Chapter 255: Embrace

Albion was lying on the ground in a sprawled posture, staring at the night sky without moving.

The battle against the Shadow Giant had consumed a great deal of her energy.

“Albion, you’ve worked hard.”

Via walked over to Albion’s side and shared a portion of her divine power, letting it fall upon Albion’s body.

After receiving the divine power, Albion immediately perked up. She rapidly jumped up from the ground and raised both arms.

“Strong!”

“You completed your task very well. You held back the Shadow Giant and helped everyone.” Via patted Albion’s head and smiled.

“Demon King!”

Alef led the other demonkin over to Via. Leading a group of injured demonkin soldiers, he bowed to this Demon King.

“We finally get to see you. We were still worried that you might have encountered some kind of danger.”

“It’s fine. The battle is already over. The New Imperial Army led by Stella has occupied the palace and captured Soren. Victory already belongs to us.” Via replied.

Alef was quite excited.

“That’s wonderful!”

Just as he wanted to continue asking for the detailed circumstances of the battle, he froze for a moment upon looking at Via’s face.

For some reason, a strong sense of reverence rose from within his heart.

He had clearly sensed that the aura on Via’s body was completely different from before and had become an existence that was high beyond reach.

“So there were so many people injured.”

Via released her divine power and let it fall upon the bodies of the demonkin soldiers.

The power of the demonkin was precisely abyssal aura. Therefore, her divine power possessed an extremely outstanding blessing effect for the demonkin.

The injured demonkin bathed in the divine power. The pain they had suffered in battle immediately lessened, and even their wounds recovered quite a bit.

“This is truly… unbelievable. It’s simply a miracle!”

Alef looked at his healed wounds and let out an exclamation of amazement.

In his eyes, this was something that only a god could perform. Due to the characteristics of the demonkin, healing arts were naturally ineffective. Yet the ability Via was currently displaying was a hundred times stronger than healing arts. How could this not shock the demonkin?

Therefore, the sharp-witted Alef immediately realized that the change that had occurred on Via’s body had likely far exceeded his initial assumptions.

This should mean that Via had crossed the Transcendent tier and reached a higher realm—one that only existed in ethereal legends.

Alef knelt on the ground and nearly prostrated himself in worship toward Via.

“You… you… right now you are the god of us demonkin!”

“Don’t be like that. Get up quickly.”

Via immediately stopped Alef. She felt a bit of a headache over this situation.

At the time she had only said she wanted to become a god in passing. She had never truly intended to sit in such a position and accept the prostrations and worship of others.

Becoming a god required establishing faith and responding to the prayers of believers. She strongly disliked this kind of thing and preferred the freedom of remaining the Demon King.

“Right now I am only the Demon King. I do not want to become any kind of god. Understand?”

“Yes, Demon King.” Alef nodded repeatedly and stopped his behavior.

“Look after Albion and don’t let her run around causing trouble. Lead the subordinates and clean up the aftermath,” Via ordered. “I still have some matters I need to handle. For the time being, leave the subsequent affairs to you.”

“Understood, Demon King.”

Via opened the door to the room.

She saw the red-haired girl standing by the window, looking at the noisy streets outside with an expression that carried some guilt.

After hearing someone enter, the other party turned around. Upon seeing that the visitor was her, she revealed a rather delighted expression and immediately walked over. Subconsciously she wanted to rush forward and embrace her, yet she pulled back again, appearing somewhat at a loss and also a little embarrassed.

“Via, you… came.”

In an extremely short time, many expressions flashed across Sophie’s face.

“Mm, Elder Sister. I’m here.”

“You’re still willing to call me Elder Sister?” Sophie also knew that the things she had done were somewhat excessive and naturally did not dare to hope for too much.

“Although I don’t particularly want to say much, let the past remain in the past. However, even if those things happened, we still have an inseparable blood relationship right now.”

Via took out the broken saintess pendant. She actively took Sophie’s hand and pressed their mother’s relic into Sophie’s palm.

“We are both Mother’s children.”

“Via…”

Sophie’s tears burst forth like a dam breaking. She could no longer restrain her emotions and embraced her only younger sister, pouring out all the words she had hidden in her heart.

“Wuu… Via, I’m sorry… I’m a failed elder sister. I wasn’t able to protect you… I’ve always missed you so, so, so much…”

“Me too, Elder Sister.”

Via did not reject Sophie’s actions. Instead, she accepted the most sincere feelings from her elder sister.

The two of them embraced each other, feeling the warmth between them, just like when they were little.

Between the two sisters, many, many things had happened, and they had also walked down different paths. All sorts of experiences had even nearly permanently severed their connection.

However, after all those experiences, their understanding of each other had advanced further, and the distance between their souls had grown shorter.

At this moment, they were each other’s most important person.

This was also what Sylvia had always hoped for.

“I see.”

Via finished listening to Sophie’s narration.

“In short, that is how it is, Via. Altes infused the incomplete angel consciousness into my body, turning me into a puppet of the angel’s will,” Sophie explained. “All of his conspiracies were for the sake of controlling the angel and obtaining supreme divine power.”

“Including our enmity in the previous life—he was also the one stirring things up from behind, correct?”

“Yes.” Sophie nodded. “I was always kept in the dark. The destruction of my hometown truly had nothing to do with you in the previous life. It was Altes who, in order to incite opposition between you and me and foster hatred between us, sent people to carry it out.”

“Including Mother’s death—it was also because of him.”

Via’s hand subconsciously clenched tightly.

No wonder her mother’s death back then had contained so many suspicious points.

All the truths had already been clarified. As expected, it was the work of the Holy Land. Altes was precisely the source of the hatred.

“I have already seen through him. Altes keeps saying it is for the sake of humanity, but in reality everything is for the sake of controlling power. Perhaps he simply wants to become a god himself.” Sophie’s voice also carried bone-deep hatred toward Altes.

“Elder Sister, what plans do you have regarding the Holy Land?” Via asked.

“I have already decided to leave the Holy Land. The Holy Land is truly… wrong to an outrageous degree,” Sophie said seriously. “Altes absolutely cannot be forgiven. I want him to pay the price.”

“Good. The already rotten Holy Land does indeed need a thorough cleansing.”

Via completely agreed with her elder sister.

“Then let Altes pay blood for blood.”