Chapter 48: Anger

Splash!

The icy, bone-chilling water roused the unconscious girl.

She slowly lifted her head, only to find herself bound hand and foot by shackles and chains, unable to move.

Where… is this?

Her emerald-green eyes brimmed with fear and confusion.

Looking up, she saw her hometown engulfed in firelight and rampaging demonic beasts.

“Why… is this happening…”

Airella cried out in anguish, struggling desperately to break free from the chains.

But the cold metal bit mercilessly into her wrists and ankles, leaving deep red marks.

At the entrance of the village, the wooden hut had already been torn apart by the claws of the demonic beasts.

Flames devoured the rooftop, thick smoke billowed, and she coughed violently, her throat burning.

【Monster.】

【Witch.】

【Die.】

She tried to summon her magic, but the manacles on her hands ruthlessly suppressed the magic circuits within her body.

Even the jade pendant she always wore was nowhere to be found.

She shook her head, and the illusion around her gradually faded.

Now it seemed she was in a cold dungeon, the walls lit only by the faint glow of candlelight.

“So you’ve awakened, witch.”

“Your memories are quite… interesting.”

Airella slowly came to her senses and saw a man wearing a helmet standing before her.

“Who are you? Why…”

Looking closely, she realized the armor this knight wore seemed very familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

“Airella Agresta, do you still remember me?”

Suddenly, the knight grabbed her hair tightly, and the pain snapped her to full awareness.

“It’s… it’s you!”

The knight removed his helmet, and Airella’s eyes widened in shock.

It was the very knight who had been pursuing her ever since she first unleashed the power of the demonic beasts.

She’d only managed to escape him in the Hawk Territory with Lin Yue’s help, never expecting to run into him again.

“Letting you escape last time made me lose all face!”

Without warning, he swung a fist straight into Airella’s face, with not a shred of mercy.

Or perhaps, in his eyes, Airella wasn’t even human, merely a witch who wielded forbidden power.

Airella cried out in pain, unable to move her limbs.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she stared hatefully at the man before her.

“You so-called holy ones from the Church… you invade the deepest pain in others’ hearts. Isn’t that just laughable?”

The knight sneered, his laughter full of mockery.

He nudged the chains by Airella’s feet with his boot, the clatter of metal echoing sharply in the empty dungeon.

“Laughable? The Church is merely exercising its rightful authority. Did you think hiding in Avelina would let you escape the Church’s eyes?”

He crouched down, roughly pinching Airella’s chin and forcing her to look up at him.

“From the moment you first summoned a high-level demonic beast and destroyed half the village, you should’ve known, a ‘monster’ like you would eventually be purified by the Church.”

“I didn’t!”

Airella struggled violently, her eyes red but refusing to yield.

“I saved them! I never hurt anyone! You people have hunted me down without any distinction between right and wrong!”

“Saved them?”

The knight seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world and abruptly released his grip.

Airella’s head slammed hard against the stone wall behind her, and darkness flashed before her eyes.

“Funny. What I heard was the reports from those innocent villagers.”

Airella froze, her eyes instantly brimming with tears.

She had risked everything to save them.

Those villagers were nearly killed by bandits, and she had used her jade pendant to call forth the forest’s demonic beasts for help.

But in the end, all she received was an accusation: “The witch controls demonic beasts to harm people.”

Because of this, she couldn’t even stay at an inn.

It was only by meeting Lin Yue that she’d found a place to rest along the way.

The knight looked at the silent Airella and sneered: “To ordinary people, anyone who can summon demonic beasts is a monster. Do you think using beasts to save them will change their fear of you? The Church hunts you, not because you ‘do evil’, but because the power you hold should never have existed.”

As he spoke, he walked over to a red-hot iron rod, drawing closer to Airella.

“That is humanity. Once an outlier appears among the group, they’ll blindly drive it out, no matter good or evil.”

“So, why did I forsake humanity and choose to devote myself to the gods…”

The knight slowly approached Airella, dragging the blazing iron rod across his gauntlet.

The heat washed over Airella’s cheek.

“Don’t worry, I’ll leave you with a scar even healing magic can’t remove. A witch should look like a witch.”

Even after all she’d endured, Airella couldn’t help but panic now.

For a girl, appearance was as important as life itself—especially with her beauty, the difference between before and after would be enough to destroy her.

