Chapter 699: Instant Kill

“Lo... Loren?”

The moment Loren appeared, the Ark Demon froze in place. The demons controlling it were so stunned that they forgot to make it move.

“Did you miss me?”

Loren did not rush to attack. Instead, he started chatting.

Before he appeared, he had already asked Reflection Naclis to notify Panike and bring her here.

Since he was going to show himself, he might as well let Panike make her presence known.

The pirates from earlier had already spread word of Panike, and her strength had increased considerably as a result, but it still was not enough.

Panike was the only witch who could stand against the Orthodox Gods with nothing but her Arcane Ability. Loren absolutely could not let her ability go to waste.

Loren suspected that abilities that grew too powerful might exact a price from the witches. Scarlett had become dim-witted, while Panike had mental problems.

“What brings you here, sir?”

The Followers of Pain on the Ark Demon’s shoulder began speaking to Loren, their voices dripping with flattery.

They had indeed brought out the Ark Demon with the intention of destroying the Kingdom. They would show no mercy to anyone who stood in their way, except Loren.

“Don’t you think you’re standing a little too high up?”

Loren had deliberately kept low so the people below could see him. As a result, he had to look up at the Followers of Pain.

“We’ll come down right away...”

“No need.”

Loren extended a finger. Blood Moon Condensed Light shot from his fingertip like a laser, slicing cleanly through the Ark Demon’s waist.

Colossal Beast Cleave would have been more suitable for dealing with something like this, but Blood Moon Condensed Light was obviously much cooler.

After all, Loren’s goal was not to destroy the thing. He wanted to instill fear in people’s hearts.

The Ark Demon’s upper body came crashing toward Loren. He did not move, merely raised his hand and fired another beam of Blood Moon Condensed Light. It punched a hole straight through the Ark Demon, and Loren passed through it at just the right moment.

The King had gotten back to his feet by now. The Desolation Deer was right beside him, but he made no move to attack again. He simply kept his eyes fixed on Loren.

He knew perfectly well that of everyone present, only Loren could kill him outright. The others were no threat.

The demons and Followers of Pain crawled out from beneath the Ark Demon. Quite a few had been crushed to death.

When the Ark Demon’s upper body hit the ground, it brought down several nearby buildings. But no one had time to worry about that now.

The King, the demons, the Bountiful followers, the Plague Believers, the Followers of Pain... Everyone’s attention was fixed on Loren.

Loren ignored them and walked straight toward the Desolation Deer.

At the sight of Loren approaching, the Desolation Deer began to tremble with excitement. It let out a deep, mournful bellow, and Loren understood what it meant:

“Lord Observer, please kill me... I’m in so much pain...”

“Goodbye...”

Loren bid the Desolation Deer farewell softly, then split it in two with a single slash.

Before the maggots could leap out, Loren incinerated them in an instant.

As expected, Loren’s earlier guess had been right. There was almost no flesh left inside the Desolation Deer. Maggots filled its body, leaving only a few vital organs. Those maggots were what controlled it.

As Loren approached the Desolation Deer, he drew closer to the King as well. Extreme fear made the King instinctively want to flee, but his pride still made him grip his sword.

He instinctively steadied his crown, as though it could give him courage.

That made Loren think a little more highly of him. The King’s title had been imposed on him by the Church merely so he could use the Chariot card more effectively, but he had not abandoned his country and run away.

Loren remembered what had happened back in the Gedlan Kingdom. At the slightest sign of trouble, the King had taken his people and fled.

Even so, Loren did not think he was a good person. The price of activating the Battlefield card was the lives of his own people.

If he had not used the Chariot card, Loren might have spared him.

“Argh!”

The King roared to bolster his courage, then swung his sword at Loren.

“Know your place.”

Loren sidestepped the greatsword, casually drew Ceasefire, and shattered the King’s blade with a single strike. Then, with the same smooth motion, he kicked the back of the King’s knee, forcing him to kneel.

The three most powerful beings on the battlefield had all been casually dispatched by Loren in an instant.

“Master!”

At that moment, a voice rang out at a terribly inappropriate time. Everyone turned toward it, only to see a little girl clumsily running toward Loren.

Loren smiled and crouched down, opening his arms to catch Panike as she ran into his embrace.

“You’re finally here.”

Loren affectionately stroked Panike’s hair, then stood with her in his arms.

“Th-that’s the witch who kills without mercy!”

Someone in the crowd recognized Panike. The pirates’ earlier publicity campaign had worked.

“Looks like you still remember her. Panike, say hello to them.”

“See those Plague Believers? Kill them.”

Loren hated the Plague Believers most of all. If they were going to start killing, they might as well begin with them.

Panike gave a dazed nod and reached out toward the group. The next moment, they simply burst apart.

The demons realized how dire the situation was and resumed controlling the Ark Demon.

The Ark Demon, cut in half, was not dead. Under the demons’ control, it righted its upper body.

But Loren merely glanced at the demons, and they were so terrified that they lost control of the Ark Demon. It crashed back to the ground.

“That big thing is so ugly. Destroy it.”

Killing a few ordinary people would not show what Panike could do. Loren had left the Ark Demon and the King alive precisely to give her a chance to demonstrate her power.

Panike raised her hand, and the Ark Demon burst apart just like the Plague Believers.

The spray of blood nearly swallowed everyone else. At that moment, even those who had not known who Panike was understood just how powerful she was.

“Don’t forget the demons.”

Loren turned his gaze toward the demons. Apart from the Plague Believers, demons were what he hated most.

And so, they burst apart without warning, too.

“Skybreaker!”

The King suddenly rushed to Loren’s side, shouted the name of his martial skill, and raised what remained of his greatsword to strike at him.

But before the blade could fall, the King’s arm twisted into a grotesque knot, like a rag being wrung out, squeezing out a mass of blood.

It was not just his arm. The King’s entire body was twisted into a knot.

His Self-Healing Ability was still working. The moment he was twisted, he healed again, but that only made him suffer over and over.

Panike’s expression changed, too. Until then, she had looked dazed, as if she knew nothing at all.

But now, her gaze had become utterly resolute, and her eyes burned with boundless fury.