When the dozen or so nobles Riya had once saved were roughly pushed onto the central platform by the Blood Pillars, the entire Ten Holy Temples fell into an eerie silence.
Yize stood before the judgment seat, his gaze sweeping over those pale, trembling nobles, before finally landing on another group of bound figures on the central platform.
Those were members of the Arsède family.
Yize’s eyes instantly locked onto a familiar figure.
Angelica Arsède, Riya’s sister.
“I never thought she’d end up this pathetic because of Riya,” Yize thought to himself.
At that moment, Riya looked at Yize.
“Yize, can you let my sister and the others down first?”
Everyone in the court turned their attention to Yize.
Yize frowned slightly and looked at Angelica. “Your sister isn’t still thinking of chopping my head off, is she?”
Angelica took a deep breath. Before the eyes of the crowd, she did something that made every noble in attendance gasp—she bowed deeply toward Yize.
“I’m sorry.”
Those three words left her mouth clearly and solemnly.
“I was ignorant before.”
She kept her bow, her voice echoing through the silent hall. “I don’t care about myself. I just need you to keep my sister safe.”
She lifted her head, her eyes meeting Yize’s.
‘Angelica is crazy, not stupid.’ That was the thought Yize had about her right now.
She spoke those words with complete frankness.
Yes, she had always been a madwoman—someone who would sacrifice everything for her family and pay any price for her sister.
*
But she wasn’t a fool. She could read the situation and weigh her options.
Her original intention had never changed: her sister’s safety and the strength of the Arsède family.
And now, Yize’s displayed power was enough to guarantee Riya the former.
As for the latter… before the trial of the Ten Holy Temples and the possible attitude of the Royal Family, it had become irrelevant.
Yize watched her in silence.
He hadn’t expected that this woman, who had once treated him like an ant and repeatedly tried to crush him, could lower her head so decisively.
Not out of fear, but out of pure consideration for her sister’s safety.
This shift caused Yize’s opinion of Angelica to change subtly.
“Since you’re no longer thinking of chopping me off, you’re Riya’s sister, and you’ve apologized,” Yize said slowly, his gaze sweeping over the Arsède family members behind Angelica.
“Most importantly, this sister seems to care a lot about Riya.”
He paused, as if he had finally made a decision.
“Then, ‘grant them seats.’”
The moment the words fell, Bart, who stood behind Yize, moved.
This Fourth Seat of the Blood Pillars displayed a keen eye that belied his rough appearance.
Almost as soon as Yize finished speaking, he strode forward and swung his thick arm.
“Crack! Crack! Crack!”
The special shackles binding the Arsède family members shattered on impact.
Bart grabbed each member of the Arsède family and set them down in the area behind Riya.
The moment she regained her freedom, Angelica swayed, but she forced herself steady.
Her gaze instantly sought out Riya, a thousand words unspoken in her heart but unable to be voiced.
Yize stopped looking at them. His focus shifted back to Tina, who was now nailed to a cross.
This High Priestess of the Ten Holy Temples looked even worse than Riya had before.
Her gorgeous holy robes were burned through with countless holes, her exposed skin covered in blackened scars.
Her limbs were nailed to the cross, blood flowing down the wooden frame and pooling into a dark red puddle at her feet.
But she was still alive—and conscious.
That was exactly the effect Yize wanted—to make her feel all of this clearly.
“I’ve heard,” Yize said, walking up to Tina and looking up at the woman nailed high above, “that you pinned dozens of charges on Riya?”
His voice was calm.
Tina lifted her head with difficulty, her green eyes flickering with a mix of resentment and fear.
“The charges I listed… have solid evidence,” she panted.
Her gaze swept over the Blood Pillars behind Yize, a twisted satisfaction flashing in her eyes.
“Besides, aren’t these blood clan companions of yours already here to rescue her? What else is there to argue?”
That remark was extremely venomous, trying to solidify the ‘fact’ of Riya colluding with the Blood Race in the minds of the watching nobles.
Yize just laughed.
It was a light laugh, tinged with some helplessness.