“What, still hoping someone will save you?”

Sss!

It hurt so much!

Perhaps for his own amusement, the knight didn’t go for her face right away, but pressed the rod to the back of her hand, making her feel the pain bit by bit.

“My humiliation will be washed away by your suffering!”

The knight’s expression twisted, while Airella squeezed her eyes shut, biting her lip so hard that a single word slipped out: “Lin Yue, save me…”

Ah… why did I…

The next second, Airella realized with a jolt that she already saw Lin Yue as her ultimate safe haven.

She had never felt this way before.

She used to trust no one, not even herself.

Only the demonic beasts by her side were worthy of her trust.

Beasts were purer than humans.

How ridiculous.

Until Lin Yue appeared.

The black-haired boy in her mind had, in such a short time, come to fill most of her thoughts.

The knight paused, intrigued by her childlike cry for help.

“That brat from the Hawk family? An unbeliever and a witch, what a pair…”

“I haven’t settled the score with him yet. If he dares come, I won’t mind making sure he never stands again.”

“But, he’ll never find this place. He’s probably still foolishly attending the ceremony… Ha!”

The knight before her was almost a third-rank Paladin, far beyond Lin Yue, who hadn’t even reached the second rank yet.

Leaning against the wall, Airella’s tears finally fell.

She knew this all too well, and her heart was torn.

She was afraid no one would notice her plight, terrified of being ruined or her life ending here.

Falling into the Church’s hands meant either life-long imprisonment, or being burned to ashes in public.

But she also feared Lin Yue would really come for her, putting himself in danger.

She closed her eyes and prayed silently in her heart.

Lin Yue… don’t come.

Don’t risk yourself for me.

Yet at the same time, another voice was screaming from deep within.

Save me…

“Save your breath. No one’s coming for you.”

Just as he was about to swing the rod down, the surroundings suddenly blurred and flickered.

“What’s going on?”

The Church’s wagon was heavily guarded.

This shouldn’t be possible.

Looking outside, he spotted a faint spatial rift opening on the floor.

A hand reached out, gripping his ankle tightly.

“Got you.”

In an instant, icy magical energy seeped out of the spatial rift.

The knight froze, and when he came to, the entire “dungeon” was covered in snow and ice.

The iron rod fell from his hand.

The sudden change left him no chance to react—Lin Yue’s hand had grabbed him tight.

“What the hell?!”

He tried to grab the blue stone that had constructed this illusion, but Lin Yue’s grip was too strong—he couldn’t break free.

Airilla slowly opened her eyes and saw that familiar hand on the ground.

Her savior had come.

“Get off! Get away!”

The knight kicked desperately at Lin Yue’s hand, scrambling toward the stone.

But as he finally touched it, he realized his body had turned sluggish and numb, as if frozen stiff.

Frost crept over the entire carriage.

What should have been a single-target spell had been modified by Isabella into an area-of-effect one.

Without exceptional talent and overwhelming magical power, that should have been impossible.

“Who dares trespass on the Church’s territory? Show yourself!”

The blue stone seemed to have lost connection with its linker, and the oppressive dungeon reverted instantly to an ordinary wooden carriage.

“An illusion mirror, huh.”

A black-haired youth appeared behind the knight like a phantom.

“Let me borrow it for a bit.”

In a flash, the surroundings shifted to a war-torn battlefield—the scenes of an actual war.

All around were cannons, ammunition, missiles, and all sorts of things the knight had never seen before.

“What is all this…”

Suddenly, a tank rolled right over him.

He tried to resist with Holy magic, but the sheer weight was overwhelming.

He knew it was just an illusion, but the utterly alien scene left him powerless to fight back.

What kind of madness does this lunatic carry in his mind?

For someone from another world, the visual shock of war machines like tanks and cannons was no less than seeing the arrival of a Cthulhu-like ancient god.

By the time he came to, his hands and feet were already bound tight, unable to move.

How did they get in here?

The knight had never seen such bizarre magic before.

The door’s seal was much stronger than for ordinary felons—breaking in by force was practically impossible.

Before he could think more, he looked up to see Lin Yue staring darkly at the blue stone in his hand.

Airella, who had just been on the interrogation chair, had been freed from her shackles and now lay weakly against Isabella.

“Bella, Lin Yue… you came to save me…”

She forced a bitter smile at her two friends, unable to help thinking how weak she was.

