Azaroth's presence and his first attack had startled all these elders. From Azaroth's facial appearance, they could easily guess his age.
Such strength at his age was quite shocking. His first attack had just killed one of them, after all.
The elders and the disciples of the Night Mountain Sect and the Black Lake Sect who had turned traitors were also quite shocked.
They weren't told to expect the presence of someone like Azaroth.
One of the disciples recognized Azaroth and spoke out, "You…Aren't you the leader of the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect?! Wasn't your sect assigned to a different position? Why are you here?!"
Another one added, "For you to have abandoned your position and appear here, are you begging to be punished by the sect mistress?!"
That question made Azaroth smile in response, and he turned towards that man, "You have a lot of courage to talk about the sect mistress when you have clearly betrayed her."
Azaroth genuinely appeared impressed at the audacity and shamelessness of this man. His words were enough to turn the entire group speechless.
He then focused on Christina and the large group of elders from the Night Mountain Sect. Azaroth then spoke to them, "You have two choices. Either we can fight, and that conclusion of our fight would determine Christina's fate."
"You should have gauged my power by now. I won't go down easily, and if you all still want to fight me, I won't go down alone," Azaroth spoke confidently.
"While we fight, Christina's mother would draw closer. That would mean the death of every single one of you," Azaroth spoke.
Those words truly made those elders hesitate. Internally, they were quite worried about this possibility!
Azaroth naturally didn't miss their reactions and continued calmly, "You all received a mission to capture Christina if she fell into your trap. You all can still save your skin by responding that Christina knew about your trap and prepared some treasures to escape."
"You just need to make sure that your superiors only know of the story that you tell them. I am sure you understand what I mean," Azaroth spoke with a devilish smirk.
Those words made the Night Mountain Sect's elders turn towards each other. They were checking out the reactions of their fellow comrades and then decided.
Around this moment, Azaroth focused his gaze on Christina. A thin sphere of pure Absolute Ice formed around Christina.
By the time the elders around her understood what was going on, the Ice Sphere had already formed around Christina.
These guys could no longer touch Christina. One of the Night Mountain Sect's elders tried, and he had his entire arm frozen.
The other elders then looked towards Azaroth, and two of them felt it was a good opportunity to attack Azaroth.
Their decision to attack Azaroth was actually quite sound. However, that would be true if there was a random warrior instead of Azaroth.
A random warrior would require a lot of concentration and extremely high Ardor reserves. This was because Christina was quite far away from Azaroth.
And for Azaroth to create such a protective sphere around Christina, he must be concentrating greatly and utilizing a lot of Ardor. He was basically some sort of a caster.
Moreover, these warriors knew that the best method to deal with a caster was to engage in close-combat battle with them. Thus, they immediately tried to close the distance between them.
However, this was where they lost their right to live. Azaroth didn't even pull out a weapon for them.
Azaroth released a cold Icy Aura and froze the two elders while they were on the way to attack him.
The other elders of the Night Mountain Sect now realized that there was no point fighting against Azaroth.
They had just seen their two comrades, who were almost equal to them in strength, freeze to death upon exposure to Azaroth's aura.
Only those with Flame Ardor had some chances of dealing with Azaroth or fighting an equal battle. Only a single one of these elders possessed Flame Ardor.
However, this man was sweating as he continued to stare at Azaroth. This man was aware of his limits amidst the high praises about him in the Royal Court.
He knew that Azaroth could toy around with him. In fact, his flames couldn't change the situation in the slightest.
"…Very well. We agree to your request. We are willing to return and let this girl go because we suddenly pity this girl for her cruel fate," The elder spoke with a prideful tone.
Azaroth knew that this man was just trying to show that he was in control of the negotiations and diplomacy.
These small details didn't bother Azaroth that much.
Christina flew towards Azaroth before the two changed their directions and began to fly in that direction.
If they continued to fly in that direction, they would soon meet with Erica. And this was exactly what occurred.
Meanwhile, the Night Mountain Sect's elders concocted their own story that they would narrate to their superiors.
The deaths of these three elders would be blamed on Erica. They reported to their base that Christina possessed a life-saving treasure that she used to summon Erica.
When Erica appeared, all these elders began to flee as fast as possible. Some elders weren't so lucky and were captured by her. They were later tortured and killed by her.
If Erica was asked, she would naturally deny. But she couldn't prove her innocence regarding this matter.
She had already left her tent. This meant she was on the way to saving her daughter.
The small lie in this entire event was that Erica didn't come on time, and her daughter was actually saved by a mysterious individual named Azaroth.
These elders couldn't report about Azaroth's presence because that would reveal their cowardice.
All the other elders in the courtroom would humiliate them when they find this out. As a result, this knowledge would never be exposed.
However, all these elders had also decided to focus on the Sacred Ice Aurora Valley Sect. They knew they had to be very serious in dealing with this man and his sect, or they would suffer tremendous losses.
Meanwhile, Azaroth and Christina met up with Erica.
Azaroth removed that Icy Sphere around Christina. Erica immediately latched onto her daughter and hugged her tightly.
Christina returned that hug as she held her mother tightly. Her arms were trembling as she began to weep at this moment.
Christina had been trying to stay composed in front of Azaroth. But now that she was in her mother's arms, her emotions could no longer stay stable.
She began to speak while sobbing, "…T-They a-all died. M-mother. T-Traitors. T-They killed them all."
Erica began to pat her daughter's head. She stared at Azaroth, who stood a little farther away with a composed look on his face.
He soon walked away without even talking to Erica. Erica had her hands full as she handled her daughter.
However, Erica made a mental note to talk to Azaroth regarding the situation. She didn't understand why he was here and why he assisted Christina.
Was it because Christina was Tiana's friend, or did he have a deeper motive in mind?