Upon hearing the girl’s words, the already grim expression on Kolin’s face became even darker. His brows furrowed like a knotted rope, and his heart was filled with horror.
Although he had guessed that the other party was by no means an ordinary Demon Executive, he never expected that she had once been a member of the Demon Race on the verge of becoming one of the Four Heavenly Kings!
Kolin did not know the true power of the Four Heavenly Kings; after all, before the Demon King and the Hero perished together, all of the Four Heavenly Kings had been slain by the Hero. Kolin had only read of their might in historical records and had never faced such an enemy directly.
Yet, even without facing them, Kolin could imagine their strength. And now, standing right before him, was a member of the Demon Race extremely close to that level! How could Kolin keep his composure?
However, at that very moment, Kolin suddenly noticed something off. Even though he had never faced an enemy of that caliber, he knew that the Four Heavenly Kings were, at the very least, demons above Level 85, whereas Kolin was only Level 81. Setting aside the uncharged attack from moments ago, even an attack fueled by all of Kolin’s strength should only be able to inflict minor injuries on one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
Yet, this Half-Faced Girl standing before him had just used Short-range Teleportation to dodge it! Although she had said she only nearly became one of the Four Heavenly Kings, he estimated there was still a significant gap between her and the true Four Heavenly Kings. But that had been an uncharged attack—at most, only about one-third of Kolin’s total power! Faced with an attack of this magnitude, the girl who claimed to be so close to that level chose to use Short-range Teleportation to avoid it? Was that really necessary?
Kolin’s eyes sharpened as he stared at the girl. Excluding the possibility that she was simply bored, there was only one reason for this result: Kolin’s attack had forced the girl to judge that she would be injured by it!
But if that were true, it conflicted with her claim of being so close to becoming one of the Four Heavenly Kings! She was so afraid of his attack that it was clear she was nowhere near that level; she was far from it!
Of course, Kolin would not be careless. Although the facts contradicted her words, making them seem like a lie, the pride she displayed while speaking did not seem fake.
Sure enough, as his gaze moved to the missing half of her face, Kolin discovered a clue. The gap on her face did not seem to be a mere decoration; she seemed unable to stop the black mist that constantly drifted out from it.
Kolin had initially assumed her face looked that way due to a side effect of the Dark Arts, but as it turned out, the one using the Dark Arts was the male demon kneeling on the ground, not her. Therefore, this was no side effect. Excluding the possibility of it being a simple decoration, there was only one conclusion: it was a scar from a past injury!
Although Kolin had never heard of the Demon Race suffering such wounds, it was the only explanation for the current situation. This Half-Faced Girl might have once been a demon approaching the level of the Four Heavenly Kings, but now she was injured, and her strength was significantly limited. She didn’t dare to take even a non-full-power attack from him head-on!
Thinking of this, Kolin’s confidence surged. When he first heard her claim to be near the strength of the Four Heavenly Kings, he had despairingly thought that he shouldn’t have brought Liyami and the others along. But since she was injured and her current strength was likely not much different from his own, they still had a chance of winning!
Seeing that Kolin and his group had no intention of continuing their attack, the girl simply complained: “My goodness! You are all too worked up, aren’t you? I haven’t even said anything yet, and you all started attacking me! How rude!”
Hearing the girl’s words, Kolin and the others remained stone-faced. There was no way they would choose to sit down for a chat and give up the fight based on a few words from her.
Kolin knew exactly why she had suddenly started complaining like they were just having a casual chat; she was likely trying to use the Concept of Delaying Time. Although he did not know how much this would benefit her, one of those benefits was surely the male demon kneeling on the ground.
Kolin had already noticed that the severely injured male demon was attempting to re-enter his Shadow Form. The Half-Faced Girl was saying so much just to buy him time to recover so they could surround the group together later.
However, Kolin followed up on what she had said: “You say you were the demon closest to becoming one of the Four Heavenly Kings? May I ask your name? How have I never heard of you?”
Although Kolin had roughly guessed her intent, he did not call her out on it because they also needed more intelligence on her. To stall for time, she would inevitably reveal some information about herself. Regardless of whether it was useful, Kolin did not want to fight blind. Furthermore, stalling for time was not necessarily a bad thing for them.
While the Half-Faced Girl was not paying attention, Kolin quickly glanced at another passage near the cave entrance that had been buried in rubble earlier. It was now empty. However, the traces on the ground indicated that someone had been staying there and had finally headed into the passage.
—
Going back a few minutes, Laine had been watching as a figure suddenly emerged from a cave entrance near him. After carefully identifying the figure, he realized in horror that it was the very same Half-Faced Girl who had once killed him!
Fortunately, her attention was entirely focused on Kolin and his team, and she did not notice him, a minor character hiding nearby. Of course, even if she had noticed him, she would likely have prioritized dealing with Kolin first.
Thinking of this, Laine looked at Kolin’s group in a standoff with the girl, then at the pitch-black passage behind himself. He knew he could not keep watching from the sidelines like this.
Although he could not help much in combat, they had not come here to deal with the culprit behind the Missing Persons Incident; they were here to find Laura and the others and rescue them.
As it stood, Kolin’s group was directly confronting the culprit with no time to search for the others. He was the only one on the scene who had that time.
He looked at the dark passage behind him once more and thought of Xiaolan’s face. Laine gritted his teeth and finally took a step forward.
Judging by the marks on the ground, this passage should have people entering and leaving frequently. It was very likely the place where they were holding the victims!
Though he was unsure if there were other enemies, Laine had no other choice now. He couldn’t just stay in place waiting for Kolin’s battle to conclude. Never mind what would happen if they lost; even if they won, there were too many unknowns. It was better to rescue the hostages beforehand.
Moreover, while Xiaolan’s various behaviors were foolish, and she was often troublesome and unreliable even before she changed, and even now, her only advantage was her cute face, Laine just didn’t want to see her in danger. He had planned to discard her after using her back in that unknown maze, so when exactly did he start to care about her?
Laine did not know when he had begun to care, but he only knew that as he recalled his memories of Xiaolan, his previously trembling footsteps had become firm. Looking at the path ahead, which lacked any light, Laine’s eyes gradually became determined.
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