City of Sin

Book 5, 90

Counterattack

Richard turned a blind eye to Blacklight’s actions, neither praising nor stopping him. The demon youth thus continued his self-assigned task.

One day, Beye paid Richard a surprise visit. Blacklight’s body froze as he recognised this enemy, someone who was even more famous than most of Norland’s legends. This was the saint who could slay a legendary being!

Blacklight would never have imagined that the battle goddess who could strike fear in most Daxdians was living right next to Richard, and even seemed to be on good terms with him. However, recalling how Richard was a beast of his own right, the demon could at least understand.

Beye just looked at Richard, completely ignoring the demon in the room as she sat down and started chatting casually about fights and runecrafting. A clamour started outside about half an hour into their conversation, and as they continued on it started to grow closer and louder. Over the past few days, the two residences here were a reef amidst the storm, unshakeable regardless of how many Daxdians were attacking. The enemies had once sent an entire squadron to attack this place, but that only left more than ten powerhouses dead and an equal number injured.

Eventually, the Daxdians realised that regular saints would not be able to take down these two lunatics. However, any legend that entered the walls of the city was opening themselves up to great danger from the defenders. If the assassination didn’t succeed immediately, Richard and Beye could stall until Rundstedt or another legend arrived.

And the Daxdians weren’t confident that a single legend could deal with Beye.

This time, the sounds of fighting were heard all around but didn’t touch the homes of Richard and Beye. Not even a single stone fell nearby; the Daxdians seemed to have changed their strategy to avoiding them at all costs, only posting some people to keep an eye out for when the two left. Nobody wanted to enter a house when they knew they would not return.

Richard and Beye seemed to be completely engaged in their own conversation, not worried in the slightest until their door was knocked open. The two immediately burst forth with killing intent, but looking at Lawrence stumble and almost fall they immediately retracted their auras and turned away.

“Oi! What the hell are you two doing, there’s a fight outside!” Lawrence raged, but after sauntering over to take a seat he joined in on their conversation without caring about the outside at all. The three completely ignored the demon once again.

Blacklight felt many complicated emotions. Back then, every Norlander coming across him would either panic or react like he was their greatest enemy, here he was no more than an ant. Beye could cut him into a hundred pieces, but why didn’t even that old man care?

The youth came to the conjecture that it was because of unerring faith in Richard.

Just as the demon was lost in his thoughts, the three of them suddenly turned serious. “Something’s wrong,” Beye said, “They aren’t spending any energy on us.”

Richard nodded, “Their main force is attacking the upper levels of the fortress right now.”

“Why don’t you two go up and kick their asses?” Lawrence asked.

Richard shook his head, “There’s definitely a horde waiting for us there, maybe even a legend.”

“Then what should we do?” Beye deferred to his judgement.

“Hmm... Let’s... Yeah, why don’t we take advantage of the situation and stab them in the back lines?”

“There might be a legend there too,” Lawrence’s brows furrowed, “No, I’m sure there definitely is one.”

“And I want to find them,” Richard said with a smile, “Beye, hold the enemy down while I kill the rest.”

Beye frowned in displeasure, “Why not have me kill? I’m much faster than you.”

“And you expect me to tie a legend down?”

“Ugh... Alright. What if there isn’t a legend?”

Richard smiled at that question, his body suffusing with killing intent, “Then it’s a bad day.”

“Alright, let’s go!” Neither of the two wanted to waste time, so they immediately darted out. Beye turned back just before exiting the door, “Be careful, you coot.”

“Don’t worry about me, brats, my luck has always been great! I don’t think these dimwits will dare to fight me if they know who I am,” Lawrence proudly patted his chest.

Even now nobody cared about Blacklight, almost as if he was just an ornament in the corner of the room. There wasn’t even any worry that Lawrence would be in danger when left with a demon.

......

The battle outside grew more intense, with constant explosions ringing all over the City of the Unsetting Sun. One could see many dark clouds moving across the wide streets, blocking off the light of the Eternal Glory formation. Various colours of energy were clashing near the inner walls, and an occasional flash of bright light would skirt through the chaos to strike at the ball of fire in the sky.

Several legendary beings were engaged in battle here, so weaker people like Lawrence would be torn apart if they were in the vicinity. Every collision blew up buildings and tore rifts in space, even damaging the laws that held up the area. Anyone caught up nearby was instantly disintegrated.

After Richard and Beye left, Lawrence continued to sit and mull over something. It took a long time for him to stand up and remember that there was another creature in the house, turning to look at Blacklight and causing the demon to freeze in fear. Just the fierce glare made the youth feel like he would be cut apart.

Lawrence just snorted at the sight of the sweating demon, sashaying outside and returning to his own residence. The youth returned to the dark corner, not planning to move at all.

It was only when he reached his room that Lawrence turned around and tightly shut his door, leaning against the wall and sighing as he allowed the sweat to flow, “This stupid brat, that’s an adult demon! What the fuck is wrong with him, he didn’t even put any restrictions on it! Does he think I’m still the same as before? I can’t even fight against something like that now! I’ll take care of you when you come back!”

......

A new barracks had been built mere kilometres outside the City of the Unsetting Sun, in a completely different style from the fortress itself. Some of the longer-ranged ballistae could reach the nearby parts of the building. It showed just how arrogant the Daxdians were, and how determined to take the city.

There were eight such buildings around the city, rendering the tall city walls just a piece of decoration. The only real barrier came in the form of the Eternal Glory formation.

Richard and Beye quickly ran out of the city, sizing up the barracks in front of them. The building had been constructed in a hurry, but it was obvious that the defences were set up properly. The walls were ten metres tall and several metres thick, with barbed spikes on top.

Such constructions were a specialty of the Daxdians. So long as they had enough materials, they would be able to create a fortress or a shell of a city in only half a day.