The knight’s words pierced the Saintess’s heart like a blade. Her legs trembled.
“What does that have to do with the Flame Saint?”
“She’s only trying to protect you. Please obey her—this is for your own good.”
Gabriella could see that the magic power inside Loli was gradually boiling. Although there was no obvious change in expression on her face…
“Protect? Indeed, Loli’s original body is already in pieces. Without the control of shadow, she would now be nothing more than a broken, pitiful girl. There’s barely any life left in her.”
Yet Gabriella always felt that these Flame Lock knights were hiding something in their words.
Gabriella’s eyes narrowed slightly.
At that moment, the knights seemed to notice something and all turned to look at Gabriella with eyes full of awe and fear.
“She is… Lady Silver-White Sword Empress…”
“That maid?”
“Yes, it’s her. I didn’t see wrong.”
The speaking knights had traces of age on their faces.
They were likely veterans who had once fought on the demon race battlefields.
Now they had joined the Flame Lock Knight Order and did not directly answer to the church.
If the other party was the Silver-White Sword Empress, then their current actions were a great disrespect toward a hero!
However, their orders were to bring the Saintess back, so they were momentarily at a loss.
“You Flame Lock bastards, how dare you act so insolently?”
A girl’s loud and clear voice rang through the entire castle. Philina descended from the sky, landing behind the knights.
A crimson magic shockwave scattered the dust, and her overwhelming power filled the knights with terror.
Several powerful priests followed beside her.
Then Morphis also descended from above, accompanied by several white-robed, hooded priestesses floating in the air, looking down at them.
Philina ignored the knights and flew straight to Gabriella, kneeling on one knee.
“Goddess Lady, I came down too late.”
She then stood up, drew the longsword at her waist, her eyes filled with killing intent:
“I will drive away all the knights who have disrespected you right now.”
Gabriella actually found the whole situation rather interesting.
However, the Flame Lock knights had already begun to tremble.
They were clearly intimidated by the power of the Second Knight Captain.
Moreover, with Morphis and her priest corps providing support…
At that moment, a familiar male voice came from behind.
The knights at the outer gate rushed over and knelt respectfully before Gabriella.
“Lady Silver-White Sword Empress, we are truly sorry for causing you trouble.”
It was Galand.
He was the vice-captain of the Flame Lock Knight Order—the same human who had been sent flying by Philina earlier.
“Mm.”
Gabriella simply nodded and tilted her head with a smile. She didn’t seem angry at all. Her gentle smile, along with the cross symbols in her pupils, gave off a reassuring feeling.
Not only that.
Gabriella was actually quite intrigued.
The Flame Saint seemed like quite an interesting person.
In Gabriella’s impression, the church’s archbishops placed extreme importance on the power hierarchy.
Their attitude toward traitors was, without exception, immediate execution.
The Flame Saint was the first one daring to point her blade at the church itself.
If not for Holy Queen Simona’s past protection, the Flame Saint would surely have been dealt with.
“If possible, please arrange for me to meet Miss Flame Saint,” Gabriella said with a tilted-head smile.
“Understood.”
Galand stood up, placed his arm over his chest, and bowed once more to show respect.
He then swept his gaze across the knights present, and they all left the area.
Only then did the knights who had heard the name Silver-White Sword Empress swarm over.
The previously empty square quickly filled with knights.
They had all heard of the Silver-White Sword Empress’s reputation and never expected her to be this maid radiating holy power.
“Lady Gabriella~ As expected of you!”
Morphis stepped forward and knelt on one knee, her eyes filled with adoration.
Dozens of priests behind her did the same.
The knights who recognized the Silver-White Sword Empress also followed suit.
For a moment, Gabriella wanted to bury her head in the ground.
However, Gabriella’s attention was entirely focused on Saintess Loli.
Just now, she had sensed it… the knights, and even Philina and Morphis—the two heavenly oracle envoys—were somewhat afraid of Saintess Loli.
Seeing this, Gabriella first stroked the silly Saintess’s head, then listened to Philina explain what had happened.
After listening to Philina’s five-minute explanation, Gabriella finally understood…
Not long ago, the Flame Saint had been the first to notice the Holy Queen’s disappearance.
Within just a few days, the Flame Saint had reached a consensus with the Fifth and Sixth Knight Captains to gradually investigate the internal situation of the knight orders.
Only the Holy Queen could directly command Flame Lock.
With Grand Commander Elsa absent from the knight order, Miss Flame Saint had begun searching for the truth on her own.
Philina and Morphis had arrived in time.
After mentioning the return of the Silver-White Sword Empress, the Flame Saint had temporarily given up on reorganizing the knight orders and the Four Saints, and left the castle.
At this point, Morphis had learned part of Gabriella’s situation from Philina.
She immediately ordered the knights and priest corps to leave, leaving only the four girls present. With a face full of worry, she walked up to Gabriella and asked:
“Lady Gabriella, are you alright now?”
From Philina, she had learned that Gabriella had been under the evil god’s control until she regained the Holy Body.
She had even married the evil god, been forced into multiple intimate acts, had her dignity stripped away—along with everything else.
It was said that Miss Gabriella was punished by the evil god every day, and perhaps… she had already been impregnated with the evil god’s seed!
The fact that she had survived and maintained her sanity was already a miracle.
And that wasn’t even the worst part.
The leader of the heavenly oracle envoys, Miss Olivia, had also been dominated by the Demon King.
All signs indicated that time was running out for the heavenly oracle envoys.
Seeing Morphis’s worry, Gabriella shook her head.
“Miss Shining Saint, I am very sorry about what happened to them. I will do everything in my power to save them.”
But an even stronger look of worry appeared on her face.
“But Miss Gabriella… your physical condition is said to be very poor. I believe in you, Goddess Lady. You defeated the evil god like this in the past as well.”
“Yes, Miss Gabriella, is there anything we can still do for you?”
Philina chimed in as well. She still remembered that Gabriella had grown demon wings.
Even though they had disappeared now and she had regained the [Holy Body], that didn’t mean the curse had been completely eliminated.
Gabriella felt somewhat helpless about their concerns.
She had never once thought of betraying humanity.
It was the humans who stubbornly refused to let go of their grudge against the evil god.
Gabriella simply wanted to eliminate everyone who threatened the evil god, and preferably turn them into subordinates loyal to her.
For the heavenly oracle envoys, shadow might actually be the best destination.
Right now, shadow had already been planted inside both Morphis and Philina.
They would soon submit.
Of course, after everything was over, Gabriella was still very willing to protect humanity~
After all, her evil god master currently had no intention of destroying the world.
Just as Gabriella was about to tell them their worries were completely unnecessary, a warm sensation on her neck made her body tremble.
“I… mmm…”
The Curse Ring had been activated by the evil god.
Gabriella suddenly felt her head grow fuzzy as her body gradually heated up.
Even the Holy Body seemed unable to resist this chain that came from the soul.
Purple patterns actually surfaced on her neck. The domination from her soul made her tremble uncontrollably.
Even Loli held her arm, looking at her with worried eyes.
“Master Gabriella…?”
“Don’t worry, I’m… fine… mmm… really~”