reinhardt over, but the elders were also injured, and I don't know how she is. And the appearance of this unicorn is really... I'll treat its wounds first."

"It's injured?"

The white-haired girl asked in disbelief; in her view, such a sacred creature should not be harmed. Only then did she see the wounds on the right leg of the emaciated blue-eyed holy beast, and she hurriedly went to send a message for her teacher to come over.

At this moment, the unicorn asked Xia De for a third apple. Xia De simply took out the box containing the apples and placed it on the snow. It let out a "neigh," nuzzled Xia De again, and then lowered its head to eat—this again reminded Xia De of the cat that should be lazily lying on the back of the sofa at home right now.

A unicorn is a xenobiotic creature with the same danger level as a dragon, and its self-recovery ability is even stronger than a dragon's. Wounds that prevent a unicorn from recovering naturally are naturally not ordinary wounds.

Xia De squatted down to check carefully. When he touched the wound flowing with silver blood, the unicorn was still trembling slightly, though it might also be because it was eating the apples too fast. Xia De sensed extremely strong demon power at the black wound; it had been injured by the demon just now.

It was just that this wound was clearly an old one.

Besides the most serious wound on its leg, it had two other minor injuries on its body, also from the demon. But the good news was that "Moon Fire," a power specifically used to purify curses, could effectively expel demon power.

It was just that the wound on its leg was too severe; simply expelling the curse might not be enough, so Xia De wanted to take it to a safe place and arrange a proper treatment plan for it:

"But where did this unicorn come from? There couldn't possibly be a wild unicorn population on Fatumunster Island, could there?"

The preliminary treatment went quite smoothly. Moon Fire combined with "Satiating Food" and the No. 3 Holy Water at least made the wounds look less terrifying. During Xia De's treatment, Miss Larson kept soothing the unicorn worriedly, also stroking its neck, but the unicorn was busy lowering its head to eat the apples in the box and had no time to respond to her comfort.

Before long, Miss Reinhardt also appeared, or rather, both witches appeared together. A unicorn appearing in the cedar forest was simply too conspicuous, so they descended directly from the sky to Xia De's side.

(End of chapter)