Chapter 268
With an impressive height of thirteen feet, its scales glinted darkly; they carried the sheen of something unbreakable, as though no mortal blade could leave even a scratch.
The very air around it felt heavier, suffocating, as if its presence alone distorted the natural order.
Just standing near this behemoth of a creature was enough to make the demonic soldiers who acted arrogantly tremble like mere chickens before a bloody butcher.
Their bravado, once unwavering, had crumbled into silent terror. The mere sight of the serpent sent a primal warning through their instincts—this was a predator beyond their comprehension.
Sera didn’t say anything; the serpent didn’t say anything; the silence between them was louder than the chaos raging around them. Their eyes were enough to communicate anything or everything. Their bond was linked deeply, and it understood on its own what its master wanted.
The serpent gazed in a particular direction and hissed before lowering its head before Sera, who promptly climbed on top of it.
The serpent moved with unprecedented speed, and in just a moment, its entire body disappeared into the shadows of the clouds, completely vanishing from sight as if it had never been there.
The battlefield was left in stunned silence.
The absence of the creature was almost as terrifying as its presence had been.
The demons heaved a sigh of relief as if a mountain of tension was removed from their shoulders.
Vasoth looked at the scene before him with a solemn gaze; his expression was neutral, but his thoughts swirled in a storm of confusion and realization.
He clenched his jaw. The weight of what had just transpired settled heavily upon him.
He realized what had happened just now; he knew things that others could not know; the true depth of the situation was finally becoming clear to him, and the clarity made his skin crawl.
When he saw the girl who suddenly emerged from the rocky cracks, he felt a sense of déjà vu; a flicker of memory stirred in his mind, half-forgotten but suddenly glaringly relevant.
He realized that it was the same slave girl at the city square when he was executing the livestock. At that time, he didn’t think much of the girl despite her being a bit rebellious and hateful.
She had been just another insignificant human, a speck among many, a face to be forgotten the moment she disappeared from his sight.
But looking at it now, he realized that girl was not insignificant at all—she was very important.
The human they had been chasing after for so long was related to this girl in some way, definitely. Otherwise, his actions made no sense. Why risk everything for a mere slave?
In Vasoth’s opinion, this girl was likely his blood-related family; it was the most logical explanation. There could be other scenarios too, but this was most likely the case. He wouldn’t have risked so much if not for something deeply personal.
From the moment the human boy provoked them in the city, took the risk in a city full of demons and inquisitors, his motive had been obvious all along.
It was that girl.
From fighting and killing Drul to openly revealing himself to them—was it really just to save some slaves? No. There was a deeper reason, one far more calculated than mere morality.
It was evident that what he did must have been for her; no one would be reckless enough to act so chaotically in a demonic city without a personal stake in the matter.
The other slaves were fortunate enough to be with the little girl and were saved too.
They had been nothing more than collateral, a side effect of his real goal.
Then after that, the human slaughtered a remote corner of the city discreetly without alerting anyone, and when the incident was actually reported, it quickly escalated to the city lord, making the whole situation and area very busy.
It was the perfect diversion.
He and Sera were called by the city lord to discuss this matter while they were busy conducting their search for the human.
And this was exactly what the human had wanted. He had maneuvered them into this position from the very beginning.
He used this situation as a distraction, and in that moment, he broke through the city gates along with the girl.
Later, to confuse them, he used multiple decoys along the way. Had they not planned to uproot remaining human rebels before coming to this city, they would not have noticed such obvious signs.
But even those were breadcrumbs meant to be found.
They knew where he would be headed, given the number of slaves he had with him, and directly ambushed him there.
But unexpectedly, he wasn’t fazed. He still dared to fight against their captain.
Did he already anticipate that the captain would challenge him to a duel? Had he accounted for her pride, her need to dominate her prey?
If not, then did he deduce everything beforehand?
Vasoth felt a cold chill slither down his spine as he realized they had been playing according to Oliver’s plans from the start.
Every move, every reaction, every shift in the battlefield had followed a script written by the human boy himself.
From the moment they had surrounded him in a corner, to his fight with the captain, to those nightmarish flames, and then that human girl that used that talisman—to the final explosion.
All of it… had been orchestrated.
Vasoth realized that earlier when he was talking to him, Oliver deliberately provoked him using Drul’s death, which clouded his focus.
He hadn’t just been provoking him—he had been controlling him.
Not to mention, he was also intentionally playing the “weak human” persona in front of them. Despite what their captain did, in the end, he was still able to resist.
Vasoth’s pupils dilated even more as he pieced it all together. The captain had been extremely cautious when dealing with the human boy, so much so that it had almost seemed excessive.
At the time, he had thought she was overestimating him. But now? Now, he realized she had been the only one seeing clearly.