Little Brotherhood of Faith

Laplace, the Formal Knight beside Manuel Boar, rode around the Man-Eating Flower garden and shook his head. "As long as that witch is still casting, we can't get near the inn."

"Manuel, I think we should retreat for now and notify the commander, the Great Boar Knight, when we return."

Manuel Boar's face flushed the color of pig liver. "We're only one step away."

"Laplace, you coward."

"That witch is already at the end of her rope. Can't you see that?"

"She's desperately keeping us from going upstairs and forcing a direct confrontation. That means if we can get upstairs, we'll definitely find her weakness."

Laplace decisively rejected the idea.

"That spell... as long as she's still using that spell... we can't get close."

"You'd better face reality."

Suddenly, the situation changed in an instant.

The Hunchback Old Man, the inn's waiter, receptionist, and groom, who had been cowering in a corner as though terrified, suddenly stood up.

A sharp knife emerged from his hunched back. It sliced open the old man's hump, and a short young man actually crawled out from inside it.

He wore light leather armor and held nothing but a strangely shaped dagger.

The old man himself had already collapsed to the ground.

The tavern owner—Blackhearted Leili—was heartbroken over the death of his loyal old servant. He crawled over to help him up, only to touch the hollowed-out cavity where his organs had been removed.

This old man had been dead for a long time!

That assassin had been controlling the old man's corpse all along!

Blackhearted Leili immediately thought of that infamous assassin organization—the Little Brotherhood of Faith!

This was the group's renowned Corpse Concealment Art, an extremely terrifying assassination technique.

It was disgusting indeed, but impossible to guard against.

But who was he here to assassinate?

The assassin struck the Old Witch's headless body, which was in the middle of casting a spell, with lightning speed. Her casting gesture was interrupted, and the surrounding Man-Eating Flowers seemed to lose their commander. Their heads drooped, falling into an eerie silence.

Manuel Boar, Laplace, and the other knights and Knight Attendants were all stunned.

No one had expected something like this to happen when the battlefield had reached a stalemate.

Who was that assassin who had suddenly barged in?

Why had he suddenly attacked the witch and interrupted her spell?

Manuel Boar reacted the fastest. He tightened his grip around his horse, making it leap over the dormant Man-Eating Flowers in the lead, then race upstairs past the witch and Black Wolf.

At the same time, the knights who had been blocked outside rushed in as well, clearly intending to charge straight up to the Fourth Floor.

The Old Witch tangled with the assassin and furiously wrote in the air, "Fool, who are you?"

The young assassin replied coldly, "I am merely an insignificant nobody."

"When I saw the Hearthstone Great Witch and the Demon Hunter Black Wolf together with my target,"

"I was indeed startled."

"I never expected that a Fallen Prince, a useless piece of trash whom we drove out of the capital and stripped of all his property, would still be with you."

"As long as you were by his side, how could I possibly succeed in assassinating him?"

"Yet opportunity never disappoints those who are prepared."

"The arrival of the Boar Knight Order was my opportunity."

"This way, I could take Yveta's head back and report to Crown Prince Arthas [Jielong]."

"When the Boar Knight Order charges upstairs to kill the witch's head, they'll surely kill Yveta, who is guarding that head, while they're at it."

"Since that trash is about to die anyway, it doesn't matter if I tell you."

He had misunderstood one thing.

When he saw the Hearthstone Great Witch together with Yveta, he had instinctively assumed that the Hearthstone Great Witch had abducted the Fallen Prince.

He had not expected their relationship to be the other way around.

That was why the assassin believed Yveta was on the Fourth Floor guarding the witch's head.

He had not anticipated that the witch was desperately blocking the Knight Order not for the sake of her own head, but to prevent anyone from interfering with Yveta's ritual.

The Old Witch rapidly wrote in the air with her left hand. "Black Wolf, what are you doing? Hurry up and stop them."

"Hurry!"

The Demon Hunter Black Wolf was entangled with over a dozen Knight Attendants and had no way to get away.

On the rooftop, the Old Witch's head thought, This is bad.

The Old Witch's head jumped down from the windowsill and fixed her gaze on the door instead.

She guessed how long it would take them to reach the Fourth Floor and open this Wooden Door.

The Old Witch looked at Yveta beside her. Yveta had already written the sixth God's Name—Mahakala Shiva.

Mahakala Shiva was the foremost of the Trimurti from the Bharata Religion. His primary divine authority was destruction.

After Mahakala Shiva's God's Name was inscribed, the Tree of Life Spiritual Energy changed from entirely green to dark crimson.

Every branching limb turned the dangerous color of blood.

At the same time, the Tree of Life Spiritual Energy underwent an intense transformation unlike anything before. Every second, it changed into dozens of different shapes.

Drumbeats and indescribable crashing sounds echoed beside Yveta's ears.

This seemed to be the Dance of Destruction of the God of Destruction.

The Old Witch shouted, "Your Grace, quickly drink the Magic Awakening Potion."

"Those fools are almost here."

Yveta gritted his teeth. He felt his eyes growing hotter and hotter, as if the corners of his mouth had been sliced open by a blade. He had even noticed that his mouth had split apart, though he could not tell whether it was merely a hallucination caused by his high fever.

At the same time, his back felt as though it were being ripped apart by ten thousand knives.

What was going to happen?

What is happening to me?

No, I can't die.

His powerful will to survive made him reach for the Magic Awakening Potion on the ground.

Just then, the door opened.

A powerful gust of wind rushed into the room, and in an instant, all six candles around Yveta were blown out.

The Old Witch's mouth fell open.

It's over, it's over.

Yveta had not managed to drink the Magic Awakening Potion!

Manuel Boar had his horse kick open the door. Full of swagger, he swept his gaze across the room and spotted the witch's head, a youngster with his head lowered, and an unfinished ritual.

"Ah-ha, look what I found. Is the witch carrying out another harmful ritual?"

"Just in time for me to catch her."

"Hearthstone Witch, today is the day you die!"

"Without your body, you are no match for me."

"The Church's great knight will kill you, and then I'll become a hero in the ballads of bards."

Manuel Boar immersed himself in his beautiful fantasy.

The moment he saw the witch, he instinctively ignored the second person in the room—Yveta.

In his eyes, that was merely some pitiful person abducted by the Hearthstone Witch, an insignificant nobody.

When two Big Shots clashed, the only fate of such a small fry was to die as collateral damage.

Pitiful, meaningless, and utterly inconspicuous.

The Old Witch's head glared furiously at Manuel Boar. "You self-satisfied fool, what exactly are you so pleased about?"

"Do you know what you just did?"

"Do you know what kind of existence you have angered?"

Manuel Boar sneered. "Are you trying to bluff me? There are only you and that brat in this room. Who else could I offend? Give it up. I've finally caught you at your weakest. Hahaha..."

"You..." The Old Witch suddenly fell silent and looked behind Manuel Boar in horror. "How could... this happen..."

Manuel Boar suddenly felt something rest on his shoulder, filling him with terror and rage.

Because a knight could never turn his back on an enemy!

Once that happened, it was a knight's disgrace—and his crisis.

And when had a third person entered this room? When had that person appeared behind him?

Why had he not noticed the slightest trace of them?