It felt so good to be close to the witch!

The Pope's face was extremely grim.

Having already used up his precious long-distance teleportation item, he was now powerless to pursue the enemy and could only stand there, filled with impotent rage.

Chapter 206 Let your blood bloom to celebrate my birth.

Born!

On a bell tower ten kilometers outside the Cathedral of Saint-Feuer, the capital city.

As space distorted and rippled, Roy and Finage, who were being pulled by Latie, burst out.

"Lord Roy, are you alright?"

Shanica's slightly anxious voice rang out as she saw blood trickling down the edge of Roy's gray ribbed mask.

As she spoke, Shanica quickly approached, reached out and grasped Roy's hand. With the spread of pure blue magic light, Roy's internal injuries were completely healed within a minute, and even the aftereffects of briefly activating "Destruction State" disappeared.

"I'm fine, just a minor injury." Roy waved his hand and smiled at Shanika.

The shockwave from colliding with the Pope of the temple was only a minor injury; in comparison, the damage from entering the "destruction state" was much greater.

"Wow, that's really impressive..."

After stretching his recovered body, Roy couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude.

In fact, he was able to activate [Satan's Redemption] just moments before the Pope's attack landed.

With the "absolute protection" of "Satan's Redemption," the pope of the temple, who has not yet truly embarked on the path of the divine, has absolutely no chance of being defeated.

The reason he didn't do that was that Roy wanted to test whether he, with his basic physique at the legendary limit, could fight against the Pope of the Temple after entering the "Destruction State".

And the answer is now obvious.

The gap is still too large.

Based on his legendary ultimate physique, after entering the "Destruction State", Roy's combat power undoubtedly reached the "demigod" level, and he was a true "demigod" who had used the great power of heaven and earth.

However, even among demigods, there are differences.

The fact that the Great Witch of Nature, Finage, entered the realm of "demigod" more than fifty years ago, only to be forced back by the Pope of the Temple before the Holy Mountain, speaks volumes.

More than fifty years have passed, and although the Pope of the Temple is limited by the world and is stuck in a dead end in terms of major realms, unable to make any progress, his strength must have improved through the refinement of other aspects such as skills.

In this situation, Roy, whose combat power had just reached the level of a demigod, was naturally no match for the Pope of the Temple.

Admittedly, Roy did not unleash his full power.

The [Infinite Desire - God], [Satan's Redemption], and the newly acquired talent [Eternal Paradise Lost] can all enhance his strength, but they still cannot bring about a qualitative change. At most, they can only allow him to persist under the Pope of the Temple for a while longer, which is meaningless.

He is still far from being the strongest being below the gods, like the Pope of the Temple.

"Don't sigh. To be able to withstand a blow from the Pope of the Temple and only suffer minor injuries is already an astonishing thing for someone your age. It can be called a 'miracle'."

Seeing the disappointment written all over Roy's face, Finagei, standing nearby, said irritably. At Roy's age, she was still struggling to evade the pursuit of the Silver Punishment Knights.

Shaking his head to rouse himself, Roy looked at Latie, who was dressed in a palace-style banner, and asked, "Lady Latie, can the Pope of the Temple also perform spatial teleportation?"

“It must be the effect of some kind of forbidden or strange object,” Latie replied. “Did you notice the necklace that turned to ashes around the Pope’s neck? That’s the effect of that thing.”

“In that case, then we…” Roy frowned.

The core of their plan lies in the asymmetry in movement speed between the two sides. If the Pope of the Temple could also teleport over extremely long distances, then this battle plan would be meaningless.

“Don’t worry.” Knowing Roy’s concerns, Latie shook her head: “The distance between the royal capital Saint Fuye and the holy mountain of the Gelug province is extremely far. Forbidden or rare objects that can perform ultra-long-distance teleportation are extremely precious, no less than A+ grade. If you hadn’t destroyed the statues in the sanctuary, even the Pope of the temple might not have been willing to use them.”

"Now that he has used it, it is almost impossible for him to use it again."

"However, just in case, we still need to break into the Privy Cathedral as soon as possible."

After hearing Latti's words, everyone nodded and then turned their gaze towards the direction of the Cathedral of the Privy.

From their vantage point, the Privy Cathedral, standing tens of meters tall, was a striking and prominent landmark among the buildings.

"go!"

The group transformed into streaks of light and headed towards the Privy Cathedral.

There's no need to use spatial teleportation for a distance of ten kilometers.

In about half a minute, Roy and his group arrived in the air in front of the Cathedral of the Privy.

At this moment, the Privy Cathedral was shrouded in a layer of pale gold array, and the heavy metal doors were tightly locked.

"It's a formation similar to the Holy Mountain Protector Array 'Liu Ming Tang Guang Array', but with lower power. However, it still requires a lot of effort to break through it."

The border duke began to explain.

“Leave it to me.” As Roy spoke, he stepped forward, and the A+ grade forbidden item – the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrow – appeared in his hand. The string was drawn to its full extent, and jet-black energy condensed into an arrow. As Roy released his hand, with a “hum,” the string vibrated, leaving a straight black line in the air.

"boom!"

A crisp cracking sound rang out, and the array of the Privy Cathedral shattered, turning into a shower of light.

Roy put down the black longbow in his hand. He could feel that the "original substance" of this A+ grade forbidden item had weakened after two consecutive "costless" uses. If this continued, the Demon-Slaying Bow might even fall to the A+ grade after a few more uses.

