"Heretic!!"
Seeing Li Ye intend to use force, the Crusader whose neck was being gripped let out a hoarse roar. If Li Ye had not pinned down his limbs, he might have already risen up to fight back.
"So you really are Crusaders!" Hearing that familiar term, Li Ye's expression shifted in surprise as he confirmed that these people truly were no good.
Unlike the Crusaders Li Ye remembered, these people seemed to have turned their desire to incinerate the world into a desire to survive. Their own survival had become their highest priority.
But Li Ye knew that the Crusaders' desire to incinerate the world was not merely their own intention. More often, it was madness caused by their warped mental structures.
That shouldn't have been possible. Aside from the main camp that the Lion King had wiped out in one fell swoop, could the scattered Crusaders really have encountered a high-level Magus capable of altering their mental structures?
Li Ye raised a hand and dislocated their limbs, leaving them unable to move. Then he pinched their chins and inspected them one by one.
The others were quiet, no different from Refugees, as if their bodies had reached their limits and they could not move. Only the person in front of Li Ye was unusually active.
"Miss Nitocris! Can you use some kind of suggestion magecraft to make this person obediently tell us everything?"
Li Ye, who had always found interrogations troublesome, turned his head and shouted.
"These people probably don't have much Magic Resistance. Please, Miss Nitocris, make them tell us where they came from."
"!"
The instant Li Ye turned his head, obscure magical energy rippled outward, directly breaking through the domain Nitocris had maintained!
At the same time, sensing something was wrong, Li Ye instinctively pulled back more than ten meters.
The previously quiet Crusaders had visible, obscure magical energy flowing through their bodies. It circulated rapidly within them as their flesh gradually fused and swelled, as though they were about to become one!
What is wrong with these people?
Li Ye could clearly feel the magical fluctuations surging sharply. Within a few breaths, they surpassed ordinary humans and came infinitely close to Servant-level!
Not to mention their bodies, which were gradually liquefying.
That was absolutely not a posture a human should possess!
Are they merging?!
"Miss Nitocris! Can you tell what's happening?" Li Ye could not see through what these people were doing at a deeper level, but he was not facing this alone now, so he decisively called out.
Only the mournful howl of the fierce wind answered him.
Nitocris had vanished from where she stood at some point, without Li Ye noticing even the slightest trace.
Someone made a move! Did Nitocris disappear, or did I disappear?!
Li Ye's expression darkened slightly. He had not sensed when the change had happened at all, and his intuition had not warned him of any danger.
But anyone who could silently separate Nitocris from Li Ye possessed strength that surpassed his in at least one respect!
Faced with an opponent of this level, Li Ye did not dare be careless and shot forward decisively.
He was not stupid enough to wait for these people to finish merging before fighting.
But the moment Li Ye took a step, he was met with a bombardment-like assault!
More than a hundred cold light bullets hidden in the wind and sand attacked from all directions at once, leaving Li Ye with no way to evade!
No threat?
His intuition had failed to activate again. Li Ye immediately realized that these light bullets most likely had no offensive power, which meant they had only one purpose—
Boom!!
A dazzling burst of light bloomed, and the resulting shockwave kicked up sand that filled the sky.
Li Ye forcibly endured the explosion. Before its aftershock could even disperse, he charged onward without a scratch.
But the scene before him had already changed during the mere few breaths that the light bullets had delayed him.
A horrifying monster now stood where the Crusaders had been.
Its thick limbs were planted on the ground, and its torso bulged as though it were incubating something. It looked like a male lion stripped of its skin, with no trace remaining of its former human form.
Crimson blood constantly flowed over the Chimera's body, soaking the yellow sand beneath it.
But Li Ye's attention was not on this monster that appeared to be a Chimera. His rapidly spreading senses encompassed everything within dozens of meters.
It's a Magus! Where is he?
Li Ye could now confirm that at least one Magus was lurking nearby, watching him like a tiger eyeing its prey!
"Grrr—"
A low, heavy exhalation drifted over from afar.
The Chimera's eyes rolled about before locking onto the approaching Li Ye. Its forelimbs slammed down!
Bang!
The explosive force directly sent a vast swath of yellow sand flying, while blazing flames erupted from the ground like spewing lava!
The scorching heat, over a thousand degrees, was enough to devour most living things!
"Was that you?"
Li Ye's sinister whisper sounded beside the Chimera's ear.
Before the Chimera could even turn its eyes, a sudden strike erupted from its flank, seeming intent on smashing straight through its skull!
Boom!
The force of the punch roared endlessly as the Chimera's massive body was hurled a hundred meters away like a cannonball!
Seeing the Chimera get sent flying so easily by a single punch, Li Ye frowned slightly. "Not it?"
Li Ye had assumed that the Chimera bore some special remote-control magecraft left behind by the Magus. The magical fluctuations Li Ye had detected during this time had all seemed to come from the Chimera.
Those hundred-plus light bullets did not seem like something that could be fired instantly. Preparing them in advance without any movement would have been impossible, unless the magical fluctuations triggered during the Chimera's fusion had concealed them.
While activating the Chimera's fusion, the Magus had also used the magical fluctuations to prepare a splendid fireworks display for Li Ye.
"Roar roar!!"
A deafening wave of sound came roaring in, even blowing away the wind and sand around Li Ye!
The Chimera that Li Ye had punched away charged toward him like a leopard, its limbs driving that enormous body forward at a terrifying speed!
It weighs around a ton, and it can cover a hundred meters in four seconds. Those Crusaders' muscles couldn't possibly achieve that. And those flames were Crusader magecraft, right? It can undergo this kind of alteration while retaining its magecraft—
And what is generating enough power to drive that body?
As the Chimera rushed at him, Li Ye calmly assessed its capabilities.
The Chimeric Beast, a Chimera forcibly created from thirteen Crusader members, had reached Servant-level physical capabilities through the quality of its base body alone.
Even if it was third-rate, it was still incredibly powerful.
What Li Ye considered truly masterful was that this Magus had used no auxiliary materials at all, completing the transformation into this forbidden life-form within mere breaths!
That undoubtedly displayed the creator's extraordinary skill!
"You've got some skill, Magus!"
Having finished evaluating the Chimera's strength, Li Ye knew it posed no threat to him. Only the Magus hiding in the shadows could pose a sufficient threat!
Never one to sit and wait for death, Li Ye strode forward to meet the Chimera head-on!
The distance between them was ten meters—less than half a second away!
Surrounded by blazing flames, the Chimera leaped high into the air, seeking to pounce on and kill Li Ye!
"A very wrong decision!"
Li Ye assumed a boxing stance and merely stepped forward.
His fist lashed out, wrapped in Crimson Lightning!
First flesh, then bone, then organs—the strike that landed squarely in its abdominal cavity destroyed the Chimera completely through absolute violence!
At the instant Li Ye and the Chimera made contact and violent magical energy erupted—
An invisible touch silently extended from behind him, about to reach Li Ye's hem, which fluttered ceaselessly in the fierce wind.
And that golden cup.
Smack!
Without even looking back, Li Ye grabbed that invisible touch.
So you wanted to steal my Holy Grail!