"Sara, by doing this, you will incur the wrath of the gods. They will make you suffer a fate worse than death!" Windsor shouted, her body trembling with resistance as Sara approached.
"John, you ant! Unless you kill me, you won't take my Authority! Get away from me!"
"Calm down. There's nothing you can do now. Live your life well; your sister is earning it for you," John said with a smirk, watching as Sara cut the mutated plants binding Windsor and gently held her in her arms.
"I'm sorry, sister. This is all my fault. If it weren't for my insistence on getting the Godslayer Bow, you could have killed them a month ago. But luckily, I still have a chance to make things right. So please, live well and stay out of these conflicts, okay?"
"Sara, you can't do this! How dare you! I'm your sister. You should listen to me, Sara!"
"I'm sorry, sister. This might hurt a little, but it will be over soon."
With her eyes closed and tears streaming down her face, Sara plunged the dagger into Windsor's chest, feeling the blood flow over her palm.
After a long internal struggle, she finally made up her mind.
Her right fist punched through Windsor's body, tearing out her Authority.
The excruciating pain caused Windsor to faint instantly.
Once it was done, Sara, looking deflated and exhausted, stumbled and held Windsor in her arms.
She handed the Authority to John, pleading, "Now my sister is just an ordinary person, posing no threat to you. Please, can you heal her? If we don't act quickly, she will die."
"Happy to oblige," John said, showing little emotion towards the touching scene of sisterly love.
After all, they were on opposing sides.
From the moment they arrived in this world, this outcome was inevitable.
If John had been the one to lose today, Windsor wouldn't have shown any mercy towards him or his companions.
The law of the jungle—survival of the fittest.
John handed a high-grade HP potion to Sara and said, "Once she's healed, I will send her to Deep Forest to be imprisoned. She will remain in the cell until you help us eliminate the other Divine Emissaries."
"That's fine. At least she won't be harmed any further," Sara sighed, gently caressing Windsor's face as if trying to etch her sister's visage into her memory.
They embraced for a long time until Windsor began to show signs of waking. Reluctantly, Sara stood up and said, "I'm ready."
After signing a soul contract with Sara, John felt a sense of relief.
With the soul contract in place, he didn't worry about Sara betraying them.
He then asked Elaria to take Sara into the city while he carried Windsor and used a teleportation scroll to go to Deep Forest.
John quickly found Elowen and explained the situation.
He requested a significant number of guards to keep a close watch on Windsor, ensuring she wouldn't be harmed or allowed to escape or commit suicide.
John also learned their current location, which was in the Snow Mountain Mansion.
Additionally, Sara disclosed their methods and trump cards without any reservations.
To verify, John consulted Seraphina, who confirmed Sara's information was accurate, which put John's doubts to rest.
However, it was still too early to launch a counterattack. Their strength needed further improvement.
Therefore, they stayed in Spartonia for nearly two months. During this time, Qing started from scratch and completed Spartonia's main quest line again.
Unfortunately, the first-clear reward was quite disappointing, consisting of only a Legendary-quality armor, which Qing stored away in his warehouse.
During this period, Seraphina also successfully transformed Elaria into a player.
The newly reformed body was identical to her original one, allowing Elaria to finally see the world through John's eyes.
To John's surprise, Elaria's class was a unique Nature Priest, and after becoming a player, her level increased significantly.
John spent considerable effort to help Elaria acquire a batch of Legendary equipment and gave her Miles' ring.
Consequently, her combat power exceeded 15,000 points, ranking her third on the power leaderboard, just behind Qing.
During this period, John also sent the dragon egg to the underground magma in Talcavano, where it finally hatched.
The dragonling, resembling Nidhogg with its black and red scales, although still in its juvenile stage, demonstrated impressive combat abilities, easily suppressing monsters around level 30.
Finally, the long-anticipated third major event began.
According to their plan, John, Elaria, and Lily joined the Everglow faction, taking old Mac to Everglow to reunite with his daughter.
Meanwhile, Qing, Helena, and Exiled Immortal naturally joined the Spartonia faction, officially participating in the national war event.
As John predicted, the methods to earn military merit were more focused on tasks like healing the wounded, which provided significantly more points than simply killing enemies.
Other activities such as gathering supplies and organizing military equipment also contributed to earning military merit.
John found various ways to help himself and Qing's team accumulate points.
During this time, John also sparred with Qing.
Thanks to his continuous consumption of monster materials, John's strength had grown to be on par with Qing's.
In a direct physical confrontation, he was nearly equal to Qing, except for lacking the same level of combat experience.
Because of this, John gained considerable prestige within the Everglow faction and was appointed as a general by Everglow's queen, directly opposing Qing, who served the Spartonia faction.
Elaria and Lily, due to their exceptional healing abilities, formed a dedicated healing team, rapidly accumulating military merit.
Everything seemed to be progressing in a favorable direction.