"It's true that constantly taking without giving anything in return is not going to work..."

Roy thought to himself, while storing the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrows into his spatial ring.

As the formation shattered, the Privy Cathedral was completely revealed to the five people.

"go!"

With a low shout, the border duke transformed into a streak of crimson gold and charged toward the Privy Cathedral.

Roy, Finage, Latie, and Shanika followed without hesitation.

Without the protection of the array, the mere metal gate was utterly incapable of stopping the five people from entering.

"boom!"

With a loud bang, the metal door shattered into pieces, and five streams of light rushed into the door at the same time.

The vast church hall was completely empty except for the various glittering decorations.

Having observed and learned about the internal structure of the Cathedral of the Privy, the five people did not stop and headed towards the entrance to the underground space after entering the Cathedral of the Privy.

However, after entering the underground passage, the five people split into two groups.

Roy continued to follow Finage's team, along with the new member Latie, acting as the vanguard. Meanwhile, the Border Duke and Shanika concealed themselves thanks to the A+ grade forbidden item—the Veil of Night—that the Border Duke had retrieved.

The two teams, one in the open and one in the shadows, continued their advance deeper underground.

The candlelight on the stone wall flashed past on both sides, and soon everyone's eyes lit up as they rushed out of the passage and arrived at the underground space.

But to Roy's dismay, there was still no one there.

The vast underground space was eerily quiet, appearing exceptionally desolate and bleak.

The black wooden crosses that were originally scattered and binding the witches have now all been repositioned.

They were moved into a terrifying array built on twelve hundred-meter-tall metal pillars, which could be vaguely observed through the pale golden curtain.

"We must break this magic array."

Finai said in a deep voice.

Although the people were solemn about the changes in this place, they were not particularly surprised.

Now that the temple knows this place has been discovered, it will surely make certain arrangements.

"I'll do it." Roy took out the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrow again, completely ignoring the "pleading" emotion conveyed by this forbidden object.

The bow was drawn to its fullest extent, and the black arrow pierced the sky. However, the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrow, which could easily shatter the "Liu Ming Tang Light Array," suffered a Waterloo this time.

The jet-black arrows paused on the surface of the formation, creating wave after wave of violent ripples.

Clearly, even the A+ grade forbidden artifact, the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrow, which is specifically designed to break through defenses and shields, is starting to struggle against this unprecedented "Twelve Bases" formation.

Witnessing this scene, a cold glint flashed in Roy's eyes. Without stopping, he pulled the bowstring four times in succession, shooting out four more black arrows that landed in the same spot as the first arrow.

Meanwhile, Finage wasn't idle either.

Realizing that the power of the Demon-Slaying Bow and Arrows alone would be insufficient to break the magic array, she immediately took action.

She hurled a spiky ball, which landed precisely where the five arrows were.

The next moment, a terrifying explosion shot into the sky.

The combined power of the five arrows and the explosive spiked ball created enormous ripples on the surface of the formation. Finally, with a crisp "crack" sound, the massive formation began to collapse.

As countless points of light scattered across the sky, the scene within the formation was clearly revealed to everyone once the golden light shield was no longer obscured.

Roy's pupils contracted for a moment.

He saw that the witches on the black wooden crosses who had been transferred into the formation all had a bloody hole running through their left chest, their hearts gone. Their skin had become withered and emaciated, as if all the essence of their bodies had left with the "witch's heart" that had been taken away.

Moving his gaze forward, Roy saw that at the very center of the formation, on a cross far superior to the others made of black wood, stood a witch with her head bowed and her black hair flowing freely. Her left chest was also empty, the witch's heart nowhere to be found.

On the ground, the viscous blood formed a complex and bizarre array, and at its very center, a huge fleshy heart was breathing, expanding, and contracting as if it were alive.

"Maya!!!"

A voice filled with sorrow and anger rang out. The border duke, who was watching this scene, rushed out of his "veil of night" and came to the side of the large black wooden cross, bringing down the lifeless witch from it.

Throughout the entire process, the enormous flesh and blood heart at the very center of the formation showed no abnormalities, except that it beat more violently.

Sensing the lifelessness fading from his wife's arms, the border duke, in a fit of rage, unleashed a punch. The terrifying, fragmented power of the rules belonging to a demigod descended instantly, causing the temperature in the area to rise sharply.

In mid-air, a dazzling, crystal-clear fist, tens of meters long and resembling a red lotus crystal, slammed down, accurately striking the rapidly beating flesh and blood heart below.

"Boom-"

The Border Duke's punch demonstrated unparalleled control over his power; apart from the area below his fist, the rest of his body remained unaffected by the force.

After throwing a punch, the Border Duke didn't check the result. He transformed into a streak of light and flew back to Roy and the others, looking at Shanika with the eyes of a steed: "Miss Shanika, Mayina, she, she..."

Shanica's expression was serious. She reached out and touched Mayina's forehead, closed her eyes and focused her senses. A second later, she opened her eyes and said with relief, "The time of death is more than twenty hours, but not more than a day. She can be saved."

Upon hearing this, the border duke breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his brow.

The fact that even a demigod knight was sweating shows just how nervous the border duke was.

"so far so good……"

The border duke carefully handed Mayna to Shanika, then turned around, his cold gaze falling on the spot where his fist had just struck.