“Airella, don’t speak.”

Lin Yue knew Airella must have suffered great mental torment.

That blue stone’s illusions were indistinguishable from reality, making it a terrifying tool for interrogation.

It could replay your deepest fears over and over.

“You’re… that brat from the Hawk family!”

Even with Lin Yue’s disguise, the knight recognized him at a glance, gnashing his teeth in hatred.

Lin Yue looked calmly at the knight and suddenly sneered, “Oh, who do we have here? Isn’t this our distinguished guest from the Church?”

Without warning, he lashed out, kicking the knight square in the head.

Without divine power to protect his face, it was as fragile as paper.

Lin Yue’s kick sent blood spurting from his nose.

“Cough, cough! You… heretic, the Church will never let you go!”

“Heh.”

From the knight’s perspective, Lin Yue’s eyes were unreadable—only the cold, upturned curve of his lips remained, full of oppressive force.

“You’ve never let her go, have you.”

“Airella… your hand.”

Isabella noticed the burn marks.

She gently cradled Airella’s hand, using ice magic to soothe the pain as much as possible.

“I’m fine, Bella. He was going to burn my face… Thank goodness you got here in time…”

“How vile…”

Isabella looked up, about to tell Lin Yue to hurry and leave, but realized that the air around Lin Yue had dropped several degrees.

It was even colder than the strongest ice magic, enough to make one shudder.

He wanted to ruin Airella’s face?

Lin Yue’s expression was dark enough to drip water.

His eyes were empty as he looked at the knight, as if the man before him was nothing more than livestock to be slaughtered.

“Which hand did he use to burn you…”

At first, he’d thought burning someone was just a usual interrogation method.

He was angry, but he kept a bit of reason.

But after hearing that the knight intended to burn Airella’s face, he instantly froze.

How dare you…

Ever since crossing over, something had always troubled him, made him anxious.

If not for Airella and Lia always cheering him up and helping him, he might not have made it this far.

Every moment with Airella flashed through his mind.

If that precious, healing smile was destroyed by this man…

The darkness inside surged forth.

The black claws buried in his heart tore through his sanity.

So easily.

As if… tearing up a sheet of paper.

“It was… the left…”

Before Airella could finish, Lin Yue stomped hard on the knight’s right hand.

The pitiful scream rang out as the pain shot straight through the knight’s mind.

“Ahhhh!”

Lin Yue realized he’d stomped the wrong hand and sighed.

“Forget it…”

Crack!

“Waahhh!”

The knight’s left hand was also crushed underfoot, Lin Yue grinding it like grapes, shattering every finger, every joint, tenfold pain surging through.

“Might as well crush them all.”

Isabella watched calmly.

This so-called knight, who claimed to serve the gods, had no mercy at all, only cruelty toward a gentle girl.

Not killing him outright was already Lin Yue’s mercy.

“Isabella…”

Lin Yue turned toward her.

“The iron rod?”

He still wasn’t satisfied.

This man had made trouble since the Hawk Territory, and now had even burned Airella’s hand…

Isabella handed him another red-hot iron rod, cooling the handle with ice magic, leaving only the burning tip.

“Spare… spare me!”

Thwack! One hit.

Thwack! Another.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Sss! Into the eyeball.

Blood splattered into Lin Yue’s eyes, but he didn’t even flinch, as if he wanted to memorize this man’s agony down to the last detail.

The knight passed out from the pain, his face and limbs branded with scars that would never fade.

The iron rod’s tip had dimmed, and Lin Yue, breathing hard, vented all his recent frustrations on this dog.

Airilla stared in shock—she never thought Lin Yue, who usually disliked fighting, could rage like this for her sake.

Her unsettled heart only grew more restless.

“We should go…”

Isabella patted Lin Yue’s shoulder.

“Airella’s health comes first. Let’s return to the academy and discuss it with the teachers.”

At the mention of Airella, the darkness in Lin Yue’s eyes faded a little.

He rasped, “Let’s go…”

Lin Yue tossed aside the iron rod and crushed the now inert blue stone.

Just then, the carriage door was suddenly flung open.

The moment it opened, blinding pillars of Holy magic shone into their eyes.

“Heretics, surrender at once!”

Dozens of priests and knights stood outside the carriage, ready to unleash their strongest Holy spells on the three inside.