10 hours.
The time Solara spent inside the Heavenly Armor Plate that deflected all physical force was 10 hours.
Once, she tried to escape and unleashed lightning magic, only to get zapped by her own electric attacks, causing her some trouble.
But enduring 10 hours wasn’t that hard.
She had endured longer times.
There were plenty of times she had to survive for days in a place without water or food, and even lacking oxygen.
That was the kind of suffering one had to withstand to be reborn as a Holy Knight of the Holy Kingdom.
But that alone wouldn’t have made her this angry.
For 10 hours, she could endure desires like sleepiness, hunger, and thirst with her mental strength.
But there is something that no human can endure.
A kind of desire that, if held back, would lead to illness in the intestines.
Solara couldn’t hold it in any longer.
In the end, she had to wet her pants.
About a minute after wetting her pants.
The Heavenly Armor Plate was released, and a pile of dirt fell on Solara from above.
An indescribable anger filled her inside.
Bang!
Solara’s gauntlet pierced through the dirt ground.
As she pushed up several tons of dirt with her back, Solara’s body began to rise.
After 10 hours, Solara came back to the surface, her eyes blazing with fury.
She was searching for someone to take revenge on.
“Mi Jeong. Come out. I’m going to kill you.”
The one who impersonated the Four Heavenly Kings and buried her in the ground.
Moreover, that guy even knew that she had sided with Draken.
She must not let him live.
Before informing the church of her betrayal, she had to catch and kill him.
“Well, it was strange. For him to suddenly ask me to kill an innocent child. The Great Demon I met was more noble.”
Looking back, Mi Jeong’s attitude was suspicious from the start.
No matter how much the Four Heavenly Kings opposed the Holy See, testing her by killing civilians was out of line!
The Great Demon who visited Solara to propose the position of the Four Heavenly Kings seemed much more honorable and noble.
It felt far from that wicked being who mercilessly slaughtered children of enemy nations.
The Four Heavenly Kings should at least be a group with some sense and ethics.
Solara believed that firmly.
“Wait a minute, Solara. Can we talk?”
“Is that your last word?”
Her pants were still damp.
Solara, suppressing her excitement, walked toward the man who lay on the ground from mana exhaustion.
When surrounded by that powerful barrier, she thought he was at a much higher level than her.
But now she was certain that was not the case.
Without mana, he couldn’t do anything.
“I’m curious about how you knew my identity and about the Four Heavenly Kings, but you’re too dangerous. You need to die.”
“If you kill me, give me the black orb, Solara.”
“What are you?!”
As she turned slightly, Solara frowned.
A gigantic spider monster was blocking the way.
Around its head was white skin, resembling human flesh, peeled away and bleeding profusely.
It had an utterly bizarre appearance with eyes sprouting all over its body.
It looked like a monster born from someone’s twisted experiment.
“Did you not hear from Belphegor? Your superior, the Four Heavenly King Kali.”
“You’re claiming to be the Great Druid? How ridiculous. I heard the Great Druid Kali is a caring mother of nature, not a spider monster like you.”
“Hahahaha… You do know correctly, but I’m not in the right state of mind right now. Once I obtain a Dead Soul, I can return as the mother of nature again. No, wait! Aren’t you also hating Mi Jeong?”
“That’s right.”
“If our goals align, we can team up! I also hate Mi Jeong! I want to kill that girl and chew her up so much…”
“Girl…?”
At the strange perception gap, Solara narrowed her eyes.
A girl?
Did Mi Jeong not refer to the man sprawled behind her?
“What did that girl do to you?”
“She humiliated me! She made me feel like a fool with just a Blood Ghoul wielding a club!”
“Is that all? Just because you were annoyed, you have such a huge grudge against her? Are you really a Great Druid?”
It differed greatly from what she had heard from the Great Demon.
Wasn’t Kali, mother of nature, supposed to be noble and kind instead of a petty, villainous murderer?
Her disgusting appearance didn’t fit that image at all.
“Of course not. That creature is just a spider monster impersonating Kali, Solara. I am the real Four Heavenly King.”
“Stop lying! I’ve told you I won’t be fooled! The three seats of the Four Heavenly Kings are all filled except for mine!”
“Your information is slow. Great Druid Kali is already dead. Or didn’t Belphegor tell you?”
“What?!”
“You know the name of the previous Four Heavenly King, Transylvania, right? I succeeded him and occupied the seat left after Kali’s death. I sealed you because I was worried you might attack me before I could explain Kali’s death. Forgive me.”
Not missing that opening, Yoo Jin began to craft an excuse.
The spider monster was flabbergasted, but it wasn’t easy to find a flaw in that explanation.
It was true that Kali was dead.
Which was more convincing: that someone took that vacant position or that Kali was revived?
It was truly amazing; the revival was the answer, but whether Solara would believe that was another story.
“Damn it! I have to rip that kid’s jaw off!”
