Chapter 240 233 – Returning to guest house

Lyria turned around and waited for the person to arrive.

Soon, the man stood in front of Lyria and said in a jolly tone, "I truly cannot thank you enough, Miss. Without you, we all would have died and our bloodline would have ended here. Thank you!" He paused and let out a small yelp as if he had just recalled something, "Ah, where are my manners? I am Jamal Valerian, head of the entire Valerian family," he said, extending his right hand forward for a handshake.

Lyria stared at his extended hand and thought to herself.

‘Caius should still be alive, so how can their bloodline end here? Or did he also die? In other words, I no longer need to feel guilty about the fact that I was busy marking the space pouches from above the tree while ignoring their painful screams?’

Lyria raised her gloved hand and gave Jamal Valerian a firm handshake.

It was good to know that she had at least protected the late Caius's family from going entirely extinct.

Suddenly, Jamal clutched something in his free left palm, and in no time, Lyria was completely enveloped in a thick, dark purple cloud of gas.

The gas was so dense that it completely covered the area in front of Jamal, blocking all visibility.

Jamal Valerian then started laughing maniacally, "I don't know how you are related to yesterday's Cloaked Demon, but you are definitely related!" His face beneath his helmet twisted into full resentment as he bellowed with uncontrollable hatred, "How dare that bastard kill both of my sons and my only daughter? I lost my entire family in a single night! Can you understand my grief?!"

"My family deserves justice! So, I will personally kill you, and then wait for yesterday's Cloaked Demon to appear just to see how he feels losing someone!" He gnashed his teeth in both pain and hate, "This poison will block all the Mana Veins of an Apprentice, no matter the Rank. Even a Rank 4 will be affected and won't be able to use their full mana and capabilities for at least half a day!"

As Jamal Valerian was busy describing his sorrow vividly, a man from within the surviving crowd cried out in panic, "L-Lord, b-behind you!"

Jamal quickly spun around and saw Lyria standing right behind him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"W-what? How? I clearly grabbed your hand with mine..." As Jamal spoke, he glanced downward, and his eyes beneath his helmet widened in horror.

"Ahhh, my arm!" He shrieked painfully, clutching onto the remains of his limb.

Jamal’s right hand from the elbow down had mostly disappeared, leaving only mutilated flesh and bone dangling.

It was such a grotesque sight, one that he had never seen before, let alone experienced. He couldn’t comprehend how or when it had even happened.

Lyria had intentionally controlled her Crushing Blow's power; otherwise, Jamal's entire right arm would have vanished. She had purposefully left it as a gruesome injury to torment the man a little.

The poison wasn't a problem for her at all. Not to mention, she hadn’t even let it touch her skin. Even if all her Mana Veins were somehow blocked, she still possessed her raw stats, and their special abilities didn’t depend on mana anyway. Most people in the world wouldn’t comprehend their abilities for this very reason; from their perspective, all fascinating or powerful feats could only be achieved with the support of Mana. However, their specific abilities ran on any energy, including standard stamina, meaning they would function perfectly fine in any environment, even if that place had absolutely no Mana.

She let Jamal scream all he wanted, staying entirely silent.

She wanted to see if Jamal would inform her as to why he did what he did. After all, he was the head of the Valerian family, so he shouldn't do something so reckless unless he had a good enough reason. Furthermore, as Caius's family head, Lyria had decided to give Jamal an opportunity to explain himself, which was why she hadn't outright killed him the moment he tried to initiate a handshake with her.

After hearing Jamal's reasons, Lyria remained completely indifferent to them. Perhaps if this had happened back in Ringwood Town during her younger days, she would have been confused and disheartened, and would have actively tried to find reasons to 'justify' Eric's 'unjust' actions. But right now, she was completely apathetic to it all.

Jamal Valerian wasn't wrong for attacking her, and he also wasn't wrong with his guess that she was related to the original Cloaked Demon. Sadly, his cry for justice meant absolutely nothing to her.

The mortals who died pointlessly in this battle—could their deaths be justified?

Similarly, the necromancers who died by Lyria's hand today—could they be justified?

