Chapter 608: Starnight Is a God

The limbs Loren conjured were essentially projections. Even if someone were to snap Loren's wings right now, he wouldn't feel any pain. But Starnight was different.

The limbs she conjured had real sensation, as if they had genuinely grown from her body.

So when Loren touched Starnight's cat ears, she genuinely felt it. Her body instinctively wanted to squirm away, but she forcibly suppressed the urge with sheer willpower, obediently letting Loren caress her until her face grew redder and redder.

"Ahem... alright, that's enough for now. Let's head back first..."

Seeing Starnight like this, Loren felt a bit embarrassed.

"Okay..."

As Loren released his hand, Starnight let out a relieved breath.

It was at that moment that Loren's Intuition suddenly sent a warning.

"Watch out."

Loren abruptly pulled Starnight into his arms as the barrel imprisoning the Thunder Angel suddenly exploded. At the same time, the sky plunged into darkness.

"..."

Loren could sense something attacking from behind him, but because he had to protect Starnight, he didn't dodge.

He had sensed it from the very beginning—the killing intent was locked onto Starnight.

Then, Loren felt a jolt of pain. Simultaneously, he tossed the Dawn Magpie's feather into the air. The surrounding darkness was instantly dispelled, and Loren saw what had attacked him.

"An Angel of Night, is it..."

The Thunder Angel was still in its powdered bone form, but beside it, another angel had suddenly appeared.

"Is the God of Night and Thunder really that cautious? Sending two angels just to hunt down a Dawn Magpie?"

It was impossible to extract intelligence from an angel's mouth anyway. Loren only said this to throw them off balance.

Loren reached back and touched his shoulder blade. His hand came away with some blood—not much, but blood nonetheless.

It had been a long time since anyone managed to break through Loren's defense.

"Have you decided how you want to die?"

In the blink of an eye, Loren had already seized the Angel of Night by the throat. His expression was rather grim.

Having lost so many accessories, Loren's defensive power wasn't particularly strong right now, so it wasn't surprising that someone could breach it.

What angered Loren was that the Angel of Night's killing intent was locked onto Starnight.

"Blasphemer—"

"Deliberate Heavy Blow!"

Before the Angel of Night could say anything else, Loren's fist had already slammed into its face.

Deliberate Heavy Blow was supposed to be an AOE skill, but this time Loren had condensed all its power into a single point. The Angel of Night's head instantly burst apart.

"Deliberate Heavy Blow! Deliberate Heavy Blow!"

Loren pinned the Angel of Night to the ground and rained punch after punch onto its body.

"Master, behind you..."

While Loren was venting his fury, the Thunder Angel had already finished regenerating and was beginning to gather an attack.

Starnight didn't even need to warn him—Loren could sense it on his own. At this point, angels were nothing but mooks to him, utterly beneath his notice. He didn't even consider them a threat.

When Loren turned around, Starnight had already transformed into her Starry Sky Whale form. But before Starnight could make a move, someone else acted first.

Death had appeared behind the Thunder Angel at some point.

By the time the Thunder Angel sensed something was wrong, Death had already swung her scythe.

In an instant, the Thunder Angel was sliced cleanly in two diagonally.

Unlike Loren's previous attacks, the moment the Thunder Angel was cut by Death's scythe, it instantly lost all signs of life.

Even when Loren had beaten it into bone powder, it could still move. But now, despite its body remaining perfectly intact, it collapsed to the ground, crumbling into a few rotten bones.

"You were supposed to die long ago. It was the authority split off by the Orthodox Gods that let you live until now. Allow me to see you off."

When facing Loren and others, Death was a completely different person.

"Oh, you're here."

Loren didn't feel much about Death's appearance. After all, she liked to pop up in front of him every now and then just to remind him of her existence.

"There are two people here who are supposed to be dead. I'm here to clean up."

Death walked expressionlessly over to Loren, brought her scythe handle down, and executed the Angel of Night that Loren had been pummeling.

"So you're leaving now?"

Death had come to deal with the two who were supposed to die. She had already killed both, so she wouldn't go after Loren next.

There were plenty of angels out there, yet Death never went around culling them one by one. Loren figured she was most likely just looking for an excuse to come see him.

"Correct. I'll spare your life this time."

Death retracted her scythe, stood on her tiptoes to grab Loren's collar, and glared "fiercely" into his eyes:

"I'll give you a few more days. If you haven't reclaimed your authority by then, don't blame me."

Even though Loren hadn't mentioned anything about an extension, Death was voluntarily dragging out the deadline on her own.

In fact, Loren had never said anything like asking Death not to kill him, nor had he asked how to permanently escape Death's pursuit—yet Death had proactively revealed the method.

"I'll be watching you..."

Death released Loren's collar, slowly backed away, and then suddenly vanished.

"..."

Loren simply watched her disappear without a word.

"What happened? Who was that little girl?"

With the crisis resolved, Starnight transformed back into human form and returned to Loren's side.

"That was Death."

"Death?"

Hearing the name, Starnight flinched in fright.

Mainly because she had truly witnessed Death's power firsthand. Those two angels—the ones that required a Severance Ritual for them to kill—had been casually dispatched by Death in a matter of moments.

"Yes. She hunts down those who were supposed to die but survived through some means."

"Including you, Master..."

Hearing this, Starnight grew even more terrified.

She wasn't afraid of Death coming for her—she was afraid of Death killing Loren.

"Including me. But I'm her master. She can't bear to kill me."

"Eh?"

This statement nearly short-circuited Starnight's brain, but she quickly let it go. Anything Loren did was normal—even turning Death into a maid was perfectly normal.

Still, Loren took the time to explain the specifics to Starnight:

"I'm also a god. I am the Perpetual Observer. The Tarot cards were created by me.

"Death is the Death Card from the Tarot. She became a living being..."

As he said this, Loren paused mid-sentence. He felt his authority evolve once again.

The moment Loren declared himself the Perpetual Observer, Starnight believed it without a shred of doubt, providing Loren with a torrent of faith.

Combined with the faith Anna and the others had given him before, Loren's mastery over his authority advanced even further.

"So that's how it is?"

As Starnight replied, Loren felt as though he could glimpse her inner thoughts—not much, but just enough to see whether her words were sincere.

"Quick, Starnight, say anything to me. Anything at all."

Loren excitedly tested his new ability. Though puzzled, Starnight obediently complied:

"I like you."

That was the truth. Loren made the judgment in an instant. He genuinely possessed the ability to discern truth from lies.

"Now say something false."

Starnight thought for a moment, then answered:

"I'm also a god."

The instant she finished speaking, Loren was utterly stunned.

That was the truth.