“First,” he raised one finger, “I’m not from the Blood Race. I’m human.”
“Second,” he raised a second finger, “I’m not the commander of these Blood Race members. They just got beaten by me and were forced to submit temporarily.”
These words were spoken lightly, but they stirred a storm within the court.
Not from the Blood Race?
How could a human possess such power?
Beaten into submission?
These were the Ten Pillars of the Blood Race!
Each one was a monster capable of destroying an entire city on its own!
Tina’s face was filled with disbelief. “How could a human possess that kind of physical strength… and that amount of magical power?”
Her question voiced the thoughts of everyone present.
Those nobles, the priests of the Ten Holy Temples, even the newly rescued Arsède family members—all eyes were fixed on Yize, waiting for his answer.
But Yize only shook his head.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
He turned, his back to Tina, facing the nobles who had been pushed onto the central platform.
“You all keep saying Riya committed treason, consorted with aliens, and harmed her own people.”
His gaze was like a knife, sweeping across the faces of those nobles one by one. Each stare made the corresponding noble tremble.
“Then I want to ask,” Yize’s voice suddenly turned cold, “if Riya hadn’t arrived in time, wouldn’t you all be dead already?”
The courtroom was completely silent.
“Not only do you not show gratitude,” Yize took a step forward, his footsteps loud in the stillness, “how can you even have the face to come here and watch the execution of the one who saved your lives?”
That question struck at the heart.
A nobleman in the front row, with a face full of bulging flesh, couldn’t help but speak.
His voice trembled with fear, but he still tried to maintain the ‘dignity’ of a noble.
“She… she’s a Blood Race member! Isn’t all this just to gain our trust and infiltrate deep into the Empire?”
Yize looked at him, a trace of pity in his eyes—pity for stupidity.
“You really have a face as big as a wall,” Yize said, his tone turning sarcastic. “Your trust isn’t worth a damn.”
He paused, as if calculating something. “Going by the Blood Race’s pace of attacking you, your territory should have fallen completely in at most three days.”
At that moment, one of the Blood Pillars behind Yize spoke up.
“Half a day.”
Everyone turned to look at him.
No.7 licked his lips, a hint of recollection flashing through his scarlet pupils.
“If Riya hadn’t shown up in time, I only needed at most half a day more to take over this guy’s territory.”
He pointed at the noble who had just spoken.
Yize smiled and turned to that noble. “So you can only last half a day, you useless piece of trash?”
His smile instantly turned cold. “If half a day is all it takes to take over your territory, why would Riya go through the trouble of putting on an act in front of you?”
The noble’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. His lips quivered, but he couldn’t utter a single word.
Yize stopped looking at him. Instead, he said calmly to Herbert, “I’ve always respected fate. Handle him according to his original outcome.”
The moment those words fell.
No.7’s figure vanished from his spot and appeared before the noble the next second.
He didn’t even use the Blood Race’s innate abilities. He simply reached out and grabbed the man’s neck.
“No… please—” The noble’s eyes erupted with extreme terror.
But it was too late.
The noble’s body shriveled at a visible speed. His skin quickly lost its luster, turning gray and withered.
In just two or three seconds, a living person became a dried-up corpse, casually thrown to the ground with a dull thud.
The entire process was so fast that no one could react.
By the time the other nobles came to their senses, all that remained on the ground was that horrifying corpse and the sweet, nauseating smell of blood spreading through the air.
“Ahhh!!!”
A scream broke the silence.
A noblewoman collapsed, her body giving out as yellow liquid seeped from beneath her.
The other nobles weren’t much better. Some trembled all over, others sobbed quietly, and still others fainted outright.
Yize’s gaze swept over them. His voice was calm. “As for these nobles, handle them as they deserve.”
To the surviving nobles, those words were like a demon’s whisper.
But to the Blood Pillars—
“Thank you, Chief!”
“Finally, we can feed…”
“The blood of these nobles… though it’s a bit impure, there’s plenty of it…”
The Blood Pillars’ eyes gleamed with greedy red light.
They had been starving ever since being captured by Yize.