Reaching such a critical juncture in their short-lived battle to the death, the old man behind the bronze face mask exploded into a violent, maddened cackle. His voice seemed hoarse, croaky, sounding much more coarse than before.

Even the volume of his speech was not stable, reaching a higher amplitude at mid-sentence before returning to the same crazed gravel an instant later. Adding to the fact that the reptilian tongue was especially attuned to a series of click, and throat-induced intonations, his speech was growing increasingly difficult, gradually harder and harder to understand.

"[Reptilian] Since things have come to this.. do not blame me for what is to come! You have given no leeway, I shan't give one either!" He stopped only to explode into another peal of terrifying chortle once more.

Taking a couple of seconds to gather himself, the old crafty skink added.

"[Reptilian] If I am destined to face my end here, at the very least I will bring some pleasurable accompaniment alongside me towards the Great One's Embrace!"

The small slits serving as his eyes on the bronze mask suddenly shone in bright golden-vermilion luster, instantly alarming Pyre who in turn immediately took a defensive stance and jumped back.historical

Noticing her partner's reaction even Madam Dara realized that something had changed, and acted accordingly as well without hesitation. Her figure was absorbed by the dark smoke once more and vanished from her spot only to reappear beside Lady Pyre in the next moment.

"[Reptilian] What is going on?" Madam Dara asked through whispered breaths. Her focus remained on the cackling priest, looking at him as if he was some sort of madman that had just lost all reason.

"[Reptilian] Not sure.." Lady Pyre shook her head, a growing frown souring her so-far jolly, excited expression. "But I have a bad feeling about this.."

Just as she said those words, the situation suddenly changed. The golden-vermilion light that the old skink priest had emitted from the eye sockets of his bronze mask gradually began to grow and expand, slowly but surely claiming more and more territory for itself.

In just a few seconds, the mask, nor the old man's hooded head could be seen. Another second later the entire wobbly figure was swallowed up, leaving behind nothing but a strange, and equally as eerie man-sized shining sphere of light.

The strange globular object remained floating in the air, rotating and revolving around itself. At the same time, a beautiful scene was playing out on its surface. The two dominant colors, the golden and the brighter shade of crimson, have begun to swirl and revolve around the surface, slowly but surely claiming half and half of the surface and drawing a clear straight line diagonally.

Yet, the spectacle didn't stop at only being a sight for the eyes. The self-centered rotation, the inertia of the sphere began to speed up after a few seconds, its shape gradually being affected by the steadily rising centripetal force and was growing in width whilst at the same time, losing its height with each completed rotation.

Seconds once again passed, leaving the two girls baffled and unsure of what to do. However their confusion was shortly answered when the four guards that were still trapped in their cage made out of pure fire essence lost their last bits of resistance. Their faces turned into that of utter shock and horror, they looked at the rotating, spinning ball of energy with complete dread plastered on their faces.

Finally their stout stance and proud disposition could no longer be maintained, they have turned toward their jailers. They seemed to be at least somewhat aware of what was going on, and they were terrified to their cores.

These strange girls, assailants being their very last hope, no longer cared for their faces and desperately begged.

"[Reptilian] F-fair maidens.. please be magnanimous and let us escape with you! Do not let us die a senseless death!"

"[Reptilian] We are willing to serve you as slaves for life, just let us go!"

"[Reptilian] Please do not leave us! We do not want to die!"

"[Reptilian] We were just doing our jobs, we have no say in the matter!"

Each of them cried, their exclamations resulting in a big cacophony of noises intermixed with tears of sorrow. Even though they might have just said those words in the heat of the moment, and their promises may have not held any stable ground as soon as they would be in relative safety, both girls felt somewhat moved and weren't sure what to do.

At the same time, they were still confused and somewhat lost at what was happening. Though their senses were tingling with warning signs, they were uncertain of what to do..

If this last action was as catastrophic as these four captured soldiers were claiming it to be, wouldn't their mission result in failure ultimately? Wouldn't they be unable to collect the officer and bring him to their Young Master?

Immersed in their thoughts, they were jolted awake when suddenly the revolving, now madly spinning sphere suddenly began to emit mana in the form of escaping waves spreading and rippling into the surroundings.

The first massive wave that was almost like it exploded was like a violent, cold wind that gushed past them, jolting them awake from their reverie.

Raising her arms in front of her face, on Madam Dara's forearms a dark, onyx colored circular shield materialized, blocking and absorbing the potentially volatile energy particles that were released by each repeated round.

Lady Pyre on the other hand simply focused on her still active aura of flame that formed a pinkish hazy hue around her. Not too bothered by the small strands of this lesser energy, the flaming barrier she had could easily block such an attack.

Yet, their expressions were far from being relaxed. By the sudden shift in the situation, they both realized that the fears of these four were true and that the situation was rapidly sailing towards the inevitable catastrophe.

Gritting their teeth, they both turned their gaze over the now shivering quartet. Whilst they were strong and could survive just the emission of force, they weren't as protected as the two girls and were already struggling under its effects.

Eventually, they both seemed to agree and nodded at each other before Lady Pyre waved with her right hand. In the next instant, the small magical cage she had created to trap the enemy had suddenly vanished, and they had released them.

"[Reptilian] If you can still stand, don't waste more time and run! Show us the way!" Madam Dara exclaimed, yelling in their direction.

However, the cackles of the priest in response turned even more violent as a response. His hoarse voice reverberated from all around.

"[Reptilian] Looking for an escape? DREAM ON!"

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>>>Check out my latest novel: The Strongest Demon Lord in the Modern World<<

It's an urban modern-day styled story, with a reverse transmigrated ('Banished') immortal entity from the fantastical world of Nova!

Planned Tags and Genre: # CULTIVATION # R18 # BETRAYAL # TRANSMIGRATION # URBAN # ACTION # ANTIHERO # OVERPOWERED (romance maybe at some later point)

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Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading (although I wholeheartedly thank you if you are reading and enjoying it on Webnovel), you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

Links:

/shaele