Chapter 199: Never

Sophie realized she had been discovered by Altes and Moen.

Although she had tried to control her emotions, she was not an omnipotent saint after all. After learning the truth about her previous life, it was impossible for her heart to remain completely calm. A slight fluctuation in her emotions had caused a trace of her aura to leak out, and she had been detected.

What now?

Her mind raced at high speed.

“Come out! This is your only warning!”

A vicious expression appeared on Moen’s face. He looked nothing like a cleric who served the light.

I can’t let them find me.

Sophie made her decision. She had to escape from here. The entire Holy Land was under Altes’s control. It was rotten to the core, inside and out.

“So there was an extra person sneaking in,” Altes said with clear displeasure. “Moen, drag that person out.”

“Yes.”

Moen received the order and walked toward the center of the temple.

Sophie gathered the holy power in her body and channeled it to her fingertips. Hiding behind a pillar, she threw a ball of light outward.

“Holy Flash!”

She activated a sacred art.

The light orb exploded, releasing blinding brilliance. The intense white light engulfed the entire center of the temple like a nuclear blast. The overwhelming brightness would definitely impair Altes and Moen’s vision.

She seized the opportunity and dashed toward the exit, intending to flee from this place.

“Don’t even think about escaping!”

Moen’s voice rang out from behind Sophie.

“You…?”

Sophie glanced back in surprise.

Moen’s eyes had clearly been blinded by the flash, yet he had still locked onto her figure without any hesitation. He immediately gave chase. Holy power wrapped around his fist as he swung it toward Sophie’s body.

“Ugh…!”

Sophie was sent flying by the combined force of physical power and holy energy. She flipped once in mid-air, planted one hand on the ground, and used her agile movements to stabilize herself, preventing her from losing balance. However, this forced her to reveal herself in front of Altes and Moen.

“Purification Spell.”

Altes raised the Pope’s staff, waved it once, and cast a sacred art on himself and Moen, removing their blindness.

Once his vision returned, he saw Sophie. His eyes widened slightly in surprise, but his expression quickly turned ice-cold.

“It’s you!”

Moen was also visibly shocked to see Sophie.

“Sophie Shirleyford.”

Sophie quickly put on an innocent and pitiful expression. “I’m sorry, Pope. I entered this place by mistake earlier.”

“Stop pretending, Sophie. You heard the entire conversation between Moen and me, didn’t you?” Altes cut her off.

“I never expected you would break into the temple… But the moment I sensed another presence here, I guessed it was you.” Altes narrowed his eyes. “Your mother also heard the holy voice and accidentally entered the temple. You’ve walked the exact same path as her.”

“Altes, you’re the one who killed my mother, aren’t you!”

Sophie no longer suppressed the rage in her heart.

“Her death was caused entirely by you!”

“Sylvia was too foolish. She saw something she shouldn’t have and even wanted to spread that secret.” Altes sighed. “If she had just obediently served as the Holy Land’s mascot, she could have lived a comfortable life. But she insisted on doing unnecessary things.”

“Altes, you old thief! You manipulated everyone for your own ambition. You killed my mother, schemed against me in my previous life, slaughtered the people in the orphanage, and framed Ville for it!!”

“If I hadn’t done that, how could you have willingly fought against the Demon King? Selina, humanity and demonkind can never coexist in peace. Your mission is to exterminate every last demon.”

There was not a shred of guilt in Altes’s voice.

“As for those who died… they were necessary sacrifices. To allow humanity to stand at the pinnacle of the Theia Continent, some deaths are inevitable.”

“How dare you say that so shamelessly!”

Sophie was so furious that she nearly bit through her lip.

She had overestimated Altes’s sense of shame. She had thought he might feel some remorse, but he clearly didn’t care at all.

“Mercy cannot drive human progress. Weak thinking will only cause humanity to stagnate. Every advancement for humanity has come from desperate situations—”

“Shut up!”

Sophie summoned the Silver Sword from her Divine Might Armament.

She gripped it tightly and pointed it at Altes’s head. “Altes, you are the one person who cannot be allowed to live in this world!”

After her declaration, she charged forward.

“You haven’t changed at all. Whether as Selina in the past or Sophie now, you’ve always been so impulsive, ruled by your emotions. No wonder you’ve been manipulated your whole life. This is your limitation. No matter how strong you once were, you could never become the player—you were always just a piece on the board.”

Altes raised his staff and tapped it on the ground.

A crisp sound rang out as invisible ripples spread rapidly in all directions like waves.

“Ugh!”

When the invisible wave passed over Sophie, her body froze in place, as if someone had pressed pause.

She discovered that the Divine Might Armament had stopped functioning and no longer obeyed her commands.

“What’s so surprising? The Divine Might Armament was something we bestowed upon you. Naturally, we have ways to make it stop working.”

Altes waved his hand, signaling Moen to act.

“Understood, Pope.” Moen cracked his knuckles, preparing to deal with Sophie.

“Damn it!”

Sophie deactivated the Divine Might Armament.

Without its enhancement, she currently only possessed Transcendent-tier strength. She looked up at the aggressively approaching Moen. As the strongest cleric in the Holy Land, Moen was already at Legendary tier. The gap in their strength was massive—she had almost no chance of winning.

“Sophie, I’ll give you one chance. As long as you obediently cooperate with my plan, I will make you the strongest existence in this world. You will possess the power of the angel and stand above all living beings.”

Altes extended an olive branch.

“Once you obtain absolute power, you will find that many things from the past are utterly insignificant.”

“Never.”

Even without a weapon, Sophie decided to fight to the death here.

“I would rather die than obey you, Altes.”