Blood, corpses, and the familiar disgusting smell.

Sensing the atmosphere around her and watching the red blood drip off the cracked iron sword, Liora clicked her tongue and tossed it aside.

"Sure enough, ordinary weapons are not strong enough to contain my strength. Using Shadow Manipulation to construct weapons is still the most suitable method of attack for me.", she analyzed while her eyes traced the scene surrounding her.

By now, the Knight Apprentices of the Black Tulip family who had accompanied her were finished dealing with the aftermath of the battle, having moved the corpses away and taken stock of the weapons, armors, and other items that they had plundered.

"Lord Liora, please come with me to check the things inside the carriages.", a Knight Apprentice suddenly approached her and said, his voice mixed with fear and admiration.

Following a nod of affirmation, he led Liora to the closest carriage.

Being a Devil—a creature born from evil and for evil—Liora's sense of the darkness of human emotions had always been keen.

Therefore, the moment she stepped closer to the carriage, she sensed a huge amount of negative emotions.

Hatred, fear, pain, bloodlust, and even lust...

All kinds of emotions assaulted her mind, the former half belonging to the people inside the carriage and the latter half to the now-dead Knights.

Despite staying in the Crucible for so long—a place representing chaos and destruction—Liora had seldom encountered such intense negative emotions before.

"Man is the cruelest animal."

A sentence she had heard in her previous life inexplicably popped up in her mind as she stopped in front of the carriage.

Motioning the Black Tulip member to step aside, Liora glanced at the iron chains that were wrapped around the door handles and reached out with her right hand.

She didn't use her demonic energy to boost her strength, nor did she activate Shadow Manipulation to create a weapon.

Instead, she urged the recently obtained Life Force within her body, controlling it to flow into her hand.

Instantly, a tinge of black light covered her arm from the shoulder down, as Liora felt her physical strength increase a lot.

Waving her hand forward, her palm struck directly at the metal chains, causing the entire carriage to tremble violently.

At first, it seemed as if her attempt had been an absolute failure, but just a split second later, countless tiny cracks began forming all over the chains' surface.

With a loud bang, they collapsed, turning into iron fragments and dropping to the ground.

Liora watched this calmly, her expression remaining the same.

Not to mention doing such a thing with her current strength, even when she had just been born and was still a Little Devil, she could do it with absolute ease.

"But Life Force is indeed completely different from demonic energy. Although demonic energy—as a high-level energy born from the Demon World—is almost omnipotent, the improvement it brings in regards to physical strength is far weaker."

Of course, this didn't mean that Life Force was stronger than demonic energy. If anything, it was the opposite.

After all, Life Force at the ranks of Knight Apprentices and True Knights could only be used to boost one's physical strength, requiring one to become a Great Knight in order to cast the equivalent of Devil abilities.

Shaking her head, Liora pushed those thoughts aside.

She didn't continue conducting experiments, knowing that this was neither the right time nor the right place—the faint sound of sobbing could still be heard.

With the metal chain gone, there was no longer anything obstructing her.

Liora easily reached for the two handles and pulled them back, opening the back door of the carriage and revealing its interior.

"Sure enough.", she whispered as the sight before her perfectly matched the intelligence that Eleanor had somehow obtained.

A large number of people could be seen within the carriage, with chains tied tightly around their limbs, restricting their freedom to the bare minimum.

Most of these people were either sobbing or crying for help, while a few of them seemed to have understood their future fate, shrouding their faces in fear and despair.

Even after the door opened, these people didn't pay any attention, as if they didn't believe that anyone could, or rather, would save them.

Seeing this, Liora couldn't help but remember what she had seen in the underground prison of the City of Pain, where she had witnessed the Torturer's hobby firsthand.

Although it was a different place, a different time, and different people, these two scenes seemed to overlap.

Still, Liora only briefly pondered this. She didn't feel emotional for long.

After casting a final glance at the carriage, she turned to the Knight Apprentice behind her and ordered:

"Call some Knights over and help these people free themselves. Also, send a letter to Eleanor and ask what you should do with them. Do as she deems fit.", she said as her figure gradually faded away.

--

In a vast room built exclusively out of stone slabs, a lone figure could be seen standing against the backdrop of darkness.

The figure's hair and beard were half black and half white, while their eyes carried the weight of many vicissitudes.

A set of clothes that could only be afforded by nobles adorned his body, while the sigil engraved on the left side of his chest betrayed his true identity.

They were Baron Bloodshield—the younger brother of the late Earl, the uncle of Eleanor, and a famous True Knight.

The Baron's eyes reflected the only other item in the room besides him—a human-sized statue made of marble.

Though it was clear that the statue depicted a humanoid creature, it was impossible to make out its true form.

As if it had a thousand faces and myriad forms, it sometimes looked like a beautiful young woman with a seductive smile, at other times like an aged man with a look of wisdom, and at other times, a ferocious, bloodthirsty Devil.

The Baron stared at this statue intently, with an expression of obsession and yearning, as if he were looking at the most gorgeous object in the world.

Just then, though, the sound of footsteps reached his ears.

The door suddenly opened—letting the light outside dispel the darkness within—while a person stumbled into the room.

"My Lord! It's not good!"

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