Many would call Lyria a hero, but not a single dead necromancer would think so.

When she was resting in her guesthouse, not a single necromancer had personally arrived to attack her. It was she who had gone out of her way to massacre and rob them. In a sense, she was clearly the aggressor here. Yet, these rescued city dwellers would clap their hands in praise for her killing these necromancers.

Where was the true justice in this? It was just one-sided reasoning.

Were the necromancers wrong for ambushing the 'innocent' Batley City? Perhaps they were, but then shouldn't these 'righteous people' also help all the innocent animals who were getting slaughtered every day without committing a single crime? Not to mention, many poor and weak people were constantly suffering injustice throughout the year at the hands of these very same 'righteous' citizens, just like the dead mortals strewn across this very courtyard.

Just where was the justice for them?

The necromancers were simply doing what they were told to do, just like when soldiers were commanded to invade another prosperous kingdom to obtain more wealth for their own pathetic kingdom. Later, the winning side would be praised as just and great heroes by future generations, without anyone giving a single thought to how their ancestors had slaughtered and robbed a peaceful nation.

Everyone was in the right! And everyone possessed their own philosophical reasons as to why they were in the 'right'!

Eric had once told them that there was no absolute right or wrong in a larger context, and the more Lyria observed the world, the more she found that it was indeed the case.

Finding a justifying reason for one's actions might help someone sleep better at night, but that was just deceiving oneself and everyone else. All people truly wanted was to do whatever they pleased while feeling good about it, hiding behind self-made reasons and beliefs to convince themselves they were in the ‘right’.

This level of hypocrisy was just purely disgusting. It was fine to have reasons to fight, but one shouldn't try to fool others or themselves into thinking they represented absolute ‘justice’. That was a level of evil beyond anything a devil or a Mana Beast could ever accomplish.

So, unlike in the past, the present Lyria now preferred to see things as clearly as possible, refusing to judge actions through a limited, biased perspective.

Since Eric had chosen to do what he did last night, Lyria wouldn’t blame him, nor would she question him, nor would she try to defend him with concepts of ‘right or wrong’. Many people in the market were clapping their hands at what Eric had done last night, while many others cursed him and suffered immense losses, and that was simply how the world worked.

Jamal, after realizing that he wouldn't be able to kill this Cloaked Demoness with poison and had also lost his right arm, quickly drew his sword from behind with his remaining hand and delivered a heavy overhead strike right down onto Lyria's hooded head.

Lyria moved, precisely catching the blade with her right palm.

She had learned her lesson from earlier. So, no matter how confident she was in catching the sword with her armor, she still activated Hardening across her entire body, which essentially added over 900 points to her constitution stat. Right as the sword struck her palm, she immediately shattered it to pieces using her Crushing Blow. After all, Jamal's raw strength behind the attack was still there, and she couldn’t simply disdain his late-stage Rank 3 strength, despite the fact he wasn't able to use his full power with that awkward strike.

Noticing his sword suddenly blow up into pieces, Jamal's heart contracted in both shock and fright. He had absolutely no idea how his sword, which was a peak-grade Tier 1 weapon, could shatter like some fragile glass.

Lyria then slowly raised her left palm toward the petrified Jamal.

Right at this moment, she heard some heroic words from far behind her.

"C-Cloaked Demon, don't you dare!"

"Cloaked Demon, do you want to make enemies with our entire Valerian family?!"

"Cloaked Demon, let go of our family head and we will ignore your transgression this time!"

Lyria's red lips, hidden beneath her mask, couldn't help but twitch.

‘What’s with Cloaked Demon this and Cloaked Demon that? Just add "Wife" behind it or at least add a "Lady" in front! Also, are you guys nuts? Or are you all so drunk on your self-importance that you dare to threaten a wild Cloaked Demon like me with your meager background?’

Lyria turned her head to glance behind her, and all three individuals who had threatened her took a step back in dread and shut their mouths.

Only now did they recall it was a Demon they were threatening! Hopefully, she would ignore them; after all, they were of no importance and only spoke up a 'little' to defend their family head. In their minds, their actions were completely justifiable!

