Chapter 281 - 277: Death Envoy Vs High Duke
"Master is here," Elisia let out as she smiled.
"T..." Before Ryder could even react, he felt the air in his surrounding changed as a terrifying pressure appeared out of nowhere.
He looked to his left and saw a fist coming towards him.
It was so fast that Ryder didn't even feel like he had any hope of escaping. He had realized that it was probably going to be game over for him. He knew that because of the Ruler of Time's passive revival skill that didn't differentiate between the death in-game and the real-life death, he'd be sent one day in the past again.
Just as Ryder had given up, someone appeared before him.
High Duke Oris appeared before Ryder and attacked with a finger towards the fist that was coming towards Ryder.
The fist and the finger clashed. Time seemed to have stopped at the clash as if two powerful entities had just clashed. A terrifying energy wave was born because of the clash which tossed Ryder back. Ryder crashed on the ground. Devilia and Rale were also thrown back, and so was Master Mao from the terrifying energy wave. As Rale was tossed back, Elisia also suffered the same. Rale's grip on her was released through as she fell into a different place.
There were only five people that hadn't moved even an inch. The Vampire King, High Duke Eston, High Duke Mila, and High Duke Oris were standing still. The intruder that had just attacked was also standing still. He didn't move back even an inch, either, as if his strength had perfectly matched High Duke Oris' strength.
"Death Envoy Lai, is this really what you want? This is an act of war. You should be ready for the consequences now," High Duke Oris let out as his eyes turned blood red in anger.
The person standing before High Duke Oris was a man that looked like he was in his early 30s. He was the Death Envoy of the Death Domain, which was like the High Duke of Death Domain.
"I'm not here for a war. I'm just here to take a rogue girl back. Now that we got what we wanted, I'm leaving. We will send you an explanation later," Death Envoy Lai said in a grim tone before he disappeared.
Ryder was injured the most from the crash, but his Ruler of Nature had healed him just as fast. Ryder stood up. Rale had also stood up.
"Elisia, she's gone," Ryder let out as he looked around, not finding Elisia anywhere.
"They took her. For her to be able to bring three Death Envoys to bring her back, She must hold a really important position in the Death Domain," High Duke Oris said as he frowned.
"Three Death Envoys? Why did I only see one?" Ryder asked in confusion.
High Duke Oris was about to reply, but before he could say anything, someone else completed his sentence.
"One was standing in front of him. The other was taking the girl, and the last one was hiding nearby," Vampire King told Ryder.
"Three Death Envoys? The Death Domain only has four Death Envoys, and three of them appeared here together for the girl? Interesting. Was our information wrong? Could the truth be that both the Crown Candidates don't have two Death Envoys supporting them? Elisia is being supported by three Death Envoys, and the Bloodline Prince is supported by one?" Ryder asked High Duke Oris.
"I'm not sure of that. It's impossible to exactly know the intricacies of the Death Domain. The information that we had did indicate that only two Death Envoys were supporting the girl," High Duke Mila chimed in.
"It's either the Third Envoy also started supporting the girl, or the Bloodline Prince got active and sent his supporting Death Envoy to save the girl," Ryder muttered as he frowned.
"No. They didn't come to save her," High Duke Oris let out suddenly.
"They didn't? Why did they come here then? and why did they take the girl then?" Ryder asked in confusion.
" It hasn't even been half an hour since it all started. On the other hand, it hasn't even been ten minutes since the girl and the other intruders were caught. There's no way that in ten minutes, the Death Envoys will get the information. Even if they got the information, it's impossible to come here in ten minutes. They will never take the risk like this in a hurry," High Duke Oris said as he frowned.
"I believe that Death Envoy Lai wasn't lying. They were here to take the girl back, most probably because the girl decided to infiltrate the Demon Realm and scheme against us. The Death Envoys must have found out about this long ago. They must be here to take her back before she could cause irreversible damage, and when they came here, they saw her captured. That's only an assumption though, but I feel like it's right," he continued.
" Isn't there a flaw in that story? If the girl was dead here, the Bloodline Prince will only get an advantage as he wouldn't have any enemies left. His throne would be safe." Ryder raised a question.
"On the other hand, if the girl had killed me and the Demon Realm attacked the Death Domain, the Bloodline Prince could have blamed her and gotten her out of the way before getting all the power for himself to face us against the war. He would've received the support of all the citizens of Death Domain as well, and all the blame would've fallen on the girl," he raised a question.
"Why would he even send a Death Envoy to help her when the alternatives were so much better for him?" he asked.
"The answer to that question is obvious. You're thinking of him as a Prince like you, but you aren't taking it into account that he might be different," Vampire King chimed in.
" He is a sensible prince. You remember what I said before? He's someone that would think ten times before doing something that can cause a war. He knows that the Death Domain will suffer a lot if there's another war. He most probably wants to avoid a war even if it means letting an enemy live," he continued.
" That's what I thought as well. Also, from what Death Envoy Lai said, they might send us an explanation for all this soon enough," High Duke Oris said he sighed.
"Interesting. That Prince is really interesting. The girl is hot like fire, and the Bloodline Prince is cool like ice. Both the Crown Candidates of the Death Domain are opposite to each other," Ryder muttered as he glanced back at High Duke Eston.
"It's good that High Duke Eston was near Mao, or they might have taken the Second Witness as well," he continued.
" If what everyone says is right, then I think that they left him here alive intentionally since they didn't even try to take him. They could've at least given me a fight, but they didn't even get near me. It seems pretty intentional," High Duke Eston said as he shook his head.
"Why would they leave someone like him here? We can get information out of him that might be bad for them. Why then?" Devilia inquired in confusion.
Ryder also thought about this question.
"I got it," he suddenly let out.
"That's because they do want us to get the information out of him. They want us to know the truth that Elisia was rogue and that they didn't know anything about her plan to make us understand. I'm sure their explanation will have something mentioning this too. They're pretty smart," He continued as he smiled.
"They are smart, indeed, but we need to be smart as well. We can't be overconfident from this victory and underestimate them. There's still a big question before us. That is how we should react to this situation. We can't be too soft to maintain our dignity," High Duke Mila said as she stepped towards High Duke Oris.
" Yeah. We can't let it go, and we can't declare war either since both options are too extreme. What do you all suggest we should do?" Ryder asked the High Dukes.
" Sigh, let's not be hasty about this decision. We can think about this for a day, at least. It's an important development that might affect the future of both the Realms after all," High Duke Oris said, shaking his head.
" Ah, How about you all eat first? It's time, and the Dining hall portion of the Palace is still intact. After eating, you can think about how to deal with the Death Domain regarding the event," Devilia gave a suggestion.
"Ah, right. Now that I think about it, I didn't eat anything today. I was feeling hungry," High Duke Oris smiled as he nodded his head.
Ryder also nodded his head.
"Ah, High Duke Oris, keep Mao safe. We can't lose him. We still need to get the information about the spy in the Palace," he said as he subtly glanced at Devilia.