As a small border town of the neutral Owles Kingdom in the southern part of Ximengsi Continent, this town had not been attacked in ages. After all, it didn’t have any resources: it was a poor area. Nevertheless, Barnard Town was doomed to not remain peaceful tonight. The burning inferno quickly spread throughout the town.
The attacking side were not crude bandits. Bandits never used such a strong fire, but all this had nothing to do with Clyde. He and his “sister” Lucifer were just passing by. After picking Lucifer up, Clyde leisurely walked toward the exit of the town. Wherever he passed, the raging fire would automatically part for him, which looked extremely eerie to any observers.
Often, burning arrows would fall down from the sky, but not a single one hit Clyde. All the arrows would automatically melt and dissipate once they got too close to him. He strolled around in the midst of the burning ruins while carrying Lolita. In the midst of this fiery hell, only Clyde could leisurely and freely move in the midst of burning arrows. After walking out, Clyde saw that the streets had already turned into purgatory: there were burning people everywhere. Pained screams echoed throughout the night, piercing through the ceaseless roar of fire.
“The Human Race still likes to kill each other like this. Sigh, Big Brother Clyde, we should look for a new place to stay.”
“Lucifer, I still think it would be more appropriate to send you back to the territory of Blood Race.”
Clyde and Lucifer strolled around in the midst of the fire. There was not even a hint of nervousness on their faces. The people that had attacked Barnard Town quickly noticed these two unusual people casually walking in the midst of the sea of flames. They didn’t even think much about the unexpected duo and shot a round of arrows. However, these arrows failed to hit their targets. Once they neared Clyde, the aura of a Great Old One broke them into pieces.
“You all are so venomous. We were just passing by. Did we provoke you?”
Clyde gloomily turned and glared. He quickly discovered a large group of knights wearing black armor not far away. They held dark golden crossbows, which all looked like expensive weapons, but Clyde was unable to make sense of the banner pattern these knights carried. When all was said and done, he was not a native of this different world. He couldn’t recognize which empire of Human Race this banner belonged to.
In the middle of these knights was a striking commander who could be seen even from a great distance. She was a beautiful woman wearing shining black knight armor. Based on her appearance, she couldn’t have been over twenty. From her head flowed lustrous black hair. At this moment, her beautiful black eyes were filled with confusion while watching the confounding scene. Just a moment ago, although she had been unable to discover how those arrows had disappeared, she had observed that even under a full volley of arrows, Clyde had acted as if nothing had happened.
Relying on the discerning ability of the Great Old Ones, Clyde could clearly see the appearance of that black-haired beauty even from a considerable distance. From his estimation, her attractive index was really high. She had exquisite facial features and white skin practically without flaw. Merely, her baleful aura was too thick. Clyde could see that this black-haired beauty must have participated in many wars and slaughtered countless souls, leading to her having this thick baleful aura that was very difficult to erase.
Nevertheless, Clyde felt that it was a bit of a pity that he could only admire her a distance. Not every girl was like the little Lolita nestled in his bosom; Lucifer was so strong that she could look straight at one of the Great Old Ones without going insane. That black-haired princess was a human, no matter from which aspect one considered her. It was very unlikely that she would be able to bear the stare of a Great Old One.
“What is going on with those two people over there? I didn’t see a defensive magic barrier! Could he possibly be a Taoist Master?”
“Your Excellency Princess, Owles Kingdom’s reinforcements can’t be here. Their entire army is concentrated in their kingdom’s capital, Oran City.”
“It’s truly dull. The opposition is too cowardly. If we continue to use this tactic of destroying their outskirts one by one and annihilate all the towns near Oran City, we’ll see how long Owles Kingdom can persist.”
Princess Ophelia looked at the distant Clyde and Lucifer and hesitated about whether to launch an attack or not. Her battlefield instincts told her that those who could calmly move around in the midst of this sea of flames were all either lunatics or experts. Based on Clyde’s feat with the arrows, she believed more in the latter case. Biting her lip, she thought carefully about what to do; after all, she was somewhat reluctant to let anyone escape like this. After considering for a short while, she waved her hand to signal toward the waiting shadows around her. Emerging from the midst of the knight regiment, these figures disappeared on the spot, pursuing their targets. In order to determine the statuses of Clyde and the bloodkin Lolita, Princess Ophelia sent a squad of elite assassins to track them.
The inferno engulfing Barnard continued for a day and a night until it finally extinguished on its own once it ran out of fuel. Owles Kingdom never sent reinforcements. However, this couldn’t be blamed on Owles Kingdom’s incompetence. As a small country with just more than a thousand soldiers, they couldn’t afford to leave their capital unprotected by spreading out their troops. They also didn’t have the money to hire mercenaries to defend other cities. It was already a miracle that they had been able to defend their capital, Oran City, for so long.
The army attacking Owles Kingdom was from the Augusta Empire, reputed to be an “extremely dark” empire. Augusta Empire belonged to the “Clark Alliance” that pursued slavery. It was one of the more important members of this alliance. As one of the stronger empires of Ximengsi Continent, eliminating Owles Kingdom, this kind of small country, was not a big issue.
There were no existences that dared to challenge this extremely evil empire within the vicinity of Owles Kingdom. Adrian Empire, a member of the “Victor Alliance,” had just lost to Augusta Empire not long ago. Augusta Empire’s “Extreme Night Princess” Ophelia had only used several thousand soldiers to take the Adrian’s army of 30,000 by storm and completely rout them. More than half of them had fallen as casualties, and Adrian Empire had been forced into a defensive state.
Now, left without their powerful ally, Owles Kingdom was completely isolated. Other than the fact that the capital city, Oran City, had not been captured yet, all the towns around it had been razed or occupied. In support, the nearby Adrian Empire could only offer words: according to their responses to the Owles Kingdom’s requests for aid, reinforcements were always on the way. As for the other small kingdoms within the “Victor Alliance,” there was no need to mention them because they didn’t dare to come in fear that they would be the next one to be annihilated.
All this had been succinctly explained by the little Lolita travelling at Clyde’s side.
“Lucifer, how do you know so much? Didn’t you say that you don’t have any information about Human Race before?”
“Big Brother Cylde, it’s just because of my ability. The dead cannot lie, and I can read their memories. Eh, you don’t need to be so alert! How would I dare to read your memories?”
In a groove outside Barnard Town, Clyde and Lucifer sat face to face around a bonfire, pondering what to do next. Near them lay several dead black-robed people. Their death states were very tragic, and none of the corpses were intact. The assassins sent by Princess Ophelia had not met with an unexpected accident: instead, all had been quickly exterminated by Clyde. Originally, Clyde hadn’t wanted to lash at the corpses, completely dismembering them, but who had asked for these assassins to not bring even a single cent, causing him to be happy about gaining some starting currency in vain. At first, he’d been so excited to have these walking piggy banks approach him…
“Big Brother Clyde, let’s go to Oran City and take a look. Perhaps, we can stay there without any money! It’s going to perish soon anyway.”
“Lucifer, you seem to be very interested in bloody scenes?”
“You’re misunderstanding. We are going there just to take a look. In any case, as long as Big Brother Clyde is here, no one can bully me!”
“Eh, I think that even if I were not there, there are not many who could bully you.”
