Why Did You Summon Me?

With one target taken care off, Baiyi turned his attention to the other, the Demigod Knight, who was still locked in a heated battle with the Divine Warriors. Their battle had reached its climax, where weapons encased in gold moved through the air as gracefully as ripples did, trying to strike their targets. They were like golden lotus flowers blooming in a terrible sandstorm.

The battle had caused irreparable damage to the earth, and the area around them had sunk, forming a deep crater. If one were to look at the surrounding from up top, they would think that the ground had been struck with a forbidden spell.

Through the thick smog permeating the air, Huskar looked to have a slight advantage. The other two golden phantoms of Zar’ Zar and Char’Char, which were behind him, were not for show. They also hurled javelins, which was formed from golden rays emanating from their figures, at the Demigod Knight. In other words, the Demigod Knight was not battling Huskar alone; he was fighting all three Divine Warriors at once ¹ !

Huskar’s bizarre weapon pushed the knight deeper into a corner with its surprising versatility. Not only could it be wielded offensively and defensively, but it could also be wielded more dynamically than most polearms. Both its tip and end were weapons to be utilized.

At that moment, however, the Demigod Knight’s peripheral vision caught the bald abbot slumping limply to the ground.

That development instantly grabbed his full attention, and in that millisecond, he realized that he would also have to deal with the wrath diabolical black meatball!

When a battle reaches a certain degree of severity, a little loss of focus was all one needed to be overwhelmed, and Huskar — the side who was gifted this opportunity — took action against the Demigod Knight. His double-bladed polearm was thrust in a straight line to deflect the knight’s combat chi blade, then in less time that it took to blink, Huskar rotated his arms to position one of hatchet-ends of his polearm at the most optimum angle for a fatal blow.

Then, he swung downward with all his might!

The polearm struck home, and on the knight’s golden armor was forcefully punctured forcefully! It now had a gaping hole on it.

The golden phantoms of Zar’Zar and Char’Char seized that moment to hurl their javelins right at the gaping hole, and the weapons pierced through the enemy’s chest.

The Demigod Knight coughed, and blood poured out of his mouth. He hurriedly forced more combat chi into his golden chi armor till it blew up. The unbridled force that emanated from the explosion created gales that blew away the smog and debris in the surrounding, drastically increasing visibility on the battlefield.

The knight borrowed the force from the explosion to distance himself from the Divine Warriors.

Even Huskar, who had grown solemn when he saw the knight’s actions, was blown back by the force. Even he knew it was unwise to try and brave a Demigod-level chi fury explosion, so while he was soaring through the air, he held both his hands to block his face. However, he had still gotten marred and bloodied by the combat chi explosion.

Neither side had suffered fatal injuries, though. Even the Demigod Knight whose chest had been pierced by a javelin stood tall and steady, preparing to activate his territory.

A few moments after that, the Void welcomed a new member; this time, Baiyi delegated the job of orientation to the Apprentice Walker, who was also a member of the Walhart Empire — before his death, at least. Hence, he should be used to striking up conversations with officials like the new knight.

“That’s it?” Huskar asked, visibly dismayed by the battle’s sudden end. He waved his hand, and the golden phantoms of Zar’Zar and Char’Char began to dissipate. When the phantoms were gone, the other two Divine Warriors stirred from their trances and got to their feet. Earlier, they had been within the blast range of the Demigod Knight’s chi fury, but Huskar had protected them.

“Our work here is done, so from now onwards, we work on the next part of the plan,” Baiyi said to the barbarians as he dispelled his black meatball mode.

The barbarians nodded, and then they disappeared. After that, Baiyi dispersed the runic barrier and began to patiently wait for the last prey to come to him.

He did not wait for long. As soon as the barrier dispersed, the Demigod Priest detected changes in the atmosphere. He began to dispatch of the cultists quickly, and when victory looked assured for his side, he hurriedly broke off from them, flying towards the area where the late demigods had fought.

If the other two demigods had been slain by the mysterious fourth Demigod, then the first thing he wanted to do was to discover the demigod’s identity. A demigod hidden in the shadows was too threatening to leave alone.

By the time he arrived, however, all that he met was the charred and sunken ground, which implied that a huge battle had taken place just before. In the middle of the crater was Baiyi, whose head was hung low, seemingly deep in thought.

“Master Hope?” The old priest landed beside Baiyi. As he was someone from the Church, he greatly respected Baiyi, so he stayed humbled and referred to Baiyi as ‘Master’. “What happened here? Where are the other two?”

Baiyi did not answer the question. He looked the priest in the eye, and in a low voice, he said, “Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you… want to live instead of merely existing?”

The old priest looked puzzled; his confusion made his face even more wrinkly.

“Alright! I was kidding. Actually, what I wanted to ask was… Are you seeking the path to Ascension?” Baiyi asked, seriously.

