Chapter 182 CH 161: JUDGEMENT

[Phoenix's territory, Desert zone]

"So, you are saying that you simply wanted to steal money from us because we appeared to be rich and you had no intention of harming us?"

Crouching down to face a lion-headed man that was bleeding, Sol asked calmly.

The man nodded hurriedly while doing his best to keep his mouth shut and not show his teeth.

Inwardly, he couldn't help but curse his friend whose dead and mangled body could be seen from the corner of his eyes.

At first, everything went swimmingly well.

By pretending to be peddlers who needed help because of their broken caravans, they had managed to bring their two unsuspecting victims outside of the city.

It hadn't been the first time they did something like this and the next step would have been to abduct their helpless targets.

As for the target being stronger than them? He had never entertained that notion.

He was already near the peak of the Count rank. Even though he had no way of entering the Duke rank, thanks to his innate strength, he always liked to brag that he was the strongest below Duke.

People at the Duke rank could already form their own organizations and most of them were related to Phoenixes. There was no way those two targets could pose problems to his teams.

How wrong has he been?

It had been a total massacre.

The moment they turned hostile, they were helpless to learn that the role of hunter had never been theirs.

Now, he was the sole survivor of his team and all he could do was beg and hope that they would spare him.

Ignoring the trembling man, Sol, whose cloak was still spotless, decided to get the opinion of his companion.

"Sheherazade, what do you think?"

Sol did not believe him at all. It would have been so much easier if he could access his dimension, but Gabriel had refused his demand and, after learning the reason, he couldn't blame her.

From her own words, allowing him to use his dimension in her territory was like opening all the doors of a castle and breaking all the walls.

"... Sheherazade ? I am speaking to you."

"Oh! You mean me? Sorry, sorry! I was just a little distracted."

Sol gave her an incredulous look before shaking his head.

'At least if you want to use a fake name, try to remember it...'

Sighing, he asked once again, "What do you think?"

p "Hum... he's from the Asad race. From what I know, those guys are ferocious and always advance in a band. Stragglers would also swear their loyalty to someone they judge worthy."

‘Sheherazade’ leaned down and looked at the eyes of the Asad man before nodding,

"No doubt, he is lying."

"What makes you so sure?"

Sol also believed they were lying, but he had no evidence to back him up.

"The eyes are the windows of the soul and souls don’t lie."

She mumbled before nodding,

"Shall we kill him?"

Sol was a little startled at this question thrown in perfect innocence.

He then let out a rueful smile when he remembered that just because she looked and acted like a cute innocent young girl didn't mean she didn't hide a deep ruthlessness.

In fact, he was more surprised at his own actions.

He had never really been the bloodthirsty type. But it seemed that since coming here, he was restraining himself less and less.

What Sol misunderstood though was that Isis wasn't particularly ruthless. In fact, she had never killed anyone in her life.

It was just that she had been surrounded by death for all her life and put a very low emphasis on life.

Death was nothing more than another state in the cycle of rebirth.

Closing his eyes in thoughts, he asked,Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.com

"Do you have some kind of interrogation skills that would allow you to understand what is happening?"

Isis, or as Sol knew her, Sheherazade, shuffled her feet a little before nodding.

"I do have such a skill."

He could see that she seemed uncomfortable at the mention of the skill,

"I can step away if you wish."

Sol did not miss the way the tension left her shoulders. Taking his cue, he turned around and began to walk away, only stopping when he was about 200 meters away.

----

"Remind me to never piss you off."

‘Sheherazade’ seemed startled before letting out a smiling,

"Hmph! Now you finally understand my greatness."

"Of course, of course. So, what kind of information did you get?"

The smile on ‘Sheherazade's’ face became cold as she covered her face with her veil.

"We need to move fast."

----

The glaring suns were shining brightly on the endless desert. The yellow sand was heated to a temperature unbearable for the human body.

A group of twenty was trudging through the desert.

Fifteen of them were clad in torn and tattered gray robes. Their robes had not been cleaned for goddesses knew how long; They were drenched in sweat, releasing a disgusting stench, and their clothes were stuck to their wet bodies. Their lips were cracking, and their eyes draped down.

Their fatigue was evident from the look on their faces. They were moving shakily, it was as though they were going to collapse at any moment. The horses that they brought along also looked sick and skinny.

Leading them was a man with the head of an ox, a Taurus, as well as four others of the same race protecting the group from the side.

As befitting of their race, the five of them were hulking men of nearly 2 meters with bulging muscles.

Despite the heat brought by the suns, they walked steadily with their torso naked without any problems.

"Advance faster! Those who cause the caravan to slow down will be punished."

His imposing voice made the fifteen people clad in rags shiver as they forced their tired bodies to advance.

"Leader, where do you think Aslong and the other three are? We were supposed to meet at the supply point after the main city."

One of the Taurus, holding a large axe in his muscular hands asked. Clearly, he wasn't particularly interested in the topic but simply asked out of boredom.

The leader scratched his dark red horns before grunting,

"That bastard Aslong is a greedy asshole. Most likely he found some sucker that could be used as a Vira production supply or something of the like."

"Oh!!"

"The boss is so smart!"

The grunts immediately began to suck up to him by showering him in praises.

Puffing hot air from his large nose, their red-horned Taurus accepted the praise with a smug expression.

"Anyway, the matriarch will give us the best reward. We always find the highest number of products."

At the mention of the matriarch, the five of them showed an expression of total devotion.

The matriarch was a beautiful and powerful woman from the spirit race.

Even though she looked more like a human, the Taurus saw no problem in this. To begin with, they were a lustful race and could find beauty in any female, no matter what the race was.

"Yes! I am sure that the boss will catch the eyes of the matriarch."

The others were about to follow another round of praise when they felt all the hair of their bodies stand.

Raising their heads, they could see a shadow in the sky falling in their direction at an incredibly high speed.

BOOM!!

The moment that unidentified objects fell in front of them, a huge explosion followed.

"*Cough* *Cough* Bastard! Is this how you treat a lady!?"

"You should first act like a lady if you wish to be treated like one."

When the dust and the sand dissipated, the Taurus were greeted to the sight of two people cloaked from head to toe. One in white and the other, obviously a woman, in black.

Even though the two of them seemed so frail and small compared to their hulking bodies, none of the Taurus dared to move.

In fact, even if they wished, they were unable to do so with how much their bodies were shivering.

When the two cloaked people stopped bickering, the one in white asked,

"So, are they the ones?"

"Indeed, I can recognize them from the memory of that Asad."

The Taurus immediately understood what was happening.

Immediately kneeling, the leader pleaded,

"Please! Esteemed sirs! Do not dirty your hands by dealing with us, we are just workers. We do not make the decisions."

The silence that befell the zone was so heavy that it was difficult to breathe. Be it the Tauruses or the refugees, none of them dared to make the slightest sound.

Finally,

"Very well."

Raising his head in joy, the leader of the Taurus was about to thank them for sparing them, but his joy was short-lived.

"Let's kill the other four first. We only need one of them anyway."

(AN: The first part of this little arc is close to an end. Nothing better than some killing to make people grow closer. Lol. Also, I made a mistake in the last chapter. The currency isn’t Vira, but Vira. It took me more than a month and the reminding of a friend to realize that mistake.)