Liora was surprised but not stunned by the strength displayed by the young man.

After all, although she currently possessed the power of only a Young Devil, her real strength was that of a Lesser Devil.

What caught Liora off guard was the aura that the young man subconsciously emitted.

Full of vitality and seemingly stemming from the very depths of his body, the energy that the young man was wielding was clear to her.

It was Life Force.

In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts raced through her mind.

Although she had long had suspicions that there should be a rank above Great Knights, it was inevitable for her to feel surprised when her uneducated guess was found to be true.

While Liora was deep in thought, the hand constructed purely out of holy power struck.

Possessing immense power and exuding an overwhelming aura, it arrived before Liora and seemed ready to crush her.

Faced with it, Liora had the illusion that she was soon going to die.

Thankfully, her worries proved to be meaningless. An illusion was just an illusion after all.

It was impossible for her to be injured, much less die, through a physical attack she suffered in a dream.

As the giant hand whistled through the air, it didn't land on Liora, but instead passed right through her as if the two existed in completely different dimensions.

Then, the hand continued unabated, descending towards the dark forest below.

"Who?!", a thunderous, hoarse voice suddenly broke the total silence.

From the forest below, a shadowy figure jumped up and soared into the sky.

The figure faced the palm and was about to fight it, thus revealing its true form.

With a giant body and shiny, pitch-black fur, Liora immediately recognized the creature.

It was a Twilight Wolf, looking almost the same as the ones whose lives she had harvested not long ago.

The word "almost" was used because the Twilight Wolf before her was many times larger and more fierce than the one she slaughtered, while its aura far surpassed that of a Knight Apprentice.

In Liora's senses, its aura had broken through the limits of the True Knight rank and reached that of a Great Knight.

This meant that even with her current strength—being both a Young Devil and a True Knight—it would require her a lot of effort to succeed in defeating it.

Yet, faced with the menacing figure of the giant wolf, the expression of the young man remained the same.

He didn't even move, much less attack. Rather, he stood calmly, watching silently as the hand made of holy power descended.

"A human?! Who are you?!", a panicked voice soon rang in Liora's ears.

Under her gaze, the holy hand wrapped around the Twilight Wolf's enormous body and held it within its palm.

The Twilight Wolf tried to break free, affecting the area around it. But its struggle was utterly meaningless.

Like metal pincers holding onto a powerless ant, the holy hand didn't even tremble.

"Die!"

For the first time since his arrival, the young man floating in the sky opened his mouth.

Following his words, the holy hand tightened its grip, causing the body of the Twilight Wolf to begin to deform.

"No! Stop! I surrender—!", the Twilight Wolf begged for mercy, but the eyes of the young man remained unmoved.

The next moment, the hand holding onto the wolf tightened its grip even further.

With a loud bang, the colossal Twilight Wolf—who had brought endless destruction upon this world and had become the personification of fear in the hearts of countless humans—died suddenly, butchered like a mortal animal.

Blood splattered everywhere.

As if the world itself were sad for its death, crimson drops of liquid rained down, falling onto the forest and dyeing it in a blood-red color.

The familiar metallic smell assaulted Liora's senses. Holding her breath, she waited to see what was going to happen next, as if she were afraid that she would miss something important.

Unfortunately, with the Twilight Wolf's death, the illusion around her grew increasingly unstable.

It was already difficult for it to put her into a dream, but now, it had become impossible.

"It makes sense. The reason I'm able to watch this scene is that the mysterious blood devoured the blood of Twilight Wolves and dug deep into their bloodline."

"With the 'main protagonist's' demise, there is no longer anything to support this 'movie'.", Liora realized.

In the final moments, sensing that the space's fracturing was becoming increasingly serious, Liora turned her head and glanced at the young man who was still standing silently in the distance.

Though she didn't know his name, age, or even the period of time that he lived in, she had a hunch that the two would meet in the future.

Moreover, coupled with the vast dark forest beside her and this person's overwhelming strength, she had a rough guess regarding his identity.

"The Founding Emperor of the Iron Armor Empire...", Liora's whispering voice echoed in the scene, moments before the images collapsed.

--

In a dimly-lit library, a middle-aged man sat silently behind a small desk, holding a book in his right hand and a cup of hot tea in the other.

His overall appearance and face were blurry, as the only source of light in the whole room was a half-broken lamp, in which a tiny fire was burning.

Time slowly passed, with the flame's faint shadow falling upon the middle-aged man's face.

Just then, the sound of quick footsteps was heard. A second later, a knock came from the door.

"Enter.", a voice full of majesty and authority came out of the man's mouth, and, as if in response to his words, the door swung open.

The light seeped into the room, but the moment the person waiting stepped inside, she swiftly closed the door behind her.

"Lord! There is a letter!", the woman called out softly and carefully placed the white letter before the man.

Seeing this, the man smiled slightly.

"Thank you for your hard work. You can leave.", he said gently as he nodded his head in acknowledgement. Then, he reached out and picked up the unopened letter.

As he did, the letter passed by the broken lamp, its obscure light revealing a name written in cursive, accompanied by a majestic insignia.

The insignia was of a bloody iron shield, while the name read:

"Baron Bloodshield".

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