Chapter 312: The City Post-Battle

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The fighting in the city had ceased.

The group escaped the underground tunnel in the shadeling's stronghold and got up to the remaining tower complex, which was still standing. The city was still filled with fire and smoke; the smell of blood and death was all over the place but, at the very least, the roar of combat had died off. The dimensional tunnels and the light pillars of their city-leveling magic had also disappeared. From a distance, they could only see a few people sweeping the battlefield for survivors while a group of fully armed soldiers was patrolling the streets.

Hessiana quickly turned on her communication device. "Turcan, what's the situation?!"

"Mistress?! You're alright?!" A surprised voice responded. "Thank goodness. We heard that you went after Bethanos..."

Hessiana looked up to the sky as she laughed. "Nonsense. Nothing will go wrong when I'm handling this personally. Say... have the demon hunters been beaten back?"

"Yes-yes!" Turcan responded. "They retreated as suddenly as they came... Perhaps they found the defenders and ancients too numerous and formidable. Besides, after losing the element of surprise, it would simply be a slaughter. Our side's alright... There are some casualties but overall, things are okay."

Hessiana left a few more instructions for her underlings and had a rough idea of what happened when the demon hunters retreated. Her reaction was almost incredulous as she cut communications. Vivian turned around as she pulled out a bat and smacked it over Bethanos' head. "Speak! What were the demon hunters looking for! Don't you dare play dumb!"

Hao Ren looked on as Vivian smashed her bat against Bethanos' face and felt thatsomething was wrong with the way she used her bats... He then turned to look at the MDT, which was floating beside him and found that on hindsight, there was nothing wrong with the way she used them.

It was almost as if the two were synchronising with each other in terms of their weird habits.

Bethanos' face was ashen grey. His series of setbacks and failures left his almost despondent. He could not even muster the strength to retort, much less resist. Sighing heavily, he said, "Hmm... they must have noticed that the signal from the Sacred Relic of Origins has disappeared. So, of course they would have retreated. That was what they were after..."

"They were after the Sacred Relic?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrow. The thought that the demon hunters would be after the relic never occurred to him. "Did you leak that information to them? You would rather inform them and not the rest in the city? Are you retarded?"

Bethanos' eyes turned red but, he simply let out a defeated, "Hmph" and kept quiet. But, Hao Ren had figured out what the seemingly docile but actually insane old monster was up to. He never shared the secrets of the Sacred Relic of Origins to anyone; not the demon hunters or his own supernatural "kin". All were pawns for him to manipulate. He had released the news to the demon hunters and made a pact with them to open the Divide at a specific time. This was to plunge the city into chaos after he had snatched the keys from the two great Blood Clan families. It was a convenient way to take out his two biggest rivals. Turning the city into a scene of carnage was simply a tactic to buy time. He had no intention to stay at all.

Bethanos had planned to use the Sacred Relic of Origins to return to The Plane of Dreams. By then, whatever inferno the world had become was no longer his concern.

Truthfully speaking, the old shadeling was almost a carbon copy of a typical Bond movie villain, so sure of the success of his plans. However, reality had a nasty habit of throwing a spanner into the works; who knew that such an ancient device also required an operating manual! Worse still, Bethanos even misunderstood the actual function of the Sacred Relic...

At that juncture, Hao Ren started to express some doubt. "Maybe, there is a 'Sacred Relic' that can open a gate. That gate would've been the way the otherworldlings came here 10,000 years ago... Bethanos was just unlucky..."

Lily's ears perked up. "What did you say, Mr. Landlord?"

Hao Ren pinched her ears. "My word, your ears are a disgrace to your ancestors!"

After throwing that bombshell, he ignored Lily's tantrums and walked forward, leaving the werehusky red-faced as she stroked her ears. "I just wasn't paying attention! What were you saying Mr. Landlord! What were you on about..."

While the demon hunters had retreated, the old city was now a shadow of her former self. Temples and castles, hundreds of years old were belching smoke and fire. The majestic Blood Clan mansions were wrecked beyond recognition. Debris lay across the winding streets as craters and blast marks littered the surface. In them were pools of blood. Some sections of the city were not even traversable after the carnage. The blood pools were a mix of all kinds; vampires, werewolves, half-demons and demon hunters. The stench was so overpowering that one could puke. All that was left was a ruined city strewn with corpses and a hellish landscape.

One could probably call this a karmic cycle or retribution or just outright irony. Things moved in a cycle. Humans lived in fear in the past under the rule of the unusual creatures where a "god's" impulse could be the end of them. Thousand of years after, these "gods" live in the same fear within their sanctuaries and a crazy old shadeling's whim resulted in the current catastrophe. The Ancients, who had guarded the city for millenniums could also look upon the destruction of the sanctuary and the bodies, which lay within them. One could only wonder if this brought to mind the same scenario that happened thousands of years ago.

This was a question no one had an answer to.

Hao Ren suddenly realised that he was starting to understand the meaning behind Raven 12345's message to him earlier on. Being an inspector, one would need to take the stand of an inspector. You may act at certain times according to your judgement, or work and stand with a power or a race, but in the overall picture, an inspector would need to be a neutral party. An inspector could not let his judgement be clouded by his allegiance. It would only make his or her position more difficult.

An inspector's duty would need them to monitor and if need be, control the picture. They would look upon races young to ancient; their history and their future. As an outsider, most of the races had their own flaws but, none are truly detestable.

Hao Ren shook his head as he made his way towards Hessiana's stronghold. Along the way, they were greeted by shocked stares. Mainly because, there was a demon, about five to six metres tall, covered in molten lava carefully tiptoeing his way through the streets. Y'zaks' impressive stature would have been the talk of the town anywhere he went but, even more scenic was the old, half-dead shadeling squeezed under his arm...

Hao Ren turned and eyed Y'zaks as he looked at the giant demon, making his way in small steps to keep up with the party. Even then his foot steps were akin to thunderous drum beats. "Aren't you tired walking like that?"

Y'zaks simply smiled as his voice rumbled in the air. "I'm afraid I might step on one of you if I walk normally. If I revert to my human form, I'm afraid that I might not be able to hold this bugger still. He may look all docile but, he was channelling something."

Bethanos' eyes widened. "How did you know?!"

Y'zaks gave out a thunderous laugh. "This arm has been the death of 16 heroes and 28 pure-blooded demons who were larger than you. Even from your breathing, I knew you were up to something. Stay still or I'll give you another lesson..."

Cold sweat instantly formed across Hao Ren's forehead. This was his first time hearing about Y'zaks' habit of crushing people to death with his massive arms. It would have been humiliating to die that way.

Nangong Wuyue had already returned to her human form. The siren did not want to stain her beautiful scales with the streams of blood that painted the street. Many of the bodies had since been taken by their respective families but, the stain of blood was still there. The siren maiden frowned as she muttered, "What a horrible mess..."

Hessiana was frowning too as she sniffed intently and wiped her mouth. "What a waste..."

Hao Ren was clueless.

"So much..." Hessiana saw that no one paid her any mind and spoke again in an attempt to attract Vivian's attention. She walked towards a pool of blood and stood by it as she stomped the floor. "Such a waste, such a waste!"

Vivian gave her an ice-cold stare. "No! Have some restraint!"

Hessiana was about to cry. "Can... I use a straw?"

Vivian stepped forward and slapped the back of her head. "I said, have some restraint!"

Hessiana looked down. "I was just curious about what a demon hunter's blood would taste like..."

Hao Ren finally realised what was going on and looked at Hessiana in horror. Vivian could only smile awkwardly. "Now do you understand the cultural difference?"

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