The Demigod priest nodded, despite being a little unsure of why Baiyi had asked him something like that.

“Ooh, goodie. Allow me to show you the real path to Ascension!” Baiyi said in a deliberately coy tone, and Void Energy surged out of his body, encasing him back into his Black Meatball mode.

“B-blackness… such… profanity! Such evil!” The Demigod Priest’s face darkened as the reality dawned on him. He raised a finger at the black meatball and shakily said “You demon… you had deceived the world!”

“I have deceived no one; I’ve only been telling the truth. It’s you people and the prejudice you have that have obscured the truth from your eyes,” Baiyi replied steely and leaped towards the Demigod Priest.

The sensitive priest could feel the horrifying power emanating from Baiyi’s Void Energy, so he hurriedly ripped off his scripture pendant and began to activate his Territory, hoping to defeat Baiyi in this decisive battle!

“Very good! I like how quickly you make decisions! That is the only way to unite you with your Saint Joel,” Baiyi sneered as he waited for the Demigod Priest’s Territory to envelop the area around them.

That did not end well for the priest; he was forcefully taken on a one way trip to the Void. Baiyi had not lied about reuniting the priest with the famous apostle; he delegated the job of guide the priest to the Cleric Walker.

“Man… those three were straightforward to a fault. I barely had to exert any effort,” Baiyi exclaimed with a twinge of pride. “Alright. Now, on to the next page of the script.”

In another location, a battle was still on-going: Church v Cultists.

Suddenly, three obscure figures appeared out of nowhere. They were being obscured by a thick black fog that seemed to have appeared with them. As soon as they appeared, they cried out in a language that no one understood and began to swing their weapons, massacring everyone in their way; their attacks did not distinguish between Church or cult. Worse still, these figures possessed insane might and fighting prowess. When a Templar pulled out his sword and began to yell “In the name of Gaa—”, he was unceremoniously cleaved into two halves by a strange weapon, not allowed to complete his sentence.

In another location, another battle was taking place; it was between the Northerners and the Imperial forces. Suddenly, a black sphere appeared out of nowhere, then it hurled itself into the mix, summoning black flames and black lightning at random targets. The attacks reaped multiple lives, and those who tried to retaliate got consumed by the raging black flames faster than the others; not even ashes were left of them.

As that was happening, a deep, hoarse baritone voice boomed from the sky, “Death to Intruders! O my loyal guardians, kill them all!” It was as though the realm itself was speaking.

When the outsiders heard this, their hope and excitement dissipated into thin air. Their plans and ploys had amounted to nothing because the treasure they sort was not like others. It was a treasure with an owner; a treasure guarded by inhumanely powerful creatures. They had come here thinking that their worst enemies would be other factions! Looking back at how they had ended the lives of fellow humans, had they not all been a big joke?

Immediately after, everyone lost interest in the treasure and killings. The situation had drastically changed, akin to spraying water in a nest of ants. Everyone in the small realm scampered about trying to survive the calamity.

At that moment when all hope seemed lost, Hope — the soul armature — appeared suddenly.

His figure flickered around multiple times, shielding the humans and fighting back against the guardians shrouded by the black fog. He also transported the humans he saved to the black castle in the distance, putting them there with the rest of the survivors. He declined their offers to help and dove back into the battlefield all by himself, to save even more people.

No one knew how many trips like these he had to make, neither did they know how many people he had saved. Furthermore, neither of the survivors could clearly see Hope fight the guardians because of all the black smog; whenever Hope dove back into the smog, the survivors would feel very powerful mana undulations for a while, then watch Hope, whose armor would have more cuts and dents, bring back more survivors.

A maiden cleric from the Church burst into tears and stammered, “Th-thank you… M-M-Master Hope…. Th-thank you!”

Her sentiment quickly infected the rest of the survivors, and soon, the first person Baiyi had saved, Baldy Kris, sighed. “Now that is a man deserving of his name. A living savior…’The Great Sage who saves the world’ could not be more fitting…”

“If I survive this, I’ll compose a book of poems and songs praising his good name, just so everyone would remember this…”

Fortunately for Baiyi, he was not in the castle to hear these compliments and praises, or he would have begun to reprimand himself heavily…

Truthfully, “killing” on one hand, and “saving” with the other hand was just a part of his script. He was just playing the role of a savior…

Baiyi continued to do this until he had transporter all the outsiders he deemed worthy back to the black castle. He had simulated huge mana vibrations typical of violent high-level battle, successfully fooling the others into thinking he was in great peril. In truth, however, every time he dove into the black smog, he would call his three friends over, saying, “Over here, guys. Here, and here. Make two cuts over here — hey, don’t make it too deep! It’ll be a huge pain to fix them…”