She also followed...
"Let her be. I don't believe she can keep up forever."
Vera responded to Hedley, glancing at the Shining following behind them, and let out a frustrated sigh.
Even so, she secretly gave the Beast Herd horde the order to accelerate again.
What she said is true.
Ines's voice rang in Vera's ear, with an affirmative tone.
"I've seen her shadow... that determination was no empty words."
"Besides, the tracks we left behind are too obvious; we probably won't be able to shake her off."
Do I look like I need thugs?
Vera glanced at the crowd behind her and responded irritably.
"I've said too much," Ines said tactfully, and said no more.
"Never mind..." Vera turned her attention back to Hedley, who was leading the way.
How far are we from our goal?
Hedley had long since adapted to this high-speed and bumpy ride, and had even developed a peculiar rapport with the exceptionally powerful and ferocious Berserk Boar beneath him.
He estimated it and replied:
"At this speed, we should be able to arrive before noon, but the enemy is hiding in the stone forest, and their exact location is hard to pinpoint."
"Then we'll talk about it when we get there."
Vera stopped worrying about the tail behind her and focused her attention on the Group Chat.
[Vera: I'm done here. Do you need me to cook?]
[Gorth: No need... (image. jpg)]
In the picture, Ifrit listlessly picks at the roast meat on her plate, but her eyes are fixed on the television screen playing at Ten Percent Off capacity.
[Vera:... Don't let her watch TV all the time, take her to do something else.]
[Gorth: Do people from other worlds also become nearsighted?]
[Gregor: Didn't that doctor wear glasses before?]
[Gorth: Then should I take her to paint?]
[Vera: We can give it a try. Where's the fourth one? Isn't he finished yet?]
[Gregor: Vane]
[Vane: (No time to respond)]
[Gorth: What on earth is he doing...?]
What is Vane doing...? Let's switch perspectives.
Last night, Iberia--
"The time is almost up..."
On the sunless coastline, Vane kicked away the seashells at his feet and aimlessly wandered back the way he came.
He intended to search along the coastline for any signs of human habitation and did find several villages, but unfortunately, they were all abandoned and dilapidated.
"That's true. The sea is teeming with Dreadfish now; who would dare go out to sea to fish?"
He muttered to himself, looking up at the night sky, his thoughts drifting.
"Speaking of which... it's about time, shouldn't those guys feeding the Seaborn come out by now?"
On a whim, Vane decided to visit his subjects—those Bloodline Heir he had endowed with special abilities.
Manipulating the surrounding swarm of bats to gather, Vane prepared to have them carry him through the air as usual.
He stopped abruptly halfway through the action and slapped his forehead:
"Wait a minute! Why do I have to let them carry me? Can't I just grow my own wings and fly?"
Without hesitation, Vane immediately began to sculpt a pair of striking, blood-red wings on his back that suited his aesthetic sense.
However, reality soon dealt him a heavy blow—the wings he had imagined, which could gracefully cover his body, were simply not enough to lift him.
"Tsk, cartoons are all lies..."
While complaining, Vane had to keep increasing his energy output, and the size of his Blood Wings extended to six meters before he could barely maintain stable levitation.
He tried to flap those enormous things, his body tracing a crooked trajectory in the air, just like a fledgling bird that had just learned to flutter.
With great effort, he barely managed to regain basic balance in flight, Vane wobbled as he flew toward the bay where the Bloodline Heir were gathered.
"Hmm... I wonder how my power banks are doing?"
Thinking of those obedient Bloodline Heir, Vane felt cheerful and even hummed a tune that was out of tune.
"I want to fly to the sky, stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun, and let the world wait for me to change it~"
Upon reaching their destination, Vane froze.
The densely packed swarms of Bloodline Heir that I had anticipated had vanished without a trace, leaving the entire bay empty except for the monotonous sound of waves crashing against the rocks.
"What's going on? Have they all rejoined the We Many group chat?"
Vane's heart tightened, and he immediately accelerated his descent.
As we got closer, the view of the bay became clearer.
The Bloodline Heir has indeed disappeared, but it is not completely dead.
Faint curses and muffled thuds of flesh being struck could be heard from below.
Vane hovered high in the air, squinting as he looked down.
Outside the circle where the wooden stake was located, two figures dressed in black robes were punching and kicking a naked man on the ground.
Not far away, there was a boy named Aegir who was tightly bound with rough hemp rope.
"The world is going to the dogs..."
Vane shook his head and sighed in mid-air.
"Has the Church of the Deep changed its ways? Gone are the Seaborn, and now they've become gay? Coming to the beach in the middle of the night to play wildly?"
Vane lowered his head slightly and carefully examined the naked man who had been beaten.
The other person had a well-proportioned build, and their muscle definition was quite clear in the moonlight, with no obvious racial characteristics.
"Aegir? They look so familiar..."
At this moment, the two men in black robes below seemed to have exhausted themselves, and they were panting with their hands on their knees.
The naked man on the ground suddenly moved, letting out a short laugh.
"Hi hi hi!"
Vane: "???"
He blinked sharply, wondering if he was hallucinating.
The laughter seemed to further enrage the black-robed men below, who cursed even more fiercely and kicked him again.
Uncertain, Vane continued to descend, carefully observing the naked man's appearance.
Perhaps sensing the gaze from above, the naked man on the ground suddenly raised his head.
Their eyes met.
The moonlight clearly illuminated that face—black hair, bloodshot eyes, handsome and dashing, almost like...
