Xue Lei was surrounded on the ground. A fully armed squad of Terandi Elite Enforcement Guards swiftly encircled her.
Just as the Knight Captain at the front coldly stepped forward, preparing to clamp the mana-sealing sea prison stone onto the unresponsive Xue Lei, a voice suddenly exploded from midair.
“Hey! Get your filthy hands off her! Nobody touches her!”
Before the words even faded, a massive war axe larger than a full-grown adult, plummeting like a falling meteor with a piercing air-splitting shriek, slammed hard into the stone slabs between the guards and Xue Lei!
The violent shockwave instantly knocked the two leading knights off their feet.
The guards were startled, drawing their longswords and whipping around toward the sky: “Who goes there?! How dare you interfere with the Enforcement Guard!”
Through the dust, a little girl barely four feet tall, with a pair of dragon horns on her head, stood there shouldering the giant axe, glaring at them.
“Lady Antonella?”
The captain recognized her and exchanged uneasy glances with his men.
This girl was the family’s notorious little terror. Though she was a cadet branch member, with her ancient dragon heart and brute strength, even the elders wouldn’t dare provoke her lightly.
The captain steeled himself and stepped forward, his tone tinged with caution: “Lady Antonella, this is the highest directive personally issued by San Zhanglao. We must apprehend this traitor who disrupted the ritual. Please step aside and do not hinder us in carrying out our duty.”
Antonella hopped down from the axe handle, planted herself in front of Xue Lei, and slapped her own flat little chest with fierce confidence: “Screw the elder’s directive! I am the Chief Student personally appointed by Elder Sister herself!”
She flashed two adorable little fangs and snorted: “I took a blood oath to protect Sister Xue Lei! If you bastards dare lay a single hair on her, I’ll show you no mercy!”
The guard knights furrowed their brows, clearly unwilling to back down.
“Lady Antonella, the young Miss’s fate is still unknown. Why would you oppose the Elder Council for the sake of a useless waste? Please don’t make this difficult for us!”
The captain made a hand signal, and the elite guards immediately fanned out. One squad raised tower shields, trying to block Antonella; another swiftly circled around, preparing to seize Xue Lei by force.
Antonella’s chubby little face twisted into an expression of true berserker fury: “How dare you! To treat Elder Sister’s orders as if they were nothing! Fine then, I’m done wasting words with you!”
The massive [Earth-Splitting Demon Axe] embedded in the ground seemed to come alive, letting out an excited hum as it flew back into Antonella’s pale, delicate little hands.
Facing the elite guards formed in battle formation, Antonella took a deep breath, and the ruthless ancient dragon fighting spirit of the <berserker battle art> exploded from within her!
She gripped the axe handle with both hands, aimed at the hard ground ahead, and slammed down with everything she had.
This strike held nothing back!
The supposedly indestructible paving bricks before the giant axe shattered like paper, instantly carving out a crater several yards wide! The entire plaza floor seemed to have been hit by a magnitude ten earthquake.
“Hahaha!”
Then the little girl roared, her left hand clenching into a fist as she punched toward the squad of knights trying to flank through the air.
The frenzied fist force screeched with piercing sonic booms as it tore through the air, the sheer power compressing into a visible air cannon, like a high-speed train slamming head-on into them!
Those so-called elite family guards didn’t even have time to raise their shields.
They were blown backward dozens of yards like leaves scattered by a gale, armor and all, crashing heavily into distant stone pillars, spewing blood before going limp and unconscious.
Antonella shouldered the great axe and huffed angrily at the groaning knights sprawled across the ground: “Hmph! This is what happens when you defy Elder Sister’s orders! Anyone else want to come get beaten up?”
The remaining knights stumbled backward in terror, staring at the little dragon girl as if she were a dragon wearing human skin.
No one dared to charge to their deaths.
After cowing the entire field, Antonella turned around and planted the great axe into the ground.
She softened her steps and walked over to Xue Lei, who was still sitting there blankly, like a soul had been ripped from her.
Seeing Xue Lei’s hollow, lifeless eyes, even the usually simple-minded Antonella felt her heart involuntarily clench.
Moved by Xue Lei’s overwhelming sorrow, Antonella crouched down, carefully reaching out her small hand to tug at Xue Lei’s icy-cold sleeve.
“Sister Xue Lei, let’s go. Let’s leave this place.” Antonella spoke softly.
Xue Lei turned her head with agonizing slowness, like a rusty machine. She silently looked at the little girl standing up for her, her cracked, pale lips parting slightly as she forced out a hoarse voice that seemed to take every ounce of her strength:
“Why… why did she save me?”
“Why didn’t she use me for the blood sacrifice… why did she push me away… why… why did she say those things to me, only at the very end?”
Tears burst from Xue Lei’s eyes again.
Antonella scratched her little head. Her simple logic couldn’t possibly grasp Xue Lei’s complex string of “whys.”
All she could do was desperately recall what Annabell had told her yesterday on the steps.
Then the little girl cleared her throat, doing her best to imitate Annabell’s cool, tsundere tone, and answered seriously:
“Because, Elder Sister told me herself.”
“She said, ‘When faced with something truly important in one’s heart, a lifeless weapon isn’t worth a second thought.'”
“So!” Antonella nodded firmly and delivered her conclusion: “In Elder Sister’s heart, Sister Xue Lei, you are a hundred times, ten thousand times more important than that abyssal holy artifact!”
“That’s why Elder Sister made me promise to protect you no matter what!”
Something truly… important.
Ten thousand times more important… than the abyssal holy artifact…
Antonella’s innocent, childish retelling struck Xue Lei’s ears like a thunderbolt from the heavens!
Xue Lei’s previously vacant pupils contracted to their absolute limit.
So that’s how it was…
So she never once intended to hurt me. Every cold act she put on was for today… to use her own life, in front of everyone, to buy mine!
Xue Lei clutched the jade pendant at her chest, tilted her head back, and plunged into utter despair.
Then what the hell have I done?!
Tears burst forth.
Antonella carefully helped the crumbling Xue Lei to her feet and whispered: “…Sister Xue Lei, let’s get out of here first, and then, we’ll figure something out.”