"I see you're still as stuck-up as when I first met you," Aliyah chimed in. "Victor, why do you even care about ranks? You do realize if she gets what she wants, we'll have a higher chance of leaving this place once and for all."
Victor turned to her.
"And what makes you think I wish to leave?"
At his words, Aliyah fell silent, understanding what he meant.
But she wasn't the only one who understood.
'He's drunk on the feeling of being above others. If he returns to reality as a fresh awakened, he would just be an ordinary exorcist, nothing more,' Julian thought, tapping the hilt of his saber in preparation.
The tension grew, and once again, Diana cut through it.
"I'm willing to pardon this transgression if you exile yourself. Furthermore, I want you to take the captains along with you."
"I refuse." Victor entered a combat stance. "Now, Princess Diana, if you do not wish for a painful death, close your eyes."
"..."
"Alright, that's enough bullshit, I'd say," Aliyah grumbled. "Can we just do the thing already, Diana?"
After a brief pause, Diana nodded.
"You may."
At her words, Aliyah suddenly raised her hand. On her wrist was a strange crescent moon pattern, almost like a tattoo. Yet when she focused her mind on it, the pattern lit up in a bright white light.
And that was when time slowed down for Julian.
From the pattern, ten small streaks of white light flew out. They were aimed at the strongest captains, the general, and even Julian himself.
It seemed like the plan they came up with was simple: kill the strongest people in one go, and then finish off the rest.
But even so, Julian turned his head just in time, evading the streak of white light. A tiny flash tore through his armor, and a slight graze appeared on his cheek, which, for some reason, hurt more than he expected.
Yet when the blood began to drip, he realized that the wound wasn't healing. Even as he focused the miasma, he came up empty.
Slightly startled, Julian maintained his composure and glanced ahead. However, by then, only a single person remained standing, that person being none other than General Victor.
But just like Julian, he hadn't come out unscathed. There was a hole in his left shoulder, which didn't stop bleeding.
"Hmm... a few escaped," Diana said. "Five captains? Aliyah?"
Aliyah nodded and slammed her foot onto the ground. Shards of ice emerged and then flew toward the cowardly captains, piercing clean through their backs and killing them in an instant.
"Good job..." Diana muttered with a smile. However, when she glanced behind her, she realized that Julian was still alive.
Her eyes widened, and before he could explain himself, a pitch-black bow appeared in her grasp, as well as a regular arrow, which she nocked and fired.
As the arrow approached him, Julian recognized the design of the arrowhead. It was the same as last night.
'So my guess that someone shot it from far away was right,' Julian sighed. 'But to think this princess could be such a fearsome assassin.'
Deciding to stop playing games, Julian finally moved. He caught the arrow, broke it in two, and then arrived before Diana.
She tried to fire off another arrow, but it was too late, as Julian had already yanked the bow away from her and grabbed her by the collar. Since he was quite a fair deal taller than her, he held her in the air as though she were a dog.
"W-What is the meaning of this?" Diana stammered. "Aliyah! Get this brute off me!"
"He'll kill you if I move," Aliyah replied carefully. "Sit still... I believe he has some other goals that might be different from Victor's."
'Wow. Not revealing my identity is almost too fun,' Julian thought, holding back a laugh.
But even then, while he held the princess, Victor's gaze was locked onto her as well.
Aliyah readied her frost to kill him, but that was when Victor vanished from sight.
He was incredibly fast, so much so that even with his slowed-down time, Julian only had a split second to react.
And with that split second, he nimbly evaded Victor's strike and backheeled him straight in the chin, sending him flying off the podium and right into the pile of corpses from before.
Julian was about to follow up, but instead, he glanced around.
'There were plenty of nobles before... and I did a headcount for the captains all the way from the streets to the outer gate. There were nearly 240 captains. Then why are there only 80 captain corpses?'
The moment he had that thought, he spotted a glow in the distance. It was coming from atop one of the mountains, and when he narrowed his eyes at that glow, a massive frown appeared on his face.
There were nearly 1,000 archers lined up, their bows already drawn. Among them, at least a hundred were the Saharan Empire's captains.
But that was not why he frowned. Among them, he saw three generals, and lastly, a lean man atop a horse. He had a loose-fitted robe and a perfectly polished katana. He wore a straw hat, and for a moment, their eyes locked.
A shiver ran down Julian's spine. He was afraid of that man, or rather, no matter how he looked at it, Julian felt like there was no way he could win against him.
Even while lazily sitting on his horse with his legs crossed, there wasn't a single weak point.
His strength was unlike anything Julian had seen before, and this man gave him the same oppressive feeling as Adam when he first met him.
But now... Julian was sure that the straw-hat man was much more powerful than Adam.
That hint of fear, however, grew even more when the man tipped his straw hat at Julian and raised his katana.
Then, without warning, whistling resounded from the distant mountain as thousands of arrows flew straight toward Julian and the others.