"Holy crap! How could it be my face?!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Vane swooped down and landed heavily on the beach, kicking up a cloud of sand.
The two men in black robes were clearly startled by this sudden "fall from the sky," but when they saw Vane's face, they seemed to be enraged even more.
"[Iberia profanity]! There's another one?!"
One of them, cursing, swung his fist at Vane's face.
Vane was in a terrible mood at that moment. Without even looking, he raised his leg and kicked.
The immense force sent the man flying off the ground, tracing an arc before he crashed into the nearby sea.
Before the other person could recover from the shock of his companion's sudden "takeoff," Vane followed suit and kicked out as well.
The world was quiet now, Vane immediately crouched down, grabbed the naked man on the ground, and examined him closely.
The details of her facial features... the more I look, the colder my heart becomes.
Just then, the naked man suddenly grabbed Vane's waist and nuzzled his head affectionately against him.
"Hi hi hi!"
Get out of my way!!!
Vane got goosebumps and instinctively kicked the other man in the chest.
However, the impact force is rapidly dispersed and absorbed upon contact, until it disappears without a trace.
The other person remained tightly embracing his leg, and even seemed happier because of his "interaction."
This unique energy absorption characteristic... Vane's eyes widened, and a chilling thought surfaced in his mind.
"You, you... could it be!"
As if in response to his conjecture, the naked man raised his head and, with a face exactly like Vane's, clearly uttered two words:
"His Majesty!"
"Ya me ge!!!"
Vane clutched his head, letting out a desperate scream.
"Who! Who taught you to evolve like this?! Change back! Change back to your teeth right now!!!"
He grabbed the Bloodline Heir was clinging tightly to his leg and lifted him up, his expression almost desperate:
"What about the other Bloodline Heir?! You didn't all turn into this, did you?! Have they already run inland?!"
If a group of naked men with "Vane faces" were partying all over Iberia...
Vane couldn't even imagine how he would ever be able to survive in Terra after this got out!
Those guys in the group will laugh at him for the rest of his life!!!
The Bloodline Heir he was carrying seemed to want to answer, but before he could express himself, the black-robed man who had been kicked into the sea had already climbed back onto the shore, cursing all the while.
Vane's eyes instantly turned dangerous. He casually tossed the Bloodline Heir aside and his figure flashed past.
A hand gripped one of the men's neck like an iron clamp, lifting him high into the air;
The blade of the sickle in his other hand was precisely positioned next to the other person's carotid artery.
He was about to demand an explanation from the two men, asking who they were and if they had seen any other "Vane"s.
[Gorth: Vane, what are you doing? Ifrit is awake.]
The Group Chat notification suddenly popped into my head, like a bucket of cold water being poured over my head.
Vane froze, his mind instantly flashing through his current predicament:
On the beach, a wet man is being held captive, next to a tied-up boy, and a naked man with his buttocks exposed is crawling around on the sand, emitting strange laughter...
How do you explain this scenario?! Are you saying you're conducting a biodiversity survey?!
He hurriedly replied in the Group Chat, blocking any further message notifications, Vane avoid seeing or worrying about it.
Having dealt with the internal crisis, Vane refocused his attention on the two men in black robes before him.
A warm smile graced his face, but against the backdrop of the blood-red scythe, the smile appeared utterly chilling.
He leaned slightly closer to the person whose neck was being choked and whose eyes had rolled back.
"You didn't see anything just now, right?"
The black-robed man, pointed at by the scythe, said something emotionally charged, Vane completely bewildered.
What are you talking about? (jpg)
Seeing that communication was impossible, Vane took turns putting them into a deep, baby-like sleep.
Having resolved the witness's anxiety, Vane bit his nails and paced back and forth.
"[Vampire's profanity!]" he couldn't help but mutter under his breath.
"I thought death was a distant prospect after becoming invincible... but why did I have to experience another way of dying?!"
The thought that hundreds or even thousands of naked men with "Vane faces" might enter the Iberia interior, and might even have already fled into towns where people still live...
Vane felt like his soul was about to float away, and he wished he could escape Terra overnight.
No! We can't just sit here and wait to die!
Vane forced himself to calm down and sank into the depths of his consciousness.
Through the "Firstborn" authority granted by Ishar-mla and the resonance of her own blood, she senses and connects with all her Bloodline Heir.
At first it was a bit chaotic, but soon, countless faint, familiar "spots of light" lit up in my mind.
Connection successful!
[All units! Immediately cease all current activities! Assemble at my location as quickly as possible! Now! Immediately! NOW!!!]
In an instant--
On the desolate coastline, beside the abandoned docks, in the dark, rocky caves...
Countless "Vane" simultaneously raised their heads, and the next moment, these figures all turned towards Vane's direction, and then...
Start sprinting!
Some crawled on all fours, galloping across the beach like wild beasts;
Some leaped directly into the sea, cutting through the waves at astonishing speed;
Others possess incredible jumping ability, leaping rapidly among the jagged rocks...
Clear objectives and efficient actions.
The uniform "Vane faces" and the constant "hi hi hi" background noise made the scene extremely eerie.
Feeling the Bloodline Heir points of light rapidly converging from all directions, Vane breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness, thank goodness..."
Vane wiped away his cold sweat and tried to reassure himself.
"Southern Iberia has been sparsely populated since the Great Silence."
"Besides, the coastline here is so remote, it's unlikely we'll be so unlucky as to be seen by someone, right?"