Fueled by anger, she contemplated rushing past Solara to kill that man struck by mana exhaustion, but as she tried to pass Solara, the vision of a sword slicing him in half flashed in her mind.
The spider monster staggered and stopped.
Evil eye?!
It could see its future one second ahead, but it had the ability to show others their own future one second ahead.
It was the function of the Evil Eye.
Before she knew it, Solara had injected the Evil Eye into her empty gaze and was blinking.
“I’ll return the Evil Eye I took from you. Asking to kill a child and holding you underground was also a kind of test. You passed. I’ll promote you to the Four Heavenly King soon.”
“Don’t be fooled! I am the Four Heavenly King! I am Kali! I’ve returned from the dead, so how could that guy take my empty seat? That’s a blatant lie!”
“The ugly monster claims to be the Four Heavenly King? No way.”
“Aaaaaah! You’re driving me crazy! You’re dying to keep torturing me even in death, you damned human brat!!!”
The hesitation vanished from Solara’s heart.
Strength gripped her sword-wielding hand.
Now it was clear who the real Four Heavenly King was.
“Die! You spider monster who kills people for no good reason!”
“No! No way! Dead Soul is just around the corner! Ah! Aaaah!!!”
Boom!
Solara leaped at lightning speed.
Her tied-back blonde hair came undone and scattered as she unleashed her dual-edged sword.
Gah! Gah! Aaaaah!!!
“How pitiful that more eyes sprout no matter how much I poke them. How dare such a creature impersonate the Great Druid?”
“It’s me! I’m the one!”
“I don’t believe you!”
If it keeps regenerating endlessly, she could just keep beating it until it dies.
As the eyes kept sprouting, she cut and poked them until the entire body of the spider monster was drenched in blood.
There was now no place left for eyes to sprout.
The spider monster tried to resist with maximum speed, but that was useless in front of the Evil Eye.
Even when countless legs slammed down, Solara easily dodged and smashed them all.
In truth, even without the Evil Eye, the spider monster’s reaction speed could never keep up with Solara.
“Wait, I have something interesting to say! You’re quite a skilled swordsman, right? I know of the location of a good sword! One thought to exist only in legends—”
“I don’t need it!”
What she treasured most was her brother’s life.
Nothing else mattered.
Be it a legendary sword or a magical sword, she had no interest in any of it.
Gaaah!
Solara’s sword began to rain blows on the spider monster again.
If its legs regenerated, she’d break them again.
Cut, slice, and smash.
After an endless repetition, the spider monster’s regeneration speed began to slow down.
No matter how persistent its regeneration was, it couldn’t be infinite.
It had used up all its energy and could no longer regenerate.
“What a resilient thread of life. When you go to the Underworld, perhaps you should ask for forgiveness from the Great Druid. She’s a gracious being and might show some mercy.”
“You bastard…!”
Crack!
Solara’s blade sliced the spider monster in half.
The spider monster could no longer regenerate and lay there, cut in two, merely twitching its legs in post-mortem rigidity.
It had completely died without any means to resurrect.
“Well done.”
“Don’t put your hand on my shoulder, you bastard. That being may not really be Kali, but I also don’t fully trust your claim of being the Four Heavenly King.”
“You should trust me. If I were not one of the Four Heavenly Kings, I would have informed the Holy See of your betrayal by now. But I didn’t. I’ve returned the Evil Eye too.”
“That’s one thing, but…”
Solara couldn’t shake off her suspicion as she scanned the man’s entire body.
He looked pathetic.
Even considering he was suffering from mana exhaustion, he seemed far too weak.
He had radiated a much stronger aura than this when she had met him previously…
Perhaps it was all an illusion, she thought.
An illusion strong enough to distort human perception.
And a seal that couldn’t be broken by any means.
With such abilities, he certainly appeared to possess power at the level of the Four Heavenly Kings.
“I’ll trust you. You’re indeed one of the Four Heavenly Kings. The Great Demon I met was surely a noble being. There’s no way a vulgar creature that takes human lives lightly could be a companion of the Great Demon.”
“Well, that’s true. It is.”
Solara and Yoo Jin shook hands.
A relaxed smile crept onto Yoo Jin’s face.
He had no worries about the aftermath at all.
Someone was approaching him who would handle it.
Footsteps approached from behind.
Solara grasped her sword, tensing as she looked back.
“Solara! Where have you been and what have you been doing?!”
“Luna!”
From around the corner appeared Cardinal Nicholas, shouting.
Solara immediately dropped to her knees.
Necromancer Luna.
She was the Four Heavenly King whom Solara served.
“And what on earth is this mess?”
“I met Mi Jeong, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. This spider monster was pretending to be Great Druid Kali, so together with Mi Jeong, we killed it.”
“What are you talking about! This ugly monster IS Kali! You just killed a Four Heavenly King, you stupid idiot!!!”
“Y-yes…?”
Solara blinked in confusion.
Putting aside her angry, jumping Luna for a moment,
Solara scanned her surroundings and noticed that the man named Mi Jeong had already fled.
