The Deputy suddenly looked up—
No, it was suddenly looking down, because of Sefina’s height…
Ahem.
He looked at Sefina. On that delicate, petite face was only an almost cold calmness, her wine-red eyes holding not a single ripple.
“Why are you here?!”
The Deputy’s voice carried the hoarseness of severe wounds and barely concealed shock.
His perception, greatly weakened by his injuries and the fierce battle earlier, had failed to detect her approach in advance.
Sefina’s gaze swept indifferently over his disheveled state, her tone perfectly steady:
“I sensed an abnormal surge of magic power and a loud noise coming from the Archive direction, so I went to investigate.
“I found the hidden door sealed from the outside by powerful earth magic, with traces of high-level barriers interfering with space around it. I judged that a conflict beyond expectations had occurred inside, so I remained outside to observe.”
After a brief pause, Sefina continued stating the facts:
“Subsequently, I detected you and another powerful presence battling underground, and quickly moved toward this direction. After the battle ended, I tracked your dissipating mana and blood aura and found this place.”
This explanation was entirely reasonable. A cadre active in the area, noticing something unusual, observing cautiously, then attempting to rendezvous with an injured superior after the fighting ended.
From a logical standpoint, it made perfect sense. Sefina’s expression and tone betrayed no flaw, as if she truly were just a subordinate who happened to be present.
Terrible. His wounds were serious, his mana consumption enormous, and he was being double-tracked by the Church Guards and that treacherous Demon Leader.
The gaze beneath the Deputy’s mask shifted slightly.
Sefina’s appearance, regardless of her motives, was at least for now the most direct possible aid for him to escape danger. Moreover, he attributed all the traps and obstructions to that cunning Greater Demon.
Though he held some dissatisfaction toward Sefina, the Ninth Seat, he had not developed any deeper suspicion.
The Deputy made his decision on the spot.
“Cough… Fine.”
He coughed up another mouthful of blood foam and said immediately:
“Take me out at once.”
“Yes.”
Sefina replied briefly, without any hesitation. She stepped forward, but instead of supporting the Deputy, she turned to lead the way.
“Follow me. The guards just searched this area, so it’s temporarily clear.”
Sefina had been posing as a Nun in the Church for many days, and she was now extremely familiar with the Church’s internal layout.
Where the magic alarm zones were, which corridors connected to seldom-used storage rooms or ventilation shafts, which time periods had brief gaps in patrol coverage in which areas…
She knew all of it by heart.
Sefina led the unsteady Deputy through the maze-like Church building.
They pressed themselves into the shadows behind statues; hurried through empty corridors; pushed open a seemingly sealed side door in advance, entering a dusty maintenance passage…
The Ninth Seat’s deep penetration and understanding of the Church’s inner workings might well explain how she had obtained intelligence on that hidden passage.
The Deputy followed closely, his mind burning with anxiety over his wounds and the pursuers, yet secretly astonished.
After a careful, circuitous route, the two finally slipped out through a spare side door and emerged outside the Church.
The entire process was smooth and silent, Sefina perfectly composed.
The cold night wind, carrying fine snow, rushed at their faces, clearing the Deputy’s mind, which had grown sluggish from blood loss.
Behind them, the commotion of voices and magic detection waves from within the Church had not ceased—rather, they showed signs of spreading outward.
“They’re beginning to search outside.”
The Deputy leaned against the cold stone wall, catching his breath, his voice even weaker.
“We need to get far away from this area immediately.”
He looked at Sefina.
“Now… is there any place where I can temporarily take shelter and treat my wounds?”
The Deputy needed a safe house, a base where he could catch his breath and heal.
Sefina seemed to have anticipated this question.
She raised her hand, pointing toward the northeast, where a district of low, shabby buildings lay in the capital city:
“Northeast of the Church, there’s a small abandoned old town section. After the municipal planning changes, it’s been left vacant, with a mixed population and weak Church influence.
“I arranged some reliable grassroots members to lie low there for my convenience, and set up several emergency contact points and safe houses.
“They should be able to take you in, help you temporarily shake off pursuit, and get you out of the Sakassus Core District.”
Hearing this, the brow beneath the Deputy’s mask relaxed slightly.
Being able to provide a seemingly viable escape route at a time like this—the Ninth Seat’s emergency arrangements were reasonably thorough.
“Not bad.”
He nodded, his voice hoarse:
“Ninth Seat, you’ve arranged things well.”
However, behind those words churned his surging dissatisfaction and resentment—if not for your incomplete intelligence, missing the existence of that Greater Demon and the traps it had laid, how could he have fallen into such a wretched state, empty-handed! Now he didn’t even have a sample to study!
Enough…
This was not the time to assign blame. Surviving and treating his wounds took priority. These accounts would be settled slowly once he returned.
Under Sefina’s guidance, the two avoided the main roads, sticking to dark alleys and abandoned lanes, moving toward the abandoned district in the northeast. The night and falling snow became their best cover.
About twenty minutes later, they arrived at that so-called “abandoned district.”
It was indeed desolate—broken houses everywhere, streets piled with debris and snow, no sign of human life, only the moaning of the wind.
“Where are the contact people?”
The Deputy looked around. All he saw was ruin upon ruin, with no sign of any “grassroots members.” A sliver of doubt rose in his heart, and his voice remained weak.
Sefina did not answer immediately. She simply stood still in place, her wine-red eyes gazing toward an old tree shivering in the cold wind not far away.
The next second, a figure in a black robe soundlessly emerged from behind the thick trunk of that old tree.
Just one person, standing alone in the snow, facing them.
“Only one person to receive us?”
The Deputy’s suspicion deepened, and his voice turned colder.
This was far from the “rendezvous point” and “safe house” he had envisioned.
Yet Sefina remained silent, offering no explanation and no forward movement.
She merely tilted her head slightly, looking at the Deputy. That calm, unreadable gaze, set against the night, suddenly sent a nameless chill through the Deputy.
Something was wrong!
The Deputy’s senses screamed a warning!
He felt an extremely familiar sense of obstruction begin to suffuse the surrounding space!
This magic power wave was exactly like the barrier that had blocked his [Teleportation] magic beneath the Church!
An ambush!
This wasn’t a rendezvous point—it was a trap!
“You—!!”
The Deputy’s eyes nearly split at the corners as he whirled toward Sefina, who remained expressionless beside him!
Every clue detonated in his mind at once—
Incomplete intelligence, perfectly timed “assistance,” and this silence now…
It was her!
Everything was her!
From providing the intelligence, to luring him underground, to this so-called “rescue” and “escape route” now—
All of it was an elaborately designed trap!
The Deputy tried to activate [Teleportation] immediately!
No matter how severe his wounds or how depleted his mana, he had to flee the range of this rapidly forming barrier at once!