BOOM!!!
But just as the two of them prepared to join forces once again!
The Stage behind the clown was suddenly smashed apart!
There was no time to react at all. The clown monster was immediately knocked to the ground by a Giant Crow bursting out from backstage!
The Giant Crow’s thrashing body was like a bloody, fleshy grinder! It crushed the clown completely!
“Uh?!”
Everyone stared blankly at the scene before them.
This… the emotion I just spent so much time building up…
My very first battle in another world… just like that… is it over?
Holly instantly felt a little disillusioned, and with her desire suddenly extinguished, the Divine Radiance that had been lingering on her body from the Holy Sword vanished in that moment.
Whoosh!
As she stood there in a daze, the Giant Crow didn’t pause for a second!
Fortunately, Reliel was still standing beside Holly, so she grabbed her by the collar and dodged to the side.
…
Dust flew everywhere…
Looking at the Giant Crow that had crashed out from behind the tent, and at the half of a man’s body that lay on the ground…
Ileya opened her mouth, feeling somewhat helpless.
Should she say her luck was bad?
Or is it just that this group is always like this.
Always trying to hide the truth behind the scenes… Enough already, what’s the point of hiding it from me?
Sigh… at least I can search backstage properly; maybe I’ll find something useful.
Thinking this, the Lady looked at Amisa before her.
“You return to the Kingdom of the Dead first. With you tagging along, we’d probably get attacked the whole way.”
“Yes, Lady.”
Although she was amazed and shocked by the Lady’s ability,
Amisa knew this was not the time to ask about it.
So, when a half-meter-wide black hole appeared before her, her body turned into a shadow and plunged into the hole.
Left alone, Ileya quickly strode forward.
Following the direction the man had tried to escape, she soon found a room separated by a curtain at the end.
Inside was a simple bedroom.
It must have been where that man rested, but right now Ileya wasn’t concerned with the furnishings.
Instead…
The moment her crimson eyes entered, they locked onto a Crystal Cabinet on the side.
Inside the cabinet—was that a Staff?
No, rather than a Staff, it looked more like an old branch from an ancient tree, set with a round gem that was light blue on the outside and deep purple within.
The instant she saw this thing, Ileya was certain.
That was what the host had rushed backstage to get.
Sigh… the moment she reached out and opened the glass case,
Ileya felt a strange sensation sweep over her.
It seemed as if the Staff in front of her… whether it was the wood or the gem, both were alive.
And as she stared at the Staff, the Staff seemed to be watching her, too.
The sensation sent a chill down Ileya’s back.
But… even so, the Lady didn’t show any sign of retreating.
She simply reached out… and grabbed the Staff before her!
Whoosh—!!
The moment the cold wooden handle touched her palm, countless fragments of memory surged into her mind like an uncontrollable tide!
A howling wind swept sand and stones…
It was an unprecedented, colossal Storm!
It seemed that even heaven and earth themselves would be swept up and spun within the Storm!
In the face of such a disaster, everything nearby was destroyed. Not even rubble remained.
But that was not the most terrifying thing.
The most dreadful, despair-inducing thing was:
This Storm, capable of destroying a kingdom, was only a curtain, concealing the silhouette of some existence.
That figure, standing upright behind the Storm… was not something any human could oppose or even gaze upon.
Why… why does something so terrifying exist in this world?!
Whoosh!
But in the next instant, the “Ileya” in the memory had her wrist seized by someone!
She turned her head, and saw a man.
He had long golden hair, and wore dazzling golden armor…
But right now, he was battered and exhausted, his armor broken and caved in, hair disheveled, face stricken with terror…
He should have looked as brave as a God on the battlefield, yet now he seemed more like a fleeing soldier!
Yet…
For some reason, even as she looked through the memory, Ileya could not make out his face…
She could see every detail of the armor clearly.
But the man’s face was just a blur… with no features at all.
[.We… can only rely on you now… you must… save…]
Save what?
The roar of the Storm drowned out the man’s desperate shout, leaving the confused Ileya able to catch only a few words.
Rely on me? What a joke…
I… human strength—how could it possibly resist this thing before me.
But…
For some reason, the “her” in the memory didn’t hesitate at all. She nodded firmly.
Then… she stood up, and slowly stepped forward, walking toward the “God” within the Storm.
Buzz…
“Uh.”
In the next moment, Ileya gradually came back to herself, the strange Staff now quietly in her hand with nothing unusual about it.
It took her nearly three minutes to calm down from everything she’d just seen…
Those memory scenes were simply too shocking…
Completely on a different level from the ones she’d seen before. The scale involved was simply too high…
She could hardly imagine herself, before awakening her past memories, being present in such a scene.
Moreover, when she killed Blue Crow, Ileya had seen her own “future” death.
She didn’t know what mistake she’d made, but she was condemned by the masses and subjected to Execution by Public Trial. That must have been her end.
Could it be… that the Public Trial did not execute her, and she managed to escape?
Ileya frowned and pondered for a moment, but could not come up with an answer.
Looking at the Staff in her hand.
She didn’t need to check the material or origin—just from what she’d seen upon touching it…
Ileya was sure that this seemingly ordinary Staff was definitely a treasure… perhaps even a “divine item.”
Moreover… judging from the strength the man killed by the Giant Crow had displayed, it was nowhere near enough to make such a bizarre and real town appear out of nowhere.
He must have borrowed some power through a medium.
And for a tool of this grade, perhaps only this Staff in her hand fit the bill?
Thinking this, Ileya spun the Staff in her hand, then planted it firmly on the ground!
Thud!
With a dull sound, ripples like waves spread out from Ileya in all directions!
“Caw! Caw—!!”
At that instant, all the crows that had been hidden outside suddenly appeared!
Their cries pierced the sky… and the mist within the town outside began to gradually clear!
No one felt this change more keenly than Old Dum’s group, who had been waiting outside all along.
They looked on in confusion as the thick fog faded between the streets.
Just as they were about to speak, they realized the surrounding buildings had suddenly turned from solid to mist, dissolving into huge clouds!
The stone road beneath their feet was also reverting, bit by bit, back to a forest path and grassy ground…
“Dad… Dad! Is this a miracle?!”
Dum’s Eldest Son stood there, mouth agape, staring blankly at everything before him.
In all his twenty-odd years, he’d never seen such a scene!
In his eyes, this was nothing less than a real miracle!!
At that moment… Reliel and the others who had been in the big tent were equally bewildered.
A dozen Giant Crows had suddenly appeared nearby, shrieking at the sky without pause…
They’d thought the crows were about to attack them all at once, and, in despair, had already braced themselves for a desperate fight, but…
In the next moment, the tents, Stage, and seats all dissolved into white mist and vanished swiftly!