As Lyria turned her head back, Jamal used this opportunity to head-butt Lyria with his tough helmet.

BOOM! CRACK!

Lyria didn't even flinch, but Jamal’s skull and helmet cracked. He felt as if he had just slammed his head against a mountain of solid steel.

Before Jamal could do anything else, he saw Lyria's left palm already placed over his chest guard.

His eyes widened, and he intuitively understood what was going to happen next. His expression twisted; he suddenly felt that his life was far too precious and felt immense regret for taking such a foolish action over his lost emotions.

He desperately wanted to beg for mercy, but he was a little too late for that.

BAM!

Jamal's entire upper torso, from the waist up, blew apart into blood, flesh, and gore.

Every survivor present shuddered in horror.

They couldn't understand how that was even possible. Jamal Valerian was wearing peak-grade Tier 1 armor, and even that had blown up? Just how?!

After killing Jamal Valerian, Lyria vanished from everyone's sight, and before anyone could even gasp, three more bloody explosions followed.

The three who had previously spoken up to defend Jamal Valerian were similarly blown to bits and pieces, with only their lower bodies left intact for burial or cremation.

Lyria had intentionally left those bodies—including all the space pouches of Caius's family—completely intact, choosing not to pick them up. Though it was extremely tempting, she thought it was better not to loot any Valerian members out of respect for the late Caius.

That much she could do. However, she wouldn’t let those three idiots walk away freely.

Eric had once taught them a lesson many years ago, which Lyria couldn't comprehend properly back then, but now she could.

He had said, 'If a snake shows its fangs at you, don't be a good, compassionate fellow and let that snake leave. Kill it without hesitation!'

Probably back then, Eric thought they had misunderstood his meaning, so he quickly corrected himself by saying that real snakes were actually very cute and that showing their fangs was just for protection and survival. He then caught a real snake from the bushes and even showed them both how to catch and handle snakes without getting bitten.

Recalling those memories, Lyria chuckled in her mind.

Right now, she kind of understood what Eric had meant by 'snakes' back then. Those people who hold poison in their hearts toward them just because they look weak—don't let them go. Otherwise, they might bite you in places you wouldn’t like.

Thus, without any hesitation, Lyria killed all three who had threatened her. Perhaps others in this family also held such poison hidden deep within their hearts, but after seeing her kill three 'innocent' people without hesitation, the rest would take extra caution so their own poison didn’t spill—lest their insides spill out too.

As expected, all the remaining survivors' faces turned pale. Many fell backward onto their butts, while some ran toward the tall building in hopes of protection.

Lyria allowed them to do whatever they liked and disappeared from the courtyard without saying a word.

The remaining Valerian family members sat on the ground as if they had lost their very souls.

They now kind of understood just what the people from last night had faced when they met the Cloaked Demon. It was like watching 'something' that couldn’t be stopped, either by an individual's might or by a group's collective strength.

Quite a few were actually rejoicing that Jamal Valerian had died along with the other three hateful elders, but they didn't dare show it on their faces, as they were still shell-shocked by what had just occurred today. Nonetheless, there were still living mortals of the family hidden within the main building. If they all worked together, they might be able to rebuild their family once again, and this time with a lot more sense than when it was in Jamal's hands. Unfortunately, they had to abandon Batley City quickly; otherwise, the Necromancer Master Ranks wouldn’t let them live, let alone rebuild.

After leaving the Valerian family estate, Lyria went on a rampage around the other family houses to kill most of the necromancers across the northern region of the city, mostly to cover her tracks.

After doing all that—including a task she had been contemplating for the last couple of minutes—she returned to the Pierce family’s guesthouse.

Puchi noticed Lyria’s return and squealed happily.

Lyria stroked the old bird gently and glanced toward the western sky, where the fight between the Master Ranks was still ongoing. Though at this distance, only the unrestrained presences and a few clashes could be heard.

Lyria had absolutely no worries for Eric or Livy. She waited for them while keeping her eyes locked toward the western sky with anticipation, knowing there might be some amazing fireworks happening soon.