“What do you want?!”
Inside the palace, the minister raised both hands and pressed himself against the wall. Looking at the pink-haired girl in front of him, his body trembled continuously from fear.
“I want to ask you a few things.”
Via held an iron sword in her hand, pressing it against the minister’s throat.
As long as she pushed forward even a little, she could easily take this minister’s life.
She first asked about the matter she currently cared about the most.
“Where is Soren right now?”
She had ordered Albion to hold back the Shadow Giant while she herself entered the palace.
When the guards inside the palace saw her, they naturally launched attacks. However, the gap in strength between ordinary people and her was far too great. She only needed to display a little of her power to overawe the guards.
In addition, the capital had already fallen into complete chaos. Many guards had abandoned their duties and chosen to flee.
That was why she had been able to grab a minister and inquire for intelligence.
“His Majesty the Emperor? I… I… am not very clear…” The minister’s tone carried a hint of hesitation.
The other party’s little schemes could not escape Via’s eyes.
She deliberately controlled her strength a little, allowing the tip of the sword to pierce the minister’s skin and seep out threads of blood.
Even that tiny bit of pain was enough to make the minister’s soul nearly leave his body.
“Don’t, don’t kill me! As long as it’s something I know, I’ll tell you everything!!”
The minister’s legs had already gone soft. His voice carried a sobbing tone as he began to beg for mercy, completely disregarding whether he still had any face left. He even switched to honorifics.
“His Majesty has not left the palace. He is still remaining in the central hall. He said that as long as the Imperial Heirloom Artifact is present, it can hold back the rebels outside until the Holy Land’s reinforcements arrive!”
“You’re lying to me.”
“I’m not. It’s absolutely true.”
“I’ll give you one last chance. Tell the truth.” Via pressed forward step by step.
“What I said is the truth. The gods above are my witness. I swear upon my own life!!”
“Goodbye.”
Via pulled the iron sword back, raised it, deliberately left the other party three seconds, and then brought it down.
She used the hilt of the sword to knock the minister unconscious.
It seemed he had not been lying. Soren was still remaining in the palace.
The intelligence she wanted had already been obtained.
In the central hall.
Because she had once been a saintess candidate, a long time ago Via and Sophie had been invited to attend banquets held by the imperial family and had entered the palace.
The central hall was not particularly far from her current position.
Relying on her past memories, she quickly hurried toward the location of the central hall.
When she arrived at the palace plaza, she discovered a silver-white circular point appearing at the edge of her vision.
What was that?
Thoughts rose in Via’s mind.
In the next moment, she felt her body shudder as if struck by electricity, and an inexplicable chill surged forth.
She raised the iron sword in her hand.
Ding!
In the next moment, a silver sword seemed to travel through space and time. With a speed that was difficult to comprehend, it crashed against the body of the iron sword.
If she had been even a fraction slower, or if she had hesitated even half a bit, her heart would have been pierced through.
“The Divine Might Armament?”
If one of the swords from the Divine Might Armament had launched an attack, then where were the other swords?
From different directions, four swords of the Divine Might Armament flew over, triggering intense impacts.
A long-haired girl whose hair resembled roses walked forward step by step. After the five swords of the Divine Might Armament finished launching their attacks, they automatically returned to her side and entered a state of waiting for commands.
Sophie looked at the smoke and dust at the center of the explosion and stopped her footsteps.
However, the scene she had anticipated did not appear. After the smoke and dust cleared, it was not Via lying on the ground, but the Demon King who was currently casting a spell.
“Magic Cannon, fire!”
At the critical moment, Via activated a magic shield, blocking the remaining flying swords of the Divine Might Armament. Taking advantage of the visual cover provided by the smoke and dust, she charged up a Magic Cannon.
She condensed abyssal aura at her fingertips, transforming it into an unstable black sphere. After taking aim, she fired.
A pitch-black beam tore through the air and flew straight forward.
Sophie stood in place without moving at all.
The swords floating around her body protected her front, spinning and transforming into a silver shield that blocked the Magic Cannon’s attack.
In this way, the first round of exchange between the two temporarily came to an end.
“Is this how you greet people?”
Via blew away the residual abyssal aura on her index finger.
“You really don’t have even the slightest bit of manners. Have you forgotten all the etiquette the Holy Land taught you?”
“Fallen one, you are not someone to whom I need to display etiquette.”
Sophie’s voice was extremely cold.
Her silver eyes reflected Via’s figure, as calm as a mirror lake without the slightest ripple.
“Why use such a distant form of address toward me?” Via shrugged. “In the previous life, you died by my own hands. In this life, you also nearly died by my hands… The term ‘fallen one’ cannot simply summarize the relationship between the two of us.”
“Why the silence? Don’t want to comment?”
Via narrowed her eyes and let out a cold laugh.
“Or rather, are you not Sophie at all, but someone else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Stop pretending. The thing hiding inside Sophie’s body, you might be able to deceive others, but you alone cannot deceive me. If you were truly Sophie, how could you remain completely unmoved by my words?”
Via glared at Sophie.
“Holy Land, what exactly did you do to Sophie? Answer my question!”
“In this world, there exist many sins. As a messenger of the gods, I will use the sacred flames to purify all the sins of the world.”
Sophie raised her hand. A faint golden light rose in both of her pupils. Her fair palm brushed across a white sword, and golden flames actually ignited upon it.
“Messenger of the gods. Fallen one, you are one of them.”
These inexplicable statements from the other party made Via somewhat surprised.
A possibility rose in her mind.
As a former saintess candidate, she had once received education from the Holy Land. Among it was one particular teaching: that angels had once descended upon the world when the human race fell into crisis, driven back the foreign enemies, and protected the human race.
Since the Sophie before her could use sacred flames, combined with her statements and her abnormal changes, all the circumstances allowed one to infer that the mysterious existence on this Sophie was precisely the consciousness of an angel.
“You’re actually an angel?”
“Even if it is an incomplete will, it cannot shake my resolve.”
The angel raised the sword of golden flames and pointed the blade at Via.
“Fallen one, are you prepared to receive the sacred purification?”