Chapter 498: Overestimation
Scarlet blood sprayed everywhere as Melody screamed in pain, knelt on the ground with a thud, and soon looked at her chest in horror!
In the meantime, Victor pulled the ice sword from her chest and kicked her with full force.
The wounded Melody flew in the opposite direction and soon crashed onto a tall tree trunk the next instant.
She then coughed up a mouthful of blood and showed a forced smile on her face.
Still, she tried her best, stood up with staggering footsteps, and stared at Victor deadly.
"I won't die that easily." She said coldly and took out a strange reddish fruit from her pocket.
'Oh? Still not dead yet?' Victor furrowed his brows, once again flapped his icy wings, and shot towards her like a bullet.
After flapping his wings once, he landed on Melody's chest, moved his icy sword, and swiftly decapitated her head!
The next instant, Melody's head flew up in the air while spraying scarlet blood everywhere and soon landed near a bush.
"It seems that you can't defeat me at all!" Victor grinned at her head as she stared in horror.
On the other hand, her headless body danced in the air and soon fell backward pathetically while dropping the strange reddish fruit under Victor's feet.
"Well, that ended quickly." He nodded inwardly and was about to retract his gaze from the horrified Melody's face but suddenly froze.
He saw that her face started to twist and soon showed a smile at that moment.
No, it looked more like a wicked grin!
The next instant, the head started to turn greener and soon appeared more like a bunch of green vines with one rose on the forehead area!
At the same time, Melody's body also turned into greenish vines and soon dispersed like slithering snakes!
Before he could even blink, the reddish fruit that remained under his feet exploded all of a sudden and released yellowish spores in the air!
The spores instantly entered Victor's nasals and started affecting him.
Dizziness appeared as he backed away in shock and racked his brain to understand the current situation.
'What the hell happened? Was I under the illusion the whole time? That woman's skill even fooled my mask's ability?' A grim look appeared on his face.
At that moment, his vision turned blurry as he soon arrived beside a tree trunk and leaned his back on it.
'Damn it! I can't even balance my body. She tricked me!' He cursed himself for being overconfident and soon felt a sharp pain from his abdomen!
At that moment, the wooden trunk suddenly started to distort and formed into an appearance of a young woman with big breasts!
Currently, Melody held a dagger in her hand and gripped the dagger's hilt that was plunged into his abdomen!
All this time, he was leaning against her!
But the reason how she managed to fool him was not due to the earlier illusion spell, though.
It was all because of her [Mask of Trickery] skill.
It manipulated the enemy's thoughts and made him completely believe that Melody had died by his attack earlier.
Because of that, Victor let down his guard and got ambushed by her.
"You indeed have many artifacts and also seem to have abundant experience in battle, Mister," Melody whispered in his ears, removed the dagger from his abdomen, and pushed a strange seed into the stabbed area.
The next instant, Victor felt that his whole body got paralyzed in a second and went pale.
"But your physical body is too weak. If we have given you enough time, you might have one day grown powerful enough even to kill our Majesty. Unfortunately, your dream ends here." Saying so, Melody stabbed the dagger into his neck and finished him off instantly.
Although Victor tried his best to activate his amulet, he was still a bit too late.
He struggled wildly for the next few seconds and soon went motionless.
The person who traveled back in time to change the future didn't even get enough time to save himself from the enemies and died at the hands of an underling!
Melody first removed all the artifacts and even took the strange mask and bowler hat from him and stored them inside her space ring.
Then, she dismissed her nature domain and reappeared on the dirt road.
At that moment, Irzoch lay a few meters away from her and soon widened her eyes as she saw Victor's body.
"H-How did you kill him?" She couldn't help but ask.
On the other hand, Melody showed a mysterious smile, walked towards Irzoch, and soon squatted down while grabbing her arms with both hands.
Then, she activated the fixed teleportation ring, and both disappeared from there!
...
Underground Hall, Museum Building, the Holy See.
The metallic door lock made a clanging noise as Charles finally unlocked the door and breathed out a sigh of relief.
He then moved his hand towards the doorknob, pulled it with full force, and opened it.
A moment later, 8x10 feet room appeared in front of his eyes.
It was a small room with only a few rusty armors, one wooden chest, a black metallic cube, and a dagger. The cube was the same material as the door. The armors were all different sizes and shapes and equipped with armoring tools, while the dagger appeared to be made of mithril and had some unique markings.
It appeared more like a name.
Thanks to his [Eyes of the Runes] skill, he managed to decipher the markings and noticed it was written in Devil's Tongue.
"Ananku!"
'Isn't she the Ruler of Third Hell? Why is her name written on this dagger? What's her relationship with Mother Goddess?' He frowned.
At that moment, he also examined the dagger and soon furrowed as he only saw question marks on the blue screen.
'Is it safe to take this?'
After pondering for a moment, Charles let out a deep sigh and stored it inside his space ring.
Then, he went towards the wooden chest and picked it up with both hands.
Then, he hurriedly opened the chest and soon saw a fist-sized azure bluish crystal inside. It had countless runal-like letters inscribed on it at a minute level and appeared mysterious.
As Charles examined the crystal more deeply, a row of information appeared in front of his eyes the next moment.
'Portal Stone?' As he read the description, he more or less understood how one could leave this plane without any difficulty.
In truth, this portal stone was a long-distance teleportation stone only used by Lawful Faction members. As long as one activates this stone, they would be teleported to a nearby Space Hub through the Lawful Faction's Hyperspace Web.
'Is it similar to the wormhole I traveled back earlier?'
It was a planar transportation method that was solely under the control of Lawful Faction!
'But to get access to this transportation method, one needs to be a member of a lawful faction and also must have registered I.D and passcode.'
Thankfully, Charles had Runeth's I.D and passcode!
'This is unexpected.' He casually picked up the Portal Stone and stored it inside his space ring. Then, he also stored the armors and finally shifted his attention towards the metallic cube.
'How should I carry this?' He knew that placing this cube inside his space ring would be almost impossible.
So, he took the cubic metal with both hands and walked out of the enclosed room.
Following that, he waved his hand, created a portal connected to his pocket dimension, and tossed it inside.
After that, he enveloped his body in a crimson flame and disappeared from there.
A second later, Charles reappeared at the Museum's entrance and soon frowned as he sensed a piercing gaze from the sky.
At that moment, the invisible layer that covered the Holy See was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a 70-years-old man hovered more than 100 meters above his head and was staring at him with a deadly gaze. He currently held the same golden crozier in one hand and a decapitated human's head in the other!
"Leave the thing that you took from the sacred room and surrender yourself, Young Man. I may give you a painful death.." An icy voice echoed in Charles's ears.