Round Two Ends; Round Three, an Even Fiercer and More Spectacular Clash Among the Gods, Begins at Once! (Continued)

After quickly settling on a plan, the goblin broke into a warm smile.

Goblin: "Your Highness, Prince! And Lady Hela of the Imperial Guards! Welcome!"

Prince Rhine wore a smile as well. He politely asked, "Are you the leader of the Golden Land?"

The goblin replied courteously, "This may come as a surprise, but yes, Your Highness. I am indeed one of the leaders of the Golden Land."

The prince smiled and nodded. Then his voice suddenly turned icy. "Hela, kill him!"

Goblin: "????"

"As you command, Your Highness."

Hela didn't hesitate for a moment at Rhine's order. She sprang into action!

Black iron armor seemed to appear over Hela as if she'd been prepared for this all along.

A sharp, grotesque iron hand reached straight for the goblin's head.

White Vulture, standing nearby, was stunned!

What was going on?! What kind of grudge did they have?!

She couldn't imagine that Rhine and his people would try to kill someone the moment they met!

But thanks to her terrifying demigod reflexes,

White Vulture still moved at once, summoning her weapon and charging at Hela.

If all had gone well...

White Vulture, who was closer to the goblin, should have been able to stop Hela's attack in time.

But!

Three demigod puppets suddenly appeared from a spatial rift and cast a spell they'd already finished chanting, freezing White Vulture in place!

White Vulture's movements stopped instantly.

All she could do was watch as Hela, clad in iron armor, closed in on the goblin in an instant, and then, amid the goblin's piglike screams and pleas—smack!!

In the blink of an eye, it was all over.

The goblin's head

was crushed in Hela's iron grip, spraying blood everywhere!!

The entire room fell silent.

White Vulture was stunned.

The other employees of the Golden Land were even more shocked, unable to make sense of what they were seeing.

"Is this what you all mean?"

Rhine looked around and asked angrily, "You're telling me that the leader of the dwarves' Golden Dwarf ruins, the highest holy site of the Dwarf Dynasties—is a goblin?!"

Rhine's smile turned exceedingly kind.

"If you make another stupid joke like that, I swear I'll have the Sanctuary mark this dump as Red Alert. Then you can wait for Histia to bomb it until it's wiped from the face of the world."

The dwarves and goblins trembled, not daring to breathe too loudly.

Rhine snapped, "Now, go fetch your real leader and bring them to meet me!!"

The goblins and dwarves were on the verge of tears.

Boss... the one you just killed was the person in charge here!!

We're serious!!!

9. Hela Sleeping in the Next Room

After the goblin CEO's head burst like a watermelon, the entire scene fell into deathly silence.

The others wiped the bloody gore from their faces with trembling hands.

No one...

No one could have imagined

that the prince of the Hain Empire, Rhine Hyun, would be so insane as to crush the leader of the Golden Land's head the very first time they met!!

What was wrong with the prince's brain?!

Looking at the body on the ground, the dwarves and goblins were secretly horrified and terrified.

But of course, for all their fear, not one of them felt any sorrow over the goblin CEO's death.

The Hain prince had certainly killed the Golden Land's highest-ranking official by mistake,

but in awe of the Hain Empire's great power,

everyone simply lowered their heads and nodded submissively. No one dared criticize the domineering, cold-blooded prince.

That raised the question...

The prince had asked them.

Who, exactly, was the Golden Land's highest-ranking official?

In the stifling silence, a few goblins' eyes suddenly lit up!

Because they saw an opportunity!!

With the leader dead, any of the senior officials just below him could seize the moment and solve the problem. Whoever did would become the Golden Land's new Ruler!

And they'd have the Hain prince's backing!

In the end,

tempted by power,

a potbellied goblin wearing a top hat, a suit, and a monocle stepped forward to face Rhine.

He came up with the perfect words on the spot and said,

"Your Highness Rhine, what you don't know is that the Golden Land's chief administrator..."

"Hela."

Smack!!

Another goblin's head burst open in a grisly explosion!

"Are you still trying to fool me with goblins?"

Rhine's face darkened. He gritted his teeth in fury. "I'm telling you, my patience is limited!!"

The entire room fell into deathly silence once more.

A faint trickling sound drifted through the still air.

Someone had apparently been so scared they'd wet themselves...

The goblins were on the verge of a breakdown.

Was this prince completely out of his mind?!

He'd killed another senior official!!!

Now the goblins finally understood what was going on!

No matter what excuse they gave, if the next Golden Land leader to stand before the prince was still a goblin,

then

that goblin was as good as dead!!

They were doomed!

The goblins were on the verge of tears!

To keep the Dwarf Kings from holding power, the goblins had spent centuries purging the Golden Land's senior officials again and again.

Every person in charge had been replaced with a goblin. The dwarves were left with nothing but manual labor; they couldn't even become foremen.

In this situation,

finding a dwarf in the Golden Land who held power was simply impossible!

So what were they supposed to do?

Were they going to let this madman keep killing them one by one?!

The despairing goblins turned pleading eyes toward White Vulture.

She was the only one there capable of turning the situation around—the demigod with pointed ears and dragonlike eyes!

Though she was a wild demigod mercenary, White Vulture was actually a terrifyingly powerful fighter, far stronger than her peers.

Thanks to the Azalea Secret Ritual left behind by their ancestors, the members of the Demon Sword Sisterhood possessed the most mixed bloodlines in the mortal world. Their demigods also gathered more divine aspects than any others in the mortal world.

That was completely different from the demigods of nations, who had a nation behind them, pure bloodlines, and only a single, untainted divine aspect.

The demigods of the Demon Sword Sisterhood followed an entirely different path.

A path completely unfamiliar and incomprehensible to demigods within the national system.

The ultimate bloodline stew!

By all logic,

White Vulture should have been able to take on Hain's Imperial Guards!

What's more,

White Vulture wasn't the only demigod in the entire Demon Sword Sisterhood!!

And yet, at this crucial moment, White Vulture was out of commission,

because she was just as bewildered as everyone else.

Or rather, she had no idea what to do.

Her employer had been killed.

So should she keep working for the Golden Land or not?

Technically, her contract with the Golden Land was still in effect. If she kept working for them, she'd still get every coin she was owed.

But the problem was,

who would dare offend Rhine Hyun right now?!

Although the reason Prince Rhine had killed them sounded like a joke,

his threat was no joke at all!

White Vulture didn't really understand how the Hain Empire operated, but there was one thing she knew for certain!

If Prince Rhine really used his privileges to raise the Golden Land's threat level to Red Alert,

then... Histia, the strongest demigod who traveled all over the mortal world dealing with extreme threats and maintaining its basic order, would really come and turn the Golden Land into a giant slab of gilded glass!

The Hain Empire

was, after all, the most powerful empire on this land!

Was White Vulture really prepared to challenge them?

And besides, now that she thought about it...

White Vulture watched Prince Rhine nervously. Without realizing it, she took in his face and those beautiful eyes of his...

White Vulture blushed.

Ah...

Come to think of it, wasn't Prince Rhine the older brother of that Italien?

Then his blood must be exceptionally pure and precious.

And the prince's face was more appetizing than anything she'd ever seen.